8×21 – Pigs In Mud 2: Eliminee Boogaloo

Previously on The Biggest Loser the eliminated contestants returned for the start of the second chance process. They’ll have to battle it out for a weigh in pass and with only three on offer, it’ll be a tight race.

Tonight, with Mark and Chris already holding a pass and a challenge underway it’s down to Sam and Rosemary in a 5km spinbike race. First across the finish line will win the second weigh in pass. Whichever team loses will then go into a final round of battle with the yellow and pink girls in a cross country obstacle and orienteering course. Looks to be a very wet, muddy course they’ll be running. Hope somebody brought the backhoe!

Also the pink ladies are going to have another argument, probably over something silly again. Find out later!

Rosemary’s looking very determined and everyone’s thinking Rosemary might actually have Sam beat. But Sam’s not so convinced… and he blitzes past the 5km mark well in front of Rosemary. Guess Sam was right and she shouldn’t’ve got on the bike!

She’s disappointed she didn’t win because that means her and Kevin still aren’t back in, but there’s another chance still to come so she’s not giving up yet.

Sam and Jess win the second weigh in pass. Sam knows they’ve just got to lose the most weight now.

Yellow, Pink and Blue aren’t out of it yet, Hayley says. But the final chance is going to push them hard.

Tensions are high in the house, Janet tells us after the challenge. Janet decides to sit down and have a chat with King Richard. That’s going to end well!

Richard says him and the other remaining contestants deserve to be there because for whatever reason, they’ve survived to that point. Richard’s in the mindset of training and eating and training and eating and ultimately, the others are his competition. So if he can ruffle some feathers and put the returnees off their game, so be it!

Sigh. You’re such a dick, Richard.

Kirsten’s thinking about leaving the house because she had lots of support on the outside and when she came back on the show the atmosphere changed, it’s not a happy place for her right now. She confesses to her Mum, Amber and Richard that the only reason she’d stay now is for the money.

Janet goes off for a chat with Kirsten upstairs. Janet’s proud of Kirsten’s work at home, but she thinks they need to finish it off. But Janet’s shocked at how things have changed and the friends she thought she had aren’t so friendly after all! Kirsten thinks her Mum’s a bit naive for thinking nothing would change. Janet still thinks they need to be there, and she made a promise. Kirsten points out she can still keep her promise. Kirsten says Janet’s frustrating her, not supporting her. Janet doesn’t want them to cop out and go home, she’s seeing it as a hurdle they need to jump over. Kirsten just wants to go home though!

Janet wonders if they want to leave as “the pink team” or do everything they can to stay in and leave as “THE PINK TEAM”. Kirsten’s still insistent on wanting to go home so Janet says do they need to let the producers know she wants to go home then? Kirsten gets frustrated and says she’s already said she’ll do the frigging challenge, shut up!

Janet starts to walk off but then turns around and says she’s going to talk and Kirsten doesn’t want to listen. Janet’s still on about the emotional hurdle, saying that if every time she confronts the hurdle and Janet lets her go back home. “You know what that’s called? Depression! It’s a sickness! And you, young lady, have got more strength than that.” Yeahhhhh, it’s not a question of strength.

Janet’s still going on and on about standing up for herself with Kirsten now and Kirsten keeps telling her to get out of her face.

Janet finally goes off to her room for a sook. Janet doesn’t stand up for herself much, she says, but she needs to stay there for herself now and if Kirsten wants to go home she’ll just have to wait till Janet’s ready to go home. Kirsten says it’s good her Mum walked out when she did because if she hadn’t it would’ve gotten much, much worse.

But before the challenge Michelle and Steve have them out on a football field for a training session… with a difference. Today’s about working together as a team and keeping your eye on the prize. And one team who knows all about that is the 2012 premiers the Sydney Swans!

Or four of them, at least. I don’t recognise any of the names because I am a bad Swans fan!

Shane was 130kg when he was 18 and now he’s down to 105kg and muscly instead of fat. So he’s done all that through healthy eating and training. Robyn says Katie will look like that when they’re done, but a female version!

They’re going to train like an AFL team today. Eliminated contestants with Michelle and the remaining contestants with Steve.

Lots of big tackles on the tackle bags. Brett’s a little tentative, as you might expect with a busted wrist, but he still gives the bag a thump.

