It's Day 17, and after Keesha's nomination of Angie and Jessie, Angie blandly DRs that it's not over yet. I'm starting to agree with her; after all, how could someone so dull be such a target? Jessie calls his nomination "disrespectful," which is always the ultimate crime in Jessie's eyes. Memphis calls the nominations a "dumb move." I'm kind of with Memphis on that. In the storage room, Keesha requests -- and gets -- validation from her girls, April and Libra, that she made the right move. Jessie, meanwhile, has gone to Michelle to tell her that he thinks Libra "orchestrated" the whole thing. But he's fine with it, because he'll just win PoV and then become HoH. Yeah, again, nominating him for his arrogance doesn't seem to have helped much. He also adds that after he rescues himself, Michelle should probably expect to go up as a replacement nominee. "She put my key in last," Michelle remembers. Yeah, but that was probably just because Keesha lost it under the table for a minute.
Up in the HoH room, Keesha, April, Ollie, Libra, and Renny are all congratulating each other on the nominations. The only thing they can't seem to agree on is which one of the nominees needs to leave more.
Jerry and Dan hang out on the back porch, talking shit about Memphis while predicting this the game seems to be his to lose. Jerry calls Memphis a "womanizer." Jerry may be an ex-Marine, but he never stopped being a Mean Girl.
Jessie goes to visit Keesha in the HoH room, not to confront her, but to warn her about Libra. He says that it was Libra's idea for Jessie to nominate Steven and Dan in the first place, and she seems doubtful until he reminds her how much he had it in for Renny. Meanwhile, Libra and April are outside, wanting to come in, but Keesha has Jessie get rid of them. Then he tunes the HoH TV to the channel that shows the couch outside the HoH room, where April and Libra are sitting and waiting to come in. Jessie goes into his hard sell, telling Keesha that Libra's playing all of them, and is the one who was ultimately responsible for Steven leaving. Keesha buys his whole line lock, stock, and barrel, to the point where she's regretting nominating Jessie in the first place. His work done, Jessie leaves the HoH room without a word to the ladies waiting outside. When Keesha lets Libra and April in, she doesn't give any clue what just went on in there. And downstairs, Jessie gives Michelle the bottom line as he sees it: unless Libra wins PoV, she's out of there. Seems to me like he's getting a little ahead of himself, but that's where he spends the most time.
As the players for the PoV competition are drawn, Jessie says that he's confident he can beat anyone in the house, physically or mentally. Well, that covers about a third of Big Brother competitions. For the random drawing, Keesha, Angie, and Jessie pick Libra, Ollie, and Memphis, respectively. Keesha names Dan as the host, like anyone cares.
All the DR speeches about the serious stakes in this PoV are kind of undercut by the fact that all the players go out to the backyard dressed as flowers, in green unitards with big petal hats. The competition's pretty simple; they all have to plant themselves in giant flowerbeds (not face-down, alas), and then endure a trickle of water on their foreheads for an hour. The trick is they have to estimate that hour themselves, and the winner will be the one who estimates the time most closely without going over. "Without going over" is always a big deal on this show. ["Just like The Price Is Right, another CBS show... coincidence?" -- Angel]The water starts, and everyone complains about how cold and uncomfortable it is. After about twenty minutes, the other houseguests dump in giant pails of earthworms. Keesha gets the heebie-jeebies so bad that she drops out with only 22 minutes down. After a little while longer, Jessie publicly accuses Libra of convincing him to nominate Steven, and ultimately putting Jessie in the position he's in now. Libra doesn't waste energy responding.
With almost 45 minutes down, it's time to add the compost, a noisome mix of rotting meat, vegetables, and old Big Brother seasons. Everyone complains about the smell, even those who aren't playing. Ollie and Libra agree to quit five minutes apart from each other, on the shaky theory that at least someone in their alliance is more likely to win that way. With no clock shown on the screen, Libra goes first, and then Jessie quits seconds later so he can be sure that he's beaten Libra no matter what. They go to sit on the quitter's bench with Keesha and quietly argue about the Steven issue, while Keesha sits there uncomfortably thinking, "Move on, please." She really doesn't want to get drawn into a discussion with these two. Back on the playing field, Angie goes out, then Ollie, then Memphis. Competition over, and all that remains is to find out who won it. And the winner is...Keesha, because everyone else stayed in too long, by a minimum of fifteen minutes. I'm not going to pretend that I enjoy the fact that the people who lay in worms and compost the longest ended up losing. Keesha's feeling pretty good about her position, and Jessie calls the "survival of the fittest." News flash, Jess: YOU LOST.
