The Block on Channel 9 – Welcome back to another episode of The Block, or should we say, a return to Brett’s dastardly plan?
Yes indeedy… that front yard/backyard scheme from last night is back in play in a major way and things are about to go nuclear.
Let’s begin.
Yesterday, Brett attempted to hoodwink everyone into thinking his front yard was actually his backyard. Reason being, he wanted to present his pool a week later than everyone else, so he would dazzle the judges and win the coveted Mustang.
Yep, there’s a car up for grabs in the final week and it’s sending everyone wild.
We pick up where we left off, which Leah learning that Brett has been secretly going from House to House to convince his fellow Blockheads his scheme is actually a good idea. He managed to get the thumbs up to proceed with it from Houses 1 and 5 and a “sort of” yes from House 4.
Leah is not having this. She informs both Liberty and Leslie that by agreeing to Brett’s notion that he flip his front and backyard reveals, they’re doing something completely ludicrous.
So Leslie, who up until now has been quite a calm and positive person on The Block this year, calls a body corp to air it all out.
“I deadset did not think it was to do with my little scheme,” Brett admits and we are floundering to grasp what else this body corp could possibly have been about.
Ding, ding, ding! Round three…
It’s on immediately. Ash queries why the idea was even raised again, after it had been shut down at the last body corp meeting. Leah asks why everyone else was re-approached but them.
We can only imagine the scramble inside Brett’s mind right now.
But Brett somehow calmly explains why he had brought things up again.
We deviate into an unrelated issue altogether, as Ash and Leah are on a tear. So when Brett randomly mentions waterproofing, Ash coolly tells him that he’s not welcome to use his tiling crew anymore.
Apparently, Brett had planned to borrow Ash’s tilers to do his water proofing (without running it by Ash first) and so Brett is rather taken aback by this sudden shut down.
But Ash isn’t finished.
“You haven’t spoken to me for two weeks and you can’t even ask me to use my water proofer,” Ash rapidly continues, directing the comment at Kristy.
Right, so this is what this is about.
“Are we getting off topic from the body corp right now?” Brett ponders and yes, that we are.
Brett sums up the whole situation thus far and no one denies it is entirely how things played out.
So instead, everyone watches as Houses 2 and 3 start firing shots at one another.
Leah is concerned why she wasn’t asked to vote on the change.
We can answer that one. Because Brett only needed a majority vote and it was very clear Leah and Ash weren’t ever giving him a thumbs up.
Ash once again makes a dig that Kristy doesn’t talk to himself or Leah. “Grow up,” he snaps.
“Grow up?!” Kristy asks incredulously. “Are you serious Ash?”
“Yeah, 120 thousand per cent serious,” says Ash in return.
Oh, wow.
“Ash was fired up,” recounts Steph to the cameras later, as Gian observes that Ash “definitely wanted to have a go at Kristy.”
Gian shrewdly explains that Ash had found a forum where Kristy could not ignore him any longer. But as he also notes, “Kristy took the bait.”
Brett is stunned things have taken such a sharp turn and he and Kristy state Ash’s 120 thousand percent serious accusation is not really on the topic of Leslie’s body corp.
Ash tosses a few more jibes and Kristy snaps, “And who’s being a child now?”
“Bring it alllll out. Let’s go,” says Ash.
Everyone attempts to settle things down. Leslie asks Brett to clarify what exactly he wants. Steph begins chiming in with some pertinent questions of her own.
“It was all crumbling away at this point,” Brett admits. He reiterates exactly what he’s after… and then some.
“I’m the one [now] chatting utter crap for ages,” he confirms. “So I thought I’d keep going because if I can keep [Steph] on that hamster wheel, she’ll shut up and stop making very valid points, like she can do.”
He breaks down the various ‘plates’ he is spinning and admits he is now “becoming very manipulative.”
“Not a good look. Kind of dirty,” he confesses. “Anyway… want a Mustang!”
Ash and Leah are frustrated by the plate-spinning. “[Brett’s] like an annoying, spoiled little kid,” Ash reflects privately.
But to Kristy, he jibes that he’s been planning his landscaping for weeks. “Project manager,” he mocks her. “Project manager.” (That’s her real-world job, in case you missed it.)
“You’re being an absolute d–k,” Kristy snaps back. “And you know what? You’re a builder that gets s–t ripped out of the rooms!”
We don’t know what this means but we do know that things get very heated, very quickly.
Kristy is now extremely over Ash’s comments and finally explodes, shouting at him that she doesn’t have to talk to him if she chooses not to.
