dingoRUE

When the alliance of four had to split up a showmance in Big Brother 18 Episode 37, they chose to keep the potential free agent James and voted out Natalie.

Nicole and Corey discussed taking a shot at Paul and Victor. Paul seems to be the odds on favorite to win at this point, and although Victor sucks at the game as evidenced by him having been evicted twice already, he’s the biggest competition threat. James still has a good relationship with Corey and Nicole, in spite of Natalie. This could piss some people off, but it seems necessary.

The HOH competition has them running back and forth and trying not to slip. After half an hour of falling, Paul stops trying to run and instead opts to slide on his butt. James has meanwhile resorted to a far less effective method of crawling. Nicole is the first to unlock the big scoop and can start trying to catch up to Corey. Paul never even gets the big scoop by the time Corey runs away with HOH.

Corey and Nicole reveal their plans to James. That could backfire if Paul wins veto and pulls Victor off, but otherwise the plan should fall in place.

Nominations
Victor
Paul

I wasn’t expecting that, but it makes sense. This is the safest plan to guarantee Corey that he won’t be forced to nominate Nicole.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Big Brother 18 Episode 39, which airs Tuesday at 8/7c on CBS.

After Corey won the power of veto in Big Brother 18 Episode 36, he let the nominations stand. On the block with her showmance, Natalie began her path to destroy James before eventually asking him why he was so sad. I’m not sure if she’s being mean, oblivious, or just playing hard all of a sudden.

This could go either way. I would think get rid of James because he’s the better social player, but that also means that he has better relationships with everybody who may believe he is more useful to keep around, which also makes him more dangerous because both duos think they can sway him.

Natalie continues to blame James and is mad at him all day long. After this day, she refuses to sleep in the same bed with him, and James lets out the thoughts he has been keeping to himself. Even after all the drama, they’re still in a showmance as it comes down to the vote.

Technically, Corey and Nicole control the vote, but they are not going to do it without making sure it’s unanimous.

Votes
Paul: Natalie
Nicole: Natalie
Corey: Natalie

By a vote of 3-0, Natalie has been evicted from the Big Brother house. She has been expecting this result all week, which she explains as a reason why she was lashing out at James.

The HOH competition requires them to run back and forth with melted butter to fill a container on the other side. Corey and Paul choose the large container, while Nicole and James choose the smaller container that also needs to be filled to release a larger scoop.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Big Brother 18 Episode 38, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.

Victor won HOH in Big Brother 18 Episode 35 and nominated James and Natalie as expected.

Natalie continues to badger James about the decision he made, still not acknowledging or realizing that her desire to get rid of Corey is a key factor in the other showmance forming an alliance with the others instead. She apologizes to Paul and Victor for making a bad decision by trusting James, which sounds a lot worse than she perhaps means it, an indication to them that she’s playing harder than they thought.

The veto competition is a promo for the new MacGyver in which they must figure out a way to escape. Natalie starts off with a time of 9:06. Nicole is not even close. Victor does better but still not good enough. James is the worst one yet. Corey does surprisingly well in what is basically a puzzle solving challenge and takes the lead with a time of 6:14. Paul does as badly as James, and Corey wins the power of veto.

Obviously, he is not going to use the veto because the replacement would be Nicole.

Natalie hasn’t won much, nor has James for that matter, but that performance may have painted more of a target on her back.

Corey drops hints to James that he may not be as vulnerable this week as he thinks, but the response is to just vote him out instead, which Corey shrugs off. James wants to tell this to Natalie because they have been together all this time. Then she asks him if he threw the comp. Then she asks him if he has a final three deal with Corey and Nicole. And in conclusion, if he does join them after she leaves, he can just not talk to her ever again. Harsh. After he’s being done being berated by Natalie, Victor and Paul tell him what she told them earlier.

Veto Ceremony
Veto is not used.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Big Brother 18 Episode 37, which airs Thursday at 9/8c on CBS.

When it came down to a choice between the very dangerous Paul and the not at all threatening Michelle, the houseguests decided to squash Michelle in Big Brother 18 Episode 34.

