Good thing my DVR is smarter than I am, or else I would have missed this episode entirely and I wouldn't have had anyone to blame but my own hard-wired tendency of my eyes to glaze over whenever Julie Chen speaks. Speaking of whom, she welcomes us and the studio audience to a live episode by reminding us that the winner will be chosen a week from tonight. At least, I think that's what she said. I may have tuned out a bit there.
We're reminded that Dan has gotten so sneaky that he's nominated his secret ally in order to a) hide said alliance, b) win Keesha's trust, and c) make Jerry think there's a schism he can exploit. All of which seems to be working quite smoothly as the episode opens.
Jerry approaches Memphis, who acts like he's pissed at Dan for nominating him. The act, by the way, is not nearly as convincing as it was a couple of weeks ago, when it was not an act. Not that Jerry notices, mind you. Keesha also privately discusses the nominations with Dan, saying that she appreciates the way he has her back. Some vestigial, flipper-shaped conscience somewhere inside him compels Dan to remind her that it would be a good idea for her to win Power of Veto this week, and we see Dan in the Diary Room explaining that the PoV winner this time will control who goes home. Which is win-win for the Renegades, because he thinks he's be able to influence a victorious Keesha, while Memphis would be able to steer Jerry.
Meanwhile, down in the kitchen, Jerry is interpreting Keesha's pleasure at not being nominated as a sign that Jerry's being screwed somehow. Which he is, but that has nothing to do with Keesha's reaction. Memphis and Jerry call each other their only hope, but only Jerry means it. And sure enough, after the talk is over, Memphis heads up to the Head of Household room to talk about how well things are going for the Renegades.
Julie reminds us that Dan won the luxury competition that meant he got to pick a houseguest or jury member to take with him to a private island, and he picked Michelle without telling any of the other houseguests. On the day of the trip, Dan is called into the DR, where he puts on a blindfold prior to getting into a limo. Once in the car, he gets to take it off, and notices that gas is now $3.89 a gallon, down a bit from where it was earlier in the summer. "Good job, America," he says. Uh, thanks?
Dan then gets to board a helicopter that flies out over the ocean, and Dan seems to be wondering if he might be better off crashing into the Pacific than coming face-to-face with Michelle. When she arrives on the island where Dan has landed, Dan explains that she doesn't know which of the houseguests chose her, and will be surprised to see him. Indeed she is, and Dan puts on the smarm to try to win her over while they share a very wine-intensive lunch on the beach. Michelle interviews that it was nice of Dan to pick her, although she suspects that Dan is trying to secure her jury vote. Wow, can't get anything past her. Michelle quizzes Dan about what happened and who knew about her imminent backdooring. He names Renny, Memphis, and Keesha as his accomplices, which is pretty canny of him considering one of them will probably be with him if he makes it to the end. Then they go swimming and kayaking in the ocean, and the date is over. Dan flies off first, and I'm sure that if this hadn't gone well he would have been fully prepared to bribe the pilot not to return for Michelle.
Back in the studio, Julie teases the upcoming and final PoV competition that, as you may or may not have heard, is the most important one so far because it means the winner gets to decide who leaves. I'm pretty sure there are scenarios, however unlikely, in which that would not be the case, but I don't have time to run through all of them. In the backyard, the houseguests find a big four-sided pyramid, with a ten-step staircase on each side and a button at the top for each of the four players. Each step will light up with two clues about an evicted houseguest, and when each player hangs the correct person's name on that step, it lights up and they can move up to the one. The first one to hit his or her button on the top wins the last PoV. And Dan DRs that it's... not going to be him. Why get any more blood on his hands, after all?
When the competition begins, it seems to be pretty much between Memphis and Keesha. Dan's only complaint is that he can't see how well the others are doing, so he's not sure if he's sucking as much as he wants to. When he gets near the top and sees Memphis lagging, he deliberately keeps screwing up the penultimate step while waiting for his fellow Renegade to catch up. The problem with his plan is that Keesha is also catching up, but ultimately it's Memphis who wins it. As the PoV medal is hung around Memphis's neck, Jerry ruefully DRs that he has to rely on Memphis because it's not like there are other options for him now. Keesha is worried about whether Memphis will keep his final-two deal with her. Well, sure, why wouldn't he?
Up in the HoH room, Memphis and Dan celebrate and talk about their step, and whether it might actually be safer to take Jerry with them to the final three. Yeah, I knew this alliance would turn on each other. I'm actually surprised it took this long. Keesha comes to visit them, and Dan acts all sad like he's just realizing that he's going to have to nominate her. They joke a bit about the situation, but when Memphis says, "At least you didn't unpack," it kind of quits being funny and Keesha leaves soon after. As she thoughtfully gives herself a pedicure, she informs her toenails, "They're gonna fricking evict me." Her toenails fail to react.
