Big Brother 15 Power Rankings - We Need to Talk About Helen

The 15th edition of Big Brother has already seen several series firsts, and after Thursday night's elimination of Jeremy, we have another. For the first time, the first three evicted Houseguests are all men.

Though plenty of women have won this game before, we've never seen an all-girl alliance take things over and run the show all the way to the end, as several groups of men have done in recent seasons. A few girls have mentioned the idea of blazing such a trail at times this summer, especially Candice, but so far they haven't formalized that chatter into an actual plan.

At one point I thought Helen might be the leader who could gather these scattered strains of feminism together into a truly forceful female alliance. But as her week in the House's master suite showed, Helen may be the oldest, most mature person in this game, but that hasn't made her any more immune to the dangerous disease know as HOHitis.

We got our first clue of what was in store for the week when Helen went full-on Elaine Bennis Dance Mode after winning Head of Household last Thursday. It's just too early to celebrate that much, especially in a season with more enemies to eliminate than ever. 

Helen...it's Week 3!

I get that she was happy and semi-delirious from staying up all night studying, and that by keeping Jeremy and the Jermettes out of power she essentially solidified a group that seems to have agreed to take each other to the Final 10 (We'll call them the Jury Alliance even though the Jury is actually Final 9). But the over-the-top hysterics revealed that Helen was instantly seduced by power, and let it go to her head.

Further evidence quickly followed, as she repeatedly and almost aggressively kept telling everyone in her group that "This is your HOH just as much as it is mine..." You know how it is with people who insist things over and over, it usually means they're full of it.

By turns arrogant and threatening, Helen fell victim to the classic BB trap of thinking that when you're HOH once, you're suddenly in charge of all the votes for the rest of the game. She offered some people extended weeks of protection that weren't hers to guarantee, while treating others like an awkward mix of a disappointed mother and spurned girlfriend. She tried to dictate to others what they would be doing if they were the one to replace her as HOH.

Worst of all, Helen pushed relentlessly to expose protected information from all of her alliance members, in turn weakening her ties with each of them. She made a target out of herself and increased the likelihood that the Jury Alliance *won't* actually make it to the Final 10 intact, giving Aaryn, Kaitlin, and GinaMarie a sliver of hope that one or two of them might slip through for a few more weeks.

She didn't need to do any of this - again, it's still very early in the game. I don't really have a huge personal interest in seeing a girls alliance get organized and take over, but I mentioned it earlier because I think that *would* have been Helen's best move last week. Instead of wasting time and energy putting Howard and Spencer through the ringer and building fake bridges back to Kait and Aaryn, all she needed to do was lock things down for a Final 4 with Elissa, Candice, and Jessie. Those three had a strong trust built up with her, but no formal plan to always watch each others' backs.

Do that and lay low with everyone else and you've set yourself up well to move into the middle stages of the game. But now Amanda/McRae are planning a move against her, and Howard/Spencer can't be too happy with her, while Candice and Jessie are building stronger ties with Howard and Judd, respectively. Sometimes domineering, other times over-promising, and nearly always in tears, Helen proved giving political advice for a living doesn't mean you can put that wisdom into practice yourself.

Helen has sold herself hard from Day 1 as a Superfan of Big Brother, and she's pretty much backed that up with her knowledge of game mechanics and game history. Armed with those advantages and her career experience, I'm actually shocked at just how badly Helen played her HOH. In the end she did succeed in getting out the person she wanted, but Operation Evict Jeremy steered itself better than one of Google's driverless cars - it happened in spite of her, not because of her.

Of course, regardless of who gets the credit, Jeremy's humblebraggy exit from the game shrinks our Power Rankings list down to 13:

Bottom Tier

13. GinaMarie

12. Aaryn

11. Kaitlin

These three ladies are on the outs from the Jury Alliance, and should be the next three people to go home, in some order. That may not necessarily happen of course, but it's safe to think that one of them at least will probably head home this week, and that person will probably be GinaMarie. Not only do her enemies in the House hate having her around (because she's STILL mourning over Nick), her so-called friends do to. 

Judd's ascension to HOH is good for the drama this week because even though he's very popular with fans this season, no one is quite sure exactly what he's going to do. So far on the first night after winning, he's hinted that he'll put up Kaitlin and GM...he's inclined to protect Aaryn for some reason, and he knows that a no-frills week that sees GM go home at the end of it is the best way for him to keep targets off his own back. But will he able to pull that off?

I personally think they should target Kaitlin - she's proving to be more formidable in challenges than first thought, and from this trio she has the best chance to upset the apple cart and survive past the next three weeks. 

WARNING: Approach With Extreme Caution

Third Tier

10. Spencer

  9. Howard

At least they've got each other, right? These guys formed an unlikely bond early in the game and have aligned their strategies ever since then. The problem is that they've both played the game hard and fast, without doing a good job of covering up the lies they've had to tell because of it. Right now they're both still ducking the "untrustworthy" label which is never good if you're in a giant alliance. Both guys drew a little heat last week and might've had to sweat a little more if Jeremy hadn't been such a slam-dunk to get rid of.

Second Tier

  8. Candice

  7. Elissa

  6. Helen

These ladies should be higher as a fairly solid group of 3, but they each have flaws in their game limiting them right now. Candice continues to be a smart cookie who meshes well with people socially but hasn't really done anything that you could truly call "strategic," yet. Elissa's only success in the game so far has come from her MVP power, which is out of play this week. Helen, as noted above, knows the game inside and out but didn't seem to know herself very well when she was HOH. She failed to consolidate her power and instead made herself an easy target for the future once the three Mean Girls are finally gone for good.

Top Tier

  5. Jessie

Quiet conversations have helped Jessie gain power

Jessie's rapid rise from the pits of powerlessness sees her inching into the Top 5 for the first time. She made a really strong move for herself in flipping against Nick two weeks ago, and now that Judd is HOH she can really have some influence this week since she's becoming his tightest ally (did you see him kiss her hand as they passed each other during the voting Thursday night?). She's still a bit of a clinger and I don't know if she can continue making game moves with such impeccable timing over the next two months, but for now she's got to be recognized.

  4. Amanda

Like Helen, the target on Amanda's back is getting bigger, not smaller. But because she's got a more-committed partner in the game and a more effective way with words, I like her chances to determine her own destiny more than Helen's. Amanda is vulnerable, but the right person won HOH to keep her out of harm's way this week. If Elissa, Spencer, or Candice win it next week, she could be in trouble.

  3. McRae

  2. Andy

  1. Judd

Saaaaaaa Cute!

I'm not sure if any of these three guys will win this game, because there is still such a long way to go. But I do know that right now, they're the only three in the House that *no one* is gunning for. 

McRae has been able to cruise on soft power so far after establishing himself as the first HOH. He spends most days making out with Amanda while letting her brashness draw any fire that might get directed at their strong twosome. His biggest worry right now is getting too complacent with that arrangement, which I could definitely see happening.

Andy is Mr. Everywhere, he never lets a strategy conversation take place without getting his ear into it, if he can help it. He's the power-floater right now...no commitments but a little bit of influence with everyone

Even if Judd decided to get a little crazy with his nominations this week, I could see him putting up anyone except McRae or Andy. I like his early idea to keep it simple and just put GM down for the count, but as we saw with Helen- you can go for the easy eviction and still weaken your position in the game overall. Can't wait to see how Judd avoids, or repeats, the same mistake.