dingoRUE

In episode 30, Danielle won veto, sending Jameka home, which brought us to a final HOH competition with the final three: Dick, Danielle, and Zach.

2 and a half hours into the competition, Dick continues his “brilliant” strategy of attempting to knock people off their game in competitions, which he and Danielle spent a long time plotting. He screams and shouts at Zach, yelling various insults at him, for what Julie later reveals was hours. Putz. Zach initially stays quiet. He then proceeds cracking up at Dick and mocking him, completely unphased.

As expected, the cold water played a role, like it did in season 3. Danielle is shivering and falls off first. Dick is also shivering, and Zach eventually starts as well. By this time, the lame rabbit has broken (gee, another poorly designed competition), so it’s all about freezing them down.

At the 7 hour 32 minute mark, Dick quits, and Zach wins part one of the HOH competition. At least we get another “touching” father/daughter moment. Too bad we know these two still don’t like each other very much. Zach is pleased he managed to finally break Dick, who was rather pitiful following the competition.

Neither Dick nor Danielle are particularly confident in their ability to answer questions for round three, which are largely luck anyway, so they decide to just both try their hardest because it doesn’t matter which one wins. In part two, the players must grab puzzle pieces from a tank and connect the HOH order in another tank. The HOH order part is pretty easy if they’ve studied at all, so the biggest part of it is being able to hold their breath. Danielle finished in 24:09. Dick finished in 12:48. Danielle proceeds to whine some more.

So it’s going to be Dick up against Zach in the final part of the competition to determine who wins HOH and decides who to take to the final two. If Dick wins, it’s Danielle. If Zach wins, it’ll probably be Dick.

An upset jury is greeted by Jameka, when all were hoping for one of the Donatos. When discussing Eric and Jessica, Dustin says the walls are thin. The jury seemed to like Zach’s nomination speech.

It’s time for the final part of the final HOH competition, which as usual is about questions asked to the jury.

Amber: The moment in the house that irritated me the most was: when Jen cried about her picture. Dick is correct.
Jen: The strongest competitor in the house was: Jen. Both are incorrect.
Jameka: The fatal error I made in the house was: not looking out for myself earlier. Both are correct.
Dustin: The most shocking moment in the house was when: Amber went off on Eric. Both are incorrect.
Eric: The funniest moment in the house this summer was: when Jameka told Dick that his mama was a bitch. Both are correct.
Jessica: The person whose gameplay I respected most was: Jessica. Both are incorrect.

Dick wins the final HOH 3-2. Congrats, CBS. You got what you wanted. The “estranged” father and daughter have been “reunited.” Does it even matter which of these two wins? I’ll tune in on Tuesday, but it’s kind of like watching Maggie take on Ivette (only worse, since those two were at least the dominant players their season). No doubt the jury will feel the same. The only even likely vote at this point is America’s, as America will most likely vote for Dick. Beyond that, it’s tough to say. People hate Dick, but they’re not much more fond of Danielle.

Dick insults Zach in his final comments to him, telling him he’s in for a surprise when he gets out. He’s lucky Zach probably won’t take it personal, but this is just another fine example of Dick’s genius at work. Then again, Danielle’s not much better and tells him he hurt her feelings.

Oh god. It gets worse. Not only is Eric’s final vote forced on him by America, but he must also campaign for that person in the jury house. This twist has sucked since it was announced. Let it die already. At least let the guy who was in the house for 3 months cast his own vote for once. Of course, I wouldn’t expect that. In the event Zach did win this final HOH, they had to give whoever he took with him another unfair chance at winning.

And we close the show off with the most delusional statement of the season: Dick believes he and Danielle are better than Will/Boogie and Jason/Danielle.

Sunday’s show will be jury questions. Tuesday’s show will be the winner announcement.

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

In episode 29, Zach nominated both Dick and Danielle, Dick was delusional and believed he was the greatest player in the history of the show, and Danielle whined. Jameka was in there somewhere.

Looking back at Zach’s statement, I sure hope the jury’s not watching it. Telling people they’re dominant = not smart. Danielle’s upset that Zach went back on his word. Danielle. Who along with her father have screwed over every word they ever had. Dick still thinks they had the toughest game in the house. Yeah, with the combination of America, the banner plane, hidden code in letters from Dick’s son, nonstop support from the producers, and cheating in competitions… the deck was really stacked against them. Dick then makes fun of Zach not winning competitions, which was smart since he didn’t need to do anything to draw attention to himself. Because Dick won so many himself apparently.

We finally get to see the mystery jury house, which they used to show every week. Still doesn’t resolve the question of what they were trying to hide by not showing it before.

