The Biggest Loser 2, Episode 3: Shake It

The ladies get off to a good start, but with about ten balls to go, the men catch up. Many of the cars have pretty narrow walkways, and Pete notices that between him and Ryan, only one can traverse the car at a time. Matt is struggling with his bad leg, but the call home is too important to slack off. What am I saying, as if Matt could ever slack off! Ryan comments that she is always waiting for Shannon to bring her a ball, because Shannon is just walking. Sure enough, Suzanne is ready to pass the last ball to Jen and she’s nowhere to be found. The guys celebrate – “Red Team – Phone home.”

But hang on - right after the challenge, Pete starts to feel nasty. He sits down and says it feels “like a fire in my chest.” Umm, that’s not good! Dr. Jeff is concerned. But when he see two ambulances coming, he says, “He’s not that big a guy!” Funny.

Next thing we know, Ryan is unable to catch her breath – the second ambulance is for her.

Later that night, Ryan returns. She was told it was asthma, plus anxiety. Sympathy levels from her team are noticeably low, and Ryan is disappointed. She wishes her family were there.

Pete returns too, but to loud cheers and hugs all ‘round from the boys. It seems his problem was just due to “a really, really bad cold.” He is cheered by the response he got from his teammates. Some stereotypes about which gender is or isn’t nurturing and supportive are taking a beating in this series!

It’s time for the calls home. There’s a too-small egg timer used to monitor the length of each call. We see parts of the calls from Pete (the “devoted husband”), new daddy Seth (who hears his son has started crawling), and Dr. Jeff. Even in a later cameo, Dr. Jeff can hardly tell us about his call without weeping. All the guys are feeling great that they got to talk to their families, though.

We see the final workouts before the weigh-in. Seth thinks that as the smallest guy, he and disruptive Nick are at risk. On the Blue Team, Suzy and Ryan are worried. Shannon is concerned that eating such different food this week may cost them.

It’s already time for the men to weigh in. Man, this show just flies by! Their starting point is 1,914 pounds. Here are the results:

• Dr. Jeff is now 340 pounds, for a loss of 4 pounds
• Matt is now an even 300, another loss of 4
• Seth is at 258, he too is down 4 pounds
• Mark, 318, a big loss of 7 pounds
• Pete, 367… yet another loss of 4 pounds!
• Nick – who says he ate so much sushi, he ate a dolphin – 305, down 3

The total loss is 26 pounds, or, more importantly, 1.35%.

And now, the ladies. Carolyn tells them they started out at 1,307 pounds, thus they need to lose more than 17 pounds. I love the way she does the math so fast in her head! In an aside, Jen expresses doubt and when prompted by Carolyn, Suzy squeaks out some doubt as well. Foreshadowing is very subtle on this show.

So here’s how they did:

Poor Jen looks down at the scale, incredulous that it let her down so badly. Suzanne says, “To see zero would have destroyed me.” So, Ryan needs to lose 4 pounds for them to win. And she’s now 200, a loss of 5 pounds!

Ryan isn’t even sure they won. They did, they lost 18 pounds or 1.37%. Mark had the biggest loss for the men, so he’s immune. Nick is a little nervous; he wishes he’d lost four pounds like the other guys, as it would have been enough to win. Well, Mr. Smarty-Pants knows more than Jillian, doesn’t he?

However, Nick has lost more weight than anyone else, 41 pounds, so he’s not worried. Mark reminds Matt and Nick that the plan was to vote out Seth. It’s because he was youngest and has the best chance of losing more weight on his own. OK, well, that’s not how I’d play it, but whatever. Now, Matt’s very quiet because he knows that after Seth, he’s the youngest man. Matt tells Mark he wants to keep Seth and thinks Nick should have done more. Mark disagrees, he think Nick has some big numbers ahead of him. Clearly, Matt is torn.

The men file into the elimination room. As the biggest loser of the week, Mark has immunity. Dr. Jeff votes first, for Seth. Seth votes for Nick, whom he feels is lacking in commitment. Nick votes for the “Larsen,” which we learn is one who can’t be trusted. And after the commercials, we find out that in this instance, that means a vote against Seth. Umm, was that necessary?

Pete votes for Nick but, surprising me, has nice words for him. Mark changed his mind this afternoon; he votes Nick as well.

Carolyn mentions that if there’s a tie, the ladies will decide. Matt tells us how much he’s agonized about his vote; he’s going to break a promise and is afraid he’s going to lose a friend. He reveals... it’s for Nick, and it says, “I’m sorry” on it. Nick is gone.

Nick opts not to say goodbye, even when re-prompted by Carolyn. Now, Matt realizes Nick is an ass and he made the right vote, and tells us so.

Nick lost 41 pounds in the three weeks. He’s happy he did his own thing, and we see him eating the big steak. He says, “America, the next time you see me, there’s going to be a cover charge and a two-drink minimum.” I can only assume that’s because he’s working in a licensed comedy club, because he looks about the same size and it won’t be as a male stripper.

Nick has shaved the facial hair. In my humble opinion, he looked better with it. Nick concludes, “Biggest Loserwas the worst experience ever. I was called a baby by the trainer. I lost more weight than anyone else there. I don’t know what I weigh now- I don’t weigh myself. I eat healthy and I walk, that is the correct way to lose weight.” He ends by telling us that to find the secret of his diet, we’ll have to but his book to find out. Buh-bye!

Next Week: It’s Vegas, baby! Do they bet their trainers?

In my humble opinion…

The ladies won despite one less day to work out. Funny, the men won when the women had the extra day and vice versa.

I’m not disappointed Nick went. Or surprised - I’d picked him for early exit in my preview article. He was losing weight at a good rate, but this is also a game and he was a disruptive influence on his team. Also, he was the smallest guy, so his ability to keep losing big was going to get harder.

The remaining five guys are a tightly knit group, though I see Dr. Jeff is on the outside of the vote and I think Seth is still at great risk. Besides his youth, he’s also more than 40 pounds smaller than the rest.

On the women’s side, Jen not losing weight and not hustling in the challenge is not good. With the four smaller women all at essentially the same weight, no one is at a disadvantage there.

I’d talk more about Andrea, but she’s “The Invisible Woman” on this show - she gets zero face time! She needs to work on her sound bites!

And… I’m still lovin’ this show!

Join me here each Wednesday for a recap of all the action, sprinkled with my own reactions and opinions. And let me know what you think, at the email address below!

Brian lives in Toronto where he can be reached at uncle_bto@rogers.com. He’d like to hear your opinions and promises to respond to all serious email.

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