The Biggest Loser 8, Episode 11: You Can’t Afford It

Before I get started, I want to extend many thanks to Kari and Sting for taking over for me while I was on a much-needed vacation last week. They each did a great job, and it was nice to have the peace of mind that everything was covered.

Anyway, as always, this week’s show begins where last week left off, with everyone made over pretty and Rebecca out of the game. The players reconvene in the ranch’s living room, where Amanda is sullen, as she’s lost her former teammate, and as she puts it, her “only ally.”

The editors bring up Rudy’s trust speech in flashback as the potential reason for Rebecca’s ouster, but Liz settles us down and assures us that it was simply a case of Rudy, Allen, her, and Danny voting as a bloc, which they’ve done throughout the game.

Since the producers have forced us down this road, I might as well offer my interpretation as someone who edits for a living. With Rebecca’s elimination, we’re down to five players, three men and two women. After tonight’s episode (assuming things run as normal), we’ll be down to four.

When the show gets down to the final four, the contestants go home for a month, then come back to the ranch for one last Weigh-In before the finale. The two lowest people fall below the Yellow Line, and we in the audience vote one of them out of the game, the result to be revealed at the finale.

Does it strike you as odd that Rudy, who has been the dominant hero of this game, breaking records and dropping weight like nobody’s business, is all of a sudden the bad guy after his little trust speech? Never mind the fact that he had a breakthrough and even shared the tragic story of his sister’s death last week. The last image we were left with for a whole week was a stoic, deadpan Rudy declaring that he didn’t trust Rebecca as he voted her out, even though it didn’t matter, as if Liz is to be believed, everyone but Amanda voted her out.

Like I said, we’re down to two women, one of whom (Liz) has been below the Yellow Line three times already. Say one of them gets knocked out tonight, and only one woman is left in the final four. As Liz has been below the Line several times, and Amanda has only put up good numbers once, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that one of them could leave tonight, and the other would be below the Line at the final four.

A woman has won this show the previous three seasons running, a woman wearing a Pink shirt, mind you. The fact that Rudy is suddenly being painted as a villain tells me that it will very likely come down to Rudy and Amanda in the public vote next week, and the producers definitely want us to keep Amanda in the game. It would keep the possibility of the Pink streak alive (though she has little chance of beating any of the remaining competitors), it keeps the possibility of a woman winning at all alive, and it makes for a nice story arc from their perspective, as they’ve played up the angle of Amanda being chosen at last season’s finale. How wonderful would it be for them if she got to compete for the grand prize on finale night? On that same token, if we eliminate Rudy, he’s almost certain to win the At Home prize, as he’s been running this game from the beginning.

Okay, speculative rant over. Just something to think about as we go into these last few episodes. Just know that if it comes to it, don’t let the editing fool you when you cast your vote.

Back in the actual show, Allen asks Amanda how she’s holding up. After some idiotic spiel about how she realizes she’s alone now and that Rebecca is no longer her partner (which would have been profound had she come to that conclusion before Rebecca was voted out), she speculates on how awesome and wonderful it would be for her to get voted into the show at last season’s finale then make it all the way to this season’s finale. Gee, there’s absolutely no reason the editors would have shown us that, is there? She even goes so far as to call it the “ultimate accomplishment.” Man they’re laying it on thick.

With that subliminal plug out of the way, everyone celebrates the fact that this is the last week on campus. They’ve each got one week left to do whatever they can, pull as big a number as they can, before returning to their lives and their jobs, whether they’re still in the competition or not. Rudy sagely reminds them all that one of them will win this whole thing.

A new day dawns and the trainers meet up with the final five by the pool. Bob isn’t the least bit surprised to see Rebecca gone, as she was the biggest female threat left on the show. According to Bob, they both knew that the moment she fell below, she was gone.

Jillian asks Rudy about his vote, and he again explains his trust issue. I’m telling you, folks, he’s going to be below next week. Do not let this crap fool you when you vote. Jillian calls bull on him, saying that it was a game play move because she was the biggest threat, so he should just admit it. Rudy stands pat, saying that if that were the reason, he’d own up to it. Jillian continues to goad him, trying to get him to say that he saw Rebecca as a threat and he made a legitimate game play move. It almost sounds like Jillian is actually trying to get him off the moral hook on this one, but Rudy sticks to his guns, going so far as to say that everyone’s a threat to him, and he felt he could have beaten Rebecca had she stayed, but for him it was a trust issue. Jillian finally backs off.

The players and trainers head to the gym and much sweating ensues. Jillian’s goal is to make sure that the lessons at the ranch sink in with everyone before they leave. As such, she encourages Allen by telling him that the Yellow Line and the money don’t matter; he’s a winner every time he completes a rep.

Bob is spending his time with Rudy, making him do the same reps with the same weights they used on the first day. That was so long ago, and Rudy’s progressed so much since then, that he finds it sort of comical because it’s now just so easy. Via flashback, we see Rudy struggling in the first week, then laughing today. Danny gets the same treatment. The basic lesson is that they’ve all regained control of their bodies.

After Allen and Amanda get the same montage, it’s time to look at Liz’s progress. She had the most trouble in the first week, often losing balance and falling over. Now she’s killing every apparatus she gets on.

Host Alison Sweeney meets the players in the kitchen and congratulates them on their progress. The reason she’s there is to introduce a guest who will help them with one aspect of their lives they haven’t touched on yet. As they need to maintain a balance in their lives once they return to them, part of that balance is control over finances. So, with that in mind, Alison introduces the NBC guest star with the least relevant connection to these people possible, Suze Orman.