Pink ladies get pulled aside by Michelle for a chat. Kirsten’s not feeling like herself at Camp, she feels like she’s hurting herself by being there. Everyone’s judging her all the time, she says. She tells us she realised she was fit and healthy at home and she’s not feeling that at Camp. Mish tells her it’s tough at Camp, but how many times has she run away from things before? When things have got hard? Kirsten tells us it’s not running away because she’s going home to work out, not slack off.

Kirsten’s not planning on throwing the competition, she’ll still be giving 100% so she can be happy even if she does have to go home.

Janet wants the pass. Does Kirsten? Kirsten gives her Mum a very non-committal “yeah.”

Time for the challenge! They’re at Glenworth Valley, it seems. I don’t know where that is but it looks nice, if wet!

They’re up on a clifftop and Hayley points down to a clearing off in the distance where a helicopter is parked. In that chopper is the last weigh in pass and the first team to it gets the pass and a chopper ride back to Camp Biggest Loser. FUN!

So they need to… GET TO DA CHOPPA!!!

Only, it’s not that simple. There’s a series of challenges between them and the chopper. Each team gets a map to follow, and they must follow the route and do the challenges as they get to them. Four in total. Kevin’s confident because he used to deliver pizzas for two years. Cher’s worried because she doesn’t know left from right. Kirsten once used a GPS and still ended up in the wrong place.

But their trainers are there to help them! Except it’s only Michelle and Steve between the three of them because Shannan’s unwell. Poor bugger!

Kevin looks utterly ridiculous in his helmet. His head is still significantly larger and rounder than the helmet.

Pink are the slight favourites but as Mish points out, they bicker a lot. Kevin and Cher’s size might hinder them with physical obstacles but apparently Kevin’s very good with his calories.

Pink take an early lead and Blue are actually in second place… until Kevin slips over and hurts himself. Anita goes over to check on him but he urges her to keep going. Kevin says the old demons came back at that point, telling him to just give up now. But he’s not listening to them and is pushing himself to keep moving.

Pink’s having a grand old time. Neither of them can understand the map so they’re trying to just shuffle along and look for signs. They get to the first quiz station well in the lead, but if they get it wrong they have to go back up to the earlier flag and come down to try again.

First question is which has the most calories in 100g? Potato, white rice, rice noodles? White rice! But pink guess rice noodles and then potato. So they’re having to do it all again!

Anita gets it right first time. As does Rosemary. So pink’s now in last place because of getting it wrong twice.

But after an ad break Janet and Kirsten fly straight past both blue and yellow. And heading for “Snakebite Creek”. Meep!

Kirsten’s looking a bit worried. She worries about things in the water! Janet’s struggling to get up the far bank after jumping into the water. She’s calling for Kirsten to get down and help her and Kirsten says she’s coming, settle down. Mish asks her what’s wrong and Kirsten says she’s pissing her off. Mish thinks Kirsten’s sarcastic and nitpicky because Janet’s never picked her up on it.

Not quite how I saw it, Mish. I saw Janet getting too far ahead of Kirsten, complaining she wasn’t there immediately to help her, eventually pulling herself out and not even checking Kirsten was getting out of the creek. Just started towards the next flag without even a glance back. Janet’s at least a little to blame for that…

Kevin’s struggling to get out of the creek so Steve actually has to get into the creek and brace himself in the water so Kevin can use him as a sort of stepping stone. Strong man, Steve!

The next obstacle is a muddy hill with large wooden X’s on it. They need to dig up the entrance to a small crawl space and then wriggle their way through. Which is causing arguments amongst the pink team again as they bicker over how much space they need to get inside the tunnel. Janet’s got to go first because Kirsten definitely won’t. At the far end there’s a lot of loose soil to push out the end. Janet’s feeling very claustrophobic but she pushes the dirt out of the way and gets out the other end, ready for Kirsten to start her trip through the tunnel.

They do finally get through the tunnel but Kirsten’s pretty sick of her Mum by that point. She lags behind as Janet gets to the next nutrition question…

Which has the most fat per 100g? Almonds, cashews or peanuts? Janet thinks it’s not almonds because they all eat almonds. Kirsten thinks peanuts so she reveals that… and it’s wrong!

