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| That Just Happened... |
First off, Wow, just wow. It's not a TOTAL surprise to see Judd walk out the door in 10th Place, but I didn't expect it to go down like that. He and his bear shirt had grown into fan favorites and I, along with a lot of others, thought he was going to go a lot farther in the game. Right after it happened, a couple of my "episode-only" friends who know I've been watching the live feeds hit me up with texts, emails, and tweets, all expressing the same thing - "Whaaaaaaa?"
Honestly though, what really shocked me was Aaryn winning another HOH in a massive More/Less Game bombout by a bunch of other players. I didn't expect to see that many people eliminated in one fell swoop, and I never would've picked the Bigoted Bobcat Barbie to be the one to survive.
Candice's explosion was no surprise at all of course, but was no less ferociously entertaining, apparently she's a good person but you wouldn't know it if you watched the show lately. I feel for the abuse she had to put up with in the House, but it pushed her into a place where she acted ugly and petty herself, and that's too bad.
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| ...and so did That |
But back to Judd's unlikely executioner, who just happened to be on my mind the last time I sat down to write about Big Brother 15 - coincidentally 15 days ago, late at night after the first leg of a long family road trip.
I brought my laptop on the tour of West Texas, Southern Nevada, and Coastal Los Angeles. But after watching Kaitlin go on the block and knowing from Live Feeds she was probably going home, I put down a few paragraphs on how Aaryn's character was evolving on the show, then closed the computer for good until right about now.
In the meantime, I kept up through tweets and squeezed the episodes in where I could. I have to say that even though this isn't the ideal method of keeping tabs on the power struggles between the Houseguests, it was quite a treat to geek out with my girlfriend as we traded #BB15 updates along with the steering wheel while dragging our little fam across 3600 miles of America. She's always been a big fan of guilty pleasures on TV, but never watched this show until I started getting her into it a couple seasons ago, so seeing her fully commit feels especially rewarding.
Anyway, we read and watched as Kaitlin and her eyebrows walked out of the House in proud resignation, Howard buried himself in a shower of vague non-sequiturs, and GinaMarie (my gf's favorite!) log-rolled her way into the upstairs bedroom while steamrolling her Nick obsession farther down the road every day.
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| We just can't get away from this chick |
Ultimately, it was the Threat to Win factor and the execution-style nature of a Double Eviction episode that doomed the popular faux-Country Bumpkin from Tennessee. Fittingly, after a pair of rival (though admittedly tame) showmances with Jesse and Aaryn, all his Big Brother Exes really do live in Texas.
Judd had a minor problem with being considered "shady," but that was mostly coming from Amanda, who was wrongly convinced he was the MVP. Helen seized upon the "Judd is shady" sentiment and used it to work Aaryn into dropping the ax. Helen's true motivation though, was that idea of Judd's friendliness making him too tough to beat if he made Final 4, so he needed to go at some point before that.
Helen and her allies also realized that Judd's good relationship game would make it hard to get him out over the course of a long drawn out week. He wasn't going to go down without a fight, and he was a good talker. The chance to shorten the process from 5 days to 5 minutes was too good to pass up, especially when it was Aaryn who would get the proverbial blood on her hands.
So we're down to the Final 9, and I'm finally forced to concede that Helen, my own personal most hated Houseguest, really is playing one hell of a game. Even though she seems at times to be under some strange spell cast by Amanda, it's actually working for her, and thanks to Aaryn's continued success in competitions, Helen still gets to exert a lot of control, thanks to a longshot bet she made to work together with Aaryn back during Helen's HOH.
I'll admit that I thought at the time Helen's Dirty Work Deal with Aaryn was just one more dumb piece in an overall disastrous term on the top floor. But it turned out to be a masterstroke, even if a little luck-aided. Now, no matter how often she denies it, Helen's become one of the true power players in this game, which brings us to the latest rankings.
Bottom Tier - Youse Guys Gots No Chance
9. GinaMarie
8. Spencer
7. Jessie
As a person, GM is flawed but sincere, and I can see why my sweetheart of a girlfriend loves cheering for her.
As a player, she's a joke...it's a shame CBS had no time to show her total meltdown over her inability to write the weekly HOH blog post, it was truly amazing. Even better was that she had real reason to feel terrible about the post.
Even though Candice looked awful (to me), with her heated goodbye speech, GM didn't look any better, and probably made herself look worse by insisting on getting the last word.
