u/BazF91

The episode began not with any more Phil commentary but with teams returning to their tents after another hard African leg. It looked like the Blind Date teams weren’t required to share a tent. Probably for the best. Black and white footage gave some of the few examples of Hayley bickering at Blair, stuff that would continue this episode. God, she is awful.

At the dinner table (it seems for once the teams did mingle between legs), Matt apologised to Jelani for the U-turn, and Jelani lied through his teeth: “It’s all good man.” In their talking heads, J+J felt M+A’s strategy was bad, because if you U-turn someone, you should make sure they will get eliminated… Well, how’s that supposed to work if you’re at a double U-turn? Nevertheless, Jimmy + Johns were pissed off and ready to U-turn the engaged couple at the next opportunity. Damn, I’m hungry for a sandwich now.

Laura and Tyler came in first… and did some quick advertising for Travelocity. I have to say, a few photos on a phone screen don’t make the website seem THAT amazing or anything. Teams were surprised to be heading back to Europe, but they were travelling to Amsterdam.

Teams travelled to the Jagershuis (hunter’s house) for a roadblock involving identifying a clog from amongst hundreds with similar patterns. This one turned out to be particularly devious. Keen-eyed Jenny was able to make it out of there on her first attempt. Blayley seemed to arrive really late (taxi issues, probably), so Hayley tried to encourage Blair with a persistent “COME ON, BLAIR!”, Twinnies-style. Somehow, the encouragement worked, as Blair was able to speed through the challenge and leave Matt and Rochelle scrabbling.

Tyler had commented that it would start to get really stressful for the last person standing, and that happened to be Matt, who had been the third to arrive at the roadblock. After Rochelle left, he began to panic and dig wildly through the klompen, at one point picking up the correct clog but dismissing it. Ashley tried to ask him to calm down, and was very differentiated in her advice to him. However, he seemed befuddled by stress, making 31 incorrect attempts before taking a deep breath, taking another look at the example clog and realising there were some details he had missed. He commented that he should have taken the advice to take a breath and calm down. It’s funny how well it can work, despite how unhelpful it can feel in the moment.

Jenny and Jelani decided to cycle along the Amstel River straight to their target so that they wouldn’t get confused, with Jenny confident that no other teams would choose to go a different way. Wrong. Laura and Tyler made a left turn somewhere that ended up getting them back in first place, with Phil making his live commentary as they reached the Munttoren. Blair got fed up as Hayley was cycling so slowly… did she not know how to change gears on her bike?

The detour was Soak or Shuffle (1/10). We had a lot of fun figuring out the clues for ourselves… sk-8-ing came pretty quickly, and the rest of the clues fell in from there… Is to ice was definitely the most cryptic part, but what else would go with “skating rink”? “Roman”, according to Jelani and Jenny, who kept overthinking this part of the clue, and needed a bystander to help them out… even in their second language, a Dutchman could do better than they could. The ‘hot tugs’ looked really fun.

Meanwhile, two other teams did the Shuffle game (having lived in the Netherlands for nearly 20 years, I have never heard of this game). The scoring rules seemed complex but made sense when demonstrated. It was rough that teams had to score all 51 points in one go, and even when Matt scored an impressive 42 points during his turn by making two lots of 20, Ashley was unable to score the 9 remaining points needed, forcing them to start again.

On their way to the detour, Hayley and Blair had one of their biggest arguments yet. Unsure of directions in a new city and probably making a few understandable mistakes, Blair tried to explain the situation to Hayley, but she was too amped up and was furious if they made any sort of mistake at all, but also did not seem to try to take over. She started using mocking voices to insinuate he was an idiot when pretending to say what he said. She gets so angry over nothing and doesn’t help. Blair, to his credit, stays calm and allows her to behave as she does, probably because he realises how crazy she will come across on TV and how much better he will look if he tries to stay quiet, even if he does make a few mistakes. It’s crazy that she thinks it’s acceptable to talk to somebody the way she does. Hayley is beginning to make my blood boil; I hope they get eliminated soon. Unfortunately for us, though, they were able to overtake overthinking J+J at the detour and score an impressive second.

Laura and Tyler were continuing to gel very well… in the hot tug, they seemed to have such chemistry with each other, but at the pit stop their words made it seem like the feelings towards each other were platonic. Although they’re ‘the villains’, they’re actually very charming around each other, and I enjoy their vibe. They got their second win in a row and a trip to Seoul. Sounds amazing.

