Recap #12 – Friday 16th Feb. – Major Challenge will be your pilot today…

So, who will win the right to choose which of the newbies will go to which team? Will there be further losses of contestants this week?

Will someone please, for the love of God, punch Courtney in the face for us?!

Read on to find out!

“I hate losing it’s just… bad.” – Courtney
And so the two teams head off for their challenge.

And their trainers arrive to an empty house, other than two new girls neither of them know. Introductions all round!
Michelle and Shannan sit down with them and ask them about how they’ve ended up here, etc.
Shannan tells them they’ve taken a week and a half to get into the heads of the other contestants, but they’re going to try and do it with them in one day.

P’eta admits to being quite scared of them. Shannan and Michelle double team would scare me too!

Laura’s the first to cave in under the pressure, starting to sniffle and Shannan’s having none of that. Telling her she knew it’d be hard, she just has to keep going, etc.

Michelle asks P’eta flat out, how she ended up in this place… and P’eta is struck dumb for the first time! After Michelle tries to ask her a few more times, she starts to break down into tears. A while later she says that everyone around her thinks she’s worth it, but she doesn’t feel that herself. She doesn’t love herself.
Michelle says that there is no way she’ll be letting P’eta leave with that mindset.

Meanwhile the other Fatties have arrived at an airport and they’re speculating maybe skydiving or something.
Uh, no. That’s not fat burning!
They finally see the big planes they have to pull and realise what they’re going to have to do.

“Shit.” – Courtney
Thanks for that thoughtful insight, Courtney.

They need to pull the aircraft a total of 150m.
There are 5 stop points at which point they stop pulling, one contestant from their team has to run back, get on the plane, find their luggage, carry it off the plane and cart it up to the other end of the runway. Then they start moving again.
The luggage contains not only 10% of their bodyweight (20kg or so, for Damien? Ouch!) but also letters from home!

Once again, Red is given the choice of which Blue team member has to sit out, for no fair reason I can see. Blue should be choosing, not Red…
They choose Michael, again!

To help them with their pulling, they’ve organised a little extra help.
Bob pops his head out the pilot’s window and says HIIIIIIIIII!
Bob & Jillian are both there to encourage their team’s along, which Bob says he loves because that’s when they need a lot of motivation.

Gerard says he’s not confident, but boy oh boy does he want those letters from his kids!

The pulling starts out pretty woefully, with neither team being able to move their plane more than an inch or so, at most! People from both sides are swearing blind that the brakes must still be on the plane!
Wonder if Red is regretting dumping Alex now?
Bob has a little side bit here where he’s chuckling about the lack of movement of the planes. Evil, evil man!

Gerard reiterates that the plane apparently weighs NINE TONNE.
Yeah mate, and it flies through the air with the greatest of ease, so pull it already!

Red finally gets their plane rolling, very, very slowly, but it’s rolling!
Blue’s struggling hard, Gerard has spittle flying from his mouth! And at last, Blue starts moving too!

Red reaches their first stop point and Greg hops off the pulling line to scurry up and down the runway with his bag. Jillian runs alongside Greg, then Bob runs alongside Mel. They continue doing this, cheering them on all the way during the pulls.
Red’s leading through the first few changes, but Blue starts to catch up, mostly due to Damien’s efforts at pulling the plane, forming the centre of the pulling team.

But then disaster strikes, the Red team gets one of their ropes caught up under one of the plane’s wheels!

Gerard sets a really blistering pace during his run. On the way back to the plane Bob is jogging along ahead of him and Gerard yells “GET OUT OF MY WAY BOB!” And he continues pelting down the runway.
“Okay, okay, don’t hurt Bob!” – Bob :-D

Damien was last to run. Carrying that suitcase after dragging the plane all the way up the runway must have been murder. Got back to pulling on the plane like a champ, too.
Show-me-the-money-lita was left to last for the Red team and she sets off after Damien appears to already be back pulling their plane along. Imminent Blue team victory?

No! Ad break!

Pati was convinced that so long as the Blue’s plane isn’t over the line, there was still a chance.

“Damien, you are NOT going to give up!” – Bob, screamingly!
Blue team wins again!

Pati is bitching and moaning about how the letters are so close and they weren’t allowed to read them. Open the suitcase, foo!
Greg’s very upset about not getting the letters from his kids. Jillian tries to console him but it’s not working too well. Some Blues come over and try as well but Greg’s still in tears.

Damien’s letter is from his girlfriend, who says her and everyone else who knows him is convinced he’ll win, yay!
Kelly got one from her kids, as did Gerard.
Jules seems to have got one from… her parents? Not sure. References her kids and how they look at her photo every night and say good night to her, etc.
Bob said he was sitting there with those guys and he was so happy they’d won the challenge because they all obviously loved to hear from their friends and family.

On Sunday night’s episode, Blue will get to choose which of the two newbies they’ll get on their team. Last chance training will be brutal, as usual… and Bob & Jillian tell their teams some devastating news!
It’s not said in the preview, but it’s a safe bet the news is that they’re leaving them in the hands of their Aussie counterparts, with Bob and Jillian returning stateside for a while. Jillian appears to be particularly broken up over this, as she actually cries! On camera!
With no weight penalty this time around, will Red manage to get up? Or will Blue turn things around this time? Stay tuned…