Then came the challenge, a frightening one in which the contestants had to cross a 700 foot zip line over a 10 story canyon. Yikes. Kristin said it can’t possibly look as scary on TV as it did in person, and I don’t doubt that for a second. As they began, Ron took a few steps in and realized his knees wouldn’t be able to take it. Ron has basically participated in about 5% of these challenges. Meanwhile, Filipe jumped out to a huge lead, Mikey got over his fear of heights, and Tara slipped and was having trouble getting back up on the line. But lo and behold, as she does every single time, Tara got back up and figured out how to effectively move quickly down the line. She was catching up to Filipe fast, and said something like, “I had a strategy…” I’m so sick of hearing that. Naturally, Filipe couldn’t keep up with her and Tara won. Mrs. Mike is officially as sick of Tara winning every week as I am. She won a $25K package of food for a year or something like that from Jennie-O, and just keeps stockpiling her prizes.

Then it was makeover time, with Tim Gunn from “Project Runway” choosing their outfits and then another company providing the makeover (my apologies but I missed the name of that and the stylists). Each contestant had a family member or friend in attendance to see them made over, and they got to walk a red carpet and have their own movie premier, which was a “film” about each of their journeys on the show. Helen and her husband Russell were just about dry humping on the red carpet, and Tara’s mom, amazingly, is even more annoying than Tara, proving that the apple never falls far from the tree. Ron and Mike were greeted by the mom/wife and brother/son Max, who is HUGE. Max is so happy for his dad and brother, but now is the largest one in the family and is reassured by Mikey that they will help him lose weight too. Producers, I hope you are offering Max a slot on the show next season.

Then came a big curveball. Laura had been having hip pain and Jillian sent her to see Dr. Huizenga. Dr. H revealed that Laura had a small stress fracture and that she needed to stop all physical activity ASAP, and for three months. Not exactly what Laura or Jillian wanted to hear.

At the weigh in, they were all saying what a tough week it was, since they basically only had one day to work out. Mikey went first and lost 5 pounds, breaking the all-time campus record for weight loss. Ron went next and lost 6, Tara 4, Filipe 5, Helen 7, and Kristin 2. So Ron and Kristin were below the yellow line for the moment, with Laura next. Laura knew she was probably going to have a tough week on the scale, and she was right, gaining 3 pounds.
That put her and Kristin below the line and guaranteed Ron’s safety.

This was a tough decision as you might imagine. Did everyone above the line vote Kristin off because she was a bigger threat, or did they do the right thing and send Laura home so she could rehab her injury properly? Kristin and Laura both wanted to stay, and Tara was pleading with everyone to keep her teammate at the ranch. Ron, though, said that while the gameplay decision would be to send Kristin home, he felt like everyone should look past that and allow Laura to go home because it would be the best thing for her. Mikey then made reference to the fact that keeping Kristin there could prove detrimental to him, but he wasn’t going to vote differently than his dad. So Tara and Helen voted for Kristin, but Ron and Mike voted for Laura as expected and it came down to Filipe, who you’ll remember is pretty tight with Kristin. So of course, Filipe also voted for Laura. Whew. I really want Kristin to win and she gets to stick around another week after dodging a bullet. But Ron showed me something…that he’s not all about the game as we suspected last week. He had Laura’s best interests ultimately in mind and proved it. Tara may have been thinking more of herself, and that she didn’t want to lose the vote support of her friend, or she could have been genuinely worried that Laura would struggle too much at home.

The show, thankfully, sent their doctors and physical therapists to work with Laura at home, and she was shown as doing quite well in her rehabbing. I’d say Laura is a dark horse to win the $100K, as she has to date lost 77 pounds, with a lot more weight to potentially drop.

So we’re down to six……Mikey and Ron, Tara, Filipe, Kristin and Helen. This is getting interesting and I think it’s truly anyone’s game to make the Final 4. See you next week…

Anyway, since Nicole was voted off by a slim margin last week, with Filipe, Sione and Helen all voting for Ron, there was hell to be paid by Ron, who Kristin said is competitive, manipulative, and that they call him “The Godfather.” Wow. But check this out….when they all went back to the dorms, Mike and Ron said they felt betrayed, and Ron said “Thanks to all of you who voted to keep me here, but for those who didn’t, may you be struck down and die.” Holy crap, did Ron just say that? Then he went on some rant to Filipe about Filipe lying to Ron’s face, and Filipe didn’t defend himself, but he was clearly upset that Ron called him a liar. Let’s face it, this is a game and now that game was on.