Mike and Rochelle ended up going the wrong way to the rink, so Jenny and Jelani ended up being third in the end, meaning that all three remaining Blind Date teams had dominated on this leg… the established couples were struggling, but I’m very proud of the Trout Wankers for making it this far. Not sure if I could have foreseen that.

Matt and Ashley were last to arrive after Matt’s clog-induced meltdown, but I had a feeling they wouldn’t be eliminated. For one, the third non-elim would either happen now or next episode, and it’s always so predictable when there are four teams left. Also, I remembered the clip of Matt and Ashley’s potatoes falling over the floor that had been shown to us in a “coming up this season” clip. The potatoes hadn’t been seen yet, so they had to stay in… With that plot armour, Phil allowed them to stay, and they were overjoyed. This is why those ‘coming up this season’ clips are so bad for spoilers.

Peru next episode. This must be one of the few seasons that visits the five main continents (without Oceania). I wish more would do it. Have we ever had a season with all six?

We haven’t had many double episodes for a while that haven’t been at the end of a season. Maybe someone can remind me when the last one was.

We began with footage of Laura and Tyler’s date night, which they claimed was in Monaco, but it didn’t take too much digging to determine they were enjoying a night at the Hotel Cap-Estel in Eze, France. Funnily enough, they also drew from Tyler’s earlier talking head outside the Loha Prasat where he was talking about how they were a good team, adding more to the geographical ambiguity.

Teams were flying to Namibia (or ‘Wind-ho-ek, Nambia?”, to quote Mike), the Season 2 classic country. They were made to take the same flight, presumably to prevent any awkwardness with the pilots that were awaiting them in Hosea Kutako International Airport. Hayley was already complaining that they were in last place because Blair had wanted to choose a more comfortable seat. However, her spirits changed when she met blue-eyed Hagen, the pilot. Blair did not seem the least bit jealous of her affections towards Hagen… “You can have her!” I could imagine him saying.

The teams flew in tiny planes to Erindi Airstrip, where they’d get in a Ford POS. Phil narrated as Aly and Steve pulled away first in a vehicle that was right-hand drive… it seems Namibians drive on the left-hand side. The trout wankers had significant trouble starting their vehicle, allowing Blayley to get out of last place. She would not stop going on about how hot Hagen was.

Teams had to pick up a salt lick… I hadn’t heard of this before. A block of mineral salt that animals can lick to get salt in their diet. Fascinating. Steve picked up the biggest one he could find… It’s unclear why. L+T and H+B both missed the block on the way to the roadblock, which involved making a grass hut. Midway through, Tyler remembered the salt lick and headed back with Laura to pick it up. He then returned to the roadblock and smashed it, finishing in first. Villain or not, you have to respect that this was a fantastic performance by Tyler. Meanwhile, Aly was being uncharacteristically whiny about the roadblock, wishing Steve would have mucked in, even though they both agreed on a turn-by-turn basis for doing the roadblocks. Her position was the opposite to Tyler’s going from 1st to 4th.

Then, teams went to trade their salt licks (whatever size) for a detour clue: Track or Pack (6/10). Pack was clearly the faster detour; tracking an elephant would be magical but time-consuming. As if in knowledge that all teams would pursue Pack, only three wildebeest carcasses were set up for the teams, allowing the rest to do the Track activity. Ashley began to barf at the smell of the unusual meat, but the three leading teams kept carving away furiously before heading out to meet the wild dogs. I’m sad to learn that this unusual-looking species is threatened, and it's good to see conservation work being carried out on the show. I reckon the dogs got more meat than they could handle, as there were still many chunks remaining by the end.

The system of three worked well for the Trout Wankers; Rochelle was so slow in building her hut that by the time her team arrived at the detour, the other teams had already left, allowing them to be the fourth team to complete Pack. The task was so quick that they were able to beat the others who were still trying to track an elusive pachyderm.

After that, the teams needed to find the pitstop in Spitzkoppe (those two words actually seem to rhyme (until you remember that the -e is pronounced in German/Dutch)). I recognised this name from TAR 2… I guess there aren’t that many places to visit in Namibia if we’re recycling them only on the second visit. A sign said this would be a 215km drive, which seemed like a challenge in itself. Teams would have to navigate the not-so-well-signed roads, asphalt and dirt, over the world’s oldest desert (if Phil is to be believed).

At one point, Matt and Ashley freaked out because the teams behind them paused. Laura and Tyler had merely stopped to review their directions, not aware that the others were counting on them. In their villainous way, Laura and Tyler laughed at their desperate faces… It’s amazing that the producers were able to unite two people with such similar personalities and could bond over schadenfreude.

