Who are your contenders for the winner?

This episode began by ending that tense cliffhanger that had me on the edge of my seat. Even though Jody and Jenn could have had an almost guaranteed win with the strategy I outlined in my previous post, they didn’t do this, and Doug and Dylan managed to survive by the skin of their teeth. It was a shame for J+J to not have their comeback story come true, and it also proved that they really did waste their Express Pass in the previous leg (which was now two episodes ago, mind). Had they saved it, they could have used it at the pot-smashing roadblock and made it through.

Luckily for Doug and Dylan, the previous times were scrubbed, and the next morning, the ten teams were made to leave two minutes apart. Dafina and Saran left in 7th place at 2:12, and reminded viewers that they were part of the ‘boss lady alliance’ but that they weren’t sure if they were still aligned after Joanna and Ali didn’t help them after the tomatoes in Madrid. It’s clear to me that Dafina and Saran are the only team that ever cared about that alliance; the other teams forgot about it as soon as they walked away, I’m sure. Or maybe they were just celebrating being strong women rather than actually allying. D+S are overthinking it, and this could land them in trouble.

Their first destination was quite familiar; the S25 contestants had needed to do tanning at this location. I still remember Bethany Hamilton managing to do impressive tanning using her legs. Fortunately, the task wasn’t going to be repeated as the teams were about to partake in another Scramble. The last two scrambles I saw in 37 and 38 were not very exciting as they took place at the end of the season when there were few teams left. With ten teams racing around the confusing streets and alleys of Marrakech’s dense medina, this would be far more exciting.

However, the 6 possible orders that teams could complete the scramble were sadly cut down to only 2 after all ten teams discovered that the Slipper Search roadblock was the closest to the tannery. This drastically cut down the chaos factor; when designing a scramble, they should really try to make the challenges equidistant from the starting point. 

After plenty of shots of the teams getting bamboozled by the streets and also getting confusing directions from locals “Right left”, “Your first second”, etc, teams finally made it to Souk Smata for a particularly devious challenge. TAR 26 had teams finding one clog out of 100s, but this season escalated that to 1000s of slippers (although they were slippers of various colours), across different vendors. Michelle played a smart game by choosing the least ornate slipper, making its pair easiest to find, while others struggled with minor pattern or colour differences. Dafina and Saran used their Roadside Assistance immediately; I noticed that it was used up after one attempt. I had thought that they would be able to continually use it until the end of the next leg. Whatever, it seemed to help them through the challenge quickly. Erin regretted doing the challenge as she felt Javi’s eyesight was better.

At the back were Jaime and Garrett. Garrett was close to losing his cool and burning the Express Pass, but they decided to hold on to use it later in the leg as he’d already spent so much time on the task. Jaime had no such option and had already made five wrong attempts before getting her last. But even further back were Doug and Dylan, who seemed hopeless at both getting directions from locals AND following them. It felt upsetting to see this team squander this chance that they’d just lucked out on the previous evening.

The other teams split up, with some deciding to do the rug run first while the others went to dye some yarn. Cody and Jaime spoke about their Oma, who had to manufacture gloves for German soldiers during WW2… always a backstory with these tasks. Matt and Michelle were the first to complete Rug Run and decided to play dumb about completing that task. This is the kind of ‘villainous’ stuff I can get behind, playing a selfish game but not being malicious.

While boiling the yarn, Andrea spoke about how she was a firefighter and a first responder during COVID. I was astonished as she does not look like a big, strong firefighter, but that just goes to show looks can be deceiving. Cody and Jaime must have been bricking themselves to see D+D turn up at the yarn dyeing (Doug called it a “Do AND Dye” challenge; I chuckled). To make matters worse, C+J only made one yellow yarn on their first attempt, wasting even more of their time.

It still didn’t seem possible to me that D+D would have a chance of catching up until more teams ran the Rug Run and Ali+Joanna and Cody+Jaime got lost and overshot the restaurant. C+J were now 3/3 on messing up the scramble challenges, having wasted a significant amount of time on each of them, and to my amazement, Doug and Dylan actually overtook the Dutch team.

I was nervous about the teams running with rugs. While it wasn’t as bad as those giant bamboo poles from S21, teams could be seen knocking things like fridge magnets off their stands and even whacking people in the face.

Matt and Michelle were the first to complete all three challenges and were able to complete the three-piece puzzle that gave them their next clue in Arabic, which would direct them to another site from Season 25: the beautifully ornate Madrasa Ben Youssef (which merely held a clue box in that episode). The sneaky snakes (as they called themselves) slithered their way into first and won a trip to Okinawa. Matt stated that his grandfather fought in Okinawa in WW2 (two mentions of WW2 in one episode, crikey!), so he said it felt special to win that trip. In all the seasons I’ve watched, I’ve never seen someone connect so personally to the destination they’re winning a trip to. That being said, there's something awkward about handing out a prize of “here’s where your grandfather was traumatised!”

The next group of three teams all bundled in at once. From my perspective, it was difficult to differentiate E+J touching the mat vs Daisha and Dalton (I’ve just realised I can’t keep calling Doug and Dylan ‘D+D’... I mean, I can, but it may confuse). Dalton literally tried to slide to get ahead, but this may have disqualified the extra place, causing his team to come fourth instead of third. They were perfectly happy with the result, though.

I clapped my hands and laughed as Doug and Dylan stepped through the door in 9th place. “That’s all we need!” exclaimed Dylan, while Doug said their nickname should be changed to “The catfish, the bottom-feeders.” I’ll definitely use that, going forward.

And it was Cody and Jaime who kicked the metaphorical bucket this time. There seemed to be something wrong with Cody’s eyes; either he’d rubbed some dye in them, or he’d been crying heavily before they reached the pit stop. They seemed crestfallen, but there was still time for one more dig “We’re always going to look out for each other… even when he doesn’t wear deodorant.” I enjoyed their vibe, and it was surprising seeing a team that looked so physically fit bow out so early on. But it was a case of losing time in the challenges vs losing time with directions; Doug and Dylan had actually completed all their challenges on the first attempt and had made up enough time doing so to keep going. It’s giving Beekman energy. I can’t wait to see how they do in Albania.

It seems like people help their partners verbally every now and then. However, this last episode they said they can't say anything.

• Read your clue
• Learn how to drive a stick shift
• It ain't over until Phil says it's over

Something else?

If so, what was the application process like? I know you and your partner have to submit an audition video, but what’s the actual application like? How long are the applications usually open? Trying to convince one of my best friends to apply with me, all the info on the website was outdated last time I looked.