3/30 Biggest Loser Recap: If Melissa's Back, Who's Running Hell?

[AshleyPSU]

It's the point in the season where I think we are all starting to get bored with the show. We see the same old people, the same old routine, and the same old kum-ba-ya friendliness every single week. I'm all for doing something drastic and exciting like shaking a bee hive and making the contestants run around all day to escape the swarm. Or how about every time a contestant stops exercising, they get squirted with a hose? But unfortunately, NBC doesn't have the same fun ideas that I do. Their idea of “spicing it up” means bringing someone back. Lame. I can't stand it when someone comes back. This week, we also get to meet a regular Joe who lost a ton of weight because he was so inspired by the show. On we go!

The show begins with Alison standing in the gym at the ranch... LIVE! She looks like she is wearing a black trash bag wrapped with black duct tape. Seriously, who dressed this woman? She announces that we are going to meet Wayne. Wayne has lost over 400lbs at home and his results will be revealed later on in the show. Now back to your previously recorded program.

There are only 9 contestants remaining on the ranch, and they all file into the gym to meet up with Ali as soon as the show begins. She reveals that the teams are no more and everyone is going back to singles. They get their old colors back! Now there is a yellow line and the bottom 2 people will head to the elimination room. Ali also tells them that the next biggest loser is in the gym, but it might not be one of them. *gasp* Whaaaaaaaat? Okay, I knew this was coming. A sliding wall moves and there are all the eliminated contestants on display like a bunch of mannequins. Oh joy, I see Melissa and Lance!

Each of the eliminated players will get a chance to earn their way back to the ranch. There's a catch. It isn't going to be based on the amount of weight lost. The people who are currently still on the ranch will be able to vote for who they want to return. Each eliminated player will weigh in and then get the chance to speak about why they should return to the ranch. After every person goes, the current contestants will vote. This should be interesting. The only person they can't vote for is their former teammate. Migdalia isn't competing to come back because her husband was sent to Iraq and she needs to stay home to take care of her kids.

Darrell: Starting 413/Current 309 (-104)
Darrell says they all need each other and he can help them.

Sherry: Starting 218/Current 156 (-62)
She says everyone makes her feel young and she wants to finish her journey.

Miggy: Starting 240/Current 191 (-49)
She says she's asking from the heart.

Victoria: Who's that? Oh yeah, she's the girl from the Blue Team that never really got a shot.
Starting 358/Current 285 (-73)
She cries that this is her third time trying to come back.

Melissa: Starting 233/Current 182 (-51)
She wants to finish her journey and says she is the least threat.

Lance: Starting 365/Current 274 (-91)
He has learned his purpose is to pay it forward and he wants to save his life and help his family.

Cheryl: Starting 227/Current 176 (-51)
She wants to come back and finish her weight loss. She doesn't want to clean the kitchen.

John: Starting 484/Current 399 (-85)
He needs to help inspire more and he misses everyone.

Patti: Starting 243/Current 197 (-46)
Her life has always been about others and now it's for her.

Maria: Starting 281/Current 224 (-57)
She worked hard but she kept thinking about others and felt herself falling backwards.

James: Starting 485/Current 413 (-72)
Before he fought for his brother and not himself, but now it's his turn.

Cherita: Starting 277/Current 230 (-47)
She cries for everyone to vote her daughter back in, not her.

After everyone weighed in, Ali let the players examine the percentage of weight loss chart. We didn't get to see that! It looks like Sherry and Darrell are on top and Cherita and James are at the bottom. It doesn't appear that people got to discuss the issue, because each person has to now step up and make their vote in front of everyone.

Ashley votes for John
O'Neal votes for Victoria
Daris votes for Darrell
Stephanie votes for James
Sam votes for John
Koli votes for John
Sunshine votes for Victoria
Andrea votes for Victoria
Michael votes for Victoria

With 4 votes, Victoria is back in the house. I guess the third time is the charm.

But wait! There is another way to get back into the game. Ugh, why are they bringing everyone back?! The remaining eliminated contestants will compete in a challenge for their spot back at the ranch. Melissa is in instant game mode. Ahh, I can't stand her!! She's gotten worse I think!

