Previously on The Biggest Loser Ali was surprisingly sent home at elimination, exposing the weakness of the Hailwood/Pestell alliance and showing that, shockingly, the Jofres are men of their word.

Tonight we find out what the Auvales can do with the power they won at The Game yesterday. Later, another beach challenge kicks off. Lots of drama, lots of fighting, lots of it not getting finished until Sunday…

But first a replay of last night’s events, the Auvales get to open the case and see what’s inside. Johnee’s the one opening it. Will we see what’s inside this time? Not just yet, just talk of it being “huge” and “interesting” and they should go tell the other families what’s going on.

The other families are speculating it might be a restriction on gym usage or maybe bedroom reassignments. The boys want the Pestell bedroom. Guess it’s nicer or more convenient or something?

Johnee says that inside the case is a single photo of an eliminated contestant. They have the power to bring that person back. Everyone’s mind instantly goes to who it could be… but it is, of course, Ali. They have a chance to have her return to the game, or they can refuse.

They depart from the lounge room and shortly afterwards the Pestells go to the Auvales to plead their case. Moses tells us that even in the short time Ali’s been gone they’ve seen a big improvement in Jodie and Mel’s attitude. They’re doing better without her, they don’t need to rely on Ali to lead them.

Jodie says they don’t want Ali back for them, she wants Ali back for the sake of Ali’s daughter. Ali needs to get help so she can get healthy and be there for Tilly, etc. Jodie tells them Ali’s not a distraction to them, she’s family. She’s not sure she can go on without Ali. Johnee tells us it’s heartbreaking listening to their pleas, he might be coming around to the idea of bringing her back. Johnee tells them they love the girls and Jodie hopes that means they’ll bring Ali back.

Before they decide they have a chat to their allies, the Jofres. Johnee says that Ali would benefit greatly from coming back and the Pestells would love them for it. Tony asks Johnee if he thinks the Pestells would save him if it’d been him to go home, Tony doesn’t think they would. Daniel points out that Ali labelled him the biggest threat.

Daniel thinks if it was someone from the Jofres it would make sense, they’re in an alliance, it’d be to their benefit. But someone who’s against them? Nahhh. What for?

Johnee’s trying to play the game with his heart and it’s hard to see someone have to go home. Tony says he thinks it’s best not to bring her back, but they’ve got to go with their hearts. It’s their choice in the end.

Dragging the Pestells further away from the Hailwoods could only help them, but having another person in the game between them and winning… Hmm.

Time for the decision. Johnee says that it would be good to have another Pestell back because then they’d have a better chance of taking out the red team. Not sure the Jofres are too enamoured of that idea!

It’s a hard decision… but they’re not bringing Ali back.

Johnee says every time they cry, he cries too. They love the girls. Jodie thinks nobody wants them there, that’s why they’re down to two. Maybe stop being awful?

Mel tells us she’s disappointed in the black team, she thought they were looking after them but they’re not.

Off in the blue bedroom Jodie’s complaining, saying they’re sitting ducks waiting to be lined up. Shannan’s going to be thrilled to be out of a job in two weeks, she snaps.

Mel tells her they’re strong enough to get above the yellow line. They train hard and they can stick in there and let the other teams fight it out among themselves. Having just two people does have some advantages, since Shannan will have more time to work through their issues individually this way. And as we saw last night, Ali’s done pretty well on the outside. Might be the best thing for the Pestells, we’ll see.

Next day, training. Shannan’s having a chat with his girls about the decision. Shannan says he imagines they’re burning inside like he is and tells us he’s hoping they’re going to use that to motivate them in training for the rest of the week.

Going to finish the session today, Jodie? Jodie says yes. They’re out on a bush track, a steep section of dirty gravelly hill. There’s two cones at the top and Shannan wants them to run up there, no stopping. Mel says she usually struggles walking up hills and now Shannan wants her to run?!

Shannan tells Mel and Jodie that if they feel like stopping they need to draw on the fire in their gut over the Auvales not bringing Ali back. But he’s telling us that the change in Jodie since Ali left is great, we’ve not seen the best of her yet, he thinks.

It’s a pretty slow run up the hill but Shannan’s pushing them to keep going, telling them to think of Ali back at home, having to look after her daughter.

