As I said earlier, the episode delivered!
There were so many factors that made this the best TARA5 leg so far, of course.
No departure times, awww…
Maybe the editors don't plan on putting any of that anymore throughout the show.
The roadblock was okay. I couldn't say it was bad for the fact that some teams messed up in such a simple task, but it wasn't a really good task too. It was okay at the very least.
Treasuri & Louisa were really smart with the ticket swap. Too bad for them there was a HoO.
At least they still won the leg in the end.
Too bad there was no leg prize.
At least they remained optimistic based on their tweets.
Based on editing, it seems like Tom & Anita see these 2 as threats, so they can potentially be U-turned or Yielded later on. If I'm going to look at a wider angle, everybody might see these 2 as threats. Btw, the 7th to 1st jump at the detour clue and detour end was awesome for them!
There was exciting suspense with the trains after the roadblock, too bad the HoO ruined it. Still, the expected 1st and last teams after the trains were the same ones when it came to the pit stop.
The detour was great! I'm not sure how balanced it is, because there was fair placement shuffling (unlike most detours in TAR US recently). I like how both sides of detour are in the forms of art are in Malaysian culture some way or another.
There were entertaining scenes on both sides, such as Tom & Anita's bike having problems, JK & Mike struggling to communicate properly, Rach & Vicky trying to keep a positive vibe even when they know they are behind at the detour. Watching the detour was fun, and it definitely made up for the equalizing HoO in the middle of the leg.
Also, the street art detour looks fun, but it requires convincing strangers.
I was expecting Rach & Vicky to get a penalty for being at a different station, but I never knew what was exactly written on the clue, so I guess it was allowed. If it wasn't, then the editors probably just didn't air the penalty because they won't be showing departure times anyway.
I started liking them from this episode, and Rach reminds me of an annoying person who's just too worried for a reason.
The music gave away the possibility that this leg is a NEL. Compare the music used for Rach & Vicky's last-place arrival to the one Brandon & Alphaeus had last leg. It completely gave away the suspense in my opinion.
The leg was so good that I thought it'd be an EL, but I'm glad it's a NEL, because I'm craving for it too.
That's about it! I'm hoping for another great episode next week.