Season 7, Episode 14
Biggest Loser Recap: Who Can You Trust?
In Week 14 on the Ranch, the players endured the biggest temptation ever...and LOTS of paranoia as everyone went into big-time game-play mode. Some players made enemies, others made alliances, and all of them had to watch their backs. Here's what came out of all the madness.
Temptation Feeding Frenzy: This season's been pretty light on temptations, and I've been thankful for that — you know how I hate those things. But just when we started to take the status quo for granted, BOOM — Alison announced the most obscene temptation yet. (If you've been watching the show for any length of time, you know what's saying something.) The players met Alison in the gym, where 100 covered silver trays awaited them. Most of the trays contained a piece of high-calorie junk food, such as a cupcake or a donut. A few trays held packs of gum with a cash prize attached, and one tray held a "golden ticket." The person who found this ticket would get the one and only elimination vote this week. The catch was that if you picked a tray that had junk food on it, you had to eat that item before you could try another tray. Basically, it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack...a very high-calorie, self-sabotaging haystack. Many of the players racked up some major caloric damage — Tara ate over 4,000 calories! — before Laura finally found the ticket. The voting power would be all hers, assuming she could stay above the yellow line herself. Bob and I came to the gym as the players were cleaning up the mess they made — you can imagine how horrified we were to see the carnage. I couldn't believe the players would be foolish enough to risk everything like that. Bob and I figured the best answer to such ridiculous behavior was a training session that would make them sorry for every calorie they ate, so we banded together to give everyone the beating of their lives.
Stairway to Luxury: For this week's challenge, the players traveled to Pasadena, where they met Alison on the field in the Rose Bowl stadium. The challenge was a race in two heats; in the first, the girls and the boys would race each other from one end of the stadium to another — climbing up and scrambling down each set of stairs (a total of 2,156 steps!) along the way. The winning pair would then face off in the second heat. As might have been expected, Tara and Sione won the first heat pretty handily. In the second heat, they stayed neck in neck with each other, trading the lead several times before Tara finally pulled away in the end to win. As her prize, she won a two-week stay for four people at Fitness Ridge Resort and Spa in Utah. Not bad!
The Power of One: Since Laura had the only vote this week, she and Tara considered throwing the weigh-in so that Tara would end up below the yellow line with one other player, making the choice a no-brainer for Laura. I implored them not to do it...the way I see it, all the game play just takes the players' focus away from where it should be: on themselves and the reasons they came to the Ranch in the first place. So when Tara got up on that scale at the weigh-in and pulled only 3 pounds, I was really upset. Most of the other players did really well — Ron lost 9 pounds, Filipe dropped 7, and Kristin shed 6. It wasn't looking great for Tara until Sione pulled a disappointing 4 pounds, which put him below the yellow line with Helen, who'd lost just 2. Laura lost 8 pounds to win the weigh-in and retain control of the vote. It was a tough decision for her, since she was close to both Helen and Sione, but in the end her bond with Helen won out, and she eliminated Sione. Back at home, Sione is down to 235 pounds and is studying to become a certified fitness trainer. Now he's training his family and teaching his community about healthy living...prize money aside, you can't really ask for a better ending than that!
Next Week: Be sure to watch next Tuesday night — it's makeover time, and Tim Gunn is back to get the players looking their hottest. Tune in to NBC at 8 p.m. ET to see the transformations!