Julie claims that the Brigade has "controlled the house for the entire game," which is a pretty generous way of saying they had a decent run of luck. I don't have anything generous to say about Julie's purple tent-dress, however.
Back in the live studio after the credits -- on Wednesday, no less -- Julie reminds us that HoH Hayden nominated Lane and Britney, and sure enough, there the two of them are in the nominee seats. After a flashback to the nomination ceremony, Hayden Diary Rooms that Britney is the target, because it's the Brigade to the end (except for when he and Enzo were thinking about booting Lane). Britney vows to play hard for the PoV and save herself, and Lane says she'd better. Because there'll be one eviction vote tonight, and it'll be cast by the one non-nominee. Just so we have a clear picture of the electoral landscape. I'm a regular Nate Silver over here.
Lane assures Hayden in the HoH room that he's not angry about the nominations, and Hayden assures him that there wasn't anything behind not nominating Enzo. Hayden says he just doesn't want to be up against Britney at the end. Lane lies that he feels the same way.
Outside, the Brigade talks about the day, and Enzo says that he knows he'll have to win PoV tomorrow, because if Britney wins it she'll save herself and send Enzo home. Lane suddenly says he wants to take a shower, but fears leaving the two of them alone. Enzo tells him not to worry about it, so he leaves them to discuss their suspicions of Lane and Britney. Enzo hopes for a "storybook finish" for the Brigade. What kind of fucked-up shit does Enzo read to his kid at bedtime anyway?
Britney visits Hayden in the HoH room and confesses to being nervous. They both talk about how nobody will take them to the final two, and even if they do, Enzo would win a unanimous vote against anyone. In fact, Britney is planting the seed in Hayden's mind that Enzo's a threat, and that she has too many enemies on the jury to be evicted. Hayden seems receptive, but is he going to turn on the Brigade? Yeah, right.
Back to the studio, where Julie reminds us that the most important PoV competition is coming up. Britney also DRs that it's important. They come out to the backyard, and there's a way-too-large set piece for what this is. As Hayden explains, each person is given a section of wall (each out of sight of the others, of course, so they can't cheat) with a row of clues on the top and a row of clues on the bottom. The players will have to arrange "movie posters" (actually just combined memory-wall photos in a fake marquee vignette frame) with the faces of two houseguests to match the clues. The tricky part is all the posters have two sides and there's only one right way to fit them in correctly. It also looks tricky because the posters fit into long rails, which means you can't rearrange them without moving the ones on the outside. But this is probably going to be too hard for all of them anyway, so that part probably won't be an issue.
The game begins. These clues are actually pretty tough, and includes things like who was a Have-Not during bok choy and baby food week, or who only competed in two PoV competitions. I don't know most of that crap. Hayden's going one clue at a time, Britney's laying hers out on the ground, Lane can't even remember who he nominated when he was HoH last week, and Enzo's using a trial-and-error strategy that I'm thinking is going to bite him in the ass. As they read the clues, an additional level of difficulty is added by the fact that some clues apply to multiple people but others only apply to one. That doesn't stop Enzo from rushing through and hitting his button, but he only got three right out of eight. But then Hayden hits his button, and the long pause before the sound effect tells us he won it. And then the sound effect tells us he won it as well. Bye-bye, Britney, who doesn't have a single one in place. Even without the PoV, she thinks she's still got a chance, but Lane has already decided to cut her loose for the sake of the Brigade. Clearly I underestimated the Brigade. Somehow. I'm still trying to figure out how.
Afterwards, the Brigade sit around in the kitchen, and Hayden chalks his win up to luck. He's not just being modest; he's just angling for a top-two spot. Hayden wonders what they'll tell Britney, and Enzo wants to tell her about the Brigade right now. "She's my only vote," Lane protests weakly, but Hayden says he plans to out the Brigade when he declines to use the Veto on Britney. And Lane feels like he can't protect Britney without arousing further suspicion from the Brigade and putting himself at risk. Enzo decides they'll tell her that night.
After a transition shot that shows the moon ominously going blood-red, Britney watches in the HoH room as Enzo asks Lane what he's going to do. They talk about Hayden's very first HoH win, and Enzo remarks that it was a team effort. That segues into a bizarre, loaded discussion about team and group efforts over the summer, as Enzo asks Britney of there were alliances. Britney duhs, "Brendon and Rachel. Matt and Ragan." Lane asks Enzo who he was with, and Enzo confesses he was in an alliance. "With Matty," Britney guesses. Have to get up pretty early in the morning to fool that one. Enzo says there were two other people in his alliance. Enzo and Lane cackle while Britney devours her fingernails until they break the news that they were in a four-person alliance that dates back to Day 2. She doesn't seem to know how to react, Enzo continues boasting, and Lane looks uncomfortable. Hayden enters and learns that Britney's been brought up to speed. But she still doesn't seem to get it until Hayden tells her, "I'm glad you won the ten Gs yesterday." In other words, "So long, sucker." Around a mouthful of denial and fingernails, she asks if she's definitely going home, and Hayden says, "I'm not gonna use the veto." "That's it, you know what I mean?" Enzo says coldly as Britney's face crumples. Stupid Lane is just sitting in his chair like a lump. It's Hayden who apologizes and gets up to go to her, but she's not going to hang around in here. Tearfully, she says, "How does it feel to know that you just wasted three months and you have no shot at five hundred thousand dollars, it's the only reason you came here?" Well, yeah, it sucks, but that's true of everyone else in the jury house, too. Enzo tells her she's an awesome player to have gotten this far, which she gets, but she needs some time alone. Or in the DR, where she sobs about having gotten played and feeling stupid. And she's pretty pissed at Lane, who she says has been lying to her this whole time and isn't her friend, and doesn't care if she's alive or dead. "All I am is just another idiot who was part of his bigger scheme." Well, it wasn't really Lane's scheme. She says she doesn't want to talk to any of them, and voting for any of them will make her sick.