Cher tells us they all knew Kirsten and Janet would have to do it again anyway because they’d get it wrong the first time!

They have to crawl through the tunnel again so Kirsten’s unimpressed. Mish says that Kirsten not knowing the nutrition stuff should be telling her that she needs to educate herself some more?

Janet gets back to the quiz board and thinks maybe it’s including the good kind of fat too? But they don’t let them have cashews in the house, so maybe it’s that?

Damn, now I really want some peanuts!

Anyway, after an ad break Janet finally guesses cashews… which is wrong!

Janet cracks the shits on the way back and throws the map on the ground on the way back. Kirsten’s unimpressed and grabs it off the ground. Janet calls out to Mish that they’re dumbarses!

Kevin’s wriggling and jiggling his way into the tunnel but he only just barely fits, much less has room to do much crawling. But he slowly inches his way forward and squeezes out the far end. As he gets to the far end he has to start rolling back and forth to try and get out.

Anita’s struggling with the tight space so she’s gone in feet first so she can still see Cher and can still see the light. Wiggle backwards and kick the dirt out the other side. It’s a big effort but she does manage to wiggle her way out eventually. And then it’s Cher’s turn to try!

Meanwhile pink are up to the next obstacle, building a bridge of a small river. They’ve got to put five pieces of the bridge together, which will require teamwork, which could bring pink unstuck!

They’ve got to lift it, Janet says, but doesn’t lift it herself. Much to Kirsten’s consternation. Then Janet’s trying to do something with a rope in the water instead of listening to Kirsten. Janet tells us afterwards that she doesn’t think either was listening to the other. Yeahhh, it’s mostly you not listening to Kirsten and doing things wrong!

Anita and Cher get to the quiz and get it right on their first attempt. As do Kevin and Rosemary!

Kirsten says to Janet as she’s about to start crossing their bridge that it might be wiser to crawl across, so both of them end up doing that. Michelle, the daredevil, walks along behind Kirsten without a care in the world.

Blue and Yellow arrive at the bridge building section not long after Pink finish so they’ve got an example bridge to copy off and Kevin realises it shouldn’t take them very long at all to get this done. Cher says they’ve just got to build their bridge and get over it. Har har har!

Third obstacle is another PIGS IN MUD test. Lots and lots of water with mud at the bottom. They’ve having to mostly crawl and float along to get through it.

Anita gets to the end of their rickety bridge and falls off the end bashing her face on a tree on the way down. Ouch! She falls into the water and says she thinks she swallowed a few leeches, maybe an eel!

Which of these pasta sauces has the most calories per 100g? Pesto, bolognaise, carbonara? Pesto! And they get one right first go for once!

Kevin squeezes his way through a fork in the tree and finally crosses the bridge but the former pink team, the now grubby muddy pig team are at the final challenge. They’ve got to use hay bales to build some stairs to get over a very tall wall.

How heavy could hay bales be? Well, quite a bit when they’ve been rained on for ages. Pink are struggling to carry a bale between them and then Janet decides to try rolling one. You can’t roll squares!

Pink think they need just one more bale and they’re right. The rain has started bucketing down but they’re up and over the wall and in the final stretch to the helicopter. Janet and Kirsten are very excited to go on a helicopter for the first time. Probably would have been more fun in clean clothes!

They grab their passes and get inside the chopper and it takes off and flies back over the course and over the yellow and blue team’s heads.

Cher says they’re leaving with their heads held high, they’ve got a lot more confidence now and they’re sure they can go hard till finale.

Kevin’s finished. He’s fallen over in the mud and ends up needing help from his Mum and Anita to limp his way out of the mud. But there’s life beyond Biggest Loser, Rosemary says. They should be able to lose the weight outside. Kevin knows he’s changed enough to do this on the outside now. He knows it’s not over but he’s hoping to be an eye opener for people at finale.

Janet and Kirsten arrive back to Camp Biggest Loser on their helicopter.

Sunday night the eliminated contestants who’ve won weigh in passes get their chance to win a spot back in the competition in the weigh in room. Who’ll have lost enough to get back in the game and who’ll be sent straight back home? Find out Sunday. Or Monday, if you prefer. Perhaps Tuesday…