Willie (from Britney's team) nominated Kara (from Dan's team) and Frank (from Mike Boogie's team) for eviction on Sunday, and it took three minutes of this episode to get to that point. Coming back to Day 5, Willie DRs that he nominated the two strongest players on the teams that he thinks have the two strongest coaches. Mike says lying in the Big Brother house happens -- but you're not supposed to lie to Mike. It will later turn out that they're both wrong.
Post-nominations, Dan goes to Kara to try to buck her up. "You know who your coach is, right?" he reminds her. Yes, that's exactly what worries her.
Meanwhile, Janelle and Britney celebrate with members of their teams in the HoH room, and Janelle talks about Mike's ego, which it's hard to disagree with. And in the Have-Not room, Mike gives Frank advice on how to get through this week on the block, assuming that Kara's going to cry like all early-nominated girls do, allowing Frank to skate through. Because Mike Boogie's years of success in this game are so intertwined with how his understanding of female psychology rivals that of your average stand-up comedian. Jenn sits in on the meeting, "grateful to hear all this great advice from Boogs." "Boogs?"
The other nominee, Frank, has a private convo with Willie in the game room, and Willie confesses that the reason he went back on his deal with Frank is because of the whole Mike Boogie thing. The two of them share concerns about the coaches playing for themselves, and Frank tells Willie that his best hope in the house is not Mike, but Willie. Of course he wants Willie to think he believes that. Also, Frank might be right. Willie reassures Frank, but tells us in the DR that his real target is Mike. That talk could have gone worse.
Janelle and Britney talk in the bathroom about whether it's better for Frank or Kara to go home this week, then gloat about how things fell into place for them, allowing them to turn their whole half of the house against Dan and Mike without their having to do anything at all, other than not be Dan or Mike.
Speaking of those two, Dan talks to Mike about how the two of them are essentially having to compete against each other this week. And then they talk about how embarrassing it would be for those two "winners" to get beaten by the two girls, who Mike calls "Also-rans." I'm sorry, Mike, how many tries did it take you to win this? Mike DRs that he's going to make sure that his defeat is not going to happen. What can I do to make sure it does?
In case we haven't established that Ian is a weirdo, he demonstrates to the bored houseguests in the backyard one evening that he has the ability to kick himself in the face. Which he does, repeatedly. Mike laments in the DR about how he went from being in an alliance with Dr. Will to being in an alliance with a young man who can kick himself in the face. "America? Please kick me in the face." Wait, so that hasn't happened already? Mike just looks like that naturally?
Time to pick the players in the first Power of Veto competition of the season. Dan explains to us in the DR how it works, which we already know. HoH Willie and nominees Frank and Kara are automatically playing, and they each get to randomly draw one other player. Willie draws Danielle's name (which is good for her teammate Kara), Kara draws Shane (who isn't likely to go against his alliance, one would think), and Frank draws Wil (see Shane, ). Jojo is chosen as the host for the competition. Mike tells us how this isn't good for him, because it's all about Mike.
Kara takes Shane into the Have-Not room to ask him to save her if he wins. He agrees to do his best, even though he tells us in the DR that he's not even sure that's what he wants to do, and he might not end up being expected to anyway. But Shane's realizing that he can get some pretty good bargains on this vaporware he suddenly finds himself peddling.
So Shane's conversation is with the other nominee, Frank. They talk privately in the store room about how they're both targets, being such spectacular physical specimens and all. Shane talks about wanting to make a deal with Frank. Overplaying much?
With the PoV already stacked against him, Mike decides it's time to have a talk with Britney. She does a sarcastic DR about how nice Mike is to grace him with her presence on day six. He tries to draw her out by suggesting Joe be put up as a replacement nominee. Joe is of course on Janelle's team, as Mike well knows; he's just trying to flush out a sign that Britney and Janelle are actually teamed up, as he suspects. Britney denies that a) she's got any control over anybody anyway, and b) that there's an alliance with Janelle. Mike says that if one of Janelle's nominees doesn't go up as a replacement alliance, he'll know what kind of game is being played, and it'll mean a line's been drawn in the sand. Or, since we're talking about Mike, the cat-box filler. Britney sees right through Mike's friendly little ultimatum and DRs, "I thought he was supposed to be good at this game?" And why would you think that, Brit?
