Blaine left the ranch for a couple of days so he could be present for the birth of his fourth child -- it was of course nice that that all worked out.

The second challenge was Super Bowl-themed, and featured a guest appearance by Kurt Warner. (I'm sure the producers were psyched -- and surprised -- when they learned that their special guest was actually going to play in the Super Bowl!) The contestants had to run, to a flag, run back to the start, run out farther and retrieve a football, then back to the start again, where they would place the football in a competitor's holder. Once the holder had five footballs, that player was out. (Ugh, I hate describing challenges. I usually skip it if possible, especially for Survivor, which always has the most convoluted ones, but anyway ...) The players took out the strongest folks first, and it came down to Joelle and Helen. Helen ended up winning (in a close footrace), which meant that she had immunity and also that her daughter Shanon was guaranteed a return to the ranch. (Cue the heart-wrenching phone call home!)

Much has been made of the drama between Joelle and Bob (and Joelle and her partner Carla), but this week, it seemed like things finally clicked, and Joelle was working hard. That was nice to see after so much weirdness the past two episodes.

At the weigh-in, the contestants were excited when their teammates, whom they hadn't seen for 30 days, came in. Of course, the show couldn't let a possible dramatic moment pass, so not everyone was able to stay. Whoever got voted out after the weigh-in would take their teammate with them. Dun-dun-dun!

But let's hang on a second. This could have been dramatic. But that possibility was completely ruined by the promos, which revealed that Dan and Mike, the two youngest and heaviest competitors, were in danger. Why would the producers allow that? Even at the end of last week's episode, it was clear that Dan and Mike were going to be in the bottom two, which robbed nearly all of this week's show of dramatic tension.

The only tension arose in the very last few minutes. Either Dan and Dave or Mike and Ron would be leaving. Dave made a blunder when he told his team he wasn't that excited about being there, and given something to seize upon, he and Dan got voted out. I don't feel bad for Dave, but I do for Dan. He was working so hard and had finally seemed to have had a breakthrough in his training.

And then, if you had any doubt, in the catching-up-with footage (see above), Dave had lost a few more pounds (but had also quit smoking, which is fabulous news). Dan, though, had lost more than 100 pounds total and was shown visiting his doctor, who took him off a diabetes medication. Go, Dan, go!

We won't see how the rest of the at-home players did until next week, but that's guaranteed to bring some drama -- and hooray, it didn't get spoiled for us already!

What did you think of last night's show?