Last week, the ten remaining contestants were given an ultimatum: lose 100 pounds and they won’t have to send anyone home. Ten pounds apiece? That’s a tall order in any week besides Week One, and despite the ministrations of all three trainers, the ten of them couldn’t even amass 50 pounds lost, and Sunny followed up her incredible fourteen-pound loss from the week before with a five-pound gain. Vulnerable for the very first time was the Black Team, and the almost unanimously decided to send uncooperative loner Jennifer home. Nine remain.
Immediately following Jennifer’s departure, Alison sent them to bed with the instructions to wear the gray shirts they started the season in, the one sporting their numerical age on it. The Black Team immediately congregated and swore that no matter what might happen, they’re still together. It seemed clear that a team reshuffling was in order, and the next morning, that was exactly the case. So “Battle of the Ages” would now appear to be done.
This week’s challenges: The business of picking new teams was a nutrition quiz. The teams were divided into groups of three by age again (same as before, but with Joe joining Becky and Bonnie), and were told to guess the total calories from three separate dishes. The winner would get the ability to pick their trainer. The person from each triad who was the next closest would get to choose from the other two, and the person who was furthest away would get the final unpicked trainer. Because the guessing groups are already separated by age, this means that the three new teams will be broken down in such a way so that there will be one person under 30, one person over 45, and one person in between on each team. I think I like this.
I’m the only one, though. The contestants hate the idea of splitting up, especially lovebirds Ramon and Jessica. When all was said and done, Bob’s Black Team ended up being Vinny, Antone and Becky; Dolvett’s Red Team consisted of Jessica, John and Bonnie; and Anna’s Blue Team was comprised of Ramon, Sunny and Joe. This looked like a match made in hell from the get-go, especially after Anna openly criticized Ramon’s relationship with Jessica, calling it a bad distraction. (It’s worth noting that Jessica and Antone were the only ones to retain their original trainers.)
There was also an almost Survivor-esque challenge in which the contestants had to travel down a Slip n’ Slide to the bottom of a hill and retrieve one of a dozen triangular-shaped letter blocks. When all the blocks were together, they could spell out one of three different prizes: $6,000 between them, a three-pound advantage at the weigh-in, or immunity for one player. By a hair, the new Blue Team won, spelling out “Immunity For 1” without really knowing what it meant, thinking they all had immunity. Whoops. One round of rock-paper-scissors later, Joe claimed the immunity for himself.
This week’s drama/revelations/breakthroughs: If there was one person glad of the change of trainers, it was Bonnie, who had been at loggerheads with Anna since Day One. There may be something to that, as she’s only dropped an average of four pounds per week under Anna’s tutelage. Not every trainer/contestant pairing works out, but working out under Dolvett seemed to do Bonnie a world of good, as she opened right up to him, breaking down about the husband she lost four years ago and the kids and grandkids that she is determined not to let lose another family member. Dolvett even got Bonnie to admit the possibility that she might consider dating again. Wow, that’s a breakthrough.
And now, this week’s numbers:
Blue Team (Anna):
Ramon - lost 16 pounds (-69 total), -5.30%, now stands at 286.
Joe - lost 15 pounds (-77 total), -5.24%, now stands at 271.
Sunny - lost 14 pounds (-59 total), -3.96%, now stands at 218.
Total – 45 pounds lost (-5.49%).
Black Team (Bob): Becky - lost 11 pounds (-46 total), -5.42%, now stands at 192.
Antone - lost 16 pounds (-94 total), -4.34%, now stands at 353.
Vinny - lost 12 pounds (-71 total), -3.27%, now stands at 355.
Total – 39 pounds lost (-4.15%)
Red Team (Dolvett): John - lost 15 pounds (-116 total), -4.36%, now stands at 329.
Jessica - lost 8 pounds (-53 total), -3.83%, now stands at 201.
Bonnie - lost 7 pounds (-33 total), -3.07%, now stands at 221.
Total – 30 pounds lost (-3.77%)
Wow, what a fantastic turnaround. They all needed this in the worst way, especially after failing so miserably last week. And, for the very first time, a team led by Bob did NOT win, and for the first time, a team led by Anna did. If only the 100-pound ultimatum had come around one week later! What makes this even more amazing is not so much that Anna won, but she did it with a team she was totally unfamiliar with going in, with two of the three members (Joe and Ramon) questioning her abilities right from the start.
Kudos. To pretty much everybody for rebounding, but especially to the Blue Team, who pulled it together in a big way; to Ramon and Becky, for breaking through the 300- and 200-pound barriers, respectively; and to John, once again, for continuing to dominate the weigh-ins and maintain his ever-widening lead.
Elimination. With John getting the highest percentage on the Blue Team, the person to be eliminated had to be either Jessica or Bonnie. Frankly, it sucks that either one of them has to go, but that’s the game. Not surprisingly, Jessica’s former teammates Vinny and Ramon voted for Bonnie, but everyone else cast their votes for Jessica, and she was sent home.
Standings. John maintains his huge lead, having lost 26.07% thus far. Second place is now Joe (-22.13%), followed by Sunny (-21.30%) and Antone (-21.03%).
Update. It’s regrettable that she wasn’t able to bust through that 200-pound plateau at the Ranch, but since returning home to San Francisco, she has done just that, dropping an additional 16 pounds to achieve a weight of 185 pounds, a full 69 pounds lighter than she started her journey with. She has gone from a size 22 to a size 10, and couldn’t be happier about that. She got the privilege of working out at the same training facility that the Pittsburgh Steelers use, and even got Ike Taylor himself to help train her for her upcoming marathon. She just might win it, too.
Next week: Ramon takes umbrage with his teammates for sending his best girl home. And yet another twist in the game threatens to shake the Ranch to its foundation. (Well, not really, but that sounded dramatic, didn’t it?)
