Biggest Loser 8 – Week 9
Aired 11-10-09
Our group, sans Tracey, had returned to the ranch and we opened with them meeting up on the grounds with host Alison Sweeney. She announced that there would be a double elimination this week. They were about to go from 8 to 6. At the weigh in there would be the traditional yellow line but, for this week, there would also be a red line. The person with the lowest percent of weight lost would fall below the red line and automatically be sent home. The next two lowest would go through the regular elimination process. But first, they had to face this week’s Pop Challenge.
Pop Challenge
The winner of the challenge would get a one pound advantage at the weigh in. Amanda and Liz couldn’t participate for medical reasons so they were out of luck. The other six had to jump up and grab tennis balls off of a board. They then had to run over and drop the ball into a bucket. The first person to get 50 balls into their bucket would win. A tall guy, like Rudy, would definitely seem to have an advantage but they mitigated some of that by varying how high the balls were placed on the board based on each person’s height. Allen got off to an early lead just ahead of Rudy. In the end, it was Rebecca who was running neck and neck with Allen but he was the ultimate victor.
We then learned that the house had naturally divided itself into two informal teams: the “older” group (Liz, Danny, Rudy and Allen) and the “younger” (Amanda, Rebecca, Shay and Daniel). Whichever “team” had the person who fell below the red line would be at a big disadvantage when it came time for the regular elimination vote.
Trainers Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels checked in with the group to get the results of the D.C. elimination. Jillian thought it was ironic that Tracey was sent home saying, “I finally am able to stand the sight of this girl and now she’s gone.” They then got the bombshell about the double elimination and they were not pleased. They dismissed everyone and talked the situation over. Jill said that, while they never wanted to get into a discussion about who “needed” or “deserved” to be there, the truth was that Shay did. Jill really saw it as a life or death question. Bob didn’t want to play God but Jill felt they had to do it. After some resistance she was able to get him to look at it more as deciding who was most able to handle the “real world” as opposed to who needed to stay. The trick was that we didn’t see them decide who the person was who was most ready to go home.
In the workouts, Jill really drove Shay. The poor girl was exhausted and crying but Jill wasn’t having any of it. She told Shay that the time for tears and drama was over. She had to be focused and strong. Jill wanted to ensure that Shay, at least, didn’t fall below the red line. She wanted Shay to have a fighting chance.
Jillian then set her sights on Rebecca. Rebecca, though, didn’t handle it as well as Shay. In a scene that looked exactly like Amanda’s previous meltdown, Rebecca said she couldn’t deal with anything else and walked out of the gym. Ironically it was Amanda who talked her through all the drama.
Jill met up a bit later with Rebecca and Shay and found them stressing out about the red line. That provided the perfect opportunity for:
Product Placement Alert 1: Sooner or later they’ll be going home so they needed to plan on finding a 24 Hour Fitness Center near them and taking advantage of the Biggest Loser promotion to work out with a friend. Sometimes I find their lack of subtlety almost endearing.
Challenge
Next up our group met Ali at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. For this challenge they were all going to, literally, jump through hoops. The prize was immunity. They would have to jump on a trampoline and dive through the hoops and land on a crash mat on the other side. It sounds more dramatic than it really was because the hoops were pretty low to the ground. Each hoop had a name on it. Each time someone jumped through a hoop, the person whose name was on it would get a point. At 100 points that person would be knocked out of the game. The “young” team went after Liz first. They felt she was at serious risk of falling below one of the lines and they wanted to make sure she didn’t get immunity. The “older” group went after Amanda because she was fast and could rack up the most points against them. Liz was the first to go, followed by Amanda and Daniel. Allen and Rebecca were next leaving just Danny, Rudy and Shay in the challenge. That’s when things got interesting. When the challenge began, Rudy and Shay were standing next to each other. They seemed to agree to not go after each other’s hoops until the very end of the challenge. The debate was what was meant by “the end”. Shay thought it meant they wouldn’t jump through each other’s hoops until they were the last two. Rudy seemed to mean the end was when one of the informal teams was on their last person. Since Shay was the last of the young ones, Rudy and Danny concentrated on her hoop. That started some trash talking between Shay and Rudy and they said some very, very harsh things. Shay told Rudy he had no integrity and Rudy said Shay had no character. It wasn’t a great moment for either of them. In the end it was Danny vs. Rudy but, at that point, Rudy only had 4 points so he easily won. They all walked away from the challenge with a full appreciation of how divided the house now was.
The young ones decided to get tricky. They took a couple of spin bikes out of the gym and hid them in Shay’s room. The four secretly worked out at night in the hopes of making the older team think they were slacking off. That was a questionable strategy. Sleep is important to health and fitness and they might have ended up exhausting themselves to the point of being counterproductive.
Bob arrived to take the group to a trapeze workout but first, he called aside Liz and Danny to do:
Product Placement Alert 2: for the Larabar - a healthy alternative to a snack bar. Liz got in trouble, though, because she immediately started chowing down on one instead of saving it for later. Bob commented that she really was an emotional eater.
Weigh In
Since Rudy had immunity he weighed in first. He lost 8 pounds for a total of 2.41%.
Shay lost 17 pounds for a total of 4.33%. She had lost exactly 100 pounds in 9 weeks setting a new BL record for female contestants.
Amanda lost 5 pounds for a total of 2.42%.
Rebecca lost 10 pounds for a total of 4.57%.
Danny lost 17 pounds for a total of 5.11%. He’d lost a total of 114 pounds.
Allen lost 10 pounds which, combine with his one pound advantage, totaled 4.35%.
Liz lost 12 pounds for a total of 5.50%.
Daniel lost just 5 pounds for a total of 1.92%. He was below the red line and heading home. He was actually one of the more composed people in the room. Rebecca was a mess and ran over to give him a hug.
Shay and Amanda were below the yellow line so it was a bad night all around for the young ones. Ali gave the group an hour to decide how to vote.
Shay tearfully told the group she wasn’t there to play a game. She was there so she could live. Amanda said she fought to be on the show and it was the first time she’d done something positive for herself.
In the elimination room poor Rebecca had to vote first. She said that she couldn’t vote to send home the person who originally chose her to be a teammate, so she wrote down Shay’s name. Allen voted for Shay because he felt she’d made great strides and had gained control. Danny voted for Amanda because he felt the person with the most to lose (Shay) should stay. Liz wrote Amanda’s name because she was playing the game and thought Amanda would get a good percentage at the next weigh in. That left it up to Rudy. He voted for Shay because she’d set and achieved a goal. Shay said she was OK because she was leaving with her word, integrity and a BL record.
In the “Where They Are Now” clip we learned that Shay has another goal. She wants to lose more than 212 pounds by the finale and set another BL record for most weight lost on the show. Daniel has now lost a total of 215 pounds over two seasons. We watched as he met up with his first teammate, David, who looks to be the same size he was when they both started. It was a little tough to watch because David is still a man in an unhealthy place. Losing weight just isn’t a priority. Daniel pledged to be there for him when he’s ready.
Next Week: It’s makeover time with Tim Gunn.
Full episodes and bonus clips of BL are available at NBC’s website here:
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