Now for a Semi-Spoilerish Prediction:
Based on the result of the post-broadcast HOH late Thursday night (who we'll get to), I predict Spencer and Jessie will be our nominees this week. And even though it may not seem like much of a choice, it actually would be, since I'm also predicting the Mcranda/Helen alliance will finally implode next week, and Spencer/Jessie would support different sides of that split, respectively.
Even if that previous paragraph ends up mostly wrong, both Spence and Jess are in full-on floater status for now...both have the capability to make a move if they see an opportunity, but neither seems willing to actually influence any of the remaining HG's.
Oh, and in other news, Spencer's creepiness has forced the authorities to get involved, and it looks like his bosses turned him in!
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| One of Spencer's least creepy moments of the Summer |
Middle Tier - It May Be Too Late
6. Elissa
5. Aaryn
4. Amanda
All three of these girls have what it takes to win, but they're each fighting to rehab their image after diciness earlier in the game.
Compared to the other two, Amanda's bad behavior is more recent, and she's really fallen far after appearing to have a great chance to win it all for the first few weeks. Despite numerous warnings from her allies, especially McRae, she just can't calm herself down when she gets emotional, and she just has to lash out.
She's also replaced Aaryn as the "House Racist," and alienated so many fans that she was easily nominated by America the past two weeks. Of course there's still a #TeamAmanda movement out there, but its strength is fading. The end of the MVP Twist helps her more than it does anybody else.
Amanda still has a lot of power and influence thanks to her super-strong relationships with McRae and Andy and Helen, but she's also gotten to the point where she's sure to lose against any of her allies in the Final 2, so to win she'll have to turn on them first, and drag someone from the Bottom Tier with her to the end.
I don't see how she can successfully stab all three of her friends in the back and live to tell about it, but she has pretty much run everything up until now, so I can't say she's dead, yet.
Meanwhile Elissa has just been too much of a follower ever since she stopped being the BBMVP, and Aaryn's competition wins - even though they've kept her in the game - have forced her to get a lot of blood on her hands, hurting her longterm chances. Aaryn definitely started to realize this last night after Judd's eviction, but it may be too late to do anything about it.
Top Tier - Spoiler Alert
3. Andy
After Judd went home and BB went off the air Thursday, the Houseguests had a couple of hours to process things, then it was time for the next HOH Competition. I'm not sure exactly how the competition worked, but I do know it was a knockout style quiz game and that Andy was the winner.
I disagree with most of the online opinion I've read about Andy - so many people want to call him a floater and a rat but I think he's played a super-solid, under the radar game so far.
His meme-worthy obsession constantly moving all over the House and worming his way into every conversation has served him well, and it was telling that even though Helen would've loved to make a move against Amanda this week, she knew she couldn't do it without Andy on board. Meanwhile his meme-worthy obsession with holding things may not factor into the game all that much, but it is hilarious.
Now that it's finally Andy's turn to get blood on his hands, we'll see if he's got what it takes to play from the front instead of the middle.
2. Helen
Like I mentioned above, Helen's game has finally started to win my respect, even as her condescending "House Mom" attitude and her cartoonish "personality" in the Diary Room continue to keep her on my personal shit list.
For some reason, thought, the Houseguests don't seem to be as annoyed with Helen as I am. One thing I've noticed is that she has a very smart habit of going to whichever player is having the Meltdown of the Day and just pumping them up with super-positive talk. It's happened with Aaryn, GM, Amanda, and others...she just finds people who are caught up in their own selfish moments and tells them what they want to hear about themselves, over and over again.
With Judd gone, Helen's doing better than anyone else at "playing the Jury." It sets her up well but also increases the size of her target if her closest allies start to fear her because of it. It's really going to be interesting when they inevitably turn on each other.
1. McRae
Even though I think Helen has the best chance of anyone right now in a Final 2 scenario, I like McRae's chances of actually *getting* to that scenario a lot better than hers. He's one of two players left that have yet to go on the block, and he has Amanda shielding him from almost all of the flak that they've drawn as a power couple.
If I felt Mac was blinded by his "love" for Amanda and making bad decisions because of it, he wouldn't be this high, but he's actually played with a lot of self-awareness of how that relationship affects his image in the House, and I don't think he'll have any problem cutting her loose, if and when he feels it's needed.
McRae has barely had to start playing the game at all, and he may be the best player in there based on his overall smarts and his especially deep knowledge of how Big Brother works. When it comes time for Mac to make his move, he'll be ready.
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| Voting out Judd left McRae wracked with guilt, but keeping his alliance happy was the right move, for now |
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