Fredericton isn't so bad but then again, it's Canadian city where everyone speaks English, cabbies wait for you and don't get lost, and there's only 60,000 people instead of almost 20 million in Mexico City. So the intensity isn't there. Still it wasn't a bad leg, but there was one predictable aspect of it. I'll get to that later.
Once in Fredericton, teams must find Officer's Square and watch a changing of the guard. Then they have to head to City Hall to watch another changing of the guard but with one slight difference. Once they determine the difference (one side took two steps instead of three), they tell the commander and get their next clue. It's Martina and Phil out first cause instead of running between the two locales, they take a cab. And they're off to the Detour. Fit or Fly. Not sure why anyone would chose Fit which is to do a whole pile of military training exercise exactly as ordered within 18 minutes, but some teams are masochists. Martina and Phil take Fly which is operate the helicopter flight simulator and "virtually" land on the Bell Centre in Montreal. Not as easy as it looks as they quickly find out.
Neither is Fit as the Coaches and Adam and Courtney also find out. You make one small mistake, you're back to beginning. Which does happen to Dylan and Kwame. And to Adam who almost makes it through but blows it at the last second by not completely crossing the line. Courtney isn't sure she can do but tries anyway. Meanwhile, Taylor and Courtney think about fit but the Detour is limited to two teams per time so they fly over to Fly. Which is a great idea because they get done on their first try. Phil is shocked cause he's been stuck in the simulator with his sister, the motion sickness getting worse and worse until he's puking in a garbage can. Second time this season so I think he ties Brent and Sean with most times puking.
Back at Fit, the Coaches power through while Courtney messes up and realizes there is no way she can get this task done. So they too fly over to Fly. Where Martina and Phil are still crashing and burning and puking. Taylor and Courtney are sitting at the Faceoff waiting to play wheelchair basketball against whomever shows up first. It's the Coaches so Courtney's really worried they'll get their butts kicked. Instead, she realizes a good defence is a good offence and starts blocking the movement of the other team. Which gives Taylor plenty of time to score. And once the buzzer sounds, they win.
Off to the Roadblock they go while the Coaches wait awhile for whoever shows up next. It's Martina and Phil, who get beat. But at the Roadblock, Taylor has to listen to a number of questions posed by a Wolastogiyik elder in Wolsatogey about paintings in an local gallery. Nice to have some Indigenous language and art part of the task. Hopefully we can get another Indigenous team on the race next season.
Taylor quickly figures out the question is mostly the same, except for one or two words. So he has to find those words in the painting description. He quickly gets it done and they are off to the pitstop, Team #1 heading into the finale. Kwame takes on the Roadblock and he figures out the system but takes a bit longer.
But the real action is on the court. Martina and Phil, and Adam and Courtney play a hard game, ending up tied at the end of regulation. It's Sudden Death and the team that scores first wins. Phil takes a shot, it's up, and we're off to commercial. Probably one of the most exciting moments of the race cause it shows teams competing against each other hard. And while this is a decent season with great teams and solid tasks, that one thing that's been missing. And not just this season but in the last one. While I'm not a big fan of bickering teams, I really like to see more gameplay, more conflict between and within the teams, more competitive spirit of trying to beat each other instead of being so nice. Maybe that's been there while they raced but we don't see it in the edit. It's all 'we're nice, friendly Canadians who get along with each other". And that's true. Canadians are nice, polite, friendly but that does not equate being nice all the time or a lack of competitiveness. We are some of the most competitive people on the planet, look at our sports, heck even the Canadian literary community of which I'm a member can be competitive as heck, so why can't that be reflected in TARC. We've seen it in the US version (sometimes a bit over the top) and in other versions, like the Australian one. So why not in Canada? Conflict makes for good storytelling.
Anyway, Phil's shot misses and Adam (or was it Courtney?) gets the rebound. They win and are off to the Roadblock while our plucky, fan-fav underdogs have to wait till the sand runs out. Adam takes on the Roadblock and though Kwame is still there, he's not there long. The Coaches are Team 2 into the finale. Martina takes on the Roadblock and same thing. Adam's still there but not for long. He gets and they are the third team into the finale. Martina and Phil are out. And I must say, I had a feeling this would happen. Even since Episode 1, the siblings' edit has been the fun-loving fan fav one, with a bit of spunky underdog thrown in. And ever since Season 1, this team is always eliminated on the second last leg. Jet and Dave in Season 1; Sukhi and Jinder in Season 2; Simi and Ope, Season 3; Amy and Frankie, Season 4; Karen and Bert, Season 5. It's been too predictable that the team that's given this edit is always gone at this time. Time to think outside the box and stop replaying this story every season. That's the only bit that bothered me about this leg.
And it was a good leg, a bit shorter than expected but decent with some nice competitive drama thrown in due to the basketball Face-Off. Next week, it's the end of Season 6 with teams heading to the Banff area. Not sure who I really want to win. The teams with a Courtney have been okay but they really haven't jumped out at me. The Coaches have grown on me but still, I have no idea who I'm cheering to win. Whether that's a good thing or not is up to you to decide. See you next week.