The Biggest Loser: the masks are off

So in its third episode of the season last night, NBC's "The Biggest Loser: Couples" revealed the faces of the "unknown" trainers–Cara Castronuova and Brett Hoebel. Man, it's gonna suck having to write those names and trying to remember how to spell them! But in all seriousness, these two seem tough as nails. Bob and Jillian tend to have soft sides, and these two seem like they don't have any–they both are all business.

Then they showed the "unknown" camp, and how Rulon and Justin were calling out a couple of their fellow contestants for not giving their all last week, when they lost the weigh-in to the Biggest Loser ranch contingent. They called out Q and Austin, both of whom realized that they indeed had to step things up.

Then host Alison Sweeney offered up the first challenge, and brought the contestants to a location on the ranch where there was a wall up. Then black vans arrived with the other players in it, and they would be competing against each other as teams, but while not being able to actually see the other team. The challenge was to balance an egg on an upside-down frying pan. Yikes. The winner from each group would face off in a calorie-guessing contest with Curtis Stone, who would also be cooking them dinner. Then, the winner of that challenge would have a 2 pound advantage for their team at the weigh-in.

The unknowns already chose their winner in advance, Denise, and instead of dropping their eggs, they all launched them over the wall at the ranch team. Nice. For the ranch team, Marci won, so it would be Deni vs. Marci, two middle aged ladies who clearly had the hots for Curtis during the dinner. Curtis made them a meal of argula/squash salad; halibut over quinoa; and poached pear dessert—and they had to estimate the number of calories per serving for the entire meal. Marci went first and guessed 480, and Deni guessed 440. I was looking at this, and trying to figure it out, but I had absolutely no clue. Marci was closer, as the true calories came in at 572. Is it just me, or does that seem high for a "healthy" meal? I know there was nothing junky in it, but still.

Then came the main challenge, which was to pump water from barrels that had to be carried for ½ mile into each other's trough. Just like the unknowns did on the first challenge, the group decided to let Irene win, since the prize was to give the winning team the only vote at this week's weigh in. That's a lot of power, and they wanted to give Irene, one person, that power? Okay.

So then they showed the weigh-in at the unknown location, and Austin lost 15 while Q lost 19; and Moses has now lost a total of 64 pounds. They sure are working it under Cara and Brett.

Then, Alison mentioned one thing that wasn't mentioned earlier—that if Irene fell below the yellow line, she would automatically be eliminated. So Courtney and Marci went first and lost 6 and 7 pounds, respectively, and then another 2 pounds on top of that. Not bad, but not awesome, especially for the very hefty Courtney. Irene was next and lost 8 pounds, assuring her safety and vote. Jay and Jen were next, and Jay had the number "349" written on his arm all week and kept telling Bob he was going to achieve that, by losing 15 pounds. He almost did, losing 14, and Jen lost 8. Then Jesse and Arthur weighed in, and Arthur did the same as Jay, calling out a 17 pound weight loss—but he only lost 4 pounds while Jesse lost 9. Bob was pissed that now Arthur was in danger of going home while he really needed to stay on the ranch to get healthy. Hannah and Olivia were next and lost 6 pounds each, leaving the twins, Dan and Don. These two had mentioned earlier to everyone that it wouldn't break their hearts to go home, especially Dan, who really missed his family and especially his young daughter. So maybe they'd throw the weigh-in, right? They each GAINED 9 pounds. Each. Holy crap…I have never seen anyone throw it that badly, nor have I ever seen two contestants try to reasonably explain something like that. All I heard was "blah blah blah," and so did Bob and Jillian. Jillian said she was sad more than angry, and I can see that.

So now Irene had to choose between these two, and per his wishes she chose Dan. When Dan was then saying how he would continue to work hard at home, I didn't believe him. But they showed him having gone from 287 to 215, so he really is working at it.

Still, that 9 pound gain is now going to be a sore spot for Don to Bob and Jillian on the ranch. Can he gain their trust and confidence back? It should get interesting, that's for sure. And I think they are going to bring the groups back together next week. So things are heating up for sure.

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