After nominating Adam and Sharon as agreed, Sheila assures us that Natalie is her real target. So she'd better hope Natalie doesn't win PoV. Natalie, unaware that everyone's now gunning for her, takes Ryan aside to say that in the event of a worst-case scenario -- namely, Sharon winning PoV -- they need to convince Sheila to send Adam home. Natalie boasts in the DR that she's "playing both sides," i.e. "Team Christ" and "Girl Power." And losing to both sides, not that she realizes this.
Sharon goes up the HoH to join Sheila and Natalie, and Sheila participates in their bitching about Adam so they don't know she's looking out for him. Later, Sheila and Adam sit at the kitchen counter as she tries to assure him that he'll be fine. Natalie joins in on the assurances. Adam is either not mollified or pretending not to be, and when Ryan comes along, he reminds Adam that he not only nominated Sheila last week, he put the whole Team Christ alliance at risk by not nominating James. Adam and Sheila start arguing with each other fairly convincingly (and earnestly, as far as I can tell), with Ryan taking Sheila's side. I'm sure Natalie is convinced. "You're not the target," Ryan reminds Adam. The target isn't even in the room...right, Natalie?
Later, when Sharon is in with the group and Natalie's the absent one, Sheila initiates a bitch session about Natalie, and everyone seems to be in agreement that she sucks. Or, in Team Christ-ese, she's Judas. Ouch. And you don't even get thirty pieces of silver for placing fifth in this game.
Late at night, Adam and Ryan are playing chess when suddenly the monitor on the wall above them changes to display an announcement: "Power of Veto Competition TONIGHT." They call the women down from the HoH room to show them, and Sheila DRs that this is probably her only chance to get Natalie out of the house. As long as Natalie doesn't win the PoV, that is. Sheila and Natalie quietly rally their respective troops, which unbeknownst to Natalie are the exact same troops.
After the ads, Sheila announces that everyone needs to retire to separate rooms, since it's going to be one of those one-at-a-time competitions. Natalie is the first one to be called to the back yard, and her voice in the DR while describing the scene is so scratchy and so much more annoying even than usual that I'm almost totally distracted from the giant, nine-screen TV and nine remote controls waiting there for her. Natalie reads the instructions: players will have to use the remotes to change the channels on the TVs to put together cheesy puzzles. She goes in the wrong direction for a while, trying to complete the puzzle that shows all the houseguests' heads Photoshopped onto different copies of Evel Dick's body (and I'm sure Dick just hated posing for that photo shoot). But upon realizing that's the wrong puzzle, she switches to the one of the guinea pigs sporting the various houseguests' hairstyles. Needless to say, some of those hairstyles look better on the guinea pigs. Natalie finishes, and we are given no idea as to how long it took her. I'm sure she'd be able to find some significance in the number of minutes she spent on this, though.
Adam comes , followed by Ryan, and then Sharon and Sheila. They all talk about strategy and the significance of this competition, and their uneasy knowledge that Natalie is all about puzzles. Well, yes, she is, but that doesn't mean she's any good at them. As the editing cycles around between the four of them, they each have their own challenges: Adam takes time to organize the remotes and runs into the same problem as Natalie, Ryan is "mesmerized" by the photo of his girlfriend Jen, who looks hot to him even when pasted on Dick's body (and let's try not to think about what kind of role-playing might be going on in the Ryan/Jen house in a month or so); Sharon is distracted by the photo of Jacob; and stupid Sheila is too turned on by all those copies of Dick's body to even think straight. Maybe she should just go with it and try manipulating the remote controls with her vagina. Even when she gets on the right track with the guinea pigs, she keeps getting it wrong. Finally, she finishes, in what even the background music seems confident is last place.
Once everyone's finished, they all gather in the back yard to reveal the results. Ryan finished in six minutes and one second, Sheila in 15:30 (see?), Adam in 3:20, and Natalie in 12:09. Nice work, Puzzle Lady. Looks like the plan is holding together, but let's see what Sharon's time is. And it's 4:56. Adam wins PoV, and he wins it REALLY LOUD. Natalie thanks God in the DR that Adam won instead of Sharon, and now figures that Sharon will go home, according to what Natalie still thinks is the plan. God's like, don't thank Me yet. Also, I'm taking away your voice for a reason. Sharon, meanwhile, DRs her disappointment that she didn't win, but is still hoping that Natalie will ultimately be the one to go this week. And Sheila predicts that Natalie won't know what hit her. Well, Natalie's dumb, but I don't think even she would mistake an eviction vote for, say, a Zamboni.
