Previous episode: The Biggest Loser Australia: Singles Season Seven – The Walk #2 & Temptation #4
There’s a romance blooming in the house, and chances are, tonight we will uncover it for good. There’s been so much discussion about who it may be. Michelle and Luke? Luke and Lydia? Michelle & Hamish? Simon & Lisa? Also, tonight, don’t forget the challenge! Whoever wins this will surely be all the better for it!
We begin where we left off- it’s Hamish vs. Ryan in temptation. Who will grab the spoon over a dish of Seared Beef Fillet? It’s a 559 calorie dish. Hayley rings the bell and Hamish takes the dish. Ryan can see Hamish struggling and knows Shannan will give him flack for what he’s done. I, like Ryan, thinks watching Hamish is painful. I think it’s painful because of his weight and what he has consumed.
Hayley reminds him what he stands to win if he beats his next competitor, Michelle. From a look at the cameras, we can see that the two are definitely getting along. The dish comes out and on it is Spiced Cherry Crumble. They are both tantalised. It has over 700 calories in it.
Michelle is very tempted by the cherry side of it. Hamish is also tempted. Hayley rings the bell and no one seems to go for it. Obviously, with Hamish wanting to win, he is willing to give this immunity up for Michelle.
No one takes the spoon, and Hamish wins immunity. Hayley wonders why he didn’t play. He says it was because he didn’t want Ryan winning.
As the contestants come back in, during a cutaway, Hamish feels confident that his contestants will take this massive gorge as proof that he really wants to be at Camp Biggest Loser. No! No! No! Proof you want to be at CBL is that YOU DON’T TAKE IMMUNITY!
They come in to the diner and Hayley reveals that Hamish is the winner of immunity after consuming 1,873 calories. Luke’s face says it all. He knows Hamish is struggling with his exercise and doesn’t know why he would take it.
Hamish decides to take Michelle for his night away, which was quite obvious to anyone who watched yesterday’s episode!
Opinion point: Did Hamish deserve to have a night away after consuming all those calories?
After the break, the Commando and Shannan walk into the outdoor gym and notice that Hamish isn’t there with the other boys. The boys fill the trainers in on how he got immunity. They are all disgusted, and I can bloody see why! Shannan doesn’t want anyone to drop the ball this week, and is even more mortified to hear that no one has done their homework.
He asks them all angrily how they can judge Hamish when they can’t even put in the hard yards themselves.
He asks them all why they didn’t. Ryan says he missed a few training sessions due to his foot, but obviously, Shannan doesn’t take this. He brings Ryan aside and finally discusses with him his disappointing performance in the Contest after dropping a measly 40kg dumbbell.
Today, Shannan’s gonna make him carry 100kg! He tears up as the weight is added on. He discusses with the audience his giving-up attitude to things.
But Shannan won’t let him give up, and he does quite a good job.
Hamish and Michelle roll up to their accommodation for the night away. I personally found the scenic lookout quite wonderful. We see each of their back stories detailing their hesitation to date. Michelle is adamant that they are both ‘good friends’.
They sit and enjoy the sunset. Hamish is obviously trying to crack on to her, but he is being quite a gentleman about it! They enjoy the sunset together, and each other’s company. Michelle thanks Hamish for choosing her.
Back in the gym, and Ryan has the full 100kg on his shoulders. He is able to hold it there for the minute Shannan wanted him to and there are cheers all round.
Opinion point: How long will it take before Hamish and Michelle become ‘an item’?
After the break, the cameras are on. Hayley comes into the house to surprised faces. We remember when Hayley came in on week one to have a chat with them. She says it is time for another chat.
But she says that today they will talk about being confident and loving themselves and how to not look in the mirror and see the old them. She asks Simon what confidence represents. Simon says they have to love themselves and have the courage to take things to the next step in terms of relationships. We hint again at his possible coupling with Lisa.
Hayley tells them that today; they have brought in a special guest! She comes in and it’s Sammy from season 4! Boy does she look spectacular!
We recap her time on the series. She looks so different. She tells them all that she weighed 118cm when she entered the game. She now weighs 66.8kg. She was 72.5cm at finale. She’s been able to keep the weight off and decrease still!
She recounts when Michelle asked her what she loved about herself in one training session. She tearily remembers that she couldn’t think of one thing. Funnily enough, I remember watching this and thinking ‘God, FIND SOMETHING!’
She tells them that Shannan told her one day how much weight she lost and it put it in perspective for her. Hayley now wants to repeat this exercise with them. She asks around the group for them to tell her one good thing about themselves. To Graham and he thinks it is his heart of gold.
Hayley vouches for the teary Graham and even Sammy cries at this. She goes over to give him a cuddle. As she goes over, she reveals that she is herself single. She can’t hold it together as she relates to his situation. Hayley jokes that he is just in it for the cuddles, haha.
We’re only going to see Graham’s response to the question, which is a bit disappointing.
Opinion point: Sammy visited! What did you think of her brief visit?
