The conclusion of the challenge between Darrell and Cheryl starts the show, and at just under 10 minutes Darrell finally loses; he leaves having lost 75 pounds in six weeks. Next, the contestants are shown into a room with a table full of chocolate chip cookies. Ali tells them that they’re going into black and blue teams, with the teams chosen by the winner of the day’s temptation. The winner also gets to choose one person to have immunity… including themselves. The contestants have to decide to be in or out on the temptation at this point, without Ali explaining what the temptation is.

On the count of three, those who want to play are to raise their hand. The only people to raise their hands are Michael and Andrea. They play memory, picking “cards” two at a time. If they match the “Choose Teams” cards then they win. There are also food items on the board, and if they get a match their opponent eats the food; if not they have to eat a 100 calorie cookie. Michael ends up winning, having eaten eight cookies, a peanut butter treat (90), a blueberry muffin (360), a giant pretzel (340), a fruit pie (480), a rice crispy treat (90), and a glazed donut (160). Andrea ate seven cookies and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (420).

Michael chooses teams, as well as one person to get immunity. The person with immunity won’t be on a team the first week, but they will go onto the losing team next week. For the teams, Michael says he “put himself first for the first time in his life.” He puts Sam, Cheryl, Andrea, Stephanie, Sherry, and Ashley on the black team and puts Koli, Daris, Lance, Miggy, Sunshine, and himself on the blue team; he also gives O’Neal the week’s immunity. He tells the camera that he tried to make blue the stronger team and put himself with them; most of black team is very unhappy. When they meet the trainers, both Bob and Jillian express surprise and—in the case of Jillian—dismay. She says it’s the “most unfair thing I’ve ever seen”.

For the first team challenge, the teams have to “lift” their banner to the top of a building by pulling it up. The winning team will get letters from home. O’Neal gets to pick a team to “support”, and if he picks the winning team he will also get letters from home. Blue team has a slight lead from early in the competition, but the lead is never more than a couple feet for most of the race. At the end, blue goes hard and ends up winning by more than the length of the banner. The contestants also check in with Dr. H to see how they’ve improved, with all of them showing dramatic improvements in just seven weeks of effort.

Since he’s not on a team and has immunity, O’Neal starts the weigh in and loses 2.77% (9 pounds). For the official weigh in, blue team starts with Michael and he loses 15 pounds (3.47%); that also sets the record for the most weight lost in seven weeks (though not the highest percentage in that time). Sunshine loses 7 pounds (2.93%); Lance wants to break into the 200s, and he loses 5 pounds (1.64%) so he’s an even 300. Miggy loses 4 pounds (2.01%) and is “furious”; she feels she failed her team and cries. Daris loses 7 pounds (2.55%); Koli wraps up blue team with 10 pounds (3.07%). Total loss for blue is 48 pounds, or 2.70%. Black team will need to lose at least 40 pounds to beat blue; they start with Andrea, who loses 5 pounds (1.96%). Cheryl loses 4 pounds (2.09%) and Sherry loses 6 pounds (3.39%). Sam got a manicure from the ladies this week; he loses 8 pounds (2.68%). Stephanie loses 8 pounds (3.62%), making her the leader of the team so far and leaving 9 pounds for Ashley. Ashley loses 10 pounds (3.22%), giving black the victory (2.82%). Michael is immune on blue team since he had the highest weight loss.

In the blue team discussion, Koli points out that Lance and Miggy were the two lowest numbers. He says that what they do should be for the betterment of the team. Lance starts the voting and says he would vote for himself if he could, but since he can’t he votes for Miggy as the second lowest. Daris says stress is one of the worst factors for weight loss, and that affected his choice; he votes for Miggy. Miggy votes for the lowest percentage and votes for Lance; Michael says he couldn’t vote for Miggy and he votes for Lance. Sunshine votes for Miggy; if there’s a tie, black team gets to choose. Koli says the message is “team first” and with O’Neal coming (who can’t do challenges), he voted for Miggy.

Today, Miggy weighs 179 pounds. She also says she has started learning how to meditate. Nicole from season 7 comes to visit her and welcome her into the “Biggest Loser family”. She will continue to train with Nicole until the finale. Darrell checks in as well and shows the leather jacket we wore when he first met his wife; that’s his goal. He’s now down to 293 pounds and works out with his wife, who looks like she’s in good shape. He can also fit into the leather jacket shown earlier and his goal is to get down to 200 by the finale.

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