Previous episode: Excess Baggage Season One – Breakthrough Experience #7
A place of much action; the endurance challenge field never disappoints. It’s probably the best time for the contestants to try to lose those extra few centimetres off their waist ahead of tomorrow’s check in. Should be a good episode!
Kate tells us that today; this endurance challenge will take place on a slippery hill. The contestant’s rock up and it seems Nathan is still sick, so Christine has to pull her weight twofold!
Kate is waiting for them with Christian and they tell them that today will test their skill and speed. They can’t win without both of them. Christian tells them they must pick the fastest and strongest in the team. One person will be the runner, and one will be the thrower.
The runner needs to make their way through an uphill mud course, collect one horseshoe at a time and take it back to the thrower. The thrower then must throw their horseshoe into one of three sandpits. Depending on what sandpit they land their shoe in, they could win 1-3 points. If they don’t get the shoe into the boxes at all, they win no points. After 15 minutes, the team with the least amount of points will be eliminated.
The last team standing will be the winners and will get 8 points. The rest of them will get a cascading number of points depending on their place. Who will be the best tosser today? Darryn hopes he will be!
Christine will have to do both jobs, so she has a hard day’s work ahead of her. Matt wonders if Ajay can man up for the purple team this week. Their horn sounds and the contestants are off.
Ajay has a rough start whereas Dipper easily makes it first. Kevin, Lisa and Christine follow. Dipper is back first and Lana throws. She misses. Lisa is on her way down and she slips. Slightly funny. Christine and Renae both score 1 point. Kevin is next and also grabs 1.
Darryn throws and scores 1 point for his team. Dipper grabs another horseshoe and scores 2 points, putting her on the board. Renae throws again and grabs three points- sending them to four. Christine throws a dud, and remains on one point.
Matt gets a point, as does Darryn, taking them to two points. Renae takes it to five and Lana also gets 3 points for the orange team. There are points coming off left right and centre.
Kevin is having a break with his team in the lead with 8 points. May be a good strategy. The girls are also slowing down.
Five minutes remain and Lisa collapses on the ground.
Opinion point: What do you think of this challenge? Is it challenging enough?
People rush over to aid Lisa who is dizzy. Christian calls hold time as Lisa recovers. Darryn thinks she doesn’t know where she is, but she has a rough idea. She is later taken to the dock. Kevin is also getting medical attention.
While we wait, Christian reads out the scores:
KEVIN & RENAE/ DIPPER & LANA: 10
MATT & AJAY: 8
DARRYN & LISA: 6
CHRISTINE: 4
Christian tells them that Lisa has been ruled out, as has Kevin. As Darryn has a pre-existing injury, he can’t run, so the red team are out. It is up to Renae to complete the challenge on her own. Out of the blue, Matt wonders if a team should be ruled out if they started with two players. I don’t see his point though. The yellow team has only one player (Christine), having one player is a massive disadvantage and he’s already gotten an advantage with the red team being ruled out.
So where THAT came from is a complete mystery. Staged to make the show seem more controversial? Hmm, possibly. Renae is still shocked and Darryn puts him in his place. God only knows where it came from. Lana, who didn’t like Matt’s comment, schemes with Renae.
So before, Christian said that the red team are still in the game ‘as long as someone throws horseshoes into their sandpit’. I didn’t even bother mentioning this, because I wondered why anyone would do that and thought I heard wrong. Usually, the team would be out and no one would even think of suggesting such a stupid idea as to say that if other teams help them out, they are still in.
Now, in the first time in the HISTORY of reality television shows, it seems as if winning teams will now be helping out teams…that have been ruled out! Lana and Renae want to keep the unmanned red team in the competition to kill off the purple team!
This is all so very sketchy. As I write this, I wonder how this has all come together. If reds are out, WHY can they be helped out? It’s too convenient a way for everyone else to get rid of Matt, who has come out with comments that were out of the blue and unexplained on-camera.
This whole thing reeks of stagedness. I realise the red team are still in this round as effectively, they were competing for the most part, but at the point of Lisa’s collapse, they should have been out. How can a team be eliminated over a team who has been ruled out?!
What’s worse is that other team members, like the competitive Dipper, just happens to be happy about this!
The game resumes. Matt can see what’s happening and he isn’t happy. After time is up, Christine is told that she is out.
Round two begins. Their points aren’t wiped surprisingly enough, a good excuse to keep the red team ‘in’ this race. It is so bizarre. Ajay catches on. There is an alliance between orange, blue and red. Matt yells support out for Ajay, putting Lana off…or does it?! She brings her team to 20 points. The red team are in danger.
