It's another Head of Household competition that's just too exciting to fit into a live Thursday show, so once again it's spilled over into Sunday. After Aaryn's eviction, and with Elissa as the outgoing HoH, the other six remaining houseguests are racing to collect a dozen eggs from a chicken coop that they can't even reach into with their whole hand. Instead, they have to stick their fingers through holes in chicken wire to manipulate the eggs to where they can get them. In the Diary Room, Spencer expresses his hope that one of his fellow members of the new alliance known as the Exterminators can win it. That would be Spencer himself, Judd, GinaMarie, and Andy. Because why not have a four-person alliance when there are seven people in the house? I suppose that's what it takes to take out two other people.
Elissa is worried about Amanda or McCrae winning and making her a target, because like her sister, she plays every week as though it's its own complete, self-contained game that has no effect on the other weeks. At the same time, Amanda DRs that she's aware of being a huge target along with McCrae, now that two people are enough to comprise an unstoppable voting bloc. So she's hoping that someone in 3AM will win this completion. Well, a) it's 2AM now, and b) Andy's not on your side any more. He says as much in the DR, saying he wants to win and prove his loyalty to the Exterminators. Which would probably reassure GinaMarie, who DRs that she's on her own now that Aaryn's gone.
Flashback to Aaryn's eviction on Thursday night. Amanda DRs that they chose to keep Andy because he's been with them longer and they trust him more, ironically enough. Andy DRs that he's relieved to be off the block, and now everyone but Elissa thinks he's on their side, though he's planning to help get rid of Amanda and McCrae. GinaMarie talks about how hard it was to see Aaryn go, but she had to vote with the house and her alliance. I guess she doesn't have as much leeway as Elissa got last week with her vote to keep Helen.
Immediately after Aaryn's exit but before the beginning of the HoH competition on Thursday, Amanda starts complaining about the group Chenterview that just went down, which according to Amanda has just established the narrative that the taunting between Amanda and Elissa was one-way. No, Amanda, you established that. But she's trying to make the case that Elissa making an oblique comment that could have been interpreted as claiming to have thrown the competition is just as bad as Amanda going on at length about Elissa's creepy-ass clown face. Amanda seems like she'll retaliate for a simple bitch-slap by sodomizing you with a bazooka and call it even. But she delivers a fake, passive-aggressive apology, so I'm sure it won't come up again.
Back at the HoH competition, GinaMarie, Andy, Spencer, and Judd each get their first eggs, in that order. Amanda drops a raw egg, then McCrae, then Judd, then Spencer, while GinaMarie is still killing it. Amanda and McCrae finally make it into the board. McCrae's hair keeps getting in his face when he's got his hands full, but Andy DRs that since he grew up with both chicks and rabbits, he's the "front-hopper." At least he's mortified to have said that. GinaMarie is expanding her lead, while Judd and Spencer are just racing not to come in last and end up in the chicken suit for two days.
Eventually GinaMarie collects her tenth egg, two ahead of Andy, which Elissa still manages to be worried about after having nominated Andy last week. But GinaMarie is unstoppable, and soon succeeds in liberating her twelfth and final egg. That's her second HoH of the season, which she celebrates with Nick's hat. You know, she knew that guy for a fraction of the time he's been gone at this point. Spencer and Judd were tied for last, so they'll both be wearing chicken suits. Amanda keeps it classy, saying GinaMarie's over-the-top victory celebration is a little incongruous given that her best friend just left. But then she goes over and hugs her anyway, saying she can now avenge Aaryn on Elissa. Yeah, the house has already moved on from that, Amanda. That's the downside of running everything: eventually you get blamed for everything.
As soon as everyone's back in the house, Amanda gets right to work talking to GinaMarie about how excited Aaryn will be after GinaMarie evicts Elissa. GinaMarie, however, tells us in the DR that she's nobody's puppet, unlike Aaryn. "I might be blonde and I might be cute, but my name isn't Aaryn, it's GinaMarie," she says. You forgot racist.
