TVSquad

(S03E06) For some reason, they don't even show (as they have in past weeks) the aftermath of last week's elimination. I would have loved to have seen the look on Bob's face as the Blue team tried to explain voting off Amy last week. However, the players have lots a total of 550 lbs, and it is really starting to show.

This week the sadists who produce reality shows decide that whoever wins the calorie-calculation challenge will have the ability to make half players on the opposing team work out the first three days of the without their trainer -- and force the rest to eat meals outside the ranch and face the dangers of restaurant choices and vs. willpower.


Caroline Rhea must have been working on her stand-up the day of the challenge, not that she's been around much this season anyway -- but it was a little odd seeing two of the actual contestants being put in charge of score-keeping -- directing the challenge in the absence of any on-camera host. Not that it matters. I could almost paste the next sentence of this review from every other TBL post this season. After seeing Red break out to an early lead, Blue first loses heart, then loses the challenge.

Maybe they should let the trainers watch and help their teams with the challenges, so as they did a very few times last season. But then we'd miss TBL's signature humiliation set-piece: watching the losing trainer bound up toward his or her (usually his) team all sunbeams and smiles, only to have hope come crashing down, usually with tears (not to mention self-recriminating voice-overs by players added in post-production).

The Blue team even have to wear special t-shirts denoting the humiliation of their their penalty: "No Trainer" for those who will work out on their own. "Eat Out Only," for the others (this is, I believe, a family show, so insert your own joke here). When trainer Bob sees that his problem child Erik is one of those penalized with a "No Trainer" shirt, he says, "wow, you're really screwed." Right then, I wouldn't blame Bob a bit if he is thinking about Jillian (the trainer who did not return for this season) and re-evaluating his own career choices. This penalty is absolutely crazy, seemingly making it impossible for Blue to win the weigh-in this week.

Red, meanwhile, their team still intact, have plenty of time for group therapy, and other team-building encounters. It really looks like Red is running away with it, and that the producers have decided the best way to stir things up is basically kick the hapless Blues overboard. But that's the miracle of editing, as thing results for the rest of the episode turn this evident imbalance right on it head.

There's also a second challenge -- a pretty clever one -- involving each team lifting one member via a pulley and snagging flags. Blue wins -- thank goodness -- and then blow it by choosing to make the Reds do an extra work out, while they eat. They could have chosen the workout, for themselves, and I would have liked to seem them take this seriously and choose that for themselves. Their theory is they need to start treating themselves well, and evidently that paid off.

I have to say that , going into the weigh-in the Blue Team looked dramatically leaner than they did last week, and than much trimmer than the Red team players, which negated a lot of the suspense. This doesn't stop the producers from dragging the weigh-in of eight players out for a quarter of the episode. I guess the additional handicaps imposed by losing tonight's first challenge really put the fire into the Blue team, and they get a much needed win under their tightening belts.

In the voting, the Red Team players are clearly thinking about individual success, (as did Blue last week) maybe sensing that the teams will be broken up sooner rather than later. They eliminate the most successful player on their team: Ken. He continues to be successful at home, having lost an incredible 138lbs in four months, including his time since leaving the show, which I think has to make him the favorite for the consolation prize of most weight-loss over all at the finale.

Hey, judging from the previews for next week, the value of being at the ranch and having either Bob OR Kim as a weight-loss trainer might be called into question. This might even explain why Blue did so well partially without Bob and ordering some of their food out this week, hmm ...