‘The Biggest Loser’: Guess who’s back, walking to Puerto Rico, some disco and more

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I can’t believe I fell for it.

I spent much of the weigh-in doing a ‘Melissa’s gonna get hers!’ dance. I was gleefully convinced that it was all going to come crashing down around her ankles -- the gameplaying, the haughty attitude, all of it. She lost five pounds, enough to bring her perilously close to that yellow line....

Before we get to that, though: The game took a great big switcheroo when the blue and yellow teams returned to fight for the chance to get back on the ranch after a month of working out on their own at home. But that’s not all: The team that lost the largest percentage of body weight would also get immunity at the upcoming weigh-in and the sole vote to determine who would go home.

But first they had to go through that ‘Biggest Loser’ rite of passage: a last-chance workout. ‘I just started praying and said, OK, whatever she tells me to do, I’m going to do,’ the blue team’s Cherita said of the Jillian-led beatdown. ‘I want those legs to be cooking!’ Bob told her daughter, Victoria. ‘Oh, they’re cooking,’ she responded. The blue team lost a stunning 63 pounds. Victoria, on her own, at home, lost 39 pounds -- just shy of the 45-pound average of the folks on the ranch. But it wasn’t enough to beat Sunshine and O’Neal. The daughter-father duo lost a total of 76 pounds, with dad losing 51 pounds -- losing more than the average weight lost at the ranch.

O’Neal and Victoria’s mom, Cherita, were the very definition of grace and dignity in their victory and defeat. O’Neal, with every reason to do his own victory dance, instead said he wished he could trade places with the blue team’s Victoria, because she’s battling weight issues at such a young age, and said more needs to be done to fight obesity and diabetes in the African American community. Cherita, a cancer survivor, was bowed but certainly not broken: She told the yellow team that the duo were making everyone proud with their success, and wished them well. It was all one big wonderful love fest. Now that’s the way you do it, people! (But please, oh, please, I hope there will be some other tricky twist that will lead to something good for blue. Otherwise, looking forward to seeing you both at the weigh-in. Make us proud!)

Miggy, meanwhile ended up in the hospital having her appendix removed. This season may be shaping up as Miggy vs. Melissa, but I have a soft spot in my heart for Miggy. Life just hasn’t been kind to Miggy -- I just get that vibe off her. Her health issues were to blame for her lackluster weigh-in last week -- Dr. H said she had been retaining fluid prior to the appendicitis -- and she came back more determined than ever to do the only exercise she could: walk. ‘I’ll walk all the way to Puerto Rico,’ she said. And she did: The day after surgery she was up and already walking at 5:30 a.m. with Michael. She put in 13 miles that day. And 18 miles the day after that. And 14 miles the day after that. This woman is a force to be reckoned with.

Other highlights included: Bob cooking. O’Neal, a former paratrooper who used to jump from planes, and his ‘What the hell!?!?’ reaction to the ranch workouts, saying they were harder than anything he has ever done in his life. Jillian, working her Vulcan mind control on Daris, getting him to agree to trade in his persona as the ‘fat, funny guy’ and try on his ‘I lost 51 lbs. in four weeks’ persona. O’Neal, using the phrase ‘cool as the other side of the pillow.’ (Dunno why, but that just cracked me up.) Michael busting out his disco moves during the football challenge. Almost as funny: The disco music overlay. It definitely added to the funny, but was that really the best disco music they could come up with? Michael, shocked at his own ability to win the challenge over the super athletic gray team, and crying out, ‘I did it! I did it mom!’ when he won the challenge, and the immunity that came with it.

And, oh, you know I enjoyed watching Melissa suffer through that workout with Bob. Gotta hand it to her though: she fought through. And she’s also shaping up to be a very funny story teller in the confessionals. I have to give her points for reenacting Michael’s disco shuffle. But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t doing that ‘Melissa’s gonna get hers’ dance. I should have known better, though, than to believe that it all would have been that straight-forward: Jillian said it best. There’s always a twist.

Well, this week’s twist came at John’s expense. After weeks of basically staying out of the gym because of an injury, he finally got his opportunity to work out with everyone else. Bob was so impressed that he predicted an insane weigh-in number for John. That was the kiss of death. John lost six pounds -- respectable but not enough to save him. He was sent home. We got to see him reunited with his twin brother, and the two seem to be doing well. Looking forward to seeing them at the finale.

-- Rene Lynch

Photo: John, in an earlier challenge. NBC Universal