Big Brother 14 is down to its final three and the most controversial houseguest of the season, Dan Gheesling, is still in it. He was generally beloved after winning season 10 by a 7-0 vote (the only time the jury has ever been unanimous), but this season he’s made a lot of enemies, both inside and outside the house.
Dan has lied to almost everyone, swearing on his wife Chelsea and the Bible multiple times, then going back on his word. He promised Frank a final two deal then evicted him. He promised Danielle he would keep Shane safe, then he evicted him. The jury house is filled with the mangled corpses of Dan’s victims.
And while some fans (myself included) are in love with Dan’s utterly ruthless and ultimately effective gameplay, others find it disgusting that he uses his faith and his wife in his lies.
But my question is whether you love or hate Dam, it’s whether he can win.
A lot of it depends on how the final HoH competition works out. Ian has played a surprisingly strong game, founded the Quack Pack, made a secret alliance with Dan and betrayed Boogie. He has plenty of arguments to win, and most importantly, he hasn’t angered the jury nearly as much as Dan has. If Dan takes Ian to the finale (or if Ian wins and takes Dan), all of the Dan haters might feel justified in giving the win to Ian.
What about Danielle? Regardless whether you loathe her as much as I do, there’s no denying that she has played a horrible game. In fact, there’s no denying that she hasn’t played a game at all.
She has been Dan’s puppet from day one. In week 2 she was nominated and Dan told her she was on her own to get the votes, and Danielle started crying about how she couldn’t do it without him. When she was HoH the first time she cleared every decision by Dan.
She wanted to nominate Janelle, but Dan told her not to. She wanted to put up Frank and Boogie, but Dan told her not to. So she nominated Frank and Wil, just like Dan said. Then when she won the Power of Veto she wanted to backdoor Janelle, but Dan didn’t want to, so she agreed not to do it. Then Boogie and Frank offered the Silent Six deal, Dan was swayed, and he told Danielle to go ahead and backdoor Janelle. So she did.
That pattern continued throughout the season as Danielle literally asked Dan what she should do every time she had power, and she did exactly what he told her, even nominating himself.
My point is that Danielle didn’t play a game, she was just a pawn for Dan to move however he saw fit. So if Dan takes Danielle to the finale (or if Danielle wins and takes Dan), I believe he deserves to win.
Will he? To decide this, we must look at the jury.
Frank: He is a bitter, bitter man when it comes to Dan, but I suspect he has absolutely no respect for Danielle’s game. I like to think he’d come around and vote for Dan, but I think he’d go for Danielle.
Ashley: She’ll do whatever Frank does. Or whatever the magical unicorn who lives in her imagination tells her to do.
Britney: She will vote for Dan. She likes Danielle, but Britney has proven that she respects the game and she appreciates how powerful a player Dan is.
Shane: He will give his final rose to Danielle. He might even propose. The only hope Dan has is that Shane gets confused and thinks he’s supposed to vote for who he wants to get evicted, not who he wants to win. Sadly, I feel like that’s an unlikely but not entirely impossible scenario.
Joe: He seemed to have a good attitude about getting evicted and might decide to give the money to the person who played the best game. But I think he might be one of those players who votes for who needs the money more, and that would NOT be someone who already won half a million dollars.
Jenn: She seemed to like Dan and Danielle equally, but she might vote for Danielle just because she’s a woman.
Ian: Ian will vote for Dan, even if Dan chooses Danielle over him. He will be momentarily upset, but he has way too much respect for the game not to give Dan the win.
So if Dan takes Danielle to the finale, I think he will definitely have Britney and Ian’s votes and he definitely won’t have Shane’s. The other four might be able to be swayed by their final Q&A with the last two HGs. That’s where I give the tiebreaker to Dan. He has proven all season that his Mist is powerful and he can talk his way into anything, even a second win.
Dan is already working on his sales pitch for the finale. Despite his claims that he wants Danielle to win (and his promises to both Danielle and Ian that he will take them to the end), in private Dan talks to the camera about how badly he wants to win this game and how anything less than a win will be a disappointment. He wants this bad and if the other two give him the chance to talk at the end, it’s a done deal.
Dan can use his Mist to convince the jury to vote for him. After all, during part 1 of the final HoH competition, Dan was able to convince Ian AND Danielle to drop on purpose and let him win. He understands every move he’s made and he knows how to explain them to the jury in a way that makes him sound brilliant and will make Danielle sound like she was a bumbling idiot just following his commands.
In the end, whether Dan wins will be about the jury. Are they bitter and do they hate him? Is he on par with Natalie or Ivette, HGs so despised that Jordan and Maggie were allowed to beat them by default?
We’ll find out Wednesday at 9:30pm during the live finale, but I know I’m rooting for Dan Gheesling to become the first ever repeat winner of Big Brother.
(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.
