One word. OMG! Melissa! OK - that was two words. She is game play all the way. At the very start of this episode, she goes around scolding everybody for keeping Sam when he's their biggest threat. It's in everybody's best interest to keep Stephanie. One threat down, several more to go, right? Guess everybody doesn't have Melissa's way of thinking. They voted based on what they thought was the right thing to do. In retrospect, voting Sam off would be Melissa's "right thing to do." It's all relative.
When it comes to being thrown into something new, the cast can never get a break. This week's challenge has been another new obstacle for everybody to overcome. This time it is a race to see who can be the first person to lose 2% of their body fat. Whoever does it first gets immunity. Anybody can weigh themselves in at any time - but the catch is that you can only weigh in once. If you weigh in too soon and don't meet your requirement, too bad - you're out of the running. For the one that weighs in and makes it, he/she doesn't have to weigh in again with everybody else. Whatever weight he/she was at when they weighed in for the 2% would be used at the weigh in the following week. This means that whoever weighed in early and won would have a few extra days before the next weigh in. How cool is that?
Melissa's mouth takes a trip down rambling lane. Immediately, she starts talking nonsense and is already planning her strategy. Seriously, shut UP Melissa!
Victoria ends up pushing the button first. She's getting way ahead of herself. It's obviously too soon, but we have to remember that she's pretty inexperienced. It's her second week on campus so she is still learning the ropes, learning the games and learning what her body can do (or can't do). Losing 6 pounds in two days is definitely not something her body can do. No way. Instead of 6 pounds, she only loses 3. 3 pounds in two days is pretty good, but not when you're trying to win a challenge like this. Even on the Biggest Loser ranch, you don't lose 6 pounds in 2 days (except if it's your very first week and it's all water weight).
The next challenge is a pool game. Cool! There are a thousand 1-pound pucks at the bottom of the pool. Everybody has to dive down and bring 100 pounds to their scale, and they can only bring two pounds at a time. The winner gets two weeks at the Biggest Loser Resort. The loser gets a 2-pound disadvantage. Here's the kicker - after they finish filling their scale with 100 pounds, they can help out a friend. This goes without saying - nobody's gonna be helping Melissa, that's for sure!
Sunshine starts off with a bang. She is obviously an experienced swimmer and has a huge advantage over the others. During the course of the game, it seems that Melissa is going to finish in third place. O'Neal and Mike are trailing behind her but not by far. This is surprising. Melissa tends to be one of the top competitors in the challenges. I guess she's just not cut out for swimming. With only two people below Melissa, it's almost guaranteed that the others will be helping them out to put Melissa in last place. I bet Sunshine starts helping out Dad as soon as she completes packing on her 100 pounds and the others will be helping Mike. This is practically a no-brainer. Sunshine and Sam are essentially neck and neck throughout the whole challenge. Finally - someone gives Sam a run for his money. It's always awesome to see a girl do just as well as the man next to her, and maybe even surpass him.
Having friends on the show does help, whether anybody wants to admit it or not, and this challenge proves it. Sunshine finished first (yay!) and then started helping her Dad. Everybody else pitched in to help O'Neal and Mike out to put them up above Melissa. Naturally. Melissa kept saying over and over that she wasn't there to make friends and that she doesn't need any friends. Well, there ya go! You accomplished what you set out to do - alienate everybody. How'd that feel? Melissa ends up scolding everybody (again, ahem), this time about helping Mike. Mike is still the biggest person on campus and he's still everybody's biggest threat. According to Melissa, why would anyone want to help their biggest competition?! Well Melissa, it's already been proven that everybody just might have something you don't have...compassion for others.
Again - it's not over for Melissa just yet. Boy, she's been given chances time and time again to stay in the game, huh? Could this be the producers' goal? To keep Melissa in as long as they can? You bet. Drama draws in people (sadly) and the producers are all about the ratings.
