‘The Biggest Loser’: Reaching for the rewind button
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
Wha wha whaaat?
Were you, like me, reaching for the TiVo remote during elimination? I thought I missed something or misunderstood something, but nope, I heard right. One minute Ed was swearing allegiance to the gray team’s L.T., who used his two votes last week to save Ed and his wife, Heba, from elimination:
‘The gray team kept me here another week, and where I come from when somebody’s a friend you don’t screw them over,’ Ed said.
The next minute, Ed was darting shifty glances in L.T.’s direction at the elimination table, and putting his wife up to doing the dirty work of stabbing L.T. in the back. What a gentleman. Worse, Heba offered up a rambling, teary statement that made it sound like she was the one doing all the hurtin’ as she voted to eliminate the gray team:
‘Sometimes, when you want to be loyal and you realize it’s probably not going to make a difference in the end, you just kind of have to go with the team, so it is with a heavy heart that Ed and I are voting for the gray team.’
I’m not sure I agree with the orange team’s apparant strategy, do you?
Sure, L.T. and his dad are big guys who will lose lots of weight and could go the distance. But Ed and Heba could have formed a powerful voting bloc with father and son -- after all, there aren’t that many people this season.
The orange team did accomplish one thing, though: They’ve proven that they cannot be trusted. I wonder if it will come back to haunt them.
Other random thoughts:
--I hope we get some more drama between Renee and Michelle. There is a lot of unfinished business between that mother-and-daughter team.
--I found the showdown between Coleen and Jillian particularly poignant. I was wondering why she’d put herself and her father, Jerry, at risk by betting that they would lose 14 pounds in the Week Two weigh-in -- even if it did mean the chance to win $10,000. (Everyone knows that the contestants lose big the first week, and then come up short the second week, when their bodies are reeling from the shock of it all.) But perhaps Coleen was subconsciously trying to pull herself out of the game so she wouldn’t have to compete. She told Jillian as much, that she’s deeply afraid of failing and never follows through on her commitments. It will be interesting to see Jillian work her magic.
--There was another moment that had me reaching for the remote. Bob! I couldn’t believe my ears at first, but he did indeed tell Brady to stop falling to the ground and acting like a . . . well, it rhymes with witch. Bob! Using such bad language! Who knew.
--That slip-and-slide challenge was insane!
--Hey NBC producers, how about this for a challenge: The next contestant who casts their elimination vote by saying ‘So, it is with a heavy heart. . . .’ gets a 100-pound penalty at the next weigh-in?
-- Rene Lynch
(Photo Ed and Heba courtesy NBC)