Biggest Loser, Season 9 - Episode 2

This week's episode was a little bit tame. I've gotten spoiled by last season's drastic twists and shocking weigh-ins. Not to say that this episode sucked, but there weren't any huge surprises. This episode was somber eye-opener for many of the contestants, and I'm sure also for the millions of obese fans that were watching the show.

Every episode opens the same way. People closest to the person who was just eliminated gets camera-time to capture what they're feeling and what they're saying. John had to come to terms with having his twin brother gone. He realized that the rest of his journey rests entirely on himself and whatever happens also affects his entire family. Next came the workout. With Jillian and Bob working side-by-side this season, they took turns having fun with the contestants. It was interesting to watch Jillian and Bob play tag with human beings. They stood there and decided which ones they wanted to crush. Pretty amusing.

Eventually, it came to the point where Jillian picked John and Bob picked Michael. Jillian took John outside to have a little talk to find out why he was obese. Ok, yeah - everyone has a story to explain why they got fat. Family problems, low self-esteem, blah blah blah. In John's case - he blamed deaths of 3 family members that were all 3 months apart. Wow. Pretty tough to survive having your father, grandmother and sister die all within 6 months of each other. That story made me think of Abby, the woman from Season 8, who lost her husband and two kids in a car accident.

Anyway, it kind of makes sense that Jillian would want to have "counseling" sessions with the contestants she works with. Finding a deeper reason that might have caused the weight gain and finding a solution for that issue is beneficial to keeping the weight off once it's all off, but I have to say that I'm getting a bit tired of seeing Jillian play a psychiatrist. Leave the counseling to a professional and just focus on exercising them to death. It's what she does best.

As I mentioned before, this episode was an eye-opener. This is when all the contestants get the raw truth about how unhealthy they are. Michael and Bob's task was to meet up with some people to find out how much excess fat Michael was carrying around. It came up to be 303 pounds and guess what - 303 pounds worth of weights were placed on Bob to give Bob an idea of how much it would feel to walk around with all that fat on you. Bob was pretty shocked. He seems like a tough guy but even he couldn't handle all that weight.

Patti was informed that her diabetes is really horrible and something has got to be done about it. She said that she knew she had it and that she'd been living with it for 20 years but never did anything about it. Why? Because it didn't really interfere with her daily life enough to the point where she needed insulin or anything (in her opinion). Really? 20 years with diabetes and she didn't feel the need to seek medication or do anything about it? Pitiful, just pitiful. My mother was diagnosed with diabetes a few years ago and she decided to change what she was eating right then and there. She went from being on medication to nothing at all. As long as she eats right, she'll never have take insulin or any pills. How do people not want to stop taking medication?

The red team was informed that because Lance lost his job due to his weight, they'd be missing out on 3 million dollars over the course of their lives. 3 MILLION! Hot dang! This sure motivated Lance to lose weight so he can get back to his old job. The next part was funny. Jillian had to eat whatever food that the orange team ate in a day. Jillian was pissed and cursing when she was eating nachos, burgers, pizzas and whatever. Ew. I like those but in one day? Ew.

Next came the challenge. No surprises there - the top prize was immunity and the last team got a 2-pound disadvantage. Because Patti was a severe diabetic, she couldn't feel her feet/ankles and had a tough time crossing the beam. Not interfering with your life? Yeah right. Eventually, the red team won (I had them pegged as strong competitors) and we had to watch the rest suffer. Maria had a terrible fear of water and as a result, she panicked and chose to fall on the concrete instead of in the water. Because of her fear, she ended up hurting herself way more than she ever had to. She banged her nose and it bled out profusely. It resulted in a black eye and she couldn't work out very much over the next few days. Her fear might have just cost Michael his time on campus.

Everybody went back for more medical analyses. Sam (gray team) found out that his sleep apnea is so severe that he moves at least 100+ times in an hour. Gee whiz... 100+ times? I wonder if his wife has been sleeping with him and putting up with that. I know I couldn't. Ashley (pink) discovered that her 27 year old body is, in fact, 57. By being obese, she has lost 30 years of her life. I don't know about you but 30 years is a lot to me.

Now comes my favorite part - the weigh-in. Earlier in the episode, Melissa commented to Lance that maybe they don't need to work as hard because they should save all their weight loss for the next week, when they aren't immune. I was thinking "oh, smart move but come on, really?" Sure enough, Melissa gains a pound and didn't even care! She actually looked happy because it worked out just like she hoped. She's betting that she's going to lose so much weight next week and that'll be enough to keep them both on campus. Yes, I admit - that's pretty crafty and good game play but really, people should be there because they care about their weight and health, not because they want money (the money sure is nice, though).

Michael had another excellent weigh-in. He has lost 46 pounds in two weeks! The current record is 100 pounds in 7 weeks. After just 2 weeks, he's already there. I wonder how much he'll lose next week. I like him - I hope he does well and I hope he stays until the end. I'd almost bet all my money and say that he'll be one of the last 4.

Even with Melissa trying to outplay everybody, I still like the red team. I was glad that they got more time in front of the camera as well as Michael/Maria (white). Everybody else just seemed to fade into the background. We didn't see much of gray, yellow, pink, purple and even green. We barely saw green at all. How come?

Stay tuned!