The twist of all vs. one led to some intense gameplay in The Biggest Loser Couples Episode 4, but after all the planning and a group effort to throw the weigh in, Mark & Jay’s first place finish (and immunity) allowed them to be safe, causing Paul & Kelly to choose to eliminate Bette-Sue & Ali.
Maggie & Jenn are upset that they were told previously that they don’t work hard enough, so they go to Paul & Kelly to take their frustration out on them. Way to make allies. They’re lucky to even still be there. The next day, Jenn’s still whining about it, this time to Bob.
Brittany uses food as a crutch to escape sad events in her life. At an early age, her abusive father died, and she immediately started gaining weight following that. She has a talk with Jillian, which helps to bond them.
This challenge isn’t for the teams. It’s for the trainers (this is supposed to be shocking, but it was obvious from a mile away). Whichever trainer wins the challenge can choose which teams they’ll train with. Harsh. The challenge is running up escalators. The first to do it 10 times wins. Bob takes an early lead and never looks back, finishing three ahead. Hardly seems like a fair challenge, but I wonder what would be a fair challenge between these two without giving one the edge. The logical thing to do here is to pick the teams who picked him, but there are only actually two of them. Jillian gets the most emotional of anyone during the pick ’em.
Bob’s blue team:
Jackie & Dan
Mark & Jay
Roger & Trent
Jillian’s black team:
Bernie & Brittany (one of the two teams who picked Bob)
Paul & Kelly
Maggie & Jenn
Bob’s stacked his deck pretty nicely with top teams, and he’s also got the two most blatant weigh in throwers from last week, giving them a big edge this week. Such a poorly planned twist, and it gets even sillier considering the partners will vote in blocks. Despite his suggestion that Brittany and Jillian are close and should work together, Brittany, like Bernie, considered it a slap in the face. Jillian looks at this as an opportunity to help the underdogs win.
So now that the challenge is over… it’s time for another challenge. The teams must stay on the escalator for as long as they can. The winning team splits $10,000, regardless of which members are actually left standing in the end. Trent and Paul are told to not bother and just get off right away. Kelly’s out at 3 minutes, followed closely by Jenn. Jackie’s out at 5 minutes. Roger’s out at 8 minutes. Maggie’s out at 10 minutes. Bernie’s next out at 12:30, leaving Brittany to fend for herself against three competitive guys. After a tough fight, at the 24 minute mark, though, she’s finally off the escalator. Blue team wins the challenge.
Bob starts with yoga. Jillian wants people to punch stuff.
When they walk into the kitchen, there’s soda everywhere. They’re amazed by just how much empty sugar calories they drank in a year. One of the cups has a star on the bottom. Whoever picks the star, on the bottom of one of the 240 cups, can pick one player on the other team and make their weight not count for the next weigh in. Not worth it, but preventing the other team from getting it may be. Nobody budges. Alison narrows down the odds, telling them the star’s not in the orange cups. When there’s no interest, it’s also not in the grape soda, making the odds even better, down to 110 cups. Still no takers. Alison shows them the cup with the star is one of the ones in front, which probably would have been grabbed quickly. As Jillian says, who cares about soda? They may have gotten them with food, or perhaps a prize that sucked less.
They will weigh in as a team. Of the team that’s below the yellow line, one person will have to say goodbye to their partner. Brittany points out at the weigh in that she’s upset by Bob not choosing her and that he should have stuck with them.
Jay: 253 pounds (-5)
Mark: 230 pounds (-5)
Trent: 366 pounds (-9)
Roger: 309 pounds (-10)
Jackie: 206 pounds (-8)
Dan: 251 pounds (-13)
Total: -50 pounds, 3.00%
Jenn: 223 pounds (-6)
Maggie: 211 pounds (-7)
Bernie: 236 pounds (-5)
Brittany: 199 pounds (-2)
Kelly: 240 pounds (no change)
Paul: 263 pounds (+3)
Total: -17 pounds, 1.22%
It’s a bigger blowout than I had expected. Jillian believes they’re having some food issues and will need to focus on that next week. As the biggest loser for his team, Dan is The Biggest Loser player of the week; as the biggest loser for her team, Maggie has immunity. Despite her numbers this week, Jenn’s the obvious target here.
Votes
Kelly: Jenn
Paul: Jenn
Maggie: Kelly
Jenn: Kelly
Brittany: Jenn
Bernie: Jenn
After some disappointing weeks, Jenn’s finally eliminated on one of her better weeks, and Maggie is the first person in the game to lose a partner. Jenn leaves on a positive note and wants her team to keep fighting. From her starting weight of 254 pounds, Jenn is now down to 201 pounds, for a total loss of 53 pounds.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of The Biggest Loser: Couples episode 6, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on NBC.