Month: November 2007

The Biggest Loser 4 Episode 11

Well, it finally happened. In The Biggest Loser 4 episode 10, after whining for 10 weeks, Amy got sent home. Despite the rest of the black team voting to keep their newest member, Isabeau wasn’t having it and went with the rest of the house, keeping the person who actually wanted to be there.

Alison tells them that, having survived for three months, they deserve a reward. She has a surprise for them, which she’ll reveal the next day. To start off, though, she gives them their before pictures. Bill says that’s a person he really didn’t like that much. Nicole says it’s scary because she never thought she was that big. Isabeau says she just saw a sad girl. Alison’s last bit of advice is to rest up.

Jillian tells Isabeau that she made a massive mistake because it’s now 4 againt 4, and her team’s not as strong. Now there’s a vote of confidence. She then adds that Bryan, who in terms of percentage of weight loss is actually 5th of all the current people who remain (the bottom three are the black team girls, a point which makes them vulnerable regardless), is the #1 threat in the game behind Kae. Not sure what logic is being used to arrive at that conclusion, though it is a valid point to suggest he’s more of a threat than Amy was. For anyone interested in the number crunching (notice Bill’s managed to edge out Kae… I think they let the wrong brother go):

Bill 334 234 -29.94%
Kae 225 159 -29.33%
Neil 421 311 -26.13%
Nicole 279 222 -20.43%
Bryan 346 276 -20.23%
Isabeau 298 241 -19.13%
Julie 218 180 -17.43%
Hollie 255 212 -16.86%

Bryan leaves his envelope with his before picture on the bed for Kim. She opens it up and assumes the worst, then he comes running out and jumps on her, and he thanks her for how much she’s helped him.

Isabeau’s pissed off at how Jillian’s acting, and Julie suggests standing up for herself. Now Isabeau starts to consider Amy’s plan: go to the enemy and train there.

They go to the NBC studios, Days of Our Lives, where Alison stars as Sami Brady. There they will be receiving star treatment in the form of a makeover and professional photo shoot, with a chance to appear on the cover of Prevention magazine. Everybody is happy to, for one day at least, be pampered and get all dressed up, as opposed to being run ragged in sweaty gym clothes. They start off in hair and makeup, then move on to wardrobe, which they’re pleased with because they can wear normal clothes instead of having to settle for whatever’s available in their sizes.

From there, they move to a mirror, but looking at themselves post-makeover isn’t the only thing they’re there for, as behind the mirror are their loved ones. I’m not real clear how they got these people, who are mostly self conscious as it is, to look at themselves in a three way mirror for the length of time they did (granted, anyone who would do something like this on national TV may not be as shy as they may claim). Bryan’s wife Kenisha, Julie’s husband Mike, Bill’s twin brother Jim (who himself has lost 93 pounds), Isabeau’s boyfriend, Hollie’s friend Antoinetta, Neil’s girlfriend Stephanie, Nicole’s mom Diane, and Kae’s husband Eric were on hand for an emotional reunion. Everybody is particularly excited by the looks on the faces when they see them. Afterwards, they eat dinner with their guests at Brady’s Pub, on the set of Days of Our Lives.

After the photo shoot, Liz from Prevention magazine must select one person to appear on the cover. And the cover winner is… Kae. Not only does she look great, but her drive and determination has been one of the greatest success stories of the show’s history.

At the challenge, the contestants must stay above the yellow line. It’s a climbing challenge. There’s a yellow line that they start off above and must stay above. They continue to climb. As they climb, the rope moves down. Anyone who goes below the yellow line gets eliminated. Hollie, Isabeau, and Julie fall out in an order that could be expected. Kae makes it almost to the top, with Bill nipping at her heels. Neil’s next out, followed by Nicole. Bryan fights but ultimately is eliminated sixth. Kae continues to be strong and wins the challenge, which comes along with a reward of a $5,000 shopping spree that she can spend when she gets home.

