Big Brother by Trashwire.com

Welcome to part II of my thoughts for week 1’s veto and eviction shows.  Initially, I did think I could wrap it up into one entry but the veto show turned out to be very eventful in my eyes.  I want to say this entry will be brief because its the eviction show but who knows!  Read below to find out.  
Julie Chen did a great job of making the subtleties of the show come to the surface.  I really didn’t see the entire picture of what transpired over the last week.  Typically when one faction is dominating the house, they usually have the biggest targets on their back and so all the other teams group together to target them but with Lydia targeting one of her “allies” in Braden she kind of reduced the collective power from ‘the outsiders (the off-beats, the brains, the popular crowd).’  Also, even though CBS does this every eviction show, I liked how they replayed the veto ceremony’s closing moments.  Braden congratulating Russell for getting what he wants possibly plants the idea in Jesse’s head that he is allowing himself to be pulled in whichever direction Russell wants him to go.  In my first post, I said I do think Jesse has the brains to win this game but he can easily be influenced.  I am hoping that thought Braden suggested pushes Jesse to try and be more independent.

The show continues to explore the rift that is going on between the off-beats and the popular crowd and I am starting to get dissapointed in Lydia.  First was the breakdown she had after being nominated and now she seems to be okay with being led by ‘the athletes.’  I really thought she could have been the second coming of Nakomis (sp?) and be a leader in the house but she is quickly showing that either she wants no part of that or is just too insecure to be one.  Also, she is a liar because when Braden confronted her about her suggesting to ‘the athletes’ that he should be nominated she denied it.  I know lying is part of the way many people play the game but I detest it and I think its a serious character flaw.  I actually wrote about it on my website (don’t worry, no shameless plug to follow) about why I don’t think you can ever really justify lying.  I don’t care that this is just a game.  Lying is lying and its wrong.

As I mentioned, Braden confronts Lydia about her backdooring him and it leads to a blow up.  All that positive energy Braden had is gone and has been replaced with negative vibes.  Most will walk away with the feeling that Braden just sealed his exit, I walk away with while I don’t like Russell, he has been dominating the game.  He planned on tweaking Braden to ensure he walks out this week and guess what, it worked!  Dude is a complete douchebag but he is a great game player.  You have to give him that.

The show continues and apparently the Braden confrontation sets off dynamite in the house.  Lydia now goes after Jordan for not showing enough emotion.  By the way, I am part Latino and I just want to say something about Lydia (who mentions that she is Latina) blowing up at Jordan.  This is not an example of the ‘famed’ latino temperment.  Lydia just has some issues.  I am still a fan of hers but she has been a bit emotionally unstable the last couple of episodes.  This episode is just a continuation of that. So its just limited to her, the individual.  While listening to Lydia and Jordan argue, you once again get the impression that Lydia is very insecure.  This argument is centered around Lydia not feeling enough love from Jordan.  Really?  Is that a big deal that you need to confront her angrily about?  Wow.

The blowups continue when my new favorite house guest (no, not Natalie), Jeff, gets involved. Unlike during the veto show Jeff comes in to try to salvage what is left of his alliance.  Personally, I am a bit disappointed in Kevin and Lydia for attacking Jeff because apparently they are angered that he hasn’t written off Braden!  Hello!!  You guys have the numbers, why not focus on eliminating Chima?!  Jeff sees it that way too and is shocked they are attacking him.  Jeff then gives me even more reason to like him by finally acknowledging what should have been obvious so much earlier, Lydia would not have been voted out of the house!!! At the time of the nominations, Chima was being a diva and rubbing people the wrong way.  Lydia was safe! Russell was right, him and Jesse can run this house all the way to the finals.  If “The Outsiders” would only work together they would be in so much of a better position right now.  The parts are all there but the connections just aren’t.  So sad.

We now go to the part of the show where I start to see some sexiness from Laura and not because of her body.  For me, attraction starts with a person’s mind, and apparently there is some depth to Laura. When Jordan starts to make a campaign to save Braden and tells Laura, I thought that was a mistake because Laura had joined ‘the atheletes’ but in the diary room she reveals that she may not stick with what she promised them because its in her interest not to.  I know that was obvious to you and me but I didn’t give her enough credit to figure that out.  Laura took a big step up in my book.  Her only mistake was to approach Ronnie about the idea instead of Michele first.  She and many of the other house guests don’t now what Ronnie really is about so I can’t really fault her for that.  I am hoping this isn’t yet another eviction show tease.  I know Braden will be evicted.  Right now, my hope is that the vote is at least close to demonstrate to the viewing audience that there are two viable factions in the house not just one.

