Previously on The Biggest Loser… SWITZERLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND!

I like Switzerland. It’s pretty. :)

The Reflection Hike for this year was over snow capped mountains and is ending with a plunge into an icy lake. I’m feeling cold just looking at the recapped footage.

Tonight! The Super Duper Switzerland Uber Challenge begins. Thrills AND spills are promised and it all culminates in one contestant being eliminated from the competition.

If the elimination doesn’t happen before the end of this NINETY MINUTE EPISODE I’m going to be even more cranky than usual!

But first, more people dunking themselves into the icy lake.

Margie’s promised to herself she’ll never go back to the way she was.
Mish says this is about making a fresh start for herself. In the talking-to-us bit, Margie’s face is really, really red. SO VERY COLD.
Margie wants to love herself, first and foremost. She understands the symbology in the ice dunk and so she’s ready to go, right away.
Jumping off the canyon was a big step for her, she honestly thought she was jumping to her death, she says.

Margie has to jump in for thirty seconds as well but before she does she apologises to Mish and thanks her for never giving up on her.
Margie says there’s no hesitation in her anymore, she’s ready for anything.
And her future looks rosie. Not as cold as the water, but rosie!

Kasey’s turn. See her future, fresh start, rah rah. Leap towards your future, scream out a word that will define her future as she jumps in.
“Ahhhhhh…dventure!” She’s not giving in when things get hard anymore.

Graham just says “New me!” He tells us he’s found love in himself, what he sees in the mirror. He’s not embarassed with himself anymore so he can go out and find love.

Goodbye old Al! Steve asks him how he feels when he’s in the water and Alex says COLD!

Time for Bek’s fresh start. Remember that one word. She’s picked “freedom” because she wants to be free to experience life afresh and be free to do what she wants.
Bek tells us she’s never felt more alive in her whole life.

Time to say goodbye to their trainers, first a little chat with them. They’re all proud of their contestants. Shannan says they’ve got all the tools they need now to keep their weight and lives in control.
And of course they’ve got a little something to symbolise their journey and Switzerland, Steve says.

They’re rocks. On leather thongs. They’re giving them a ROCK. That is SO LAME. They’re not even carved into pretty shapes.
Apparently the Swiss think their energy comes from The Alps and so if they find times ahead a bit tough then they can think back on this, etc.

So to finish up their time, they’re on top of the Swiss Alps so of course they have to have a snowball fight, Bek says.
Lots of giggling and running around trying to get snow in people’s faces.
Margie tries to tackle Steve but finds he really is solid muscle. Steve brings her down, holds her down and then starts sprinkling snow on her face while everyone giggles. Margie declares Steve to be A MAN.

And then, after an ad break, a wild Hayley appears! She’s missed them all for this week but it’s good to see them all again. Awww!
Face your fears week, how’s it been? Terrifying but great!

They’ve been pushed to their limits all week and that’s not changing now. They’re going to go on the most epic Super Challenge the show has ever done.
15km in total, 1,500m in descent. From the Alps to the centre of the city of… Interlarken? I’m so sorry, Swissies. Your place names are weird.

Anyway, not everyone will be returning to Camp after the Super Challenge. One of them will be eliminated at the end of it and will be going straight home afterwards.

Snowshoes is the first section, 1km over freshly fallen snow.
Then a traditional Swiss sledge 500 metres down a snow track.
Run through the snow to the forest and through the forest to the bicycles. Cycle 9km to the Interlarken (SORRY) rail bridge.

This is where things get interesting, Hayley says.

They have to rappel 20 metres down to the water below and get into a kayak to paddle down the river 500 metres. Then a sprint to the centre of the city.

One final challenge awaits them at the end. A table with six traditional swiss delicacies.

Yep, it’s another “pick the lowest calorie item” challenge. Whoever ends up with the food with the highest number of calories will be eliminated.

So nobody wants to come last.

Alex is worried because he knows nothing about swiss delicacies, just how to eat!

Margie heads off in the lead at a quick jog, determined to keep opening that advantage further and further.

They go past some log cabin looking things that are almost entirely buried in snow! I don’t know if anyone lives in them but… So much snow. So very much snow.

Bek figures Margie’s probably going to win the race because she’s the strongest so Bek is just going to focus on at least coming second.

Margie turns left to go down a hill and her foot goes straight through the snow. As she pulls her foot out she’s left her shoe behind in the snow but decides to just keep going, trying to slide down the hill on her butt. It’s not going well but nor is trying to walk with one shoe.