Black team’s still talking about a red/blue alliance. I thought we already established that was BS weeks ago. With their horrible losses (or lack thereof) last week, I’d expect quite a bit from Hollie and Julie, as well as Bryan.

Neil: 303 pounds (-8, 2.57%)
Isabeau: 234 pounds (-7, 2.90%)
Bill: 228 pounds (-6, 2.56%)
Hollie: 204 pounds (-8, 3.77%)
Nicole: 218 pounds (-4, 1.80%)
Julie: 176 pounds (-4, 2.22%)
Kae: 156 pounds (-3, 1.89%)
Bryan: 270 pounds (-6, 2.17%)

This leaves Nicole and Kae below the yellow line. As strong as she’s been, we’re getting to a point where Kae’s going to have trouble hanging on just because she has so little weight left to lose. She’s still a bigger threat than Nicole, but regardless, it’s obvious how much fear there is surrounding Kae.

Neil’s upset because he’s tired of the weaker people aiming to take out the stronger people. I’d like to see him win it and take out black team by himself, although of the black team, I would be comfortable with Bill winning, as he’s been a strong performer. Neil tells everybody to bring it on.

Votes
Bill: Kae
Bryan: Kae
Neil: Nicole
Isabeau: Kae
Julie: Kae

Why even bother wasting 10 minutes on this? This was the most obvious vote ever. She leaves continuing to inspire them and having lost over 30% of her original weight, easily the highest for any female in the show’s history, not to mention ahead of most men as well, including season 3 winner Erik. In a special live appearance, Kae returns for a weigh in, where she’s first greeted by Bob. Her starting weight was 225 pounds. Her current weight is 137 pounds, down 88 pounds, close to 40%.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Biggest Loser 4 Episode 12, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.

Survivor: China Winner Revealed?

This spoiler turned out to be correct. Read the Live Finale Blog for more.

The latest issue of Instinct Magazine may or may not have spoiled the identity of the Survivor: China winner based on, well, nothing they’re revealing to the public.

***Possible spoilers ahead***

The Malcontent picked up Instinct’s December issue, which has a cover story featuring Todd Herzog, who it labels “Million Dollar Man”. Unfortunately, the article itself has no hints as to what this actually means, if anything, as Todd’s tossed questions about his first kiss and the Spice Girls.

So what’s this all mean? Maybe nothing. Maybe everything. I’ll leave it up to you to take what you will from this.

Kid Nation Episode 10

The town council decided to shake things up in Kid Nation Episode 9 by trading Nathan, Emily, and Blaine to new districts. The town hated this. Laurel decided not to trade anybody. The town hated this, too. Except for gold star winner Blaine, everybody thought the council was doing a bad job. DK, Blaine, Greg, and Michael decided to run for election.

Zach says he’s doing a good job. Taylor’s still bitter. Blaine says he wants to be a motivator.

Guylan doesn’t want to remain on the council, as he mentioned last week, so DK automatically wins. Mike’s pleased with Guylan failing.

Laurel believes she’s been working to the best of her ability and doing a good job, which is completely true, and there’s no reason for her to have an opponent this time either. Michael, a walking PSA, gives a good speech as he usually does.

Anjay asks for a second chance. Greg knows people are praying for him to not be on the council, but he wants a chance to prove himself to be not a jerk.

By a vote of 6-3, Michael wins the election over Laurel.

Blaine is elected over Zach 5-4.

By the largest margin, Greg wins 7-2. Be afraid.

Sophia says “What else do I need to say? Greg and Blaine are on the council.” She and Laurel are concerned.

Now that he’s off the council, Zach starts to get homesick. Laurel’s just mad. Anjay and Guylan are fine with it.

DK wants to first address the issue of respect, which he feels is lacking from Bonanza. Greg and Blaine come up with a concept for a meeting. Nathan thinks they should work on themselves before they try to teach respect. They must announce themselves and where they’re from. If someone interrupts, it will result in having to start over from the beginning. Most people get upset over the hypocrisy and think it’s pointless, so it takes a while to get through it, with the entire town pissed off and doing what they can to disrupt and mock it. Did anyone actually get anything out of it? Nope.

