As you remember (and if you don't, five minutes of previouslies will remind you), Lydia from the Offbeat clique and "Brain" Chima are this week's nominees. Laura Diary-Rooms that she dodged a bullet, but still feels like nobody's watching her back. Perhaps her "Popular" status should also be in scare-quotes. Also: she didn't pack a thong? Among those who felt blindsided by the nominations are Jeff, Jessie's fellow Athlete. Russell gloats obnoxiously. Braden and Jordan from the Popular group try to cheer up Lydia, who's crying because this "back to high school" theme is working really well on her. She keeps accreting people who want to cheer her up, like Jeff and fellow Offbeat Kevin, which is not lost on Chima. She tells her fellow "Brains" (really, I'm just going to have to keep putting that clique name in quotes from here on out after last episode's performance) that she's going to have to win the Power of Veto to protect herself.
Ronnie and Chima duck into the storage room to discuss how they think Jeff might vote, and Ronnie tells Chima a super top-secret secret: "I'm a national champion for persuasive speaking." "Better work here, baby," is all Chima says. Probably wise of her not to pin her hopes for staying in the house on Ronnie's claim. Maybe she's smarter than I thought.
Laura is so distraught by nearly being nominated that she asks Casey (from Offbeat) and Russell, "Is it because I have big boobs?" They give her all the sympathy she deserves.
Russell and Jessie meet inside the Head of Household room, having belatedly realized that Jeff's off the reservation. I'm not sure how this is anyone's fault but their own. They decide now's the time to bring Laura on board, and in the HoH room and the DR, Laura promises that she's a good competitor. Russell is convinced, I think primarily because being convinced gives him a chance to boast arrogantly about his "powerhouse" alliance in the DR. Keep telling yourself that, Mr. Clean.
Montage of Braden being goofy and weird. Which Russell hates. So far, the Love Muscle's game appears to consist largely of bragging about his allies and feeling threatened by everyone else.
Time to pick players for the Power of Veto competition. HoH Jessie, and nominees Lydia and Chima, not only get to participate, but also randomly draw one other player each. Lydia isn't happy that Jessie draws Russell's name, because he was in the clique that put her up in the first place. Chima draws Houseguest's Choice and picks Natalie, which is kind piling on. Michele doesn't get why she would pick someone out of her clique. Thanks, Michele, I hope you enjoyed your one line tonight. When Lydia draws Jeff, that's the entire Athletes clique in the PoV competition. Jessie names Casey as the host. Picking the DJ? Way to think outside the box, there.
The backyard has been set up to look like a giant, acne-ridden face. "Oh my God, is that my high school picture?" Chima squeals in the DR. Casey explains the competition: basically, the competitors will have to pop the giant zits, reach inside and dig giant, two-sided Scrabble tiles out of the fake pus, and use them to spell the longest word they can. Lydia's determined to win, but Chima's confident that her freelance writer's vocabulary will serve her well. How sesquipedalian of her.
The competition begins, with ten minutes on the clock. Lydia DRs about how she wasn't about to let the disgusting smell prevent her from spelling "civilization." Ironic, really. The fake pus everywhere is bad enough, but then the giant tube of fake acne cream suspended over the yard starts spewing over them. Jessie finishes spelling a word and closes his cover over it with 3:55 left on the clock. Russell and Natalie both finish and ring their bells about three minutes later. Jeff locks in his guess with fifteen seconds left, less than confident in his speling skills. Chima finishes with seven seconds left, and Lydia's still out there digging around, right up to the last second. If you measure determination by who's the most covered in pus, I would have to put Lydia in the lead.
Time to reveal the words: Jessie spelled "CONTINOUSLY." No, that's not a typo. He at least has the grace to look embarrassed. Natalie spelled "LAST," which is where she would rank if she were competing against anyone but "Big Brother" contestants. Chima went for "SUPERFICIALITY," but came up short on letters and ended up with "SUPER___IALITY." You might say she FIC'ed this up. Casey points out that Chima could have stolen the lead from Natalie if she'd simply gone with "SUPER." But that wouldn't have helped her either, because Russell spelled "SHOTGUN," and now he's in the lead. Jeff managed to misspell a made-up word, aiming for "TECHNOTRONICS" and landing on "TECTRONICS." "Couldn't find an 'H,'" he explains, as though that was his only problem. Lydia finally reveals her word: "CI_ILIZATION." Oops. Big win for Russell, giving him another excuse to brag in the DR. Kevin DRs that the Athletes are making themselves a target. Maybe, but you have to beat them before you can hit them, Kevin.