And indeed, while everyone celebrates Adam's victory, Natalie already begins to look a little worried. While Sheila and Sharon solidify the plan up in the HoH room, they tune in to kitchen-vision to watch Natalie work on her "allies," Adam and Ryan, making sure they're on her side. They're doing a pretty good job of pretending that they are, as Natalie worries about what Sharon and Sheila could be talking about. Ever the gentleman, Ryan volunteers to go up to HoH to "break up" the scene with Sharon and Sheila.
But when Ryan enters the HoH, he reports that Natalie already knows she's going to be the replacement nominee. Sheila pushes Ryan to agree to vote Natalie out, and Ryan insists he's on board. She pushes some more. Ryan's still on board. Sheila continues to push. Ryan insists that he's on board. Sheila pushes. Ryan promises. Rinse and repeat. And not for nothing, but a little moisturizing wouldn't hurt either.
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morning, Natalie sits in the pool with Adam and Ryan, talking about why her attempts at an acting career failed: "God wanted me to go on TV and be me!" God's like, "Okay, first of all -- actually, you know what, I can't even be bothered any more." Meanwhile, in the shadows under the porch, Sheila and Sharon are busy reassuring each other that Natalie's gone. Natalie looks over and wonders what's up with the two of them.
So later, while Sharon is otherwise occupied, Natalie comes to the HoH room to fret at Sheila about Sharon always being with Sheila lately. Sheila cuts to the chase and says she has to put up Natalie as the replacement nominee. But she assures Natalie that she'll be safe because Sheila can't afford to piss off Ryan. Smooth, that, letting Natalie think that she's still dealing with the timid, passive version of Sheila. Still, Natalie is regretting listening to the "giving side" of herself during the HoH competition and letting go so Sheila could win it. Sheila DRs that she feels bad about lying to Natalie, but hey, Natalie has lied to Sheila before. At least Sheila isn't all self-righteous about it like James was all the time. As for Natalie, she seems more or less satisfied with the ongoing integrity of Team Christ. Team Christ is a rock! Just like the Apostle Peter. Hey, that reminds me, do you suppose there's any way to have a rooster crow after she gets voted out? I'm just wondering.
Apparently it's Sheila's birthday, so the other four houseguests throw her a little surprise party in the back yard, with decorations and cake and a lovely letter from Sheila's mom, whom she hasn't heard from since Thanksgiving and who she didn't even know was a Big Brother fan. Happy birthday, Sheila! Enjoy your crying jag!
Sharon plays out the endgame for Adam as she's predicting it: people want to take her to the end, because she's only got three votes in the jury house: Joshuah, James, and Chelsia. "We'll see who's smart and who's not," Sharon predicts. Translation: take me to the end, Adam. ["Of course, it's 'only' three votes, but it's three iron-clad votes that won't ever waver, leaving her with only one bitter ex-Team Christ member to win over. Of course, she's playing with morons who probably won't figure that out, which is why it's a solid strategy." -- Joe R]
And later, Ryan tells Adam they're going to be in the final two. Adam relays what Sharon said to him earlier, not realizing that she might have her own motives for claiming to be a pushover in any final two scenario. Still, Ryan realizes that he has to balance Natalie's unpopularity with the difficulty of beating her in enough competitions to get to the final two in the first place.
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Later still, Sheila wants to cement the plan, telling Adam and Ryan not to split their vote and put her in the position of being the tiebreaker. In the DR, she vows that if Adam makes her get Natalie's blood on her hands, Adam's blood will be joining it. In fact, she threatens Adam that unless he does what she wants, she'll put up Ryan as the replacement nominee to punish Adam. Ryan and Adam both realize they should probably stop talking to Sheila about this entirely, considering her uncanny ability to work herself up into a righteous snit with little or no provocation. Once she's gone, they promise each other that they'll control the house week.
Before the Veto meeting, Adam reminds us that as long as Sheila doesn't nominate Ryan, then Adam and Ryan will control the house. As the only voters this week, that would make sense. Adam calls the meeting, and gives Sharon the chance to speak for herself. Sharon's done this enough times by now that there aren't any surprises there. Even less surprising is the fact that Adam vetoes himself. Sheila stands up and says this is the hardest decision she's had to make so far, which makes three in a row by my count. She only has Ryan and Natalie to choose from as replacement nominees. Tearfully, she chooses the latter. "We're block buddies," Sharon consoles Natalie as they sit together on the couch. Sheila assures Natalie that this is only because Ryan Vetoed Sheila last week and she wants to return the favor. They're all doing a great job of keeping Natalie in the dark regarding the plan, which I realize is because Natalie is not in on the plan and thus can't spill the beans to the intended target like she usually does. Sheila DRs that Natalie isn't as safe as she thinks, but if Adam makes Sheila break a tie, she won't be happy about it. Natalie remains confident in the cohesion of Team Christ, and Ryan DRs that it's now down to himself and Adam, this week and probably for the rest of the game. We're getting down to it, y'all.
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