LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Welcome back to another episode of The Biggest Loser! At this point, we’ve said goodbye to six players and the remaining contestants have said goodbye to 730 pounds. The previews for this week’s episode have promised us a shocking weigh-in. Possibly the most shocking weigh-in on this show. Ever. Will they deliver? We’ll have to wait and see.
When we last left our losers, the Red Team had voted themselves into a tie, thus allowing the Blue Team to make the decision as to which of them would be eliminated. They, of course, sent strongest player Phil home. It’s exactly what Kim warned them against. She threatened that, if they let another team decide their fate, she would be furious. Now that Phil has been sent home, is it going to hit the fan…or, more to the point, will Barbie Kim hit the ceiling? Let’s find out!
Well, this is the second disappointment of the night and we’re only about 30 seconds into the show. The first disappointment was the 90 minute running time of tonight’s show. The second? We don’t get to see Kim’s hissy fit and you KNOW there was a hissy fit.
As an aside before we get started, I just have to say this: I realize that Jerry Seinfeld is like a god on NBC, but those Bee Movie TV Junior clips are laaaaame. The only thing they do is make me want to see that movie even less than I did before.
Ante Up and Choke it Down
This week’s episode begins with a temptation challenge. Everyone meets Alison in the kitchen, where they find a long table set up like a poker table. The difference? Instead of poker chops, there are cookies and other snacks. Every week they’ve had to say goodbye to a teammate, Ali says. After today, they’ll be saying goodbye to their teams. Everyone looks shocked and upset as Ali tells them they’re going to be divided into teams of three. Those teams will compete together in all challenges and weigh-ins. The person who wins today’s temptation challenge will have the power to configure these new teams.
The name of the game tonight is High-Low and whatever is bet, has to be eaten. The game opens with a two cookie ante. Bryan is first. He downs two Nilla Wafers at 36 calories. Everyone antes up, except for Kae, who says it’s just not worth it to eat that stuff. With 11 players in the game, Ali deals each of them one card. David ends up with a 2, while Isabeau gets an ace. They both stay in the game, but Isabeau is a lot more confident. Pretty quickly the calorie count on the ante goes from 90 calories to over 1,000, as the players toss down peanut butter cups, cheese and what look like Thin Mints.
By the time a confident Amy raises to 1,750, everyone looks ill, including Kae, who doesn’t even have to eat all that crap. Isabeau, Nicole, Hollie and Bryan all fold at this point, leaving Jez to fight it out with Amy. Alison tells them it’s time to show their cards. Amy reveals her nine of hearts. Jez then turns over his game-winning ace. He says he knew Amy was bluffing. Now he has the power to choose the new teams.
Let the sucking up begin! Various players try to give Jez advice on how to pick the teams. He realizes this decision will be more difficult than he thought it was be. Will Jez be as fair and equitable in choosing the teams as Pete was last season? I doubt it.
Are You My New Best Friend?
It’s time for Jez to reveal his choices for the new teams. Jez stands in front of the other players with Ali at his side as he calls out the teams:
Team 1: Kae, David, Hollie
Team 2: Amy, Julie, Bill
Team 3: Bryan, Nicole, Ryan
Team 4: Jez, Neil, Isabeau
Alison asks why he chose the way he did. Jez says he wanted an even playing field, but he also took game playing into consideration. Hollie gives Jez props for picking the biggest male and female threats for his own team. If Jez and his team get sent to elimination, she reasons, he’ll be seen as less of a threat than his teammates and they will get voted out before he will.
The new teams spend time together to get to know each other and discuss the training situation. They will now be able to train with whichever trainer they choose. Nicole and Ryan quickly decide they want to stick with Bob. I will be sticking with Bob as well.
Drama.com
The unsuspecting trainers arrive to find out what sort of new and devious temptation the producers taunted their teams with. They’re all shocked to learn about the new. Kim urges everyone to only think about the game if they have to go to the elimination room. Amy quickly calls her out: Kim was all about game playing last week and, if she’d had her way, Amy would be gone right now. Kim and Amy give us a repeat of last week’s screaming match and I wonder if Kim, as a trainer, shouldn’t be able to rise above this situation instead of escalating it.
