Rewatched the episode just to make sure I don't miss any details.
I like how equally challenging both detour are.
Sing It requires signing a song in Italian, and both racers have to be synchronized, of course. I like the boat couple's reactions sometimes. 
It gives the teams a clue how well they're doing. 
Bring It may be a physical task, but it does not require a judge's approval, so teams should just have a good sense of direction, aside from physical strength.
A W-turn here would've been fine, but the way this leg started with the bus ride, maybe it's better on a different leg.
The roadblock is challenging! It needs color blending, attention to detail, shininess. Bonus points for the distracting background.
My opinion on the detour and the roadblock remain the same, so I'll just talk about the events throughout the leg.
If there's anything I didn't like this leg, it's the set bus departure. I would've said that it wouldn't matter, but that didn't look like the case. Teams met each other at the roadblock, but 15 minutes can change a lot depending on the situation.
Water taxi drama! I'm glad there was even such a thing. Tara & Joey couldn't find one going to the detour, so they made a smart decision of having the hotel order them a water taxi. Brooke got frustrated; enough said.
LoLo just shared one with a family on vacation. Overall, it was fun watching teams having trouble with water taxis.
Matt & Red ran a really smooth leg. Redmond and his best leg joke.
True enough. What an explanation! Anyway, luck was on their side. They were on the 1st bus. They didn't have a problem going to the detour and then doing the detour. They easily hailed a water taxi on their way to the roadblock, and even though Redmond's mask was not approved on his 1st check, he lacked something that could easily be added. Tasks were no issue, water taxi was no problem, so they were really lucky to be 1st and way ahead of everyone else.
Becca & Floyd probably took a while from the detour itself. If it wasn't for that, they might have been fighting for 1st too. Floyd went through the roadblock smoothly, very.
Tara & Joey had a problem with the water taxi on their way to the detour, so that took them some time. Tara had to start over her mask too, but since Tara & Joey picked the detour that didn't have a judge and were on the 1st bus, they were fine.
Brooke & Scott were fine too. Brooke panicked a bit at the roadblock, and it started out as annoying that she kept asking for help. The lady demonstrating the process was just on the 1st part, so she could've easily caught up after seeing step 1. Good thing for her is that she made a risk that paid off. She wasn't sure about the part that required wiping the black paint off, but she did it, and everything else went smoothly from there. Good thing she didn't get help from anyone and just did it herself. The ladle was definitely much worse since she complained too much for the others to help her. Here, she was ignored, yet she did it properly on the 1st try and finished ahead of 2 racers! Brooke is a mixed bag. I find her slightly annoying yet she makes up for it, sometimes in a way I didn't expect. I like Scott better though with all his reactions and expressions. This episode, it's his reaction on Brooke finishing surprisingly ahead of 2 others. At least he knows how to adapt to his partner's behavior now. He's just calm and collected in order for Brooke to panic less than she did before.
LoLo was being smart not helping the teams near them, because they're at the back of the pack and they need the buffer. I think they care for others, but they have to care for themselves more. At least that's what the edit seems like, not something antagonistic or villainous. Their leg was bumpy on the water taxi part, especially the one en route to the roadblock. It bumped them down by 1 place. Also, I think London just picked the "harder" mask for Brooke to finish ahead of her, or maybe London just slowed down to avoid mistakes. They had a potential for 3rd or 4th for being on the 2nd bus, but 2nd to the last can't be too bad on a NEL.
Liz & Mike may have finished last on the detour, but 2 other teams had a water taxi problem, so they caught up. Liz just missed the wiping of the black paint part of the roadblock. She seemed confident because she knew how to paint, but she just didn't know there was a right way to do it. She didn't follow the steps, and that was enough of a mistake to put her team in last, but it's a NEL!
To be honest, I don't mind this leg being a NEL. I actually want a NEL to be on 1 of the 1st 2 legs. I don't like seeing 4 straight elimination legs from Leg 1 to Leg 4 (lowkey don't like Leg 2 to Leg 5 like TAR28). They've done worse in the classic seasons, so I'm glad they changed their ways. I really enjoy more NEL's at the beginning because not are they less predictable, but they also give more teams some more time to shine. I like seasons like TAR18 wherein 2 ZHPS's are on the 1st half of the season. Then there's TAR Aus 2 wherein the NEL and ZHPS were on F8 and F7 respectively. Plus points to the Salvage Pass being used on Leg 1 to save the 11th team. Maybe it's just me, but I enjoy seeing more teams race further. TAR21 was a bit low on me on its NEL distribution.
Liz & Mike + self-driving & directions = An infinite number of oh-noes. If they both get called back for all-stars as a team and they screw up on a self-driving leg, I would not be surprised at all. Panama and Norway showed enough of their poor communication when it comes to directions. Greece next leg? Ho ho ho. Good luck to them!
I'm gonna make a wild guess that they might not even reach the pit stop and it's late at night by the time Phil eliminates them.
The W-turn next leg seems very interesting. Brooke didn't have an A-list and B-list of people anymore, so that's good. There were 3 teams on the 1st scene. Brooke & Scott and LoLo were the only ones I saw and remember clearly.
Tara & Joey look like they were U-turned from that preview, but these previews are tricky especially when it comes to W-turns. Can't wait for the screencap pics on the episode thread.
Will probably do more speculating there.
Overall, this leg was really amazing! Although, I think Tanzania 2 delivered its episode better despite the bunching point at the boat. In this leg, that set bus ride at the start seems to have a very significant effect for the 3 teams in front and 3 teams at the back.
