Perhaps I dismissed Big Brother 15 prematurely. I originally thought the eviction of Nick and the coalition that developed behind using Elissa as the MVP would dominate the game and make for a boring season. Well, buckle up, kids, because things are about to get bumpy.
SPOILER WARNING: This article contains Big Brother 15 spoilers.
Helen nominated Aaryn and Kaitlin.
Elissa is the MVP for a third week in a row. Yawn. I really thought Helen had a shot since she basically masterminded Nick’s eviction, did all of Elissa’s campaigning for her, and then won HoH. If Elissa still won, then it’s pretty obvious nothing will prevent this from happening every single week as many, including me and most of the HGs, have predicted.
But it’s not all boring, because the MVP nomination caused a whole lot of drama.
The consensus, especially among McCrae, Amanda, and Helen, is that the MVP nominee should be Howard. He voted to evict Elissa this week, lied about it to Helen’s face, and then finally came clean about the Moving Company with Spencer (but this was long after McCrae and Jeremy had already spilled the beans and everyone already knew it). He has also told lies while swearing on the Bible.
However, Elissa started to crack and got a little fed up with having to be the person who gets all of the blood on her hands. She even talked to Helen and asked if they are really friends or if she’s just using her for the MVP power. Helen assured her that their friendship is real and would exist even without the MVP twist. I believe her. I don’t believe that’s true with almost everyone else on their team.
Both of Elissa’s nominees have gone home in the first two weeks, and now she was asked to put up another big strong guy. She wondered why Helen didn’t nominate Howard instead, and also feared that he may come after her (on the live feeds, Howard has referenced that he has anger issues). She was equally worried about upsetting Candice.
Helen, McCrae, Amanda, and Elissa were in the HoH room Friday night discussing what to do with the MVP nomination. Amanda was pushing hard for Howard, but Elissa was uneasy about it. Then Amanda got irritated and said to her, “We saved you, don’t f*** this up.”
Wow. I guess Jeremy isn’t the only bully in the house. That moral high ground is starting to look a little shaky if it’s only the third week and Amanda is already strong-arming Elissa to do what she wants her to do. A little later, with no irony, Amanda accused Spencer and Howard of bullying her over the past few days.
Elissa wanted to put Spencer up instead because he’s obviously working with Howard and he’s less intimidating. None of this truly matters since the plan is to backdoor Jeremy, but if the Power of Veto is not used for some reason or if Jeremy gets picked to play and wins, then the secondary target is Howard.
The Fake MVP
To calm things down, McCrae and Helen both offered to tell everyone that they won MVP instead in order to protect Elissa.
When Candice came in, the others were very worried about mentioning Howard’s name. To calm things down, McCrae said that he won the MVP, and Candice seemed to buy it, though she was still against Howard being nominated because he stood up for her during her big fight with Aaryn and GinaMarie Thursday night.
Candice told Howard that McCrae is the MVP, and he then went up to the HoH room to defend himself and plead his case to McCrae and Amanda. Things got a little touchy between Amanda and Howard as they rehashed things over the past week, including the fact that Howard and Spencer were trying to get Amanda evicted.
It got a little crazy when Amanda claimed that McCrae was ONLY in the Moving Company because he won the first HoH. Howard then asked if Amanda still would’ve hooked up with McCrae if he wasn’t the first HoH. ZING! Also, that’s a great question. I mean, it is a bit odd that a busty, successful, powerful real estate agent is so into a scrawny, long-haired 23-year-old pizza delivery boy with sketchy facial hair.
Amanda also brought up race, saying that she defended Howard and Candice against Aaryn. Well, she brought up the subject with Aaryn, but she basically said that she didn’t think Aaryn was a racist and that she should apologize. Is that defending them?
The conversation ended by having McCrae, Amanda and Helen explaining that they’re putting Howard up because he’s the only one strong enough to defeat Jeremy in the Power of Veto competition if Jeremy is chosen to play in it. Helen then emphasized the importance of backdooring Jeremy because “We hate him.”
“I Don’t Even Know Who I Put Up”
The problem with all of this is that Howard is NOT the MVP nominee.
