The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. That’s the moral of this episode of Big Brother 16, as an attempt to use the Battle of the Block twist to their advantage blows up in the faces of Nicole, Zach, Caleb and a bunch of others. And, of course, it’s all about Frankie.
For a Sunday episode (delayed by two hours for golf, which is probably God’s way of punishing them for evicting Jocasta), this one is jam-packed with an HoH competition, nominations, Battle of the Block and lots of scheming. There’s also an ending that feels so scripted that it should be at the end of a football movie
After the D.E.
We see that during the double eviction, Derrick and Cody blamed Victoria for the house flipping while Hayden put all of the blame on Christine and Frankie. After Jocasta and Hayden left, Nicole had a total meltdown because she and Donny were betrayed and lied to by everyone. Donny comforted her and told her not to cry.
Nicole goes off about how Christine and Frankie played her and tried to start a pseudo-alliance with her and Hayden. It’s in front of everyone and Frankie puts the blame back on Nicole. She’s so upset by all of the lies, but she stands her ground. She says Frankie wanted Zach out and Zach and Caleb start to believe her. Frankie isn’t very good at covering it because he hasn’t had time to prepare anything, and somehow Derrick sits there with none of the blame when he is responsible for everything. Frankie freaks out because his allies are starting to doubt him.
The HoH Competition
It’s a tournament-style competition with trivia questions about the game so far. The first bracket is Cody vs. Nicole and Victoria vs. Derrick. The second bracket is Donny vs. Christine and Frankie vs. Zach.
Nicole and Victoria beat Cody and Derrick. HA! Christine beats Donny, then Zach randomly picks an answer right away and beats Frankie. Double HA!
In the finals, Nicole beats Victoria, then Zach takes another random guess, but loses this time and Christine wins by default. Nicole and Christine are the HoHs!
Derrick is happy that at least one Detonator is in charge while Frankie is worried that Nicole will nominate him, because being nominated is the single worst thing that could ever happen to him.
Frankie’s Plan vs. Derrick’s Plan
With the girls in power, Frankie asks his BFF Christine to keep him safe while Nicole knows she has no choice but to work with her frenemy. Frankie approaches them and says he was working with the other side of the house, but now the boys have turned on him. He suggests flipping against the boys. He says they should nominate Caleb, Cody, Derrick and Zach and team up with Donny and Victoria. Christine is like, “Bitch, please,” because she doesn’t like that Frankie is trying to force her to flip with him without asking what she wants.
Zach then talks to Nicole and he’s angry that Christine and Frankie are liars. He wants to work with her, but she doesn’t trust that he can keep his mouth shut. Zach then tells Nicole EVERYTHING about his game, including the bombshell that the Detonators started two weeks ago. Nicole says that she was supposed to be in an alliance with Cody and adds that Frankie just threw the boys under the bus.
As Nicole predicted, Zach immediately runs to Caleb and tells him what Frankie said to Nicole, and Caleb goes to Derrick and Cody. Derrick is furious with Frankie and concocts a plan to have someone (Zach) go on the block with Frankie and throw the Battle of the Block so they can get rid of him.
Derrick takes this plan to Nicole, and for some reason she trusts him the most because he’s never lied to her and he’s never given her a reason not to trust him. Oh, sweetie, you’re SO wrong. Caleb joins the chat and Nicole tells him that Frankie made her lie about Amber during the week she was evicted and that makes Caleb want to volunteer to throw the competition.
The Nominations
Christine nominates Donny and Zach. She says that she’s intimidated by Donny’s intelligence and Zach put her up, so she’s returning the favor.
Nicole nominates Caleb and Frankie. She says she doesn’t want Caleb to go home and she doesn’t trust Frankie because he throws everyone under the bus. That’s the most brutally honest nomination speech of the season.
After the ceremony, Zach puts Christine and Frankie on blast and Frankie is confused. Christine is blindsided, but happy that Nicole grew a pair and made a big move. Yeah, it’s just a shame Christine doesn’t share that trait.
Christine and Frankie are dead to Zach because they stabbed him in the back. Zach literally leaves the room every time Frankie walks in. Frankie is desperate for answers from Zach, but he refuses to talk to him. Frankie claims that he’s the reason Zach stayed, which is so unbelievably untrue.
The Battle of the Block
There’s a giant NFL set-up outside to help promote Thursday Night Football coming to CBS. It’s a rig where the teams must use a pully system to raise balls into a maze and score 10 times.
Before it begins, Frankie can sense that Caleb is going to throw the competition. He begs him not to throw it, but Caleb doesn’t believe him. Caleb calls Frankie out for throwing the boys under the bus and getting rid of Amber. Caleb just sits down and tells Frankie to play it all by himself. Frankie knows everyone is against him and he’s all alone.
Basically, this competition is made to feel like the movie Rudy, with one small guy attempting to triumph against all odds. The problem is that it turns out this pully system can be operated with just one person and Frankie is able to do it by himself. It might even be easier because two people aren’t necessarily in sync.
Donny and Zach score three times before Frankie gets one. Frankie ties it up halfway through and then takes the lead. That’s when Zach decides to try Frankie’s strategy by doing it all on his own. Unfortunately, Zach gets frazzled and fails, so they go back to both guys working together. There’s a total lack of communication and cooperation.
It gets tied at nine balls with just one left. It couldn’t have been scripted any better. Frankie scores one last time and wins the Battle of the Block. He freaks out with tears. He says he did this for his grandpa, Ariana and the whole Grande family. Um, how did the other HGs NOT catch that?
I know he’s happy, but I don’t like that he’s still talking about his deceased grandpa. And the fact that he just mentioned his sister Ariana and his last name Grande in the same sentence should really clue some people in. But Zach still hates him and calls him a liar, so Frankie’s big plan to win back everyone’s trust is to tell everyone that his sister is the one and only Ariana Grande.
Congratulations, Frankie just went from single-handedly winning a competition and crying about his dead grandpa to making me want to punch him in the face by bragging about how his famous sister will make everyone in the house like him again. Good luck with that, dude.
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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.