Melissa still has the chance to weigh in on the scale for the 2% body fat challenge. Melissa starts her planning and tries to figure out when everybody else will be weighing in. It's her goal to wait as long as she can but to weigh in right before when she thinks somebody else is planning to. The night camera shows Melissa working late at the kitchen table, snacking on something, and finally going to bed around 11pm. She gets up at 3am and worked out until the sun came up. And then..... somebody pushed the button.
As it turns out, Sam hit the button, not Melissa. Sam was pretty smart. He worked out for 3 hours the night before, went to bed and then weighed in first thing in the morning. I'm willing to bet that he peed and pooped as much as he could. He probably also didn't eat breakfast. He needed to lose 6 to make it and he ended up losing 10! 10 pounds in 4 days! After it was determined that immunity was not up for grabs anymore, Melissa started to obsess about the 1 pound disadvantage. She is now worried about whether she'd make it on the scale. Again - Melissa - you had the chance to get up above your obstacles. You just needed friends to help you out. That's down the toilet, so what's left? Nothing.
Dr. Jillian has now announced that O'Neal and Sunshine's father/daughter relationship is unhealthy. Like really? Seriously? They're too close or something like that. Whatever. I guess since Dr. Jillian knows everything, they'd better sit down, talk it out, and solve whatever imaginary problems they have so that they can live a better life. O'Neal acknowledges that he's holding onto Sunshine a little too tight. It's time for him to let go and let Sunshine become her own person. Uh, doesn't every parent go through that? Granted, some are more extreme than others but this hardly calls for a psychological evaluation by Dr. Jillian.
Koli and Daris had bad luck this week with the scale. They had bad numbers (bad by Biggest Loser standards) and the trainers were stumped. They both worked extremely hard and yet, they lost so little. Everybody else had good numbers. A lot of obstacles were overcome this week. Sunshine made it to under 200 pounds and O'Neal passed the 100-pound mark (he has lost 106 to date). Michael lost 8 pounds, bringing his total to 156 pounds in 12 weeks. That's pretty impressive. And finally, Victoria loses 11. Wow. What a great week for most of them.
Drea ends up going under the yellow line with Melissa. Enough said. Melissa only lost 3 and she needed 5 so her one pound disadvantage didn't even hurt her at all. She hurt herself. Could it be her late-night snacking? Probably.
Wow - I just found out during this episode that Melissa is a lawyer. Really!? Well - if I needed a lawyer, I think I might want her on my side, but as an ordinary person she is just plain annoying! Her only argument to save herself from being voted out was game play again. She urged everybody to keep her because she is obviously not a threat and that Drea is. Wouldn't it be so easy to keep Melissa around, not having to worry about her and just one by one, kick everybody off that falls down below her? Right, so easy... but is it right?
Everybody decides to stick with integrity and gets rid of Melissa. The voting was unanimous. Who'd have thunk it? If Melissa had friends, she might not have been voted off. If she had friends, she would have left with hugs and good-byes from everybody. I still wonder... how did she even get married!?
Friday, April 9, 2010
Biggest Loser, Season 9 - Episode 11
Suddenly, the show isn't so dark anymore. There are bright colors everywhere - singles are back! This part is fun because now everybody is on their own. No one can hide behind the weight of the entire team. No more coasting. It's every man for himself now. Everyone will be held responsible for their own actions... or non-actions.
Here's another fun part. All the old contestants from this season came back. They have another chance to get back into the game. Of course, the people who are currently still in it weren't happy to hear that. They've fought this long to stay afloat and now they have to worry about one more competitor. The person that gets to come back to the show will get voted in. It's purely a popularity vote. They can vote for anyone to come back except for your former teammate.
Remember Migdalia? No one can forget her and her mother, Miggy. Yep - even Miggy's back, but Migdalia didn't come back. Her husband went to Iraq and there would be no one at home to watch her kids. Remember the Blue team (not the Black vs. Blue but the original two)? The mother begged and pleaded to let her daughter back into the show. They've been there twice and got sent home immediately both times. They failed to complete the very first challenge and when they were given a chance to come back, they had to compete against yellow for the most weight lost. Obviously, yellow won.