There’s a lot of swearing and a lot of yelling and it’s best watched in the video below…
“They were screaming at each other,” Liberty confirms, popcorn in hand. She adds that Kristy’s response was “venomous.”
But Steph believes Kristy wasn’t out of line. “Bar the vulgar language,” she notes. “She felt attacked,” Gian adds.
At the end of the argument, Leah proposes a vote.
Oh, this should go well.
It’s a no for Brett’s idea.
His plan is kaput and House 3 will present their pool the same week as everyone. Nice try, pal.
“Oh man, I thought I had it,” sighs Brett.
Everyone makes a hasty exit, except Kristy and Ash who stay behind to further scream at one another. Leslie sighs. “I don’t know why it had to be my house,” she says.
She and Kyle join the others and decide to depart their own home, and as Ash and Kristy two square off, you can hear Kyle yelp, “But I live here!”
Kristy is now raging internally and she’s especially annoyed when she sees Ash try to leave at the same time as everyone else. “Don’t be walking off after going at me like that,” she says.
Ding, ding, ding! Round 120 thousand!
Ash says he and Leah are rattled that Kristy openly ignores them. “And it’s thrown you that much you had to wait until there was a crowd to attack me?” Kristy asks.
Ash confirms it is, and this is his way of asking Kristy if she wants to be friends or continue the way they are.
Kristy would prefer the latter and after that heated exchange frankly, the former seems like an odd request.
Ash starts to walk away and Kristy calls him back. “You can’t walk out of a conversation that you wanted to have!” she snipes.
When Leah starts to walk into the chat, Ash swiftly shuts her down. “Leah, you can stay out there,” he says bluntly. “Because you’re gonna make it an annoying conversation.”
“Fair call,” she shrugs, and leaves. “He’s wasting his breath in there.”
She casts a look back at Kristy, yelling at Ash. “She is unhinged. Completely unhinged.” Leah says, and leaves them to it.
She takes the opportunity to go tell her tilers they’re not allowed to help out House 2. Because Kristy is “that disgusting.”
Leah is fuming that her husband has been disrespected. “It was painful to see someone speak like that to him.”
“It was just unforgivable to me.”
But Ash is apparently fighting for the friendship he and Kristy once shared. “This is me doing a last little plea,” he says. “Or do we just see through each other like glass?”
They start rehashing their last fight – or maybe it’s the fight before that, we’ve lost track.
We’re 120 thousand percent exhausted.
Finally, Kristy says she was hurt by what Leah and Ash said and did and asks Ash to consider her point of view. He concedes and offers an apology.
There’s an awkward group hug (which repulses Leah) and please, everyone, HAVE WE REACHED A RESOLUTION?!
We certainly hope so because it’s time for a good night’s sleep, followed by a morning wake up call… yep, we have ourselves a challenge!
The Blockheads head off to the Mornington Peninsula to take on a Ninja Warrior inflatable obstacle course. There’s $10,000 up for grabs.
Watching the Blockheads absolutely smash themselves on inflatables is going to be excellent. But watching their loved ones watch them smash themselves is even better.
So, Scott Cam springs a massive surprise on everyone and suddenly announces there will be an audience today… and it’s everyone’s families!
Break out your finest tissues because this is as heart-warming as it gets… and we’re already emotionally destroyed after that earlier screaming match.
There is so much squishing, hugging and crying and let’s just say there’s a solid dose of perspective in play too.
“Got me in the feels,” says Ash, as his youngest child burrows into his neck.
Us too.
Also, side note: every child was dressed immaculately and we are very impressed!
It’s not just the kids who scrub up well… Kristy and Brett’s beloved black pugs are sporting hi-vis vests. Brett turns into a blubbering mess at the sight of his fur babies. “I really don’t cry often,” he admits. Kristy too, sheds a tear.
Other reunions are slightly less emotional. Steph and Gian admit their family have been visiting regularly. And Eliza and Liberty reveal that they are used to not seeing their parents regularly, as they live in different states. But Liberty explains it was more emotional for them to see their friends reunited with the kids they had been missing so badly.
We mop ourselves up off the floor and head to the challenge to watch everyone get annihilated on the inflatable course.
For some inexplicable reason, Kyle, who is normally quite nimble and strong, cannot get over a small hump. And try as he might, he falls down many, many times. Eventually, he is forced to be saved by Leslie.
