Category: reality tv

Paul’s week as HOH concluded in Big Brother Season 19 Episode 18 with nothing happening because Jessica used her hex. Then they had an HOH competition that anybody could win, and anybody did. With Josh at the helm, we’re in for a repeat. Not only does he do whatever Paul does him to do, but Cody is one of the many people he over the top unnecessarily hates.

A few days ago, Josh told Mark he was done being a bully. Those two allegedly at least have an understanding for now, but Mark is an easy third nominee.

After Josh’s win, they are celebrating and discussing how Elena and Mark are also mad. Late to the party, Alex comes to tell everybody that they are mad, to which Josh responds that Mark is sitting right there.

Christmas would like to have a discussion about what they are going to do, rather than letting Paul run what is supposed to be Josh’s HOH. He has already decided to do what he tried to do last week, while Christmas thinks maybe they should get rid of the floaters.

The more Elena talks, the more Josh focuses on her as a potential target. An unexpected decision, but Christmas continues to encourage him to do what he wants.

Last week, not very many people participated in the temptation competition. That strategy has changed after they blew it and let Mark win, though he probably was going to win even if everybody played. Jason, Matt, Raven, Alex, Kevin, Paul, Mark, Elena, Cody, and Jessica all play with only Christmas opting out.

Their challenge is to run through the haunted house and unscramble letters on the windows that correspond to an item. Unique challenge but not much to it. The item is a simple five letter word that can be guessed with a couple of letters, but there are some people who are really freaking out because of the ghosts and have no chance on that basis.

Mark – 7:06
Kevin – 3:11
Elena – 12:31
Jason – 12:07
Jessica – 15:00
Raven – 9:00
Cody – 3:00
Matt – 3:42
Alex – 3:06
Paul – 3:34

Once again, the entire house fails to use their overwhelming odds to get what they want. For the two underdogs, they got exactly what they want. Cody wins and is safe for the week, and Jessica, who was going to do awful regardless, has guaranteed herself a spot in the veto competition.

The nominations are still as obvious as they were at the start of the week, albeit different. Mark and Elena are the two remaining people on the wrong side of the house. Paul thinks they are pawns, and maybe they are. Josh twists the words of a ranting Elena to make it seem like she was trying to get Paul and Alex nominated. Even if he is a liar, she might want to tone it down because she’s giving him the excuse he needs to say she is dangerous.

Nominations
Jessica
Mark
Elena

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Big Brother Season 19 Episode 20, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

The entirety of Big Brother Season 19 Episode 17 was spent trying to convince us that Jessica will not use her temptation power. I’m still not convinced. Jason, Jessica, and Cody are on the block. Either Cody is going home, or nobody is.

Matt tells Jessica exactly what my first thought was. What he and Cody discussed that Paul mentioned is no longer relevant. The game has changed a lot since Cody won HOH. Unlike the rather calm Matt who says he doesn’t want to talk about it, Cody does, but he’s upset by the accusation.

Jessica has tried making a really stupid deal with Jessica. She won’t use her power if he helps her get rid of Alex. Sure. He’ll promise that. Duh. He won’t keep that promise, but he’ll make it.

The most compelling argument for Jessica to not use her power is that she and Cody continue to fight, so she may as well just throw him to the wolves. The problem with this is that no matter how much conflict these two may have, I can’t see either of them actually targeting each other. It would be stupid to do that when they have so many common enemies.

Veto Ceremony
Jason is saved.

As the special third nominee, Jason’s nomination does not need to be replaced.

After an episode and a half of trying to dispel the fact that she’s going to use the temptation, we finally get a straight answer. Jessica’s going to use the temptation.

Paul’s got an answer to that: find someone with an even bigger mouth than he has. Time for Josh to be obnoxious. I think I’ve seen this episode before. It quickly gets more and more stupid. Every person in the house gets more and more stupid. Cody and Jessica try to walk away, but Paul just gets his minions to follow them. Can anyone think for themselves? Matt at least calls the way they are behaving embarrassing.

For all the unnecessary drama because they didn’t think anyone would watch if there were not some question, we finally get the expected result. Jessica unveils her halting hex, and the eviction ceremony will not take place.