On to the voting. It would have been hilarious if it was a 12 way tie. Like that'll happen. Right off the bat, everyone started to vote for John. He obviously made a big impact during the short time he was on campus. Just when it seemed like John might win, the votes started to come in for Victoria. It got to the point where it was a tie and Michael had the last deciding vote. I smell something stinky. The producers had to have a hand in this. I wonder if they had to turn in their votes prior to the taping so that the producers could know who was voting which way. That way they could line up the contestants in whatever order they wanted to make it oh, so dramatic. That would make more sense because whoever was the last voter could change his mind right on the spot if he wanted to. That wouldn't have been nice. It would have been a more truthful vote if everyone voted beforehand without knowing the final results.
In the end, Michael voted for Victoria and she won. O'Neal and Sunshine could sympathize with Victoria and her mother. They also lost the very first challenge and knew/understand what it was like to be sent home immediately. It would make sense that they voted for Victoria to stay. Wonder if she just ends up winning the whole thing. Wouldn't that suck for the others?
It's not over yet for the banished contestants. They were given another chance to get back on campus. They had to compete in a stepping challenge. First person to 1,000 steps wins. Miggy and Melissa have a long history of feuding, so of course, right off the bat they both fly way ahead of everybody and they were neck and neck throughout the whole challenge. Melissa pulled ahead of Miggy and was able to keep that lead. She ends up winning. I can imagine just how thrilled everybody was.
The top three players in the stepping challenge were Melissa, Miggy and Lance. Koli made a great point. Lance just left, Miggy's a huge troublemaker and Melissa quit (and she's just plain annoying). Why would anybody be happy about having any of them back?
Melissa and Victoria were given immunity. I was glad for Victoria but felt that Melissa didn't really deserve it. The trainers came in and found out that everybody was back to singles. They were thrilled! Maybe now that everyone is accountable for their own actions, they will step it up. However, this is about the time when alliances will go kaput. Happens every season without fail.
Bob was so adorable. His face was so awww when he saw Victoria walk in. He even cried (or got close to it). Mr. Trainer is in touch with his feelings!
Speaking of alliances going kaput... In one of the one-on-one interviews with Sunshine, she boldly stated "I'm going to be in the final 4. These are just people for me to play with." So cute! Also, Koli turned against Stephanie. He went to Ashley and told her that he thought that Stephanie was throwing the game. She's messing up the weigh-ins on purpose for whatever twisted reason. He got Ashley to believe him. How sad. I refuse to believe for even a nanosecond that Stephanie could be the kind of person who was playing the game all along and hiding behind her innocent-looking face. I felt so bad for her. BUT - it's always the quiet ones that'll get you... isn't it? Once Stephanie found out, she confronted Ashley and Drea. She managed to work things out but I wonder how long that'll last before Koli steps in and messes with their heads again.
At the weigh-in, O'Neal finally walked up the steps one foot at a time. Wow. It was so emotional that Bob cried. It's amazing just how many things we take for granted. We don't even realize how hard something as simple as going up the stairs might be for someone else. Be thankful you have two feet and be thankful that you can walk up the stairs.
Well - the weigh-in come down to having Sam and Stephanie below the yellow line. Koli made a big speech about how Stephanie is playing games, that she's pretty shady, and how he can't keep someone around like that. OH come on!!! We know you'd never vote for Sam. Why not just come out and say "I'm never voting for Sam for obvious reasons" and just leave it at that!? I'd like you a hell of a lot better if you had just said that.
Stephanie got sent home and it was apparent that Ashley felt bad. Yeah - I hope you feel guilty, Ashley. You betrayed a friend and ran right over her when it was convenient. Way to go.
Here's another fun part. All the old contestants from this season came back. They have another chance to get back into the game. Of course, the people who are currently still in it weren't happy to hear that. They've fought this long to stay afloat and now they have to worry about one more competitor. The person that gets to come back to the show will get voted in. It's purely a popularity vote. They can vote for anyone to come back except for your former teammate.
