Category: reality tv

After Steve won HOH, he finally did what should have happened many weeks before Big Brother 17 Episode 33. He nominated Austin and Liz.

Now that we are down to 6, everybody will participate in the veto competition. Oh, and Jessie is back again for some reason, wearing a tutu. Their challenge is to bowl, releasing the gates in their way for 15 seconds by spinning 15 times.

Liz beats Steve in the first face off. Julia chooses to challenge Austin. Huh? Either way, that works out for everybody else, including Vanessa who seems to have planted the seed in her mind. Then Vanessa starts telling Liz to pick Austin, too, and Austin’s paranoid that the whole house is out to get him. Austin beats Julia. John chooses Liz now that Vanessa has stirred up all this drama with Austin, and he wins easily. Vanessa selects Austin, who feels betrayed again, and shuts her out.

That leaves John against Austin, who tells John that he really wants it. Oh, you want to save yourself and put both twins in danger? No problem. John will be happy to oblige. Austin wins the power of veto, celebrating by warning everyone that Judas is here.

Vanessa says that the twins are coming at her like she played them. She kind of did. But she has a point. An Austin win means Julia’s going on the block. What other choice is there?

The aftermath of this is much arguing. Nobody trusts anybody. Even the showmance is under strain, as Liz realizes Austin is no Clay, who sacrificed himself (some would say foolishly) so Shelli could stay and then promptly follow him out the door. Austin’s not helping his case by saying things like “I ruined my life for you.”

Meanwhile, though he doesn’t want to get involved in this drama, Steve starts telling us that he’s afraid of Vanessa and maybe should take her out. This is believable. Sure, Vanessa is super dangerous and realistically the odds on favorite to win, but you can’t leave a trio in the house at this stage, whether they have been arguing or not.

Austin uses the power of veto on himself. In his place, Julia is nominated.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Big Brother 17 Episode 35, which airs Thursday at 9/8c on CBS.

During the double eviction in Big Brother 17 Episode 32, Meg and James were both eliminated, completing the removal of their alliance from the game.

There’s all this talk about how the twins made a mistake last week when they got rid of James, which may have some truth to it, but I can’t imagine wouldn’t be gunning for Austin and the twins as well. We’ve been dancing around this large alliance long enough. It’s silly they have even gotten this far.

Austin discusses throwing the HOH and just letting one of the twins take the fall, which is going to have to happen if he wants to get to the final two anyway, but he is not ready to do that just yet.

Their challenge is to watch a series of pictures going by in decreasing speed and identify which houseguest’s picture is not shown, then arrange a puzzle showing that person’s face. A puzzle challenge seems to play very well to Steve’s and John’s strengths.

Not realizing she’s missing pieces, Vanessa does not finish the first puzzle and is eliminated. Austin is the next one eliminated. Julia is the third person eliminated. John wants to play next week and lets Steve win HOH.

Steve wants to be able to say he made a big move, but this forces him to pick a side and possibly become a target. I’m not sure a win here against his closest ally was a smart decision.

Austin promises Steve that he won’t nominate him. He’s heard that story before. The twins know something is up with Austin. He’s just trying to save himself. Of course, they will do the same when the time comes.

Steve is set on nominating the twins, but Vanessa’s mind is always working. He needs to keep the weakest of the three off the block so that Austin doesn’t win veto and remove Liz, then the two of them control the vote. That would mean nominating the showmance instead, which is a greater risk to Steve playing nice with Austin. John agrees, but further proposes that they get rid of Austin so that Vanessa’s ties to the other side are cut. Of course, she’s closer to the twins than either John or Steve, so I’m not sure what that really accomplishes, although it does take out a big physical threat.

Prior to the nomination ceremony, Steve warns Austin what he plans to do.

Nominations
Austin
Liz

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Big Brother 17 Episode 34, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

After James won the power of veto, Vanessa’s plan was ruined in Big Brother 17 Episode 31, and she had to nominate Julia against Meg.

Julia is not as good a target as Liz, but the opportunity to get rid of a twin is huge. Obviously, Austin and Liz will vote to keep her. That leaves it up to John and Steve, Vanessa’s newest allies who are probably better for than anyone else she was working with previously.

John and Vanessa promise each other final two. It’s an alliance of convenience but not the one most people would suspect.

Votes
Liz: Meg
James: Julia
Steve: Meg
John: Meg
Austin: Meg

By a vote of 4-1, Meg has been evicted from the Big Brother house. All of a sudden, James is all alone. Vanessa got her way, but I’m not sure it was the smart move to leave an alliance that consists of a showmance and a set of twins and makes up half the houseguests remaining.

And now we head to the second eviction of the night.

The HOH competition requires them to view photos and then answer true or false questions. Everyone gets the first question correct. James and Steve are eliminated on the next question. Austin and John are eliminated next. Liz and Julia are both correct on the next question and the next one and the one after that. Liz answers the next question correctly to win HOH.

It goes 100% without saying that Austin and the twins are safe for another week. This is getting more and more dangerous as the numbers dwindle.