The HOH competition is dumb luck golfing where they will hit the ball around obstacles and try to land it in the highest numbered slot. There’s no skill or strategy here, and anybody could win. If they even try to plan, the ball just hits an obstacle and bounces elsewhere. Julie’s not happy with the limited attempts at being competent and keeps telling them to be faster. Hey, Christmas, don’t worry that you might fall over because you’re on crutches.

Matt starts with a 6. Alex scores 2. Mark takes the lead with 15. Jason ties him. Cody takes the lead with 21. Christmas ties him. Elena scores 13. Jessica scores 2. Josh takes the lead with 23 to very loud celebration by Paul. They keep calling Paul a vet, but this is yet another sign he isn’t. Raven scores 13. Kevin scores 6.

Josh wins HOH. We’re pretty much going to have a repeat of this week, except somebody will actually go home.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Big Brother Season 19 Episode 19, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.

Despite Jessica’s vague but true warning that she has the power to keep herself and Cody safe, Paul decided to call her bluff and nominate the couple in Big Brother Season 19 Episode 16. They have been joined on the block by Jason, who lost the first temptation competition.

Pointless awkward argument ensues. At the end of this, Jessica’s not happy with Cody again. He may not be going this week, but she will have to stay in the house after they finally get rid of him for a second time.

Of course, it doesn’t end there. What would a fight in the house be without Josh arguing with someone?

Paul’s starting to realize that maybe Jessica isn’t lying after all. He wants her to just let Cody go this week. It seems unlikely that the result would be anything else, so she is not in any danger. They want to convince her that letting Cody go will magically make them all trust her, and they won’t trust her until he’s gone. So what difference does it make if he leaves now or two weeks from now?

The bromance between Mark and Cody continues to grow as their showmances discuss distancing themselves. They realize that the guys probably are not good for them, but they are shields that will protect them and never turn on them.

We’re spending an awful lot of time on this storyline. Almost the entire episode. Important, but there is no other way to edit this since leading up to this it seemed like a forgone conclusion that the week would be a waste.

Paul chooses Kevin to play in the veto competition, apparently not desiring to choose someone who can win. He then picks Raven at random.

Throughout the night, they were played news reports, which will be used in the fill in the blank veto competition.

Raven: 16
Cody: 15
Paul: 22
Jason: 15
Kevin: 16
Jessica: 12

Paul wins the power of veto. No way the nominations are changing, and this win is largely symbolic, though Paul thinks he will use it as a bargaining chip. I don’t follow that logic because there isn’t any, but he does reveal that Cody said on day 13 that he wanted Jason and Alex to stick around so that they could get rid of Jessica and Raven, possibly true but irrelevant by this point.

Jessica has a proposal. If she doesn’t use the hex, she wants two guarantees. She cannot be nominated for two evictions, and Alex has to go. Paul guarantees her first request. He cannot guarantee the second request, which she wants more. There is zero chance he tries to get rid of Alex until she no longer is of use to him, but he’ll be happy to pretend. If only Jessica knew this is a really dumb request. Safety, that’s fairly easy, there will be bigger fish to fry when Cody’s gone. I don’t know who the target will be after that, but if it is Alex, it won’t be at Paul’s request.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Big Brother Season 19 Episode 18, which airs Thursday at 9/8c on CBS.

Jessica’s nominations blew up in her face as expected in Big Brother 19 Episode 15, as Ramses was evicted to end a pointless week.

Paul doesn’t believe Jessica’s threat. If she could really save herself, why didn’t she use it last week? The answer is obvious. She knew she wasn’t going home. To be fair, this could all just be a bluff.

Now we are treated to a Josh being obnoxious montage. Footage that could be taken from any time he opens his mouth. Most of his houseguests find this hilarious. Wait until it happens to them.

Paul’s decided that Jessica doesn’t really have any power, so he should nominate her and flush it out if she really does. Of course, she can’t use the power until eviction night, making him feel successful all week until he realizes that it was another pointless week.

After last week, Elena has realized that she may be on a sinking ship. I don’t think abandoning ship will help her cause, but that’s what she seems to be doing.