Remember Migdalia? No one can forget her and her mother, Miggy. Yep - even Miggy's back, but Migdalia didn't come back. Her husband went to Iraq and there would be no one at home to watch her kids. Remember the Blue team (not the Black vs. Blue but the original two)? The mother begged and pleaded to let her daughter back into the show. They've been there twice and got sent home immediately both times. They failed to complete the very first challenge and when they were given a chance to come back, they had to compete against yellow for the most weight lost. Obviously, yellow won.
On to the voting. It would have been hilarious if it was a 12 way tie. Like that'll happen. Right off the bat, everyone started to vote for John. He obviously made a big impact during the short time he was on campus. Just when it seemed like John might win, the votes started to come in for Victoria. It got to the point where it was a tie and Michael had the last deciding vote. I smell something stinky. The producers had to have a hand in this. I wonder if they had to turn in their votes prior to the taping so that the producers could know who was voting which way. That way they could line up the contestants in whatever order they wanted to make it oh, so dramatic. That would make more sense because whoever was the last voter could change his mind right on the spot if he wanted to. That wouldn't have been nice. It would have been a more truthful vote if everyone voted beforehand without knowing the final results.
In the end, Michael voted for Victoria and she won. O'Neal and Sunshine could sympathize with Victoria and her mother. They also lost the very first challenge and knew/understand what it was like to be sent home immediately. It would make sense that they voted for Victoria to stay. Wonder if she just ends up winning the whole thing. Wouldn't that suck for the others?
It's not over yet for the banished contestants. They were given another chance to get back on campus. They had to compete in a stepping challenge. First person to 1,000 steps wins. Miggy and Melissa have a long history of feuding, so of course, right off the bat they both fly way ahead of everybody and they were neck and neck throughout the whole challenge. Melissa pulled ahead of Miggy and was able to keep that lead. She ends up winning. I can imagine just how thrilled everybody was.
The top three players in the stepping challenge were Melissa, Miggy and Lance. Koli made a great point. Lance just left, Miggy's a huge troublemaker and Melissa quit (and she's just plain annoying). Why would anybody be happy about having any of them back?
Melissa and Victoria were given immunity. I was glad for Victoria but felt that Melissa didn't really deserve it. The trainers came in and found out that everybody was back to singles. They were thrilled! Maybe now that everyone is accountable for their own actions, they will step it up. However, this is about the time when alliances will go kaput. Happens every season without fail.
Bob was so adorable. His face was so awww when he saw Victoria walk in. He even cried (or got close to it). Mr. Trainer is in touch with his feelings!
Speaking of alliances going kaput... In one of the one-on-one interviews with Sunshine, she boldly stated "I'm going to be in the final 4. These are just people for me to play with." So cute! Also, Koli turned against Stephanie. He went to Ashley and told her that he thought that Stephanie was throwing the game. She's messing up the weigh-ins on purpose for whatever twisted reason. He got Ashley to believe him. How sad. I refuse to believe for even a nanosecond that Stephanie could be the kind of person who was playing the game all along and hiding behind her innocent-looking face. I felt so bad for her. BUT - it's always the quiet ones that'll get you... isn't it? Once Stephanie found out, she confronted Ashley and Drea. She managed to work things out but I wonder how long that'll last before Koli steps in and messes with their heads again.
At the weigh-in, O'Neal finally walked up the steps one foot at a time. Wow. It was so emotional that Bob cried. It's amazing just how many things we take for granted. We don't even realize how hard something as simple as going up the stairs might be for someone else. Be thankful you have two feet and be thankful that you can walk up the stairs.
Well - the weigh-in come down to having Sam and Stephanie below the yellow line. Koli made a big speech about how Stephanie is playing games, that she's pretty shady, and how he can't keep someone around like that. OH come on!!! We know you'd never vote for Sam. Why not just come out and say "I'm never voting for Sam for obvious reasons" and just leave it at that!? I'd like you a hell of a lot better if you had just said that.
