‘Biggest Loser’: Always listen to your mother

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Did anyone else see that one coming?

Heba, Vicky and Brady have been downright smug up until this point, convinced that they were completely untouchable in the final weeks of the game. As long as they continued to do their part -- lose weight and stay below the yellow line -- they felt sure they’d continue to create a voting bloc along with their fourth teammate, Amy, and control the game from here on out.

Turns out they were wrong.

Amy woke up and smelled the coffee after a conversation with her mother, who urged Amy to make sure she was protecting her own self-interest -- and not Heba’s.

Amy realized that she didn’t have to do the bidding of her teammates -- and she probably also realized that they’d turn on her just as soon as it suited them. So Amy shocked everyone by voting against Brady in the elimination room. (Her vote actually created a tie; the tiebreaker was based upon which of the contestants on the chopping block lost the least amount of weight. That would be Brady. Bye-bye, Brady!)

It was a surprise ending to a night full of twists and turns, starting with the news that contestants would no longer compete as teams but as singles. That was followed by the news that all of this season’s eliminated players (save Jerry, who couldn’t get away from work) were coming back to the ranch to compete for the chance to rejoin the game. That, of course, led to much jeering and tears when Heba and her lackies -- or is it Vicky and her lackies? -- began cruelly making fun of Phil. Phil confronted Vicky and it went downhill from there. So much so that Stacy, one of the teammates who was eliminated early on, also began crying and wondering whether she wanted to return to the Biggest Loser ranch after all, given all the ill will.

Stacy got over it to give the performance of a lifetime during the challenge that would determine who would return to the ranch: The first contestant to reach 1,000 steps on an aerobic bench would be staying. Stacy put up a heck of a fight, but in the end lost to Ed.

Ugh. Ed’s return will only bolster Heba. And Brady’s departure does even more for her. After all, if push came to shove, Brady and Vicky would vote against her. Now Heba has a definite ally, and one who can continue to drop serious weight.

But, once again, you gotta give Heba her due: For all her game playing, she still continues to work her behind off in the gym and it shows in the weight room. Gotta hand it to Brady, too. He seems like he’s just walks around doing his wife’s bidding, but his transformation has been nothing short of amazing and hard-earned -- 100 pounds lost so far, and he looks terrific.

And now for a completely random and perhaps borderline inappropriate comment: Did anyone else reach for the TiVo during Brady’s return visit home to see the rest of his family? Is it me, or does Brady’s sister look EXACTLY like a dark-haired version of Vicky? That’s all I have to say.

-- Rene Lynch