The Biggest Loser episode 4: Tracey can’t seem to get well

by Alex Bentley

After all of the drama involving Allen homemaker Tracey in the third episode of The Biggest Loser, this week could have gone one of two ways: Tracey could have receded into the background to take the attention off her, or she could've stayed front and center. When Shay confronted Tracey at the beginning for allegedly betraying Shay at the weigh-in, it was easy to see which way the producers would want the show would go. Tracey, still not fessing up to her game-playing, said “I did nothing wrong.”

Next up -- hey, it's Tracey again! Turns out she hasn’t been allowed in the gym because of her hospitalization in the first episode – she has high levels of CPK, whatever that is. Consequently, she can’t exercise at all – not even walking or swimming. When host Allison Sweeney tells the contestants that the food in the kitchen will be locked up and that they’ll have to order out for the rest of the week, Tracey naturally freaks out since the double whammy makes it seem almost certain she'll have a bad weigh-in.

The group's experience at ordering out goes just swimmingly -- if by swimmingly you mean not at all. Many of the orders are wrong -- cheese on salad, wrong types of fruits, etc. Trainers Bob and Jillian react to this situation by ... taking the group to The Spanish Kitchen Mexican Restaurant! But it's not what you think -- instead of treating them to margaritas and nachos, they teach them how to order when they go out to eat.

The challenge of the week involved holding on to a handlebar on a tilted platform suspended above water. The winner would give their team immunity; however, since both Tracey and Mabank teacher Abby were still injured, they couldn't participate. After some initial "woe is me" moaning by Shay that she wouldn't last long because she's still the heaviest on campus, she ended up lasting longer than all but three contestants (and all the women). Her teammate Daniel won the challenge and immunity for the orange team.

While everyone else then went on to the last chance workout, Tracey was shown moping in kitchen, bringing it back to her yet again. To add more injury to, well, injury, Mo threw out his back, putting the purple team in even greater jeopardy. At the weigh-in, Daniel lost nothing, leading Bob and Jillian to think that he threw the weigh-in since the orange team had immunity, and losing nothing this week would ensure a big loss next week.

Abby "only" lost 3 pounds, going from 216 to 213, but her partner Allen lost 7 pounds to keep the green team safe. Tracey and Mo needed to lose more than 10 pounds to stay safe. Despite her disadvantages, Tracey lost 4 pounds (217 to 213) and Mo lost 8 to keep them safe. Shay expressed her displeasure, stating that she was angry that a “healthy” team has to go home.

Julio, the lone remaining black team member, and Liz and Danny, the brown team, ended up below the yellow line and therefore up for elimination. Julio made a decent point, saying that eliminating a team would be better than an individual since it benefits the whole house. However, Julio was voted out, with -- guess who? -- Tracey and Mo cast the deciding vote. Julio was just fine, though, as scenes at home show that he has lost 108 pounds so far, with the ultimate goal of 200 pounds lost by the finale.