Biggest Loser 5: Couples, Episode 2 – One Big Happy Family

Time jumps ahead to the evening. Everyone has been assembled in warm clothes when Alison comes onto scene to tell the teams that one member of each must come with her and one must stay behind. It’s the first temptation challenge of the season! Here’s how it will work: One at a time, every player will spend four minutes in an area where a massive feast has been set up. No one has to eat, but the team that eats the most (based on posted calorie counts) wins $5,000. Alison also reminds them that there is a weigh-in coming up.

The first few contestants are shown looking at food, sniffing food, touching food, loving and worshipping food, but not eating any food. And so it continues, player after player.

As they sit about waiting their turn, someone off camera (probably Dan, possibly Bernie) teases Mark by wondering aloud if Jay is eating. Mark responds, “He won’t eat, because I’d break his jaw.” Yellow Team’s ex-husband Paul mentions that he has about 900 calories he hasn’t had yet today. And it’s Paul’s turn next. Sure enough, he grabs a corn dog and also eats some cake. Game on!

Orange Team member Dan comments that elder brother Mark has gone very silent. Mark has been mulling over what Paul said, and decides he sees an opportunity for himself. Sure enough, he chows down several items in his four-minute time span.

On the Brown Team, Curtis is extremely confident that his wife Mallory won’t eat. But in the dying seconds, we see her scarf down a chocolate candy.

The challenge is over, and Alison brings the teams back together. It turns out that only three teams have eaten, and although the calorie counts are unknown, we know that at least one member of the Brown, Black, and Yellow Teams are the guilty ones.

Alison asks Brown Team husband Curtis if wife Mallory has eaten. He says no, but he’s wrong. Mallory ate 210 calories. The next team we see asked is the Yellow Team. Kelly is surprised that Paul ate 912 calories, and it makes her very nervous about the upcoming weigh-in.

Alison next goes to the Black Team and asks Jay if Mark ate. Jay says he did not, because, “He told me that if I did, he’d kick the crap out of me, and mom’s not here to protect me.” However, the truth is that Mark ate a combination worth 925 calories, enough to win the $5,000 for him and his brother. Jay is in shock. Mark tells us that if he had to do it again, he’d make the same decision. Paul says to us, “That’s what I get for talking so much.” Alison wraps up the scene by saying she’s glad she’s not the one to tell the trainers how much they ate.

The trainers hear the news the next day. Bob tells us that Mark was the absolute last person he’d have expected to do that. Jillian says that normally she can accept it when someone eats in a temptation if they work the calories into their daily allotment and Paul nods, but she goes on to say, “Not the day before a weigh-in.” The reasoning is that if they ate something that makes them temporarily retain fluids, it could be enough to send them home. Jillian shouts out the question, “You’ve left work for four months, how important can five thousand dollars be? If it’s that important, go home and work, I think you’ll make more money!”

In a cameo, she expounds on that thought for us. She says that people spend thousands for one day of this experience, so why risk throwing this opportunity away? Jillian continues to tell the group that they need to put their health in front of everything. Paul sees the logic of this and recognizing that he’s disappointed the trainers, apologizes to them.

Later that night is the weigh-in. For a change, there is no footage of last-chance workouts.

Alison tells us that the two teams that have the worst results will be up for elimination. Trainers are again on hand, and elimination will again be shortly after this ceremony. She also says that the team with the best results will be deemed “the biggest losers of the week” and win “a fabulous prize I’ll tell you about later.” “Later” is relative, I guess.

The following chart shows the results, in the order they mounted the scale. The red boxes indicate the teams at risk of elimination. This chart is getting to be quite the rainbow, isn’t it? At any rate, here are the results:

About three-quarters of the players are visibly discouraged by their results. Mallory feels certain her gain didn’t come from the candies and although I don’t know what her intake for the day was, I think I agree with her.