After last night's double-eviction episode sent two Big Brother players out the door, we were left to wonder who would become the next Head of Household. Or maybe we weren't. Because no matter who wins it, an Exterminator will be in power. McCrae is a marked man and he doesn't even know it. I blame the showmance for this, but we'll get to that in a minute. Before we move forward, here's the usually LIVE FEED SPOILER ALERT. The following article contains spoilers from the feeds following last night's live episode!
Moving on, Spencer won Head of Household. The HoH comp had something to do with houseguest faces, I think, and there were punishments given out to the losers, at least one of which involved GinaMarie and McCrae getting tethered together by a friendship bracelet.
The only real significance to Spencer's win is that he's safe for the week, and for once, he won't be a pawn next Thursday night. During last night's Watch With Dan webisode, the former BB winner said someone referred to Spencer as "the kiss of death," and that's kind of true. During eviction night, Spencer has sat next to six different evicted houseguests this season. Though he's gotten up to some shady dealings in the house, especially when he was working with Howard, no one's ever really targeted him, which made him the ultimate pawn. If you're on the block and sitting next to Spencer, you're going home.
The problem with this for him means he's done very little in the house to get to where he is in this game. Even this HoH win might look like too-little-too-late in terms of power moves, since there isn't really much he can do with it on an individual level. If he makes it to the end, he's going to have a hard time convincing people that he's done much to earn it. On the flip side, he could end up winning if the jury turns out to be particularly bitter. If someone like GinaMarie or Andy makes it to the end with Spencer, the jury might decide to reward Spencer for being nicer and less deceiving than his opponent. GM's rubbed some people the wrong way, and Andy's lied up and down and betrayed people. This is not to say that neither of them can win, but if the jury wants to reward the lesser of two evils, Spencer has a good shot at winning. He also has a good shot at being taken to the end because every other player in the house likes him and might actually think they stand a better chance of arguing that they played a better game than he did. Winning Head of Household now gets Spencer to the Final Four. And as i said, McCrae's a marked man. After the feeds came back last night, the Exterminators celebrated their victory when McCrae was out of earshot and there was already talk about winning the Veto and sending him home. McCrae couldn't play for HoH last night, which means unless he wins the Veto or he manages to secure some rock-solid agreement that forces one or more houseguests to turn on the Exterminators, he's going home. That said, it's entirely possible the latter will occur. The Exterminators seem happy to work together, but they all know that once McCrae goes, they're going to have to turn on one another anyway. Someone might decide to walk away from the group this week, rather than wait until McCrae is gone. If they think they can get closer to the end with McCrae, that may just happen.
As for the comment I made about McCrae's showmance, on one hand, I think he got far working with Amanda. She was sort of a shield for him all season. On the other hand, they spent a lot of time in bed together all season. As the weeks went on, they spent more and more time laying around in bed and less time working on their social games. I can't help but wonder what kind of game McCrae would have spent if he wasn't attached to Amanda's hip all summer. Had he spent a bit more time away from her, he might not have been so oblivious to Andy's lies or the fact that the majority of the house has been working together the last couple of weeks. On the non-game side, maybe he'll have no regrets about the showmance, should things go well for him and Amanda in the future.
Getting Elissa out of the house was probably a huge mistake for McCrae in the short-term though. But he has no idea that the other four houseguests are in an alliance and that he was basically just doing their dirty work. He may find that out the hard way, but as a non-fan of the Exterminators, I hope to see someone break away from that cluster this week. Andy seems like the likeliest candidate, since he's proven to have no loyalty to anyone but himself.
And that brings me to my final thought before we wrap this up. People call Andy a rat for how he's playing the game. And the fact that his lies resulted in Elissa being sent packing -- it seems like McCrae believes Elissa was the hinky vote that resulted in last night's tie sending Amanda out the door -- probably isn't going to make Andy any more popular among the viewers that loved Elissa all season. It didn't help that he was particularly gleeful when he evicted her. With that said, he's playing the game. It's a sneaky game with very little loyalty, and I don't love some of the things he's said about Amanda behind her back, considering I don't think she's ever been anything but nice to him, and their friendship throughout the game seems to have been mutually beneficial (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong there, feeders). His sneaking floating is a strategy, however, and it's one he's worked hard at all season. Is it always fun to watch? No, not really. But he's earned his place in the Final 5. No one took him to this point in the game. He's made choices and done some dealings to secure his safety and progression. So I guess I feel like I need to defend it as a strategy. It's not an entertaining one, and sure, we can argue that it's somehow reflective of his personality, but judging it from a game perspective, it's fair play.
UPDATE: Nomination ceremony just happened. McCrae and GinaMarie were put up on the block. I wonder if GM will see this as an indication that she's at the bottom of the Exterminator alliance. Of course, Spencer might have put GM up to give McCrae the impression he was targeting her, in case McCrae wins the Veto.