Stephanie got sent home and it was apparent that Ashley felt bad. Yeah - I hope you feel guilty, Ashley. You betrayed a friend and ran right over her when it was convenient. Way to go.
Biggest Loser, Season 9 - Episode 10
Home Sweet Home. Everybody went home this week to see if they can resume their routines and still maintain a healthy lifestyle. The cameras followed everybody home and captured their joyous brief return to their crazy lives. Michael's return was hilarious. He had just been home the previous week and was only back on the Ranch for a few days before being booted back to reality. His family greets him (without the anticipation and excitement like all the other families) and tells him that his grandmother hasn't been doing much better. It was almost like a soap opera complete with bad acting and awful ominous music in the background.
If you've watched enough Biggest Loser, you'd know by now that every time the cast goes home, something (or someone) follows them. This time, the surprise was a stationary bike. A DVD announces that they will be biking a marathon to win $10,000. The fastest time wins. However, they would be able to add 5 minutes to someone's time by eating a 100-calorie cupcake. I'm proud of most of them. Many chose not to play the eating game and decided that they wanted to win it with hard work and integrity. A few others - shame on you! Lance was the worst. He ended up eating 17 cupcakes at 1700 calories. I truly believe that if his wife wasn't there to egg him on, he wouldn't have eaten so much. So much for spousal support, Melissa, and I'm talking about the good kind.
It wasn't surprising to see Sam get the most cupcakes against him. He is a fierce competitor and has been on a good streak lately. He is definitely a big threat to everybody. It would be hilarious if he still won the event.
The game begins and everybody is off to a good start. Many of them start blazing right through, wanting to be in the lead right away. Moderation, people! Find a good pace and stick with it all the way through. It's common sense that if you start blazing right away, you will lose the momentum and start slacking off towards the end. That’s never good. Sam starts off very strong with Sunshine and Lance extremely close behind. Ever since Sunshine has won her spot on campus, she has proven herself to be a strong competitor. She can fight with the big boys. With Melissa gone (and she is nowhere near as sweet as Tara), Sunshine has become Tara #2. This is always refreshing to see.
Sam ends up winning 1st place, but there are still the cupcakes stacked up against him. All those cupcakes dramatically dropped Sam from 1st place to 8th place. Several others had cupcakes against them so the roster got all mixed up. What's really funny is that Koli did not finish very strong and he ended up winning 1st place just because no one named any cupcakes against him. Word to the future contestants - if you're going to eat food for someone else, spread it out! Lance - if you had devoted just a few of your 17 cupcakes to Koli instead of shoving most of it on Sam, you would have won 1st place. That's so sad.... for you.
On to the weigh-in... Even with 1700 calories eaten, Lance still lost 8 pounds. Maybe he's the kind of guy who can eat whatever wants and then lose that weight straightaway if he worked out afterwards. I guess anybody can do that. But it wouldn't be advisable to eat 1700 calories worth of cupcakes on any given day. IF he didn't eat all those calories, he might have lost much more than 8.
Blue proved that they could do well at home. All had pretty good numbers, basically identical to what they would lose if they stayed on the Ranch. Bob & Jillian taught them well.
Black needed to lose 26 to win. Stephanie tends to lose just a few on the Ranch (usually between 2 to 7 pounds each week) and she lost 9 while she was at home! 9! That's amazing. She broke through the 200 pound wall and is now 199. Awesome. Ashley must have went along with Stephanie for the ride because when she stepped up on the scale, she found out she lost 10! They did something right, that's for sure.
Black's much needed accomplishment meant Blue's demise. They finally lost a weigh in. And guess who went home? Lance. I knew those cupcakes would come back and bite him in the ass.
Enter Mike, stage left.Is that all you can say Mike!?
Mike: Is she doing any better?
Mom: (cue dramatic music, lips tremble) No. (Sob)
Mike: (somber) Oh.