Jessie meets with his allies Russell, Natalie, and Laura in the HoH room. Laura's convinced that Jeff threw the competition, and Russell DRs his agreement as though it was his idea. Thank you, Laura, for that demonstration of your outstanding game play.
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Jordan and Jeff flirt over his feet. "No use to me at all," Russell DRs of his clique-mate. day, he does some handstand push-ups and shadowboxing in the yard, while Jeff smirks at him from the elliptical trainer. Russell says he plans to go after Jeff, which he does by loudly mocking him for his performance in the competition in front of everyone, thinking that'll embarrass Jeff instead of making himself look like a dick in front of everyone. Unfortunately, Jeff plays into it, responding in kind, and when Russell goes inside and Jeff sees Natalie looking at him, he snaps at her before she even opens her mouth, "Don't start. Go inside with your team." But they argue anyway, mostly about Jeff's disengagement from his team. She calls him out, accusing him of wanting to keep his hands clean, which isn't a bad point, but it kind of degenerates from there. It's getting a little schoolyard up in here. Well, except for the fact that all the other people in the yard just watch quietly instead of cheering on one side or the other.
Lydia decides to deploy her massage/sucking up skills on Veto-holder Russell, who claims to her that he wasn't the one who wanted her out. Lydia believes his lie that it was Natalie's idea, and pulls a pretty good judo move by saying, "You'll do what Natalie wants." Russell washes his hands of it, so Lydia goes up to Jessie in the HoH room to subtly taunt him for doing Natalie's bidding. Natalie enters to say goodnight, and they have kind of a low-key argument that they seem to quickly resolve. With that accomplished, Lydia can shine the light on the emerging alliance between Jeff and Braden, and the two Athletes seem open to putting up Braden as a replacement nominee. Mainly to fuck with Jeff. These guys really are a powerhouse. One you can play like a cheap violin.
After Lydia goes to bed, Russell joins Jessie and Natalie in the HoH room, and they discuss backdooring Braden. And the dynamic has changed again. "I think Braden's ass needs to go home," Natalie sums up. It's like steering a Jet-Ski with these people.
day, Russell pulls Ronnie into the supply room and lines up his vote to evict Braden. Ronnie agrees, but then runs to Jordan and Jeff to tell them about the plan. They are so not down with that, and the three of them decide to warn Braden. Ronnie DRs that he's trying to be an asset to everyone. Because that always works out so well.
Russell puts "saw Ronnie talking to Braden" and "Braden is suddenly pissier" together and confronts Ronnie in the supply room, all but accusing him of tipping Braden off. Ronnie denies everything, even in the face of Russell shining his Manson lamps up at him from under his plaid newsboy cap. The two of them leave and go to sit down at the table. Ronnie keeps selling it, pretending to be pissed that this got out. Russell pulls Jessie into the supply room and says he still suspects Ronnie of playing both sides. He DRs that Ronnie is guilty of bad game play. For once, I have to agree with Russell. Thanks a lot, Ronnie.
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While Russell contemplates the memory wall in advance of his Veto ceremony, Ronnie DRs that he "made some moves" this week, which is a charitable way of putting it. Russell calls the Veto meeting, and gives Lydia the chance to speak first in her own defense. Lydia starts, predictably, by sucking up, and then sucks up in the middle, and changes it up at the end by sucking up some more. Chima's plea isn't much more persuasive, and in the end, Russell announces his decision to Veto Lydia. So now Jessie has to choose a replacement nominee, and without preamble, he nominates Braden. Which means the leak affected absolutely nothing. Braden stands up and stumbles over his words so badly on the way to the nominee chair that he nearly falls over physically. Russell ends the meeting, and Braden stands up and says, "All right, let's go have a pool party!" Well, he's certainly taking it well.
But in the DR, Braden is surprisingly coherent about his determination to stay, not really saying anything more nonsensical than calling Jessie "negligent." If he's making this much sense, it can only be from a burst of adrenalin that comes from his version of white-hot rage. Chima DRs that she's still the pawn, and hopes not to become the target. Lydia has this to tell the DR: "Thank you, baby Jesus." And Jeff says that Jessie and Russell are acting like high school bullies, and it falls to him to "fight for the rest of the house." Nice of him to be looking out for everyone. I'm sure aligning himself against someone who called him out in front of everyone is just gravy.
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, follow him on Twitter, or just e-mail him at m.giant[at]gmail.com.
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