I’m sticking with my claim that Big Brother 15‘s subtitle should be “Sound and Fury.” There’s a lot of insanity and paranoia and lies in this episode, but none of it really seems to change the original plan. Amanda has wanted Howard to be evicted since before the game even began and now that seems inevitable.
Heck, just look at this week’s Power of Veto competition. It’s a high-concept design with time travel and dinosaurs, but in reality it’s just a simple puzzle. That’s the perfect metaphor for this season. It looks elaborate with a lot of drama and craziness, but it’s really quite simple.
Nomination Fallout
Aaryn seems genuinely depressed about having nominated the people Helen, Amanda and McCrae wanted her to. As awful as Aaryn is, I have to admit she’s playing a great game right now, acting weak to earn loyalty points. Now everyone loves her, but I believe she’s sneaky enough to betray everyone later. She is a real snake in the grass, and everyone seems to be overlooking that.
Howard is depressed that, once again, people are just doing whatever Helen, Amanda and McCrae want. Jessie meets up with Howard and cries about how nice he is. I can’t decide if Jessie is playing a smart game, or if she’s playing personally and accidentally stumbling into a good game.
McCrae then lies his ass off to Spencer, claiming he wanted Elissa and GinaMarie to be nominated and that Helen and Elissa are the ones really controlling Aaryn. Spencer doesn’t believe a word from this “lying pizza boy.”
Howard Gets “Real”
Howard calls a house meeting to say that he’s not going to let the game affect his personal beliefs. I think. He just rambles a lot of nonsense and no one understands what he’s actually trying to say. How is this guy a threat to anyone?
Amanda, McCrae, Andy and Judd meet up to talk about how confusing it all was and they have no idea what Howard is thinking or who he’s targeting. Which I guess is a good thing? I’m just kind of scratching my head about the whole thing, because Howard doesn’t seem to be a real threat to anyone since no one understands him and he never wins anything.
Andy and the Bird
For reasons too mysterious to understand, the editors include a short scene of Andy laying in the hammock one morning, and then a bird flies close to him and startles him. That’s it. I guess the producers realized that Andy hasn’t really said or done ANYTHING this season, so they needed to put him in somehow. If this is literally the best they can come up with, I feel confident in declaring Andy one of the worst HGs of all-time.
The MVP Nominee
Elissa tells McCrae and Amanda she thinks Andy is the MVP. They don’t think there’s any chance of that being true, they’re sticking with Howard.
Amanda is the third nominee, which instantly makes everyone think Howard is the MVP since she’s a big target. This is the problem with the new MVP twist. Inside the house, people nominate strategically. But America does it personally, so it doesn’t actually change the game, it just stirs up pointless drama.
After Amanda goes up, McCrae tells Spencer that he’d bet his life on Howard being the MVP. Sadly, God does not strike him dead with a lightning bolt right then and there. McCrae is starting to act like an obnoxious little bully, but because he’s a tiny pizza boy and not a giant Cherokee warrior with tattoos, it’s not as bad as when Jeremy did it. Except it really is.
McCrae, Andy and everyone else in their group are 100 percent convinced Howard is the MVP, but Amanda is somehow the voice of reason who isn’t sure. She talks with Howard, but he speaks in circles again. Amanda finally admits the REAL truth in the diary room, that she wants Howard gone because she can’t manipulate him.
The Power of Veto Competition
There’s some idiotic nonsense about Helen as a mad scientist sending the HGs back in time to retrieve the Power of Veto. The backyard is designed to look like prehistoric times. I can only assume the competition designers were big fans of Terra Nova.
They must collect puzzle pieces and put it together. It’s that simple. There’s no real reason for all that other time travel and dinosaur nonsense.
Candice and Jessie are perplexed and Howard can’t put the puzzle together to save his life (literally). Amanda and Spencer do the best, with Spencer pulling out the win at the end.
The Replacement
Amanda, McCrae, Andy and Helen meet with Aaryn to discuss the replacement nominee. Aaryn wants Candice because she is the cause of everything bad in her life and she’s a vote for Howard. Helen adds in air quotes that she wants to “fight” to save Candice because she promised she would, but she doesn’t actually do it. She just wants to delude herself into believing that she didn’t lie to Candice.
Helen then talks to Candice and blames Aaryn for the decision. Candice calls out Helen for making all sorts of deals with Elissa, Amanda and McCrae and controlling the house. She argues that it doesn’t make sense that Helen would make a deal with Aaryn but not her. Much like with the boys’ alliance, Candice understands what’s happening, but doesn’t know how to use that information to her benefit.
Helen goes to the HoH room to make a preemptive strike against the fact that Candice is 100 percent correct, so she claims Candice “threatened” her and all other kinds of nonsense that never really happened. Helen is a political consultant, so clearly smear campaigns are in her repertoire, because she is doing a masterful job of making Candice look like a crazy person.
In a move you could see coming from space, Spencer saves himself and Candice is the replacement nominee.
Just like that, we will have our FOURTH showmance of the season broken up. Love really is a battlefield.
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(Image courtesy of CBS)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