If you've watched enough Biggest Loser, you'd know by now that every time the cast goes home, something (or someone) follows them. This time, the surprise was a stationary bike. A DVD announces that they will be biking a marathon to win $10,000. The fastest time wins. However, they would be able to add 5 minutes to someone's time by eating a 100-calorie cupcake. I'm proud of most of them. Many chose not to play the eating game and decided that they wanted to win it with hard work and integrity. A few others - shame on you! Lance was the worst. He ended up eating 17 cupcakes at 1700 calories. I truly believe that if his wife wasn't there to egg him on, he wouldn't have eaten so much. So much for spousal support, Melissa, and I'm talking about the good kind.
It wasn't surprising to see Sam get the most cupcakes against him. He is a fierce competitor and has been on a good streak lately. He is definitely a big threat to everybody. It would be hilarious if he still won the event.
The game begins and everybody is off to a good start. Many of them start blazing right through, wanting to be in the lead right away. Moderation, people! Find a good pace and stick with it all the way through. It's common sense that if you start blazing right away, you will lose the momentum and start slacking off towards the end. That’s never good. Sam starts off very strong with Sunshine and Lance extremely close behind. Ever since Sunshine has won her spot on campus, she has proven herself to be a strong competitor. She can fight with the big boys. With Melissa gone (and she is nowhere near as sweet as Tara), Sunshine has become Tara #2. This is always refreshing to see.
Sam ends up winning 1st place, but there are still the cupcakes stacked up against him. All those cupcakes dramatically dropped Sam from 1st place to 8th place. Several others had cupcakes against them so the roster got all mixed up. What's really funny is that Koli did not finish very strong and he ended up winning 1st place just because no one named any cupcakes against him. Word to the future contestants - if you're going to eat food for someone else, spread it out! Lance - if you had devoted just a few of your 17 cupcakes to Koli instead of shoving most of it on Sam, you would have won 1st place. That's so sad.... for you.
On to the weigh-in... Even with 1700 calories eaten, Lance still lost 8 pounds. Maybe he's the kind of guy who can eat whatever wants and then lose that weight straightaway if he worked out afterwards. I guess anybody can do that. But it wouldn't be advisable to eat 1700 calories worth of cupcakes on any given day. IF he didn't eat all those calories, he might have lost much more than 8.
Blue proved that they could do well at home. All had pretty good numbers, basically identical to what they would lose if they stayed on the Ranch. Bob & Jillian taught them well.
Black needed to lose 26 to win. Stephanie tends to lose just a few on the Ranch (usually between 2 to 7 pounds each week) and she lost 9 while she was at home! 9! That's amazing. She broke through the 200 pound wall and is now 199. Awesome. Ashley must have went along with Stephanie for the ride because when she stepped up on the scale, she found out she lost 10! They did something right, that's for sure.
Black's much needed accomplishment meant Blue's demise. They finally lost a weigh in. And guess who went home? Lance. I knew those cupcakes would come back and bite him in the ass.
Biggest Loser, Season 9 - Episode 9
Whoa, I'm pretty behind on keeping up with the Biggest Loser. Guess I will be doing lots today by writing about four episodes (I hope). I'm just glad I kept notes!
From this episode on, I'm going to be keeping track of what seem to be obvious manipulations by the producers. There was once a time when I thought reality shows were actually reality without little (or any) interference. How sad. The Biggest Loser reeks of control by the producers during each episode. Who's still in, who's out and how the teams are divided are definitely deciding factors on how the producers want to go about setting up the challenges and stuff.
Clue #1: This week's pop challenge was a trivia challenge. Granted, trivia challenges are not unheard of but the Biggest Loser thrives on physical activities. Did they switch to a trivia challenge this week particularly to give the Black team a fighting chance? Up against Blue, Sam and the ladies don't have much of a chance of winning at all. This hardly seems fair. If the producers changed game play to help the Black team out, that would mean that Mike's strategy of dividing the strong versus the weak (and casted out his biggest competition in hopes of eliminating him) failed.
