Biggest Loser: November 24, 2009

Final Five! Let’s get it ON!

Amanda laments that she’s all on her own in the house.  There’s a flashback to the showdown between Rudy and Rebecca.  The alliance of Rudy/Allen/Liz/Danny is strong, that’s for sure.  If Amanda falls below the yellow line this week she’s screwed.  They all talk about how it’s their last week on the ranch and they want to get the most of the experience.  Rudy points out that one of the five of them will win the finale, and if it’s not Danny I’m going to be annoyed.

The trainers meet with everyone and aren’t surprised to see that Rebecca went home.  Jillian calls Rudy out and says that the real reason he voted her off was because she was the biggest competitor.  Rudy won’t own up to it though.  Whatever Rudy, you suck.

The trainers recreate the first workouts they did on the ranch and the contestants are shocked at how easy everything seems.  The change in the contestants is pretty amazing for 11 weeks.

Ali meets with everyone and talks about the importance of balancing all aspects of their lives at home, and she’s brought Suze Orman to talk to them.  She talks about the connection between wealth and healthy, and that obesity is an expensive disease.  Tell your health insurance company if you’ve lost weight!  Take control of your finances and you’ll feel like you have control in your life! Money is good!  End of plug.

Pop Challenge:

The contestants each have a treadmill and they have to answer questions.  For each question they get right they get $1000 into a savings account.  Every wrong answer shoves the incline up and makes it one level faster.  They all get to keep the money they earn so there isn’t really a winner (or is it that they’re ALL winners? OH! Biggest Loser, you’re always so subtle. Not.)

Blah blah Cheerios product placement…

Amanda feels alone.  Danny and Rudy are each in quiet competition.  Allen wants to finish what he’s started and become a finalist.  Liz hates being below the yellow line and is going to fight to stay above.  Bob talks to the contestants about adjusting to life at home.  Bob calls Rudy out for giving “Miss America” answers about how he’ll adjust to life without the trainers and the ranch.  This is the time to own up to your fears and address what’s going on.  Danny is the first one who opens up about being scared and how he’s afraid of backsliding again.

Amanda pulls Bob aside and tells him how much he’s meant to her on the ranch and how important he’s been to her journey.  Bob says that he’s really proud of her and that she’s already won.  She’s grown up a lot at the ranch and he’s so glad he got to be a part of her life.

Liz and Danny talk about how they’re going to adjust when they get home.  They’re glad they’ve had each other on the ranch and how important it’s been to be able to have someone you trust.  It’s a sweet moment actually.  So that’s nice.

Challenge:

No surprise here, each contestant has to compete in the race where they carry weighted footballs up and down a football field and deposit them into barrels.  The first person to shed all their weight wins.  And the winner?  Gets a vacation for two to the NFL Pro Bowl.  And surprise – Rod Woodson is there.  Apparently he played for the Steelers and is in the Hall of Fame? (Sorry, I’m a Packers fan.)   But he’s there to let them know that NFL Play60 will donate $5k to the school of their choosing.

And they’re off!

They all struggle at first and are shocked at how heavy their original weight feels.  Allen takes the early lead (again) but Rudy and Amanda are close behind.  But it’s Allen’s win!  When each contestant finishes they knock down an old cutout of themselves, which is kind of awesome.

And then Danny sings a song that he wrote about losing weight, and there’s a montage of clips that are essentially before and after shots.  This is a little sappy, even by Biggest Loser standards.  I… yeah, I can’t really even talk about it.  Think of the sweetest face-puckering food you’ve ever tasted.  It’s like that.  Here, have some insulin.

Moving on…

Last chance workouts!

They all want it bad and put in a big effort to get the most of their workouts.  There are more tears and proclamations of “Lookout World! Here I come!”  Over and over and over.

Weigh-In!

The winner of tonight’s weigh in get to go to the finale and have a special home visit from Chef Curtis Stone for some private, healthy cooking lessons.

Liz -5

Rudy -12

Allen -8

Danny -16

Amanda -7

Danny wins the weigh-in but Rudy wins as the Biggest Loser on the ranch.  Allen and Liz fall below the line so one of them won’t make it to the final four.  And because of the way the alliances fall, all of the power is in Amanda’s hands.

Liz pleads her case (fourth time below the line for those of you playing at home) and Allen does the same thing.  Amanda doesn’t know what she’s going to do.  Allen and Amanda talk privately and he encourages her to vote Liz out so that she can have a chance to win at the finale.  But what’s to keep Rudy and Danny from teaming up and noting off Allen?  Then it doesn’t matter who Amanda votes for, right?

Elimination!

Allen gets votes from Danny and Amanda

Liz gets votes from Rudy

Allen is going home, which is nuts because Amanda’s justification for keeping Liz was that they were friends.  Seriously?  Two weeks ago Liz and the older folks her rallying against the Youngins and picked her teammates off one by one.  Dumb move, Amanda.

After the show:

Allen heads home to his firehouse and his family is jazzed.  He gets out of the car and everyone flips about how good he looks.

And now? He’s down to 220 and feeling really positive about his life and the direction it’s headed in.  He’s been able to connect with his wife on a whole new level and they’re working out together.

Next week? At-Home visits and a vote to decide who competes in the finale.