The challenge is going to be an up/down challenge. The first person to 1,000 steps will win the challenge and return to the ranch. Melissa is dancing around with excitement. I loathe her. The challenge begins and the competition is pretty much between Melissa and Miggy. Miggy's asthma starts to act up and she starts struggling. Much to my (and America's) dismay, Melissa wins. She's back on the ranch.

Both Melissa and Vicky have immunity this week. Darn. I bet Melissa will gain weight this week since she knows she can. Oh wait, she wasn't doing it on purpose!!

Everyone heads to the gym to begin to work out. Bob and Jillian come in and are surprised when Melissa enters. She says she isn't the only surprise. Enter Vicky. Jillian feels like the world is right again. Awww. Bob and Jillian are so proud of their good little fuzzy cuddlebugs.

Stephanie is pretty pissed that people were able to come back. She hopes they will be the first two to go. Koli thinks having Melissa back is annoying. Sam blabs about making some big power move or something. He gets on my nerves a little bit. I think the more weight he loses, the bigger his ego gets.

Ashley and Andrea sit around on the steps and gossip about Melissa while Ashley whines that she's bored. Ashley says she needs something to do and comments about people going off to do some sneaky workouts. Melissa walks by and they yell at her to get it. They comment that she looks skinny and like she is already at the finale. Ashley feels like her relationships are changing. She goes back to her room calls Koli into the room. Ashley thinks that Stephanie is being a little fake with her and is only being her friend to get her vote. Koli thinks that it almost seems that she threw the weigh-in the week that Ashley's mom went home. Koli wants Ashley to think if her friendship with Stephanie is more important than Ashley doing it alone. Girl drama.

It's already the Last Chance Workout. I guess there isn't a challenge for everyone else this week. There wasn't even a Pop Challenge! Oh well. I like Bob and Jillian training together again! Reunited and it feels so goooooooood! Vicky isn't used to Jillian's torture, which is sort of amusing. Bob takes O'Neal outside to work on going up steps. Jillian works with Stephanie but sees that Steph isn't focused and begins crying. She walks out of the gym and Jillian follows her. Stephanie says she is giving all of herself but she doesn't know what's happening. Jillian yells at her and Steph admits she is scared that she will go home not on her own terms. Jillian tells her she has control issues.

Ashley and Stephanie have a talk because Ashley isn't feeling great about the friendship. Ashley tells Steph she can't trust her right now because someone told her that Steph threw the weigh-in that sent Ashley's mom home. Steph says she didn't do it and Ashley says that she believes her. Steph asks Andrea if she's the one who suggested to Ashley that Steph threw the weigh-in. Ugh, this is like watching Beverly Hills 90210 or something. Ashley wants Stephanie to open up to them more. They all say they love each other. Awww.

It's time for the weigh-in and we are back to weighing in as singles rather than teams. Hooray! Remember that Melissa and Victoria have immunity.

Victoria: Previous 285/Current 283 (-2) .70%

Melissa: Previous 182/Current 178 (-4) 2.20%

O'Neal: Previous 295/Current 291 (-4) 1.36%

Ashley: Previous 276/Current 271 (-5) 1.81%

Michael: Previous 389/Current 381 (-8) 2.06%

Koli: Previous 287/Current 281 (-6) 2.09%

Andrea: Previous 232/Current 227 (-5) 2.16%

Daris: Previous 244/Current 237 (-7) 2.87%

Sam: Previous 264/Current 262 (-2) .76%

Sunshine: Previous 208/Current 202 (-6) 2.88%

Stephanie: Previous 199/Current 198 (-1) .50%

Stephanie and Sam have fallen below the yellow line.

Sam pleads to stay and says that he can't trash Stephanie but that he wants to be there pushing everyone. Stephanie says that she might not win challenges, but that her problem this week was not knowing about people she was closest to. She wants to be there.

Who will be eliminated? Let's check the votes! Sam and Stephanie are holding hands under the table. Ohhh... secret loooooovers.

