I’m not sure if I’m the only one left watching this.
I thought for SURE that Ron would be one of the three finalists! We (we being the American public who voted) foxed Heba and Ed last year and it was so much fun that I was counting on it being done again. But no, we got Mike, and I like Mike so that was cool, but still…I would have liked to have seen the Godfather not watch his plot unfold as planned. (I forgot to vote and I like to kid myself that it might have mattered a tiny bit.)
Lot of people did not do as well as in past seasons at home, I think. But it could be true that this season’s cast was larger and maybe the results don’t show as well. I was tickled for each and every one of them that they all lost some weight at home. It was really great that Jerry won the at-home prize, too!
I was a Tara fan for a long time, but I’m really just as happy that Helen won as I would have been if Tara had won.
Did not care about either of the prospective contestants so I did not vote. Neither story moved me enough to make a choice. If I watch next season I might give a damn but it’s hard to imagine right now. I would have preferred to see people with something at stake instead of two very similar-looking young blond girls crying about not having dates or going to the prom.
No way in the world Ron would’ve gotten the vote. Mike’s modest and likable; his dad–not so much.
And while I’m glad that Helen lost the weight, I’d be lying if I said that her winning was a monumental disappointment. Tara’s been such a fierce competitor, and Michael had a pretty awesome amount to overcome, but Helen has rarely shown herself to be anything more than cursorily sympathetic. Her win was a massive buzzkill.
I am happy for Jerry, though. He was as unlikely a winner of that 100K as just about anyone. Hell of a showing; good for him.
I completely disagree, ArchiveGuy. I couldn’t stand Tara, and was glad she finally lost at something. It’s not that I don’t like fierce competitors, it’s just that she was such a bitch most of the time.
I was rooting for Aubrey from the get-go, but of the finalists, I liked Helen the most.
Ditto, and double ditto for the bolded portion. Gee, which of these young, pretty, college-age blonds do I care more about?
I think Tara has been a kick-ass competitor, but in the last few weeks she’s been getting very over-confident. Last week at the weigh-in she basically broke down in tears saying “I did it! Me! I really did it!”, and the host had to break it to her, “um, Tara, you didn’t win it yet”. Tonight when she came out she looked good but had on way too much make-up. She looked like a hooker.
When she got on the scale and was about one or two percentage points too shy of overtaking Helen, the plastic smile barely hid the look on her face that was screaming “F*CK!!!”
I was happy that Jerry won the home prize, and that he not only won but basically blew away the rest of the field. I was quite surprised that Helen lost as much as she did, although frankly it looked like she may have lost a bit too much. One of the problems with the format of the show is that it’s possible for the contestants to lose all the weight they need to prior to the finale, but the prize encourages them to try to lose even more.
I thought Helen looked scary anorexic, not healthily thin. She looked like she’d been starving herself since she left the ranch in order to win the prize. For a while, I’d been wanting Tara to be taken down a peg or two (not because I disliked her, but because I thought the show just got boring seeing her win the big challenge again & again & again.) But ISTM that Helen spent the bulk of the show just skirting by, not standing out in any competition or challenge, while Tara was kicking ass.
And some random observations:
-Kristin looks terrible as a blonde. (Kathy, her mother, looked OK though.) And during the makeover episode, when the professional stylists took those awful streaks out, she looked much better.
-Some of the contestants had particularly feeble weigh-in results. The guy who lost 43 pounds? Why’d he even show up?
-Joelle is still a psycho in huge denial. Her new ‘buddy buddy’ act with Carla also seems incredibly forced & affected (on both their parts.)
-The ‘tonga tonga’ dance was still the highlight of the show. I loved Felipe & Sione.
I agree that Helen was looking very skeleton-like, plus she was way too tan. Both she and Tara had on way too much make up and horrible dresses. They could have looked so much better given their weight loss.
I really wanted Tara to win. I don’t think she was a bitch on the show - I think this is the perception people have of someone who is winning a lot. Whenever she was proud of herself, people said she was bitchy. Plus, when she said “I did it”, I took it to mean “I made it to the final three”, not “I won.”
I am extremely happy for Jerry. He lost more than any of the others (except for the final three), and he did it at home! That part really blows me away – the first to leave, yet he stayed with it! Wow! He really deserved that prize!
BUT – Don’t Mike and Tara get something too? Why does the Fourth Place winner get a prize, while the Second and Third place winners get nothing? Am I missing something?
Tara was not a bitch at all. I think she’s one of the most grounded, and BY FAR the toughest person who has ever been on the show. She earned what little bragging she did, and more. I was really upset that she didn’t win. Helen was scary underweight. She started off looking awful and then blazed past pretty right back to awful. She looks like she aged 10 years between the last weigh-in and the finale, too. Never noticed so much rooster-neck on the backs of her arms before. I bet she’ll put a lot more back on than Tara will this year.
I thought the voting for the new contestant thing was dumb. What was the point? They were the same girl.