Nominations
James
John

The veto comeptition provides them with two ball rolls on a boomerang-shaped platform that has numbers on the opposite side. Steve scores 0 both times. John does as well. This is starting to look stupid. Austin scores 6 and then 9. Liz scores 15 and 0. Julia scores 13 and 4 to take the lead. James scores 0 and then 0 again. Julia wins the power of veto.

Keeping her sister’s nominations the same, Julia does not use the power of veto.

Votes
Austin: James
Julia: James
Vanessa: James
Steve: James

By a vote of 4-0, James has been evicted from the Big Brother house. I thought Austin and the twins were going to get rid of John again instead. Little do they know this leaves another alliance of three up against them. Possibly. If someone decides to target them for once.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Big Brother 17 Episode 33, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.

Vanessa won HOH in Big Brother 17 Episode 30 and chose to stick to her original side that has since turned on her, nominating Meg and James.

Meg and James thought they were being clever before the nominations by keeping quiet. Now they are ready to talk or at least complain.

Vanessa realizes she has pissed off everybody. She doesn’t want to target Austin and the twins, too, but she doesn’t have a lot of options if James wins veto.

Vanessa selects Julia at random to participate in the veto competition. James picks Liz. Meg picks Austin. None of those three choices are likely to change things.

They will be given 3 minutes to hide their veto cards, and then each person will have 2 minutes to find them, rotating until only one card remains. The person whose card has not been found wins. There is some strategy to this, but it seems like largely dumb luck.

Vanessa eliminates Liz. Julia eliminates Vanessa. Meg eliminates Julia. James eliminates Meg. Vanessa (who can still play because they don’t find out the results until later) eliminates Austin. James wins the power of veto.

Now Vanessa’s dilemma is that she’s alone in the house. As much as she may want Meg to go home, most people view Meg as non-threatening. The only reason Meg is a threat is because of James. Aside from that, nobody is worried about her, and they could easily flip the vote and screw over Vanessa.

James goes off about Vanessa at Austin. I’m not sure what he’s trying to accomplish here. This will only encourage her more to get rid of Meg. Make a deal. Lie if you need to do so. Don’t lash out like this.

As Vanessa proposes to Julia that she should be a pawn, making it abundantly clear that Meg is her target, Julia’s defense is that she’s not scared of Meg. That’s exactly the point. They would vote out the proposed replacement, John, instead.

James reluctantly goes to talk to Vanessa. His advice for her: she’s playing the game too hard. Now we get to see angry Vanessa. Haven’t seen that in… minutes. To be fair, before they started talking, she warned him she was in a bad mood, but he wanted to chat anyway.

James uses the power of veto on himself. In his place, Vanessa nominates Julia. This is the perfect opportunity for the rest of the house to finally break up the twins.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Big Brother 17 Episode 32, which airs Thursday at 9/8c on CBS.

Following John’s eviction in Big Brother 17 Episode 29, a new battle began for HOH and for one juror to return to the house.

Julia, Steve, and Meg were already eliminated by the end of the commercial break. James is the next one to drop, but they still have hope in one of the jurors. Liz doesn’t last much longer than her sister.

That leaves the jurors up against Vanessa, and although some of them have bigger targets, Vanessa has had a hand in everybody’s eviction. Jackie is the next one to fall. Becky falls. Then Shelli. John is the last juror standing, having been out of the house for about 10 minutes. Vanessa promises John he’s safe. I’m not sure how believable that is, but apparently they decided before he left that they would work together. Eventually, he’s had enough and drops, though he never accepted her deal because it wasn’t smart. Vanessa wins HOH.

Seeing as every person in the house has targeted Vanessa, she could go after anyone. Her alliance has become a complete joke, there is an opposing alliance, and then there are a couple of floaters who seem to have become her best hope.

It probably would not be smart for Vanessa to target Austin and the twins, but if people keep waiting to do that, how do they expect to get rid of all three of them? Vanessa wants to target Meg and James, despite the fact that her alliance is terrified of John. The way she sells this plan is because Meg and James asked about getting rid of Steve instead of John last week, which ironically would have meant Shelli’s return, with a giant chip on her shoulder about her and Clay having been broken up by James.

Vanessa asks James and Meg if they have any information that would help her make a decision. Silence. Then they lie and say they never knew she was a target. Both of them volunteer to go on the block over the other, complete with tears, showing how dangerously close they are. James promises to target Austin next week, but he fails to provide a reason why Vanessa should do that herself. Perhaps they’ll be in the mood to talk when they’re on the block.

James remembers something. Vanessa had made a deal with him that she would not nominate him and one other person if she were HOH before final 7. With John’s return, we are back to 8. They do not, however, share this memory with Vanessa.

Nominations
Meg
James

They sealed their fate by refusing to talk, but I’m not sure there was much they could do to prevent this.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Big Brother 17 Episode 31, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

Everybody continued to go on and on about supposedly wanting to get rid of Vanessa in Big Brother 17 Episode 28. It probably wasn’t going to happen anyway (again), but then she won veto, leaving the nominations the same with Steve and John remaining on the block.

