The Block 2025 Episode 24 recap: Ben and Emma finally crack after yet another loss as Han and Can cop an expected pasting

Block couple reach breaking point

Any lingering tension between Han and Can and the other teams seemed to have been solved with some booze and wrestling.

The teams let off steam at an after-hours gathering outside their caravans, with Ben, Taz and Han squeezing into a tiny portable hot tub followed by Han and Can wrestling for reasons known only to them.

That gave Scott Cam the perfect opportunity for some 1970s-style innuendo which Han cooly brushes off by saying “We were providing some quality WWE entertainment.”

Cam and Shelley Craft were on their usual weekly walkaround of the teams’ rooms.

This week it was a rumpus room, though Han and Can are instead creating a theatre room with coffered ceiling, velvet soundproofing panels and a huge TV, while Britt and Taz were working on a wellness retreat complete with reformer Pilates machines.

As the pair toured the houses the Block’s nicest ever couple, Ben and Emma, finally copped some personal criticism.

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After they cheerfully admitted their zero room wins for the season meant their budget was in the same position as day one, their relentless sunniness had Shelley doubting their competitive spirit.

“They’ve got lots of issues they’re just smiling through but there’s no killer instinct,” she said.

But before the teams could reveal their rumpus rooms, they had to put the finishing touches on their Hepburn Springs Bathhouse rooms.

Former Block judge Neale Whitaker had obviously put any residual bitterness about his departure from the show behind him, because he was back to judge the day spa rooms.

Whitaker, the longest running judge on the show, quit last year to spend more time with his husband who had been battling health issues.

After his final episode aired, Whitaker posted a now-deleted Instagram comment revealing the show had edited out his emotional explanation.

In any case, his warm greeting from Scott Cam and Shelley Craft suggested that all that was in the past and Whitaker set to work judging the teams’ rooms.

Britt and Taz’ marble table, matte and gloss square tiles, white bath and stone pendant light got Whitaker’s tick, but too many plants and dried flowers got his thumbs down.

Ben and Emma’s moody spa room.

Ben and Emma had high hopes for their warm grey-toned room with bath sitting on a bluestone slab, timber batten ceiling and gold tapware picking up the gold tones of their dark marble wall tiles and Whitaker found little to criticise.

Mat and Robby were cocksure.

“We both own salons. I’ve owned a day spa. We wanted a room that was very warm and inviting with no clothes on,” Mat said.

Whitaker liked their pink ombre wall tiles and rose gold fittings, but thought the white crazy paving-style floor tiles were too much and that the pink tones was at risk of dating.

Neale Whitaker liked Mat and Robby’s room but worried the pink colour would quickly date it.

As predicted by everyone – including Han and Can – Han and Can’s insane mash up of marble wall tiles, multi-coloured herringbone pattern floor tiles and a pressed metal ceiling got a big thumbs down.

“Everything in here is jarring,” Whitaker said. “I haven’t said this for a long time but this is a crime scene. You couldn’t relax in here.”

Han and Can’s treatment room. Thankfully not seen: the pressed metal ceiling.

His favourite room of the day was Sonny and Alicia’s.

He loved their calming tones, feature ceiling and heated bench seat.

“It’s impressive in its simplicity. You want to switch off in these rooms so less is more. They’ve made very good choices,” he said.

After a few weeks of copping some harsh criticism from the judges on the chin, it wasn’t hard to feel happy for them.

Sonny and Alicia’s room won the day.

They were both almost speechless with emotion at winning the potentially game-changing $260,000 caravan to be included in the sale of their house.

Even Mat and Robby were pleased they took out the win.

But if it was easy to be happy for Sonny and Alicia, it was impossible not to feel sorry for Ben and Emma as we saw their innate joyfulness finally drain away.

Yet another of their endless second places is finally getting to Ben and Emma.

After coming second for the umpteenth time the pair are near tears as they speak to producers after judging.

“At the end of the day it’s a competition and someone has to be coming out on top. It hasn’t been us yet but we’ll keep going,” Ben said.

It would almost have been better if they’d raged and complained – watching them try so hard to keep smiling and then seeing them fighting to keep it together on the drive home almost made me miss the weekly sweary storm outs of last year.

For the first time in the series, Ben and Emma are feeling flat.

Hopefully Ben and Emma can take comfort in the fact every Block viewer wishes they were their mum, their dad or their best mate.

MISSED AN EPISODE? HERE’S ALL OUR RECAPS SO FAR

Episode 1: Why no NSW applicants were good enough for The Block

Episode 2: The worst day on The Block

Episode 3/4: ‘Tear them off’: teams forced to rip tiles from walls

Episode 5: Judges feedback leaves one contestant vomiting

Episode 6: Dan and Dani’s heartbreak

Episode 7: The big problem with the Block house designs

Episode 8: Robby and Mat’s drunken blunder

Episode 9: ‘An up-market nursing home’

Episode 10: Can faces the wrath of Han