Thanks to CBS' Preseason NFL Football scheduling, my DVR thought tonight's episode of Big Brother was on an hour after CBS decided to actually air it. I only realized this situation after half the episode aired. Fortunately, I tuned in time to catch the eviction and having spent more hours than I care to admit watching Big Brother After Dark on Sho2 this week, I was already caught up on where things were headed going into tonight's episode. So while my commentary on tonight's episode will be somewhat limited, rest assured, I have plenty to say about what went on this week!
Once again, Frank survived eviction, and this week, he really has Mike Boogie to thank for it. Boogie's strategizing worked well paired with the general sense of Big Brother paranoia and a twist of bad social gameplay on the part of Janelle. She didn't see the extent of the contempt some of her housemates had for her, or if she did, the damage was too far done for a few smiley chats to smooth it over. In previous seasons, she formed strong bonds with people who were willing to protect her in exchange for what she could offer them as a competition winner and her friendship. This season, while she got close with a couple of houseguests, even her bond with Wil seemed tentative, and Ashley seems like too much of a floater not to vote with the group. And then there's Joe, who's too far on the outskirts of everything to be of much value to her (though he was the lone vote to evict Frank, from what I know from BBAD, he was also the only person not brought in on the plan to evict Janelle).
The initial plan was to get Frank out. "We gotta get Frank out!" Everyone's always saying. But Frank has become the house cockroach (in the hard-to-kill way, not a mean way). He came close to eviction when the Coach twist saved him. And this week he managed to defeat the curse of the unitard thanks in large part to Boogie's efforts, and his own ability to hang back and let the house save him. Boogie's argument to Danielle about starting an Avengers-like alliance if she used the Veto to nominate Janelle was presented well, but in the end, I think it really came down to people deciding that Janelle was a bigger threat than Frank because she's good at competitions and unpredictable socially.
It's sort of a "Better the devil you know" situation, which might have also been the reason Will won Season 2 and Boogie won All Stars. People thought that, because they could see them coming, they were better off cutting out the less predictable players. The houseguests seemed to have issues trusting Janelle. Those who've seen Seasons 6 and 7 know she's actually a pretty loyal player, but that's when she had a solid alliance of trusted people. The team-situation sort of prevented larger alliances from forming this season, so it's hard to see where the lines divide, and I think that played a big factor in where she went wrong this season (or where she was doomed, anyway). As Boogie presented it, there's now a "Silent 6" alliance that half the house is supposedly a part of (with Ian as a potential alternate?). Whether or not this newly formed group of Avengers sticks together this week remains to be seen, but it's definitely going to be put to the test. What are the odds that Boogie and Frank are going to be content seeing someone like Jen or Joe on the block when they could go with stronger players like Shane or Danielle (two people who've won HoH's before and are something of a showmance lately)?
We're getting ahead of ourselves though. First, Janelle's eviction. Did she see it coming? Something tells me even if she was tipped off at some point before the episode, they wouldn't have revealed it, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong there. Like I said, I missed the first half of the episode. She handled her eviction with the kind of mostly-positive attitude we've seen from her in previous seasons, chin up, big smile. But she got a couple digs in at Boogie's expense, calling him a bleeped out word (pretty sure it was "douchebag") and saying "Screw you mike boogie, I hope you lose!" Given his gloating goodbye message, I can't say I blame her. She didn't play the best game this time around, but I'm glad we got to see her back. Hopefully she won't be sequestered so we can hear her feedback and commentary on the rest of the season as it plays out. As for Boogie, if he wins this season, the houseguests can trace his victory back to this week, because he really deserves credit for finding a way to turn the situation around for Frank (and himself).
Tonight's HoH competition had the houseguests paired up and quizzed on the various competitions. The winner of the question-duel picked the next two contestants. It came down to Frank and Britney, and Frank won. He's either been nominated or HoH pretty much since the season started (All but the first formal nomination/eviction). What will he do with his Head of Household? We'll have to wait and see, but it's probably safe to say Boogie's safe. The question is, will the other four people in his alliance be? Will he be grateful enough for their votes this week to spare them next week? Or will he aim for stronger players? Normally, I'd say make a bold move, but he needs to get the spotlight off of him. He's too big of a target at this point. He might be better off reaffirming the alliance deal, making deals with most of the other outsiders to leave him alone in exchange for their safety and nominate one of the people on the outside of his alliance.
