One of the best parts of “The Biggest Loser” on NBC is that they bend the rules, often. So even when someone is eliminated, it’s not always forever. And last night they brought back one of the eliminated contestants.
The show began with host Alison Sweeney meeting the contestants in the gym, and then screwing with any remaining team chemistry again. They would be broken into four teams of three, and each would train with one of the four trainers. Each would draw randomly a color that represented a trainer, starting with the person with the highest percentage of weight loss to date, Justin. He wound up with the red team, training with Brett. And here is how it went down–Brett’s red team was Justin, Jen and Courtney; Cara’s green team was Austin, Ken and Kaylee; Bob’s blue team Moses, Irene and Olivia; and Jillian’s black team was Rulon and Hannah. Um, wait. That team was one person short, but Alison announced that Rulon and Hannah could choose from any eliminated contestant and bring them back into the game and onto their team. Would it be Arthur? Jay? Q? More on that in a bit.
First, they showed each trainer taking their respective team somewhere to work out–Bob took his team to Crunch gym for a spin class he’s been teaching there since 1997; Jillian took Rulon and Hannah to her beach house in Malibu; Brett took his group on a hike; and of course, Cara took her team boxing–including making Austin spar with someone from the gym. That was pretty cool.
Then it was time for the main challenge, and at this point the black team had to announce who they were bringing back–and it was Jay. Jen, of course, was giddy, even though Jay would not be on her team. Jay would also be immune this week, so his weight loss would not count for the black team. The challenge was for the teams to hold up the amount of weight they have lost to date with ropes, and letting go would drop water onto flames and put out the fire for that respective team. The winning team would receive video chats with their families. The green team went out first, followed by the black team. So it was down to blue and red. Justin had to let go, but kept coaching Jen and Courtney. Meanwhile, Moses let go and could only encourage Irene and Olivia. But in the end, the blue team let go and the red team won. But before they could use their prize, they gave their prize to the blue team–because Jen’s dad is back, and Courtney’s mom just left last week, and because Justin is, as Courtney said, “a good guy.” That was very cool of them.
Then after I forwarded through the boring last-chance workouts, it was time to weigh in. The losing team would lose one person, chosen from the two on their team with the lowest percentage of weight loss. That meant that the person with the highest percentage on each team would be immune. But this time, the players on the team not up for elimination would do the voting. Hmmm, interesting.
The black team went first, and Jay was first to weigh in since he was immune. He lost 7 pounds. Hannah lost 4 and Rulon 5.
The blue team was next–Moses lost just 3, Irene 5 and Olivia 5. And they were all safe.
Next was the red team, and Jen lost 4; Courtney lost 3 and Justin lost 2. Yikes. They were now at the bottom, which made the black team safe.
Finally, it was the green team, and Kaylee announced that she had discussed with Ken and Austin that she was ready to go home, and that they had agreed to all fall on the sword together for her. But of course, her team would not be voting, so who knows if her plan would work. And why does she want to go home, anyway? I have my theories, but I probably shouldn’t share them here.
So Kaylee lost 0 pounds, which was no surprise. But Austin lost 3, which made you think that maybe he wasn’t going along with the plan. Then Ken, who had to lose 6 pounds to keep his team safe, lost 7 pounds! It was clear gameplay, and Kaylee was devastated. But Ken said something like, “We can’t choose when we go home,” but Alison snapped back at him, “This is not a prison!” Then Alison told Kaylee that she could go home if she wanted to–but of course, Moses talked her out of it.
So it was the red team up for elimination–and Jen had immunity on her team. That meant it would be Justin or Courtney. Of course, Justin pleaded with everyone to vote for him, because he was going to be selfless even if he wanted to stay. Courtney, though, also said she would not mind going home at this point, and Justin replied with, “No, you need to be here.”
So at the voting, Kaylee went first and voted for Justin. Rulon, Justin’s buddy who brought him here, voted for Courtney–but then everyone else voted for Justin, and he was heading home. You know, I bad-mouthed this dude a few weeks ago when he sent Arthur home, but Arthur was also the reason Jay went home. And these folks all seem to love Justin.
But that’s not even the whole story. Justin has gone from 365 pounds down to 225, and he was known on the ranch for calling people out and getting the most out of those around him. Well, he’s gone home and done the same thing to his friends–with T-shirts made up that Justin is “calling them out.” Pretty awesome.
So okay, now we’re down to 11, which makes me wonder how long this show is going to drag on for. It sure seems like it could last through half the summer. Anyway, it’s definitely getting interesting if anything. Thanks for reading and see you next week!
