Mystic Gemini's BigBrother POV
If there's one thing BB is not about, it's being comfortable. Slop, cold showers, sharing a house with people who are out to get you, all the whispers behind your back. If you think you can relax, you're on the wrong show. It seems that Keith really thought he had the votes to stay. And the truth is, it was close. Shelly really could have gone either way, but she made the smart choice. Once the re-runs had the one vote they needed to go the tie-breaker, there was nothing to gain by voting with newbies. The eviction would have gone the same way, but now Shelly's in the best position possible. The re-runs know she voted with them, but the newbies don't suspect her. And the re-runs are perfectly happy to have the newbies not know who the flipper was...more contention in the ranks.
Backing up a bit, the edit on the show tonight still left out the bulk of Keith's craziness and the real highlight fights. But that was in part to promote their misdirection plans. And explaining Lawon's choices would have been hard in the space of 90 seconds. Lawon made clear in the house that he really wanted to vote to keep Porsche, but since he had given his word to Keith, he felt he couldn't go back on it.
But in the world of ridiculous edits, the award goes to whoever was responsible for the segment on the boo-key incident. All I can say is, WOW. CBS is determined to portray Rachel as the same girl she was last season. She definitely still has her VegasRachel moments, but she's also really trying to bring things down a notch or two. Brendon, on the other hand, is the same whiney, borderline abusive, douchey guy he was last year. Yet from what we got on the show, you'd think Brendon was just trying to be a little reserved and gentleman-like and Rachel was a crazy party girl. We got none of him telling who she can talk to and what she can do, and none of her standing up to him and refusing to let him treat her like a child.
Dick's video was fine for the TVOVs, but anyone who is aware of the Internet has probably seen his more detailed video. Now, obviously they can't show the HGs a lot of what he said, but in the end the whole thing came off as a bit of a setup to put Daniele on the spot. By making it seem like this was the first news she'd gotten, the first assurance that her family was okay, they got to cast her in the role of bratty little kid again. And then, they could have just let it go after how she answered Julie's initial question, but to put her on the spot like that was designed to be, as she quite correctly said "awkward!" If Dani had gone all mushy about her dad it would have come across as totally disingenuous. Or would have just led to a lot more chatter about how their issues are staged for TV. I've always said I believe them, and I'd wager that the prods do too--and that's all drama and ratings they've lost.
There was plenty of misdirection fodder, though in the end the votes went mostly as expected. The only one that was a slight surprise to me was Shelly. She has been playing both sides so well that it wasn't a guarantee either way. So Keith is kicked with a 6-4 vote, and marched out for his Julie chat. He handled it well. He managed to be funny without really trying, he seemed legitimately surprised, but not so shocked he couldn't make sense. The goodbye messages were better than most, though I was disappointed that Rachel didn't fit in anything about no one coming between her and HER MAN. Though to be fair, it would make no sense (not that it ever made all that much sense). This time it was really about no one coming between Porsche and her Golden Key.
Anyway, then it's out to HOH and a re-run of the golf comp from BB11. Letting Rachel set the putting order is, honestly, a bit unfair. It didn't necessarily matter...if, say, Dom had managed to get into the #1 slot, it wouldn't have mattered that the re-runs all went at the end. The one thing they did gain is that once Brendon and Jeff knew Jordan had beat the rest of them, they could safely throw the comp. Since there's a good chance next week will be endurance, it is good for the re-runs to have them both in the running. (Though I'm honestly not sure Brendon could win and end. comp. to save his life.) Jordan will take some flack for having won "only" because the boys threw the comp. But she did do well, and there's no guarantee that Brendon or Jeff would have done better if they had tried. On top of that, the throwing was funny. Almost as funny as Kalia, who was trying to throw the comp, almost winning by accident.
Once the feeds come back, things have already devolved to awkward! The newbies are wondering who flipped. Suspicions are directed at Kalia (guilty) and Adam or Lawon (both not guilty). Dom/Cassi seem to buy Lawon's story that he had to stick to his word. So Adam is now their lead suspect. As I said earlier, Shelly seems to be getting away scott free.
And Cassi and Rachel have already had a clash even before the feeds are back (about 15 minutes after the show). It seems the newbies were gathered in the HN room and Rachel came in and asked if they were okay (or "what's wrong?" or something). Cassi said something about 2 people having lied to them and flipped sides, and Rachel made a sarcastic comment about "what? are there sides?" Cassi responded that no one liked Porsche, and Rachel countered "some people do, and she's here for a month!" and walked out. Since this was all behind the trivia and fishies, we can't be sure exactly what was said...everyone has a slightly different version. Rachel's issue is that she feels like Porsche's being treated as she was last year and that gets her going. But the rest of the re-runs, especially Brendon and Daniele feel like she's just aggravating the situation and should keep the conflict to a minimum. But that's not Big Brother.
