Prior to the season's filming, Maanca messaged me about what the show could do if they went to K-W. That got me excited, so when teams were spotted there, I had a bit of anticipation for this episode. Overall, it was a decent leg. It certainly ticked off all of the things expected of the region. It was a fun start with a controversy out of TAR 25, and it led to a fun moment with Sarah & Sam having the same problem at the Face Off. Having teams not fully know their destination was an interesting addition as well. 7 episodes in, and only 2 episodes had a Detour and a Roadblock. I don't mind production shaking teams up, but they do need to justify the format. The gravity task could have worked better as a Roadblock, and it was disappointing to lose out on Oktoberfest. It was surprising that Aarthy & Thinesh let their Express Pass expire when they had several opportunities, but it does bode well for them that they haven't used it and history could repeat. I haven't been excited for the Face Off in a while. It pretty much became stale with choosing a random sport and the ones in Corner Brook and in season 6 led to some less than competitive finishes. This one was better but not perfect. I didn't mind incorporating a sponsor if it leads to a creative idea (one much better than the Dempster's task last year). It could have been subjective, but the fact that teams had to cook from memory allowed noticeable mistakes to happen. The time penalty for losing also wasn't a death kneel. Trish & Amy were such a fun team this season, and it's sad that they are gone. Looking forward to next week as many teams might be out of their element.
Out of nowhere instant replay graphics.
Jon with Callisto.
Aarthy's directions.
Dave's annoyance with the singing.
Aarthy's cooking skills.
Irina's demands.
Balls: Simple task to start with after the blind drive.
Self-drive: They didn't have to do anything with the only penalty being an out of the way drive, but even that was somewhat negated with the choice to do the robot task.
Beer Fest: Absolute shame no one did this task because it looked like fun.
Robot Quest: Was good to see a task that tested the communication between team members, and it led to a lot of fun moments of miscommunication.
Bake Off: Like that there was a change compared to a random sport, and there was a bit of creativity in the task.
Gravity: Gave me flashbacks to physics class. A so-so task to end the leg, since the first three teams are math whizzes. It was one of the better tasks to end a leg when compared to seasons 5 and 6 because the penalized team actually had a chance due to the three way bunch.
3/5