The Biggest Loser episode 5: Tracey is supernatural

by Alex Bentley

So far this season, Allen homemaker Tracey has found multiple ways to gain the focus of the producers of The Biggest Loser. She's gotten injured in the premiere, come back from the hospital in episode 2, gaining multiple advantages in episode 3, and pulling out a big loss despite not being able to work out in episode 4.

So how is she doing it? Would you believe witchcraft? It was absolutely no surprise that when host Alison Sweeney said that the duos would be split into two teams and that one person would have control over choosing those teams that Tracey would participate. The method of determining who would have control was essentially a big roulette wheel, but after four people wound up getting food instead of the prize, Tracey, naturally, came up big on her turn of the wheel. Her win was met with gasps by most of the group. Mo even noted that when Tracey walked up to the wheel, the wind started blowing and it felt as if magic was in the air. In his words, Tracey's win was "not natural -- it was supernatural."

Given her choices with who would weigh in during week 3, it was pretty easy to guess that she would tick off most of the people with her choices. After starting off nicely by keeping Daniel and Shay on the same team (while keeping Coach Mo on her team), she then decimated the rest of the duos by splitting up each and every one of them. Abby and Allen seemed okay with the decision, but the rest of the teams seemed devastated, especially Liz and Danny. Danny described being split from Liz as "a knife stuck in the back" and the start of "World War III." Liz, who Tracey chose to be on her team, even went so far as to say, "You back my ass in a corner, I will kill you."

So, if it was even possible, Tracey was more unpopular than ever. Her alleged betrayal (even though other contestants might have done exactly what she did) hung like a cloud over the rest of the episode. The challenge of the week was not very dramatic -- both teams had to carry one other teammate across a series of mud pits, all for the reward of getting videos from home. The black team was weaker from the start, and the blue team won easily. The only drama came from Liz, who took a shot at Tracey in her interview for no real reason, and then gave up watching her own video for Danny.

The first weigh-in as teams seemed to favor the blue team, and they lived up to that expectation, with every member losing at least seven pounds. That including Tracey, who despite being one of the lightest on the show, continues to lose weight at an amazing rate, losing another seven pounds this week. Her new arch-nemesis Liz lost eight pounds, making her the biggest loser on the blue team. The black team started off slow, but gained steam steadily, culminating with Shay losing 16 pounds to put the black team on top.

Liz vowed to send Tracey home, but Coach Mo threw himself on the sword (or did Tracey somehow convince him to do so...?), saying that he deserved to go home because he lost the least amount of weight and because his continuing injuries prevented him from contributing to the team. The rest of the team reluctantly voted him off, but he was just as successful as the other contestants who've been sent home, losing 75 pounds so far.