Wisely, Julie doesn't even bother to try convincing us that the results of tonight's eviction vote between Spencer and Amanda are in doubt. But there's also going to be a second eviction tonight, so at the very least we can probably expect some PTSD flashbacks from Judd. Then she welcomes us to the five hundredth episode of the show. It certainly feels like the five hundredth episode. Of this season.
Previouslies, credits, and a flashback to yesterday's Veto meeting, in which McCrae Vetoed himself, and GinaMarie made Spencer the replacement nominee, a position for which Spencer volunteered. Amanda DRs that she thinks GinaMarie's targeting of her is personal. How's the weather out there on that limb, Amanda? After the Veto meeting, GinaMarie says that yes, she's breaking them up because they're too powerful, but Amanda maintains that GinaMarie is motivated by jealousy. "One hundred percent," Amanda insists, which is what she usually says when she's wrong about something. The other houseguests listen gleefully while GinaMarie wastes her breath trying to defend her moves to Amanda.
Still, Amanda's not ready to give up. In fact, she's desperate enough to approach Elissa to ask for her vote. She offers her own allegiance to Elissa as well as McCrae's, and also Andy's -- which of course isn't hers to offer any more (not that Elissa is aware of that). Amanda says that Elissa is the big target after Amanda's departure, so it might be to her advantage to forestall that departure. To her credit, Amanda seems to realize it's a long shot. "I have tortured her a lot lately," she realizes belatedly in the DR. "A lot." Which is a big part of the reason you're here now, Sunshine.
But Elissa tells us in the DR that Amanda got through to her. In fact, Elissa later tells Amanda that she trusts her more than she trusts GinaMarie and Spencer. I guess it is true that Amanda never lied to Elissa when she was going on about how much she hated her. They're at the stage where they're discussing collateral (Elissa offers Amanda her wedding ring) and going to the final four with McCrae and Andy. But then Andy wanders in, and Elissa invites him in on it. Andy looks frankly stunned, if not horrified, because this means he's going to have to publicly pick a side. Which is his least favorite thing to do. He leaves them to work out the terms, which should be a sign to Amanda and Elissa that he's off to go tattle to someone else. Amanda just thinks that Andy's reaction is that of one who had given in to despair but now sees a glimmer of hope. It's a glimmer of something, all right. I'm feeling a glimmer of nausea at watching these two ex-archenemies hug each other, to be honest.
Later, Amanda tells McCrae about her conversation with Elissa, and McCrae's primary response is to advise Amanda not to get her hopes up. He's certainly leading by example on that score.
And later still, Andy reports to Judd and Spencer that Elissa has decided to keep Amanda, for reasons unknown to Andy. He says that Spencer will stay because Andy and Judd will vote to keep him (and GinaMarie will break the tie in Spencer's favor), but Andy says they'll need to convince everyone that Elissa voted to keep Spencer and he voted to keep Amanda. I'm not sure how invested in covering Andy's ass Spencer and Judd are right now, especially now that Spencer is second-guessing his decision to volunteer as the replacement nominee.
Meanwhile, Amanda and McCrae are in bed talking about their prospects for success. McCrae is more worried about Andy screwing them than Elissa, but Amanda is entirely confident in that one. And inaccurately so.
Back in the studio, Julie gets on the viewscreen and tells them they're in the 500th episode, and to celebrate it, they'll be holding a double eviction. "And there's absolutely no time to waste," she adds, after breaking the news as slowly as possible. She turns to tonight's nominees Amanda and Spencer, who were also nominated during the last double eviction and watched Candice leave the house instead. Spencer delivers a greeting card of a nomination speech, casually asking the houseguests to keep him. Amanda claims to love them all and says that she could help people's games if she stays. So it's time to find out.
Judd is the first to vote, and of course his vote is to get rid of Amanda. McCrae obviously votes to evict Spencer, so it's up to Elissa, who also votes to evict Spencer. Wow, I didn't think she'd actually go through with it, but clearly I've underestimated her stupidity yet again. Andy sticks with the Exterminators and votes to evict Amanda, so it's the first tied vote of the summer. After Julie tells us this, she gets back on the viewscreen and tells the houseguests. Amanda starts staring daggers at the side of the room where Andy and Elissa are sitting, and Julie tells GinaMarie that she'll need to cast the tiebreaking vote. It's not terribly suspenseful when GinaMarie puts on Nick's stupid hat and tells Amanda that it's not personal but "Get to steppin'." Amanda hugs everyone but GinaMarie, beginning and ending with McCrae, and on her way out the door, she tells Andy, "I thought I could trust you."
