So we're down to six people left, and reactions to Joshuah's eviction are as follows: Sheila was expecting an ugly scene, Ryan thought it was totally fake and cheesy, and James says that with people taking out those to him in trying to get him out, it's making him stronger. He's now using the strength and energy of Chelsia and Joshuah, you see. Used to be you had to eat a person's heart and liver for that, but times have changed. In the eviction replay, we hear Joshuah saying to Sharon as he leaves, "You're in here with a bunch of monsters." Well, yeah, welcome to Big Brother. Sharon is again seen breaking down in tears in the house in the wake of his departure, and can't even hold it together in the DR. Adam seems unimpressed with her emotional resilience.
Recap of the HoH competition, after which Natalie gushes that she dreamed Adam had won HoH, and since Adam did, she sees that as just another sign that God speaks to her. I wonder how she'll interpret God's restraining order.
James and Sharon commiserate together in a back room about Josh's departure, while the other four -- "Team Christ," they're still calling themselves, whisper jubilantly to each other. Natalie continues to believe that God is on their side. Meanwhile, Sharon and James wonder what they're going to do. Maybe Adam will nominate Sheila, James says desperately. Sure, that seems like a likely outcome for the last remaining original couple in the house.
James and Sharon then go out to the kitchen so James can play out the scenario he's predicting for the week: James and Sharon will get nominated, James will win PoV, and Adam will put Sheila up as the replacement nominee. Everyone seems fine with that except Sheila, who's already quietly commencing her self-conscious freak-out. Hey, coattails get pretty damn short at this phase of the game, lady. Try winning a competition some time. In other news, James's Mohawk as it grows out is starting to look like the plume on a gay Roman Centurion's helmet.
Off to Adam's new HoH room, where he reads his letter and is excited about the "babies" his people have lined up for him back home. Ew.
Sheila has apparently decided to visit with Sharon and James. We don't hear any of their conversation (and how boring must it be for that to be the case), but Team Christ is already prepared to cut her loose as soon as James and Sharon are gone.
Adam feels bad for James, who is feeling defeated and alone. Which then segues into a montage of James deciding to get back in touch with his inner "Crazy James," going around the house psyching himself up all Dwight Schrute style.
So his move is to recruit Adam to help him TP the women's bedroom. Montage of Sheila reacting to this and similar pranks, including Natalie popping up from inside a trash bin right to her; and James dumping a mug of flour on Sheila's head. Sheila complains to the housemates about being the butt of all the pranks, even as she claims in the DR that after growing up with brothers, she's used to it. I'm sure that's it, and has nothing to do with her being an uptight pain in the ass.
Later, Sheila tells Adam about the dream she had the night before about not being able to talk to her son. Which she can't do now. Adam encouragingly tells her she's got a month left, and Sheila tearfully DRs that she's doing this for him. And with more footage of her crying to Adam about this, she further DRs that Adam is the only one in the house who gets her, and that she can trust. What a touching moment depicting the powerful Adam/Sheila bond. Therefore we know that this scene does not bode well for said bond.
Sharon DRs that her strategy throughout the game is to lie low and wait for people to come to her with alliance offers. Which is exactly what Ryan does, since he's short a secret ally these days. He even offers to try to talk Adam into putting up Sheila instead of Sharon, and they're already looking forward to being in the final two together. Which is only four evictions away, after all, so what could go wrong?
That night, Ryan goes to make his case to Adam, to the accompaniment of (for some reason) Godfather-style music on the soundtrack, but it doesn't exactly sound like an offer Adam can't refuse.
Sharon advises James to eat something before the upcoming food competition, because Joshuah is gone and she needs someone to take care of. James doesn't seem to mind.
So here's that aforementioned food competition, in which the houseguests will have to arrange large quantities of mashed potatoes on a huge sloped table cluttered with a minefield of kitchen implements. The goal is to create channels for gravy to flow through and be directed into containers representing different food groups (plus a few rewards). Whichever beakers they fill, they win whatever the label to that beaker describes. It's the ideal competition on this show, because it's refreshingly easy to describe, deceptively difficult to execute (the mashed potatoes make the surface slippery and turn Adam and Ryan, in James's colorful words, into "whales on a ramp"), and will ultimately make them look like idiots who can't feed themselves. They're all working together, and they've got ten minutes.
