In a pearl-colored power suit that somehow lost its sleeves, Julie tells us that tonight, "Double trouble is done and no one is safe." So the duos are over? Try to look surprised.
After the credits and the previouslies, Julie reminds us that after Daniele and Dominic's secret alliance to break up the veterans came to light this week, "All loyalties are in question and all deals are off." Flashback to the Veto meeting, with Brendon declining to use the PoV on Day 24, and Dominic Diary-Rooms that he's not surprised, and he's counting on his "deal" to keep him safe. He needs to learn to count. Adam's even more confident in his safety, while Jeff says he's happy because he still wants Dominic out of the house and away from Daniele. And Daniele tells us that Brendon and Rachel will regret not backdooring Jeff and Jordan. Sure they will. I'm not aware of those two ever regretting anything.
After the Veto, Daniele comes to see Brendon and Rachel in the HoH room to say that "if Dominic goes home, I'm gonna be pissed." She argues that she's being screwed, as she's the only member of their alliance without a partner. Brendon points out that she's trying to break up their alliance, and Daniele acts all righteously indignant at being accused of exactly what she's been doing, because she doesn't know they know. Because of how great Rachel and Brendon are at keeping secrets.
Jordan and Kalia discuss how Jeff and Jordan may have just dodged a bullet. Kalia claims not to have known anything about it, but the editors cut right to a clip of Kalia discussing that very thing with Daniele three days . Back in the present, Kalia assures Jordan that she would have told her if she knew anything about it. Jordan says they're just being careful in this atmosphere of mistrust and lies.
Jeff takes Dominic aside to try to get him to admit that he targeted Jeff and Jordan. Dominic plays dumb, but Jeff is insistent on finding out whose idea it was to backdoor him. Dominic denies everything, and Jeff walks away frustrated. Dominic's kind of pissed at Daniele for putting him in this position, because he doesn't know it was actually Shelly who squealed on them. Shelly who Dominic confided in. Shelly is totally becoming the secret third rail in this game.
Later, in the kitchen, Jeff and Jordan (who was listening in on Jeff and Dominic's conversation) talk about Kalia's sketchy behavior from earlier. Jeff and Brendon decide it's time for a house meeting. "Then we go to war," Jeff vows.
Now that Dominic sees himself as more or less doomed, he... goes back to Brendon and Rachel and Jeff to make a case for how useful he can be. Give it up, dude. Jeff tells Dominic that he was initially cool with keeping him, but after the backdooring came up, not so much. Jeff is still leaning on Dominic to roll over on his co-conspirator, going so far as comparing him to an accessory to murder. Dominic protests that he can't control "her" (still not naming names), and thought Jeff hated him. Jeff wonders how that could be, and when Dominic reminds Jeff he was giving him dirty looks all week, Jeff is all, "Yeah, yeah, I did do that." Heh. Dominic asks if there's nothing he can do. Rachel likes Dominic (because Adam is a total floater, and Rachel hates that kind of people that she doesn't know the definition of), but the talk ends without anything resolved other than Jeff reminding Dominic, "It's not over 'til they say your name." Which they'll be saying shortly.
Kalia decides it's time to check in with the veterans to make sure she's still in the loop with them, but she maybe could have been a little more diplomatic about it. Instead, she ambushes Brendon to guilt him about how she's feeling left out. Brendon goes off on her, calling her a liar who's been playing both sides, and a floater, which is the worst thing he can ever think of to call anyone. Kalia correctly calls him a terrible listener. Brendon keeps talking over her until she gets up saying, "Keep playing the game you're playing. It really worked the first time." Whoa, who let the Zingbot back in? While she's walking away, Brendon makes a crack about doing her dishes, and she turns on him, daring him to keep at it. Well, that went well. Before going inside, she also yells something about spies, and tells everyone else they're being used. After closing the door to the yard, she sarcastically repeats Brendon's words to Jeff, Dominic, and Daniele before storming into a bedroom to seethe.
Jordan repeats the call for a house meeting, and soon everyone's in a very tense kitchen. Jeff and Brendon call Kalia out for being in on the backdooring plan, and she makes an angry but articulate protest about being caught in the middle. Jeff gets that (as well as Dominic's similar situation), and suggests that she and Dominic yell at "someone else" instead of them. Kalia protests, "She's my friend." "And your friend will sell you out under the bus quicker than she can blink an eye. Your friend will stab you in the back and send you out that door and not even vote for you... or shed a tear." Yep, there's Rachel's mouth again. Daniele's sitting right there, you know. Daniele begins her rebuttal by calling Rachel an idiot, which of course Brendon can't allow even if it's true. He also calls Daniele out for letting other people taking the fall for her. Daniele reminds Brendon and Rachel that they were also open to backdooring Jeff and Jordan, which looks like news to the latter two. But nothing comes of that revelation; Jeff is still mostly mad at Daniele, for turning on him after he bucked them all up after Dick's departure. In the DR, Jeff says it's now crucial for him to get rid of Daniele. Daniele vows in the DR to win tomorrow's HoH competition. And Lawon tells everyone in the kitchen that he's playing to win, so "Y'all beter watch out." Terrifying! Look our for Lawon, y'all! He will totally spout nonsensical phrases in the DR while leaning forward for EMPHASIS!
