Watching Reality TV

How could anyone forget the travesty that was last week’s episode?  You know, where Neil completely lost sight of the whole point of the show and chose to favor team dynamics instead of, oh, decent gameplay?  Good times.  My head still throbs when I think about it.

The teams are still understandably shaken by Neil’s betrayal.  He says not seeing this as a game is naive.  Whatever, dude.  Pretty much everyone else, though mostly the black team, is disgusted with him.  He insists that is wasn’t personal.  Julie doesn’t care, she’ll vote him out anyhow.  David apparently didn’t know Neil threw it until after the vote.  If he had known, he wouldn’t have voted for Jez. Kae is distraught, despite being on Neil’s team.  She doesn’t like this “game”, she is there to change her life.  Amen, sister.  At least someone on the blue team has a brain.  She wants to leave and packs up her stuff.

Bob comes to talk to the blue team and is surprised to see Neil there.  Kae reveals that she had second thoughts about leaving.  She decided, instead, to just focus on herself.  Bob believes the good will eventually outweigh the bad.  Neil is wanting to redeem himself.  Yeah, good luck with that one.  There is a meeting Neil tries to apologize to Isabeau, but she is pretty uninterested in forgiving him.   Kim is hoping the drama means that while the other teams are freaking out, that red team will be training.  Way to be on board, Kim.  Jillian coaches her beleaguered team.  She wants to get her team in the gym and get working.  Julie says the only way to defend themselves is to stay above the yellow line.  Function with integrity.  Meanwhile, Amy reveals to Jillian that last week the reason she didn’t gain any weight is because Neil pressured her.

So Amy wasn’t the only one to throw the weigh in.  Something about this doesn’t sound true to me, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.  Basically, though, there’s a red and blue alliance against the black team.  Jillian tells Amy to put the game aside and just focus on losing her weight.  Amen!  Gah, ya’ll.  Bob, meanwhile, is riding Neil very hard.  He’s still pretty pissed at him.  He wants to get Neil’s head back onto what it should be on, losing weight.  Not so much the game.  Hollie is worried for her safety in the game, she knows she’s a huge target as a member of the black team.  We arrive at the challenge, at a lake this time.  Allison greets the teams and tells them todays challenge is about endurance.  The team who hangs on the longest will win.  The winning team will receive the contents of a box, which she assures them is very valuable.   But it is something that will effect the game.  Jez lets go and he and Isabeau are out first.  Kae’s team is out next, so David and Hollie are out too.

Who is out last?  It’s Bill, Amy and Julie.  Dangit.  Bryan, Ryan and Nicole make it to the end.  So not right.  So what’s in the box?  A note saying that each person in the team gets a vote at elimination, instead of one vote for the team.  UGH.  To redeem it, they of course have to stay above the yellow line.  This just makes it seem like the production is TRYING to eliminate the black team.  Bob is very excited that his team has finally won a challenge.  Kim teaches David how to steam salmon and Bob tries to give Kae a pep talk.  She’s happy she has him, she trusts him.  And only him.

The last chance workout is intense.  Which is to be expected, considering the tensions running through the house.  At the weigh in, Allison waxes poetic about being gone from home and how much they’ve all lost so far.  Neil is up first for the weigh in and he lost (an almost predictable) 33 pounds.  No one is terribly happy, there is no clapping.  He acknowledges what he did and tries to apologize but again, it falls on deaf ears.  Isabeau goes up next and owing to an injured hip, didn’t lose anything that week.  Not like it matters.  And she knew it wouldn’t.  That’s a total of 33 pounds for the team and that’s a 5.26% of weight lost.  Yowzers.

Nicole is up next for her team and she lost 9 pounds, of which she is very proud.  I’m not digging her a whole lot, especially this week, but good for her anyhow.  Bryan goes next and he lost 8 pounds, very respectable.  Ryan goes last and he did gain a little last week (gee, I wonder why).  This week, he lost 13 pounds.  He gets some applause, but not a lot.  That’s a total of 30 pounds for the team and 3.48% lost.

Amy is up at the scale first, having not lost any weight last week.  This week she lost 11 pounds, which is very good and she does get some applause.   Bill goes next and he lost 10 pounds.  Another good number!  Julie goes up last and she lost 6 pounds and is very happy about it.  Her team is safe from elimination with a total of 27 pounds and 3.76% lost.  Nice!

Hollie goes first for her team and she lost 5 pounds which she hopes it’s enough.  Kae is up next and she lost 6 pounds.  She’s grateful but wishes it were more.  David goes last and all the pressure is on him.  He lost only 3 pounds.  Holy crapola.  That’s a total of 14 pounds for his team and 1.97% lost.  And his team is below the yellow line, on the chopping block.   And Bryan, Ryan and Nicole will each have a vote in the elimination.  Still, Kae has a greater percentage weight loss than anyone else on campus.  The team looks shaken.

Jillian isn’t surprised by the result of the weigh in, she’s very concerned for Hollie and wanting her to stay.  Amy thinks Kae should leave which I don’t agree with.  Better to earn the right to stay in the game than to manipulate your way to the end, right?  I guess that means the best choice here is David, though I don’t really want him to leave either.  Let’s face it, I only really want to see Neil, Nicole or maybe Ryan leave.  Boo.  At the elimination, all the teams looks sober and serious.   Neil repeats that what he did was wrong.  Mm.  His team’s vote is a result of neither of them wanting to vote out someone they have a bond with.  So it’s David.  Bill goes next for his team and explains that they regret also voting for David.  Not looking good for him.  Bryan votes next and explains that he voted alone and without outside influence.  He voted for Kae.  Makes sense.  Nicole voted for David and one is left to assume that Ryan voted for David as well, though it’s moot at that point.  So David is sent home.  Not a good outcome, but the best possible one, I suppose. David struggles not to cry as he says his goodbyes.

We get to see David come home for his son’s first birthday party and it’s quite the tearful homecoming.  David has lost 105 pounds since going on “Biggest Loser” and he’s looking a lot better.  Good for him.  I wish him the best of luck.