Put a ball of string on the cushion

Task stats

Points

15

Disquals

0

• Frankie greets Alex, upon entering the room, but not by name. When he reads the task brief out, he skips Alex's name, and points out that he doesn't think he'd already said it when he came in. When Alex notes that he'd hoped Frankie would have greeted him by name, Frankie observes that he obviously hadn't bargained on "Scottish rudeness". He proceeds to unwind the ball of string by rolling it across the room, and gathering the thread in loose bundles in his hands. He then switches to winding the string around one of his hands, and then leaves the resulting messy pile of string on the desk before saying Alex's name and starting to leave the room. When Alex checks with him that he's done everything on the task, he re-reads the text on the front of the page and decides that he has. He never finds the additional text on the back of the task brief, and therefore does not complete the task. In the studio, Frankie argues that "You can't just hide bits of the task", and suggests that it would not stand up in court. Greg offers to financially back Frankie's lawsuit against Alex for hiding part of the task brief from him. Alex confirms that Frankie's timer for the task was still running, after 172 days, so he places last in the task.
• Kiell greets Alex with a "Yo", upon entering the room, and so does not use his name. When he reads the task brief out, he skips Alex's name, but is unsure whether he'd perhaps already said it, until Alex confirms that he had not. Looking very pleased with himself, Kiell proceeds to unravel the ball of string, while refusing to say Alex's name. After he has finished completely unravelling the ball into a loose pile on the floor, he finally says "Alex". He only finds the additional text on the back of the task brief after Alex asks him whether he has done everything on the task. He winds the string back up into a pretty neat ball, and places it on the red cushion. In the studio, Alex reveals that Kiell had completed the task in 5 minutes and 7 seconds, earning third place.
• Ivo says Alex's name within seconds of entering the room. Having read the task brief, he bemoans "the curse of politeness" which has worked against him (thus coining the title of the episode), while starting to unravel the ball of string. Although the text on the back of the task brief is face-up on the table as he does this, he fails to notice it. After he completely unwinds the string, Alex checks with him whether he has done everything on the task, and he finally finds the additional text on the back. While frantically rewinding the string, he states that it is "optimistic" to think that there might be another ball of string in the house, but checks outside of the room for one, just in case. Not finding one, he starts winding the string back up around his fingers, cutting the circulation off. He has to unwind some of it again to free his digits, and then starts winding the string back up around the snout of a ceramic dog figurine instead. He is able to create a fairly loose but acceptable ball of string using this technique, which he then slips off the dog's nose and places onto the red cushion. In the studio, Alex notes that Ivo had been the one who unwound the ball of string quickest, and had eventually placed a ball of string on the cushion after 7 minutes and 24 seconds. This puts him in fourth place.
• Mae greets Alex, upon entering the room, but not by name. However, they do not capitalise on this, when reading the task brief, proceeding to read Alex's name from the brief, and so their timer starts much earlier than it needed to. Mae frantically unwinds the ball of string onto the floor. Once they have completed their unwinding, Alex checks with them that they have done everything that's written on the task, and they finally spot the extra text on the back. Realising that it's going to be difficult to turn the tangle of string back into a neat ball, Mae wonders out loud if there is another ball of string available somewhere. They then open up one of the only two real drawers in the apothecary cabinet that runs along one of the walls of the room, to find a second, very neat ball of string, which they place on the red cushion. In the studio, Mae states that they "genuinely felt like the Lord was involved" in guiding them to the second ball of string. Alex reveals that Mae had completed the task in just 2 minutes and 35 seconds, earning first place.
• Jenny says Alex's name within seconds of entering the room. Having read the task brief, she sets about unwinding the ball of string onto the floor. While doing this, she notes that it would be "awful" if, having completed the process, she was then instructed to wind it all back up again. Once she has completed her unwinding, Alex checks with her that she has done everything that's written on the task, and she finally spots the extra text on the back. Her reaction is to ask "Why did you do that to me? Why would anybody do that?". She begins rewinding the string, and then points out that the task says nothing about how big the ball has to be. She therefore creates a very small ball of string, using just part of the string she has unravelled, and places that on the red cushion. In the studio, Alex reveals that Jenny completed the task in just 3 minutes and 54 seconds, earning second place.