So GinaMarie celebrates with Spencer and Judd and Andy in the storage room. Exterminators represent. A bit later, Amanda predicts to McCrae and Spencer that GinaMarie will nominate Elissa and maybe Judd. "Don't push for that," McCrae advises, like Amanda's capable of not pushing. Meanwhile, Andy and Judd are bucking GinaMarie up to nominate Amanda and McCrae, not that she needs it. Spencer fake-speculates that GinaMarie might nominate Elissa and himself, which Amanda doesn't see happening, and isn't worried about it anyway because why would that worry her? She promises to be up GinaMarie's ass all week, and says that Elissa's going to be trying to do the same. Which Elissa is, confirming that GinaMarie will indeed nominate both Amanda and McCrae.
In the middle of some shit-shooting, Spencer and Judd are called to the DR to be outfitted in their chicken suits. Which are the cheapest-ass things you can imagine, basically consisting of red pants, chicken-head hats, and yellow shag ponchos. Chicken George wore a better chicken suit. There's some clowning around in the chicken suits for several minutes, which is several minutes longer than it's funny.
As promised, Amanda is up GinaMarie's ass, asking her what she's planning to do for nominations. GinaMarie says she's obviously going to nominate Elissa, but claims to be torn on the second nominee, not ruling out Amanda or McCrae. Amanda advises GinaMarie to make the second nominee somebody who won't piss anyone else off. Which Amanda claims her or McCrae's departure would. GinaMarie DRs that sure, she'll follow Amanda's advice, but the people who everyone wants gone are now Amanda and McCrae. She would be relishing the irony if she knew what irony was.
GinaMarie lets everyone into her HoH room, and her pictures of loved ones include one of Nick. Oh, stop encouraging her, producers. Amanda seethes silently while GinaMarie and Elissa excitedly go through all the HoH goodies.
Later, Elissa complains to Spencer and Andy about Amanda's behavior, all the way up until Amanda enters the room and tells Elissa she's going to be nominated tomorrow. Once again, Elissa can't stop herself from laughing, but at least Spencer and Andy are remaining stone-faced so as not to give it away. Out of nowhere, Elissa starts complimenting Jessie just to annoy Amanda, which totally works. Because everything annoys Amanda, especially when Elissa does it. "You're laughing alone," Amanda keeps telling her. Eventually she succeeds in clearing the room entirely. Winning hearts and minds.
Afterwards, both Spencer and McCrae are telling Amanda that she needs to dial it back, but Amanda doesn't care because of how Elissa will be nominated tomorrow (she is convinced). After Spencer wanders off, McCrae advises Amanda to let Elissa give her shit in front of GinaMarie, which will make Elissa look worse than Amanda. Yes, and if gravity reverses itself we can all go to Mars. Amanda says Elissa is probably outside bitching about her right now, which is in fact the case. Andy give Elissa the same advice that McCrae gave Amanda, not to rise to the bait. Elissa hotly points out that she was in the room with Spencer and Andy when Amanda walked over. Yes, after overhearing you bitch about her, Elissa. Neither of you is innocent here. Inside, Amanda's crying about how mean and evil Elissa is. Which is either disingenuous, narcissistic, or radically amnesiac.
So to demonstrate her new attitude as advised by McCrae, Amanda goes and barges in on Elissa and says, "I don't want to fight with you but I feel like you're antagonizing me. Do you not see that?" Yeah, she sucks at not fighting. Elissa ignores her and walks past her out of the room, so Amanda starts right in again. Then she comes out and tells the others about how Elissa antagonized her by walking away when Amanda accused her of antagonizing her. Judd deploys his usual genius, suggesting Amanda make her a friendship bracelet. Amanda's starting to get teary again, and says she feels like she's in high school. "Were you a megabitch in high school?" Spencer snarks. I have to assume that was spliced in from a later comment, because otherwise Amanda would have reacted to it somehow. GinaMarie comes out and has to listen to Amanda cry about how she's not mean and not used to having people be mean to her. So I guess Amanda isn't counting the times she was mean to Elissa because a small part of that was just an act, then? You know, just because your plan to keep Andy off the block by shitting in Elissa's face didn't keep Andy off the block, the other part of it worked like a charm. And everyone saw it.