After the meeting, green district gets together to complain about Greg and Blaine, saying they should sit in the middle of town and compliment people rather than doing any work. Greg and Blaine overhear this and take them up on their offer, grab some chairs, and plop themselves down in the middle of town. Somehow, DK believes he’s been lumped into this with those two, and Blaine takes everything he heard about Greg and applies it to himself, so all three are just hoping for a fight, and a fight they get. Green district goes to confront them about it, which leads to a shouting match. Greg and Blaine come up with the theory of just simply not bothering to give anybody a gold star in retaliation.

The other three call a meeting with Michael, and Greg apologizes for eavesdropping. Michael’s skeptical that they can be a team.

Taylor refuses to help with the water. DK tells her she won’t get reward when they win another showdown if she refuses to work, so she says that’s fine because now she’s leaving anyway.

The showdown is about communication. It starts with pies, six of which will be hoisted to the top of a platform. Then the kids will get on beams and transport them with two poles, one on each side. In the pies are pictures of forms of communication, which must be placed in the order in which they were invented. Blue gets the first pie, followed closely by green and then yellow. Eventually, green’s able to get their six pies first, with blue close behind (Emily’s more interested in eating the pies than winning). Michael misses the order with two reversed, though, allowing Greg to get his right and take upper class. Michael is next to take the merchant class for green. Blaine gets everything wrong, which lets red finally get close. DK misses, so Blaine gets another chance, and yellow district are cooks. DK flat out refuses to listen to his team, but he gets it right at the buzzer, so they win reward.

The first choice is ponies. Fun and practical, as they can be used for companionship, rides, and assistance with things like carrying water. The second choice is letters from home. The council chooses letters from home. They’re not mean enough to keep Taylor’s letter from her. Taylor promises she’ll try. For like the tenth time.

Like Zach, who gets even more homesick reading his letter, as DK had feared, Laurel decides she just wants to get out of there. Taylor, however, wants to stick around.

More people approve of the job the council is doing than at the last meeting, but there are plenty of people who don’t approve, especially in green district. Greg says it’s tough love. He’s the new Taylor, as the whole town’s revolting against him. He asks how many people want him to go home. They just want him to change, which he doesn’t seem to be getting. He finally realizes where they’re coming from, sort of.

Despite all the earlier threats, nobody wants to go home.

Laurel gets the gold star, which she’s earned by working hard throughout her time there.

Next week, the kids are determined to start a school, though there are some objectors, like Taylor, who hates school and reading.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live blog of Kid Nation episode 11 I Just Like the Recess Part, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

House Season 4, Episode 8 – You Don’t Want to Know

Last week, House and the remaining candidates were faced with a 16-year-old kid who was up for plastic surgery donated by a production company when he unexpectedly goes into a heart attack. The team successfully made the kid better, allowing him to undergo plastic surgery. This week, Dr. Kutner and Cole was watching a magician show when they witness the magician nearly drowning in a glass tank filled with water when his heart fails and blood appears in front of the audience.

At the lecture room, House introduces a challenge to the remaining five candidates. He agrees that the winner will get a chance to nominate two of his competitors, but House will decide on which one to fire. The challenge is to get Dr. Cuddy’s thong.

Kutner and Cole insists on taking the magician’s case. Although House was pretty sure that the magician was only acting his heart attack as a way to escape the tank, he agrees for Kutner to test the magician, but gets his job on the line when the patient has no medical condition. Thirteen and Kutner examines the magician, while being witness to magic card tricks. In the meantime, the two most ambitious doctors Amber and Taub are thinking of getting Cuddy’s thong and plans to team up for the challenge.

When Kutner and Thirteen discovers that the magician has no other sickness, Kutner goes to Dr. Foreman directly and asks him what to do, afraid of getting fired. He then suggests them to get an MRI. However, they weren’t able to get the magician through the MRI as he is experiencing internal bleeding. As for the challenge, Taub places a black thong on the table, but House guesses that Amber and Taub is cheating to win the challenge. He instantly discovers that it was Amber’s underwear and she is not wearing any at that minute.

