I smell foul play on “The Biggest Loser.” Not Vicky and Brady foul play, but some manipulation by certain contestants. More on that later.

The show began last night with Daris being upset about his mom Cheryl being sent home. That lasted about 5 seconds. Then it was on to the initial challenge, and one of the contestants even said “oh crap” when they saw host Alison Sweeney in the room. That was funny. The challenge was a trivia game, with the winning team earning a “spa night” at the Four Seasons Hotel, and the losing team having to clean both the kitchen and the gym. Yikes. After some trash talk from Stephanie of the black team, the blue team won, which was funny, because their team is mostly huge guys, not the types you’d expect to see in a spa.

Jillian propped her team up, saying that they didn’t come to the ranch to go to the Four Seasons, but to “get 200 pounds off the back of your ass.” Nicely said!

Michael had to go home to Chicago to tend to his ailing grandmother, which was a problem considering the main challenge would be a cooking challenge, something Michael was good at. Curtis Stone was the judge of the challenge, and each team had to pick 12 ingredients to make a 3-course meal with. They also only had 30 minutes to do so. The blue team made shrimp ceviche, salmon, and raspberries with chocolate drizzle, while the black team mde spinach/feta salad, pork tenderloin, and pears with feta. The black team won, based on overall taste while keeping calories down. Their prize? A 5 pound advantage at the weigh in, something they desperately needed to avoide losing, again.

After forwarding through most of the product placement, trainers’ tips and last chance workout stuff, I watched Michael return and tell his team that while in Chicago he found the time to work out. Good for him.

The weigh in was next. The black team went first, and Andrea led off with 5 pounds lost. Sam lost 8, much better than the 4 pounds he lost last week. Ashley lost 7, Sherry 3 and Stephanie a paltry 2 pounds. The total for the black team, in addition to their 5 pound advantage, was 30 pounds lost, or 2.5%.

The blue team had to lost more than 45 pounds to win. Lance was first and lost 8 pounds, followed by Daris who lost 10. Koli lost 9, bringing him down to 297, breaking the 300 pound barrier for the first time. Sam ran up and hugged him, even though they are now on opposing teams. O’Neal lost 9, and so did his daughter Sunshine. So they were already at 45 pounds. Michael had to lose just one pound to give his team the win, and that may have been iffy since he missed a few days on the ranch. But no…Michael lost 11 pounds, bringing him down below 400 pounds for the first time at 397. So the blue team won again, losing 56 pounds or 3.11%. Damn!

So once again, the black team had to eliminate one of their own, and it couldn’t be Sam, since he led his team in percentage of weight loss this week. The women on the team all said they didn’t want to go home. Of course they didn’t. But I thought Stephanie, who dodged a bullet last week, should go home based on her lousy weight loss this week.

Ashley voted first and picked Andrea. Andrea picked Sherry. Sam then picked Sherry and Sherry picked Drea. Tied at two votes apiece. What?? No one picked Stephanie. I smell foul play here. I guess the only reason here was that they don’t see Stephanie as a threat, and they could be right. But she deserved to be sent packing here. So Stephanie had the final and deciding vote, and picked Sherry.

Sherry, who began this journey at 218 pounds, has now lost 80 pounds, down to 138 pounds! Good for her, and I have to think she has a clear shot at the $100K at-home prize.

So now that it’s going to be 6-4 in favor of the blue team, I’m sure this where the producers intervene and change the teams up. We’ll see. But meanwhile, the big blue machine keeps rolling along. See you all next week and enjoy your corned beef and green beer today!