Time for the group Chenterview via the living room viewscreen. Julie asks Kalia how things are now after all the drama. "I think everyone in here is a grown-up," Kalia says, making me realize that everything that comes after that is probably nonsense as well. Brendon agrees with her that things get tense, but there are no hard feelings. Julie turns to Jeff, who claims he plays differently than you're supposed to, without lying and backstabbing. Rather pointes, there. As far as the house meeting, he thought it best to clear the air and get everything out in the open. Julie asks Daniele if she's surprised it's gotten so confrontational this quickly. Daniele says she isn't, and adds that it's nothing personal. I supposed anything's better than playing another season with Dick.
Julie says it's time to start voting, as soon as the nominees plead their case. Adam talks about getting to know everyone and liking them, and tells everyone to do what they have to do, telling Dominic that one of them has to go. Dominic says more or less the same thing, but then adds that some of them are "spineless jellyfish that are really riding on people's backs and you don't have a chance of winning if you're gonna play like that." Hello, Dominic, Jordan is sitting right there. Then he congratulates everyone else, and tells them all, "We all suck at this game," and pretty much says there isn't a game being played at all right now. Nice how the people who know they're going anyway sometimes tell the truth in these things, isn't it?"
Jeff votes first to evict Dominic, adding, "Terrible speech." Jordan's vote is the same, and Kalia fights back tears as she evicts Dominic. Daniele makes a big deal of voting to evict Adam, "Because I'm not afraid to go against the king and the queen." Just do it without bragging about it, then. That's probably the only vote Adam's going to get, so we go to ads on a 3-1 vote.
Brendon and Shelly vote to evict Dominic, so that's already enough for him to go. Lawon, the only remaining Regulator, also votes out Dominic, as does Porsche, proudly calling herself a "jellyfish" while she's at it. As long as we're going with the marine biology theme, I'd say she's more like a remora attached to Rachel.
Julie gets back on the viewscreen to say that Dominic has been evicted by a vote of 7-1. He and Adam hip-bump, and then he hugs everyone on his way out -- even the jellyfish. Porsche brags about her voting speech while Dominic's still there, like she couldn't wait the five seconds until he left. He exits the house to a very enthusiastic greeting from the studio audience. Meanwhile, in the house, Rachel remarks on the lack of any talk about a Golden Key. Adam doesn't seem to have one, does he?
Out in the studio, Julie asks Dominic who the jellyfish he was referring to are, and Dominic says he was referring to the "non-veterans." Julie asks what he was trying to do, and he says he was trying to motivate people and get them on Daniele's side. Julie asks about his feelings for Daniele, seeing how he didn't go out of his way to defend her. Dominic says he didn't want to take the rap, which isn't what Julie really wanted to know -- were his feelings for her real? He says they were. Julie brings up how he threw the Veto competition, and after dissing all the other newbies for going towards the veterans' alliance, he explains he did it so he could join the veterans' alliance. Julie asks if he overplayed, and he admits he did at the beginning. When Julie asks why he targeted Jeff, he says it was because Jordan wouldn't come after him like Brendon and Rachel would have. And his pets and family. He's not wrong about Brendon and Rachel, but has he forgotten about that time Jordan assaulted Russell with her boobs?
Shelly's farewell message is first, saying he got duped by Daniele. She doesn't mention how she tattled on him to the veterans. Daniele says she feels terrible that he's going home because of her. Lawon, the last Regulator in the game, calls them "boys for life," comparing himself to a pimple that Dominic won't be able to get rid of. Lovely. Jeff and Jordan do their farewell message together, and Jordan mocks Rachel, saying, "Nobody comes in between me and my man!" Which cracks up Jeff, Dominic, and herself. Dominic tells Julie he has no regrets, and he gets to stay while Julie gives the houseguest a little bit of news. He even acts like he doesn't already know what it's going to be.
Julie calls everyone back into the living room via the viewscreen, and to the surprise of no one, she tells the remaining ten players that the Golden Key holders are back in the game, and everyone is playing solo from here on out. After signing off but before sending us to the ads, Julie tells us they're about to decide "the most important HoH of the summer." Oh, Julie, they're all important, in their own special way.
Looks like another balance/endurance challenge. Rachel, as outgoing HoH, is sitting this one out, but everyone else is balanced on skis that are sticking out of a wall painted to look like a snowy mountain. Actually, they're just on small platforms with cheesy prop skis sticking out in front of them. It's simple: last person up there wins HoH. The only added wrinkle is that the first five people to fall off have to pick one of the fake snowballs on the nearby tree stump and open it to find either a punishment or reward. All Julie's saying about that is that one of them contains $10,000.
The competition begins, and the ski platforms start swinging from side to side while the houseguests hold onto handholds. After a minute or so, the wall tilts forward, shaking nobody loose. Julie goes to ads as though the HoH is going to be decided before the end of the episode. Which, it may or may not be by the time I'm done writing this.
When we come back, Lawon's looking a little pained, so I think a snowball is in his near future. Julie flogs the upcoming week's worth of shows as always, and says something about how we can "play a role in the game-changing twist." But... wouldn't we have to care?
Everyone's still on their ski platforms, although some of the skis themselves are starting to look a little limp. Julie cues the snow and says goodnight. And Lawon is either about to fall or is concentrating very hard on his happy place.
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.