[MindiV]

My husband always complains about how emotional the contestants are, and I just tell him you have to be trying to lose weight to understand. He's never been in a situation where all he wants to DO is lose one more pound....and can't. I can't imagine working out as much as they do, and eating the way they do every single day they are there....of COURSE they're going to be emotional! Add the cash prize to that AND being away from everything they know and love...that's a recipe for tears and outbursts for sure.

[wanna b thin]

The camera's in the face 24/7 is a good point. I'm sure they go into it thinking they can handle all of it, but it has to get to you.

[trekkiegirl]

Originally Posted by wanna b thin

That being said I was so glad to see Tara beat all of them in the challenge, she is amazing. Although she sure isn't dropping much weight the last few weeks. She would have been below the yellow line had she not had imunity.

I understood Tara's reaction. I mean I'm nowhere in her league athleticism-wise and drive-wise but I totally felt for her. She's trying hard to excel and she is excelling but because she is doing so well, she is a target. It's like Dane said when he got eliminated, about trying to do something positive for himself and other people cutting it short. Dane was eliminated precisely because he was a tough competitor. Tara knows full well that if she falls below the yellow line without immunity, she is gone. She doesn't have, as Jillian would say, "the numbers" there to protect her. Her and Laura's only chance, besides losing enough weight every week or winning immunity, is if the returning player(s) were part of Jillian's original team. Those green girls need some allies. I'm kinda hoping for Daniel, Dane or Blaine.

Although...I thought I read something, either for next week or the week after, that sounded like one person who wins a challenge decides who gets eliminated...I'm thinking, kinda like when Paul & Kelly won in Season 5 and they decided to eliminate Ali and Bette-Sue (cuz they couldn't touch Mark and Jay, who had immunity).

[vixjean]

Originally Posted by wanna b thin

I wondered about Kristin and Laura not participating also. I did see Laura wearing a boot cast too, I think it was on one of the Bonus Sceens on the web page. If Kristin has a back injury that would explain it.

But Ron WAS healthy enough to pull the car??? That's what I don't get.

[Hun.e.B]

Laura had a cast on her foot, I saw it when she went chasing after cry baby Tara.

[ennay]

Laura has been wearing the boot off and on since the half marathon.

I finally got to watch the episode last night. Man, everyone except the green team is just stupid. Why they are voting off Aubrey at this point is beyond me. Well not entirely, Ron and Kristen and Helen are going for the hope of alliance with the tongan boys. But I would still have taken Filipe out.

I was so rooting for Tara during the car pull. I think she needs to toughen up and take the "ganging up" more like Helen (did she not notice that 50 year old Helen was given almost as much weight?)

My petty observations - yay for shirts. And despite the fact that I really dont like Helen, I hope she sticks around for the makeover show - that woman needs to learn that bleach blonde is not making her look good.

hmmmm who do I want to come back. Based on what the "eliminated contestants" thing showed I think both Blaine and Dane were in the running (heh) I would prefer they do a straight % weight lost thing and not a contest like last season. But they wont. Drama drama.

I would hate to see a challenge win control of the vote and be able to send someone not below the yellow line home. That wasnt good when they did it to Ali (which is I think where the idea of bringing a player back was born and then it was popular so now it is a fixture). I think they rig to bring back who they want. Season 5 they wanted Ali back so they did male AND female % weight lost. Season 6 they did NOT want to bring Phil back so they did a challenge

[vixjean]

as awesome as Ali is (and was that season) I don't think it was fair to bring her back on.

[trekkiegirl]

Originally Posted by vixjean

as awesome as Ali is (and was that season) I don't think it was fair to bring her back on.

One could also say that it wasn't fair that she and her mom were voted off by only one challenge-winning team (yellow) when they had never been below the yellow line and only because they were allies/friends with the black team, who were the desired target but won immunity.

I think it's pretty obvious that the producers make some of this stuff up as they go along with regard to challenges, voting, who gets brought back, etc., so as to "stack the deck" or turn the game in a different direction. So the idea of fair/unfair can be looked at from different viewpoints. To me, the most blatant ones have been:

Season 5
I think they wanted both Mark and Ali back, and they happened to also be the highest male and female losers at the time.
The viewers voting between Roger and Mark when Ali & Kelly said they would have voted off Roger.

Season 6
Using a challenge instead of highest percentage lost to give Ed a fighting chance to come back. I think they wanted Ed and not Phil or Amy.
Going to a single team member elimination Week 3 so that Jerry could go home and Coleen could stay.
Eliminating the 1-hour elimination decision time so that players couldn't pressure or intimidate one another.
Voting by the viewers so that, even if she went below the yellow line, Michelle would have likely been voted a spot in the final 3. (Ironically, if Ed had reached the 180 lbs goal weight that was mentioned when he was eliminated, he would have beaten Michelle, 46% to her 45.45%.) I don't think TBL "handed her" the victory but they (and Heba and Vicky) definitely facilitated it, deliberately or not.

