Julie's back in the studio for the second night in a row, promising round two of McCrae vs. the Exterminators up . But round two of how many? Then the previouslies make the Exterminators seem like some unstoppable juggernaut, crediting them with the exits of Aaryn, Amanda and Elissa, "three of the biggest players in the game!" Learn to count, previouslies.
After those and the credits, Julie tells us how tonight is going to go in terms of the story beats; it's still just a question of who's going to get beat. We flash back to Judd's exit last night, and GinaMarie Diary Rooms that she's bummed about Judd's exit but glad to be in the final four. McCrae DRs that he voted Judd out because the others wanted it, but he now suspects that that all three of the other people in the house might be working together. You think? Spencer has mixed emotions, saying he's glad three of the remaining four players are in his alliance but it should have been McCrae leaving instead of Judd. Andy calls Judd's exit "excruciating," but brightsides that he trusts GinaMarie a little more and is a step closer to the money. "Which is all I really care about at this point." Good. Stop crying then. Actually he's two steps closer, because he won HoH last night and is guaranteed to be in the final three. Spencer is confident in the DR, and so is GinaMarie. Now all their hopes rest on McCrae not winning the Veto. Again.
Inside after the competition, as soon as McCrae leaves the room the other three vow fervently that he isn't going to win the Veto. Andy runs through the scenarios with them, and the only one they hate is the one where McCrae wins again, and then it's entirely up to him whether Spencer or GinaMarie goes out. So obviously they all want to avoid that.
We fast-forward to the nominations, which Andy says is all about nominating McCrae and not pissing off the wrong other person, but he knows the Veto is the real power this time around. He calls the other three in for the nomination ceremony and brings in the key box with its one key. Which turns out to be GinaMarie's. Spencer's record of most nominations is getting harder and harder to beat for future players. Andy tells them all to play hard in the Veto, which they all know is what counts. Did you know the Veto is what counts? Because the Veto is what counts. Spencer DRs that he knows that Andy had to nominate either himself or GinaMarie against McCrae, but now he's suspecting that Andy and GinaMarie have something going on that he doesn't know about. Well, even if there were, there's not much he can do about it.
Time to check in at the jury house. Overdue, even, one might say. Two weeks ago, Helen and Jessie and Candice are hanging out drinking tea, while Helen is making her own memory wall and exercising and generally pulling herself back together. Aaryn shows up, and they're all happy to see she won't win, though Helen's even happier to hear that it was Elissa's doing. As she sits down, Aaryn starts by apologizing for her "insensitive and ignorant" things and offers to start over with them. Nice try. Good luck with that.
A week later, Jessie predicts that the juror will be Andy, because she's always wrong. But of course it's Amanda, which makes Jessie's day. She tells them about how GinaMarie won HoH and blindsided her, and then she won over Elissa to her side, and GinaMarie broke the tie to evict Amanda. "By the way, America hates me," she tells them. Aaryn hears that, because America hates her even more. Amanda also tells them about the farewell messages and her shock that Andy is allied with Spencer, GinaMarie, and Judd in the Exterminators. Aaryn and her clean slate go all "I told you so" with Amanda as she reminds her that she warned Amanda not to keep Andy instead of Aaryn. Amanda says there's another evictee on the way, but she has no idea who it's going to be.
So however long later, Elissa comes swanning into the jury house. She tells them how McCrae nominated her and GinaMarie, leading to Elissa's eviction. "He's so stupid!" Amanda says of her true love. But she does admit in a talking head that McCrae probably doesn't think that Elissa voted to keep her. And then Elissa talks about Judd not using the Veto on her. Amanda apologizes to her for McCrae and returns Elissa's wedding ring, and at this point the consensus is that Andy is a lying weasel. Which of course they respect.
After the ads, we get to see Judd's entrance in to the jury house late last night. Before he shows up, Candice laments that it's all girls in there right now, after their strong start at booting the boys. I recall mentioning something about that in a weecap. Judd makes his entrance, and Helen THs that with all these bitter women, "Judd doesn't know what he's in for." Judd knows they're all aware of the Exterminators, and brings them up to speed on the last week's proceedings, from Spencer's HoH win to McCrae's Veto win to Judd's eviction. He's the first one to show up with a DVD, which includes footage of his exit from the house. He explains how he was trying to make Spencer and Andy targets on his way out, because he's pulling for GinaMarie, thinking she's the smartest one in the alliance. Elissa talks rather out of turn when she says, "I think GinaMarie knows that she has all of our support in jury." Candice and Amanda both take exception to that, the latter saying that GinaMarie floated for 99% of the game. Judd says McCrae rode Amanda's coattails, but Amanda insists that GinaMarie is a flip-flopper. In fact, Amanda is soon loudly arguing in McCrae's favor while the others disagree. Also loudly.
After the break, Julie's in the studio telling us that Andy, Spencer, and GinaMarie confessed to McCrae about the Exterminators alliance just before the beginning of the show. Which they probably wouldn't have done if they weren't going to stick together. Julie gets on the viewscreen with the final four and invites the nominees to give their speeches. McCrae does some shout-outs and says, "Andy, use the Veto on me because I'm totally bad radical." Spencer makes it quick, saying Andy fought hard for it and it would be great if he used it on him. Andy gets up with his Veto medallion, which he declines to use.
Julie now has McCrae and Spencer give their nominee speeches to sole voter GinaMarie, while their Veto pleas are still fresh in everyone's mind. McCrae knows what's coming, because he tells her, "Love you, everything, it's all good, no worries." Spencer says it's been great getting to know them, throwing in some Revenge of the Nerds references, and then it's time for GinaMarie to gush over both nominees before telling McCrae that she's chosen to evict him. McCrae makes his exit with a plug for another website that isn't this one and heads out to meet Julie. Nobody but Exterminators in the house now.
Julie prefaces McCrae's exit Chenterview by showing us all some video from earlier this very evening. The final four are sitting around the table when Andy tells them about the Exterminators and how McCrae would have gone home last night had he not won the Veto. After the clip, McCrae admits to Julie that he "got got" and should have seen it coming. Julie asks why he didn't nominate Andy when he had the chance, which he regrets -- as well as what he did to Elissa. "I should have went with my gut, but I'm a wuss," he says. Julie brings up his showmance with Amanda and whether he put it ahead of his game. McCrae says it went both ways, and McCrae ended up crippled by her exit.
Julie says, "At times you seemed deeply in love with Amanda. At times you seemed deeply afraid of Amanda," Which gets her what may be her biggest laugh ever. Like, in her life. She asks McCrae what his true feelings are, which she says he can reveal with Amanda not listening. And without access to a DVR? McCrae says opposites attract, and gives a lame "I don't know" given how different the outside of the house can be from the inside. No mention from him about moving to Florida. He gets his farewell messages, in which GinaMarie says she's sorry he has to go, but "you just got Exterminated." Spencer claims to hate the way McCrae left and wishes him luck. Andy's message is a now-redundant confession regarding the Exterminators and all the Exterminating they accomplished. Asked for his final thoughts, McCrae says he would have done it differently, and maybe should have distanced himself from Amanda, but they worked well together, so again the takeaway is that he doesn't know. As usual.
Julie gets back on the viewscreen with the final three and asks them about the reason for their confession before the show. Andy says there wasn't much to lose, and that McCrae deserved to know. Julie reminds them that there's one more eviction to go. "Which means you'll now have to turn on each other." Oh, how I wish one of them would say, "WHAT?"
Sunday: the beginning of the three-part HoH competition and clip show. Wednesday: finale, and also Dr. Will for some reason.
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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