As both Kim and Amy fume, Jillian quietly offers to train Amy. Amy quickly accepts. Jill and Amy talk as they walk to the gym and Jillian assures Amy that she can put up bigger numbers than she has thus far. Of course, Jillian has no idea that Amy just ate enough junk food to fuel a second grade class for a week. She’ll need to work out 24/7 for the next week to burn that off. Kim, of course, is having none of it. She shouts at Amy, saying she’s been disrespected: she doesn’t even know what to say to Amy. All evidence to the contrary. When Amy agrees to sit down and talk to Kim, she gets an earful. Kim claims that Amy lost the weight only with the help of her trainer. Amy agrees, but points out that, if Kim had gotten her way, Amy would have been eliminated the night before. Touché. Amy tells us she’s decided to train with Jillian because she feels betrayed by Kim. Kim feels that the effort she put into Amy is gone. She then says that Amy is revisiting her teenage years and being immature…..seems to me she has company.
The teams begin their workouts and the former Black Teamers are already starting to feel a bit resentful of Amy and the way she’s monopolizing Jillian. Amy and Jillian have their first of what will likely be many private meetings. Jillian wants to make sure Amy feels comfortable working with her (she is) and then asks if Amy has eaten. If she only knew. Isabeau complains about having a new “stepsister” and Hollie joins in with the complaining. When Jillian does finally turn her attention to Hollie, all Hollie wants to do is whine. It’s at this point that I notice Hollie’s 24 Hour Fitness shirt, which says “To practice what I preach.” *snort*
Ready! Set! Snore!
This week’s challenge takes place after dark in a giant storm drain. It’s just like where they raced the cars at the end of Grease….only there aren’t any cars…and John Travolta isn’t there. Instead, there’s Alison with another lengthy and odd challenge. Ali tells the teams this is an opportunity to take advantage of the strengths of their new teams and a chance to support each other. In front of them are four giant metal arms with a platform on one end. How can I describe this? They’re like giant protractors, only without the sharp, pointy thing. Basically, there’s one end that stays in place as the arm with the platform moves around it like a moon circling a planet. Got it? Yeah well, I tried.
The way the challenge works is this: two members of the team will stand on the platform while one member of the team pushes the arm around. The first team to reach 75 revolutions wins. The players can trade off when they get tired. The prize is a super-sized product placement kind of prize: each player on the winning team will receive the new Biggest Loser Bowflex Home Gym. Everyone drools over the excellent prize and then imagines building an addition to their homes to house the excellent prize
The challenge begins and everyone starts pushing….or standing there and yelling. At the 26 minute mark, it hasn’t gotten any more exciting to watch. At 45 minutes in, most of the teams have reached around the 70 revolutions. Ultimately, Amy pushes it home for her teammates, Bill and Julie. Clearly, she had something to prove. She and Julie call Bill a workhorse and credit him for doing the bulk of the work for their team. Bryan is devastated by the loss: he says this was the hardest challenge by far.
Paying the Bills
The next morning, Bob pulls Nicole aside for this week’s product pimping segment. After Jillian’s foray into acting last week, it’s nice to watch people who are a bit smoother with the impromptu commercials. This week’s sponsor is Quaker Weight Control Oatmeal. Bob and Nicole manage to pay the bills and eat breakfast at the same time. You have to love a multi-tasker.
At the last chance workout, Kim trains only Bryan and David. David is confident in his decision to stick with Kim as his trainer. Meanwhile, Bob is out running with Ryan and the rest of the Blue Teamers. Jill is punishing her people, including Amy, whom Jill thinks has a lot of unmet potential. Jillian thinks Kim didn’t push Amy enough and that fed in to Amy’s insecurities. Kim is still bitter. She’s sure Amy will look back on her decision and regret it. If that’s true, I hope someone shows Amy a tape of Kim sniping at her so she can be reminded of why she chose Jillian over Kim.
The Return of the Yellow Line
This will be the first weigh-in with the new teams and David is actually looking forward to weighing in. He usually dreads the scale. Another change this week is the absence of the trainers at the weigh-in. Wah. Less face time for Bob = one sad recapper. Alison introduces the players to the Yellow Line. The team with the lowest percentage of weight loss will fall below that line and will be sent to the elimination room.
Bill: 261 (7 lbs / 73 lbs total)
Amy: 265 (0 lbs / 32 lbs total)
Julie: 192 (3 lbs / 26 lbs total)
Amy is clearly upset over her lack of weight loss. I’m sure Kim will jump up and down with glee when she hears the news. Julie says they don’t have any control over the scale: they only have control over how hard they work.
Pounds lost: 10 / percentage of weight lost: 1.37%
Bryan: 297 (7 lbs / 49 lbs total)
Ryan: (+1lbs / 54 lbs total)
Nicole: 244 (4 lbs / 35 lbs total)
Bryan is stoked at getting below 300 pounds.