Lets get to the eviction ceremony.  I liked both speeches.  Based on what happened since the veto ceremony, Braden played it smart by apoligizing for his actions over the last couple of days.  Chima reminded everyone of the harsh words Braden had for some of his house guests (so harsh that the words were censored) so any good will Braden may have built up might have been for nothing.  Great game play by both.

Here are the votes of the house guests:

Russell – Braden
Natalie – Braden
Jeff – Chima
Jordan – Chima
Kevin – Braden
Laura – Chima
Lydia – Braden
Michele – Chima
Casey – Chima
Ronnie – Braden

This is the honest truth!  I didn’t want to layout the votes but only did because I was trying to setup an analysis of Jeff’s vote because I was predicting a land slide against Braden.  But wow, am I happy that analysis is no longer applicable because the vote is a tie!  Jesse then broke the tie by voting for Braden.  Braden left the house very classy.  NO harsh words for anyone even though he did not hug Lydia or Kevin.  By walking out the way that he did, I think you should give him the benefit of the doubt for the harsh words he said to Kevin and Lydia.  I am not a woman or gay so those words don’t hurt as much but he did apologize and when leaving where he could have had the last word, he didn’t say anything mean.  Can’t we just chalk up that earlier incident to momentary anger?  I will leave it up to you guys to decide.

The vote was definitely intersting, a tie alaways is.  Ronnie is playing with fire I think.  I am not going to hate on the guy but I thinks too highly of his game play at the moment.  Everyone seems to get the vibe from him that he is not one of the people to be trusted in the house.  Voting for Chima to go would have gone a long way in rebuilding his credibility.   Yes, the athletes would be angry at him but he has to know that they won’t keep him around forever.  I can also see it from his point of view though.  Maybe he does think his game play is great and he has seen how the athletes have dominated the competitions.  While they might not be mighty in numbers they can control the house through HoH and veto competitions.  I guess its a question of quality or quantity?

As you may have noticed I don’t comment a lot about the actual competitions and this won’t be any different.  The HoH competition was actually pretty interesting though.  I am going to step up for Laura again.  Some people might say it was a bad idea for her to eliminate Russell but think about the long term here.  He was going to find out she voted for Chima to go out so why not just be proactive about it and confront your new enemy?  Bring the game to them, don’t allow it to come to you. The HoH competition proceeded as a continuation of the eviction ceremony where we saw two factions really going after each other.  No one was backing down.  I like it!  Casey eliminating Jeff was brilliant for Casey’s own game and could be helpful to Jeff’s game as well.  Because there wasn’t a land slide vote this week, the athletes might approach Jeff about rejoining them and point out that Casey and the other outsiders are not true allies.  Of course Jeff won’t trust them but right now, he has to try to get back in favor with his team.  Casey helps solidify his game by showing the other outsiders that he is with them.  Earlier, he was considered an enigma but maybe they think less so now.

Ronnie ended up winning the HoH competition.  What I thought was most telling about him winning was the reactions.  There wasn’t excessive celebration or even that much of a pop for him.  Chima was happy because that means she won’t be evicted but everyone else wasn’t that excited.  Because Ronnie has been playing all sides no one really knows where he lies.  The outsiders think he lies with the athletes but the athletes expected him to help deliver votes for Braden to leave and he didn’t so they are wondering was it because he didn’t try or is he just a weak player?  This week should be interesting.

Here are my nomination predictions for week 2:

Jeff – the obvious choice because he has been in the middle of everything this week.
Kevin – he seems to be the only one (minus Casey) that Ronnie hasn’t made an opinion of.  I think Ronnie is going to make the house show him if Kevin should be an ally or a foe.

Ronnie could go after one of the athletes but unless their relationship changes, I don’t see it happening.  Remember he went with what he thought was quality over quantity during the eviction ceremony.

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