But it was Aly and Steve that suffered the biggest blow. After being the first team to get on a private plane, Aly’s poor roadblock performance had forced them to take the slow detour, and they were now in second-to-last place. Steve, not used to driving on the left using an RHD vehicle, was driving too close to the left-hand side on a gravel track. Aly began to warn him, but he didn’t heed her advice and, sure enough, drove over what looked like a small pole or tree trunk and burst the front left tyre. Aly was furious about this, flummoxed as to how they would fix the problem and kept going on at him. She was the Hayley of this episode. To his credit, Steve was not defensive, fully admitting he’d messed up and stayed calm as he replaced the tyre. The real Hayley (and Blair) passed by the site of the accident, distressing Aly further.

Many hours and tribulations later, teams began to arrive at the spectacular granite peak where Phil was waiting in an unusual location: on top of a large rock. To get to him, teams had to figure out how to climb the rock and were free to do so in any way they tried. Although Laura and Tyler arrived in their car first, Laura was not comfortable with the direct approach, which involved a steep climb. Matt and Ashley saw their chance and took it, winning $5k each.

J+J and M+R were very relieved not to be eliminated, but it was Aly and Steve who came last. The continent and the fact that this was a mid-season double episode pretty much gave the result away; it was a non-elimination leg. Normally, they put double episodes together so that audiences will get to see an elimination by the end of the episode.

I was stunned when Phil opened the episode with a spoken introduction to Spitzkoppe… something he hadn’t done the entire season until now. It felt so right… Why did he ever stop doing them?

We saw the tents that the teams had to sleep in as well as reactions when Aly and Steve weren’t eliminated. They watched a sunset and made inane commentary about how beautiful it was: “Look at it, it’s orange.” Aly, most sunsets are orange.

The next morning, teams would head to coastal Swakopmund, basically the reverse of the journey made in TAR 2. Teams would become familiar with Namibia’s German colonial past by visiting a bookstore selling newspapers and searching for a TAR-themed advert in one of them. It’s incredible that the Germans only ruled the land for 31 years around the turn of the 20th century but made such a mark. Outside, Hayley and Blair asked a local to help translate the advert, and he seemed surprised they didn’t speak German… tbf, both Hayley and Blair look particularly Germanic.

They found out they’d be heading to a skydiving place and Hayley started bouncing with excitement. She knew, like I did, that every season of this show comes with some sort of high-flying activity and she couldn’t wait to get going with it. However, teams would soon discover that it was actually the ROAMING GNOME that would get to tandem skydive, while the roadblock members would do the grunt work of running through the desert to find their dropped box. Blair tried to allow Hayley some happiness by letting her do the roadblock… but she ended up being one of three women to wander while the smug men stood still waiting.

Jenny and Jelani had a flat tyre due to a large nail, but were fortunately already in a gas station when they discovered it and the station attendants could help them. The trailing teams finally made it to the airstrip, and Aly and Steve discovered their Speed Bump… making a model plane from recycled soda cans. This was pretty similar to the Thai Speed Bump of making a grasshopper, and also looked thoroughly time-consuming. By the time they’d finished, J+J and M+R had left, but the weather had also changed; with the other teams it had seemed overcast, but it was now sunny as Steve took off. To make matters worse, he began his search by heading in the wrong direction, which was plain for Aly to see. There was a confusing graphic which attempted to show how Steve was going the wrong way, but it didn’t really make sense.

The teams then went to the dunes for their detour of Work or Play (5/10… Surely they’ve used Work or Play before?). Ironically, Work sounded far less strenuous than Play; climbing a dune is no joke, and in skis it would probably be even harder. The teams plugged away at their tasks as Jenny and Jelani showed up, Express Pass in hand. Jelani had powered through the desert with the goal of using the Express Pass here and hopefully avoiding either side of the detour. However, Matt and Ashley were in the lead and still remembered Jenny’s backstabbing in Bangkok. That and the Express Pass made J+J the clear choice for U-turning. Less clear was Laura and Tyler’s choice to U-turn Aly and Steve, who were already desperately in last place, although L+T couldn’t have really known that.

M+A and L+T drove to the pit stop together at an ‘oasis’ and needed to walk a hoofed animal to meet Phil. Laura and Tyler took a zebra while the engaged couple took an oryx (one of my favourite animals from my time living in Oman) whose beautiful horns were covered by plastic tubing, presumably for the racer’s safety. The zebra tried to take off, but Tyler held on, and it ended up helping them get their first first place and a trip to Phil’s homeland as a reward. Thanks, Nora the Zebra!

