‘The Biggest Loser’: Oh no he didn’t!

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Let’s get all the bitty bits out of the way.

Jillian called Tara out: Tara was turning on the water works after Laura was sent home, but Jillian said Tara was really acting like a crybaby because she was scared and didn’t want to admit it. She said Tara was being selfish by wanting to keep Laura on board because Laura needed rest -- not more last chance workouts. No one throws a fit like Jillian: ‘It’s not safe for [Laura] to be here, it’s beyond the game...it’s not all about YOU!’ She also scoffed at Tara’s fears of being alone and unliked by the competition: ‘Welcome to the world of being successful. Come on in, the water’s fine.’

Bob called Kristin out: Kristin, reeling from her near-elimination last week, said she was afraid to ‘want’ victory. She was so close to the Final Five -- but she feared that if she hoped, if she dreamed, then she’d only see it pulled out of her grip. Bob told her to want it anyway: ‘You are what ‘The Biggest Loser’ is all about,’ he told her, adding that she needed to want it on behalf of ‘the girl watching you’ from home.

Mike confronted his father over the family’s obesity. And Ron took it. While he couldn’t explain why he allowed himself and his sons to balloon in weight, he said it was healthy for his son to vent his anger. (In retrospect, Ron sure has come up with a way to make it all right.)

The contestants were put in cages suspended 45 feet into the air. Filipe tried to trash talk the competition, but it was Tara who was the last person standing. Bob was aghast to find that his underlings failed a nutrition quiz (Ron didn’t know that olive oil is ‘heart healthy’) and so ordered them to keep a video diary of their food. The results were illuminating. The average viewer was probably impressed with the meals and snacks that Filipe, Ron and Kristin put together. Not so Bob. He said they were severely undereating. At one point, Bob put his head down on the desk and said ‘I have anxiety right now, such anxiety.’

Which brings us to the weigh in. And a betrayal.

Tara won the cage challenge and had the chance to either take home $10,000 or have a 1lb. advantage at the weigh in. She took the money. Turned out to be a smart move: She lost five pounds, and was safe from elimination. Ron lost four pounds -- and fell into the 200s, a weight he hasn’t seen since he was 13 or 14 years old.

Mike lost eight pounds. Filipe lost three. Falling below the yellow line: Helen, who lost just one pound, and Kristin, who gained a pound. Could have been caused by that undereating, as crazy as that might sound.

Helen and Kristin made their arguments for why they should remain in the house. Then, Kristin asked to speak to Ron privately. Ron assured her, as he had assured Kristin’s mother, that he would never, ever write Kristin’s name on the elimination card even though she was the single biggest threat to Ron’s son Mike winning this season’s prize.

And Ron was true to his word.

What he didn’t say, though, was that he was about to cut a deal that would allow him to save face, eliminate Kristin, AND position his son to take it all.

‘She’s your bigger threat,’ he was heard telling his son Mike: ‘If you guys [Mike and Filipe] vote to keep Helen, and Filipe and I vote to keep Kristin, Kristin still goes home.’

Well, well, well.

At the beginning of the season, Ron came off like the patriarch of the season, and engendered such warm feelings from everyone that he was saved time and time again when he fell below the yellow line. Later in the season, there were hints that he was actually a master manipulator, trying to hang on just long enough to create a powerful voting bloc with his son. But this much we know: Ron is a liar who will stop at nothing to protect his son’s interests.

He sat there and acted shocked to learn that Kristin was going home, and said he had no idea it was going to come down that way. ‘Did you know?’ Alison asked him. ‘No,’ Ron said. Did you notice the way Mike shot at quick glance at his father at that very moment? How must it feel to find out your father is a liar on national television?

Perhaps that is too harsh. Look at it another way: Wouldn’t any parent do the same? (Well, any parent except Helen.) After all, if Mike becomes ‘The Biggest Loser’ and finds fame and fortune, that would surely go a long way to easing the pain and anger he feels toward his father.

I thought Kristin was laying it on a bit much at the end, saying she felt ‘sad’ for Mike because he took the ‘coward’s way’ out and eliminated his competition instead of going head to head with her. Please. She would have done the same if the tables were turned. And besides, it’s about time someone started playing the game!

--Rene Lynch