The Block 2026 Episode 16 recap: As the site managers swoop in to save the girls Scott Cam is spitting chips

As the teams variously race or drag themselves to the final days of main ensuite week, all eyes are on Courtney and Sev and the amount of extra help they’ve been given by the site managers Nine in Six.

After the work of an incompetent tiling team had to be ripped up twice, the big guns have been called in – the Cursio brothers – and while Dan is at pains to explain to all the contestants that it wasn’t Courtney and Sev’s decision, there’s still plenty of lingering resentment in the air.

It’s a situation complicated by the fact that the Cursios have split themselves into two teams, with Anthony and Adrian working for Chantel and Wyatt, and their brother Gino and his son Michael available to work for other teams.

Plus, the original Curios are also employed by Nine in Six, who can therefore direct them to work wherever Nine in Six choose.

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Rick is furious at the amount of extra help the girls are getting.

“Chantel and Wyatt said to us very clearly not to touch the Cursios two weeks ago and we said yep, we respect that and we won’t touch them but not to rationalise the situation some special circumstances came into being yesterday and it was through Nine in Six that it was managed,” Sev says. “The Cursios are their tilers and they were able to help facilitate that support.”

Nine in Six boss Aidan has to sign off on the quality of the work on all Block houses and after seeing the shortcuts being taken in the girls’ room by their tiling team ordered them to sack them.

“We want to help get you back on track as best we can,” he told the girls, noting that the shoddiness of the work in their bathroom would put his building licence at risk.

That’s all very benevolent, but it’s unclear why the girls weren’t just left to present an unfinished room, as per usual Block rules. It’s a question some of the other teams would like an answer to.

“They were down and out but they’ll probably come back to win like three weeks ago,” Rick predicts, harking back to main bathroom week when the girls borrowed the Cursios from Chantel and Wyatt and then won the week. “Don’t know how that works but the Cursios and Nine in Six and about 10 guys were in there. I’m a little pissed off to be honest. We don’t get an extra pair of hands.”

Wyatt’s equally unhappy since the order for the Cursios to swoop into the girls’ house has left him behind where he would otherwise have been.

“We’d never leave our bathroom half finished to help someone else, it’s a competition,” he argues, fairly reasonably.

Scott and Shelley have had enough of the girls overspending.

And it seems even Scott Cam is on the other teams’ side. When he and Shelley Craft come for their weekly walk through he has some blistering feedback for Courtney and Sev for one again overspending with abandon, even after he delivered the same instruction to pull back the week before.

Rather than pulling back they’ve insisted on installing an expensive heated and tiled love seat in their shower, and have microcemented the walls, right up and into the skylight shaft instead of choosing the cheap option of painting.

Scott and Shelley are incredulous.

“Who’s paying for this?” is Scott’s first comment when he walks into their room. “I walk in here and I just see money. You’re going to be the first team in the history of The Block to not finish based on money.”

He makes them promise to stop microcementing, putting paid to their plans to use the finish on a wall in their living room next week.

Even Shelley is fired up.

“It’s not OK. You’re not going to finish the game. You’ve got to rein it in.”

To put it mildly, their appearance on The Block hasn’t been a great resume showcase for building project manager Courtney and interior designer Sev’s ability to stick to a budget.

Then Scott turns his attention to what he implies is the unfair advantage the girls have been getting.

“You girls have got so much help from Nine in Six, the Cursios. If I was in this competition I would be blowing up at you getting all this help. There’s other teams that are not as advanced as this who haven’t had help.”

Shelley comforting a crying Jolene.

Scott and Shelley’s next stop is proof of that argument.

Jolene is in tears after their new tiling team went at snail’s pace, failing to get anywhere near finishing their room. Dan has advised them to go down to a local public carpark to cut tiles to get around the power tools restrictions on site, but it’s too little too late and happy-go-lucky Adam seems to finally be understanding why Jolene has been so frustrated with his lack of site and trades management.

When he was working as a builder himself he and Jolene claim he was feared by his trades, but now he just seems to want to be mates with everyone. Seeing his wife sobbing in Shelley’s arms seems to be the wake-up call he needs and he vows to bring back Mr Not So Nice Guy.

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

Episode 1: First tears shed on season 22 of The Block

Episode 2: ‘I will shut you down’

Episode 3: ‘I won’t help them again’

Episode 4: ‘You will only last five weeks’

Episode 5: Block couple ready to quit after scandal

Episode 6: ‘Everyone is in on it’: Chantel and Wyatt cry foul

Episode 7: Gloves are off as Courtney accuses Rosco of treachery

Episode 8: Dan fuming as Tayla barely lifts a finger

Episode 9: A huge prize causes bitterness in one contestant

Episode 10: Jolene and Tayla fume over controversial bathroom win
Episode 11: Lisa and Rosco fall behind again

Episode 12: Block star’s sad health update