This week’s “Biggest Loser” on NBC was a special event, as the backdrop was Washington D.C., where the contestants would not only have a chance to spread the word about the show but also talk to members of congress about their own journeys and how they feel they could teach fellow Americans about a fit lifestyle.

The first thing host Alison Sweeney told them when they arrived in DC was that they would no longer be blue vs. black, but would be going back to being singles. Mrs. Mike pointed out that they have only been teams for a couple weeks, so once again they have confused us all. But okay. So the pop challenge was to gather people off the streets to come and work out with them, with Bob and Jillian leading the way….and the one who brought the most people to work out would win. Allen went straight to a fire station to lure his fire fighting “brothers” but it was Liz who drew the biggest crowd and won the challenge.

After showing the contestants telling two members of congress their stories, it was time for the main challenge. It was a four-stage challenge in front of the Jefferson memorial and Liz would be allowed to skip one stage since she won the initial challenge. The first leg was running a mile, something that freaked Tracey out because of what happened to her at the start of this season. But she made it, even though she didn’t finish high enough to move on to the next round. Those who did move on were Rebecca, Daniel, Allen, Amanda, Rudy and Liz. Then the next round was to collect pennies that were on the steps of the memorial and put them into containers representing each of them. Liz sat this one out and had a bye into the third round, and joining her would be Rudy, Daniel and Rebecca. For round 3, they had to balance on a brick holding a pilates ball, and whoever fell off first would be out. Daniel and Liz were eliminated, leaving Rebecca and Rudy. For the final round, Rebecca and Rudy had to climb up and down a step and the first one to do it 200 times won. Rebecca jumped out to a lead she never relinquished, and won the challenge…and the highly coveted immunity at this week’s weigh in.

Then the contestants were treated to lunch with Sam Kass, one of the Obamas’ personal chefs, who took them into the first family’s garden and then prepared them a salad.

Then it was time for the weigh in and since they were playing as individuals now, the bottom two would face elimination. Rebecca had immunity, so she went first and lost 4 pounds.

Shay was next and lost 9 (putting her under 400 for the first time!), followed by Tracey who lost 3. So Tracey was in danger of falling below the yellow line. Daniel lost 11, finally making up for two lousy weeks in which he could have and really should have been eliminated. Allen was next and lost 9, followed by Danny who continued to impress with a loss of 12 pounds. Rudy then weighed in and lost 9 pounds. Liz followed and lost 3, putting her below the line with Tracey. Uh-oh. Finally, Amanda was next and she lost 7 pounds, ensuring her another week on campus and putting Liz and Tracey below the line.

So remember early on when Tracey was busy playing the game that she made a bunch of enemies? Well, you’d have to think it was payback time…but then after each of them stated their case, Shay said she wasn’t impressed with Liz’ desire or lack thereof to remain on the ranch. Oh, here we go…..was Tracey going to hang around again and would Liz regret not booting her off a few weeks back?

The first one to vote was Amanda, and she brought up the fact that she didn’t trust Tracey so voted for her. Shay voted for Liz, but then Tracey had three straight votes from Danny, Daniel and Rebecca. See ya, Tracey. She defended her earlier gameplay, saying she felt she needed to play the game to remain in it, because since she wasn’t working out as much she needed all the help she could get. Unfortunately that came at the expense of alienating the other contestants.

So Tracey went home to her husband and four kids, and after losing 44 pounds on the ranch, has lost another 41 giving her 85 pounds lost so far. But not only that, she and her family returned to the place in California where she had broke down trying to run a mile and wound up in the hospital…and she completed that mile with no problem. Not only that, she looks great. Good for Tracey that she realized what was important and worked hard to achieve that. Don’t be surprised if she wins the $100K at the finale for most weight lost at home.

So now we’re down to the final eight–Rebecca, Shay, Daniel, Allen, Danny, Rudy, Liz and Amanda. Who do you like? I still think Danny is the one to beat. See you next week, when we’ll be Tracey free!

On NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” last night, the episode began with everyone (well mostly Shay) telling Tracy they didn’t trust her anymore. Tracy had told Shay she wouldn’t call her name to represent the orange team at the weigh in, but she went back on her word. Shay just wanted Tracy to admit that, but Tracy kept back-pedaling, making Shay and everyone in the house dislike her even more. Then, in a show of karma, Tracy met with Dr. H., who told her that she still could not participate in any workouts, not even walking, because of her strange muscle disorder that was causing her danger to her kidneys. Yikes. This had her teammate Coach Mo worried to say the least. Then trainer Bob Harper was telling a bunch of them that they should all fight to stay on campus, and not sacrifice for others the way the red team did last week.

Then came the next curveball. The kitchen would be locked up and off limits, meaning the contestants were going to order in every meal all week. This was a big test because they are all still learning how to eat right, and they were going to have less control over their meals but still needed to watch their calorie intake.

Host Alison Sweeney then pulled a pop challenge out. Each team would be shown three chicken meals cooked differently and with different side items, and they had to guess which one was the healthiest. The winning team would get a year’s worth of healthy groceries, a huge prize. It came down to pink, orange and brown who all guessed the correct dish. The tiebreaker was to guess the total calories in that meal without going over, and the pink team of Amanda and Rebecca won.

Then they showed them all ordering their dinners and having a tough time of it. We all know that feeling of not getting the right order upon arriving home, and this was magnified in the case of these contestants, and probably intentionally so for effect. Trainers Bob and Jillian then took the group out to a Mexican restaurant, a real test for them among tortillas and cheese and fried everything.

After this was the main challenge, in which each contestant (minus Abby and Tracy because of injury) had to hang on to handle bars while being suspended above a pool. They fell off in this order–Liz, Danny, Amanda, Rudy, Rebecca, Dina, Mo, Shay and Julio. That left firefighter Allen and last year’s returnee Danny. Dan won and his prize was immunity for both he and his teammate Shay.

During the last chance workout, Mo’s back gave out but he forged ahead after a pep talk from Bob. At the weigh in, Dan and Shay went first and Dan lost 0 pounds while Shay lost 5. Alison said “good strategy, Dan,” to which Dan said that it wasn’t intentional. Yeah, okay…you have immunity….no one believes you, dude. Green was next, with Abby and Allen losing 10 pounds, then the blue team of Rudy and Dina lost 16 (11 by Rudy). Liz and Danny lost 11, putting them in danger of elimination. Tracy and Mo lost 4 and 8, respectively, and you just have to wonder what the hell Tracy did to lose 4 pounds. Starve? Julio, the only member of his team, lost 4 pounds and also was in danger. Amanda and Rebecca went last and lost 9 pounds, which made them safe. Amanda went off again about America voting her in, and I’m just sick of hearing this….Amanda, it was filler for the finale last season, and America voted you in over one other person….get over yourself!

Anyway, it came down to the brown team of Liz and Danny, or Julio. At first Mrs. Mike and I thought it might be Julio because they would all want to vote off one person as opposed two. But some of them said a better strategy might be to send two people home. The votes began and when Julio received his third vote (after agonizing banter and crying), he was sent home.

They showed Julio, who started at 407 pounds, now weighing 299, so he’s lost 108! Nice job, dude. He also wants to lose 200 pounds total, so he has a ways to go.

So with Tracy still hanging around and gameplay beginning to rear its ugly head as it always does, the season moves on. I’m starting to think Dan could go all the way, because he’s been here before and knows what it takes, and he’s really determined.

What do you all think?