So then she returns to the HoH room to confront Memphis and Dan with her suspicions. They give the worst denials ever, and then fall silent. But Keesha swears not to go quietly, or vote for her evictor in the end, or keep her opinions to herself in the jury house. She leaves the room, and Memphis follows, although he doesn't have anything to say to her but "I'm sorry." She follows him into the living room, where Dan is also sitting now, and she flips out on them in a totally soap-worthy performance while they sit there silently. When she leaves again, this time it's Dan who follows her, quietly saying that it's all Memphis's fault and out of Dan's hands. Yeah, he played that much better than Memphis did. Want proof? Keesha promises Dan her vote on the spot.
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In the studio, Julie gets on the viewscreen to the final four, assembled in the living room. She plays them a clip from the luxury competition before confirming for them that the guy in the gorilla suit was actually Jessie. Keesha admits that she wouldn't have been so excited about the gorilla at the time. Well, I certainly wasn't. Julie then asks Memphis what a "fruitless exit" is. Memphis admits it was a lame guess, because it's not like he can come out and define it as "What Keesha's going to be doing in about five minutes." Julie asks Dan how his trip was, and Dan talks about it in vague terms without mentioning that anyone else was there. Julie doesn't call him out or bringing Michelle along, probably because someone told her not to. We are live, after all. The question is to Jerry, asking how he feels about making it this far. How is that a question? Jerry "jokes" that he's made an offer to buy the house. Fortunately we get a commercial break here to wipe the tears of laughter from our eyes.
When we come back, Julie tells Memphis to announce his decision regarding the PoV. Memphis de-nominates himself, and Julie sends Keesha to sit in the nominee seat to Jerry. Jerry goes first with his nominee speech, which refers to, and I quote, "the thrill of agony and all of the defeat and things like that." When it's Keesha's turn to speak, she declines to say anything at all to Memphis and instead thanks Dan gushingly for being there for her during her final days in the house. As she sits back down, she shoots Memphis a nasty glance. Clearly he will not be getting a free plate of wings if he ever comes to see her at work. Julie tells Memphis to stand and cast his vote, and Memphis boots Keesha. As she gets up to leave, Dan gives her two things: a crumpled packet of paper with something inside, and a lengthy message whispered in her ear that he has to repeat twice. "Finish it," he says to her aloud as she walks out.
Back in the house, Dan is railing at Memphis, for Jerry's benefit: "You're out of your mind if you think I'm taking you. Out of your mind!" Memphis sighs uncomfortably and Jerry shows off his shitty poker face.
Surprisingly, once Keesha's settled in the studio, Julie abandons her first prepared question to Keesha and asks her what Dan whispered to her instead. As I suspected, Dan told her he took Michelle on the trip. Probably smart to make sure Keesha heard it from him instead of the jurors. And the item he handed her is one of those floaty bath toys that says "HOT" on the bottom if the water's too hot for your kid. Hmm, inscrutable. Even Keesha has no idea what it means. But maybe she and her toenails will figure it out later. Julie then asks Keesha how she's feeling about Memphis. She says she was shocked, and figured it out by how calm Jerry was. She's pretty bitter about Memphis booting her after all the times she covered his ass. Which, to be fair, she kind of did.
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Time for the goodbye messages. Memphis is sad and apologetic, Jerry wishes her a "good, long journey," and Dan throws Memphis under the bus in his farewell, blaming his fellow Renegade for going against Dan's wishes. Dan is never not playing this game, is he? He's still going to be playing BB10 game when he's Jerry's age. Keesha says she appreciates the messages, and that Memphis is "playing the game." Boy, does Dan have her snowed. Well, at least she'll be seeing Renny again soon.
So now it's time for part one of the three-part final HoH competition, with all three remaining players eligible to compete. They're in the backyard, standing on top of little biplanes, wearing helmets and hanging onto a pair of ropes each. After confirming that they're all ready, Julie starts the competition. And as the wind rises, so do the airplanes, with the houseguests balancing carefully on top of them. Julie explains that the winner of this round will advance to round three, while the other two will compete in round two, and the winners of the first two rounds will face each other in the final round.
After one last commercial break, we "check on" them, to find all three still standing. Julie gives us the schedule: final HoH results on Thursday, filler/clip show on Sunday (although she doesn't use those exact words), and live finale on Tuesday. Got all that? After vainly plugging Big Brother After Dark on Showtime, Julie warns the houseguests of upcoming turbulence and wishes them goodnight. You can almost see the producers trying to stretch out the end credits until Jerry falls off.
Find out what shows you can fill your time with when Big Brother ends in our Fall TV preview.
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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