Here’s the thing. Yes, Kevin’s right in thinking it’s a good idea to target Jeff but I feel like he’s giving himself a little too much credit in having successfully baited America’s favorite player to go after Russell. After all, what are Jeff’s options? Was Russell more likely to keep Jeff safe next week if he were to win Head of Household? I don’t think anyone believes that. So while Kevin and Natalie do get credit for not losing it as Lydia did when they were nominated and creating a window for themselves to crawl out of with the deal they made with Jeff, I don’t know that I’d call Kevin or Natalie Big Brother masterminds, nor do I think Jeff made a huge mistake in using the Veto.
We’re getting ahead of ourselves though. Let’s get the filler out of the way first. Tonight we got to see a conversation with Kevin, Jeff and Jordan pertaining to Kevin’s sexuality. Kevin said in the diary room that he wishes the world could be as open-minded with regards to homosexuality as the people in the BB house are. I have to agree that it’s nice that his being gay hasn’t been an issue in the house. Usually there’s at least one person who either intentionally or unintentionally treats the resident homosexual in the house (when there is one) like an alien from another planet. This season, that hasn’t been the case and that’s good as it’s a pretty stale topic for drama. Kevin proved to have a sense of humor about his gayness in the diary room when commenting on one of the Veto questions, which had to do with a houseguest leaving as a fruit. “I haven’t left the house yet so it must have been Casey,” he quipped. If there was a prize for best diary room commentary, I think Kevin should win it. I feel like we see a lot more of him as he really is in there than we do anyone else.
Meanwhile, the pressure of being HoH seems to have gotten to Jeff and we saw a little spat between him and Jordan over her not doing enough (in Jeff’s eyes) to prepare herself for the competitions. I can’t really fault Jeff on wanting Jordan to smarten herself up on random house facts. After all, he can’t play for HoH this Thursday and she’s his only guaranteed chance of staying off the block next week. Jordan really shouldn’t be taking the studying thing lightly but everyone plays the game at their own level and hers seems to be a bit more on the “whatever” side than Jeff’s is.
Natalie and Kevin kept their hopes up that Jeff would go along with the plan to backdoor Russell if one of them won the Veto. Still, the only surefire way to save themselves was to win the Veto and use it. The competition was Casey-themed and mirrored the tribal-style comp we’ve seen in numerous seasons of the past. In this case, the big tribal statue was voiced by an unseen Casey, who rapped clues about different houseguests. The contestants had to slide down a steep ramp and run around the jungle-decorated backyard in search of a banana with the correct houseguests name on it. Then they had to bring the banana back to the mat, which meant climbing up the slippery ramp with only a rope to help them get back up. The last person to get back to the statue with a correct banana was eliminated.
For someone as athletic as Natalie, I really would’ve expected her to be better at competitions but after Jordan was eliminated (she couldn’t find a Ronnie banana fast enough), Natalie went next. She complained to Jordan that she never wins anything. While we did see Natalie in the DR griping about her poor performance in comps, I’m pretty sure her whispered complaint to Jordan was an obvious reminder that she sucks and is less of a threat than anyone else. Either way, it’s kind of true but that doesn’t mean she’ll never win anything in the future.
Russell was eliminated next, followed by Kevin and it came down to Jeff and Michele. Jeff attempted to psych Michele out by constantly claiming he found the right banana when he didn’t. The distraction seemed to be effective and Jeff inevitably found the Braden banana and ran up the ramp to claim the Veto.
Russell and Michele weren’t sitting smugly after the Veto competition. Both of them knew there was a chance Jeff could use the Veto and backdoor one of them. While Jordan seemed certain that Russell should go home this week, Jeff weighed his options carefully. In the end it seemed like it was less about trusting Natalie and Kevin and more about going after Russell, whose shadiness in the past has made him an unreliable ally. After all, after Jeff saved Russell with the coup d’etat, Russell went and voted to evict Natalie instead of Jessie, Jeff’s target. That appears to have been the deciding factor in him using the Veto to pull Kevin off and nominate Russell. Also, given Russell’s performances in previous competitions, particularly the endurance comp, he’s probably better off with him out of the house now.
That said, if Natalie stays and she or Kevin get HoH on Thursday, it seems unlikely that they’ll honor their end of the deal and not nominate Jeff. And why wouldn’t they nominate him? He’s one of the best competitors in the house and would stand a good chance of winning the whole thing if he made it to the final two. With so few houseguests left in the game, no one is safe anymore and deals are made and broken on a week to week basis. If Russell goes, I think Michele will be in a good position in the house as she won’t have any allies, which will make her a commodity to whoever wins HoH but as the Veto is nearly as powerful as the HoH title at this phase of the game, it’s impossible to predict who will be picked off next.