Hayley and Blair brought a camel named Dave to meet Phil. Mike and Rochelle picked the zebra (was this also Nora, or was it a different zebra?) I’ll just say it’s Nora again. She had had enough shenanigans and started to canter, pulling Mike into a barrel roll. Jenny seemed disappointed that she didn’t get to ride the camel, but still enjoyed walking the giant humped beast. Mike took Nora a second time, but she was not having it and kicked her hind legs straight into Mike’s waist. It hurt, but it seemed she had hit bone: “If it kicked a little lower I’d be down and out.” Thank goodness. They ended up taking the donkey instead, with Nora now costing the TWs a place. There were a couple of hilarious shots as Phil was speaking to team JJ and M+R while the camel’s face filled half the screen.

Aly and Steve were naturally disappointed to be U-turned, but it’s not as if this made a difference. They also brought the camel back to meet Phil, who ceremonially eliminated them. It’s crazy to think that this loss mainly stemmed from Aly’s crap hut-building skills (although the flat tyre definitely put them further behind).

I’m sure viewers needed a vivid reminder after the three-week break in this less-than-great season. Thank goodness for the recap.

We opened on the Chao Phraya River where Laura and Tyler were enjoying their date night. I must admit, I didn’t see that they received that last time.

Teams ripped open their clues with instructions to head to Munich. Bavaria must be one of the most visited regions on TAR. Bergen and Kurt left in first place, with Bergen expressing gratitude that Kurt didn’t give up on him and that he hoped that last leg win would inspire their team to keep doing well. He had concerns that Kurt didn’t care about the million dollars… just how rich is Kurt?

Blair and Hayley admitted to ‘semi-hating’ each other… that was about to continue. Aly and Steve revealed that Munich was where they had first met, prior to the Sochi games. Team Insect expressed having some chemistry together, which I wasn’t particularly expecting. 

Teams all took the same 13-hour flight, so hopefully there wouldn’t be any stragglers this episode… the thing about hope, though… the show skipped through all the travelling footage to catch up with them trying on lederhosen and dirndls. Afterwards, the teams had to make a tiring climb up the St. Peter’s Church, but again, this hardship was barely shown.

From up there, teams needed to spot their Ford POSs in a style of challenge that’s been done since Season 1. It would be tough if you spotted a car and then someone else pinched it as you were coming down. Laura and Tyler were in the lead once again and jumped into a blue car. Being unfamiliar with a manual car, Laura lurched forward, almost hitting the grey car ahead. Wanting to stay in the lead, she decided to switch with the grey car so they could simply pull forward without having to deal with reverse. However, Tyler left the fanny pack in the blue car… Dum dum dummmm!

Brent and Kurgen were even more dismayed by the manual situation. Bergen was not doing a very good job, which was stressing out Kurt. They were allowed to use their car’s onboard navigation, but Bergen didn’t seem aware of that, and tried to ask Kurt for help with directions, and Kurt said he was too paranoid to help, whatever that means. Eventually, Kurt asked Bergen to pull over and to get out and simply get a cab instead. Bergen obliged, but in the post-leg interviews, he was angry that Kurt didn’t give him more of a chance… I’m actually surprised Bergen didn’t push back more and try to get through. This decision cost them their place in the race. Yet another episode where it’s obvious who’s going.

The Trout Wankers and Insect struggled in orienting themselves once they’d arrived on the ground again, and Jeff and Jackie in particular came to blows in a way that I really hadn’t expected from the one couple that I was beginning to ship. As they finally reached a car, Jackie was upset that Jeff had cut him off, which in turn caused Jeff to cut her off again. He tried to ask her to read the clue to divert from the argument, but when she started to do so, he kept yelling over her. Like… dude, shut up. People need to give each other grace in these situations; they won’t behave like perfect human beings. But I was astonished when he told her to shut up. Jackie said: “Never tell a woman to shut up.” How about don’t tell ANYONE to shut up? Being a woman has nothing to do with it.

The teams then headed to an old factory where the inside was converted to a winter wonderland, and they needed to use the rearview camera while reversing on their Ford to find their next destination. Are rearview cameras seriously as new as 2015, or is this just another part of the car that Ford was trying to advertise at the time?

