With Helen in charge and Elissa her first lieutenant, the Mom Squad continued sitting pretty as “Big Brother” adjusted its roster of potential evictees.
As head of household, Helen had nominated Aaryn and her last girlfriend, Kaitlin following Sunday’s powerful and racially charged episode.
It was assumed Elissa would be MVP once more, but is America that predictable? Sure, she was the closest to celebrity in the beginning of the season, as secret sister to former player Rachel. But after weeks of game play, is she really always going to be the most valuable player?
Everyone was right: Elissa was MVP again, although this time she didn’t react by saying “I’m obsessed!” as she did last time.
She was less clear about who to nominate though. The main target of Helen is the bully Jeremy. Simply put, she wanted Elissa to nominate someone who could be strong enough to win the veto competition and take himself off the block so they could backdoor Jeremy. Nominating Jeremy straight out, as they did last week, was a bust, as Jeremy proved he could win power of veto when he put his mind to it.
Elissa couldn’t quite get this concept, and those who encouraged her to put up Howard never explained it well to her. They never came right out and said, “We’re not after Howard, we just want to backdoor Jeremy.”
But Elissa didn’t want to be bullied by McCrae and Amanda, or even Helen about this and was sort of a friend of Howard. She claimed they were “villianizing Howard.” By which she either meant vilify or making Howard look like a villain. Either way, she was making up an awesome word.
But as the theoretical “secret MVP,” nobody would have to know it was her putting up Howard. If only she were a better actress, she could pretend someone else got the MVP every week.
But she’s not, so she picked Spencer as the third nomination for eviction instead.
Now Spencer and Howard, the last two members of the formerly mighty Moving Company with Jeremy and McCrea, would either be good targets but both had pled their cases with Helen.
Of them, Spencer has a slight edge since he came clean about the original alliance while Howard continued to deny it ever existed. Advised that this made him untrustworthy in Helen’s eyes, he came back to apologize again and Helen wept.
Helen says in the confessional that as a mom, crying is a good way to get her kids (and maybe her husband) to do what she wants. So watch out. Helen is brainy, doesn’t make enemies and cries on demand. She may have won already.
Ginamarie and Candice are selected to play in the veto competition with Aaryn, Kaitlin, Spencer and Helen and the contest is an odd one.
They have to jump on a trampoline to see the order of a dozen of portraits on one wall, the order of which they had to replicate on another wall. To check on their work or correct it, they had to jump on the trampoline again.
These were some odd pieces of art, with the swirls of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” superimposed with Veto symbols; Helen’s face on Mona Lisa, Spencer as god from Michaelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, Jeremy in Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of Washington.
If some got the order right, but the wrong version of the painting — with a portrait looking right instead of left or some such.
The way it was all edited, it was tough to see as it was going how well anyone was doing. There was no clock running or anything. So until Judd read the results it wasn’t clear that Candice, Ginamarie and Helen were all within seconds of each other at just under nine minutes, Aaryn took a little longer with 9:50 and Spencer totally blew it at 12 minutes. The winner was the one whose result would be most interesting of any of them: Kaitlin.
Because of her showmance with Jeremy, she was hesitant to take herself off the block because it ensured he’d go on. (Jeremy had already said she’d vote her off in a heartbeat if it meant he’d go farther in the game, but she apparently forgot that).
But if she didn’t use the veto and allow Helen to replace her with Jeremy, they’d all vote Kaitlin off.
“I have a huge decision to make,” she lamented.
“I just want to make love with you right now,” he said to her, creepily.
“I’m just going to turn on the Cherokee charm and I’m going to get her to do what I need her to do,” he tells the confessional camera, even more creepily.
Kaitlin’s best plan is to urge Helen to put up Howard instead, but Helen tells her the house is insistent Jeremy goes because he’s such a jerk.
(Aaryn is a big jerk too, and racist to boot, but everybody figures she can be easily dismissed later; Helen even says it may be helpful to have someone hateful along).
Kaitlin is remorseful for how he’s acted to turn everyone against him.
“Why do you have to be so cocky?”
“I’m so badass I can’t help it!” he answers. “A champion is a champion. I don’t lose, it’s not in my blood,” he declares.
“You did lose,” she reminds him.
And indeed, Kaitlin takes herself off the block and Helen puts Jeremy up for eviction alongside Aaryn and Spencer.
Jeremy is defiant — or clueless — to the end. In the confessional, he takes on the character of a Batman villain as he declares: “These fools want to try and backdoor me! Ha ha ha! I laugh in the face of danger! I’m not done yet yes. This Cherokee doesn’t go down without a fight!”
Except the way he said it it sounded like he said “this Chuck E. Cheese doesn’t go down without a fight.” Which is way more accurate.
Jeremy vows to turn on the charm before Thursday’s vote, but since he has no charm to give, he’ll likely have to pack his bag and put on his shirt for Thursday’s elimination.
Two other things about the episode:
Though it began with that odd new disclaimer that “houseguests may reveal prejudices and other beliefs that CBS does not condone … viewer discretion is advised,” it was the first episode of “Big Brother” in a while that didn’t mention the racially insensitive remarks of Aaryn and Ginamarie.
It’s taken for granted that Aaryn is the most hated member of the house, but never mentioned why — something that could have been helpful to those who may have missed the last few episodes.
Also: The makeup use can be pretty alarming. Something has gone terribly wrong with Kaitlin’s eyebrows, which are these odd painted on lines. When she appeared for her veto meeting way over made up, she looked like a completely different person (making one confessional remark seen early in the episode, done in the same extreme makeup, indicate how out of order those comments can be with what’s going on). And Amanda without makeup in the confessional looked so ghostly she almost needed identification.