The best part of this MVP saga came after Elissa returned to the HoH room from the diary room. Amanda asked if she just made her MVP nomination. Elissa started to play coy, saying she didn’t think she actually won MVP this week and she wasn’t told she was. It was the world’s worst lie.
Amanda really pushed hard and Elissa was still vague but cracked quickly as Amanda kept wanting to know whether she put up Howard. Elissa then said, “I don’t even know who I put up.” Seriously, those words came out of her mouth. I now desperately want to play poker with this woman.
Having admitted she is the MVP and just nominated someone, Amanda pressed harder and finally got Elissa to admit that she put up Spencer. Amanda became enraged over how Elissa just f***ed over her and McCrae because they just told Howard that McCrae won MVP and he was nominating Howard.
Elissa then tried to deny being MVP. For reals, this is the actual order of events as they unfolded. She denied even being MVP, admitted she was, admitted she nominated Spencer, then denied being MVP again. Amanda immediately called her out.
I truly do not understand Elissa. Is she that bad at lying? Or did the diary room tell her she’s not allowed to say that she’s the MVP and she just keeps forgetting?
Whatever the case, Amanda was furious at Elissa for not doing exactly what they wanted, but Elissa started to stand up for herself, saying that they need to include her in the decision-making process, because this week it felt like McCrae and Amanda decided Howard would be the MVP nominee and just assumed that Elissa would do exactly what they wanted.
This is going to sound weird coming from me, but “YAY, ELISSA!” Stand up for yourself, girl! Stop being a tool. And next week, flip the house and use the MVP to nominate Amanda! That would be awesome.
In the aftermath, Judd and Helen comforted Elissa and promised her that they love her for her, while Amanda did damage control and came up with a plan where McCrae, as “MVP,” would make a deal with Howard not to put him up. Amanda really is the manipulative snake the Moving Company claimed she was. I know there are about four huge targets for Helen’s alliance right now, but part of me hopes this fight festers and they decide to do something about this Amanda problem. Later, McCrae told Spencer that he won MVP and that Spencer is the third nominee, but he shouldn’t worry because he’s not the target.
Here’s an idea for Helen, Elissa, Judd, Jessie, and Andy: Dump McCrae and Amanda and pick up Jeremy and Kaitlin! It won’t happen, but I can dream. And they can definitely get Candice and Howard on board with sending Aaryn home this week instead of Jeremy due to the race issue. Speaking of which…
The Race Issue
There may also be another component to the difficulty of this decision: race. Obviously, racism has been a touchy subject on Big Brother 15, and if Elissa put up Howard, a black man, and if his girl Candice came to his defense, it could’ve gotten ugly.
That might explain something that Helen let slip on the live feeds. She was talking to Elissa and said, “This show doesn’t want us to put up Howard.” The feeds immediately cut away, but the line still got out.
First of all, can this forever end the debate over whether production is trying to manipulate the HGs into doing what they want them to do? I mean, you don’t get a more overt admission of producer manipulation than that.
Secondly, if I had to guess, I’d say the show didn’t want Howard to be the nominee because he’s black. Given how controversial Aaryn’s comments have been, nominating Howard against her would be begging for a very intense battle and it’s probably the kind of thing producers want to avoid.
It might also be that, since the plan is to evict the MVP nominee instead of Aaryn if Jeremy wins PoV, I’m assuming the producers really, REALLY don’t want either of the two black contestants to get evicted before Aaryn. That would just be a P.R. nightmare.
It doesn’t help that, in the 14-season history of the show, no African-American has ever won and the only one to even make it to the finale was Danielle Reyes way back in season 3. In fact, other than season 4’s Jun Song, all of the winners have been white. Right now, I bet the producers are hoping and praying for Candice or Howard to win this season, because that would do a lot for the show’s image.
What do you think of all of this chaos? Will Elissa’s decision cause ripples in the alliance, or will they all just forgive and forget? Is Spencer as the MVP nominee better than Howard? Does the show not want Howard nominated because he’s black? Are you happy that Big Brother 15 finally has a strong villain, and it’s Amanda? I know I am, because she’s a lot more sinister, when it comes to gameplay, than Aaryn.
(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.
