Future “Biggest Loser” contestants of the world, please repeat after me: "I will not intentionally gain weight when offered a once-in-a-lifetime chance to be on the show. Even if I think it’s for a good reason. Really. I swear."
Got it? Thank you.
Now, as for a few of the current would-be “Losers” (or wouldn’t-be, in this case), it’s obvious that they made no such commitment. The first seven weeks of the competition saw three players (Dan, Don and Irene) add pounds. But looking back, that was nothing. In week eight alone, four more gainers joined their ranks. Three of them did so on purpose.
Why send the scales swinging in the wrong direction? Somehow, every parent on the black team got it into their heads that they couldn’t win this week’s weigh-in. So with a double elimination looming, they thought the best course of action was to sacrifice themselves rather than risk any of their children going home.
That gesture may have been well intentioned, but it wasn’t well reasoned. After all, they could have just tried to actually win the weigh-in. You know, the same way they won every weigh-in since the black and red teams came to be.
For a moment it seemed one member of Team Black, Arthur’s dad, Jesse, would actually talk some sense into his fellow parental players. When Courtney’s mom, Marci, and Sarah’s mom, Denise, shared their give-up-and-gain strategy, Jesse wanted no part of it. Sure, he’d be happy to save his son if it came to that, but he wasn’t ready to pack up to save everybody else’s fully grown kids.
“You know, if there’s something I can do to keep (Arthur) here, then that’s what I’m going to do. Period,” Jesse explained. “And if there’s something I can do to keep someone else here that needs to be here more than I do, then I will. But I’ll be honest with you: Not everybody here needs to be here more than I do — regardless of what your age is.”
But sometime after that, Jesse mysteriously changed his mind and joined Denise and Marci for some senseless gaining. Team Red’s Jen saw a plus on the scale due to a tough week following her father’s elimination, but the parents’ pact ended up saving her, too.
Denise fell under the red line and left immediately. Jesse joined her after the vote.
Red team dad Moses summed it up best when he pointed out that the plan may have kept the 20- and 30-something “kids” safe, but it had a flaw.
“It doesn’t teach the children to go through life and tackle anything, regardless of whatever obstacles are in front of you — to give it everything you’ve got.”
Ree Hines wonders why Marci, the lead member of the get-the-parents-out movement, is the only mama left on her team. Hmm. Follow on Twitter and tell her your theory.