Britney reports back to Janelle, who DRs about Mike's standard strategy of intimidating women in this game. And she would know. Indeed, Britney promises to make sure that strategy blows up in Mike's face, vowing to spread around every shady thing he does. Good thing Britney seems to be a tireless talker.
Mike, seeing that Britney isn't playing along with his little power move (which, in order to work, generally require some form of, you know, power), decides to go to Janelle and make an alliance with her. Because of their warm, mutually respectful history together, I suppose. He points out that if they get rid of Kara this week, Dan will be dead in the water, just one player away from being completely out of the game. Which means the three of them -- Mike, Janelle, and Britney -- will each have a one-in-three chance of winning the coaches' prize of a hundred grand. Janelle pretends to be interested, and doesn't even have to try that hard to convince Mike that he's being an evil genius. But of course she DRs about what a jerk Mike is, and then goes right to Dan to tell him about Mike offering to sell Dan out. "You never turn your back on a Renegade, because you're gonna get stabbed, Mike," Dan DRs.
Time-killing filler consists of Jojo and Danielle trying to teach each other extreme examples of their own accents while Shane looks on. Now I feel like I have a much better sense of the fifteen people milling around this cruddy little hive.
Later, Jojo calls all the players out to the PoV competition, which has a laundry theme. Ashley dreamily DRs about how much she loves laundry. If nothing else, she always seems to have a positive attitude. The six PoV players will have to hunt through a bubble-covered back yard, racing to be the first to collects large fake coins totaling $1.30 in value. Jojo says go, and the players start diving through fake laundry machines to find coins hidden under the mountains of soap suds. The tricky part seems to be less finding the coins but tossing them into the slot from behind the line. Especially for Kara and Danielle and Wil. Shane, however, seems to have a commanding lead. But then Frank finds a stack of dollar coins, BUT he misses all of them. Willie raids Frank's hidden stash and scores a dollar in his machine. Frank does as well, so it's looking like a three-way race between Frank, Willie, and Shane. But the win goes to Shane, who seems pretty happy about it in the DR. He doesn't seem to fully appreciate that he's going to be pissing off somebody, no matter what.
America's Vote this week is on what alliterative but mismatched pair of food items will join slop on the Have-Not's menu for week. Really, do we have to?
Back in the HoH room, members of the Blonde Bloc celebrate their victory and Frank's sucky aim. Britney advises Shane to listen to the offers and deals and advice from everyone who comes to him, and then not use the Veto. Shane DRs that it's up to him, not her. And then he ends up going to Kara and Dan in the Have Not to talk to them. Dan points out that Kara and Danielle are the least threatening to Shane, both in terms of direct competition or as suspected allies. He's right about that. Frank then approaches Shane in the store room, again, saying his side of the house is sinking and offering to jump ship. Shane makes no promises.
Early the morning (actually 8:00 AM), Shane comes outside to find Mike already up and circling the yard for his morning jog. Mike sits down for a talk with Shane, who says he knows he's going up week no matter what. "Not if one of my people win," Mike says, and claims he's got control over his people. Shane says Mike makes some good points. Mike does seem to have an ability to say things that convince idiots. Concurrently, I'm beginning to see that Shane's hair may be a barometer for how dumb he's being at any given moment. Right now it's very tall, so make of that what you will.
On the day of the Veto ceremony, Shane talks about how his alliance doesn't want him to change the nominations, but he figures that if he does something to help his game in the short term, his allies would get over it. Because that's always a major strength of Big Brother players, getting over perceived or actual slights in a timely manner.
Shane calls the Veto meeting and lets Kara be the first to make her case to use the Veto on her. She makes a lame speech about how she's shy but is opening up to people, and also that Shane looks really good today. Frank just says that if Shane saves him, "Appreesh." There's a ripple of pity-chuckle, and then Shane says he's not using the Veto, advising them to rally their votes. Well, thanks for jerking everyone around, Shane.
Kara DRs that she wants to stay in the house, and Frank says he'll need to campaign against her. Dan DRs that Mike has proven untrustworthy. Yeah, Dan, most of us got that memo about a decade ago. And Mike, again taking credit for winning All-Stars as opposed to Dan beating "a bunch of amateurs," smugly boasts that Kara's going to be "sashaying out that door." But if she doesn't, that of course won't be Mike's fault in any way.
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.