Players will now decide whether they want to participate in the first temptation competition. This is an interesting concept because you only get any punishment or reward if you take the risk. Jason, Mark, Matt, and Alex are the competitors. Cody did not join in because Jessica told him he couldn’t. On the contrary, Matt only joined because Paul told him to. Not a lot of challengers to offer a buffer from that guaranteed nomination.

The competition requires them to knock down bowling pins, which they can try for 15 seconds after every 15 spins. Jason finishes in 3:37, unlikely to remain the leader. Alex easily beats him with 1:39. Mark gets 1:18 to take the lead. Matt finishes in 2:35.

Mark is safe this week, blowing a hole in Paul’s plan B. Jason, who was never in any danger otherwise, placed last and is now the third nominee.

Jessica wants to kick the can down the road to next week, but she is not doing a good job of explaining to Paul why he should not nominate her.

Alex volunteers to be a pawn if they need one, which is rejected by others. Another volunteer is Matt, who already almost ended up on the block once by volunteering to try to help in the competition.

Nominations
Jason
Jessica
Cody

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Big Brother Season 19 Episode 17, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

After winning the power of veto in Big Brother Season 19 Episode 14, Jessica was given one more chance to change her mind and nominate someone worthwhile but decided not to do so. That leaves Josh, who has despised multiple people from day one, on the block up against Jessica’s pawn, Ramses. The problem with that theory is that she never got confirmation before nominations that she had the votes to keep him, and before the veto ceremony, she still received no positive feedback that he would stay. Nobody even tried to lie to her in a convincing way.

This is Big Brother 101. We learned this in the very first eviction ceremony that ever happened. Nominate people that you actually want to get rid of. Pawns do go home. Even if you have a specific target, at least put them up against someone else you wouldn’t mind eliminating, particularly if your gut is screaming at you that you are making a mistake.

Paul is sure he’s got the votes lined up. He has talked to seven people to confirm. He’s not going to bother letting Mark and Elena know, though, because he’s convinced they have rekindled their alliance. Even if they haven’t, he’s going to give them a reason to do so. Mark has decided that he’ll trust them, but Cody says he is just pretending to work with him. So basically no change in strategy since he was kicked out. Just pretending to work with everybody still so that he can one day blindside them all.

Adding to Paul’s already established concerns, Mark tells Paul that he hates the way two people, a pair, are playing the game. No names, but Paul assumes this to mean Matt and Raven, a reasonable assumption.

Considering these numbers, Ramses needs to line up two additional votes. Kevin is unpredictable, but he and Jason could be the swing. Alex was Ramses’ ally on day one, but she’s in Paul’s back pocket now.

Jessica has been quiet so far, but she tells Kevin about her temptation. That suggests she trusts him more than most, and he feels the same way. He warns her that people are trying to flip on her. He tells her that it doesn’t matter because of her temptation, but I would expect her to keep that to save herself or Cody. She blames the person that everybody always blames, Paul. Accurate and the theme of the season so far, but she had the chance to take a shot.

Cody’s strategy is to go to important votes like Jason and threaten them.

Votes
Cody: Josh
Jason: Ramses
Alex: Ramses
Mark: Josh
Elena: Josh
Kevin: Ramses
Matt: Ramses
Raven: Ramses
Christmas: Ramses
Paul: Ramses

By a vote of 7-3, Ramses has been evicted from the Big Brother house. Such a bad HOH. Maybe Cody and Jessica should stop winning power because they suck at it. Still, I think they are in a stronger position than they were a week ago, but this result didn’t help them.

The memory wall is filled with houseguests covered in tattoos. These photos will be used in the HOH competition. Elena is the only one to get the first question incorrect. Mark, Alex, Cody, Kevin, and Josh are eliminated on the second question. Nobody is incorrect on the next question or the one after that. Christmas and Jason are eliminated next. Matt and Raven are the last to fall. Paul wins HOH.

Just letting other idiots do his dirty work has been working until now, so this seems unnecessary, but I would assume he’s going to take a swing back at Cody again. We may be in for just a wasted week.

