Previously on The Biggest Loser… lots of New Zealandy things! Lots of Northern Territory-y things!

Tonight Phil’s going to get under The Commando’s skin. Well, he’s lasted longer than me!
Also the New Zealanders will be going back in time on one of those epic hikes where they add progressively more weight to the contestants until they get back to the weight they started the show with.

I really don’t envy Shannon right now!

We start in the Northern Territory tonight with a huge road train. Three trailers in length. And Commando Steve is blocking the road. Tsk tsk.
Phil and Joe are in the cab of the truck and he hollers at them to get out. Then Commando Steve takes them off for a ride in his jeep.
He drives them to some stockmens quarters. Tis a hard land, Steve says, and you’ve got to earn your keep, he tells us.
Get some rest because all hell’s going to break loose very soon!

Steve says the fun’s over, there’s more hard work to be done. What they were doing before was fun? Yikes!

Meanwhile back in New Zealand Shannan’s recapping what the contestants have done so far. We see them all helping paddle a huge canoe with some maoris.
They get out on a beach and there’s two huge tikis… guarding four huge hiking backpacks!
The trainers want to take them back to the people they met on the first day. They’re going to revisit their weightlosses and their experiences in the house each week.

There’s a series of gates on the way to the end and each gate represents a week and each gate has a bag of sand representing their weightloss they then put in their backpack.
Unfortunately Lisa won’t be able to carry the pack along the way because of her injuries so she’ll do the walk and pick up a pack at each stop to experience the weight, just not walk with it.

They’re all feeling pretty good until they get to the first gate. Then they have to get their first weight added back on. Shannon’s got a whopping 5.5kg to put back on first.
David’s got 4.3kg. He says it’s surprisingly heavy.
Phoebe lost 2.2kg so she’s got it pretty easy first up!

Lisa’s surprised at how much difference the 2.9kg she lost last week makes. Her week’s highlight was the makeover, which was the first time she’d really felt beautiful. Awww!

Lots of oof’s and ooh’s as the weights drop in. Shannon’s second gate is 7.3kg worth of weight. Jeepers!

This is all pretty much recap material, if you’re wondering why there’s not a lot of wordiness going on. Revisiting the 21km half marathon with Phoebe, for example.

Week #7 for Shannon, 7.1kg. Another big week for him and he’s now got a lot of weight already and they’re not even halfway done!

Lisa’s got a 5.1kg bag next. She’s still looking quite bright and happy but she’s not carrying it around while walking so it’s not so tough on her.
That was also the week Lisa saw her family. Shannan says that was the week she really came alive.
As Shannan puts the weight in her backpack she says that was a big one, that one was worth it!

After another ad break… ooh, catch up with Jarna. She’s looking a lot healthier now. I’m not sure she’s lost much weight since leaving the show but she looks much healthier and happier which is always good to see!

The boys are now at Mount Bundy Station in “The Top End”.
They arrive to find a quad bike, with Commando Steve standing atop it. Joe says there’s only one reason it’s going to be in there…
Yup, Steve says he wants them to get the bike out, any way they can.

Joe and Phil aren’t talking much strategy just getting stuck in.
And Phil’s starting to get frustrated. Steve says he’s using his back, which you shouldn’t do and Phil says, “Yeah, alright!” “Alright?!”
Steve’s determined to get in his face and get him riled up to get him to put in his best effort. He wants Phil to work harder!

“Can you handle me in your face?!” “YES SIR!”

They finally manage to start levering it up and out of the mud and up onto the bank and then along the path a bit.
Finally Steve is happy with their efforts. He says to us that it’s about earning your keep and that’s what they’re there for.
Back to camp, clean yourselves up and Steve will see them for their next training session.
Joe seems to think the next session will be tomorrow. That didn’t seem enough of a workout for a whole day to me!

Week 6 and Lisa lost 6.2kg which was a huge result.
But not as huge as Shannon’s 9.7kg that week.
David had 7.1kg that week, too. Big results all round but David was Biggest Loser of the week so it’s particularly worth rewatching video clips, apparently.

David says that moment is when he really all turned it around. The last couple of weeks have been great but that was when he first thought he was doing well.

Phoebe had a 5.7kg loss that week. That week was about 4 hours in the mud for Phoebe. The tire stacking challenge. Where Phoebe offered a muddy hug to Hayley.

Shannon’s got nearly 30kg on his back and he says he’s starting to feel the effort but he’s walking proud with a big smile on his face. He’s enjoying the challenge.
His body’s aching and he knows it’s going to get worse. Shannan says there’s four more gates to go and Shannon says not to worry, he’ll get through them. Huge change from where he started!

