TV Recap: Big Brother 11 - Week 2 Veto

I have to give Jessie some credit for his work to save Russell from being the replacement nominee during tonight’s Veto ceremony. Sure, I get what Natalie was saying about Russell being a loose cannon and a threat to their game as team-Athlete but it’s too early to start picking off their own. The Sovereign Six alliance made that mistake a few seasons back and they never came back from it. As for Ronnie’s “strategy”? I’m pretty sure the self proclaimed (according to his t-shirt anyway) “dork” and “biggest schemer in the house” is in big trouble.

Ronnie is clearly overthinking this game every step of the way. To even consider going after Russell, who’s one of the few people he didn’t screw over when he switched his vote, as opposed to the people that were already annoyed with him or at the very least, suspected that he was the one who voted Braden out, was just foolish. Yes, we saw more of Russell’s short fuse ignite during tonight’s episode when he argued with Lydia. And yes, he might actually know a thing or two about how to play this game, which makes him a threat but when the house is divided and your side has the numbers, it’s best to keep them until you have enough of a lead on the other half of the house to start picking off your own, while still holding the majority. That’s just simple math. But Ronnie proved his counting abilities were a bit off during tonight’s Veto ceremony, so I guess we shouldn’t be all that surprised.

More on that in a moment. Fights and game-talk aside, the episode also featured some filler in the form of Casey and Chima’s luxury reward. The two ate lots of candy and laughed unnecessarily loud at The Ugly Truth, which is currently 0 for 10 over at RottenTomatoes.com. It almost seemed like they were getting along but I suppose sitting through a silly looking romantic comedy has that effect on people. Either that or they were both just so relieved to have something to do besides talk game. We also saw Jeff’s own personal challenge to school Jordan in the art of time-telling. According to Jordan, there are 25 quarters in an hour and 25 minutes per quarter. I applaud Jeff’s patience with her as he broke down the numbers for her and we learned later that Jeff’s advanced skills at math would come in handy during the Veto competition.

Russell, Casey, Ronnie, Laura, Jeff and Natalie were all playing for the Veto, which was hosted by Lydia. The object of the game was to collect coins in a bucket and hope that the amount they collected matched the targeted dollar amount. The coins were counted by one of those CoinStar machines. Given that everyone went over during reach round, I’m thinking the 10% fee that CoinStar normally takes from the total would’ve come in handy.

The contestants started with quarters, aiming for $100 and Jeff came out on top, while Ronnie’s difference of over $500 knocked him out of the competition. Michele thought Ronnie threw the competition, considering how far off he was but Ronnie admitted his epic failure as genuine in the diary room. The game went on with dimes, nickels and pennies. Each round, whoever had the smallest difference between the amount of coins they had and the targeted dollar amount had the option to stay in the competition and move on to the next round, or else, opt out of the Veto competition and select one of three mystery bags. One bag contained $5000, another had a slop pass and the third was empty. Natalie, who did bad during the first round but performed better later, inevitably opted out and took a bag, winning herself a slop pass.

The competition came down to Russell and Jeff. While Russell was doing ok during each round, Jeff won more than one round and it was clear he was paying close attention to the amount of coins he put in his bucket. He ended up beating Russell and taking the Veto.

Russell was disappointed because he was pretty sure Ronnie was trying to backdoor him and the Veto would’ve ensured his safety for the week. Ronnie, who had been trying (unsuccessfully) to assure Jeff and Laura that he had a master plan, told Laura that he was going to try to get Russell out. He also shared his thoughts on the matter with Lydia and Kevin. Both of them were on board with the plan. I don’t think either of them like Russell all that much and hey, at least it’s not them he’s targeting right? I like Lydia and Kevin but I’m getting a distinct floater vibe from Kevin and Lydia seems to be a bit on the fence as far as where her loyalties lay. Considering it’s still early in the game, that might not be such a bad thing.

We didn’t get to see much of what happened to turn Ronnie’s mind around on backdooring Russell but I’m assuming Jessie managed to get in his ear and convince him that losing Russell at this point in the game was a bad plan and assuring him that Russell wouldn’t be targeting him next week if he gets HoH. Jessie doesn’t care for Laura so saving Russell and getting Laura out would work out well for him. So either Jessie gets the credit for saving Russell, or else Ronnie realized if he did nominate Russell, he was going to have three days of being bullied by the guy and who wants that?

Jeff took himself off the block at the Veto ceremony and Ronnie put Jordan up in his place. Another Popular will be going home this Thursday night.

If Ronnie’s strategy this week had been to target the group he stabbed in the back last week, I would’ve said his decision to throw Jordan up in the hopes that Laura would go home was a good plan. It knocks down their numbers and he’d have one less person after him next week. But I think his back and forth on which side of the house to go after is going to be his undoing in this game. Laura isn’t the only one who’s on to Ronnie and the blood is definitely going to be on his hands no matter who goes home this week. He should’ve been using this week to ensure his safety by locking down some allies. I don’t think Darth Ronnie’s going to come out ahead in that department by the week’s end.