Martin exposes his obsessive tendencies

As Martin starts opening the task brief, Alex asks him what type of bird is on the table. However, Martin appears not to hear this, since he never responds.

After reading the task brief, Martin states that he’s going to keep his clothes on, and that he’s not going to snog Alex (which Alex thanks him for).

After thinking for a while longer, he begins to suggest another idea, but then immediately says he’s not going to do it. When Alex asks what he was thinking of doing, he shares that he was going to take his fitness tracker off and walk around without the steps being counted. Despite asserting that the show is not worth losing those steps from his average of 25,000 per day, and that it goes against “every fibre” of everything he does, he apparently doesn’t come up with a better idea, so he decides to do it anyway.

Removing his fitness tracker from around his wrist, he paces around the table in the living room, summarising how he obsessively tracks basically every aspect of his health and life, including maintaining a graph of every game of Scrabble he’s played against his wife. He then states that what he’s doing definitely “feels a very futile act”, before noting that he’s getting sweaty “pointlessly”.

The exact moment that Alex blows his whistle, Martin snatches his fitness tracker back up off the table and puts it back on his wrist, sighing in relief. When Alex thanks him for his attempt, Martin refuses to thank him back.

In the studio, Greg sums up his attempt with the three words “Your poor wife”. Martin responds by reiterating just how hard it was for him to do something without somehow tracking it, noting that even watching it back in the studio had made him feel “a little bit of sick” in his mouth.

Greg awards Martin 4 points, noting that his “regret was real” but the “reasons were fucking weird”.

[Note: an outtake from the studio discussion of Martin's attempt may be watched here]

(Written by Karl Craven and proofread by M3 / Andres Sanchez)

(Illustrations collected by Jenny R and adjusted by Karl Craven)