Lisa had another 4kg loss. It was the week she got a phone call home because she was getting really upset about being away from the family. But she’s way over all that now and she’s loved being there, especially getting to this point.

Phoebe also had her aunt Jenni leave that week. She was a little rattled by her leaving but she worked really hard and nearly lost 4kg.
She says it was a little scary not having Jen there, not having the support anymore but Phoebe thinks it’s made her a stronger person. And Jenni would be proud if she could see her now.

They’re back to Week 3 now. David has a 7.5kg sandbag, making 38kg on his back.
That week he was missing his daughter’s birthday during a training session which had him upset but he was using it to keep him going. And Michelle offered to be his daughter for now. In a somewhat sexy tone of voice that was really quite inappropriate!
David says he thinks back to the person who walked in the door and that person was just all sandbag.
Michelle finally puts the weight in David’s backpack and he struggles for a moment to come to grips with the weight. Michelle says it really makes you wonder where you ever kept all that weight.

Being that heavy made them feel tired and sore all the time and this journey is bringing it all back for them, Shannan says.

Public speaking for Lisa was really hard. She cried in front of a huge audience as she said she had to leave her kids behind to be on the show.
But now she doesn’t want to regret anything ever again so she won’t be putting the weight back on…

And now a catch up with Caitlin and… HOLY CRAP.
She’s still chubby. But it’s just chubby not HOLY CRAP GIANT BLOB. She’s obviously kept up with the work on the outside really well. Should be interesting come Finale!

Phoebe’s up to 28kg in her backpack. That’s quite a lot of weight for quite a small girl. “Yup. That one hurts!”

Shannan brings up Shannon’s second week weightloss where he got under 200kg. Shannan asks him if he’s ready for the bag and Shannon says nooo, but chuck it in there!
Shannan asks him if he’s got a spring in his step and Shannon says not right now, not with all the weight on his back! But Shannan says nah, a spring in your step and pride and happiness and so on.
Even with 60kg on his back Shannan says he’ll still be looking around with a grin on his face and determination to never go back to that weight again.

They finally get back to Week One.
Phoebe and David are looking pretty beat down, especially David. Lisa looks fine as she doesn’t have the backpack on her back!

Phoebe says back in week one she didn’t really think she had anything wrong, just wanted to look good at the end. Now she knows better.

Lisa struggles to get her backpack back on. She says it wasn’t really life, having that much extra weight on her. Each day was an effort just to survive.

David’s next bag is 16.6kg heavy. David says the guy who applied was struggling about as much as the guy who’s doing this now.
Michelle says she’s been with him since Day One, start to finish, and if he wants she’ll carry this for him.

But David says, “Nup, it’s my burden to carry, put it in there.”
I’m not sure he’s even going to be able to walk, he looks that weighed down!

Shannon’s got his final bag of weight in there but still has a huge grin on his face. Walking down a beach used to be one of his fears!
Shannon’s very enthusiastic about it all. He says he’s never going back to being 214kg, but he’s handling it very well. Probably the best I’ve ever seen anyone handle it which is astounding given how much raw weight he’s lost since Day One.

Michelle’s walking alongside David most of the way to the finish line, but he’s trudging onwards.
As they near the end Shannon’s actually keeping pace with David and urging him onwards, too. Massive change from where he was at on Day One.

Shannan tells them all to remember the feeling they have right now. When the weight comes off them it’s time to say goodbye to that person forever.
Lisa’s not had to carry hers the distance the others have carried it but she gets to remove her’s first anyway. Then she gets hugs from Shannan first while the others stand there being crippled by their weight.

Fortunately David gets to go next and after his backpack falls to the floor and the relief is etched on his entire body.
Say goodbye to old David. David kicks his backpack on the ground!

Phoebe goes next. Time for the freedom moment she’d been waiting for for the whole walk.
She finally drops it off her back and then ends up falling down on her butt onto the backpack. “She’s gone!”

Shannon’s proud to be standing there with all that weight on his back because he knows it’ll all be coming off now and it’ll never be coming back again. “Not a chance at all am I going back to this!”
Lisa’s in tears watching Shannon be set free.
Shannon gets set free and lets out a roar in celebration. Big slappy handshake with Shannan.
Shannon guarantees us we’ll never see him at that weight again.

Big group hug on the beach, awwww!

Tomorrow night, why can’t Phil look Commando Steve in the eye? Ooooh!

Plus a weigh-in back at Camp… but no Elimination.
Which is lucky for whoever it is that’s gained 100 grams!