While the halfway point of SAS Australia had 861,000 viewers nationally (599,000 metro). The Block has continued to dominate the timeslot drawing 1.223 million nationally (876,000 metro). Hidden under a striking Lightning costume, the 23-year-old Australian-born singer, recent star of I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! and sister of The Masked Singer Australia season one winner Cody Simpson, showed incredible vocals run in the family.Despite lighting up the stage with her rendition of Rachel Platten’s Fight Song, Lightning was no match for Kebab’s soulful take on the Otis Redding hit Try A Little Tenderness.Guessing panel Dannii Minogue, Dave Hughes, Jackie O and Urzila Carlson were unable to detect Alli as Lightning and instead nominated dancer and actor Maddie Ziegler, singer Tones And I, reality star Angie Kent and athlete Sally Pearson.When Lightning finally peeled off her mask, our hosts and panellists were in shock. “Hell yeah!! you guessed it. YA GIRL IS LIGHTNING on #TheMaskedSingerAU,” Simpson posted to her 1.2m followers on Instagram. “What an absolutely surreal & incredible few weeks of my life. becoming lightning was super empowering for me – especially being the young girl that could not sing in front of anyone without crying of nerves first, stepping out of my comfort zone felt unreal and I had the absolute time of my life.“The response I have received has been so special to me & I couldn’t be happier that you all loved all my performances.” She then hinted that there might be more music coming her fans way – “btw … I might have something coming for you very soon. Sooner than you think.” While on SAS Australia, the 10 remaining recruits have passed the halfway mark of the gruelling selection course. They were tested on their ability to handle extreme danger while confronting their fears. In the first terrifying task, recruits had to forward abseil down a steep 90m cliff face. Jana Pittman took to it like “Bambi on ice” while John Steffensen leant too far forward and face planted the rocks.Big wave surfer Koby Abberton, currently “on fire” in the role of Duty Recruit, relished the abseil challenge, shouting “yeeha” as he ran down, catching the attention of the DS and they brought him in for questioning.Koby explained to the DS how the Bra Boys came to be, the meaning behind “My Brother’s Keeper” and how his grandma played a big role in his life, saying: “I was the best apple I could be in the situation I was given.”Koby also came clean about the situation which led to him being charged with perverting the course of justice in a serious offence, a legal battle which saw him lose everything.“That sort of stuff ends up breaking you,” said Koby. “I’m not a victim though, yeah? I live in Bali, I live a really simple life, I try to work as less as I can. I have a beautiful son, a beautiful wife and I’ve never been happier.“I want to make them proud and I want to be proud of myself. Every now and then you owe it to yourself to succeed,” he continued. Recruits were then split into two teams for a daunting mission in a pitch black tunnel, under team leaders Mark Philippoussis and Dan Ewing.The DS brought Dan in for questioning after noticing his lack of consistency on the course, making the observation he’s either aggressive or off with the fairies.Thanking the DS for their feedback, Dan explained how he’s on a new path, obsessed with becoming the best version of himself.When pressed by the DS on carrying pent-up emotions, Dan recalled the pain he felt after his marriage broke down and his three-year-old son started calling his stepfather “Dad” and Dan “Daddy”. “That is a pain I would not wish on any father,” said Dan. “I buried it and suppressed it and it manifested in an exchange where … I basically berated his stepfather, informed him politely – or not so politely – that he was not his real dad. I did it in a way that was disrespectful … verbally aggressively.“The bottom line is it was disrespectful, I let my ego and emotions engage,” he said.Chief Instructor Ant Middleton ended the interrogation by encouraging Dan to stop trying to be someone that he’s not, saying: “We want you to be you.”
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