#ExcessBaggage recap (Wed 22/02/12)

Excess Baggage – Mon-Thu 6:30pm, GO!.
http://channelnine.ninemsn.com.au/excessbaggage/

Hey, remember how Ajay, Matt, Dipper and Lana went on a joyflight to help them get over their fear of flying? No?! NEXT!

What a gorgeous establishing shot of a hot air balloon. Let’s just forget about it as it’ll have nothing to do with today’s challenge. What’s that, Kate? The contestants will be working in teams of four to pull a fully inflated hot air balloon 150 metres and then pack the entire thing away? Whod’a thunk it?! “This’ll be a test of skill, stamina and patience,” smiles Kate.

Teams are formed, and people are mostly happy. Except Lana – she’s not a Purple Team fan. Early the next morning, rising from the ground like glowing orbs, the balloons are being prepared for the challenge ahead. Sandbags at 20 paces after a 4am start for the contestants, and it’s revealed to them what they have to do. Trainer Christian fills them in on the details, and K-Fed wonders “how is this gonna happen?”. A producer pulls him aside and draws him a picture, and then pulls out a sock puppet for the finer details. Everyone’s excited about the blow dart final stage of the challenge, though no one catches Darryn looking shiftily at Lisa.

Matt’s pretty confident that working with Dipper their team will nail it. Brant is happy to be working with the “green machine”. Gabby’s just happy to be out of the house. The contest starts and everyone starts pulling with all their might. For something that’s floating it would be surprisingly hard to drag. Speaking of drag, Ajay was sent by her team to go and get the bag ready to pack the balloon into. Darryn said she looked like Bo Derek, which alerted the medics to the fact he was hallucinating.

John falls over, but is up quick smart to help out his team. The Orange and Purple teams make it across the line first, and get set for the second stage of the race – the pack up. Blue and Yellow are close behind, quickly followed by Green and Gray and then Red and Pink. Everyone’s starting packing up, and it’s not as easy as you’d think. Nathan put in a massive effort so clearly whatever Dr Tim said to him yesterday worked.

Brant struggled to work well with the addition of the Green team, and the Red and Pink team have raced into second place (even though they then started to name themselves after Spice Girls). The word “strategy” is used very liberally with respect to the deflation of each balloon. The Grey team, albeit in fun, turn on themselves and Brant ends up on top of John. They embrace, and promise to respect each other in the morning. Darryn somehow ends up INSIDE this balloon and starts to have a panic attack because he can’t work out how to get out of the balloon. Best. Moment. EVER.

The Yellow/Blue and Orange/Purple teams are pushing on and nearly all packed up. Orange/Purple are off to the finale stage, closely followed by Yellow/Blue and all four teams are now onto the final blow-dart segment. Dipper’s pipe gets blocked somehow, and the Purple team are powering ahead. “Stuck pipe! Stuck pipe!” he screams, and with that the Purple team are done and don’t Ajay & Matt know how to celebrate? The Orange team pull in second and celebrate almost has hard. Green/Grey complete their packing and are into the final stage, though Blue finishes third and Yellow fourth. Amazingly Darryn hasn’t snapped entirely as the Red/Pink teams are dead last, pretty much watching the Green team finish fifth and Grey sixth. Red managed seventh, Pink eighth, and Lisa notices they are moving up: “We finished second last and that’s better than last.” “You did good,” says an amazingly supportive Darryn. “I pulled hard and I blew hard,” says Lisa with a straight face.

After all the challenges, Blue/Grey/Purple are all leading with 8 points. A little way back the Red team are on 5 points – NOT LAST. They’re pretty pumped, and learning to not have to win all the time has been a positive for Darryn.

Seeing as it’s nearly halfway, the judges and Kate all take the chance to catch up with the contestants in smaller groups to see how much excess baggage they’ve lost so far. Dr Joanna meets with Lana and Christine, and she learns that Lana doesn’t want her parents to feel old and have to care for her autistic sister alone. She’s scared for whatever future her sister might have, and she feels that she’s not that great of a person for someone to love in the first place. Dr Jo reminds her that life has shades of grey – she should move out and get her own place, and she should make a place for her sister in it. Lana really benefitted from the chat, knowing there’s a way forward for her after having shared something she’s not shared before.

Christian takes Nathan for a walk to find out what’s going on – why doesn’t he want to lose weight? Nathan feels at the size he is he’s safe because he’s been attacked before and feels and thinks that he wasn’t injured because of his size. Nathan wants to lose weight but isn’t sure how he’ll do it himself without the show. Christian assures him if he commits he’ll get the benefit.

Host Kate sits down with Kate and Sarah and talks about the pressure of the performing and what that can do to your sense of self. Kate C asks Kate D about the liposuction she’d gone through in the name of “being thin”. Kate C knows the pressures, and shares that the most important thing is the gift, not the wrapping. Kate D knows she has to get things straight in her head before she can get on with anything else – but she’s committed.

It would seem that some excess baggage is harder to get rid of than others.