Brenda’s sliding down the hill cackling wildly. She tells us she doesn’t think she’s doing it particularly gracefully but she’s having fun!

Graham’s in fifth place and falling behind the others already but he’s determined not to come last. Alex, of course, is in last place at the moment.

Margie’s getting frustrated because she can hear the other girls catching up to her. Bek’s wondering to us why Margie’s running in one shoe and one sock and thinks she should have put the other shoe on since it’s a bit chilly outside.

Margie’s slowed down and is hollering for her shoe. Kasey is laughing to us and says she wasn’t going to stop and help her because she knows Margie wouldn’t help her.
Margie’s hollering at… seemingly nobody but probably a producer or sound or camera guy or something. She needs her shoe! She needs her shoe!

Then you shouldn’t’ve left it way back up the mountain, you idiot.

Someone’s finally brought Margie’s shoe to her and she’s begging the guy to put it on faster… as Graham closes in behind. Ha!

Kasey’s first to the sledges but not by much, Bek and Brenda are right behind. And both Bek and Brenda take off first with Brenda zipping past Bek, quite quickly!

Brenda’s a little scared of going too fast but she’s having fun. She hits the bottom first and starts to head towards the treeline but plunges knee deep into the snow and hurts herself. She’s in a lot of pain, she’s twisted something but is determined to keep going.

Margie’s gotten to the sledges as the other girls have already finished their rides to the bottom, so Margie knows she’s got to go down the hill pretty quick.

Alex is hoping to start catching up to Graham as they go up the hill to the sledges.

Margie’s worried about coming fourth, fifth or sixth so she’s going to try catching up to the other girls. She’d have to be in with a good chance because there’s a run through the forest and a long cycling section and she hasn’t hurt herself yet, unlike Brenda.
Brenda’s trudging through the forest as best she can, despite thinking she’s injured herself somehow. Quite a difference to old Brenda!

Brenda makes it to the bicycles first, but just barely. Kasey says to her she can’t even feel her feet and Brenda says she can’t either. They’re obviously enjoying themselves!

Graham’s having fun on the sledge. Alex is, too. A little. He runs straight into the first Swiss sign. Then almost crashes into one of the gates on the way down. Then almost crashes AGAIN! So he decides to just take it easy down the rest of the hill.

Brenda’s still in first, Kasey’s in second. Kasey says she hasn’t ridden a bike since she was a kid so it should be an interesting leg for her.
Brenda’s good on a bike, she says, but she’s worried about when she might have to stand up because her hip down to her knee is killing her.

Bek’s in third! She’s trying not to stack it on the downhill run to the bike. Didn’t think about not knocking the other bikes down, ha! She grabs her helmet sheepishly and heads out on her bike.
What’re the bike safety laws like in Switzerland, anyway? Are helmets mandatory? One assumes you’re still supposed to do them up properly, which Bek doesn’t do. So that’s a useless helmet!

Margie does hers up properly and then reveals she also used to do a lot of downhill mountain biking, so she’s very confident she’ll do well here.

Bek says that Margie starting this leg in 4th would be eating away at her and so she won’t want to finish in 4th.

Kasey reaches a huge hill and decides she won’t be able to ride up it so she hops off and starts pushing the bike up. Brenda actually manages to overtake her for a moment but might also be hopping off…

Margie can see Bek, her first target to hunt down. But she’s not going to eat her because she’s probably high in calories. Mmmkay!

Alex is still in last position running through the forest but he likes his chances when he gets to the bike.

Margie’s gone past Bek and then catches up to and passes Kasey as they powerwalk up a hill. As Margie goes past she calls some encouragement to Kasey, which is nice.

Brenda’s still in the lead though. So Margie’s still going as hard as she can. Brenda also knows that Margie’s probably pushing hard behind her and then… yep, Margie’s right behind Brenda as they get to a bridge.
Brenda has to slow down a bit down the hill as it’s very rocky and treacherous and she’s worried about coming off her bike.

So Margie goes blitzing past her!
Margie’s really happy to be in the lead. Her Dad is really into cycling and so she thinks he’d be especially proud of her today.

Kasey and Bek are taking it pretty slow down the rocky road as well but Bek’s trying to catch up and go past. She calls out to Kasey she’s going past on the right and Kasey lets her go past.

Margie’s up to the abseiling part of the challenge. She’s still afraid of heights but she knows she’s just got to do it today, not overthink it. She needs to win!

Bek overtakes Brenda as well, saying “Here I come, babycakes!” She’s back into second place and looking to catch up to Margie. Alex and Graham are a long, long way behind she laughs.