It’s hilarious. (Sorry Kyle.) And the Blockhead are in stitches. “That was the funniest thing I have ever seen,” Scotty laughs. Kyle wisely suggests a bonus award for providing the most entertainment.
But it’s Steph and Gian who win… another $10,000.
“And everyone was so over the moon,” says Leslie drily.
“Just what they need,” Liberty jokes. “Whoa… $100,000 [of prize money] in two weeks! That’s outrageous!”
But they are all smiling about one thing and that’s the fact everyone is coming back to The Block for a sleepover.
Over at Houses 1 and 2, the kids are predictably losing their minds at the rooms their parents designed with them in mind. “It was the most validating thing ever on The Block,” says Leah.
Everyone is thrilled about showing their families around… except Eliza and Liberty. Their house is not guest worthy and they need to keep working.
“We’ve got nowhere else to go,” their father protests.
The girls half-heartedly start hauling their mess about, and are interrupted by Steph and Gian. The pair have another surprise for them.
“We really love and appreciate you guys so much,” Steph begins. The girls look nervous, and fret they’re about to hear some terrible news.
But it’s not that at all.
It’s far from that.
Steph and Gian explain how grateful they are for the friendship they have with them and add that they’ve been upset that their friends have had to scale back their landscaping plans due to budget constraints.
They reveal they want to gift them $5000 of their prize money. “It’s not a patronising thing,” Gian stresses, adding he is “blessed and grateful”.
The girls immediately say they can’t possibly accept, and say they have never had someone show them so much kindness.
We started with screaming. We took a detour into weeping. We moved on to hysterical laughter and now we’ve reach emotional meltdown.
120 thousand percent, this has been a very big day on The Block.
The Block on Nine and 9Now – airs Sunday 7.00pm and continues Monday to Wednesday at 7.30pm on Nine and 9Now. Catch up on all the latest episodes on 9Now.
This recap has been used with permission from Channel 9
Special thanks to Lulu Wilkinson at Nine.
Link to 9Now HERE
Link to Lulu’s full recap including with extra video content and info HERE
The Block on Channel 9
About The Block
Get ready, Australia. The Block, the number one renovation reality program, returns for an incredible 19th season on Sunday, August 6, at 7.00pm on Channel 9 and 9Now.
Set in the family-friendly Melbourne suburb of Hampton East, the new series features five houses designed and built in the 1950s and located on the aptly named Charming Street. These grand old dames are now aged in their 70s and way overdue for a contemporary update.
For the first time in Block history, host Scott Cam will be providing contestants with the full renovation schedule ahead of time this season. So get your cameras out, Blockheads, it’s photo time.
Adding to the year of Block firsts and amping up the stakes at play during the 48-hour House Decider Challenge, contestants will be seeing all finished designs of the houses on Day 1. Who will prevail and get the house of their choice?
Not only will they get the schedule and designs up front, but in another first, they’ll receive their entire budgets as well.
However, the Blockheads will soon find out that it’s not all smooth sailing when renovating an original 1950s home – structural issues, extreme weather events, and a mountain of demolition will test our five keen couples every step of the way.
Plus, The Block’s state-versus-state rivalry will be amplified by the sheer closeness of the houses this year. Who knew being able to peak into your neighbours builds would cause such tension?
The couples in contention are: sisters Eliza and Liberty Paschke (personal assistant, 37, and integration producer, 34, VIC); parents Kyle and Leslie Cottone (firefighter, 36, and teaching aide, 34, WA); parents Leah and Ash Milton (first aid officer, 31, and builder, 36, QLD); married couple Kristy and Brett Beames (project manager, 34, and safety officer, 34, SA); and newlyweds Steph and Gian Ottavio (architect, 27, and start up worker, 27, NSW).
Real estate expert Marty Fox isn’t the only new addition to the lineup this season. The formidable foremen Keith Schleiger and Dan Reilly will be joined on site with the fan favourite from last year, Tom Calleja.
The nation fell in love with Tom and his wife Sarah-Jane because of their work ethic and relatable marital bickering, and he jumped at the chance to work with Scotty and come back as this year’s official Block plumber.
The designs of the amazing homes in this series again come from The Block’s resident architect, Julian Brenchley.
At stake is $100,000 for the overall winner of The Block, on top of any profit the five couples can all make on the critical auction day. Plus bragging rights for the winners’ state.
Since premiering on Channel 9 in 2003, Australia’s richest reality program has awarded a total of $32,592,807.65 in prizemoney.
The Block – on Channel 9 and 9Now
Media Release – Nine
TV Central Nine content HERE