After the end of round two, the red team are ‘out’. Matt is so happy about this!
Opinion point: Should the red team have been able to keep competing with NO players?
It’s now the second to last round and it is purple v orange v blue! Tension is building up. Lana and Matt are still at each other’s neck. We are given a recap of the last round which aired…10 minutes ago! Useless.
Lana is smashing this, taking her team to 28 points. She keeps getting those three-pointers.
Matt is in last place, but he can stay in this with a 3-point shot. He scores it and bumps Renae in third. But Matt is getting angry and his throws are sloppy, keeping him in danger of being eliminated.
Matt keeps riling up Lana and soon enough he turns against everyone- even Ajay, who is politely asking him to calm down. He tells the ‘woman’ to shut up. I know Matt isn’t the most well received contestant, but why the hell are the producers turning him into a massive villain in the space of one episode?
It looks cheesy and undone. Not enough storytelling going on here- it’s all hot air!
In the end of the round, Lana scores Renae a round winning point, sending Matt off his nut and leading to Ajay breaking down. Matt is annoyed that after helping the other teams in the cow-milking challenge, they are turning against the ‘leading’ team now.
Opinion point: Do you agree with Matt’s logic tonight?
After the break, it is time for the final round. Renae is far behind, but is still challenging with a smile. Instead of the main competition, Christian adds in the challenge to Dipper to reach 50 points. If he does, Christian will do 150 push ups. Hilarious. Even Renae helps out and soon, they make it to 50!
The producers try desperately to get some shots of Kate into the episode, but it is as if she is standing 50km away from them all!
At the end of the challenge, which orange won, Kate debriefs with the contestants of the bet Christian made before getting Christian to do the push ups. He makes it to 150 despite Kate telling him he can stop at 100 if he wants to.
So, after the challenge, let’s see the scoreboard.
DIPPER & LANA: 15
AJAY & MATT: 14
KEVIN & RENAE: 13
DARRYN & LISA: 10
CHRISTINE & NATHAN: 8
Kate debriefs on this and brings up Matt’s troubles near the end. Kate asks if he has congratulated his teammate Ajay. He does, but Ajay implies that it was a bit too late. But she is now awaiting an apology.
Christine is crying and she says it is because her partner has not been well enough to compete.
Opinion point: Does Matt show enough support for Ajay?
After the break, it is time for Joanna’s nutrition session. Today, is myth busting! The first one is that they should drink 8 glasses of water per day. They all think it is a true fact, however Joanna says it a myth, saying it depends on how much they need. She pulls out some beakers of dyed water to represent different urine concentrations. Although, I hope it’s dyed water…
‘Meat takes two weeks to digest’- untrue!
‘Can Dairy’s make you fat?’- No, studies are showing that a small amount can help you lose weight.
‘Carbs turn to fat overnight’- no!
With that, it is time for family dinner time! Joanna has to speak at a conference like a true professional, so she won’t be in attendance.
After the break is family dinner time, and the contestants talk about their chances in tomorrow’s check in. Darryn is as confident as ever but Matt just does not know.
Lisa says she will continue to lose weight after the show in case she meets up with Darryn again. Christine thanks the girls for sticking by her when Nathan has been slacking off or being down with illness.
The second part of the evening then comes into play and a string fiddle band comes in. We can see it is quite wet outside. Kate sings a corny song about the red team. This is accompanied by a flashback. She does this with the purple team as well.
She then goes through the other teams with a bit of humour in some cases. She is a bit blue through Christine’s verse, but gets her to sing the chorus with her.
That ends an episode which has really disappointed me. That endurance challenge was a big farce- and there were some elements, such as the allowance of red to continue, that just shouldn’t have been included, or whose inclusion was not properly explained. The inclusion of Matt’s all-of-a-sudden tantrum was another aspect not properly dealt with.
Also, Kate’s lack of involvement in this episode wasn’t the problem tonight, but it was how they involved her. A few corny camera shots to show her reaction to a certain event in the challenge was not enough.
I will kudos that ending. It was quite a creative way to reflect on the series so far as we head into the final week.
Excess Baggage next airs Mar 22 at 6.30PM on GO!
Production Values (visual and audio techniques, overall ‘bling’ of the show):3/5
‘Sell-out’ factor (Cross-promotion and product placement free?): 2/2
Entertainment Value (emotional feel, storyline, eventful?): 1/3
Courtney’s Verdict: 6.0/10
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