'The Biggest Loser: Couples' can't keep a good woman down

"The Biggest Loser: Couples" takes a trip to the playground this week as we see who's popular, who's picked on, and who's going to cry. Plus, we switch to one-on-one competition, but some of the competitors have trouble letting GroupThink go.

Trainer-go-round
The Losers have the opportunity to choose who they want to train with as single competitors. Ron, Filipe and Sione are angst-free  -- duh, we're going with Bob! -- but Mike and the women agonize. Aubrey loves Bob, but she can't ignore Jillian's track record. Kristin also has that track record in mind. Laura wonders if Jillian will throw her under the bus again, and she's jealous that people have a non-fraught relationship with him. Helen says she's grown to love both trainers. And Mike? He just doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. He actually flips a coin.

In the end, Filipe, Sione, Ron, Aubrey and Kristin end up with Bob. Tara, Laura and Helen choose Jillian, and Mike's coin also sends him Jillian's way.

Piling on
The Losers are lined up in front of all the weight they've lost. They can distribute it to their competitors, and it will be added to them in part two of the challenge. Ron decrees that the heretic Helen shall be punished for deserting the Way of the Bob, and his Team Bob Kool-Aid drinkers agree. Helen gets 215 pounds added to her scale. But that's nothing to what Tara experiences: Everyone seems to put weight on her pile, giggling and chortling and cavorting with glee as they do so. Tara ends up with 257 pounds on her pile.

This display of ill-will gets to Tara -- not for nothing did Kristin call this the "Let's see how much everyone in the house hates you!" game -- and she gets teary-eyed. Aubrey decides to kick Tara while she's down -- jeez, take it as a compliment! It's all in good fun! When Tara tries to deflect her, Aubrey says "You're about ready to cry!" I'm been torn on Aubrey up until now, but the "Cry, crybaby, cry!" maneuver makes me add my hate weight to Aubrey's scale.

Tara is so disheartened by the "light-hearted" spite that she considers throwing the weigh-in and getting sent home. Fortunately, Laura talks her out of it. "I'm not going to let you quit!" she tells Tara. "Don't you sound like a little Jillian!" Tara replies. Heh.

Pulling your weight
Those excess pounds were added to 2-ton cars that the Losers have to tow for half a mile down a track. Yes, that means Tara's car weighs 2257 pounds, compared to Ron's 2037-pound vehicle. Sione is confident that he's got this, now that he's taken Tara out of the equation. He takes off at a run at the start. Mike is close behind him.

But what's this? Tara takes the slow-and-steady tack, and she quickly gains on Sione and Mike when they star to flag at the halfway mark. In fact, she's way out in front at the end of the race. Holy crap -- Tara is awesome! She rubs me the wrong way sometimes, but she completely deserved this. I'm thrilled she gets immunity, and at this point, I'm hoping she wins the whole thing. Go, Tara!

The weigh-in
Everyone is all aflutter that we could see Biggest Loser history made tonight -- will we see a woman lose 100 pounds on campus? Tara is up first. She needs to drop 4 pounds to hit the 100-pound mark... and she loses 3. Her frustration is palpable. On the upside, she has immunity, so at least she's safe.

After seeing that, Kristin is convinced she has no chance to break the record -- so of course she does. She loses 8 pounds, for a total of 105 pounds on campus. Go, Kristin!

Laura, Helen and Sione all put up good numbers. Aubrey is low, and Mike is worryingly close to the yellow line. Ron hopes he loses less than Mike, so he can save his son, but he ends up dropping 10 pounds, or 3.06 percent of his total weight -- the biggest loss of the night. Mike is thrilled for him, but Ron is bummed. Filipe is the last to weigh in, and he matches Aubrey's 4-pound loss. They're both up for elimination. Filipe endears himself to me by saying that even though he's below the yellow line, he's happy for any loss. Classy. I like that.

The elimination
Aubrey reminds folks that she's not ready to go home yet, and Filipe tells people to vote their hearts. Of course, he's got Sione in the room to plead his case for him, which helps...

Tara overcomes her distaste for Aubrey and votes for Filipe, the bigger threat. Laura does the same thing. But Mike, Helen, Kristin and Ron all vote off Aubrey. Sione didn't even need to cast his Filipe-saving vote!

At the look-at-me-now interview, Aubrey reveals that she's been struggling. She gains 9 pounds in the weeks after leaving the ranch. But she finally gets a handle on taking care of herself, and loses another 10 pounds. She looks good. Good luck, Aubrey -- and lay off that whole "Are you gonna CRY?" thing in the future, ok?

Highlights, thoughts and odds and ends

• Aubrey's family is amazed at how good she looks and how much she's changed. Wasn't she just home last week? How surprised can they be?
• Mike has lost the most weight on campus so far. Alison hands him his old brown shirt -- and it's ginormous on him. He and Aubrey both fit into it simultaneously.
• Ron is not impressed with Mike's trainer decision: "My son's 18 years old. He's an idiot. All 18-year-olds are idiots." Shut it, Ron.
• Mike and Aubrey help Ron haul his car over the finish line. What used to seem noble to me is now getting annoying. Come on, Ron, tow your own car!
• Kristin and Laura sit out the race. No explanation given for why. If Ron can tow a car, I have a hard time believing they couldn't, too.
• Ron explains why he piled his weight on Helen: "A couple of us have talked about sending a message to people who have left the protection of the pack." SHUT IT, RON!
• When Tara is depressed and hurt after the weight-distribution ceremony, Aubrey offers to go talk to her. Aubrey -- you're the LAST person Tara (or anyone) wants to hear from. Go sit with Ron and practice shutting it.
• Part two of the challenge took place on a racetrack, and included a tame racing driver (sorry, I've been watching too much Top Gear). When Tara wins, she not only gets VIP passes to a race, she also gets to take three laps around the track with Clint Bowyer. It looked awesome.
• Tara determines that she'll do her best hauling her extra heavy car. When she wins: "Guess what? My best is better than yours." Heh!