Tonight Ronnie called himself the “biggest schemer here” and he definitely lived up to his self-declared reputation by switching his vote when it came time to oust the first contestant of the season. Meanwhile, bigotry ran amuck as a racial slur was dropped by a houseguest.
Usually it takes a few weeks for derogatory comments to start popping up from random houseguests and you can’t always predict from whom or why they’re going to come. We saw a muted and heavily edited version of the fight that broke out between the recently nominated houseguest Braden apparently (according to the feed reports anyway) called Kevin a “Beaner.” The B-word was never shown in subtitles or aloud during tonight’s episode but apparently that’s what he said. Now, correct me if I’m wrong as I can’t seem to find my Webster’s dictionary: Racist Edition, but isn’t the word “Beaner” used to describe people of Mexican descent? And if I’m correct in my racist terminology, wouldn’t that word not apply to Kevin, who stated that he was a mix of black and Asian. Come on Braden. If you’re going to be a bigot, can’t you at least familiarize yourself with the racists’ vernacular, first?
We got a glimpse of that fight, which started after Russell fed Braden information about Lydia suggesting he be put up to replace her at the Veto ceremony. Russell was all too happy to thrust all of the blame on Lydia, thus taking the target off his and his clique’s back and Braden fed on it like a big old veggie-burrito. Surfer’s eat burritos, right? Or am I getting my stereotypes wrong? Braden then went to call out Lydia, throwing words like skank or something like that around and pissing Kevin off. When Kevin went to defend his girl, that’s when Braden broke out the “Beaner” remark, or so it appeared. I’m behind on my live-feed highlights and am basically relying on JokersUpdates.com to keep up with the show between episodes.
Meanwhile, Lydia was all bent out of shape because Jordan cried over Braden’s nomination and she didn’t cry after hers. What a pointless argument that was. Seriously, Lydia, do you really care who cries for the surfer? They had a fight and afterward, Jordan thought up a plan to save Braden, hoping to do a little damage to the Athletes in the process and take some of the new target she put on her back after screaming at Lydia.
Jordan’s plan was to flip the vote. She talked to Ronnie to see if he’d be willing to turn on his own team and Ronnie went along with it, agreeing to pull Michele in on the plan. He claimed he controlled her but word is, Michele and Chima don’t get along all that well anyway so it probably wasn’t all that hard to get her on board. Jordan thought her only challenge was to bring Casey in on the plan.
During the pre-vote live-show moments, Braden gave a forgetful speech and then Chima stood up and said a lot of things that were censored out. I’m assuming the word “Beaner” was mentioned at least once. She said anyone who voted for Braden to say was voting yes to bigotry (or something along those lines) and sat down in a huff. It was clear that Chima was convinced her fate was sealed and wanted to make sure she’d said her peace before diva’ing her way out the door. But the votes weren’t cast and Chima apparently didn’t know that Ronnie had her back. Ok, I’m giving Ronnie too much credit there. I think he cared less about saving Chima as he did about forcing the votes to a tie. We get it Ronnie. You’re in the game. You have power. The force is with you. Etc. etc. Seriously, I appreciate his enthusiasm but it’s the cockiness that’s getting to me with this guy. I’d love to see the evil-geek dominate the game but it feels like he’s putting on an act. Or maybe it’s that scowly-pout thing he does. Either way, I’m not sold on him just yet but I’m thinking we’ll be seeing what this guy is made of one way or another as this week progresses.
Braden was eliminated after Jessie cast the tie-breaking vote and he went out to have an awkward interview with Julie and watch some of his fellow houseguests slam him in their goodbye messages.
Back in the house, the HGs were getting set up out back for the Head of Household competition. This one was an elimination game where the houseguests had to answer questions based on an internet poll CBS ran. Whoever buzzed in first could answer the question, which had to do with which clique they thought America would choose in response to various polls. Things like “Which clique would most likely be absent from the yearbook” or “Which clique would miss curfew to see Star Wars.” Stereotypical questions, all of which had obvious, stereotypical answers to go with them. Ah, internet poll voters. We’re nothing, if not predictable.
If the contestant got the question right they got to choose one of the three other contestants in that round to be eliminated. So it wasn’t just a matter of buzzing in first and answering correctly, it was also about getting the threats out of the way. The Athletes were knocked out first as the rest of the house obviously didn’t want them to stay in power. Laura was doing pretty well with the buzzer but got a question wrong and eliminated herself. It came down to the Off Beats and the Brains. Finally, Michele knocked Lydia out of the competition and went head to head with Ronnie, who beat her with the final question and took this week’s HoH.
And the geeks inherit the earth. That’s gravy, baby. Gravy.
Will Ronnie abuse his power, make too many unnecessary alliances, and shoot himself in the foot by next Thursday? Or will he make a good play and set himself up for long-term safety in the game? Guess we’ll have to wait and see.
