Last week, the eighteen remaining contestants were temporarily stripped of their individual team colors and assigned a group color: the nine contestants being trained by Bob and Jillian would be the Black Team and the nine being trained by Brett and Cara would become the Red Team. However, in a bold, highly controversial and not-terribly-well-thought-out move, Arthur decided to “win” a temptation challenge by eating chocolates and thereby send Jay and Jennifer over to the Red Team in exchange for Deni and Sarah. This did not sit will with anyone, like, at all, not even Bob, who has fought tooth and nail for Arthur to be there. Anyway, despite being the apparent underdogs, the heavily-female Black Team not only lost a higher percentage than the heavily-male Red Team, but they lost more pounds as well, and the Red Team decided that they had had enough of Q’s chronic underperforming and sent him home. Seventeen remain.
In addition, Moses became the first player in Biggest Loser history to lose 100 pounds in only six weeks, a record that I figure will be nigh-impossible to beat. I’m looking forward to this week, because four members of the black team are poised to break into the 100’s at this week’s weigh-in, a feat that is always awesome.
Anyway, tonight’s episode jumps right into this week’s “pop challenge”. Each team will have its members hitched together by a long length of rope tied together with some really evil-looking knots. The object is simple: untie all the knots and get the team over the finish line. The prize: only the winning team will have access to the BL Gym the entire week. That is big. The Red Team, smarting from losing two people in two weeks, is able to score an easy victory thanks to Justin (who grew up on a cattle ranch). Now, if the Black Team had won, I think it wouldn’t have hurt the Red Team to find an alternative to the gym, given that they didn’t have said gym for a whole month. But this might hurt the Black Team, who has had nothing but since Day One.
When Bob and Jillian find out that their group won’t have access to the gym, she visibly scoffs, saying it’s weird how when they win a challenge, it’s something sweet like videos from home, but when they lose it’s a serious handicap. But I recall numerous occasions in past seasons when the gym was locked and the contestants were forced to use alternative methods, so I’m thinking that Jillian’s reaction is for drama only. Hey, you don’t get to be the Albert Pujols of your profession if you can’t learn to hit a few curve balls, huh?
In the gym, Brett and Cara seem to think that they have a clear advantage this week, but Jay is understandably worried that he and Jennifer are still the outsiders of the group, a group that is as tightly-knit as they come. A scuffle develops later, however, between Cara and Rulon when Rulon refuses to take direction from his trainer. Cara then takes a page from Jillian’s book and pulls Rulon outside for a heart-to-heart, where Rulon confesses that he’s nowhere near where he wants to be in his own head. Cara presses him further, but is unable to get him to open up beyond that. Rulon says in interview that he has had a hard time trusting people, and that he needs to come to terms with the fact that he’s not the tough guy he pretends to be.
The good news for the Black Team is that, even though they don’t have a roof over their heads while working out, they are not without a few machines, as it looks like there are enough spin bikes placed strategically around the swimming pool to go around. However, some early tension develops as a result of their failure at the challenge, and Hannah seems to be taking the loss personally, a fact that does not sit well with her teammates. Gentle Bob reminds them, once again, that they may be the underdogs, but that they crushed the Red Team at the last weigh-in, and no one can take that away from them.
After the commercial break, the teams are brought to a remote location after dark and given a very interesting challenge: each team must push a 24-ton locomotive car a total of 800 feet. Along the way, they must answer six trivia questions at specific times, and a wrong answer will cost a team a 15-second penalty. The winning team would have the opportunity to choose an opposing team member to have their weight not count towards their team’s percentage at the weigh-in.
On paper, this feat of brute strength would seem to favor the much-beefier Red Team, but I had hopes that the Black Team could turn in a decent score. Despite the fact that Arthur had to drop back after being unable to keep up with the moving train, the Black Team pushed the train over the finish line in 2:05, which is pretty impressive. Still, the sheer muscle of the Red Team was able to best that time by a full thirty seconds. The Black Team got only two of six questions right, which, though better than the Red Team’s one of six, was not enough to secure victory. Which means that the Red Team had the fateful weigh-in choice.
The last-chance workout footage starts with the Red Team, who desperately want to stop the Black Team’s winning streak. Jennifer is especially anxious, because she knows that if they lose, it will probably be her father who goes home, since he would insist to his teammates that they do so. At one point, Kaylee breaks down crying and confesses to Brett than she never thought she would be so close to being the ideal version of herself that she always dreamed of. She is easily my favorite person on the Red Team, and I just adore her.