The magician’s spleen is shredded. In the operating room, House enters to uncover the key inside the magician’s spleen, which was originally placed on his intestines. While explaining to the magician, the magician asks House to pick a card and slams the deck of cards into the glass, while House’s card stuck inside the glass door. The magician insists that he never screws up a trick and just as House was about to prove himself right, the magician bleeds through the nose. While discussing the case, House and the rest of the team was shocked when Dr. Cole places a red thong on the table. Although House knows that Cuddy’s underwear that day was red, he is still shocked as to how Cole got it.

House observes that Thirteen has been acting “clumsy” and weird and tries to talk to her about “hiding a medical condition”. However, Thirteen denies about any illness she is feeling and tells him that once she’s bleeding her eyes out, then she’ll ask for a medical advice.

Taub and Kutner goes to the magician’s house to inspect any weird items. They discover a group of rabbits, wherein he might have gotten the disease from. Before House explains the condition to the patient, he asks the magician how he did the card trick in exchange for the information about his medical condition. While the magician believes in “fun is not knowing”, House answers “fun is knowing” then cuts his dextrose. The magician acts as though he’s having a severe headache, then tells House he’ll just drink the vicadin he’s holding. As soon as House realizes he won’t be able to know the magician’s secret trick, he tells him that his illness came from the rabbits and he’ll be okay after the treatment.

At the corridor, House sees Cuddy and intentionally throws his stack of vicadin on the floor so that Cuddy could pick it up and he could check out Cuddy’s ass. As soon as Dr. Cuddy picked the vicadin, House screams of shock to discover she has no underwear and Cole actually has earned his reward. Since Cole is safe from elimination, Amber tries to manipulate him, Taub tries to bribe him with $5,000 and Kutner tries a guilt-trip approach and puts their friendship on the line. In the meantime, the magician thinks he’s dying because the MRI shows his kidneys, thigh and other internal organs are bleeding all over the place.

The magician had a seizure twice and his kidneys are shutting down. Since there are numerous infections possible of killing the magician and it would take hours to test them all, House decides to transfuse the patient’s blood into him to make the process easier. During the transfusion, House talks to Thirteen and made her open up about her mom’s Parkinson’s sickness. House gets a fever, becomes dizzy and faints. House discovers that Thirteen drugged him so the team could get the needed samples from him. House then gets Thirteen’s bottled water and runs it for a test.

Wilson announces to House that his biopsies are clean, but is shocked to discover that House used his life on the line just to prove himself right. While talking, House accidentally tells Wilson that he’s blood type is the universal donor, type A, always giving and giving. Wilson gets paranoid about his blood type “you tested me for something”, but House runs out of the room to explain to his team that the magician’s blood type is A and they were killing him because they were giving him the wrong type of blood.

During firing time, House enters the lecture room with a pillow and Dr. Cuddy’s thong. Cole nominates Amber and Kutner, but House finds out that he made a deal with cuddy to get her pick from the 5 remaining. House says that although Cole’s scheme was brilliant, he’s fired because he gave Cuddy the power.

As it turns out, House used Thirteen’s bottled water to get a test for Huntington’s disease, the medical condition which may possibly be infecting Thirteen’s body. She then discovered the envelope of the result and asked House about it. She gives the envelop back to House saying that if she ran out of questions, she’ll also run out of hope. House throws the envelope without looking at the result.

Who will be next to leave or get fired by House? Amber? Thirteen? Taub or Kutner?

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of House Season 4 episode 9, which airs Tuesday at 9/8c on Fox.

The Bachelor 11 Episode 10

Last night we found out who The Bachelor 11 winner, or lack thereof, was. Instead of attempting to give a relationship a shot, Brad Womack decided that none of the 25 women ABC handpicked for him were worth his time, and he rejected both DeAnna and Jenni. I don’t think it’s far fetched to say that both the women came out as winners. Tonight, we find out what’s happened after the final rose.

