After a flashback to Kaitlin's eviction on Thursday night, Day 35, Aaryn Diary Rooms about how she's so proud of herself for getting everyone on her side. Of course she's taking the credit. Helen DRs that she hopes she didn't make a deal with the Devil, which obviously she did. Elissa tells us that this wasn't what she wanted, but went along with the hose, as did Howard. Andy remarks that Kaitlin may have broken a speed record getting out of the house, but she doesn't seem to have broken Andy's heart in the process.
Then we flash back to Aaryn's win of this week's Head of Household, which obviously she's pretty happy about. And so is GinaMarie, who appears to have made up with Aaryn again. Nothing patches up a friendship in the Big Brother house like one of the parties winning HoH. Elissa is speechless in the DR, which, if only that were true. Helen reminds us of the deal Aaryn made with her, whereby if Aaryn got to stay and won HoH she would let Helen and her alliance pick her nominees. We even flash back to two nights before the eviction, in which Helen made Aaryn agree to nominate Howard and Spencer if she won. Candice DRs about how this all makes her want to throw up.
Back in the house after Aaryn's big win, Jessie acts all excited on her behalf because she knows what side the house is buttered on right now. Meanwhile, in the Have-Not room, Candice frets to Howard that Aaryn is likely to nominate herself and Elissa. She just found out about the deal from Jessie the night before eviction, but she has apparent doubts about whether Aaryn will stick to it. She relays this news to Howard and makes him promise not to tell Spencer. I suspect Howard will tell Spencer.
Speaking of Spencer, he's already picking Aaryn's brain before she's even moved into the HoH room. She's playing it cagey, saying she has to wait until she hears from everyone else. With GinaMarie unpacking her stuff right to her, Aaryn says that she's got no alliance anymore and is thus at the mercy of the house. This isn't what Spencer is trying to hear, though.
Helen takes Aaryn into the storage room to congratulate her and tell her that Candice has heard about the deal. Which we see Candice confronting Helen about in the bathroom minutes before Thursday's live show, and warning Helen not to let Aaryn nominate her or Howard. "She's gonna flip when Howard goes up," Helen tells Aaryn, who agrees to take the heat. Which of course she can handle because she can just go all mocking-chickenhead on Candice and flip her bed over again if it comes up. They assume Elissa was the one who told Candice, which is reasonable since Elissa told Kaitlin. Helen's running out of patience with Elissa, saying that the people in on the deal minus Elissa need to get together. Aaryn points out that would be enough people to send Elissa home. Too soon? Nope, all Helen is willing to do is wash her hands of it. Wow, do not piss of Helen.
Aaryn finds Elissa and Candice whispering over the stove in the kitchen, only to see them fall silent when she enters. While Aaryn lingers in the room, Elissa freezes as though her has brain totally shut down, like a cat being picked up by the scruff. Of course this makes everyone in the room and the entire viewing audience completely uncomfortable, and for once I agree with Aaryn when she DRs that everyone knows she and Elissa are enemies; there's no reason to make it weirder than it has to be.
Aaryn comes out of the Diary Room with the traditional cry of "Who wants to see my HoH room?" But she's met by non-traditional silence. The whole house appears to be abandoned, but only because everyone's hiding up on the mezzanine level to surprise her when she comes up. Good job trying to make this ritual interesting, guys, even if it failed. She lets them in, and all her stuff is back -- including her stuffed clown.
Amanda participates in a DR bit in which she runs down the perks of Aaryn's HoH room while someone off-camera sneaks the stuffed clown into the shot to her, striking her into a fake panic. The clown itself even sits on the back of the DR couch while someone (Amanda, it turns out) manipulates it like a puppet as it squeaks, "You tried to evict me, now you're all going down, bitches!" Giving her HoH room tour, Aaryn accidentally says "axed" when she means "asked" and blames it on Candice, the speech therapist. That goes over about as well as you might imagine.
Helen has a whispered conference with Judd, Amanda, and McCrae about Candice learning about the deal with Aaryn. She still assumes it was Elissa, and like her, the others have no reason to think otherwise. They conclude that Elissa will have to go. So Elissa may end up being evicted for something Jessie did, but only in the sense that Jessie did something that Elissa totally would have done.
Amanda and McCrae soak in the HoH tub. They talk about Amanda's mom's likely reaction to her new pizza guy boyfriend, but Amanda says she'll have to deal with it because she loves McCrae. Yes, they love each other. They said it and everything. And then they kiss in the water, until McCrae farts and makes bubbles. It's obvious why Amanda's so smitten.