Vanessa starts crying after the veto ceremony (after she gets done attacking Steve). I think I’ve seen this plot before. Austin and the twins just play along. Sure, Steve, the outsider, was the mastermind behind forcing the strongest alliance in the house to target her. That makes so much sense.

Then one of the twins confronts John. Why would he tell Vanessa about their 5 person alliance? The one that they threw in the trash when they they put 2 of the 5 members on the block.

The twins call Vanessa the swing vote. Vanessa denies this. She just wants to do whatever they want. Great. We seem to be getting nowhere here.

I’m not sure how much it really matters. Whoever stays is in the middle of the house caught in between two alliances with Vanessa.

Votes
Meg: John
James: John
Vanessa: John
Julia: John
Liz: John

By a vote of 5-0, John has been evicted from the Big Brother house. Boo. Farewell to the life of the party. I’m not sure what he did wrong to get eliminated, but that’s kind of the point. I’m not sure what he did right either. If anything, he may have been sunk by the fact that the upcoming twist was revealed weeks ago. Nobody wants to upset an alliance that may just be brought back together right after the eviction.

When asked who he would target if he were to come back in the house, John responds Meg. That seems odd. In either case, he would be willing to work with Vanessa. It’s not like either of them have much choice.

Shelli, Jackie, Becky, and John will now have a chance to return to the house. Becky and Jackie would clearly seek to make the Meg/James alliance a threesome, which is what made keeping that pair in the house very dangerous. The path the other two may take is not so clear.

In this competition, Dizzyland, they will hold on to a rope and go around in circles and spin some. The last person standing will be HOH. The last juror standing will return to the game.

So, this is an endurance competition. Supposedly. Steve, Julia, and Meg have already been eliminated in the time it took to go to a commercial break.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Big Brother 17 Episode 30, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.

After Austin won HOH, there was much talk of a Vanessa nomination in Big Brother 17 Episode 27. Again. John and Steve are now on the block.

We start tonight with more of the same. Vanessa is going to be a target. Maybe.

Austin selects Vanessa at random to play in the veto competition. John picks Meg again. Steve selects Julia.

Zingbot comes by and insults everybody. Then he asks Liz whether she’s excited to meet Austin’s girlfriend.

Zingbot’s veto competition is to identify face mashups. Julia sets the time to beat with 4:45, which does not seem particularly difficult. Steve wants to go slow and steady and not make a bunch of wrong guesses. Well, he gets that half way with the slow part. Austin doesn’t recognize that Liz’s face is not in the picture he keeps guessing. Vanessa sets a new best time of 2:51, much better. John is unable to beat it. Unable to recognize her own nose, Meg loses.

Vanessa wins the power of veto. Now we can stop pretending like she’s going on the block. It would be funny if she used the power to screw over Austin and the twins, but I’m not sure there’s a path where doing so might make sense.

She talks to John to once again make sure they are cool, and she agrees to discuss with Austin the possibility of removing him from the block. Austin considers this a selfish move because he doesn’t believe Meg or James would come after him.

After Vanessa tells John that Austin said no, John responds with the only thing he has left: she was the target last week. Once again, the truth comes out about these really bad lies that people are telling everybody in the house. Liz admits it but blames Steve. Yeah, Steve’s the power in the house who’s forcing everybody’s hand. Vanessa seems to buy it and goes off on Steve.

Vanessa does not use the power of veto. Her using it was plausible on some level, but since the only friend it would win her is John, it wasn’t worth it.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Big Brother 17 Episode 29, which airs Thursday at 9/8c on CBS.

Becky was evicted in Big Brother 17 Episode 26, a pretty predictable result despite all the talk of getting rid of Vanessa.

Meg was the first person eliminated from the HOH competition at the end of the last episode. Julia eliminates herself by moving her hand off the buzzer. Vanessa does the same. Finally, the race is on, and John is eliminated. Steve is the next victim of a false start. Austin beats James to win HOH.

In theory, everybody who was competing for that wanted to get rid of Vanessa. Surely it can’t be the best thing for everyone’s game. John’s not sure Austin would be that dumb. The twins didn’t want him to win either.

Everybody in the house is in an alliance with Austin, so now he needs to decide which of those alliances to cut. He tells James and Meg that he’s keeping that alliance. That leaves, John, Steve, and Vanessa.

John’s the one certain nomination. Now they need a pawn to go up against him. As they are discussing this, Vanessa refuses to acknowledge that Austin was her target when she was HOH. Now he says he can’t trust her any more because she’s lying to him. Oh, this story again. That was actually her excuse and the reason why she should have followed through. Austin, who’s been lying the whole game, is upset by the same thing that upset her. Such a dysfunctional alliance. One problem with these stupid lies is that they tell everybody else in the house the truth, so nothing stays secret for long.

Steve says he is willing to be the pawn. But only if he is not up against John. That seems like a rather unusual request.

After being pushed again, Vanessa finally admits that she was targeting Austin.

Nominations
John
Steve

I don’t think there was ever really any chance of a Vanessa nomination, though perhaps as a backdoor.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Big Brother 17 Episode 28, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.