Tonight marked the first episode of Season 12 of Big Brother. In addition to getting to meet the houseguests, we got a taste of the twist for this season as the mysterious saboteur pulled their first house prank.
I love the season premiere of Big Brother. The house is clean and shiny, the houseguests are all wide-eyed and eager to make friends and alliances, and no one has any clue what they’re in for. Ok, I’m sure most of the houseguests have seen the show before (though it always amazes me that there are usually at least a few people who seem oblivious to the previous seasons or how the game is played). If we were to fast-forward to the end of this season, we might say that there were things we saw coming from the start but for now, all we can do is speculate and look forward to another summer of drama.
The Houseguests
Tonight’s premiere started with the usual montage of houseguest-intros as we got to see them pretend to be surprised when they found their key, even though they don’t seem at all surprised that there’s a film crew following them. They learned that they have just one hour to pack (It’s a good thing they’ve gotten their affairs in order, settled their job situations, and made sure someone’s around to pay the bills, feed the cats, the kids, etc…) and remembered to make one or two clever lines to introduce themselves and emphasize whatever stereotype they’ll be representing this season.
I will give it up to the producers on the introductions. Putting aside the dated “snapshot” sound-effect and photo shots, I loved that they managed to tie together some of the houseguests comments perfectly. Take Ragan’s remark, about how he loves big, dumb men, “They got the brawn, but I got the brain and I can make them do what I want.” And add that to Lane’s statement: “I would like to buddy up with someone that’s smart, so I don’t have to do all the thinkin’.” It seems like they’re a match made in heaven… that is, if Lane manages to ally with anyone. He seemed so intent on not revealing his lack of intelligence that he barely spoke a word tonight.
Whether or not Lane signs up to be Ragan’s “big, dumb man” remains to be seen, but it seems likely that Britney will be teaming up with Ragan as she professed her love for gay guys and made plans in the diary room to chat about Sex and the City (“the series and the movie.”) with him. Because he’s gay and therefore automatically wants to talk about shoes and boys. Ok, maybe he really does. We don’t know. What we do know is that he may have stolen previous houseguest Dustin’s overly-worn grey V-neck t-shirt. (Nooooo!)
The introductions weren’t so much about outright lying as they were about downplaying and withholding information. Andrew and Ragan both fibbed about their jobs. Andrew’s reason for keeping his doctor status under his “yom kippur” (Rachel wins my line-of-the-night award for that one) was because he didn’t want to be seen as rich. That’s actually a smart decision on his part as houseguests often play the “But, I really need the money…” card when trying to avoid eviction. Of course, this meant Andrew standing back and not helping Britney when she got hurt during the Head of Household competition later. Some might call that uncompassionate but as I see it, there are probably medics standing by anyway. It’s not like they aren’t surrounded by cameras and people whose job it is to take care of them. Plus, he wasn’t the only one thinking strategy the second Britney slipped off that wiener. More on that, later.
While Andrew was concerned about people targeting him because of his money, Matt withheld the fact that he’s a “certified genius” from the houseguests because he doesn’t want them to target him for being smart. Maybe they’ll target him for being arrogant and braggy, instead. Seriously, that’s awesome that he’s a genius but I would’ve preferred to see that in action and not have to hear it from him in the diary room.
Among the other intentionally omitted bits of information was Annie’s sexual preference. While she seems open to flirting with both guys and girls, she didn’t tell the houseguests that she’s bisexual for strategic reasons. That might be a smart move unless she reveals it later. Stuff like that always seems to come out and people might distrust her if they feel like she lied.
Let’s talk about Enzo because honestly, I wanted to dislike the guy right away. On paper, he looks like CBS/Big Brother’s attempt to tap into the Jersey Shore fanaticism but putting aside the comically thick accent and the comments about the girls and he’s actually kind of a cutie. Or maybe I’m just a sucker for guys who love Jersey, “meatbawls” and their mamas.
Other random houseguest thoughts: Kathy’s adorable. I loved her line, “In this house everyone’s a suspect and the new Miranda Warning will be, anything you say or do will be misquoted and used against you.” Hayden and Rachel seem like they might be up for a showmance, either with each other or with someone else. Monet came off as a little stuck up with her thing about not liking “gross people” but then again, she never really described what entailed being “gross.” Strangely, she seemed pretty down to earth when talking to the houseguests and she’s candid in the diary room, which gets her points in my book.