The prize for winning the brain teaser challenge was a 1-night stay at a fancy-shmancy hotel with expensive tiny-portioned meals and over-the-top spa treatments. They would also get a gigantic room all to themselves. The losers would end up cleaning the filthy kitchen (how could they eat there!?) and the sweat-covered gym (yuck). Winning the challenge would be a nice perk, but they have to remember that they're there to work hard, to lose weight and to keep sight on the fact that they're giving themselves a better life.
Wouldn't you know it - even after Black was given a fighting chance - Blue still won. That's a shame. It was painful to see them lose and it was even worse to see them have to clean the kitchen and the gym... but hey, at least they're burning off calories while working while Blue loses a day of working out. Let's see how this works out for them.
Dr. Jillian reared her ugly head again during the episode, this time with Ashley. Apparently Ashley and Sherry do not have a healthy mother/daughter relationship and there are some rifts between them. Seriously - what mother/daughter relationship is perfect? Some might be closer than others, but I don't see the need to analyze everybody's relationships and then determine that if they don't "solve" their issues, they wouldn't change their lifestyles effectively. I don't even remember what the issue was with Ashley and Sherry. Something about Ashley having to take care of Sherry, I think. Jillian decided that it was time for Ashley to say "Cut the crap and let me live my life." Granted, I might feel the same way but she is her mother and families take care of each other.
Michael left due to a family emergency. He would be away from the Ranch and might not be working out and eating healthy as he would be if he stayed. We'll see how he copes with the real world while losing weight at the same time. This is an excellent test of whether Michael has changed his habits back at home.
There was a cooking challenge. Curtis Stone shows up again (we have been seeing lots more of him lately) and is acting as judge on taste and calories. There was a long table with many food items. Each team takes turns taking 12 items off the table. Once the item is off, the other team can't use it in their dishes. There was a 30-minute time limit to make an appetizer, main dish and dessert. Wow - that is tough. The winner of this gets a 5 pound advantage. A tough challenge comes with great rewards.
After a bad losing streak, Black wins the cooking challenge and the 5 pound advantage. How awesome for them! Did the producers give them another chance at winning after failing the earlier non-physical activity? I don't think I remember an episode where there were zero physical challenges. Each episode had at least one, I think. If I am right, the producers were probably pushing hard to keep the Black team afloat. My guess is that drama might ensue if more of them stayed to fight against Blue.
Blue has it really bad this week. Michael is gone, they wasted a day at the spa and Black has a 5-pound advantage over them. Even so, this still isn't a time for Black to slack off. They have fewer members on their team which means they all have to work harder to lose their required weight to stay in the same.
I had high hopes for Black at the weigh-in. How could they not lose, right? They worked out, burned extra calories while cleaning and had a huge advantage over Blue. Their results were subpar. I especially felt bad for Stephanie. She loses so little every week. It's like her body isn't giving her a chance at all. Or maybe she just needs to figure out the perfect combination of food and working out to get her body to wake up and respond.
After Black weighed in, it was determined that Blue needed 45 to win. Could they do it? Apparently, they could. They ended up losing 56. They did not only meet the requirements but surpassed it. I was genuinely surprised.
Sherry ended up being eliminated. I wasn't surprised because in the past, the older people have always been the first to go (when people aren't feeling so terribly sorry for you, like they did for Ron. On another note, they knew that Ron didn’t have a fighting chance of winning with his bad knees so what was the harm in keeping him? That would only boost their chances of winning).
Helen is currently the oldest title-holder at 40-something. Will we ever see an elderly Biggest Loser after 50? Only time will tell.
From this episode on, I'm going to be keeping track of what seem to be obvious manipulations by the producers. There was once a time when I thought reality shows were actually reality without little (or any) interference. How sad. The Biggest Loser reeks of control by the producers during each episode. Who's still in, who's out and how the teams are divided are definitely deciding factors on how the producers want to go about setting up the challenges and stuff.
