9 things we learned from amazing race philippines season 2 leg 4

it is already the 4th leg of the 2nd season of the amazing race philippines. the race is really getting exciting and we are still learning a lot as the race progress.

so here are the 10 things that we learned from this week's leg:

1. team dating couple is still the team to beat

this is the 3rd straight leg that team dating couple finished first and they have never finished out of the top 3. i think this team is very competitive and this has helped them keep their lead. in this leg, they were even yielded by all the other teams but their lead was huge enough that even with the time penalty that was imposed to them due to unsafe driving did not matter and no one arrived in the last task after the time penalty.

but this team needs to watch out because they now have a huge target at their back. it was evident in the yield voting that their past actions really affected the team's votes. they need to rebuild their relationships with the other teams or they will be the target in the next u-turn or yield.

2. team magkapatid is still a big threat, but finishing 2nd is never good enough

if this leg is team dating couple's 3rd first place finish, incidentally, it is also team magkapatid's 3rd runner up finish. these two teams are the only teams that has never been out of the top 3. what is working for this team is that they know each other very well. jet has been the typical kuya and has been controlling their race, in a good way.

the team has been communicating way and both are willing to listen. i like their disposition in the race, they still appear calm and they panic less as compared to the other teams. but evidently, running is not one of their strengths. they were beaten in the season's first footrace to the mat. finishing 2nd is a good thing but finishing runner up this many times is quite frustrating. they need to step up and advance to the top spot.

3. team sexy besties needs to control their emotions

this leg gave us how the race stress is getting into the teams, especially into team sexy besties. their confrontation scene at the car on the way to the paint ball challenge was very intense, particularly rr. it was a good thing that jeck was able to control herself and just kept quiet. the words that were thrown during that confrontation can easily provoke rr and that could have easily blown to a big girl fight.

lucky for them, they easily patched things up and moved on as if nothing happened.

4. miracles do happen, ask the miracle boys (team mr. pogi)

during the start of this leg, team mr. pogi got lost and jp said that they are now called "miracle boys" because it will be a miracle if they still make it to the next leg. up to the last task in this leg, this team finished last in all task. but by a miracle or something, they were able to have a last ditch effort and was able to check in the pit stop at 7th place, escaping elimination. it only proves that you should never quit until derek tells you that you are eliminated.

in this leg, this team worked more in sync as compared to the previous legs. their car confrontation was really scary which almost led into a fist fight (or so we thought it would). but in this episode, they were more supportive of each other. i was impressed with jp, he was really motivating the kelvin during this race. but this team needs to step up and finish in a higher place and move out of the bottom.

5. the express pass did not make an impact in the race

after winning the first leg, team nerds was able to get the express pass. it is a free pass that the team needs to exchange for the clue if they decide not to do the task. as the nerds explained throught their twitter account, the express pass can only be used up to the 4th leg so they really need to use it in leg 4. (which is quite weird because in the US version, it can be used anytime in the race).

even though they really need to use it in this leg, i think they still used it in the wrong task. they can easily finish the paintball task but they had real bad luck in the last surf paddling task. i think they could have finished at a better placing if they used it in the last task.

6. team chefs and team mag-ama needs to get out of the middle of the pack

these two teams has consistently been in the middle of the pack and they need to improve their placings as well. team chefs finished 2nd in the 3rd leg but is now back to 4th. team mag-ama entered the top 3 for the first time in this leg and has improved their placing after each leg.

i think what both teams needs to improve on is their communication. team mag-ama has been fighting in several legs and their competitive nature is really showing in how they are running this race. on the other hand, if there is one team that i think is enjoying this race, it would be team chefs because they have the highest level of energy of all the teams, especially after finishing their tasks. but what they need to improve is their navigating skills because most of their fights are when they are trying to locate their next location.

7. luck is a big factor in this leg.

luck played a big factor in this leg. 2 tasks in this leg mainly rely on pure luck - the surfer's code task and the surf paddling task. it is a good way to even out the playing field for some teams but it can also be damaging to the unlucky teams.

aside from the luck challenges, there were also some unlucky moments in this leg. team blondies' car got stuck in the mud after the pottery task and they were stranded for quite a long while, allowing team sexy besties to overtake them and team mr. pogi to catch up with them. after the surfer code challenge, it was team mr. pogi's car that got stuck in the sand.

8. team blondies proved that they are a strong team

honestly, i picked team blondies as one of the first teams that will be eliminated. in the first leg, they were really outcasted and had to rely in their own skills and abilities to survive that leg. in the 3rd leg, they started the talk about the bottom teams alliance but that never got together. they made some mistakes along the way but they proved that they can do a lot of things on their own. they even out lasted team juan direction. it was sad to see them go but it is really their time.

9. the twitter party every night continues!

i really like the fact that the teams are interacting a lot with the fans during the episode. every night, almost all of the teams are live tweeting and are actively answering tweets of the fans. always present every night are team chefs, team magkapatid, team dating couple and team nerds. team mag-ama, team blondies, team mr. pogi and team sexy besties would retweet or favorite fan tweets.

team mr. pogi also had a new twitter gimmick this week. they launched #AskKelvin, where fans can ask anything to kelvin and he will reply back with the answer. so if you are a fan and is still not joining the twitter party every episode, make sure to tune in the show every 9pm and be online and tweet with the hashtag #AmazingRacePHILIPPINES

photos are from margie natividad's twitter account and team magkapatid's facebook fan page