Spencer visits Aaryn again, pushing her to admit that he's obviously a target this week and asking her for the opportunity to defend himself. This should go well. Spencer claims that he wouldn't have nominated Aaryn this week if he'd won HoH, which is pretty easy to say, and Aaryn says he wouldn't have had a choice. Spencer says insists that there's an opportunity for a power shift, but Aaryn explains that she's only here because of certain deals she had to make. Spencer reminds her that a deal with the others is no good, because of how that turned out for Kaitlin, and hints that she might be able to find a better deal. "I ain't mad at you," he says as he leaves the room. "Yet." Dale Carnegie, ladies and gentlemen.
The teams scramble lamely to put their stuff back. Orange hits the buzzer first, but they've got two items out of place. After McCrae and Aaryn switch them, they're still the first to hit their buzzer and get everything right. Green and Purple continue struggling, and when Green hits their button the indicator tells them they have six wrong. Purple is only two off, so they're the to get their stuff sorted and finish up. That means Judd, Candice (for the third time), Amanda, and GinaMarie (for the first time) are Have-Nots. Big drop for Judd this week, from the HoH room to Departure Lounge Hell.
Filler segment about Elissa doing yoga all over the house, including one session in the HoH room while encased in plastic wrap. "I feel like I'm watching Cirque du Soleil: Sandwich Edition," Amanda cracks. I would totally watch that if it came with sandwiches.
Candice talks to Howard about her suspicion that Aaryn plans to nominate him and Spencer. Howard urges her to make a move to forestall this, and Candice allows that nobody would ever suspect her of working with Aaryn. Which is true, because that would be crazypants. Candice thinks out loud that she could maybe convince Aaryn to nominate Amanda and McCrae instead. "There you go," Howard says, because that would work out great for him.
Early the morning, Candice does make her approach to Aaryn while everyone else is still asleep. Aaryn says that she has to make the house happy or else she's just going back up on the block week, and while she claims she doesn't want to nominate Howard, she says a lot of people are "upset with" him. Candice isn't impressed with this argument, and advises Aaryn to break up Amanda and McCrae lest they run the game for the duration. But Aaryn credits Amanda for keeping her safe, which Candice tries to shoot down. Aaryn DRs that she immediately closes off whenever Candice talks to her (except for all the times Candice the speech therapist has supposedly said "axed," apparently), so this was all pretty futile.
Candice reports to Howard that she got nowhere with Aaryn, and that the very attempt is probably enough to get herself nominated. Howard asks her if this is his fault for encouraging her to try to "help change the house" (and save your ass, Howard, don't forget that part), and Candice doesn't disagree. "I don't care anymore. Have a great life." She's about as shut down with him as Aaryn was with her earlier, and after trying to patch it up with her, he eventually gives it up as a bad job. Yeah, this is what happens when you send your girlfriend to do your dirty work. I might even feel bad for him if he weren't also in a secret alliance that she isn't.
Later, Aaryn's holding a nomination conference in her HoH room with Andy, GinaMarie, and Jessie, with Andy pushing for Howard's eviction. Andy tries to calm Aaryn's fears about Elissa coming after her, and insists that Howard and Spencer are schemers. Can't have those in the Big Brother house. Jessie offers Aaryn her support in whatever she wants, reminding her that the alliance Aaryn's working for has kept her safe as well. All Aaryn knows is that she's not anyone's primary target right now, but if she doesn't follow the house's wishes she'll be back on the block week anyway.
For nomination day, Aaryn is wearing Judd's famous grizzly bear shirt. She VOs about how nominations are extra hard for her this week. Not as hard as they'll be for the nominees, probably. She convenes the nomination ceremony and starts pulling keys. So here's who's safe: GinaMarie, Jessie, Andy, Elissa, Candice, Helen, McCrae, Amanda, and Judd. So the nominees are Howard and Spencer, meaning all of the last hour's machinations were for naught.
Aaryn tells them that it's nothing personal, "It's just what's best for my game." Howard says it's up to God, "And he ain't told me it's time to go home yet." Does Howard seriously think He's watching this crap? Elissa is shocked not to have been nominated, and Spencer says he suspects Aaryn of being a puppet. This week, yes. Helen is happy that Aaryn stuck to her word, but she's still a bit worried about the MVP. Yes, I recall how that used to have an effect on the house when the MVP was still inside it.
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.