Season 14 - episode 9 - 02/25/13

[Bearcata]

Follow Up Photoshoot - It's Francelina - she has lost close to 100lbs. She started BL at 267 so is close to 167. She also lost close to 100lbs before she started BL, her original weight was close to 345.

[Bearcata]

First challenge - someone goes home for a week. Jackson wants to go home. He saves Gina. Gets her to promise to be good. Surprise he needs to chose someone to take home with him.

[Bearcata]

Wow, Jeff volunteers to go home with Jackson.

[Bearcata]

Oh, it's not Jackson's home, it's a house in LA.

[Tilden]

Do the contestants have access to psychological help other than the encouragement etc. of the trainers? It seems like Gina could use some help beyond talking to Jillian, even if Jillian is being understanding.

How could there be that many different kinds of vegetables in a meatloaf without Bingo noticing them? For that matter, isn't it kind of a pain to pump that many different kinds of vegetables into a meatloaf? Wouldn't it be easier, in terms of cooking and shopping, to put in a couple of different kinds, and then the next time, try another set? I agree it's important to have vegetables at a meal, but is it really necessary to have five different kinds at the same meal?

That coffin challenge is just plain creepy. I'm not, so far as I know, claustrophobic, and I wouldn't want to do that.

[Tilden]

First challenge - someone goes home for a week. Jackson wants to go home. He saves Gina. Gets her to promise to be good. Surprise he needs to chose someone to take home with him.

I can see Jackson's point. If he can go home (or to a private residence in L.A.) for a week and still do okay, it would be a huge ego booster. It's a risk, but the potential reward is pretty great.

[Bearcata]

Jackson has his head on straight that and encouraging Gina to play nice make him a great guy in my book.

[Tilden]

Jackson has his head on straight that and encouraging Gina to play nice make him a great guy in my book.

I really like him too.

[Tilden]

Here's the thing about the "face your biggest fear" challenge: the challenges the kids are facing seem much more important. It's hard to stay healthy if you don't eat vegetables at all. Facing the possibility of diabetes is scary and it's important you do so if you're pre-diabetic. Talking to a parent about their health is hard at any age, under any circumstances, and I thought it was incredibly mature of Sunny to handle that so well. But in comparison...is it really a big deal if somebody never gets over a fear of sharks? Unless you have to work around sharks, how often does a person even realistically come in contact with a shark?

I understand that if you've always wanted to sing in public, then, sure, take the chance. But unless you're dead, you're not going to spend any time in a coffin anyway. And most people don't need to go swimming with the sharks ever.

Oh, yeah, and "The Star Spangled Banner"? That's a mess for professional singers to get through. How about "America" for her first time singing in public if she feels like she needs to sing a patriotic song?

[Tilden]

Loved Jeff's and Jackson's reactions to Jillian going off about how stupid it was to volunteer for a disadvantage. Jackson saw it as a chance to prove to himself that regardless of when he goes home, he can do this, and Jeff correctly pointed out that the fears the others faced might be things they never have to face again, but they're all going to have to face going home and managing on their own. All Jillian could seem to think about was risking not being a finalist (ie. risking not winning the money), but maybe that's not what's most important to Jeff and Jackson. Really, the money, to me, would be important but far secondary to getting my health back.