The Biggest Loser 2, Episode 7: The Twist

Andrea will be happy with any choice. Emotional Suzy says she wants to be with someone who will push her. Her voice is up, easily, two octaves, and calling dogs in Omaha. I’m lucky my TV has cheap speakers! Mark quickly says he’d like to be with Suzy. I guess that means Shannon and Andrea were the dirtbags?

Sean says about the same as Suzy, and no one else has further comments. So, Pete, who has barely spoken all series, is suddenly our narrator. He goes for a walk to think.

Pete contemplates many alternatives, often based on what’s better for each person and not how he could win. Pete, did you SEE Ivette on Big Brother 6? Never mind your friends of six weeks, your lifelong family ought to take priority! Set the teams to your advantage!! I’m thinking he should do this:

• Matt is so competitive, Andrea is not achieving results – pair!
• Jeff and Suzy are too similar to spur each other on – duo!
• Mark has offended all the women, so put him with diva Shannon
• Pete is left with Seth.

Caroline has reassembled the players for Pete’s announcements. He wants to pair people based on positive factors… and here’s what he’s done:

• Shannon is teamed with Matt. Matt is tense.
• Andrea is paired with Mark
• Suzy is welded to Seth
• … and the two big guys are together, Pete and Dr. Jeff

Dr. Jeff is touched that Pete chose him, and tells us he’s lost the lowest percentage of weight of all the remaining guys. I’m confused. Dr. Jeff is a great guy, but he’s not winning a lot of challenges. Play to win, buddy!

Hostess Caroline spills the next twist, that at the next elimination the pairs get one vote, not two. The teams will be forced to come to an agreement on how they will vote. She gives them the rest of the day off to get to know their new partner.

The duos get together. Mark is worried that Andrea’s numbers are lowest, but is confident he’s going to lose enough on his own. “There’s no Mark in team,” got it? Suzy and Seth talk. Both are shy – this is “Team Nice.” Matt warns Shannon that he’s a non-talker in his workouts, but she likes that. Maybe some of these teams will work out after all.

The trainers show up, and it seems they are totally unaware of the team realignment. They are not pleased, this will be a challenge for them as well. The trainers struggle to put a positive spin on this for the group. Jillian say, “I’ll continue to train whoever wants to train,” and Mark immediately interjects in a joking way, “I’ll go with Bob. Sorry!” Ha! Mercurial Jillian boils over that he said it so quickly. One point for Mark!

In an aside, trainer Bob tells us that this is really good, because in the outside world, you need to roll with the punches. Funny, he didn’t see it that way in “Lose Your Trainer in Vegas” week…

We next see everyone working out together in the most amenable of fashions. Life is good at the ranch! Getting the bigger picture, Matt concludes, “We’re two different people from two different cultures. There’s millions of things for me to learn and I would be an ass not to take advantage of that.”

It’s the next day, and Caroline has assembled everyone at the beach for the next challenge. One of the guys says, “I feel we’re on “Baywatch, Supersized.”

In tonight’s challenge, the prize is surfing lessons… in Maui! Plus, immunity! Nice.

The pairs are split into “holders” and “fillers.” The Fillers will run to the surf, get a bucket of water, then come back and put it into another team’s bucket. The Holder will be responsible for keeping their bucket from touching the ground.

The women will be the “runners” along with… Dr. Jeff, and his bad knees! Huh? Why isn’t Pete the runner?? And sure enough, he trails badly at every stage of the event.

But it probably didn’t matter, because, the women all gang up on the team of two guys. What they didn’t say before was, when your bucket goes down, the Holder goes up… about ten feet into the air! Sure enough, Pete is forced into the sky first. The ladies shift their attack, and Mark goes up second. The battle goes on, with both Seth and Matt taking on more and more water. But most of the water is going into Matt’s bucket, eventually he succumbs, and Suzy and Seth are going surfing!

Caroline can’t suppress a giggle as she walks off… the three guys are still dangling in the air!

On a far more significantly more serious note, Matt finds out his uncle has died. His dad passed on the message that he wants Matt to stay at camp, and not leave. Jillian is very supportive. Matt says it could have been easy to stay in bed and pout all day. Instead, he decides to use his uncle as inspiration and decides, “I have too much life to live to sit back and be the way I was.” Good for you, buddy!

It’s last workout time! Seth says it feels like week one again when you work out with a different trainer, because a whole new set of muscles hurt. Jillian’s going to be discouraged to know she missed one! Similarly, the men have learned to respect trainer Bob’s workout. Like, did they think he was running a yoga camp?