Instead of telling their alleged allies about the plan to get rid of Michelle, which was obviously going to come out eventually anyway, Nicole and Corey decided to wait until 78 minutes before the live show.

The classic egg competition has a couple of twists. They are only trying to hit three targets, not transfer ten eggs, and they also have to deal with eagles trying to break their eggs. Within the first 14 minutes, Corey drops an egg in the have bucket rather than trying to use it to score. At 23 minutes, Victor is the first to score, and Natalie is right behind him. Corey and Paul also score. By this point, an hour has passed. Corey is the first to knock down the second target, but Victor is right behind him. Natalie is also in the running, but James has not scored anything. Paul finally knocks over his second target as well. After close to 2 hours, Victor wins HOH.

The logical conclusion here is that James and Natalie will be nominated. Normally Big Brother will edit it to try to make it look like there’s a chance, but this is a rare occasion that they aren’t even pretending. They aren’t even posing a hypothetical alternative scenario.

Natalie complains that the problem is that they trusted untrustworthy people because of James, but really it was Natalie who was trying to get rid of Corey during her HOH.

Nominations
James
Natalie

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Big Brother 18 Episode 36, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

HOH Nicole won the power of veto in Big Brother 18 Episode 33, leaving her nominations of Michelle and Paul unchanged.

Corey has a $5,000 bribe to give away. He can use it to convince Michelle to tell James and Natalie to not bother voting for her because it’s not like she can win anyway, or he can use it to sway James or Natalie who don’t seem like they can actually be swayed. Neither concept is very compelling.

James has an alternate proposal: offer it to someone, like himself, to drop out of the next HOH competition. He’s convinced that he has Natalie and Michelle in his back pocket, so it doesn’t really matter. Except Corey’s planning to get rid of Michelle. This is an excellent idea for Corey, not so much for James.

Corey decides to give it to Victor to vote to evict Michelle. Really? You know how much chance there is of him evicting Paul? 0. I’m not sure if this solidifies their alliance or makes it look like he doesn’t trust them.

In her final speech, Michelle says she will go after Victor if she stays, and she warns them that not evicting her will lead to Victor and Paul being in the final two, which is a very good chance.

Votes
Victor: Michelle
Natalie: Paul
Corey: Michelle
James: Paul

With two votes each, the tie breaker goes to the HOH. Nicole votes to evict Michelle. She would have been a great person to take to the end, but she served no purpose for Corey or Nicole. In her final final speech, Michelle warns that Nicole, the HOH who just evicted her, is floating to the final two (I guess it’s a three person final two with Paul and Victor). Victor spills the beans about the alliance in his goodbye speech.

Whoever wins HOH is important, but this all seems to play out in Paul’s and Victor’s favor. They are part of the Final Four alliance with Nicole and Corey, but there is nothing preventing them from flip flopping back to James and Natalie, who now have much less reason to trust the other showmance.

The HOH competition will have them transferring eggs from the outside of one side of a cage to the other and then roll them down a ramp to knock down targets.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Big Brother 18 Episode 35, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.

After Nicole won HOH in Big Brother 18 Episode 32, she proceeded to target Michelle and made her new ally Paul the pawn.

James is confident that Paul is the target because that is what Nicole is saying. May as well fess up. Unless James and Natalie vote with the rest, Paul leaving would require both Corey and tie breaker Nicole to vote out Michelle, thus revealing their hand if they haven’t already. The only out here is if Victor wins veto.

As the first ones to fall in the HOH competition, Corey and Victor are have nots for the week. They will also be able to eat seaweed and squid.

Nicole selects Victor at random to participate in the veto competition. Paul selects Corey (houseguest’s choice). Michelle selects James.

After Paul chooses Corey as houseguest’s choice, Michelle becomes suspicious that she is the target.

The veto competition is a counting or rather guessing competition in which they must identify the number of objects in Santa’s workshop based on a smaller number of similar objects. Corey seems hopelessly distracted.

First round: Corey and Paul fold (and advance but without a chance to earn points); Nicole and James score a point; Victor is eliminated.

Second round: Corey, Paul, and Michelle fold; Nicole scores a point; as the only other one standing, James is eliminated.