The next day is challenge day! They all leave CBL in their white cars for the challenge and they are all pumped. Lydia doesn’t think anyone will stop the girls.
They all head to the beach where they see a massive sand hill. Massive! Simon describes it as a ‘wall of sand’.
Hayley welcomes them all to ‘Hell Hill’ and she says that this will be one final battle before weigh in. She tells them all that the hill is 60m high. Each team will have to climb the hill 50 times, marking 3,000m of hill climbing!
They’ll be doing it as a relay. One contestant goes up, comes down, and someone ELSE must go up.
The team who’s counter reaches fifty first and have their flag in a pole at the bottom of the hill wins. They will win a 2kg weight advantage…and bragging rights.
Michelle doesn’t want her girls getting cocky. I just noticed Hamish and Michelle are back.
Michelle was up first for the girls while Luke is taking it first for the boys. These two look like bitter rivals. Already Michelle feels pain in her legs. It’s hard work, and it’s only climb 1!
Luke is also having a hard time, but he makes it up the hill first and flicks the boy’s counter to 1. Michelle isn’t far behind. She gives up right at the top nearly, but regains her pose and gets up.
Simon is next for the boys while finally; Margie is next for the girls. She just sprints up the hill.
Michelle cries as she realises the boys have beat her at the first step! Tiffiny and Michelle support the fact that it is her mind giving in right now, not her body.
It doesn’t take long for Margie to succumb to Hell Hill, now neck and neck to Simon. As she rolls down the hill, she overtakes Simon. See, why can’t we see this funny Margie more often?
Hamish is next up and he needs to earn his right to get immunity.
I believe it is Lydia running for the red team. Kasey is afterwards and she is struggling. This sand hill is getting to her. Bek is also struggling. No one isn’t.
Lap after lap bestows on the group, especially for people like Graham and Ryan who are just dangerously big.
Michelle has a second run and she has a better run. She isn’t going for speed, but consistency and she closes in on Graham for the boys. Graham gets up JUST before Michelle, but it is Michelle’s sprinting down the hill that gets the girls in front.
After the break, we are given a lengthy recap of what we’ve just seen.
Michelle finds overtaking Graham is an accomplishment.
Opinion point: How would you fare on Hell Hill? Is it a good test of endurance?
Luke goes for his second run and he feels he needs to hold his team up. Are we seeing a bit of a cockiness in him? Luke seems to criticise everyone else, but doesn’t seem to worry about how he’s doing.
Alex is next and he has a really bad leg. He just wants to get to the top once. He remembers the letter given to him by his family which asked him to crawl when he could walk or run. Bek got Goosebumps from his inspiration. Maybe she’s trying to justify voting against her alliance.
He rolls down the hill as celebration but at this point, the girls are at 23 to the boys 20. Luke goes again and he does seem to make up a considerable amount of lappage.
Bek is very determined to give it her all on this challenge.
Hamish is also improving, according to Shannan. Even Luke congratulates the sometimes unforgiving Hamish. He goes off to be a bit emotional for a bit. Alex gives him a pep talk and shows him what he just conquered…Hell Hill! It was a wonderful moment of bonding.
The contestants are neck and neck at 28 laps. The boys, with Hamish’s help, get in the lead. But Hamish falls, and Margie continues to sprint.
Lydia powers up the hill and really gives her team ground as Hamish struggles to get up. But again, it is another great lap for him. Alex calls him hammer ‘because he’s toughened up!’ haha. I love Alex!
Shannan brings up the fact that everyone needs to run once. Selena and Ryan, as heaviest contestants for their respective teams, are made to go up against each other at 36 laps apiece. Selena doesn’t want to let the girls down. Ryan doesn’t fall down ’20 times’, which Shannan calls a personal advantage. He collapses near the top and he realises he wasn’t even up half the hill. Selena is thinking of her sister in the 15th replay of the same back story. She makes it up first and rushes down to the bottom.
Ryan is crawling to the top and the trainers are really trying to heckle him. The Commando knows he is in danger of going home if he doesn’t pick up the slack. He collapses to the ground and before the episode ends, he doesn’t get back up!
Overall, a wonderful episode. The show had a lot of emotion and a lot of powerful moments. The episode did have a lot to tackle. I felt that it needed to extend the scene with Sammy’s visit to include a few more stories (something tells me they will do this Friday night) and this really could have been achieved by making sure Temptation finished yesterday.
Hell Hill, as good as it looks, is a little boring at times. Cut it down a bit more, and you could have fitted the entire challenge into the episode. By having challenges and tasks overlap into the next episode, it creates a cliffhanger, but the rest of the episode dominates over the actual result, which is sad.
But again, this is really only a minor issue in what has been a brilliantly produced episode.
The Biggest Loser Australia: Singles next airs Feb 17 at 7PM on TEN.
Production Values (visual and audio techniques, overall ‘bling’ of the show):5/5
‘Sell-out’ factor (Cross-promotion and product placement free?): 2/2
Entertainment Value (emotional feel, storyline, eventful?): 2.5/3
Courtney’s Verdict: 9.5/10
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