1 2 3 4
Jessie sends Angie up to Keesha to tell her to veto Jessie and nominate Libra. Angie follows orders, saying she'd rather be up against Libra than have to spend another week in the house with her. Keesha is not unaffected by Angie's appeal, as small as that appeal is.
Keesha and April confer about the Libra situation, and how she's making herself -- and them, her alliance -- a target. Ollie joins them, and agrees with them that something must be done. But Keesha's still torn, having given Libra her word on day 4.Jessie has another one-on-one with Keesha, in which he gives her the hard sell about how much Libra is screwing both of them, and how hard all this is on Jessie. "I've lost six pounds in two days," he complains, which I think is where he overshot the territory of "I'm telling you this for your own good" and landed in "I'm a giant whiner." Keesha hears where Jessie's coming from, but she still feels bound by her word to Libra.
And now the announcer comes in with an announcement: America's Player is coming back. No, not Eric. Instead, we get to text our votes for one of the current houseguests to have to be our bitch for a week. Well, this should be... confusing. Another wrinkle is that America's Player has the option of turning down the offer, which comes with a separate $20,000 purse. Okay, if I'm going to be expected to kick in for any of that, I'm going to be pissed.
After the ads, Jessie is getting more and more upset about the position he's in, and he's starting to get pissed off. It's to the point where he stomps into the HoH room and yells at Keesha in front of April and Renny and Dan about how hard this is on him, and Keesha's doing it "for [her] own reasons." So now that Jessie has angrily flipped shit all over Keesha about this, Keesha for support goes to... Libra. Smooth move, Jessie. While Keesha is telling Libra about this in the women's bedroom, the group also accrues Jerry, Renny, and April. Keesha decides to make an announcement to the whole house that she's not turning on Libra, so quit bugging her already. So she goes all through the house like a Jehovah's Witness, giving a context-free bulletin to everyone she sees that Libra's not going up. "I don't have a problem with you," Jessie says to Libra when it's his turn to get the news. "Everybody else apparently does." Libra elects not to engage.
Here's something we haven't seen for a while: a plane pulling a banner is flying off in the distance, too far away to read (at least if you don't have HD, like I don't). Big Brother calls an immediate lockdown, and as the group of houseguests that includes Jessie, Memphis, Michelle, and Angie obediently hurry inside, they get the idea to act like they know what it said. While everyone else is up in HoH, these four decide to agree that the banner said, "Libra's a liar, [heart] Steven." Jessie and Michelle lead the whole group up to break the "news." Of course it sends shockwaves through the group. Memphis hangs back in HoH to say that the banner didn't say that at all; it actually said "Libra [and somebody else] liar [heart] [something]." Thanks for clearing that up. Libra wonders why everyone's after her, and Memphis and Ollie get philosophical about the game, with everyone ultimately out to get everyone else. Deep. As an example, Memphis says that he hasn't said anything personal about anyone else, and the only one who's said anything personal about Memphis is Jerry, calling him a womanizer. Jerry repeats the charge, and Memphis goes off. Jerry sits there calmly while Memphis curses and threatens him. Did it not bother him that much the first time? Although I admit that Memphis does have a point when he brings up Jerry's boob-grabbing on day one.
1 2 3 4
Nominations. Keesha says that her mind is made up, and no one's going to change it. Yes, Keesha, we've met. Angie is talking like there's still a chance Keesha will replace Jessie with Libra and Angie will be safe. It's like Angie's playing the game as shown in the previouslies instead of the one happening now. Jessie says that Libra would be gone on Thursday, if only Keesha were "in the right mindset." Too bad Jessie can't control everyone's mindsets. This house would run so much more smoothly, don't you think?
Keesha calls the PoV meeting, and offers to let the nominees speak for themselves, even though she's already said nobody will change her mind. Angie goes first, sucking up to Keesha. Jessie says Keesha has a chance to "right a wrong," and says he'll respect her decision. Assuming it's the right one, one presumes. And judging from the expression on his face, he thinks she made the wrong one when she announces she is...not changing the nominations.
In the post-nomination DRs, Keesha says she kept her word to Libra, so there. Libra says it worked out well for her. Angie speculates that "somehow" she might get Jessie to blow up and do himself in. Way to set a challenge for yourself, there, Ang. And Jessie threatens that if they don't vote him out after this, it'll be "the biggest mistake ever." I actually kind of agree with him .
Talk about the houseguests in our forums. And don't forget to vote for your favorite reality shows and contestants in our annual Tubey Awards.
M. Giant is a Minneapolis-based writer with a wife, a son, and a number of cats that seems to have settled at around two. Learn waaaay too much about him at Velcrometer, or just e-mail him at m.giant[at]gmail.com.
1 2 3 4