The Biggest Loser episode 2: Tracey finally gets in the game

by Alex Bentley

After Allen homemaker Tracey missed almost all of the season premiere of The Biggest Loser due to her trip to the hospital, you would think that whether she returned to the show would be one of the first things to be resolved. You, however, would be wrong.

Instead, host Allison Sweeney dropped the requisite twist of the week: If the remaining 15 contestants lost a combined 150 pounds, no one would be going home. If not, then not one but two contestants would be out. Considering that week two is notorious for people losing small amounts of weight, the challenge seemed to be far out of reach.

After 20 minutes or so of showing workouts and Ziploc ads, they finally got around to Tracey. Her teammate, Coach Mo, visited her at the hospital to present her with their team's purple shirt. Tracey assured Mo that she was set to get out the next day, making their team whole again.

From that point, it seemed as if Tracey was at the center of most of the action, from her welcome back, to the house to Bob (ad alert!) showing her a protein powder, to help her to going first in a quiz that would earn the group a bonus 15 pounds toward their 150 pound goal. She was also the first to have balance problems in the episode's challenge, which involved crossing over water on beams that got increasingly narrower for a prize of a bonus 20 pounds and phone calls home. The group won both the quiz and the challenge to drop the number of combined pounds they had to lose to 115, a goal that trainers Bob and Jillian were both still pessimistic about reaching.

After the pink team kicked off the weigh-in with a relatively low combined 10 pounds, things were looking down. However, Tracey and Mo started things in the right direction by losing a combined 19 pounds (Tracey, who had weighed in at 238 pounds at the hospital, dropped 10 pounds to get to 228). That started a trend in a big way, with the remaining six teams dropping 19, 21, 22, 22, 19, and 23 pounds, respectively. Julio was most impressive, as he dropped 19 pounds by himself as the lone remaining member of the black team. Overall, the group lost 155 total pounds, not only beating the 115-pound goal but also the original 150-pound goal, saving all the contestants from elimination.