Two weeks ago, when Carla went off on Joelle during their workout with Bob in Detroit, I wondered whether their friendship could withstand the pressure of being on this reality show. This week we got the answer and I can’t tell you how sad it was two be a witness to a disintegration of a friendship between two black women. But at the top of the show I had high hopes, especially for Carla. After all, we can never forget that she is the biggest woman who has ever been on the show. And she proved that she was serious about the show by losing an impressive 20 pounds while she was home and Joelle was on the ranch (the second highest weight loss among the returning contestants) .
But once they started to work out together we could see Joelle backsliding to her more talk less action behavior. But Carla should have really gotten the clue when Joelle was more interested in splitting the money than going for the two pound advantage at the weigh-in. However, it was during the last chance workout that you could see that Joelle’s head wasn’t in the game. And of course, everyone could see it (and also predicted that she’d be below the yellow line. Meanwhile, Carla was kicking butt during her workouts. Bob said: “Carla is going to have to work ten times harder to overcome the fact that Joelle isn’t working hard enough.”

But the weigh-in said all: Carla lost 9 lbs and Joelle lost 0lbs. That’s right, nothing, nada. One of the other contestants, Aubrey cried because she knew how hard Carla worked. In fact, in her brief week back Carla had endeared herself to just about everyone in the house (except perhaps her own team mate). You could tell during the deliberation was going to be a no-brainer this time. Joelle had gotten over one too many times. Plus, she didn’t really answer directly when Aubrey asked if she really wanted to be there.

That’s when Carla lost it and this time you can tell she was totally frustrated with her partner—apparently because she lost her sparkle and shine. “This is not about you, this is about us!,” she screamed and later broke down. ‘This is the second time I put my fate in your hands and twice you failed me.” Ugh, that couldn’t be easy to hear (even if Joelle deserved it). But I think Joelle had already tuned Carla out. Everyone else rallies around Carla—too bad she couldn’t stay on her own.

But during the voting that led to their elimination, Joelle said her peace (maybe with a little help from the writers):
“I don’t want to get things twisted up here that I have not worked, that I have not learned, that I have not pushed, that I have not perservered. I am offended….Don’t you sit here and judge me. My scale record is low but my work ethic is good”

Okay, I wonder if she feels the same way after she watched the show on television (that was probably hard). Unlike a couple of weeks ago, the dye was really cast and these two sisters were sent home. Joelle didn’t even stay around to do the obligatory hugs goodbye. She walked out alone and left Carla behind. Literally. And the body language said it all in the post-elimination interview.

During the recap when we usually get to see how the team that was eliminated continues to motivate each other, we saw just how bad things were between Carla and Joelle. Apparently, they hadn’t spoken in months and when they were reunited it was a disaster. Carla wanted to talk about it, Joelle didn’t want to hear any of it and walked out. She even said that they weren’t friends.  I know this is reality television but this is also two women’s lives and watching that interaction broke my heart. A friendship between two black women literally falls apart before our eyes. I guess there is some salvation in knowing that they each continued to lose weight 87 and 57 pounds respectively for Carla and Joelle. But I wonder if they feel like it was worth it?

I hope that one day they can find some healing and common ground again. But in the meantime, I wonder how the show is going to handle that Today Show appearance next week. Clearly, these two can’t be around each other anytime soon.

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