Speaking of Jessica’s temptation power, now comes the consequence. But first, Jessica warns the house that she has the power to keep her and Cody safe for a few weeks. Bold move, but if Paul doesn’t waste his HOH on her and Cody, he’ll nominate her allies instead. Saving the power for next week at the expense of one of her already limited numbers can do more harm than good.

The consequence? Temptation competitions. For the next three weeks before nominations, they will be tempted to participate in competitions. The winner will be safe for the week. The loser will be a third nominee.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Big Brother Season 19 Episode 16, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.

The entire house set out on a mission to prevent Jessica and Cody from winning HOH in Big Brother Season 19 Episode 13. So it came as no surprise that Jessica won. She then proceeded to nominate Josh for being obnoxious and Ramses as what she called a pawn. I don’t think either of those furthers her cause, but I guess she can only fight one battle at a time.

Jessica acknowledges she’s going after floaters this week in attempt to rebuild alliances. There’s a problem with that. They hate you. The odds seem better of establishing something with an alternate group, although the alternate group isn’t any more impressed.

Somewhat realizing that this could blow up in her face, Jessica asks whether Josh is going home. Now you ask that? That’s a question you ask before nominations, not after. Paul won’t even give her a straight answer.

Paul insists that Josh will never, ever, ever go against his side, whatever that is. Have you been paying attention? Josh could turn on anyone at the drop of a hat with over the top reactions. I don’t think he is very dangerous, but he is very unpredictable.

Jessica selects Cody to participate in the veto competition as houseguest’s choice. Josh chooses Jason at random. Ramses picks Christmas. The only hope for Josh is that Christmas can actually play and that she can be swayed by Paul.

The veto competition requires them to mix drinks by reviewing a list of items in a sequence and following the instructions such as pour the middle ingredient. Christmas is eliminated in the first round. Jason, Ramses, and Josh are eliminated next, leaving only Jessica and Cody and pretty much ending the competition. Jessica beats Cody to win the power of veto.

That’s a good thing because she controls her own fate, but her initial nominations were pretty poor and are in need of review. She really doesn’t think she needs to use it, but she’ll just ask everybody about the vote. All they need to do is lie convincingly. Her first conversation is with Raven, who acts very strangely. She’s starting to realize that they could easily screw her over by not doing what she wants, which they have no reason to do. Cody advises her what he would do. We saw how well what he would do worked when he was HOH.

Her proposed alternative is to nominate Alex, not one of her former allies who she doesn’t trust and are making her question her decisions. Granted, she shouldn’t trust Alex either.

Based on Paul’s advice, Josh is pretending like he is defeated and thinks he’s going home. This should be another red flag. It’s too easy and too soon for him to be behaving like this. From what we have seen this season, this is so far out of character for him that it would be dumb to believe it.

Veto Ceremony
Veto is not used.

This will not end well. I don’t think it was going to end well regardless. Yet another wasted HOH. The only particularly successful HOH was when they all united to take out Cody, who then returned the following week anyway.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Big Brother Season 19 Episode 15, which airs Thursday at 9/8c on CBS.

Cody won his way back into the house in Big Brother Season 19 Episode 12 by winning the battle back competitions.

10 minutes before the live eviction, Josh informed Jessica in front of the whole house that she is his target. Why does this guy keep doing this nonsense? He can’t drop anything. Just keep digging without provocation.

In addition to Josh, Jessica informs Cody that Paul, Christmas, and Alex are her targets, but otherwise she has repaired the relationships. I don’t think it’s quite that easy.

The HOH competition requires them to hold up a disc with a long tube. Kevin begins to explain his strategy, but before he can finish, his disc falls after 17 seconds. Mark is right behind him. Paul also falls in under a minute.

Each person that drops can pick a person to punish with various distractions, and there is no rule saying they can’t all punish one person, Cody. Jason falls after 2 minutes. He has a different strategy than the first three, punishing Jessica instead. Elena has not talked for 4 whole minutes and can’t take it anymore, returning to punish Cody. Matt is next. Raven drops at 17 minutes as the times start to get a little more respectable. Josh follows at 38 minutes, and after giving his punishment to Jessica, he proceeds to yell insults at Cody, which for some reason everybody finds hilarious. It’s not.

