The Block 2021 episode 18 recap: Superior organisational skills or cheats? Mitch and Mark in hot water

As the dust settles on the Block cheating scandal, Mitch and Mark have now come under fire for not playing by the rules.

Another day on The Block and another possible cheating scandal.

This time it was Mitch and Mark in the cross hairs for their organisational skills.

Ronnie and Georgia believed their fellow All Stars had an unfair advantage because their tapware had arrived before everyone else’s did.

And when a truckload of sound-proof plaster board (which isn’t used in bathrooms) showed up, Ronnie saw red.

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“Just 12 hours ago Scotty said let’s put this cheating scandal behind us so that we are all on an even playing field,” he fumed of his former allies.

Ronnie and Georgia are angry Mitch and Mark are ordering ahead of everyone else. Picture: supplied, Channel 9

“When you see them rush, rush, rush. It’s not a competition to finish early. They’re not playing by the rules.”

Georgia added: There is nothing in the rule book that says you can’t do that but in the spirit of fair competition. You don’t do that. You don’t work ahead.”

The plot thickened when Tanya was caught on camera having a whinge about Mitch and Mark on the phone.

“Mitch and Mark have completely turned on us,” she vented.

“They’re not talking to us. And I am like: ‘Piss off you grumpy old men.’

“They’re just liars. Literally they are fake liars. If they didn’t know then how come they were pre-ordering and pre-demoing rooms ahead of time for the rooms that were coming? It’s pretty obvious that they knew.”

So, did they also take advantage of that photo of the schedule that Tanya, Veto, Luke and Josh all got penalised for using to get ahead of the game?

Certainly, Mitch and Mark were the most vocal in their outrage about the other teams’ cheating so it would be very duplicitous if they had also been doing the same thing.

Responding to growing concerns about Mitch and Mark working ahead of the weekly task, foremen Dan and Keith paid the site a visit and reprimanded them for stacking their sound-proof plaster sheets against a temporary structure.

Dan accuses Mark of misleading him on his plaster orders. Picture: Supplied, Channel 9

When Mark said he’d only ordered the plaster in advance after being notified by the plaster supplier that they needed to order two weeks-worth of supplies, Keith and Dan asked to immediately be shown the message on Mark’s phone.

“Are you accusing me of lying?” Mark demanded. And it appears they were doing just that.

Upon investigating the message, Dan discovered it was not from the plaster suppliers. Rather it had come from Mitre 10.

“Sneaky. It’s very misleading to me. He’s tried to pull the wool over Keith’s and my eyes,” Dan fumed telling Mark in no uncertain terms that he believed he had been lying.

It wasn’t just Mitch and Mark that Ronnie, and Georgia were fuming about.

Ronnie was still on the warpath about the way the cheating scandal had been handled by host Scott Cam.

“The punishment did not fit the crime,” he said of Tanya and Vito and Luke and Josh losing two points of their total scores. It meant the two teams dropped to the bottom of the overall leader board, reducing their odds of determining the auction order.

Kirsty vents her frustrations at the cheaters through song at the winners dinner. Picture: Supplied, Channel 9

“I would’ve thought they should’ve been stripped of all their points and all their cash to start from zero. Because that’s what happens with cheaters,” Ronnie said, unimpressed.

Georgia added, after Tanya tried to make small talk with her: “They’re (the two teams) not considering how their actions have made us all feel.

“To them, in their minds, it’s not a big deal. And so, they’re okay with it. They’re resolved with it. They’ve put it to bed and now they can move on, but they haven’t realised that their actions have had consequences and it’s made us feel a certain way.”

Although Kirsty and Jesse have stayed fairly neutral during the whole saga, the singer couldn’t resist sticking her cowgirl boots into the offending teams during their Winners are Grinners’ dinner celebrations.

Seizing the opportunity to once again showcase her vocal stylings, Kirsty serenaded the group with a rendition of Hank Williams’ Cheatin’ Hearts.

While Tanya tried to see the funny side, the twins were furious and stormed out of the performance, leaving the remaining four teams to awkwardly finish their BBQ dinner.

It’s clear there is still a lot of tension in the cul-de-sac that hasn’t yet been resolved.

Interestingly, though Mitch and Mark were the most vitriolic in their response to the cheating scandal, they were a lot more accepting of the punishment that was dished out.

