Nobody asked for Hamish Blake in very short red shorts, but with outdoor pool week three days old, the decks running late and the budgets running thin, The Block decided the best use of its Blockheads was an athletics carnival. Cue the Wide World of Sports theme, a school oval at Toorak College, and a Scott Cam announcement that a winner would take home $10,000 from Arnott’s and the golden Tim Tam, “one of the most desired sporting trophies you can get”.
Key Moments Today
- DRAMATayla climbs onto House Four’s roof to chase the rooftop pool rumour: “It’s covered in solar panels! There’s no rooftop terrace!”
- ARGUMENTThe stirrup standoff: Courtney asks the Cursios for a bracket and ends up with “I am a site manager in commercial construction.”
- RIDICULOUS PURCHASEAdam and Jolene ring in Rob from Cellar Creations to turn a garage storeroom into the only wine cellar on The Block: “It could be an absolute game-changer.”
- DISASTERHouse Two’s light blue pool tiles arrive looking nothing like the sample: “I don’t even know what our tiles look like. I just know that these ones are ugly.”
Before a single race, the real event happened: Arnott’s had flown in the families. Courtney’s mum Wendy (“the biggest Blockhead”) came cheering down the oval, Adam saw his son Kai for the first time in over a year, and Lisa and Rosco’s little Lando turned up in a yellow sweatband. The sport itself was gloriously unserious. Chantel won the “Wait, I’m Not Ready Yet” race by running to the finish line in flippers, with Hamish clocking a time of 0:00 and declaring a world record. Sev took the sack-and-balloon race, and the final event asked each team to pick a family member to throw the most balls into their undies in 90 seconds, which produced Tayla’s cry of “Mum!” and Hamish’s review of “some of the best granny pants tossing I’ve ever seen”. Three teams tied, a play-off followed, and Team Red (Adam and Jolene) finally took the $10,000 and the Tim Tam. “Yeah, we won. Basically an athlete.” Lisa and Rosco also got their moment, with a Tim Tam-crumb gender reveal: another boy, and a very happy Lando about to become a big brother.
Back on site, the main event was a rumour. House One and House Three had been sent a “top-secret” render (courtesy of a builder whose crew are mates with House Four’s chippies) showing a rooftop terrace on Courtney and Sev’s house, complete with what looked like a pool. “If house four get this rooftop terrace, this one is going to be very pissed,” said Jolene. Tayla, never one to take a rumour on trust, climbed onto the roof herself and reported back: “It’s covered in solar panels! There’s no rooftop terrace!” Courtney explained that the “pool” was a mock-up of glass balustrade reflecting a monument roof, adding that it was “really flattering that they think we can pull off a Plungie on our roof, somehow in-ground”. What House Four actually has is a council permit application so that a future buyer could build a terrace, which immediately gave Tayla an idea: “I’m going to call my agent right now.”
The decks, meanwhile, did what decks do on Wednesday. Courtney was told her subframe would have to come out so a machine could dig three retaining wall holes (“that’s a whole day with zero progress”), then solved it by removing a fence panel instead. Then came the stirrup problem: the brackets needed an extra U-shaped piece, and the Cursios (House Two’s crew, who talk to Courtney “all the time about a brotherhood”) said they had none to lend. It escalated into a conversation that ended with Courtney: “I am a site manager in commercial construction.” (She found the brackets herself, and the Cursios’ own ten-gauge screws then had to be swapped for 14-gauge across the whole upper deck.) Elsewhere, Rick and Tayla were building the biggest deck on the street with half the tradies and not a board of decking down by Wednesday; Lisa and Rosco, still without a landscaper, were saving their dollars for the final two weeks while Rosco decided to wrap the terrace in glass; and Adam and Jolene, with $170,000 left and a Dekton outdoor kitchen made from their Cosentino prize, decided to turn the storeroom off the garage into a wine cellar.
The episode closed on Thursday morning with a big yellow box and a CommBank Yellow invitation: a private behind-the-scenes day at Cirque du Soleil’s Kooza, followed by dinner at Flemington Racecourse, where Rick mistook a bed of salt for coleslaw and “had a whole mouthful of salt”. The teaser for the next episode suggests the tile saga is not over, with Tayla discovering her pool is being laid with someone else’s pick, and Dan warning that “we are in great danger right now of five houses not finishing”.
