by David McAlpine

Last week on The Biggest Loser, the contestants packed their bags and went home to put their skills to the test in the real world. After biking a marathon and surviving the temptation twist, Koli walked away $10,000 richer. But, it would all come down to the weigh-in, which the Blue Team lost. Stephanie was the team's Biggest Loser, earning her immunity, so Lance was sent packing.

Last night on the Biggest Loser, things took a turn for the worse. I'm not just talking about for the contestants, but for the show in general. The genre "reality TV" never necessarily applied to Biggest Loser in the past, but the recent twists have started to nudge it into that territory. However, after Ali's news tonight, I think that mindset is in full swing with the producers.

The first (not-so-harmful) twist: everyone is now their own team; the game has become individual. It was almost time for that, right? It makes total sense. Twist #2: One of the previously eliminated contestants would be returning to the ranch! At that point, everyone except Migdalia (since her husband was just deployed) walks through the door, all looking like they want to kill someone.

Lucky for the contestants, the returner would be coming back thanks to a vote of those still in the game, not a weigh-in. At this point, I think America could all breathe a sigh of relief because the Biggest Villain, Melissa, who started squawking and plotting right after Ali announced the twist, probably wouldn't be returning.

Everyone weighs in and there's a ton of weight lost. Darrell has lost over 100 pounds, Lance and John have gotten close to losing 100, and Patti and Cheryl both fell below 200. After they weighed in, each eliminated contestant had to make their own plea as to why they thought they should come back into the game.

Melissa did a fair-weather job of convincing everyone she wasn't a threat, but it wasn't enough. The cast decided to give most of the votes to Victoria, the first week castoff that didn't make it back in the fifth week. Of course, her daughter Cherita was left hanging out to dry, but that's not important. The good deed is done and Victoria is back! So that's it, right?

Well, wrong. In a producing scheme fit for reality TV, the remaining eliminated contestants compete in a challenge--climbing 1,000 stairs. And of course, the villainess of villains, Melissa, uses her determination to win the competition and earn her spot back in the house, too. Cue lightning, thunder and doomy music!

To make things worse, both Victoria and Melissa are given immunity for the week. No one was happy to see Melissa, even though Jillian smiled at her. You tell that she was completely faking it and couldn't wait to get her on a treadmill. Cut to Stephanie, who thinks that this is entirely unfair and that they should be the next two to go.

No one seemed to think too much of it and instead focused on themselves during a super-tough strength training workout. Of course, since Victoria came back, she's the obvious subject of another one of Bob's Ziploc product placements. You know, since everyone who hasn't been on the ranch is completely confused on how to use them.

Just as quickly as Melissa came, the buck seems to be passed from her onto the new villain of the season: Stephanie. Yes, it's almost as if the peppy purple Stephanie has turned bitter and become one of her housemates' least favorites. People begin to wonder if she threw the weigh-in when Sherry left, so Ashley went to talk to her. Well, not talk to her so much as to tell her that she couldn't be trusted. Oh, and that she thought she voted for James for gameplay reasons. And Stephanie was left defenseless!

Last chance workout time and the workouts keep getting weirder and weirder. Daris finds himself upside down, O'Neal wouldn't stop climbing stairs and Jillian started using weird pet names for all the contestants. At least she saw how upset Stephanie was a pulled her aside to talk to her.

The weigh-in results were as follows:

Melissa: -4 (-2.20%) [immune]
Victoria: -2 (-0.70%) [immune]
Sunshine: -6 (-2.88%)
Daris: -7 (-2.87%)
Andrea: -5 (-2.16%)
Koli: -6 (-2.09%)
Mike: -8 (-2.06%)
Ashley: -5 (-1.81%)
O'Neal: -4 (-1.36%)
Sam: -2 (-0.76%)
Stephanie: -1 (-0.50%)

So it's down to Sam and Stephanie and, judging by the edit that Stephanie had been given prior to the weigh-in, I'm going to say this one wasn't even close or surprising. Koli calls her "shady" before the vote and no one seems to have a positive thing to say about her. Again, the negativity really isn't explained, it's just put out there.

When it came down to the votes, Stephanie wasn't getting any love, and she was the next person eliminated. Back home, she doesn't say how much she's lost, but she looks absolutely amazing. Like Rebecca (at-home winner of last season's show) amazing. Props to Stephanie!

Tune in to The Biggest Loser next week at 8/7c on NBC to see what happens when Victoria and Melissa don't have immunity!

(Photo courtesy of NBC)

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