We join the Head of Household competition already in progress. We watch the houseguests hanging from their vine swings, and Memphis, Ollie, and Michelle do little Diary Room interviews talking about their own reasons for wanting to win. I'd go into specifics, but you can probably guess what they said. And even if you're wrong, your guess will be more interesting.
We also get some reactions to April's departure. Ollie's predictably bummed, Keesha's predictably the opposite of bummed (yeah, way to stack the jury house early on with your ex-allies in two weeks flat, genius) and Dan says that April's paltry offer of $5,000 doesn't compare favorably to the $500,000 he's there for. Looks like the big question right now is going to be how Ollie will survive without April. Both Keesha and Ollie are wondering that, in fact. Don't worry, he'll figure something out. Or, more accurately, Dan will.
Back at the HoH competition, it's starting to be less fun. Jerry is the first to drop, after 41 minutes. It takes a few minutes for him to even be able to stand up. And it's not like anyone is going to help him, because everyone else is still hanging on the swings except Renny, and you know she's not going to lend a hand. At some point, the houseguests have figured out that the wall they keep getting slammed against has water balloons hanging from it, so they start winging them at each other. Michelle gets inordinately pissed when Memphis aims one at Ollie and nearly blinds her instead. Some people are so touchy about their eyesight. During a series of particularly vicious wall-slams at the 1:05 mark, Keesha just plain falls, much to Memphis's disappointment. Michelle looks to be the one feeling the hour the most, and finally gives out at 1:59 when her shoe gets caught on the wall and pulls her off her swing. That leaves Dan, Memphis, and Ollie sticking it out for the hour. Finally, after another swing, Memphis falls at three hours, nineteen minutes. That leaves Ollie and Dan, each knowing he's likely to go home if he loses. So of course we know some dealing's about to be done.
With three and a half hours down, Ollie's feeling it every time it rains. He's wearing a tank top, while Dan had the foresight (or, conspiracy theorists might speculate, the producer-provided foreknowledge) to kit himself out with a hooded windbreaker. He tells Ollie that he's holding out for his girlfriend Monica, and Ollie says he wants to see his "peeps" too. Dan swears on everything he can think of that he won't put Ollie up. When Ollie doesn't bite, Dan offers to sweeten the deal, but the only person Ollie wants protected is himself. In the DR, Dan explains how he finally comes up with a way to win HoH and still seem weak: he can put all of the HoH control in Ollie's hands, and the resulting blood as well. So Dan gives away the store to Ollie: Ollie won't be nominated, he can pick one of Dan's nominees, protect two people, and pick Dan's replacement nominee if the Power of Veto is used. Ollie smirks in the DR about the great deal he's been offered. And up on the swings, Ollie tells Dan he wants to protect Michelle as his second person. Keesha DRs that she knows a deal was made up there; she just doesn't know what it was. After Ollie drops, he smugly DRs that as far as control of the house goes, he is the de facto HoH for this week. Michelle and Jerry help Dan down from the swing as he happily DRs about having made "one of the worst deals in Big Brother history." Hard to argue with him about that, except the "happily" part.
In the storage room, Memphis and Keesha speculate on what kind of deal Dan made. Without having any specifics, all they're sure about is that they'll both be safe. Which should tell them something right there. In the kitchen, Ollie excitedly tells Michelle about the deal he got. He whispers that he got a steal, assuming Dan keeps his word. Michelle's pretty happy to hear it, not least of all because it clearly demonstrates that Ollie is in her corner. Well, it's not like he has a lot of other corners to choose from at this point.
And Dan warns Memphis, "It might get sticky this week." He says he'll tell Memphis about it later. Memphis goes to report the existence of a deal to Keesha and Renny, and at this point he's wondering if he can even trust Dan any more. Memphis seems to have that problem a lot when members of his alliance win HoH, doesn't he? I wonder how he could fix that.