Before either Spencer or Andy has even found their first bone, McCrae finds his second bone, retrieves his key, and wins the mini-HoH. So the nominations should be interesting. And soon. As Julie throws it to the break, the first person McCrae holes up with is GinaMarie, soon to be joined by Elissa. Yes, there are only two women left in the house, so I think the gender proportions have actually reversed since mid-July. And I thought the women would do so well this year.
After the ads, Julie summons everyone to the living room, with McCrae and Judd the last to show up. McCrae nominates GinaMarie and Elissa, so I guess Andy convinced him that he stayed loyal. PoV competition coming up, and with six players left, everyone gets a piece of it.
When we come back, they're all in position at one of those maze-race games, this one called the BB 500 in honor of the 500th episode. Each player will race to move their car through the labyrinthine slots leading from one end of a long, boomerang-shaped table to the other, and the first one done wins PoV. They get right to it, and between the camera angles and the potential need for backtracking, it's hard to tell who's in the lead, though Andy soon appears to be the farthest along. But then Judd pulls ahead at the end and winds up winning, so I wouldn't count on the nominations changing any time soon. Which is the only time they can change, so they are unlikely to change at all.
We come back from the ads amid what looks like multiple recriminations inside the house. Not that we can hear much between the bleeps except all the Exterminators ganging up on Elissa, the only non-Exterminator who is not currently HoH. Julie calls them back to the living room for the Veto ceremony and gives the nominees a chance to make their case. Elissa starts, telling Judd that he had no idea about Judd's being backdoored last month. Wasn't that all supposed to be cleaned from the slate? She also reminds Judd about a deal they had to keep her safe, but GinaMarie plays it cooler, saying she didn't know about the plan to backdoor Judd either. Because she doesn't know anything, so that's actually a fairly convincing point. Judd declines to use the Veto, so no matter what, there's going to be one woman left in the house with four guys after this. Envy her.
Tonight's second eviction vote is coming up, but first we have to go through the pointless exercise of nominee speeches for the second time in what feels like as many minutes. Elissa tells Judd she never lied to him, Spencer that she hasn't nominated him since an early MVP week before she knew him, and Andy that she didn't lie to him either. She also tells everyone that GinaMarie has more votes in the jury house than she does. That last part is true, at least. GinaMarie boasts about her loyalty with a lot of unnecessary words, and then it's time for the vote. Which is going to be cast by three Exterminators, so GinaMarie is probably safe.
As Spencer heads into the DR, Julie remarks, "This is one of the rare occasions that Spencer is not nominated and gets to vote," though she doesn't realize it's funny until the audience laughs. Unsurprisingly, all three of them happily vote to evict Elissa. She gets up before Julie's done breaking the news, and then Julie has to call her back to the front door when she tries to run back for her bag. Her exit is a bitter, hug-free affair, and then it's time for her exit Chenterview.
She's quite shiny-faced in the studio as Julie asks her if there's anything she could have done to stay. Elissa says she thought McCrae would vote to keep Amanda, which means she thinks Andy stuck with her instead. Now, Julie isn't supposed to be giving any of the jurors any clues about what went on in there, but her incredulity that Elissa's stupid enough to think McCrae flipped instead of Andy is impossible to conceal. Speaking of Amanda, Julie asks her how hard it was to move past Amanda's tormenting of her the last couple of weeks for their last-minute, abortive alliance, and Elissa says she was trying to make a strategic decision. Well, that clearly didn't work out.
Julie points out that Elissa's sister only made it to week five on her first try, and here it is week ten. She refrains from mentioning that the only reason Rachel won on her second try was because the game was manipulated in her favor. Yes, I said it. Julie asks whether Rachel had given Elissa "any helpful advice." I appreciate the phrasing of that question. Because we all know that Rachel gave advice; the issue is whether it was helpful. Elissa says Rachel advised her to play with her heart and not her emotions, so the answer to that question is a resounding no.
And that's it for tonight. The HoH competition happens Sunday. There'll be another eviction on Wednesday determining the final four, and yet another Thursday, leaving us with a final three. We get to "eavesdrop" on the houseguests, as much as possible given that 90 percent of the audio is bleeped out. Are we actually approaching the end of this death march? I guess we'll see after another 500 episodes.
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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