Pounds lost: 10 / percentage of weight lost: 1.15%
Kae: 174 (4 lbs / 51 lbs total)
Hollie: 223 (2 lbs / 32 lbs total)
David: 315 (8 lbs / 53 lbs total)
Pounds lost: 14 / percentage of weight lost: 1.93%
Jez: 289 (6 lbs / 56 lbs total)
Isabeau: 255 (4 lbs / 43 lbs total)
Neil: 372 (+17 lbs / 49 lbs total)
Pounds lost: +7 / percentage of weight lost: +.77%
For once, the previews are right. Everyone is in complete shock, as am I, at the fact that Neil gained seventeen pounds. Obviously, they are headed to elimination. Each team will be casting one vote. Alison informs everyone that this is the first time this season that two players have gained weight.
Storm Warning: Hurricane Bob is on the Way
Back at the dorms, the players talk about Neil’s weight gain. Julie thinks something isn’t right and she isn’t alone. There is just no way someone could gain that much weight in a week. Well, that’s where she’s wrong, but I understand her point. Seeing as how there isn’t a Burger King on the Biggest Loser Campus, the odds are stacked against massive weight gain. Isabeau asks the question on everyone’s mind: was Neil’s weight gain game play?
As soon as they return from the weigh-in, Neil heads upstairs. David goes to talk to him and asks if Neil gained the weight intentionally. Neil says he did not. David then urges him to go downstairs and tell everyone else that he didn’t gain the weight on purpose. Neil agrees, but once he’s in the kitchen with everyone, he quickly gets caught in a lie. He tries to tell everyone that there’s no way he could have gained that much weight. A gallon of water weighs 8 pounds, so he would have had to drink more than two gallons of water to gain that much weight. Someone asks how he knew how much a gallon of water weighs. Doh.
Neil grins as he tells us that he did throw the weigh-in. He says the Blue Teamers made a pact to get the others out and he agreed to gain the weight: he just didn’t think it would be so obvious. The Blue Team people all sit together and wait for Bob to arrive. They all know he’ll be angry, they just don’t know how angry.
Here comes Bob and you can sense the discomfort in the room. No one wants to tell Bob about the weigh-in. They take turns revealing their weight loss. Finally it’s Neil’s turn. He tells Bob he gained seven….teen pounds and Bob literally does a double take. He then drops the f-bomb about half a dozen times and my crush on him intensifies. I love a passionate man. Bob is incredulous. He asks Neil if he’s learned anything since he arrived on the show. Bob rants that the others will think that he, as their trainer, is responsible for the weight gain. He’s so mad he can’t even see straight and finally storms out.
Meanwhile, Jillian hears the news of Neil’s scheming and she’s furious as well. She thinks Neil did it to get rid of Isabeau and decides that the Blue Team is planning to “assassinate” all of the Black Team members. Apparently, “drama queen” is catching. As her players head to the gym, Jillian makes a side trip to the kitchen where Neil sits with the other Blue Teamers. She hopes Neil is proud of himself, Jillian growls. Neil takes his life into his own hands when he snickers. I really wanted Jillian to just kick his ass, but she stomps off to the gym instead, ranting as she goes. Maybe there’s a rule about no physical violence on the show and that’s why Jillian restrained herself. She probably destroyed a punching bag later.
Breaking a Few Eggs
In the gym, Jez clearly has no fight in him. He tells Jillian he feels deceived. This incident brought back all his fears of failure. Jillian urges them all to keep their eyes on the prize and that prize is weight loss and a healthier future.
Elimination time is here and everyone files into the room. Alison directs her questions to Neil. He says that everyone knows what he did and now the game is on. Ali comments that Neil must have a lot of confidence in his former teammates.
Julie, Bill and Amy: Julie says she feels need to be strong voice for people who play this game with integrity, honesty and fairness. They vote for Neil.
Ryan, Bryan and Nicole: Ryan says the vote tonight had nothing to do with game, but with loyalty. Their vote is for Jez.
David, Kae and Hollie: David says this is a competition and they want to compete with the best. Their vote sends Jez home.
Jez says he’s has lived his life consumed by fear of both failure and success. He’s leaving with his integrity and character in tact…and some raging triceps. He wishes everyone good luck. He’s proud of himself and his team. This isn’t a failure or anything to be ashamed of, Jez says.
When we catch up with Jez, he’s much thinner. He now weighs 242 pounds, which means that he’s lost a total of 103 pounds. His weight loss isn’t the only big change for Jez: he moved to California to continue his healthy lifestyle. Jez tells us he has more energy and is happier and healthier, but the most valuable thing he gained on the show is inner strength.
Next Week:: Neil may be paying the piper for his deception. I’d pay for front row tickets for that show.
Reply With Quote
Excellent recap, Crit, thanks! 
Barley quoted my absolute favorite line, but here are just a few more. 