It’s time for the final power of veto. Whoever wins is safe and casts the only vote to evict whoever they want. If Zach wins, he can choose who is safe and who casts the vote. It’s the two clues matching one person challenge we normally see around this time in the game. Dick’s just putting up random nonsense as quickly as possible. But he’s ahead of Zach, who initially doesn’t even know what he’s supposed to be doing. Danielle wins veto, which means that, short of a miracle, Jameka’s a goner. As could be expected, Dick’s as bad a winner as he is a loser. He’s completely convinced either he or Danielle has won. Up against Zach, they have some chance, but at the end of the day, nobody on the jury likes either Dick or Danielle, not even a little. Zach’s about as oblivious to Dick’s attacks as Jen was.

Here’s the live veto meeting. Danielle uses the power of veto to save her father, surprisingly enough. If she were in danger, she never would have even considered it. Nonetheless, it was a nice gesture, despite the lack of risk. Jameka goes up in Dick’s place. Dick votes to evict Jameka.

Despite her initial hesitation about being surrounded by people of another race, Jameka was very happy with her experience. Watching these goodbye messages, I take back what I said about Zach being an idiot. In retrospect (considering Jameka didn’t win veto), he didn’t throw away a vote. He gained (or at least cemented) a vote from Jameka, which has the potential to also significantly impact all of Jameka’s friends in the jury (aka everybody). Well played. The part about him being an idiot for not evicting Danielle when he had the chance still stands, though.

The endurance part of the three part HOH competition starts tonight. A rabbit goes around in circles, and people must jump over him while keeping their hands on their keys. After the commercial break, here comes the rain. In season three, the end results were determined by rain, as it proved to be too cold for Danielle to continue.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live blog of Big Brother 8 episode 31, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on CBS.

So apparently 60 minutes is an hour and a half tonight. BB8 should be underway around 8:30/7:30c. Don’t you just love CBS Sundays in the fall, where every single week they can never start on time? Tonight it was tennis. I’m sure football, golf, basketball, and professional Scrabble will have their day at some point. [/rant]

We left the hamsters in episode 28 after an extremely rushed hour and the boot of two of the season’s better players. Jameka was eliminated from veto, after what CBS later confirmed was indeed a bounced ball due to another poorly designed competition (yet still no redo?). At the end of the hour, Zach had the perfect opportunity to break up two relatives. He failed to do so. Did he not trust Eric to go along? Is he just an idiot? Was he hoping to be safe this week by sticking with them? Time will tell, but the decision has the potential to bite him. There wasn’t enough time for another HOH competition on Thursday, so we will find out the final four HOH and nominations tonight.

Danielle tells us she couldn’t care less about Eric and that it’s nothing personal. While I agree, this is the same chick who’s been whining for the last two months straight about some guy she knew for a couple weeks. She then proceeds to tell us that Zach, the guy who (foolishly) just saved her ass, is only still around because she dragged him there. She and Dick follow that up with plans to turn on Zach, again jumping ahead of themselves, as if the HOH competition has already happened. Granted, either way, it’s not like they haven’t pissed off every single jury member already, and both continue to play with the knowledge they’re hated enough that they’d make a good second place choice.

The HOH competition is a memory task based on new memory wall pictures taken throughout the season. At least it’s something somewhat different, even if it’s still largely dumb luck. Zach gets question 1 right. Everybody gets questions 2 and 3 right. Danielle and Zach get question 4 right. Danielle gets question 5 right, tying her with Zach for the lead. Everybody gets questions 6, 7, and 8 right, so it’s a tiebreaker question between Zach and Danielle. Zach guesses one higher than Danielle and is the new HOH. If he’s smart, he’ll nominate Jameka and Danielle or Dick. Based on his veto move last week, I’m not so sure he meets that qualification, though. On one of these questions, Dick whispered the answer to Danielle. Yeah, I’m still believing this game isn’t rigged.

Dick tries to remain upbeat and positive about the situation and the odds of winning veto. Danielle is her usual self (read: the exact opposite).

None of these people seem to get it. It doesn’t matter who goes up on the block in the final four. Whoever wins veto casts the lone vote, unless the HOH wins it, in which case that person decides who casts the lone vote.

Zach decides he wants Dick or Danielle to go. He also figures out that neither of them will take him to the final two with them. Hello?! Where was this logic on Thursday night when you had a surefire way of kicking her out? People always talk about Marcellas. We ain’t seen nothing yet until this season. This whole damn house is full of Marcellas’, with the exception of Jameka, who made the best move this year (5 weeks of no HOH meant 5 weeks of safety). Danielle tries to convince Zach people had his back, while they all treated him like an outcast for a month or more.

Danielle thinks it’s amusing Zach thinks he can win. Funny, I think it’s amusing she thinks she can win. Yeah, she won a bunch of competitions. And did what else? I’ve got a challenge for her: pick a mood that’s not either excessively smug or whiny.

Jameka is safe. Dick and Danielle have been nominated for eviction. Going back to my original series of questions, I’ve found the answer: Zach’s an idiot. He just threw away their votes for no reason. As much as I’m trying to like Zach and agree with much of what he’s saying, he just keeps making dumb decisions.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live blog of Big Brother 8 episode 30, which airs Tuesday at 9/8c on CBS.