Cara, meanwhile, has made good on her mission to draw Rulon out of his stoic shell, and a lot of progress was made. Rulon confessed that he likes to act like he’s in control because the truth is that his life has been the exact opposite since he won his Olympic medal. He deceived himself into believing nothing was wrong, and it took its toll, which caused him to balloon to nearly 500 pounds. Cara wonders if he will regress to his behavior without a competition to drive him, but Rulon promises that it isn’t just about that, but that he wants to live a long life with his wife and family. He finally breaks down crying, which was a very touching moment. Way to go, Cara!
The Black Team concludes their gym-less week with Bob having them continuing to do the spin bikes, the row machines and even pressing lawn furniture. Jillian, meanwhile, decides to reinforce Arthur’s abilities by having him – with the rest of the Black Team watching - push a truck around, something they did on Day One. And he does a damn fine job. Cue the inspirational music!
So, finally, it’s weigh-in time. Here is how the Red Team did:
Red Team
Jay - lost 9 pounds, now stands at 308 (-92 overall).
Jennifer - lost 7 pounds, now stands at 211 (-67 overall).
Moses - lost 7 pounds, now stands at 333 (-107 overall).
Kaylee - lost 3 pounds, now stands at 187 (-46 overall).
Justin - lost 5 pounds, now stands at 277 (-88 overall).
Rulon - lost 11 pounds, now stands at 371 (-103 overall).
Austin - lost 10 pounds, now stands at 306 (-90 overall).
Ken - lost 11 pounds, now stands at 296 (-81 overall).
Team Total: 63 pounds, 2.68%
After much deliberation, the Black Team announced that it would be Irene’s weight that would not count toward the team total this week. Which meant that the remaining eight players would have to combine to lose at least 53 pounds in order to win the weigh in.
Black Team
Irene - lost 6 pounds, now stands at 198 (-57 overall).
Deni - lost 5 pounds, now stands at 196 (-60 overall).
Sarah - lost 4 pounds, now stands at 208 (-53 overall).
Olivia - lost 2 pounds, now stands at 206 (-55 overall).
Hannah - lost 7 pounds, now stands at 194 (-54 overall).
Marci - lost 6 pounds, now stands at 181 (-57 overall).
Courtney lost 7 pounds, now stands at 258 (-65 overall).
Jesse - lost 8 pounds, now stands at 238 (-55 overall).
Arthur - lost 20 pounds, now stands at 415 (-92 overall).
Team Total: 59 pounds, 3.02%
Holy crap, they did it again. And without the gym, no less. Just unbelievable. This is exactly what Arthur hoped would happen when he made the switcheroo, but I don’t think even he could have predicted this, not the least of which was losing nearly 1/3 of his team’s weight all by himself. And if the Red Team had picked Arthur instead of Irene, they would have won. Whoops.
Kudos. To Rulon, for pushing his total weight loss to triple digits; to Ken, for going below 300 for the first time since, according to him, the year that Austin was born; to Irene, Deni and Hannah, for all entering “One-derland”, meaning a weight beginning with the numeral one; and to Arthur himself, for finally proving his worth to his team. (When that -20 came up, everyone of his teammates rushed up the stairs to hug him, which may be my favorite moment of the season so far… at least, until I saw Jennifer start bawling. Killjoy.)
Elimination. This one should hold no surprise, because it was made clear from the get-go that it would either be Jay or Jennifer going home this week, and naturally, Jay did the fatherly thing and ask that he be the one to receive the votes in order to keep his daughter there (but for how long, I wonder). And so it went, as all the former Unknowns still on the Red Team cast their vote to send Jay home.
Update. Since leaving The Ranch, Jay has lost a further 19 pounds and currently stands at 289. But even better news than that: at the beginning, Jay was told by Dr. H that he had a heart arrhythmia and a 90% change of diabetes. His inner age was listed as 71, a full 18 years beyond his actual age. That number is now at 64, and his risk for diabetes, stroke and heart disease have all been drastically reduced. Obviously, this makes Jay and his wife Kim very happy, but Jay pledges to keep going and win the at-home prize by getting down to 199. Good luck, sir!
Next week: with more than half the Black Team under 200 pounds and getting slimmer by the day, they can’t keep up this winning pace. They just can’t. (Can they?) Anyway, not one but two people will eliminated, and it seems clear that Jay won’t be the first parent to fall on the grenade for their kids.