Graham’s familiar with mountain bikes, he rides one at home.
HE RIDES ONE AT HOME? That can’t possibly be right. They don’t make them for people that heavy.

In any event he crosses over a bridge and then stacks it, grunting and groaning on the ground for a moment but he gets back up and gets going again in short order. Can’t imagine old Graham doing anything of the sort. He’d be done for the day after that! So well done, Graham!

Margie gets to the bridge… but she’s scared again, thinks she can’t jump off a bridge. Of course you can! It’s nowhere near as high as the rope swing!

Bek’s actually looking forward to the rappelling section, she loves that kind of thing. She gets to the bridge while Margie’s still faffing about on the bridge and freaking out and asking them not to let her die.

Brenda and Kasey reach the end of the bike leg together.

Meanwhile Margie’s still freaking out about trusting the guys to lower her down safely but she’s finally gathered up the courage and heads over the edge and gets lowered towards the kayaks.

Alex is hooning down the hill, thinking he’s Valentino Rossi (?), brakes working fine… Then suddenly the camera gets a wobble on and Alex is stacking it a lot harder than Graham did. All we hear afterwards is him calling for someone to help him. Eep!

There’s a camera crew staring down at him after an ad break and then finally a medic turns up as well but Alex is back up on his feet by then. He can’t really remember much of what happened, just hitting a tree (!!!) and the bike being over there and him being on the ground and bleeding.
Yikes!

Bek’s up and over the edge of the bridge quite quickly, she’s still on the way down when Brenda and Kasey arrive and start heading for their own rappelling things.
Kasey has fun on the trip down though she’s a bit further behind Brenda now.

Margie’s going fast to the first buoy and then realises she has to go against the current on the way back.
Bek’s not having fun at all, zigzagging across the water and getting blown about by the wind.

And Graham starts heading down to the boats while we can see some of the other kayaks still in the water, so he’s done pretty well to keep up with everyone else as well as he has.

Margie’s shouting encouragement to herself, telling herself to come on and so on. She’s paddling hard and looks behind her at one point and can’t see the other people behind her, so she’s bragging to the camera crew as she goes past them.

Kasey’s not having fun at all, she doesn’t like kayaking. The last time they did something on the water was building a raft with Lydia, in which they came last. And the time before that was digging the kayak out of the sand, which the White Team didn’t even finish after three and a half hours of digging! So she’s not really a fan of kayaks.
She’s having trouble steering from the start and heads towards the rock wall, eventually bumping into it and worrying she might sink.
Think the problem is she’s paddling on the wrong side to turn away from the wall. Wall’s on the right and she’s paddling on the right hand side…

Graham’s paddling away and thinking about himself and his journey and his family and yawn.

Alex is still cycling. Go Alex go! His rib is hurting as he breathes occasionally and his hands are hurting. As he finishes the cycling leg he pretty much falls down and then clutches his side groaning in agony. If he’s been cycling with a busted rib I don’t fancy his chances of getting much further!

But after an ad break he gets up and keeps going. Alex says the old Alex would have never even thought of continuing, he’d’ve been out and off to the pub. So he doesn’t want to go back to that so he has to keep going.

“I’m a winner!” Margie’s still very excited about winning.

Alex used to be scared of heights, he says as he gets to the bridge. But after doing the canyon swing he knows he can do anything he wants. He gets lowered down and into his kayak, finally.

Brenda’s struggling, her back is hurting a lot. Kasey catches up and goes past her, thinking to herself the whole time, “I am a warrior!” Tiff would be so proud!

Margie’s the first to finish the kayak leg and thinks this must be what professional athletes feel when they’re winning.
She’s not done yet though, still has to run to the table thing.

Brenda’s got Graham about 20 metres behind her by this point. Graham’s putting in the hard yards to try and catch up to her.

Bek’s second in to the dock and up the stairs as quick as she can, strips off her lifejacket and wetsuit and puts a jacket on over the top. She’s worried about what foods might be available to pick from because she doesn’t want to go home, at all.

Margie’s greeted by a bunch of those giant cowbell type things and swiss horns.

Margie knows the food she has at home but not necessarily the swiss foods so she’s glad she’s there first.

The six options are 100g of swiss cheese, 100g of swiss chocolate (toblerone!), 100g of rapsberries, 1 cup of swiss hot chocolate with full cream milk, swiss rosti weighing 250g and cooked in 20g of butter, 140g of bratwurst sausage.

Margie’s having a good look at them all but isn’t sure what to pick. She’s decided to go for raspberries because they have them at home as they’re fairly low in calories.
It might not be the lowest but it certainly shouldn’t be the highest so Margie should be safe.

