The Block 2025 Episode 19 recap: Copying scandal erupts as Alicia and Sonny point the finger

Hot tip: if you are going to copy other teams’ work and then lie about it, make sure the cameras aren’t there when you do it.

After pleading ignorance to Alicia and Sonny’s furious accusations they had ripped off their plans for a heated seat at the Hepburn Springs Day Spa (even going to far as to describe it as an attack on the integrity) Han and Can were shown conspiring with their tradespeople to replicate their neighbours’ work.

Following the lead of Bart Simpson who famously muttered “I didn’t do it” whenever he was found making mischief and causing damage, denials have become Han’s go-to strategy when she’s sprung doing something NQR.

RELATED: What The Block brought to Daylesford

Block judge selling his forever home

Alisa and Lysandra reveal their lux holiday rental

When Foreman Dan saw her doing some unauthorised waterproofing way back in week one, Han employed a similar strategy (even though the cameras told a different story).

With the s*** hitting the fan, Han retreated to the van.

Claiming to be “disgusted” to be viewed as a person who would steal an idea, Han threatened to leave the show. Can, meanwhile, apologised to Alicia saying it was all a misunderstanding.

“I am not allowing them to sit in the van and cry saying they want to go home,” Alicia said. “You did this knowingly. Don’t bulls**t me.”

The copycat scandal has Can down.

Even though the Queenslanders hadn’t yet sighted any incriminating video evidence, Alicia and Sonny were not falling for the girls’ story.

Sonny, with the ice-cold fury of a Scorsese film mobster, simply said Han and Can were dead to him.

“They are not sorry, they are sorry they got caught,” he said.

As proof of their innocence the girls offered to give Sonny and Alicia the $260,000 caravan prize should they triumph with their copycat design.

Sonny and Alicia just saw this as further proof of guilt. Because who would give someone their prize if they had done nothing wrong?

Plus, Alicia and Sonny didn’t want anybody’s sloppy seconds. The pair had worked long and hard to get their heated seat plan approved by Hepburn Springs management and were hungry for their first win.

Now, any joy to be had in the challenge was gone.

“Today is the day The Block changes, I am p***ed,” Alicia fumed. “I am unleashed.”

Cue censors to beep out the rest of her thoughts.

It was a very different story earlier in the day when the five teams got together to hash out the Hipages help. Each team could pick one crew of tradespeople to assist them in any week they chose.

Can comforts Han after they are accused of stealing Sonny and Alicia’s idea.

But nobody could use the same trade. With the stage set for a showdown, the negotiations were disappointingly devoid of drama (for now, anyway).

Emma and Ben chose carpenters, Han and Tan went with a bricklayer, Taz and Britt nabbed the landscaper while Alicia and Sonny took home the concreter.

At the time, Robby and Mat’s bid for a joiner didn’t attract a lot of questions about what they had planned. But that all changed after Dan and Sonny sneaked away for a quiet beer.

On their man date, Dan passed on some of his wisdom of his experience as both a contestant and foreman, urging Sonny to find a secret weapon for auction day.

“You need to look for a big weapon because there are people out there with them,” Dan warned, clearly steering him in the direction of Mat and Robby’s underground cellar.

Armed with Dan’s unsubtle clues, Sonny went to investigate what was going on at the neighbours’ place and, lo and behold, came face to face with Robby and Mat’s cellar.

He wasn’t happy. Nor was Alicia.

Dan and Sonny go out for a man date where Dan reveals other teams have secrets.

Now clued in to how others were playing the game, made for an increasingly fierce rivalry at a not-so-quiet game of pickle ball.

Challenged to a round robin game where the winners would take home $10,000 cash and a $50,000 court installed in their backyard, everyone was eager to bring their A Game.

Alicia unleashed her inner McEnroe, rattling off some expletives and arguing with the umpire about wrong ball calls.

But her passion did not get them home. Instead, against all odds (and Mat’s lack of ball skills) the boys won.

Alicia and Sonny, now aware of their secret cellar, had been rooting for their closest pals to fail.

And Mat’s victory dance did not endear him to anyone.

“The more they get, the more game over it is for everyone else,” Alicia moped. “We might as well not show up.”

After Dan sets him on the path, Sonny tries to find out what is going on in the boys’ backyard.

For the persistently perky Ben and Em, who are also yet to win a room and have found themselves runner-up in almost every single challenge and room reveal, the string of near misses was starting to take the pep out of their step.

Ben was growing frustrated too that Robby and Mat weren’t being forthcoming about their cellar, even when asked direct questions about it.

Instead of feeling miffed, Emma, saw an opportunity to investigate doing something similar at their own house.

“That’s so cool,” she exclaimed. “We could do that with ours. Our whole house is raised anyway.”

Justifying being a copycat, Emma explained: “Seeing other people do things, it makes you want to put a foot forward and start organising it.”

Somehow, I don’t think everyone agree with that approach.

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