Stressed out twins storm out of the dinner after listening to Kirsty’s song. Picture: Supplied, Channel 9

Mark said he didn’t want to dwell on it anymore While Mitch added: “We owe Scotty the respect to get on and move on.”

That respect soon dwindled when, the host — in response to concerns raised by Ronnie and Georgia -- later ordered Mitch and Mark to slow down their efforts.

Scott said the suppliers were complaining that Mitch and Mark were causing them extra work by having their deliveries come separately and ahead of everyone else. Scott said it was better for all the contestants’ supplies to arrive on the one truck on the one day.

A chastened Mitch and Mark felt they were being unfairly penalised for their superior organisational skills and their names sullied with accusations of foul play.

Both felt Ronnie and Georgia were simply jealous of how much better they were at getting the job done in a timely fashion.

However, despite all of Ronnie and Georgia’s moaning about others cheating, Tanya implied they too were also playing dirty.

Tanya said Georgia had surreptitiously copied some of her ideas for their own cinema.

“When I spoke to her during the week, she said they were doing a games room and she picked my brain about our cinema. Tricky, tricky,” Tanya chided.

The twins took things one step further, suggesting Ronnie and Georgia had copied their cinema off Pinterest.

“I don’t want to point fingers. But I have seen a photo of something very similar. I don’t want to say they copied it…” Luke said, trailing off but clearly redirecting some cheating heat at his accusers.

With the schedule now redrawn, the teams must now complete all their bathrooms in a week when there would be two public holidays (which prevented teams from using power tools on those days).

Josh and Luke began work on completing that award-winning, controversial master suite with an indoor/outdoor bathroom.

In their new plan, the bathtub would sit outside in a set-up akin to something you’d see at a tropical resort in Bali, according to the twins.

Of course, Melbourne’s weather isn’t really comparable to balmy Indonesia. And the idea of having a long soak in an outdoor tub during a Melbourne winter wouldn’t really appeal to anyone except, perhaps those crazy folks who brave Port Phillip Bay first thing in the morning in July.

But that wasn’t going to deter the twins from ploughing on with it.

To get their massive task done, they needed to break into their Suncorp gamechanger cash. But even with the added $10,000 in their back pocket, it wasn’t going to be an easy task.

The brothers discovered they would have to remove large sections of their concrete slab, dig trenches, bore holes through the remaining concrete for pipes then repour the slab. An expensive and time-consuming job in a week where time was in short supply.

“Cost wise this is going to add at least another $6000 on top of what we were already thinking we were going to pay,” Luke moaned.

Keith tells the twins they have no chance of finishing their bathroom this week. Picture: Supplied, Channel 9

Keith was there, of course, to smugly ask whether shifting their bedroom and bathroom onto the slab for the garage had been a wise idea. He added insult to injury, telling them there was no way they’d get all the work on time.

Their plans were further derailed when it was discovered their foundations wouldn’t adequately support the weight of their heavy tub once it was filled with water. And so, they had to rip them up and start again.

Full credit to the Love Islanders. They put in a hard day’s yakka to lay the groundwork for their bathroom (with the added benefit of proving Keith wrong).

It wasn’t just the boys who were making some controversial bathroom choices.

Tanya has decided to carry her tobacco colour palette through to her bathroom, matching some brown tiles to a vintage German light fixture she found at a market.

Correct me if I am wrong, but brown isn’t the sort of colour one really wants to see in a bathroom.

MISSED AN EPISODE?

Episode 17: ”It’s crap”: The Block’s tackiest room slammed

Episode 16: ‘Piece of trash’ The Block descends into chaos

Episode 15: Block cheat flushed by hidden cameras

Episode 14: What caused Block’s biggest cheating scandal in TV history

Episode 13: Master bedroom reveal marred by cheating controversy

Episode 11 & 12: Georgia threatens Block foreman for ruining plan

Episode 10: Serious Block accident leads to walkout

Episode 9: ‘Atrocious’ bathroom stuns Block judges

Episode 7 & 8: Block contestants worried about ‘novice’

Episode 6: Absolute bulls***: Fury over judges’ ruling

Episode 5: Boozy night lands one Block team in hospital

Episode 3 & 4: Love Island twins accuse Mitch and Mark of copying

Episode 2: Love Island twins stick boot into country singer

Episode 1: Shocks, showdowns and soup-inspired style

Originally published as The Block 2021 episode 18 recap: Superior organisational skills or cheats? Mitch and Mark in hot water