Third round: Paul folds despite Corey’s ridiculous answer of 1 billion so apparently he doesn’t want to win; Michelle scores a point; Corey is eliminated.

Fourth round: Paul folds; Nicole wins the power of veto.

There isn’t much point for Nicole to change the nominations.

Paul’s strategy after the veto competition is to act upset. Nicole doesn’t view it the way he says he intends and thinks he is being sketchy. Then he proposes that she take him off the block and replace him with Natalie, which has no chance of happening and demonstrates a lack of trust. Meanwhile in another room, Michelle is crying.

Veto Ceremony
Veto is not used.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Big Brother 18 Episode 34, which airs Thursday at 9/8c on CBS.

James and Natalie picked a side and eliminated Victor in Big Brother 18 Episode 31. Then all of the jury members returned for a chance to come back in the house.

Paul blew up at everybody yet again hours before the eviction. I don’t think he’s doing himself any favors, but what comes out of this other than that is that Natalie wanted Victor to stay last week, rather than the person they are supposedly in an alliance with.

Everybody is participating in the HOH competition. The difference between this and the previous endurance competitions is the tilting wall and cold water. Zakiyah and Da’Vonne both jump together in under 17 minutes. Corey is next at 25 minutes. Bridgette falls next at 33 minutes. Paulie is next to fall at 48 minutes.

Victor is returning to the house. Again. This is stupid and ridiculous. Why even bother voting people out if they can just keep coming back again and again? Clearly he wasn’t good enough at the game to last the first time or the second time.

Natalie shouts that there is a god. The guy who went out on her HOH is back. She has a unique perspective on good news.

Two minutes later, Victor falls. Paul falls after 1 hour and 35 minutes. Nicole makes a deal with James, promising safety for himself and Natalie. Nicole wins HOH at 2 hours and 4 minutes.

Michelle is not at all happy. Natalie doesn’t really trust Nicole. Paul is somewhat happy.

Nicole’s immediate target is Michelle, which is exactly what Michelle says she would do if she were in her shoes. Such a lackluster target that just kicks the ball down the road until next week.

In addition to their existing final four deal with James and Natalie, Corey and Nicole now receive another offer from Victor and Paul. If she can get rid of Michelle, she can keep both sides going after each other and have both deals still open. Perhaps not such a bad idea. Paul agrees to be the pawn.

Corey wins the final care package, which is $5,000 that he can use to bribe someone to do something he wants.

Nominations
Michelle
Paul

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Big Brother 18 Episode 33, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

Paul made Natalie feel guilty for nominating him and then proceeded to pull himself off the block in Big Brother 18 Episode 30. Corey is now on the block along with Victor.

The vote all comes down to James (and Natalie). He has been pretty much working with everybody and really has no enemies, so having to pick a side is perhaps not ideal.

Paul’s plan to pull themselves out of their current predicament is to pretend to like Nicole and Corey and have Victor act like he’s mad about it.

Now that he’s been kicked out of the house, Paulie has stopped trying to make himself look awful. Apparently none of these people realize they have been eliminated because the girls all gang up on him, and he gives as good as he gets, making everybody look like idiots. So awkward and exactly the sort of thing Big Brother likes. Bridgette tells him he couldn’t have won anyway because he has an ego. Whether that’s true, it has no bearing on how he played the game.

Votes
Nicole: Victor
Paul: Corey
James: Victor

By a vote of 2-1, Victor has been evicted from the house for a second time. He’s a big competition threat, but the plan to get rid of the bigger threat fell apart when Paul won veto.

It’s not over yet. Victor will now get a third chance to enter the house and compete against Zakiyah, Bridgette, Da’Vonne, and Paulie. Like the first time, this is a rather meh lineup. The only one of them who even played a good game is Paulie… until he overplayed. If nothing else, any of them will stir the pot.

The HOH competition will be one of endurance, and the last juror standing will return to the game. Normally the big physical threats aren’t good at endurance, but Victor has already proved he can win endurance. Bridgette and Da’Vonne also did well in the hands raised rope stepping competition.

Their challenge will be to hold on to a wall that tilts up and down.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Big Brother 18 Episode 32, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.