They make it up to the top of the hill, lots and lots of puffing and panting. Of course they’re not done yet! Shannan’s got a special rubber harness so he can jog behind the girls on the way up the hill while pulling back on the girls to add a bit of resistance. Shannan doesn’t weigh much, Mel says, they should have been able to just pull him up the hill but it was really tough and she wasn’t sure they’d make it.

It’s all part of Shannan’s plan to show the girls there’s no weak links in the blue team. As they’re cresting the hill they’re pulling together, though more slowly. Shannan asks if they’ve got one more in them and Jodie says… I HOPE SO!

I HOPE SO! What a massive turn around. Shannan takes the time to congratulate Jodie in particular. They’ve been doing it for 45 minutes with no drama. And because they’ve been so good, they get a reward. This time they get to pull back on Shannan as he tries to run up the hill.

It all starts out giggles and fun but then about halfway up Jodie takes a tumble and lands flat on her belly. Bit of groaning, but Shannan helps her up and they get her brushed off. And they get straight back into it! No way she’d’ve done that before, that would have been the end of the session.

Shannan is amazed at how far they’ve come in a short space of time. They’re laughing and smiling and the sky is the limit if they can keep it up.

Time for some Commando Steve. Johnee’s feeling pretty drained after the choice he made. He felt guilty for not bringing Ali back. He can relate to the girls, with their tendency to scream and shout and let their emotions out. That’s not what the Auvales have done, he says. Moses tells us Johnee does talk about his emotions a lot, where Moses himself does not. He’s a bit taken aback.

Johnee says it’s hard, sometimes, to talk to Moses. He just shuts off.

Steve asks them what their childhood was like. Moses asks Steve if he’s seen “Once Were Warriors”. Steve has, of course. Moses says it’s just like that. Okay?

Johnee says they didn’t have a close relationship as they’ve grown up, there’s still cracks in the relationship they need to fix up. Moses is surprised as he thought they’d been closer than ever as adults. Moses was the provider for his family but then he decided he’d move to Melbourne with Rina, and he thought maybe Johnee was hurt by it. Johnee tells Steve that Moses thought Johnee hated him for moving, but it was more about Johnee being left behind.

Moses says it’s bullshit. Moses tells us Johnee was an adult in his own right by then and he didn’t think he’d have to stick around for him anymore.

Moses doesn’t want to talk about it. Tells us Johnee’s old enough to take responsibility for himself now. Steve wants them to sit down and chat about it, he thinks it’ll help them feel less lethargic in training. If they’re not going to talk about it it’s going to continue dragging on their relationships.

Anyway, we’re off to the Hailwoods now. Tiffiny’s making breakfast. Shouldn’t they have had breakfast by now? Oh, I see, it’s a chance for some Sanitarium product placement and a chat about how important nutrition is to their weightloss. 80% of it comes from their diet, Tiff says. And breakfast is the most important meal of the day!

Back at home Sam would skip breakfast and thus be starving by 10-11 and binge on junk food. Tiff tells us you can’t out-train a bad diet. They don’t have their “kitchen kung fu” in order.

Protein is good because it’s hard for your body to digest so it burns more calories. Or so says Tiffiny. She could be lying. Sneaky ninja.

Now it’s time for some Jofre training. Michelle’s here! Her team is very much on top of the competition right now. Winning many of the challenges and weigh ins, they have control of the eliminations as well. They’re unstoppable.

They’re all united in wanting to be the best ever team on the show. Meanwhile all I care about is the number of times Mish is hiding behind contestants and equipment and being shot from the boobs up or far away. She’s totally preggers, isn’t she. ISN’T SHE?

Tony tells us they don’t want to come across as cocky but they’re proud of the work they’ve been doing.

Then we see a side on shot of Mish and her butt still sticks out more than her belly so I guess maybe she doesn’t have a bun just yet. Bunwatch will continue!

Now, Hailwood training. The Jofres have just told us Cliff’s their main threat now. Tiff’s got them at an athletic track, sort of giving rise to them “overtaking” the Jofres. It’s very metaphorical.

First part of training, laps of the field. Gotta get above the yellow line, gotta beat the Jofres, they’re always ahead of the Hailwoods.

