Team Dating Couple is now back on top, and grabbed first for the 4th time in this race. The slowly inched their way to the top after finishing 5th in leg 5; to 4th, to 2nd - and now in 1st. They really proved they are the team to beat this season. But unfortunately, this would now put a big target in their backs in the final leg - and expect then to get the U-Turn or the Yield in the last leg of the race.
Always the bridesmaid, never the bride - this is how I feel about Team Magkapatid. They finished 3rd four times and 2nd four times during the entire leg but never finished first. The consistency is good since they never went down and remained competitive but when will they get that top spot? Yes, they have never been in danger of going home and they manage to stay at the top 3 spots - but only 1 team will be declared as the winners of this race. So they need too step up if they want to win in the race.
In this leg, Team Chefs finished 3rd, barely beaten by Team Magkapatid at the pit stop. Team Chefs has been very competitive in the past few legs but has been very inconsistent. They have gone up then down then up again in the rankings. What is working for them is their teamwork and their positive attitude but they can easily panic at some points. Will Chef Eji's knee injury which prevented them to race for 2nd place in this leg affect their race as well?
Team Mr. Pogi completed the cast of 4 teams that will race in the finale week. Who would have thought that this team will reach the last week? They have been in the bottom half of the pack in the first 6 legs of the race and was almost eliminated in leg 4. But these Miracle Boys, as they have coined themselves, have surprised us by steadily making their way up the rankings. Their good teamwork and positive attitude has been working wonders for this team but what is making miracles for them is their good luck. In the Rock task, they easily got their clue even if they got the trivia questions wrong. Thy were so lucky that when the rocks were unloaded, the clue was swept away by the wind and was not covered by the rocks. This gave them an edge over Team Nerds and eventually advanced to the finale week.
I was doing the math last week since it was advertised that there is only 2 weeks remaining for the show. Therefore, there will be 2 or 3 more eliminations before the last episode. But I never thought that there will be a double elimination. This has been done before in the US version (Season 10 Leg 1 - but one in the middle of the leg and another in the pit stop and in Season 19 Leg 2), I did not see this coming at all. To make it more surprising, the teams eliminated were Team Nerds and Team Mag-ama - two of the most competitive teams in the race. It was really sad to see both of these teams go. Team Nerds surprised everyone when they finished 1st on the first leg but they just cannot recover from the back of the pack. On the other hand, Team Mag-ama has been doing very well but has been the target of the Yield since they are a very strong team, and this really affected their race.
This leg was a great leg and a very challenging one. One of the things that struck me the most was that this leg emphasised how important our eyes are. In the Batchoy challenge, it was keen observation and an eye for details that was key to get the next clue. Team Dating Couple and Team Mag-ama wasted so much time looking for clues every where in and out of the store - not paying attention to this small sign where they will find the next clue. In the Blindfold challenge, teams got a taste on what a blind person is experiencing everyday. And it was really touching to see the teams' reaction when they saw Tammy and Marvi.
7. All teams are in game mode already
The race is on! This is what leg 8 showed us. All teams are in it to win it. In the ferry to Iloilo, the teams all agreed to U-Turn AJ and Jody since they are a strong team and they were saved from elimination. In the Batchoy challenge, no team shared the clue when they found the small sign on the store's wall. In the Zombie task, no information was shared by the teams when they found the clue. Team Mr. Pogi even lied to Team Mag-ama. This only shows that even a slight advantage can be used to get ahead and it is critical since the race is in the home stretch already.
8. The last leg promises to be an intense and emotional one
The last week will always be the best. The preview for the last leg promises so much - someone will get hospitalized, teams will fight and the race for the grand prize will be concluded. A few more days left before we get to know the season winners!
Images are from @margienatividad in Twitter
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