The Saboteur
This season’s twist is that one person in the house isn’t playing to win. They’re playing the game with the goal to sabotage the other houseguests’ games. America will get to submit ideas for what they want the Saboteur to do. If the Saboteur gets to week five without being evicted, they get $50k. If they get the boot before that, they get nothing.
We weren’t told who the saboteur was, but we did get to see the houseguests learn about the twist and begin to suspect each other. My pre-season prediction was Matt and while he’s still in my top three as I don’t think we saw any paranoia-footage of him in the diary room, except for a few comments about not getting to eat after the first prank, there are a couple of other people who seem like good contenders.
The first Saboteur prank involved the lights going out and someone putting a lock on the storage room door, which means no food for the houseguests for a while. The prank put Andrew on my Saboteur radar and made me think I might’ve been right to suspect Brendon earlier on in the episode. It seems like the houseguests are looking at both guys now as they both put themselves in the spotlight by being weird during the brief blackout.
When the lights went out, Andrew decided to play a joke on the houseguests and sneak around in the dark. So it could have been him who slipped the lock onto the door.
As for the other suspect, I thought Brendon made some weird faces when the houseguests were being told about the twist earlier in the episode. He seemed a bit too quiet and then a bit too chatty as he mimicked the voice-altered Saboteur video. That alone had him red-flagged for me but when he decided to randomly go brush his teeth when the lights were out, that was what set off the bells. He claimed he thought that lights-out meant he should get ready for bed but one of the girls (Britney?) said it was so dark you couldn’t see your hand in front of you. Something tells me, the tooth-brush thing was his plan to leave the room. So, right now I’m looking at “Certified Genius” Matt and Andrew as potential Saboteurs but I think Brendon’s the biggest contender. We’ll find out soon enough!
The Head of Household Competition
The first HoH competition is usually a team event as it forces a divide between the houseguests and then sets them up to work with or against each other. The added twist is that it’s usually within the teams’ control to decide which of them should win it and that was the case, tonight.
Before the competition even began, Julie announced that because there was an uneven number of houseguests, one person would have to sit out of the competition. Andrew had his hand up before she even finished making the offer. While I completely get his disinterest in winning the first HoH, I think his eagerness not to win it might not have been something to advertise. It caused some confusion for Hayden, who didn’t seem to understand why anyone would want to avoid the first HoH. That’s a rookie mistake on his part, though he seemed to get caught up by the end of the episode, after he won Head of Household. Sure, winning HoH means safety but it also means getting to be the first one to single out two people for eviction. The first HoH stands a very good chance of being the second person evicted.
The Head of Household competition had the houseguests attempting to latch onto a giant hot-dog and clinging to it as they rode it across a “grill” and to the platform on the other side. I really hate trying to describe these competitions because they’re so ridiculous. The hot dog was being sprayed down with slippery ketchup and mustard and the teams had to help each other get onto the thing and get to the other side. The first person from each team that made it across won $10k (and a big fat target on their backs). After that, the prize was $1k and it kept going down from there. The last person to make it across among the first team that finished won HoH.
They figured out early on that the stronger houseguests (the guys) needed to hoist the girls up onto the hot dog so that they could grab onto the straps and avoid sliding off the “ginormous wiener.” Britney ended up getting hurt and earning herself my award for runner up in the line-of-the-night competition when she said, “I lost my dignity on a slippery wiener.” After falling and being looked at by the medic, she opted out of the competition and Kristen had to make another trip across the coals in her place. While Britney was being tended to, Hayden and Matt made an agreement that Hayden would win the HoH and he wouldn’t nominate Matt for eviction this week. That was a smart move on genius-Matt’s part as he doesn’t have to worry about getting the attention for being HoH, nor does he have to worry about being nominated if Hayden keeps his word. Andrew’s also immune for the week since he wasn’t playing in the competition.
And that about covers the first episode of Big Brother. It’s hard to form solid opinions on the houseguests at this point but the game has begun and it should definitely be interesting to see whether or not this Saboteur twist pans out or if the houseguests figure it out early on and give him or her the boot. Right now, my money’s on Andrew and Brendon being nominated for their shenanigans during the blackout but we’ll have to wait and see how Hayden wants to play the game this week.
