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(S08E06) What's the most bittersweet prize you can win on The Biggest Loser? A trip home. Oh how great it is to see your family, but all that time at home with your favorite temptations and without Bob and Jillian kicking your ass up one side of the gym and down the other. It can also be the worst reward possible.

At this week's opening reward challenge, the winning team won tickets home. But, to make things more interesting, they also got a choice. They could take the tickets and the trip home, or they could send the other team home, thus gaining the advantage of an extra week in the gym with their trainer.

I was looking for a lot of things to happen this week, but I was a little surprised at what came about with Daniel. He's been such a positive force of inspiration and support that I was actually surprised when he had an emotional epiphany and breakdown stemming all the way back to his initial weight gain.

With all the dramatic numbers we see each week, and the physical transformations we witness throughout the course of a season, it's too easy to forget that there's an emotional break at the heart of all of these people. They're damaged goods, and that's why they wound up the way they did.

When you're physically and emotionally exhausted, you're also emotionally vulnerable. It takes energy to keep those protective walls up, and if you burn that energy off, you're left raw and exposed. That's where the full power of a good trainer comes to bear. You can train the fat off of a person, but if you don't reach that damaged person inside, it'll just come back. And for all her meanness when it's needed, Jillian has that art of getting to the root of the matter.

It took Daniel two seasons to get there, but this week he finally broke and realized the love his mother had for him, and the resentment he built up against her through misunderstanding how she was loving him. But it's not too late for Daniel, though after that weigh-in, I wasn't sure.

At that challenge, the Blue team pulled off a win and they opted to send the Black team home to face those challenges... and see their families. It was disheartening to see Dina and Shay's husbands eating as they always had, enabling the bad habits the women were fighting so hard to not fall back into. It's easy to be mad at them, but they were heavy, as well, so they still suffered from the same habits that brought their wives to the Ranch. They need sympathy, support and tough love to break their own bad habits. And it's not going to happen on one trip home.

Still, everyone got their workouts as best they could (how cute was Dina's kid mesmerized by how fast her feet could run?), and made it back for a last chance with Jillian. And you know she was just itching to rip their hides off.

At this point, I keep expecting Rudy to hit that weight-loss wall, but he soared back into the double-digits with a 14-pound loss. I guess last week's eight pounds was his wall. It's amazing to watch, but I still wonder how he can keep it up and how much longer he can go. He's definitely on pace to break all kinds of Biggest Loser records.

Unfortunately, the week at home did in the Black team, just as the Blue team suspected. Only Danny knocked it out of the park, somehow. It probably helps that he's a great cook, has a supportive family and they ate at home. Plus, we'd already seen in the video from home that his wife and daughter have begun their own weight loss regimen at home, so the Cahill family is heading in the right direction.

With Daniel gaining a pound, I thought he might be done for. In the end, though, it came down to that positivity and attitude that he's displayed since day one. The Black team wanted to keep his supportive energy in their camp, and gave Dina the chance to prove what she could do at home.

That gave us another chance to see her son helping her out in the gym, and he's now actively involved in her workouts. We didn't see her husband at all in that video, and she was walking with that trainer, so I wonder if things are troubled there? I'm hoping he stepped up to give her the support she needs.

[Watch clips and episodes of The Biggest Loser at SlashControl.]