by David McAlpine

Last time on The Biggest Loser, Michelle of the Red Team gained weight after winning immunity before the weigh-in. Everyone else was worried about their position in the game and put up decent numbers for their weight loss, but in the need it came down to the members of the Purple Team, Patti and Stephenie. Patti asked everyone to vote her off to save her daughter and let her continue on in the game.

The twists continued this week on the show as it became the first "teacher/student week." That meant that one member from each pair would get to train with Bob and Jillian, while the other wouldn't and it was the "teacher"'s responsibility to relay everything to the student. However, at the weigh-in, only the "student" would represent the team and the lowest percentage of weight lost means their teams falls below the yellow line.

Even better, the teams don't get to pick who takes what role, instead a Biggest Loser temptation comes into play: M&Ms. Only two teams actually ate an M&M, Maria (of the White Team) and Ashley and Sherry (of the Pink Team), all of whom earned the power to decide who would be the teachers and who the students. For the purposes of this week, John and Stephanie would be considered a pair, where Stephanie became the teacher. Andrea, Cheryl, Michael, Melissa, Sherry, Migdalia and Sam also became the teachers for their teams.

In the gym, Bob and Jillian railed on Migdalia because of her attitude. Jillian is insistent that she's too stuck up and cynical. Who cares? Is it really any of her business? Jillian ends up pushing Migdalia to the brink and almost forcing her to make the Green Team quit. Miggy intervenes, though, and reminds her mom that they're not there for a personality makeover.

On to the challenge this week, where each team is given 1,000 feet of ribbon and the use of a playground. One team member would be given the chance to wind the ribbon around as many things as possible, making it the most impossible to unwind. After, each team member would select another's to unwind, and the first one to get all 1,000 feet would win immunity.

But yet another twist: each team would be blindfolded and in charge of their own ribbon cleaning up. The students would have to unravel their own colored ribbons while the teachers guided them. Red pulled out to an early lead, but Gray quickly closed the gap and narrowly beat out Lance and Melissa, winning immunity from the week. In addition, they won the power to switch one team around during the weigh-in.

Panicked about the weigh-in, everyone is very intense during the last chance workout. Some people thought Michael was enjoying it too much (and can you blame him? They probably suck.), which let Sam and Koli to toy with the idea of switching around the White team.

And, come weigh-in time, they did switch the White Team, which left Michael feeling targeted. The weigh-in results were as follows:

STUDENT: Koli: -13 (-3.55%)
Sam: -11 (-3.19%)

STUDENT: Lance: -12 (-3.57%)
Melissa: -1 (-0.47%)

STUDENT: Ashley: -12 (-3.48%)
Sherry: -6 (-3.06%)

STUDENT: Darrell: -12 (-3.22%)
Andrea: -7 (-2.51%)

STUDENT: Miggy: -7 (-3.20%)
Migdalia: -8 (-3.27%)

STUDENT: John: -14 (-3.10%)
Stephanie: -7 (-2.88%)

STUDENT: Daris: -9 (-2.90%)
Cheryl: -7 (-3.33%)

STUDENT: Michael: -10 (-2.08%)
Maria: -4 (-1.57%)

Lance's enormous success is overshadowed by Melissa's mysterious 1-pound loss, even though she had full access to the trainers the entire week. Bob and Jillian both start blaming her for holding back because she knew her weight didn't count this week, which escalated into a yelling match between the three.

Either way, unless Sam and Koli made Melissa the student, the White Team was in last place, putting them below the yellow line and making Michael and Maria vulnerable for elimination. Most thought that it was Michael's fault, since he was the teacher this week, and not Maria's--bringing Sam and Koli's plan to life.

In the end, though, everyone thought Michael needed more time on the ranch, so aside from the new Brown/Purple pair voting for Michael, everyone voted for Maria, sending her home. Since getting back, however, she's lost more than 70 pounds and she's begun taking swimming lessons to help her overcome her fear of water.

Tune in to all new episodes of The Biggest Loser, Tuesdays at 8/7c only on NBC!

(Image courtesy of NBC)

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