If Kevin ends up being Natalie’s undoing he will officially be my favorite player of the season. I’ll give Natalie credit for playing the game but wow, it’s really hard to root for the girl. The episode began with her sore-winning attitude post-HoH when she repeatedly announced how happy she was, ignoring the sad looks on Jordan and Michele’s faces. Hey, I’m not saying the girl can’t be happy that she finally won a competition but a gracious attitude never hurts, right?
Within minutes of taking over as HoH, Natalie told Kevin they were locked for a final two and then afterward told him she had to put him on the block. Now, I get where she’s coming from. With only four contestants left, it really doesn’t matter who goes up pre-Veto. If Kevin’s nominated and wins the Veto he can take himself off so it doesn’t hurt to create the illusion that she and Kevin aren’t as tight as they might have appeared. That said, I think in this case, a little finesse was in order. If Natalie were as good at manipulation as she claims, she might have tried to get Kevin to suggest the idea of being nominated, thus avoiding any chance that he might see her plan as an opportunity to betray him. A conversation about how they might be safer if they didn’t appear to be so close could’ve resulted in Kevin agreeing to go up. Had she done that, Kevin might not have gone into the diary room to express his concern over Natalie’s loyalties.
Pushing ahead with her plan, Natalie told Jordan and Michele that Kevin was her primary target. Doing this wouldn’t really change much as far as the final Veto goes. Sure, Jordan and Michele were naturally quick to agree with Natalie on how much of a threat Kevin is and even if they did start to feel hope that maybe Natalie really wants Kevin out, the outcome of her term as HoH relies almost entirely on who wins the Veto and neither Jordan nor Michele are gullible enough to think they don’t need to win it.
The four houseguests partook in a luxury competition that had them teamed up to find matching articles of clothes. When they thought they had a match, they struck a pose for the camera and moved on to the next round. While Natalie, Michele and Kevin all attempted modeling poses, all of Jordan’s poses looked like that of a girl who’d been walked in on in the changing room of J.C. Penney’s. When they finished the competition, they were allowed to use the time they had left to dash through a bunch of clothing racks, pulling on as many articles of clothes as they could find and fit and keep them as a prize. Kevin spotted a nice outfit on one of the mannequins and promptly disrobed and dismembered the blank-faced dummy.
Back to the game, Natalie was awarded a Pandora’s Box prize that gave her five minutes with her boyfriend in exchange for forfeiting her chance at the Veto this week. She decided to do it and went through the door in the HoH room to spend some time with her man. Jason had a special plan for the occasion and promptly got down on one knee to propose. I think this proposal might have been more awkward than the season 2 finale when Boogie proposed to Krista. Natalie’s answer to his question was “Hell yeah” and they hugged awkwardly before sitting down. Granted, we don’t really know Jason all that well but I had a hard time seeing the sparks between them. Then again, with cameras everywhere and weeks between now and the last time they saw each other, perhaps that’s to be expected.
When Natalie had the opportunity to spend 15 additional minutes with Jason in exchange for pissing off the rest of the house, she decided to take it. While she and Jason chatted about home and ate sushi, the rest of the house were treated to the appearance of a big man dressed like a baby, a little person dressed like a cat and a woman dressed like a cockroach. The baby whined and cried. The copy cat ran around copying everyone and the cockroach sprayed people with bug spray.
Natalie had a dilemma to face after her time was up and the visitors left. Had she settled for the five minutes and the marriage proposal (complete with straw-wrapper ring, which I thought was the only truly romantic part of the engagement scene) she could’ve taken the time to sit and think about how she was going to explain why she couldn’t play for Veto this week. Instead, she took the extra time and when she got out of the HoH room, everyone wanted to know what was going on. When Kevin saw the big question mark on the door, he knew there was a Pandora’s Box twist.
Once again, here’s where Natalie messed up. She tried to lie and say that she exchanged her chance to play for Veto for a mystery prize that turned out to be “Final-two reversal.” She explained that it meant that not only could she not play for Veto but if she makes it to the final two and she has the majority of the jury’s votes to win, the results would be reversed and whoever’s sitting next to her will get her votes, forcing her to lose. Um, who would honestly believe that BB would do that? Sure, they’ve given previous final two’s the opportunity to drop one jury member’s vote, but a twist that would reverse the votes would be ridiculous.
Kevin didn’t believe a word she was saying. Not only did he express that in the diary room but it was also all over his face as Natalie told the lie. He spoke with Jordan and Michele about it and they agreed that it seemed a bit farfetched. I’m thinking that if Natalie hadn’t gone overboard with the lie and perhaps said that she would lose one vote if she made it to the final two, they might have bought it. To make matters worse, Natalie requested later that they not ask her anything else about Pandora’s Box. For someone who claims to be playing the house like a fiddle, she seems to be underestimating the intelligence of the people she’s been living with all summer.
Unable to keep his mouth shut, Kevin went upstairs to talk to Natalie about it, essentially saying that the story she told them didn’t add up. Natalie later came downstairs and tried to do the old “I totally punk’d you guys!” bit as though it was just a joke. She then admitted the truth, that she got to spend some time with Jason in exchange for not playing for Veto. No one seemed to think the joke was all that funny and even Natalie looked a bit awkward as she tried to smooth things over. Given her inability to come up with a believable lie, she probably would’ve been better off just admitting the truth from the beginning. After all, she sold her chance to play for Veto and the only real punishment the rest of the house got was being annoyed for 15 minutes.
For nominations, Kevin seemed prepared to go up on the block as Natalie said but given that she gave up her chance to play for Veto, she might’ve been better off going back on that plan and just nominating Jordan and Michele. After all, she did promise him before the whole Pandora’s Box thing that she would try to win the Veto to save him if it came to it. Now she can’t play for Veto at all and she still went ahead and nominated Kevin. I’m all for a contestant holding their own fate in their hands but Natalie’s given Kevin plenty of reason not to take her to the final two at this point. Even if he does manage to make it through the next elimination, he seems to see Natalie for what she is now. I’d love to see him take Jordan or Michele to the end if he got the opportunity.
Kevin and Michele are nominated but that will most likely change unless Jordan wins the Veto. In the mean time, America gets to vote for their favorite player. I’m guessing Jeff’s got that $25k prize locked down pretty tight.