So the initial challenge this week was a gameplay inducer if there ever was one. There were about 100 covered silver trays, and under each one was either a high calorie snack, or a few packs of sugarless gum with $500 or $1000. But there was one that held “the golden ticket,” which granted that person the one and only vote at this week’s weigh in, provided that person was above the yellow line. But as the contestants opened a tray, they had to eat what was under the cover before moving on to another tray. The calories could, and would, add up fast. But nobody wanted somebody else to have that golden ticket, so they all indulged, knowing that their trainers would be pissed. Well, Kristin actually ate maybe one snack and then stopped, thinking that if she ate less than everyone else, she had a better chance of avoiding potential elimination. I like Kristin, and now that Ron has been exposed as a gameplayer as well as his son Mikey, I want Kristin to win.

Anyway, Laura wound up with the golden ticket, and she immediately tried to convince her game partner Tara to throw the weigh in so that Laura would have an easy choice. But Tara wasn’t sure she wanted to disrespect the reason they were all there, and feared that Laura might fall below the line with her anyway. Needless to say, Bob and Jillian were extremely annoyed, and vowed to make everyone work extra hard in the gym that week.

Kristin then brought Laura breakfast in bed, which was quite hilarious. Then Jillian brought her team to Subway for some product placement, and Jerry and Coleen from last season were on hand to show everyone how they were both still living the healthy lifestyle they learned at the ranch.

Then it was time for the main challenge, which took place at The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, one of the most storied football venues in the country. But they weren’t there to play football. The teams, broken into men vs. women, had to run up and down the stairs, ultimately grabbing their own colored flag to bring back to the starting point. The two players who brought their flags first would face off in a second heat to determine the winner, who would claim the prize of a family spa vacation. Not surprisingly, it came down to Sione and Tara. But for as much as Sione kept saying he wanted to win, he was once again no match for the fiery Tara. Okay, so we’re back to this again. I’m now fully convinced that Tara threw the challenge last week to make everyone like her more.

They then showed Kristin going for a walk with Helen, Sione and Filipe, ironically the alliance that voted to send Ron home the previous week. Kristin kept her mouth shut when Filipe asked for Kristin to join their alliance, and that was smart. Then there was another product placement as Bob treated his team to the DVD of “Marley and Me” while showing them the difference between air popped popcorn and movie theater popcorn. I’ll tell you what the difference is, Bob…..your version is like eating unsalted cardboard while the theater version is crunchy, oily and wonderfully salty. Of course, that’s why I have a bit of a spare tire, so I won’t say Bob is wrong.

Then came the weigh in. Mikey went first and lost 5 pounds, which is not what he wanted. Ron lost 9, which he was happy about but not happy that he did better than Mikey. Whatever, dude. Tara was next and lost only 3 pounds. Jillian was pissed and thought that Tara purposely threw the weigh in, but Tara vowed that she didn’t and I have to say I believed her. Kristin lost 6 pounds which made me really happy, but Helen lost 2 and was in danger of falling below the line. Filipe lost 7 but Sione only lost 4, putting he and Helen at the bottom. Now it was Laura’s turn. Would she fall below the line and lose her vote, or would she be faced with the task of voting off either Helen or Sione?
Laura lost 8 pounds, which not only gave her that one vote, but put her in first place for the week. Wow.

So as she contemplated what to do and listened to Helen say Laura was like a daughter to her and Sione say she was like a sister to him, Sione and Filipe then did some weird Hawaiian dance and chant for good luck. Then as they showed them at the chopping block, Mrs. Mike said something that made total sense….that is, who would Tara want voted off? Clearly that would be Sione, her biggest rival and a big threat to win it all. Helen is not going to win, and she will likely get herself voted off soon. And sure enough, Laura used her power to vote Sione off and send him home.

Sione was at peace with the decision, and they showed him at home with his family being more active and being a better father and husband than he had been before. Good for him. But he’s also gone down from 372 pounds to 235. And trust me, dude is not done yet. I’m quite sure Sione is going to battle Nicole for that $100K.

So that’s it. We’re down to the teams of Ron and Mike and Tara and Laura, with individual players Kristin, Filipe and Helen. Ron was shown telling Mikey that having two of the players who voted for Ron last week fall below the line was the perfect scenario for both of them. But I think Ron is setting himself up to turn the house against he and his son. We’ll see.