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There are only four minutes left by the time the first drops of gravy hit the "meat and fish" beaker, but it fills quickly. "Desserts" come , because why should their culinary age exceed their emotional age? Natalie's having trouble on her side, prompting Sheila to become frustrated and start ladling gravy downhill before she's ready. Ryan comes over to hijack James's stream, redirecting it from "bread and pastas" to "outdoor toys," much to James's annoyance. "Dairy & eggs" fills up . "Bread & pasta" gets filled up (so chill, James), and Ryan decides to go for the barbecue grill. They run out of time and have to stop, but since gravy's still dripping down, Big Brother gives it to them. The only items they failed to get were "fruits & veggies," "soda & beer," or a "gourmet feast." The spud-covered morons all hug each other happily.
With nominations day here, James decides to approach Adam to point out to him that he hasn't done anything to him, personally, specifically. But then he drops the subject in mid-sentence when Ryan enters. Awkward, transparent silence reigns until Ryan leaves the room without having give any indication that he heard anything. But Ryan goes to report to Natalie, and vows to straighten out Adam toot de suite.
Up in the HoH room, that's what Ryan does, as Adam tells him he's thinking of nominating Sheila and Sharon. Ryan calls Natalie up, and the two of them gang up on Adam while he lies on his bed and grins gormlessly up at them.
After they're done with him, James goes back to Adam and asks, "Why'd you vote me back into the game if you didn't want to work with me?" And Natalie for that matter. Having heard her name, Natalie decides to go break it up. When she storms in, James truthfully tells her that he only said that she was one of the ones who voted him back in. The three of them talk all over each other, and James, seeing he's going to get nowhere with Adam as long as Natalie's there, is getting more and more upset until he finally breaks down about being isolated. Natalie relents, give him a hug and kiss, and leaves the boys to have their little cry together. Tearing up himself, Adam says he doesn't have a choice. James says he understands, but it hurts. And Adam makes him an offer: will James refrain from using the PoV if Adam doesn't put him up? James agrees, and they have a deal: James isn't getting nominated.
While Adam deliberates over nominations, James DRs that his only hope is that he got through to Adam, and Ryan says that if Adam doesn't nominate James, it puts Ryan and Natalie in a vulnerable position. Adam narrates that he has to do what's best for himself, and not listen to the people who keep telling him to do what's best for themselves.
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So at the nomination meeting, Natalie is the first one safe, followed by Ryan. There's one key left, and it goes to...James, leaving Sheila and Sharon up on the block. Wow, I can't believe Adam went through with it. In the tense silence that ensues, Adam explains that he has decided to "fast forward" the process that would have happened if James had won: instead of having to find a replacement nominee when James inevitably wins PoV, he's leaving it to everyone else; if they really want James out, they're going to have to win PoV for themselves. He also mentions the promise that James has made regarding the PoV. I'm not sure how James winning PoV and leaving Sharon and Sheila up helps Adam more than James Vetoing someone else and thus making himself eligible for nomination, but I'm sure that's because I'm missing something really obvious and am not the master of gameplay that Adam clearly is.
Speaking of which, when he ends the meeting, Sheila hisses at him that he's the new "biggest jerk" in the house. Adam shrugs, because that particular distinction seems to be quite the hot potato where Sheila is concerned. Adam DRs that he's doing this to make the PoV competition a big deal. Sheila of course feels shocked and betrayed by Adam, because they had a bond and she trusted him and asking her to win a competition in this game is like asking her to stick her own elbow in her ear. James DRs about how nice it was to see his key come out (he'd probably forgotten what it looked like), but he wants people on his side and has decided that Adam is that. In his own DR, Ryan calls Adam's nominations "cowardly and spineless," which is an odd thing to call going against your alliance. I'm not sure I'm qualified to argue that it was smart, but people in this house use "spineless" as a synonym for "something that pissed me off" and it's getting on my nerves. You might call it spineless of them. Further undercutting his point, Ryan adds, "[Adam] made one friend and three enemies." Natalie is more succinct: "Adam is a fricking idiot!" she frustratedly DRs. Wow, that's harsh, coming from Natalie.
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