Dan's HoH room contains a gift from his girlfriend, a t-shirt that reads "TAKEN." Wow, how did she know about the deal he made with Ollie? Memphis mocks him for it in the DR, and says that while he'd never wear one, he's sure Dan will be wearing it by the end of the day. Sure enough, Dan's wearing it in the DR as he gives the standard speech about being reminded why he's doing this. He even uses his letter from home to sell his "Dan's a big wuss" strategy, pausing frequently for fake tears that totally fool and impress Renny. After the rest of the houseguests leave him alone in there, he mutters, "That was all nice and lovey-dovey, but game on." Aw, Monica's a lucky girl.
Later, Renny asks Dan how many women he's dated. Dan dodges the question by splitting hairs about the definition of "dating" and pissing her off on purpose. It works brilliantly, plus it fills up a surprising amount of air time.
Dan receives his first visit from his co-HoH Ollie, who expects that Dan will want to nominate Jerry as his first nominee. Ollie wants the second nominee to be Memphis, on the grounds that Memphis is a strong competitor. Dan seems to think that would be a little risky. You think?
morning, on the back porch, Dan has to break the news to Memphis, who isn't happy to hear about how much power Dan has given Ollie. Dan realizes that he needs to lock up the votes to keep Memphis before he feels safe putting him up. Fortunately he only needs two this week, and then he gets the tiebreaking vote (which he apparently forgot to give up to Ollie. Terrible oversight, that). Dan starts with Keesha, who warns him that Renny kind of has it in for Memphis. When Renny joins them, and he and Keesha propose the three of them plus Memphis as the final four, Renny flatly says, "I don't trust Memphis." Playing the mercenary for Renny's benefit, Dan suggests Renny "use him to a certain point and then cut him." For some reason, he doesn't remind her that she owes him for not using the PoV on one of her nominees last week. Dan realizes that his whole game is resting on what Renny does, which is a pretty precarious situation. For right now, he wants the three of them to agree on an alliance, and even tosses Renny the bone of letting her think of an alliance name. Renny says she'll think about it. The fact that she didn't have one ready on the spot just scored her more points with me than you can imagine.
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Memphis takes Dan aside and warns that he thinks he's about to make a mistake, and that he'd never do that to Dan. He's pretty pissy about it, too. So Dan goes up to the HoH room to ask Monica's photo what he should do. Alas, it's not very forthcoming. Stupid Monica's photo.
While Dan deliberates about his nominations, we get a few DR thoughts from the other houseguests as usual. Jerry hopes that Dan shares his mature, thoughtful perspective of "no sour grapes." You know, the philosophy that Jerry adopted the minute Dan started having some control over Jerry's fate. Michelle knows about the deal Dan made with Ollie, but says you can't always count on Dan. Somehow she refrains from invoking Jessie's name as an example. She must be over him. Memphis complains about the position Dan has put him in, and says he'll go after Dan if he nominates him. And Ollie says that Dan had better not nominate Michelle, and had better nominate Memphis, otherwise he's a liar and a snake. So somebody's going to be real pissed at Dan no matter what.
Dan calls the nomination ceremony, and before pulling the first key, Dan says he made a deal, and he's going to honor it. Sure enough, Dan's nominees are Jerry and Memphis. The latter is pretty steamed, even when Dan tries to send him a coded message by saying some might consider him a vagabond, while Dan might think of him as a renegade. Which is awesome, because whether you know about the secret "Renegades" alliance he has with Memphis or not, it makes no sense. Dan says he's taking a shot back at Jerry within the context of the game, and reminds them that they have the PoV as a chance to save themselves. Meeting over.
Jerry says in the DR that it's a little scary to be nominated twice in a row, but "I'm not out yet!" He's got a point. Who would have expected the septuagenarian to come in better than eighth place? Ollie talks about the power he still holds that will surprise some people later in the week. And Dan calls his nominations "a calculated risk" to cover his alliance's tracks. As for Memphis, he thinks Dan covered their tracks a little too well. "If I'm putting my faith in Father Dan, then God save us all." Actually, Memphis, just ask God to save you. We'll all be fine.
Check out which shows are coming this fall, and if they'll be worth your time in our Fall Preview.
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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.
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