Trista and Ryan, The Bachelor’s most well known success story, make their first public appearance with their new baby, Max. Trista says she feels really bad for everyone. Byron and Mary also make an appearance, and they say they’re going to get married in November (uh, which November?). Apparently dragging out all the success stories softens the blow in preparation for a trainwreck.

While watching the recap of her journey, Jenni gets emotional all over again. She feels like she was somewhat misled by Brad based on some of the things he said to her about just sticking with him. Until last night, she assumed he was with DeAnna. She doesn’t understand why he didn’t at least give it a try with someone, even if it wasn’t her. After the round of questions, Chris says Jenni’s grandmother passed away two weeks ago, so they pay tribute to her, going back to what happened on the hometown date, including Jenni insisting she’ll be there for her wedding.

Like Jenni, DeAnna relives the events of last night’s episode. She said she knew something was wrong when he got nervous and walked away from her during the middle of the final rose ceremony. She still has feelings for him and says she still has hope. Ultimately, she can’t figure out how he couldn’t choose someone either. Unlike Jenni, though, she knew that he rejected both of them.

Brad comes out to a hostile audience. He says his heart was broken, too. Nobody’s buying it. They flew DeAnna’s dad out for the final ceremony (at Brad’s request), as they were expecting a proposal. He says he felt like a jerk, which is the first thing America will agree with him about. He claims he hasn’t started dating.

Jenni poses the question why he didn’t want to at least take a chance on someone. He now says he felt something for two people, so because he felt something for two people he let both of them go. Then he said something about how he didn’t fall in love with either, so he dumped them both. I can’t keep up with all the circles he’s talking in.

DeAnna also asks how he couldn’t choose one of them. She’s confused because she was never led to believe that it wasn’t there. He tells her she should have the guy who will tell her everything she told him, which he essentially claims he was never going to be able to do that with her no matter how much longer he dated her. When he tells her he thinks of her every single day, she asks what that means. She just keeps getting more and more confused because she can’t figure out what the heck he’s talking about either. Despite all this, she mostly just seems to be wondering why he’s not reconsidering now and taking her up on the second chance she’s offfering.

Chris tells Brad that, after six years, that situation with DeAnna was the most uncomfortable thing he’s had to sit through. I think some people were hoping that the finale would answer some questions, but I got lost in all the double talk. The good news is that The Bachelor will be returning in the spring, with hopefully a more satisfying ending.

Beauty and the Geek 4 Episode 10

Joshua and Shay were eliminated in Beauty and the Geek 4 episode 9, which brought us down to the final three teams: Jen & William (the team that hates each other), Sam & Nicole (the team the show was rigged to favor), and David & Jasmine (okay, so I at least like Jasmine, even if she’s still an airhead).

David still thinks William and Jen can learn to not hate each other’s guts.

The next challenge is in wine country. Most of them are hoping to get drunk. This will be a team challenge. Whoever doesn’t win goes to the elimination room.

They’ll pick 20 pounds of grapes, stomp them, and bottle, cork, and label them. They’ll have to work closely: being tied together. What this has to do with what they studied, I guess I’ll have to keep wondering. Sam’s happy because he’ll be able to speed Nicole up, as he drags her down the hill. Jen and William don’t know if they have enough, but they decide to head back anyway and take a chance. David and Jasmine head back with 20 pounds and are the first to be able to start the next part of the challenge. However, William and Jen only have 13 pounds, so they have to go back down the hill. Sam and Nicole got back with 25-30 pounds. William and Jen catch up with 20. So now everybody’s stomping grapes. Dave and Jasmine fill up three bottles first. They easily get the win before the others can get any bottles filled. Jen and William were as much of a disaster as could be expected in something requiring a lot of teamwork, while Sam’s physical ability was not enough to be able to carry Nicole. Sam decides to be a baby and refuses to eat, pouting all day instead.

