For all the flying tempers this week, it all ended up being an emotional episode.
The Biggest Loser enters face-off week this week, with members of the Blue Team facing off against the members of the Black Team just to stay safe in the competition. The catch this time around, is that one team gets to choose who they face off against. It's a challenge that's a bit like limbo, but not really--but what the heck, the important bit is, the Blue Team won, albeit barely, since the whole thing was pretty close.
So we get the obligatory smack-talking bit, although a part of me goes "it's all for show" or something like it. Rebecca chose Amanda, Tracey chose Abby, Allen chose Danny, Rudy chose Shay, and Liz chose Daniel.
This week's challenge was a bit of a cheat. Derek Jeter was around--on videotape. Errr, sure. Contestants had to pick up 2,535 balls, which happens to be the number of this Derek made last season. Then they throw those balls at life-sized standees of the contestants. The first target to get 316 hits (Derek's career batting average, mind you) will win a meal from Curtis Stone and, more importantly, a two-pound advantage. The Black Team won that one.
The important bit this week? The drama. But of course. Before the challenge Amanda went face-to-face with Jillian, and of course it got pretty bad. Scary, even. Jillian would go soft later on, though, talking to Shay about her childhood--she came from a foster home, right--and talking to Abby about her painful past, when her husband and kids were killed by a speeding driver. Jillian was left speechless.
The weigh-in panned out pretty quickly for the Black Team: they quickly knew that they lost the weigh-in halfway through. Amanda got the two-pound advantage but Rebecca lost more weigh than her anyway. Tracey was the first to breach the 200-pound mark. But the biggest story during the weigh-in came from Rudy, who broke the record and became the fastest contestant in the show to lose a hundred pounds. Actually he lost 101 pounds already, which is pretty mind-blowing. Around to see the breakthrough was Dane, who took that record last season.
The blacks went to elimination, and there wasn't much consensus on who to eliminate. Tears abound, of course, especially when Abby offered herself up for elimination. She figures she already got the boost she needed to start again. Shay was shattered, calling Abby her mother figure, but she respected her wishes anyway, and voted for her. The rest did the same, except for Danny, who voted for Daniel because he's been through this before.
"I'm having new dreams again," Abby said before she left. Tear. She has since lost 80 pounds, and works as a motivational speaker.
Next week, the ranch relocates to Washington, D.C., where they visit the White House kitchen to make salads, before having a weigh-in at the Lincoln Memorial. Oh, and a really big workout (as in really big) and karma biting back, again. To the scoreboard, then:
Abby: 201 pounds (-3) (eliminated)
Allen: 262 pounds (-8)
Amanda: 214 pounds (-4)
Daniel: 272 pounds (-5)
Danny: 345 pounds (-12) (immunity)
Liz: 221 pounds (-7)
Rebecca: 223 pounds (-9)
Rudy: 341 pounds (-14)
Shay: 402 pounds (-9)
Tracey: 197 pounds (-5)
- Henrik Batallones, BuddyTV Staff Columnist(Image courtesy of NBC)