Meanwhile, aren’t you all so thrilled that gameplay is back? Ugh.

Estella lost 45 pounds, or 18.6%; David, though he looked about the same as when the season started, lost 46 pounds or 11.7%; and Nicole lost a whopping 87 pounds, or 32.34%, and was the clear winner. Not only that, Nicole has the second highest percentage of weight loss in the house now, second only to the mighty Tara. Not surprisingly, this made everyone nervous.

Then Tara was shown talking to Jillian, her trainer, telling her about the demons she faces and is afraid of when she goes home, the demons that allowed her to balloon to almost 300 pounds. But Jillian calmed her down and pointed out that Tara should be proud she recognizes the demonds and that she has confidence in Tara. Then, Ron was shown walking around the campus and experienced chest pains. He was sent to the hospital, where Dr. H took care of Ron and recommended a scope procedure to see why he was bleeding internally. Turns out it was a side effect from his gastric bypass surgery, and that Ron is fine. Whew.

Then for the main challenge, the host was Michelle, last season’s winner. The challenge was to balance on 40 ropes suspended above a pool. The ropes would be cut one by one, leaving them to balance as best they could. The winner would have a one-pound advantage at the weigh in. Amazingly, Tara did not win…in fact, she dropped in the pool with three or four of the others still competing. Mrs. Mike doesn’t agree, but I think Tara took a dive, because she didn’t want anymore bad blood between her and the field. Then it came down to Sione and Kristin, and Sione was staring Kristin down because he wanted to win so badly, and he did.

Then, after the last chance workout, Allison was back for the weigh in, just days after giving birth! Nicole weighed in first, and GAINED 5 pounds. Bob had mentioned that Nicole shouldn’t let the stress of being back at the ranch get to her, but it clearly did and contributed to the weight gain. So no more immunity and the likelihood that Nicole would be going back home already. Kristin lost 4 pounds, Laura gained a pound, Tara lost 6 to put her over 100 pounds of weight loss (and I actually am starting to like Tara again, just a little), Helen lost 6, Sione lost 6 but 7 with the pound advantage, Filipe lost 4, and Mike 11. Then it was Ron’s turn, and he expected to gain weight because the hospital pumped him with salt water to bring his energy back up. Ron gained 3 pounds, which wasn’t all that bad, but that put him below Laura and below the yellow line along with Nicole.

Mrs. Mike pointed out that Filipe and Sione and Kristin were shown discussing the fact that Ron was keeping his son Mikey there and that Mikey had extra “protection” that way. Interesting, but true. So clearly those three would vote to send Ron home, right? Well, it was a tough vote. Because everyone had told Nicole they were happy she was back because she challenged them all, but it wasn’t exactly fair to vote Ron off after he just spent the week in a hospital. I think they should have given him a free pass this week, but this is show biz.

Anyway, Mikey, Laura and Tara all voted for Nicole, while Filipe, Sione and Helen voted for Ron. That left Kristin with the deciding vote, and she surprised everyone by voting for Nicole…citing that Nicole was just more of a threat to win than Ron. She also correctly pointed out that Nicole has proven that she can do this at home. So as quickly as Nicoled had returned, she was going home again.

They showed her at home trying on wedding dresses, and she has gone from a size 24 to a size 12. Wow. But while Nicole has lost 105 pounds now, down from 269 to 164, she is not done yet and has her eye on the $100K prize. As for who might win the whole thing…I have absolutely no idea. But I’d rule out Filipe, Ron or Laura right away and say that it will be Kristin, Sione, Tara, Helen or Mikey. I guess I’m putting my money on Mikey, and I hope he wins to set an example for his younger brother and for millions of overweight teenagers.

That’s it….the season is flying by and I’m exhausted from watching four hours of TV. See you next week, and get ready for more curveballs!

But wait, they can’t make it easy, can they? Each contestant, within minutes of being home, received a package from “The Biggest Loser,” a tin of giant sugar cookies, and a DVD of Alison telling them they would each be running a half-marathon this week. The winner would take home $10,000. Wow. But wait, there’ s a catch. For each cookie that someone eats, they can add 5 minutes to someone else’s time. They all joked around that they wanted to add as many five minute increments to Tara’s time as possible, but not many of them actually at the cookies as we’ll find out shortly.

