It's amazing to realize we're not even 48 hours into the livefeeds and so much has already happened. I was expecting a pretty quiet day today, and it started out as fun in the sun, but it ended up being a pretty hardcore gaming day.
Now that Brenchel has the POV, the chatter is all about whether or not they should or will use it. Keith has been scurrying around planting seeds with anyone he can and figure out a way to save himself. He has a little chat with Rachel about whether she would use the veto and she tells him she's thinking about it. (She tells the re-runs later that she's telling everyone she's thinking about it, even though she really isn't. Or wasn't....more on that later.) Keith asks what it would take to convince her and she says safety for all the re-runs until the "split" (which is what the've started calling the post-GK/top 10 point when they're assuming the pairs will break up.
So Keith goes to Porsche and suggests that they approach Brenchel together and offer safety to re-runs in exchnage for veto'ing K/P and nom'ing Kalia/Lawon. It's not totally clear if Keith is just meaning that they push for K/L, or if he's making the mistake of thinking he'll have some power to pick the repl-nom. In any case, Porsche points out it's not up to them. She also tells him point blank that she'd just as soon have the noms stay the same. She feels sure she's staying and getting the GK, and Keith's the one being kicked. He tells her that Brenchel is considering veto'ing them.
So Porsche then stops Rachel and tells her that Keith is saying Brenchel is planning on "keeping him." Rachel misinterprets this as saying the vote is being flipped and marches outside and asks Keith if he said that they're keeping him and kicking Porsche. Porsche quickly says that's not what she said, which Rachel takes as P. denying the convo. It's clear to most everyone else that Rachel simply misunderstood (and admittedly Porsche wasn't very clear in her phrasing).
Stepping back a bit, just before this, the re-runs had a check-in where they were talking about all the contradictions between things they're hearing from Keith and things they're hearing from Lawon. Brendon wants to call a house meeting and air it all out. Daniele tells him house meetings are stupid (I have to agree) and that he should just confront both of them when enough other people are around to hear the convo.
Going back even further (for some reason I seem to be covering this day in reverse), earlier Dominic approached Jeff and Jordan and asked if it was "okay to talk game." Jeff commented that it's about time--Dom's the only one who hasn't talked game to him. Brendon soon joins the convo and Dom asks why he should join up with them, given that the newbies have the numbers advantage. This basically pisses Brendon off. Jeff tells Dom not assume they have the numbers. We find out later that Jeff's telling all the newbies that the re-runs have some of the newbies on their side, but he's not telling anyone who he means--primarily because the don't actually for sure have anyone. His idea is that it will make them all suspicious and get them to turn on each other. It's actually a pretty good plan. And it's working.
After all that has gone down, Brenchel come out to backyard and pull Keith into a hammock conference. They sort of confront him about the chatter about Lawon, and Lawon is quickly called over. Things get heated pretty quickly as Lawon admits to saying certain things but flat out denies others. Since most of the comments in question happened either pre-feeds or during the extended feed block around Dick's departure, I'm not sure if he's telling the truth or not, but I do tend to believe him. After a few minutes, Kalia is also called over because one of Keith's claims is that Lawon told him that Kalia didn't have his [Keith's] "best interests." Kalia denies this, and Lawon does say that she never quite *said* that. Before long Lawon pretty much blows up saying that he'll own up to what he did say, but he's not going to take all these accusations of other things. He storms off to the HN room and ends up in tears.
Then Porsche gets summoned to the hammock and confronted about wanting the noms to stay the same. she says again that it's actually in her best interests to keep things as they are. Her feeling is that Keith has already turned on her, and if they get vetoed, they have to stay in the game together and she can't trust him. If they stay on the block, best case for her is he goes and she gets the GK and can coast for a couple of weeks. She stops short of saying that worst case, she gets kicked herself, but maybe going week one is better than being stuck in the game with a partner she can't count on. When she's asked why she doesn't feel equally distrustful of Lawon, she says that a.) he's not her partner so she doesn't expect as much trust and loyalty, and b.) even if she can't trust him she feels like later on in the game she could beat him in comps where Keith could probably beat her. She's actually making a pretty reasonable argument. Of course, logic is usually the downfall of hamsters.
When the hammock chat wraps up and Rachel hears that Lawon is crying she goes to check on him, and tries to make him feel better. She doesn't make any promises, but she does assure him that Keith still looks like a total wackadoo. A few minutes later, Rachel and Brendon end up in the HOH bathroom, and I suddenly feel like I've entered a time-warp and it's last summer again. He's berating her and she's crying and saying he's hurting her feelings. The point of contention is that Brendon doesn't want Rachel talking game or making decisions without him. It seems that even the 2 minute conversation she had with Lawon counts as "talking game." Rachel's primary point is that she's upset that something she did caused someone else to feel hurt and she's just looking from some comfort from Brendon, not really needing him to be picking on her. I do notice one big difference from last year--she asks him to stop and then calls him on it when he doesn't. She eventually tells him that she thinks she'd do better in the game without him (which I've been saying all along). He's a little hurt by that, and then starts talking about how they're supposed to be partners in life, and not just the game. Just like last year, before long, he was saying he loved her, can't live without her, blahblahblah, and she was forgiving him and it was all kissy-kissy.
Then it was all over as fast as it started. The gametalk all got put away, and the evening turned into just a sit around and chit-chat. Lots of fun conversations, and some real get-to-know-you moments, and some great cute moments:
...Brendon and Dominic put on a little skit...
...the girls start talking about cheerleading, and start to set up a basket toss, but BB puts a stop to that lest they break Daniele's neck...
...Rachel tries to teach Adam some cheer moves, which was just hysterical...
...Jeff and Jordan have a cute hammock date...
...and we're reminded again that Jeff is the perfect guy....he cooks...
...and all that was before alcohol....