Koli votes for Stephanie
Melissa votes for Sam
Sunshine votes for Stephanie
Andrea votes for Stephanie
Daris votes for Stephanie
Ashley votes for Stephanie

With 5 votes, Stephanie is eliminated. She is surprised. She knows now that there are a lot of game players. She is shocked and saddened but she knows it's a game.

Stephanie is shown shopping with her friends, seven weeks later. She went from a size 20 to a size 12. She feels more confident and she looks great! She's such a pretty girl. She has lost 96lbs so far and has fallen in love. Awww. Me thinks she loves Sam. Stephanie hopes to be wearing a size 8 by the finale.

Remember that whole “live weigh-in thing”? Yeah, it's time for that now. A little more than 2 years ago, Wayne weighed 674lbs. He was inspired by the Biggest Loser and wanted to make a change on his own. He gets on the scale wearing a light blue BL shirt.

Wayne: Starting weight 674/Current weight 256 (-418)

That's an awful lot of weight to lose in two years, isn't it? Gastric bypass anyone? As a prize, Wayne is going to go to the Biggest Loser Resort and Fitness Ridge to continue his amazing journey. He is going to return to the BL finale in May.

Next week, it appears as though Melissa is back in game mode. Oh goody. If you can't stand to look at her, just come on back and read all about it next week!

[PWS]

before I've even read a word at the title!!!

Great recap, although I'm suspicious that Koli was edited badly...just don't see him trying to trash Sam's girlfriend.

Wayne lost more than 62% of his body weight! They don't say how tall he is, but he looks like he could lose a bit more. Have to say he looks a lot more than two years older than in the 600 lb. picture, but once he is done he can have some skin work done....

[Bearcata]

The title of the recap is just spot on perfect. Who knew that the devil was from Texas?

What I find interesting is how Melissa relishes being back in the game and being able to game play and yet she denies earlier game play with her suspicious -1 and +1 weight loss and weight gain.

I do think that getting rid of Stephanie was not a smart strategic move I would have gotten rid of Sam first chance because of his strong physical abilities in challenges and the the strong chance he could win individual immunity for himself. It looks very much as if Koli sabotaged Stephanie and one word whispered into Ashley's ear and wham bam girl power raises it's wicked head and votes Stephanie out of the tribe..oops wrong show...of the ranch.

I have to give Koli mucho kudos for getting Ashley to turn her back on her best friend at the ranch.

[mandmmom2]

The title of the recap is just spot on perfect. Who knew that the devil was from Texas?

What I find interesting is how Melissa relishes being back in the game and being able to game play and yet she denies earlier game play with her suspicious -1 and +1 weight loss and weight gain.

I do think that getting rid of Stephanie was not a smart strategic move I would have gotten rid of Sam first chance because of his strong physical abilities in challenges and the the strong chance he could win individual immunity for himself. It looks very much as if Koli sabotaged Stephanie and one word whispered into Ashley's ear and wham bam girl power raises it's wicked head and votes Stephanie out of the tribe..oops wrong show...of the ranch.

I have to give Koli mucho kudos for getting Ashley to turn her back on her best friend at the ranch.

[Oceansands]

Thanks for the great recap Ashley, right on target about everything.

However, I kinda like Melissa because she cries less than the others. The constant crying gets real old fast. These people can cry at the drop of a hat. Melessa is something of a jerk game player, but so are a few of the others.

I do admire all of these people being able to lose the weight they do.

[sheila]

Of Wayne's current 256 pounds, he has at least 10 pounds of loose skin (with fat cells) that he will have to get rid of through surgery. I suspect that he lost the weight with some help from the show, maybe they provided him with detailed diet and exercise guidelines? The reason they didn't offer him a spot on the show is that he could never lose a sufficient amount of weight soon enough for NBC to parade him to the final as a transformed, perfect person. If you noticed all winners, they have no more weight to lose and are even thinner than they should in the final. Plus they have resorted in all sorts of unhealthy means to get as slim as that for the final as we have read time and again in the press. So yes, I believe Wayne has lost the weight on his own but with help from the show, at least in order to document it. He is also a great and relatively cheap commercial for their weight-loss resort.