“I’m a Jofre! Come get me!” Tiff is pushing them to run harder and faster. Cliff’s starting to get back into his athletic frame of mind, the one he left behind a long time ago. Tiff sees a warrior in him now, someone ready to take his life back. They’ve come a long way.

Sam and Cliff have been together for nearly three years, have a daughter together, but they’ve never known each other as healthy individuals.

Sam says before they came on the show they were fighting, not cuddling and stuff. Now they’re working together so much and falling in love again.

Sylvia’s struggling. Sam and Cliff have each other to push along, she doesn’t have that. She can only shuffle along, not run, which probably isn’t helping her feel like she’s doing as much as she could.

Now it’s time for the challenge. They’ve arrived at the beach on a lovely day which Sylvia says it would have been nice to enjoy but of course it’s Biggest Loser, so they’re not there to get a tan.

Princess Fiona is on the beach to greet them. They’re going to be doing a specially designed obstacle course. It’s going to challenge them physically and mentally.

The course is a crawl under a cargo net, then over/under logs, then digging a trench under another log, then a climb over a cargo container with a cargo net, then four inflatable wall climbs, a ditch to traverse, a balance beam and a 300 metre tire pull to the finish line. Is that all, they ask?

Well, since they asked, there is one more thing. A question they have to answer before the tire pull. If they get it right they can go to the tire pull. Get it wrong and you have to go right back to the start and do it all again.

Cliff is stoked there’s a trivia question because the Jofres suck at them. An even better surprise is coming – team members will be tethered together, meaning the Jofres will be an awkward bunch of four while the Auvales and Hailwoods only have three and the Pestells just have two!

The Pestells probably still won’t win, but this is another place where having fewer team members left can really help.

The winning team will get full access to their trainer for last chance training. The three other teams won’t have their trainer OR access to a gym. Which will be fine for the Auvales as they’re always working outside with Commando Steve anyway!

Sylvia says not having access to trainers and the gym could be what sends someone home.

Jodie doesn’t like touching sand. Especially not crawling through it. It’s going to be a tough challenge for them, she tells us in a side bit. Going to be extra tough for Mel who can’t even walk away from your whinging arse!

The Jofres are off to a very good start, working well together at getting under the net and through the over and unders. They get to the digging section and sensibly sort themselves out so two are doing the direct digging while two are shifting sand further away from them.

Pestells are in last place, of course. Jodie says it looked like there was a million of the over/unders. Jodie tells us she’s sick of people thinking she’ll quit and give up. Time to show them they’re wrong? Fiona’s dropped back to encourage the girls, asking what Shannan would tell them. Jodie says they would want them to just keep going. Their goal is to just get as far as they can, they know they probably can’t win after all.

Meanwhile the Hailwoods are the first to get a member under the bar. Sam wriggles underneath with a pretty small gap. It’s not that important because of course they’ll have to dig a much bigger hole for Cliff while the Jofres are all around the same size.

Lots more digging involved, Cliff knows. But he tries to go underneath too soon and he gets stuck. He’s trying to go underneath face first which is the wrong way to go. Your back bends better forwards than back, silly.

Cliff starts to freak out a bit, feeling like he can’t breathe. And he can’t back out of the hole so it’s down to Sylvia and Sam to try and dig enough sand out for him to get through or back out. It’s not going well.

After a bunch more wriggling and digging they manage to get Cliff back out and dig out some more, allowing Cliff to get underneath the log at last. He’s taken so long that the Jofres have all gotten through and are onto the cargo container climb. They’re trying to stick together as best they can, but they’re all getting tired as well, pushing hard to keep their lead.

Jodie and Mel are burrowing away but they’re not bickering yet, so that’s a good sign. Shannan’s apparently told them to not worry about how well the other teams do, just keep at it. So they are! But Jodie’s looking ahead to the cargo container and is obviously dreading getting to it. But they’ve got to get through the sand first and it’s really hard, especially with only two people.

Jodie’s got a fear of heights, apparently. So she’s not looking forward to climbing. It’s really not that high!

Mel tries to get in under the log as the Auvales finally get Johnee underneath it. Mel starts screaming as she feels stuck and the Auvales take pity on the girls and come across to at least dig Mel out, rather than leave her trapped. Johnee tries to get a dance beat going to encourage Mel to dance her way under the bar but she tells us she wasn’t paying any attention to him, she just wanted to get out. Heh.