Now....Mike and Tara...I would be surprised if at least one of them is not a finalist. I'm hoping for both and I can't help but wonder if the show is hoping to bank on one or the other as their new "face"--the athletic, challenge-winning cover-girl or the sweet, drastically physically-improved teenager who has been "winning America's heart."

[L144S]

I heard on Jill's radio show that the contestants weigh in in the morning and have all kinds of ests done at that time and that the reveal is what we see on TV. So TPTB have time to decide how they can manipulate the vote off etc.

I can't say any of it bothers me, they do the same kinds of thing on survivor and well all reality shows. it is there money AND it keeps it interseting, there are no rule books that anyone has to follow to say anything is fair or not fair. Just my 2 cents

[Thin4Good]

WTH??? Did she get carried away with the water loading or what??

[trekkiegirl]

So Filipe lost 4 pounds again with Bob and blames himself. He would have been pitching a fit at Jillian if she was still his trainer. Please...when is the dude going home????

Bad miscalculation on Nicole's part...unless she decided to throw the weigh-in cuz she wanted to go home. Does stress alone really cause weight-gain (like 5 pounds in a week)? Cuz I'm a more relaxed type and I figure at this point, I could have lost my entire body weight several times over.

Interesting revelation at the start of the show about Mike and Ron having been on the fence re the Aubrey/Filipe elimination last week. They didn't show that last week. So Sione managed to talk them away from Filipe, and they get "rewarded" for their wavering by the cousins going after Ron.

These players have become way too dependent on the ranch. I have no doubt the cousins can do it at home but they are having a Bob lovefest. I would love to see Filipe go first but Sione is the bigger threat, especially at challenges. Tara admitted what's been pretty obvious for a while. She thinks she needs to be there because she's not sure she can do it in the real world. She's thrived in an environment that's been totally structured and dictated. And she said she gained over 100 pounds in just over a year? No wonder she's scared. Kristin and her fears (jealousy?) about Sione hogging Bob. The whole scenario seems more like a huge, blended family with Jillian and Bob as parents and all the kids having different jealousies, competitions and whinefests every week. And the indignation they display over one another's gameplaying (as though they themselves are not doing it) is wearing thin on me, no pun intended.

Poor Ali V. She sounded absolutely robotic. She just read off the cue cards.

I get the whole "these folks went home too soon so let's bring them back" route. But, I will admit, none of them were anybody I was hoping for.

Is it just me...the overload of Kristin commentary is annoying. Something about her delivery bugs the heck out of me.

BTW...what was the deal with Bob only working out 2 people? Where were Filipe and Nicole? I thought maybe Kristin and Sione went to the gym early; I didn't expect to see Bob there and half his group missing.

I wanted to yell at the tv about the other players feeling Ron is controlling. Hello? Who's going along with it? Ridiculous. It reminded me of the old SNL skit Billy Crystal and Chris Guest used to do, like saying "I shoved bamboo up my fingernails all the way to my knuckles and screamed like a banshee. I hate when that happens."

Oh, lol....am I the only one who says "pee-nalized" and not "peh-nalized"?

[mizski]

Originally Posted by trekkiegirl

Oh, lol....am I the only one who says "pee-nalized" and not "peh-nalized"?

Hmmm...I say "peh-nalized" yet I say "pee-nal" colony. I'm from Boston...we talk funny anyways.

p.s. I was hoping to see the Orange kid (Dave?) come back. The people they chose were NOT the ones I expected.

[vixjean]

Tara is such a drama queen.
They never show enough of Laura.
Helen is on my last nerve.
Poor Nicole, hardly got a chance... weird about that gain though.
Ron is so obviously a tool for Mikey.
The cousins are pretty annoying too now.
I guess I just like Kristen and her over pronoucing everything. I like immatating these people.

[mygritsconfessions]

Wow, I missed the show!!!!!!!!!!! Crap! Who got voted off?

[trekkiegirl]

^^Nicole (red team) won her way back to the ranch and had immunity as a result. However, she lost immunity when her weigh-in came up +5. The voting got to 3-3 votes apiece for Nicole and Ron, and Kristin cast the deciding 4th vote to eliminate Nicole. Ron had also gained 3 pounds but he spent 3 days in the hospital and had like 9 bags of saline pumped into him. Laura also gained a pound and came very close to falling below the line.