Cody finally drops at 1 hour and 24 minutes. He punishes Ramses, the most surprising person still left standing. Ramses drops after 1 hour and 49 minutes. Standing on one leg, Christmas has managed to outperform just about everybody else, but she drops at 2 hours and 52 minutes. Jessica wins HOH.

When the last four were standing, Jessica and Cody offered to keep Christmas safe. She did not accept the deal or counter with one of her own because she didn’t want to lie, but Jessica says she will honor it.

She further tries to establish support from Matt and Raven. Did she not see them on the bench dying laughing while Josh was berating them? Mark and Elena also play nice, but Mark is someone they will not trust.

Josh is an obvious nomination, but he’s not a threat, no matter how obnoxious he is. The other obvious nomination is Paul, who has demonstrated that he can be a threat, but he has a lot of support and probably wouldn’t go even though he should.

Nominations
Ramses
Josh

Ramses is the pawn, not the best idea when you only have one guaranteed vote, no matter how non-threatning Ramses may be.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Big Brother Season 19 Episode 14, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

Dominique became the fourth person evicted in Big Brother 19 Episode 11, completing the cast for tonight and joining Cameron, Jillian, and Cody for the chance to battle back into the house. If this is all about who can win competitions, Cody has been given such lopsided odds and could not have asked for a better group to compete against, but Julie suggested it won’t be quite so simple. If it’s a popularity contest, I still have to go with Cody between these four choices because people seem to be warming to him and Jessica despite his awful start.

As it turns out, it is still a matter of winning competitions, but with a twist. All of them will compete in the first competition, the two winners will move to the second competition, and then the house will vote someone to compete in the final challenge and try to defend the winner of that from entering. Still heavily favors Cody, but he could have a worthwhile challenger coming his way.

The first competition is a maze race. They must maneuver their ball through a maze using a rope and pulley system. Hard to say who could have an advantage in such a challenge, and even if they get almost to the end, one slip could cost them the game. I would have to give it to the guys if only because neither of the girls is much of a challenge threat, not that Cameron is either as we saw when he got eliminated on night one. As Jillian is the first to drop and then drops again, it’s becoming apparent she is not going to win. Cody is the first person to finish. Cameron was the second person to drop, but Dominique has been going so slow and steady that it doesn’t seem like she will ever finish. Cameron places second.

The next competition will have them catapulting balls at a billboard to knock out panels. This one again should be very easy for Cody when you consider it’s a game of shooting mixed with a bit of running, but Cameron is doing surprisingly well and is in the lead from the beginning. With Cameron ahead 6-3 and then 7-4, Cody finally figures out the technique. After a strong run, Cody grabs the lead 8-7, and ultimately Cameron never scores again. Cody wins and is the last evictee standing.

The next challenge against the houseguests’ choice will be a repeat of one of these two but modified. Even with those modifications, I don’t see how Cody can lose. He will be up against a stronger competitor, but he gets to pick the challenge, both of which he has already practiced and won. He chooses the maze, which will be replaced with a different maze, but still the same technique is what will win, something that requires time to learn unless you have already learned it.

Mark is angry because he fears that someone is going to come back who he turned his back on, but Jessica assures him he’ll be fine if it’s Cody. Cody said he will listen to Jessica more if he returns, and unless he wants to end up right back out the door, he needs to listen to someone. Still, other than Jessica, I don’t think anyone really wants any of these people to return.

They don’t have much time to discuss strategy before the vote, but they clearly have enough time to come to a consensus while Julie’s talking since she does not prohibit discussion.

Everybody votes for Paul. Not the best choice if they are looking for the strongest challenger, but he is a middle of the road competitor they can all agree on. He has no chance of winning, though to be fair I don’t think anyone does.

It wasn’t even close the first time Cody won this, and now he has the advantage of practice. Paul’s only hope is that he learns fast and Cody makes a mistake. Paul makes a competent effort, but Cody wins easily and is back in the house.

Jessica is alone in her excitement, immediately jumping into his arms, and also providing a warning to not do anything crazy until they can discuss what has happened.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Big Brother Season 19 Episode 13, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.