Biggest Loser 5: Couples, Episode 8 – Home Sweet Home

Roger goes to a favorite restaurant with his family. All the Southern-style fried food on the menu is a no-no for him, but with some effort, he’s able to work out a reasonable meal.

Although Jay and his wife are now eating well, somehow his kids are still eating fried chicken sticks! He intervenes, taking away about half the food, but everything on their plates is still fried food. He comments, “Those french fries feel good.”

At their not-for-profit after-school child care facility, his mom plays dodge-ball with the kids. He’s impressed that his mom is there playing, and pleasantly surprised to see how easily he can run around without getting tired.

Controlling brother Mark wants the younger brother Jay to work out with him, because he wants to be sure Jay does his work. When we see them together, Jay is not working as hard. He also begs off on the next day’s workouts, promising Mark (and us) that he’ll get his work done. Hopefully, that happens.

It’s time for the players to return to their ranch. For those who make it to the end, there are still six weeks to go. Understandably, some of the contestants’ younger kids have trouble comprehending that the parent who returned so recently is going away so soon.

Back at the ranch, Dan meets up with the brothers. They all lie and say the others look thinner. With the bulky clothes they have on, it’s just not possible to tell.

Alone in their room together as is so often the case, Kelly tells Paul that she thinks she ate well, but didn’t meet the workout goals. Paul counters that he put on four pounds in two days, and then he stopped checking. Flashback footage shows us he also ate some of the huge cake!

Bob meets his team and asks how they did. He asks if they drank. Dan says he has a glass of wine. When pressed, Dan says, “It was one glass… filled twice!” Bob doesn’t think Dan is funny. Subsequent comments indicate it may have been filled more than twice!

Jillian is quite hoarse, but she wants to hear the stories from home. While they were away, she called each person first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Bernie is proud to report that he didn’t sample the confectionary they named after him. Brittany admits to a small piece of pizza… and a chocolate chip cookie. Kelly reports she plays better tennis now.

However, Paul never took or returned any of Jillian’s calls. He lies completely unconvincingly that he didn’t know it was her on the line, like he always gets calls from the other coast. Paul says to us that he didn’t think she cared (really?), and now he wishes he’d taken the calls. Jillian is not pleased with Paul.

Jillian, Maggie, and Bernie cook broccoli, pepper, and squash together. It’s really a commercial, so let’s move on.

At night, Alison meets with the contestants for a challenge. But first, she announces that because he was “the biggest loser of the week” last week, Paul wins a lifetime membership to 24-Hour Fitness. Great prize!

This week, the team that wins the challenge will get to name two players from the other team that must weigh in right away. This is 24 hours earlier than usual.

The challenge is similar to one from Season 2, Episode 9. The players stand in the path of bars that rotate around them on an overhead shaft. As the structure rotates, one bar that is a foot off the ground must be jumped over, while the other (about four feet from the ground) must be ducked.

Three from each team must compete. For the Blue Team, obviously Mark’s broken leg will keep him out. Instead, he coaches his teammates on the complexities of how to duck and hop. On the Black Team, Paul with his bad knees and jump-phobic Kelly will observe.

Mark warns Roger to watch his back foot, because he’s barely clearing when he jumps. Sure enough, he doesn’t lift it high enough, and he’s out early. Bernie drops out about the 15-minute mark, because he forgot if he was jumping or ducking. At the 30-minute point, Roger tries to negotiate a draw. No deal!

Dan and Maggie go out about the 40-minute mark. This leaves Jay and Brittany… and Brittany wins it for the Black Team.

After talking it over, they name Dan and Roger as the ones who will weigh in now. I should point out that this gives those two guys an extra day to work toward next week’s weigh-in.

Dan goes first, and he’s down 11 pounds. Roger did even better, dropping a stunning 16 pounds! Alison asks if they will report these numbers to the other team. “Hell, no… we’ll surprise them,” says Roger. I’ll include these results in the usual table that accompanies the regular weigh-in.

It’s last-chance workout time, and the Black Team is working hard. Bernie regrets drinking so much soda pop.

Alison meets the teams in front of the big scale to announce the weigh-in results. Jillian is expecting Paul’s results to be “tragic.” When Alison announces Dan and Roger’s loss, the Black team look discouraged.