Bek’s second to arrive and she loves the welcoming committee. But then she has to pick a food…

As Bek is trying to make a decision Kasey is also on her way. Hayley starts trying to rush Bek to make a choice which isn’t fair, Bek can choose after Kasey if she prefers. It’s not the best option but she’s certainly allowed to!

Bek is thinking about grabbing the bratwurst because she knows they’re famous for their sausages and maybe it has a low fat content?

Kasey arrives and is thinking of grabbing the hot chocolate but Bek goes for it before Kasey can.
Margie sees it as Bek stealing Kasey’s choice but watching it from the angle where the camera is, it certainly didn’t look that way to me!

So now Kasey’s got to make a different choice. Four choices left, pick the lowest calories. Go for the chocolate, it won’t be the most!
Kasey looks at Margie for help but Margie’s not offering any help.

Brenda arrives and Kasey’s rushed into a selection as well. She ends up plumping for the bratwurst, which might come back to haunt her. She has no idea what’s even IN bratwurst.
Oh dear…

But Alex manages to finish the kayak leg, yay! He says he got a bit emotional because he figures he’ll be going home and he doesn’t want to go home yet.

Brenda’s asking what the rosti has in it and it’s just potato fried in butter. Nobody else thought to ask?

Graham’s coming, time to decide!

She grabs the 100g of swiss cheese. Cheese is one of the big reasons she arrived at Camp. So she knows it would be ironic if she left because of cheese as well.

There’s only the traditional swiss chocolate and the swiss potato rosti to choose from. Graham’s got to pick between the two of them and Alex will get whatever’s left.
Graham’s got no idea. He’s just staring at them while puffing and panting away.

He eventually opts for the chocolate, though he’s not at all confident in his choice.

Alex finally rocks up, hooray!
Only option is the swiss rosti. Alex says he’s never had one before and potato’s not something that’s even allowed in their diet. And it’s fried in butter? Oh dear!

Hayley congratulates them all for managing to finish, they should all be very proud.

Now it’s time to start running down the calorie counts.
And we’ll be going lowest to highest.

100g of raspberries, 52 calories, Margie’s first on both counts!

Second lowest, swiss hot chocolate with full cream milk, 247 calories.

Kasey’s NOT HAPPY!

Third lowest… BRATWURST! 349 calories! HOORAY FOR KASEY!

So Brenda, Alex or Graham will be heading home.

Next lowest is… swiss cheese, 373 calories. Brenda’s safe, too. “The cheese saved me!”

Just Alex and Graham to go. Last two boys standing in the comp. And one of them is going home. Alex thinks he’ll be going home, he’s upset but holding it in, he got to the top six which is not too bad, really!

Alex’s dish is the potato rosti, cooked in butter. He thinks he’s definitely going home.
Graham’s got traditional swiss chocolate, it’s got nuts in it, he’s not confident either.

Highest amount of calories is 525. And those calories are in… THE SWISS CHOCOLATE!

WOOHOO! STUPID HEAD GRAHAM IS HEADING HOME. NO MORE FINDING A WIFE. NO MORE HAVING BABIES. NO MORE WHITE PICKET FENCES.
Well, maybe one more tomorrow night with his Sammy-makeover.

Graham’s devastated, especially going home because of food. Everyone says he should be proud of himself and he’ll be okay on the outside now. He knows what he needs to and he’s proud of himself now. Biggest Loser was what he needed to change his life and Commando Steve’s given him the tools he needs to keep going. And it’s all old school training which suits him because he can do all that back at home.
He’s focusing on Finale now. He’s still aiming to be 110kg by Finale.

Graham’s relieved to be heading home to see family and friends, even though he’s sad to be leaving the competition.

Only five contestants remain. Time to head home. The finish line is in sight!

Sunday night everyone returns to Camp and finds a homecoming present of some kind. Looks like most of their Mums are there? Or sister, in Alex’s case. And they’re going to join them for a training session? Oof!

And then it’s time for the most important weigh in of the season, prior to Finale. The one that decides the Final Four.

Or would usually decide the Final Four. Not this year, Hayley says. Might not be a Final Four this year? Three instead? Five?

Tomorrow night, trip video from the contestants, extra behind the scenes stuff like meeting big boofy dogs and Alex’s hypothermia after the ice bath?
And Lydia faces her fears at Sydney Aquarium. She’s going to go swimming with the sharks?

They probably won’t eat her. I don’t think sharks eat their own kind.