Clue #1: This week's pop challenge was a trivia challenge. Granted, trivia challenges are not unheard of but the Biggest Loser thrives on physical activities. Did they switch to a trivia challenge this week particularly to give the Black team a fighting chance? Up against Blue, Sam and the ladies don't have much of a chance of winning at all. This hardly seems fair. If the producers changed game play to help the Black team out, that would mean that Mike's strategy of dividing the strong versus the weak (and casted out his biggest competition in hopes of eliminating him) failed.
The prize for winning the brain teaser challenge was a 1-night stay at a fancy-shmancy hotel with expensive tiny-portioned meals and over-the-top spa treatments. They would also get a gigantic room all to themselves. The losers would end up cleaning the filthy kitchen (how could they eat there!?) and the sweat-covered gym (yuck). Winning the challenge would be a nice perk, but they have to remember that they're there to work hard, to lose weight and to keep sight on the fact that they're giving themselves a better life.
Wouldn't you know it - even after Black was given a fighting chance - Blue still won. That's a shame. It was painful to see them lose and it was even worse to see them have to clean the kitchen and the gym... but hey, at least they're burning off calories while working while Blue loses a day of working out. Let's see how this works out for them.
Dr. Jillian reared her ugly head again during the episode, this time with Ashley. Apparently Ashley and Sherry do not have a healthy mother/daughter relationship and there are some rifts between them. Seriously - what mother/daughter relationship is perfect? Some might be closer than others, but I don't see the need to analyze everybody's relationships and then determine that if they don't "solve" their issues, they wouldn't change their lifestyles effectively. I don't even remember what the issue was with Ashley and Sherry. Something about Ashley having to take care of Sherry, I think. Jillian decided that it was time for Ashley to say "Cut the crap and let me live my life." Granted, I might feel the same way but she is her mother and families take care of each other.
Michael left due to a family emergency. He would be away from the Ranch and might not be working out and eating healthy as he would be if he stayed. We'll see how he copes with the real world while losing weight at the same time. This is an excellent test of whether Michael has changed his habits back at home.
There was a cooking challenge. Curtis Stone shows up again (we have been seeing lots more of him lately) and is acting as judge on taste and calories. There was a long table with many food items. Each team takes turns taking 12 items off the table. Once the item is off, the other team can't use it in their dishes. There was a 30-minute time limit to make an appetizer, main dish and dessert. Wow - that is tough. The winner of this gets a 5 pound advantage. A tough challenge comes with great rewards.
After a bad losing streak, Black wins the cooking challenge and the 5 pound advantage. How awesome for them! Did the producers give them another chance at winning after failing the earlier non-physical activity? I don't think I remember an episode where there were zero physical challenges. Each episode had at least one, I think. If I am right, the producers were probably pushing hard to keep the Black team afloat. My guess is that drama might ensue if more of them stayed to fight against Blue.
Blue has it really bad this week. Michael is gone, they wasted a day at the spa and Black has a 5-pound advantage over them. Even so, this still isn't a time for Black to slack off. They have fewer members on their team which means they all have to work harder to lose their required weight to stay in the same.
I had high hopes for Black at the weigh-in. How could they not lose, right? They worked out, burned extra calories while cleaning and had a huge advantage over Blue. Their results were subpar. I especially felt bad for Stephanie. She loses so little every week. It's like her body isn't giving her a chance at all. Or maybe she just needs to figure out the perfect combination of food and working out to get her body to wake up and respond.
After Black weighed in, it was determined that Blue needed 45 to win. Could they do it? Apparently, they could. They ended up losing 56. They did not only meet the requirements but surpassed it. I was genuinely surprised.
Sherry ended up being eliminated. I wasn't surprised because in the past, the older people have always been the first to go (when people aren't feeling so terribly sorry for you, like they did for Ron. On another note, they knew that Ron didn’t have a fighting chance of winning with his bad knees so what was the harm in keeping him? That would only boost their chances of winning).
Helen is currently the oldest title-holder at 40-something. Will we ever see an elderly Biggest Loser after 50? Only time will tell.
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