Standing at the end of the course was a lady with an adorable reindeer. I want to know how well that reindeer was accommodated as it waited for hours for all the contestants to pass. Aly and Steve were the best at following the Ford’s directions and got here first, and pretty much stayed ahead of the pack the rest of the way, completing many tasks before some teams even got to this stage. Laura and Tyler discovered that their fanny pack was missing, completed the course and then waited for the other teams to come. Blair was a bit freaked out that they were just there waiting, and his nagging partner Hayley urged him to hurry up and not care. The two of them laughed at how awful it would be to be paired with her; they seem to actually vibe and be on the same level and are both giving villain vibes.

To my huge surprise, Jeff and Jackie actually apologised to each other and said it was silly for them to fight like that. I was damn impressed, as you rarely see that on reality TV, especially so soon after a blow-up. They finally showed up at the factory, and L+T pounced on their vehicle. Jackie had discovered the fanny pack and tried to obscure it, but nothing was getting past Laura. It was a pretty feeble attempt to scupper another team, but I was glad to see it.

Bergen and Kurt were dismayed that the next part of the race involved using the car they were supposed to bring, so they had to sit out for two hours. They watched as three other teams slouched by and won their clues. The gays could have been well on their way by the time the Trout Wankers arrived, over an hour after they did. I can’t imagine how gutted Bergen must have felt to see his chance at a million slip away. After they received their clue, they instead boarded a train to Schliersee.

Aly and Steve had whizzed through here while most of the others were still doing the factory. Phil had given his live commentary, noting Steve’s questionable rowing skills. At this lake, teams received their detours of Stein oder Stack (7/10). I’d have wanted to crush the beer challenge, no questions asked. The Olympians breezed through this heavy challenge while Matt and Ashley persevered to victory. Hayley simply lacked the upper body strength (and sheer size) needed to carry enough steins. Blair hoped to be able to help her technique, but she was pretty stubborn about not listening: “Your helping is things I already know. Great observation, Captain Obvious.” When she finally got her way and they left the detour, Blair blew through his lips in exasperation. Hayley seems awful.

Aly and Steve had already finished the leg, somehow, each one of them winning a 2015 Ford POS. Nothing particularly notable happened on the crate side, but I was considering the technique they were using… Were they only allowed to stack on top? I thought they might have some luck lifting near the bottom and inserting crates, rather than climbing on top. Some of New York’s newest skyscrapers were made by constructing the top floor first at ground level, lifting it into the air with hydraulic jacks, then constructing the next floor down and then so on.

Next up, a singing roadblock not dissimilar to Die Forelle, but replace the judgy music conductor with a bucket of water. This hilarious roadblock saw the cast members get continually doused, and then faked out when they received their clue in the end (which was pulled from another bucket). Jackie… sounded incredible. Her voice was beautiful. I could see romance blooming in Jeff’s eyes. After their blow-up in the morning, this was quite the turnaround. This task was almost entirely taken on by the girls (perhaps saving the more physical task for the boys), but Blair and Mike also performed.

After the Trout Wankers checked in after evening had fallen, Phil set off from the pit stop in search of gays, and found them at the train station. He eliminated them, and you could cut the tension with a knife. In separate talking heads, Kurt seemed indifferent about having been eliminated while Bergen was animated and furious. He thought that Kurt had given up just because he didn’t find love on the race. I wouldn’t have necessarily assumed that to be true… but then Kurt would know him better than I do. Again, how rich would Kurt have to be to not care about winning a million dollars? The episode ended dramatically with the two walking out of the station in opposite directions.

As a lifelong fan of Dream Theater, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to speak to Shulman about his connection to the group when I was interviewing him about the upcoming In a Glass House remix.

Catie responded to videos on her Instagram where some behavioural health provider reacted to her on the show, pointing out that making out with people is not typical of people with OCD. Here in the Reddit community, many people say she’s misdiagnosed.

In Catie’s video, she started to defend her diagnosis and say that TLC failed to show lots of segments that they did film regarding her OCD and instead just focused on the making out thing. She said that the OCD wasn’t the cause of her wanting to make out with people.

Then people in the comments responded that that was literally what she’d said on TV, and that seemed to be my recollection also. So I went back to episode 1 and listened carefully to what she said:

“I have intrusive thoughts as part of my OCD. When I get drunk, I really wanna make out with everyone I know, especially if I’m in a happy mood or a really bad, insecure mood.”

Two sentences, but I noticed there was a cut away from the talking head between them. I wondered if those two sentences had actually come from completely different points of the conversation. Maybe TLC edited it this way to scandalise her and misrepresent her diagnosis.

To be clear, I’m not defending Catie’s actions on the show in any way. I just think there’s a good chance that Catie’s does actually have OCD but is being intentionally misrepresented on TV.