Naturally, Tara won the race, but Sione would have won if he hadn’t pulled up lame in the final mile. Still, he limped to the finish line, but he came in second. Everyone else finished except Ron, who walked four miles because of his bad knees. So then Alison asked if anyone ate the cookies. No one gave Sione any penalty, but Helen ate one cookie to penalize Tara and add five minutes to her time. That gave Sione the victory, which ultimately was fair because of his injury, but still pissed off Tara especially because she was sabotaged by her own teammate.

Along with Mikey’s brother Max, Aubrey’s dad is huge, admittedly weighing over 500 pounds. Aubrey tried to tell him he needs to get his act together, but the dad isn’t buying into it just yet, and that bums her out.

Finally, everyone was back and had their last chance workout, their only workout of the week with Bob and Jillian training them. Then came the weigh in. Would the black team finally lose a challenge? Mikey lost 8 pounds, Laura 6, Tara 2, Sione 4, Filipe 7 and Helen 7. All pretty good numbers, except for Tara, who is clearly hitting a wall at this point. The total was 34 pounds, or 2.35%. The blue team now consists of Aubrey, Cathy, Kristin and Ron, and is shrinking every week. Aubrey lost 5 pounds, Ron 10, but Kristin gained a pound and her mom Cathy lost just one pound, handing the blue team another loss. Cathy stepped up and asked for her team to send her home, an unselfish act and an outcome her team ultimately, unanimously, agreed with.

Cathy went home to Green Bay and to date has lost 78 pounds, down from 293 to 215, and she vowed that we wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between her and Kristin at the finale. You go, Cathy! See you all next week, when there are sure to be more twists and turns. Ugh, is anyone else annoyed with this show’s format as I am?

This week’s episode began on Tuesday night with a challenge that would determine new teams with new trainers. It would be from here on out blue vs. black, but some contestants would have to switch trainers. The challenge was to do 100 up-downs, football training camp-style, but in mud. The first to 100 would get to choose their trainer, and the rest would deal with a flip of Alison Sweeney’s coin. As it turned out, Tara won the challenge (of course) and they were able to stay with Jillian. Filipe and Sione had to switch to Jillian and Mandi and Aubrey had to switch to Bob. In all, I think 6 or 7 of them had a different trainer. But I didn’t expect them to act like it was the end of the world, and they did. What’s worse, Bob Harper started crying. I mean, come on!

For the main challenge, the two teams had to face off on stationery bikes, and pedal, taking turns, for 24 straight hours. They could eat and sleep when they weren’t on the bike, but they had to finish and the team with the most miles won. This was a struggle for them all, and some of them wanted to quit with like 10 hours left. But they decided to tough it out and they all felt good about that. In the end, the blue team rode for 264 miles and the black team 301, including Tara’s leading 58.8 miles (of course).

The show last night began with a Prevention Magazine pop quiz, and the black team won that and a spa vacation for all of the team members. Then came the last chance workout, and then the weigh in. But now that it was blue vs. black, things would be different. They would weigh in as a team, and the losing team would vote to send someone home…just like in “Biggest Loser” seasons past.

The blue team went first. Dane lost 13, Aubrey 5, Mandi 7, Ron 5, Kristen 10, and Cathy 14! Dane has lost 100 pounds in just 8 weeks, which is mind-boggling. Then the black team weighed in…Helen lost 7 pounds, Laura 8, Tara 11 (of course) and she has lost 83 pounds to date, Mike lost 10 and has lost 91 so far, Filipe 8, and Sione 10 and he’s lost 86 pounds. Wow. So the black team won the weigh in and the blue team had to vote someone off their squad.

In the deliberation room, Ron preached that he wanted to stay and that he was voting for Dane because he thought Dane could succeed at home. Well, yeah, but Dane gets rewarded that way for losing 100 pounds? Ron, meanwhile, has a bad knee and can’t exercise like the others. Aubrey couldn’t decide, so she voted for Kristin. Dane and Mandi voted for Ron, but then Ron, Cathy and Kristin all voted for Dane, sending him home. There was no gameplay involved in this at all, though Dane suspected Ron wanted to kick Dane off because he was a bigger threat to his son Mike. But I don’t think so. These contestants are all too nice.

Dane went home and ran a freaking marathon with his wife….wow! They didn’t say how much weight he’s lost but we already knew he lost 100 pounds, and the marathon had to help aid that cause even more.

So that’s it…..it’s now blue vs. black. I’m going to go out on a limb, I have a weird feeling about young Mikey that he could win it all. We’ll see, but it’s sure getting interesting. See you guys next week.