Lane goes to follow her despite Enzo encouraging him to stay, DRing that seeing Britney that upset was like seeing one of his good dogs die. Dude should write greeting cards. [So he doesn't get upset when his bad dogs die? And why does he have bad dogs in the first place? I was, and still am, very confused about this.-- Angel] And now he can't even tell her that he wanted to take her to the final two, because he's got to suck up to the Brigade.
Lane goes into her bedroom and asks to talk, but all she'll say is that she's really mad, especially at him. "I never lied to you," Lane lies. He keeps pushing it, but she's shut down and just wants to go to bed. "I don't want nothing to change after this," he says as he leaves the room. Nothing will -- I'm pretty sure she's going to stay engaged to Nick now.
After the ads, Julie throws it to the live Veto meeting, the last one of the summer. I love lasts on this show. Julie invites Hayden to stand and make his decision. He tells them they're both awesome people, and with little ado says he's not using the veto. Julie lets Lane be the first to make his case to Enzo, who will be casting the one vote. Lane starts by making a shout-out to his friends and family at home before sucking up to the three other houseguests and telling Britney he'll miss her whatever happens. Britney's speech is pretty much the same, although she says that even if she couldn't be an original member of the Brigade, she's glad to be casualty of it. I liked it better when she hated them. Enzo compliments both nominees, and offers Britney's fiancé Nick one shot to punch him in the face after this, because he's evicting Britney. She hugs all three guys and says she'll see them in a week before heading out.
Britney shakes hands with everyone she passes in the studio, carrying a shoulder bag that's big enough to hold another Britney. She certainly had plenty of time to pack. Inside the house, the final three celebrate, and Enzo especially appreciated Britney's shout-out to the Brigade at the end. Who's voting for whom at the end, anyway?
In the studio, Julie remarks to Britney about how sweet she was to everyone during her exit, but Britney admits that she sure didn't feel that way when they told her about the Brigade. She calls it her worst day in the house. "Were you feeling angry and betrayed?" Julie asks, and Britney says she considered refusing to vote for anyone at all. I would have liked to see that. Julie asks why Britney didn't believe Ragan when he let her in on his suspicions of another alliance in the house, and Britney basically says she thought she was in on it. Britney even forgives Lane, saying that she thinks Lane wanted to be with her in the final two. Of the game, if not on earth. And if that's not a scary thought, I don't know what is.
Farewell messages. Hayden says he feels like he betrayed her and let her down. Enzo says he doesn't want to see anyone cry, and it was hard to evict her. Lane tells her that being in the house without her will be horrible. "Who am I gonna aggravate now?" he asks. Don't worry, Lane, Britney will get plenty of aggravation in the jury house. He says he knows she felt used, but he really wanted to be with her in the final two, and never thought of her as a side alliance. He'd better hope she doesn't share that with whichever Brigade member follows her to the jury house. Britney wipes away her tears, and as Julie tell her she's off to the jury house, she sighs and rolls her eyes extravagantly. "I wonder who that face was for?" Julie ad-libs, and sends her on her way. Final HoH coming up. Oh, and there's an America's Vote thing for favorite houseguest, who will win $25,000. Good luck with that, Rachel.
When we come back, the final three are hanging from rope swings to a fake stone wall, over fake palm leaves. The one who hangs on longest gets to be the last HoH. Is it me or have there been more endurance competitions than not this season? I'd look it up but I don't care that much. When the competition begins, the gantry they're suspended from lifts up at one end, sending them sliding at high speed across the field to another fake stone wall, into which they crash noisily. Alas, it's not only not stone, but padded beneath the gray canvas. Although not excessively, I'm glad to say. Enzo keeps yelling "Meow-Meow!" as this continues back and forth for a few times, and Julie obviouses that they'll have a long night. Yes, Enzo's hollering is going to make things miserable.
They're all three still in it after the last ad break. Julie tells us this first part of the three-part HoH competition will be wrapped up tomorrow, and there'll be a live part two, and we'll see Ragan find out the truth about Matt when he gets to the jury house. Yeah, they don't usually plug the jury house bits, so this should be pretty juicy. And there's good news and bad news for Wednesday: a two-hour live finale. It's the finale part that's the good news.
Julie gets back on the viewscreen to drop a grenade on the Brigade: now they'll have to swing through a waterfall. Of course. See you tomorrow, and alas, we won't get to watch them getting slammed into walls non-stop between now and then. I'll just have to put it on a loop.
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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