Biggest Loser, Season 9 - Episode 13

The contestants have now been on campus for 12 weeks.  Their reward is host Ali interrupting their breakfast, but according to Koli, that's ok, she can interrupt his meal anytime.  Straight off the bat, Ali announces that they have business to tend to.  They head out to the gym (and they didn't get to finish their breakfast) to find out what's in store for them.

As a metaphor for the balancing act of family, work and eating healthy food that's waiting for them back at home, the contestants will be balancing quarters on a tray.  They are allowed to place as many quarters as they'd like at $10 a quarter.  The objective is to hold up one end of the tray with only one hand.  Whoever can keep their quarters from slipping off the tray wins.

When the game begins, the contestants start piling on their quarters.  Sunshine stopped at only 10 quarters, anticipating that she'd stay in the game long enough to add many more at the end.  Pretty smart move.  Let's see if it pays off.  Koli immediately begins adding as much as he can.  Greed can come back and bite you in the end, bud.

Daris, Sam and Victoria are the first ones out.  Pretty surprising.  It looks so easy but I'm sure that if we all tried it, we probably wouldn't have lasted as long as anybody over there.  Holding up a bunch of quarters with only one arm can be tiring.  At an early point in the game, Koli is sweating profusely while holding up $2,300 worth of quarters.  Too much, too soon Koli.  Meanwhile, sometime during the game, Sunshine adds more quarters.

Sunshine gave it a good fight, but sometimes you just can't win 'em all.  Mike ended up winning the $1,000 he had on his tray.  Courtesy of Total, because Mike gave it 100%, they doubled his earnings to $2,000.  Because Sunshine gave it all (100%), she got her $650.

Suze Orman came to the ranch as a guest to talk to the contestants about their financial future.  She predicted that Danny would win the title of the Biggest Loser purely based on his FICO score when compared against the others.  Based on that track record, she admitted that she would have predicted that Koli would be the next Biggest Loser.  However, when Suze asked Koli if he was keeping track of the calories he's been eating, he answered "No."  On that answer alone, Suze determined that if Koli didn't care enough to count his calories to make sure he was eating right (instead of guesstimating), he probably wouldn't make it.  Her prediction went to Sunshine as being the next best contender for the Biggest Loser title.  Yeah, Sunshine is one of the youngest contestants at only 24 years old.  She didn't quite have as much time as the others to screw up her credit scores.

Jillian decided to prey on Victoria this time around.  At Week 13, Victoria should be doing a lot better than this.  Really, Jillian?  Seriously?  She hasn't even been there much longer than 3 weeks.  Her training regime at home was probably very different from those on the ranch.  She's trying to stay afloat - give her a break!

This week's challenge was fun.  There is a total of 140 keys attached to 7 balloons.  Two of them are the keys that will start a car.  Whoever finds one of these keys and starts the car, the car is theirs.  How nice.  We haven't seen this kind of prize in a long time.  The catch is this - they had to run back and forth between the balloons (and it was cold and rainy) and the cars.  The momentum of winning a car would undoubtedly keep them going.

It would really suck if one of these keys got unlatched and fell into the grass.  This would make for funny TV.  I can just imagine somebody holding the VERY last key with all the contestants all standing around the last available vehicle in anticipation - only to find out that the key doesn't work.

Drea wins the first one midway through the game.  Then it gets down to 40 keys left... 35 ... 30...  could my fun prediction come true?  O'Neal ends up winning it and unsurprisingly, he gives it to Sunshine.  What a good father.  Fun fact:  While the others huffed and puffed while scrambling quickly for the keys, O'Neal took his time due to his knee injury.  He look way less trips and ended up with the winning key.  Is he lucky or what?

Drea has a breakdown during one of her workouts and Bob counseled her instead of Dr. Jillian.  I like his tactics so much better.  He's nicer and he doesn't jump down your throats, making you feel any worse than you already do before lifting you up.  His words make you think and it is so much more positive.  We need to see Dr. Bob more often.

Since Jillian felt that Victoria wasn't pulling her own weight around the house in regards to the workouts, she made her run 37 1-minute sprints.  Amazingly, Victoria makes it and Jillian still doesn't look satisfied.  What?  Really?  I should kick her.  Or better yet - watching her get pushed down into a mud pit was the perfect remedy.  After working out, Bob and the contestants took a roll in the mud.  When they saw Jillian, they decided that it was the perfect time for revenge for all the beat-downs they gave them.

During the last chance workout, Mike ran a whole mile without stopping.  He was so proud of himself.  We are all proud of you, Mike.  It's hard enough running a mile much less running it with 300 extra pounds on you.  As soon as Mike announced that he ran a whole mile, Bob congratulated him and then said "Do it again."  The look on Mike's face was priceless!

This week garnered no immunity so everyone was up for grabs.  Drea falls below the yellow line.  Sam was the last one to weigh in.  He only needs 3 pounds in order to push Sunshine below.  Too easy, right?  It turns out that Sam lost zero weight this week.  He is so small compared to everybody else and has so much muscle.  He doesn't have much more to lose.  Is his time up?

Drea goes home even though she needs more time on the ranch; she has much more weight to lose than Sam.  However, when it comes to voting, I guess everybody prefers to keep friends around - at least time time.  If Sam falls below again - will they keep him around longer or give him the old heave-ho?