While everyone is sequestered up in the HoH room, the entire ground floor of the house is filled with up to shoulder-depth with giant balloons. Well, elbow-depth on Spencer and scalp-depth on GinaMarie. This is all in service of a "luxury competition," except a luxury competition is usually for something lame for the house like a theme party or being forced to watch some shitty fourth-tier movie with an August release date, but this is for a single prize of $10,000, which you can't even spend in the house. All they have to do is be the first person to find three chips inside the balloons: a 1, a zero, and a K. Amanda DRs that ten grand is like McCrae's gross annual income. The houseguests start popping balloons, which makes it sound like there's a gun battle going on in the house. If only. Spencer's the first one to find all three chips, so he ends up ten thousand dollars richer. So then everyone has to get rid of the rest of the balloons, and the confetti inside them. Which is quite an undertaking, even armed with pins. "Who is this a luxury for besides Spencer?" Amanda DRs quite reasonably. Worst luxury competition ever.
Later, Judd is still in his chicken suit up on the HoH room with GinaMarie. Amanda sticks her head in and is asked to come back in a few minutes. GinaMarie is basically just pretending she's having the usual meetings when she knows damn well what she's going to do. Amanda returns and gives her pitch for the nominations, starting with a "joke" about how everyone will be enraged if GinaMarie doesn't nominate Elissa. GinaMarie doesn't laugh, which should be a huge red flag because GinaMarie laughs at everything. But Amanda pushes on with her spiel about how Elissa and Judd are the safest move, adding that Elissa evicted Nick and Aaryn.
Amanda seems satisfied with GinaMarie's receptive act, and then goes down to tell Andy that she's on board. Andy DRs that Amanda and McCrae will be totally blindsided -- unless of course Andy himself is, which he is wise not to rule out. Amanda encounters Judd and lets him complain about the discomfort of the chicken suit for about fifteen seconds before interrupting him in midsentence to ask his predictions for the nominees. He plays the part, saying he thinks it'll be himself and Elissa but isn't sure. Amanda claims to be just as in the dark as he's pretending to be, even though she thinks she knows what's going to happen when she knows less about it than anyone save McCrae.
Before the nominations, McCrae and Amanda are both feeling pretty good about their chances. "I feel safe," Amanda DRs. "And happy. And glorious. And triumphant." And asking for trouble. Spencer says you never know what's going to happen, but he's just shitting us the way he's been shitting Amanda since the HoH competition. GinaMarie says she's the only one who has the balls to pull off "the most biggest eviction yet." And the grammar for it, too.
The houseguests gather around the table, with Spencer and Judd still in their big yellow chicken suits. And there are a lot of smiles around that table. GinaMarie pulls Andy's key, Andy pulls Spencer's, Spencer pulls Elissa's and Elissa pulls Judd's. Amanda looks like the floor just dropped out from under her. As for McCrae, he just looks extra sleepy. GinaMarie stumbles over her nomination speech, unable to pronounce the word "dynamic" even when Judd of all people helps her out, but she manages to communicate that until now, nobody has had the balls to take them on. She tells McCrae he had a lot more fire at the beginning of the summer, and Amanda that she's crazy, but that's why she loves her.
In the DR, Elissa is no less insufferable than Amanda as she gloats about her reaction. Elissa is also a lot more orange, for some reason, suddenly. Amanda DRs that she doesn't get it, and "it kills me that GinaMarie, who had no brain, is gonna be the girl that gets me out of this house." McCrae sniffles that one of them is going home no matter what, so this is the end of their game together. Well, there's always the Veto, but he seems to have realized that even of one of them wins it the other will still be out. So it looks like a good time for the two of them to cry and lie in bed together. The only thing missing from the scene is freezing cold seawater flooding in across the floor.
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.