William and Jen are studying. Together. They still hate each other, but they’re at least working toward a common goal.

They watch the first episode of this season. David and Jasmine relive how much he didn’t want to be her partner, but he’s happy now, while she thinks he just needs to learn how to lie to women. They try to convince us Sam’s not still a meathead. William and Jen hated each other. So no change.

Despite his earlier beliefs that Jen and William need to be around to repair their relationship, Dave helps Nicole study because he’s got a crush on her. He plans with Jasmine to go on a double date with them if they survive. Then she tries to convince him he should tell Nicole he likes her before she leaves for the elimination room. Right before elimination, Jasmine goes to say goodbye and drags Nicole back to see Dave. In his mind, he asks her on a date, inviting her out to eat when they get back to Boston. She just sees it as going out with a friend and doesn’t expect it to go anywhere.

Jen gets her first question right, as does Sam. Jen misses her second question, but Sam gets his. William apologizes to her because he mispronounced the word while they were studying. William gets his first question right, as does Nicole. William misses his second question, which is about a pop singer for some reason, so he and Jen are finally eliminated. They’ve learned to tolerate each other, though.

Next week, the teams go home to meet their parents. They also learn the winner will be decided in a unique way. That’s probably not a good thing.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Beauty and the Geek 4 episode 11 Meet the Parents, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on The CW.

The Bachelor 11 Winner

The Bachelor 12 Winner
The Bachelor 13 Winner
The Bachelorette 4 Winner

We’re now down to the final two. Jenni, the bubbly cheerleader who’s always smiling, and DeAnna, the woman who’s always gotten along great with Brad but couldn’t seem to comprehend that not being there to make friends didn’t mean she had to treat all the girls like dirt.

Now it’s time for the girls to go to Brad’s hometown. DeAnna is first up. His mom’s pleased with the body language he’s displaying with her. DeAnna says she’s in love with him and hoping for a proposal. They get along really well, and DeAnna tells us his mom reminds us of her mom.

Jenni’s nervous at first, and with questions like whether she’s told him he loves her, that’s not surprising. Unlike DeAnna, she doesn’t say she’s already in love with him, but she does say she’s falling in love with him. She does, however, say she would accept a proposal.

Brad’s mom found it easier to talk to DeAnna, which was pretty easy to see. She tells him she likes both of them, though. He’s afraid he’ll break someone’s heart.

DeAnna made dinner for Brad, and he’s very impressed. While they’re talking, she feels reassured that they’re discussing the future, which seems very real to her. On a side note, what’s up with the excessive blinking?

Jenni says she feels silly being serious. She gets emotional when she tells him he doesn’t have anything to be afraid of. It would be a lot of work with her, but she thinks she’s worth it. She breaks out a journal in which she’s written some apparently heartfelt words. Finally, she’s able to tell him how she feels, which she was too afraid to do before. The night before the final decision is a little late for that.

Brad wakes up and prepares for the final rose ceremony, by going shopping for an engagement ring. He sees DeAnna as strong, independent, and someone who will be by his side all his life. He sees Jenni as someone who’s so happy that they’ll have a lot of laughter.

And with that, he first has to break up with Jenni, telling her it’s just not enough. All she’s able to get out is that she feels embarrassed for telling him how she felt.

Brad tells DeAnna he agrees with her philosophy that marriage is one time only. With that said, he refuses to tell her he loves her or propose. He tells her goodbye as well. Wow, I didn’t see that one coming. He asks if she knows how much he cares about her, and she says no, not any more.

While this isn’t the storybook ending that some may expect from this type of show, Brad’s probably looking at this more realistically than anyone ever has. As all the previous Bachelor couples have found out, this is too short a time on which to build something lasting. What I can’t understand is why the heck he just simply dumped both women rather than at least giving a relationship a try. So is everybody the winner here, or is everybody the loser?

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Bachelor 11 episode 10, which airs tomorrow at 10/9c on ABC.

Watch The Bachelor 11 Online