Episode 3 Recap

Episode 3 took us through the second and into the third week of the team's travels, and brought a lot more insight into the psychology of the teams.

We started with an emotional segment about the death of Freddy’s mum, Jade Goody. Freddy discussed the struggle growing up with a famous mum many people know, but he doesn’t really remember. Jeff also spoke honestly about raising his boys as a single dad, despite never knowing his own father, and we began to understand the complex relationship and dynamics between them. 

With Jeff and Freddy having a decent lead, it was lovely to see them able to start this leg celebrating the life of Jade by watching the sunset at Barra lighthouse, and swimming in the bay of all saints getting a moment together to relax a bit.

It wasn’t all easy relaxing thought, as they took stock of the budget Freddy had to account for his souvenir spending and ended with him working Copacabana beach alone to try to pay back the money.

Also revealing more this week were Kola and Mary, who explained how they’d grown up more as siblings then cousins, spending months at each others houses as kids.

They left too late in the evening to get a bus out of Lencois so started their journey with an unwelcome hotel stay which didn’t start their week off well, and they didn’t seem to spend any of this spare time planning so the next morning they were still working out their trip as Kelly and Jeremy left.

They did boost each other along well when they got moving though, with Kola encouraging Mary while she found the courage to work as a dancer in a beach bar in Porto Seguro.

Better planned, but still the most different team Kelly and Jeremy remained still at different focuses, Kelly once again pushing a coastal sightseeing route, Jeremy wanting a more direct competitive leg. I think their differences can be best summed up with Kelly’s comment “We can’t let Jeff and Freddy have a 20 hour lead on us!” and Jeremy’s instant correction - “22 hours”.

Jeremy’s judo background was also mentioned more, explaining his competitive attitude, and after slipping last week from 1st to 3rd, Kelly let him pick more of the route. She still seemed to be struggling with the lack of facilities en route, but she picked up as they found a nicer hotel, and she didn’t object to a 14 hour(?) bus ride that would have had a much bigger reaction just a few weeks ago.

Far less cheery were Scott and Sam, who arrived 27 hours behind at the last check point, which was clearly irritating Scott through much of this leg. They also misjudged their first plan, trying to get a taxi to a job, they missed both the work option and any further travel.

They did however demonstrate a lot of willingness to work though, hunting around for shops or restaurants that were in need of a hand and lucking out with a spontaneous job in a Pizzeria. 

While Sam managed to keep Scott a little happy, the boys just didn’t have a good week, managing to also get stuck in Goiânia, and actually spending quite a lot during this leg.

By the time the teams hit São Paulo however, they had gained over 13 hours and moved up a space to third, arriving shortly before Kola & Mary.

In fact the series positions so far are an interesting chart, showing Kola & Mary have been consistently half a day behind the winners, while Kelly & Jeremy and Scott & Sam are moving more in a parallel offset, with Scott & Sam around 6~7 hours behind the couple the last two weeks.

That leaves leg 3 results looking like this - with Jeff & Freddy still comfortably ahead, and despite Freddy’s spending still the best budget of the teams!

1st	Jeff & Freddy	-	56%
2nd	Kelly & Jeremy	+8h 55m	51%
3rd	Scott & Sam	+14h 45m	49%
4th	Kola & Mary	+16h 6m	50%

But will Jeff & Freddy make it first three weeks in a row? Will Kola & Mary continue their downward trend? Get your prediction in here before episode 4 starts!