Johnee tells us they’re helping not out of guilt for not bringing Ali back. Jodie thinks it’s shown the Auvales really do care about them. Awww!

Meanwhile, at the head of the pack, the Jofres are getting closer to the question they might get wrong… And the Hailwoods are catching up quick. The Jofres know they need the lead if they hope to win because they’ll need time to work out the answer.

Sylvia’s knackered trying to get over the first inflatable obstacle and it takes Cliff and Sam both pushing and pulling to get her up and over. She is relieved to get over it but then remembers there’s three more to go.

The Jofres are up to the ditch traverse but they’ve spent a lot of their upper body strength on digging out the hole under the log. Trying to climb up the other side is tough going.

Sylvia’s pants are falling down and her shirt is riding up and she’s thinking about giving up, but Sam’s not happy about it. She’s not going to let Sylvia quit and have them lose their trainer.

Jodie and Mel are up to the cargo container climb. The Auvales are already up the top but Jodie’s freaking out at the bottom. Mel’s trying to encourage her, throws an arm around her shoulder and says she can do it. Mel has to go first, Jodie insists. Mel says that’s fine but they’ve got to try it.

Jofres are up to the balance beam section of the course. Their coordination has started to fall apart, they’re not keeping a steady pace so one or another inevitably falls off the beam as it winds back and forth across the sand.

Back at the container Mel is encouraging Jodie to keep going, don’t stop. Don’t think about it, just do it. She’s so close, she can’t quit now. Mel can’t lift her up, she’s got to climb up.

Jodie knows it’s just height to most people but it’s a big deal to her. Mel is still trying to calm her down and keep her going but she’s frozen with her hands atop the container but her feet still down on the net. She thinks she’s going to fall, even though that’s a bit silly. Even if she does she’ll land on the net or maybe roll off onto the sand. It’s fine!

After an ad break Jodie’s still struggling and Mel’s still not letting her quit. Mel’s calmly lying down in front of her on the container and trying to convince her it’ll be fine.

And now the Jofres finally make it across the balance beam and start on the commando crawl.

But it looks like the Hailwoods might have even more trouble than the Jofres with the balance beam. Sylvia’s leg is still a bit stuffed so her balance is off. She’s constantly wobbling and it makes the others fall off, which is making Sam and Cliff lose their temper a little.

Jodie’s also getting stroppy with Mel. Jodie looks to be trying to go back down and Mel’s worried she’ll get dragged down as well because they’re tethered together. Jodie thinks she’s stuck and can’t get out of there and Mel’s talking like a robot, apparently? Jodie says Mel may as well push her off, to which Mel gives a guffaw. Don’t tempt her, Jodie!

The Auvales are up to the inflatable obstacles and finding it very hard to get Johnee over even one of them. Moses tries to offer his leg as a step to get him up over the first one but Johnee thinks he’s still 200kg and it will be too much for him. And Johnee’s right as Moses collapses with a laugh. They then try to push him up and over from behind but he’s too heavy even with Moses and Tenealle shoving and Johnee trying to pull himself over.

Meanwhile the Jofres are up to the question at last. Tony says they’ve had to answer 8 questions since coming to the show and they’ve probably got 7 of them wrong.

And the question? Which of the following is not a sugar? Sucralose, Lactose or Galactose?

Pablo immediately jumps in to say glucose is a sugar so that’s out. Read it properly, he’s told, he then says it must be similar to glucose. Why, cause it starts with a g? Pfft!

They’re debating it but it’s clear they’ve got no damn idea. Two of them want to go for A, one goes for B and one goes for C. They’re stuffed if they get it wrong because the Hailwoods probably won’t…

Sunday night, find out if the all conquering Jofres are let down by their tiny brains again. Find out if Jodie gets over that cargo container. Find out if Johnee gets over that inflatable. Find out who’ll be doing without a trainer and gym for last chance training!

Also, a training session with some rugby union all stars or something. Literally no idea. Could be Rugby League? Who cares.

Then it’s time for the weigh in and the Hailwoods are going to fight with each other, probably over something really stupid.

Then more challenges and running and hissy fits and a TWIST where a whole family will be sent home. Probably just for a visit, where they’ll be tempted by bad foods and not have a gym and… I’m sure it’ll be fine.