Mystic Gemini's BigBrother POV
First thing this morning they drew players for the veto and it ended up that Rachel and Brendon get to play yet again. There's been a little eyebrow raising both in there and out here, wondering if things are fixed for the re-runs, but it's also been pointed out that there were only 3 couples eligible to be chosen, everyone always has an equal chance, but 1 in 3 are better odds than the usual 1 in 10 we'd have at this point in a normal season.
They were all expecting another cooperation based competition and Adam had been instructed to throw it, on assurances that Dominic will get kicked and Adam will get golden-keyed. But over the last few days Rachel and Daniele have become increasingly convinced that they want Cassi out, rather than Dom. Dani's got a decent side-alliance building with Dom, and asked him the other night if he'd rather have her "pull strings" to keep him off the block entirely, or get him nom'ed and be able to get the GK. He either didn't understand what she was getting at, or just didn't want to answer and basically told her it didn't matter, he was doomed. And after Cassi and Rachel's confrontation right after HOH, Rachel is totally on the kick-Cassi train.
So, before POV Daniele suggests to Rachel that she throw the comp and let Dom win to get Cassi nom'ed and out. Dani also points out that it would be good for Rachel and Brendon to lose a comp or two so they didn't look like such giant comp. threats. Rachel goes to Brendon with this plan and he says it doesn't matter if they lose or not, everyone already thinks of them as major competitors. In a logic that does not resemble our human logic, they decide the best course of action is to win the veto and save Dom/Adam and get Cassi/Shelly nom'ed and kick Cassi.
I guess their reasoning for winning the comp rather than throwing it is that they could then make a deal with Dom along the lines of "we'll only save you if you team up with us" even though they're going to save him no matter what. I think there's also a bit of competitor pride going on there. But this is stupid. If they want Cassi out it makes a lot more sense for Adam/Dom to win the veto and save themselves. There's nothing suspicious about someone taking themselves off the block, but with Rachel/Brendon supposedly being in alliance with Jeff/Jordan, it's hinky for R/B to veto Jordan's noms. Plus, there's no guaranteeing that Jordan would repl-nom Cassi/Shelly in that case. JeJo might realize what's going on with Rachel and make a deal with Cassi. That would be the smart thing to do anyway rather than giving Brenchel exactly what they want.
But when they come back from behind the trivia it's all moot anyway. First place it was an individualized comp, and Dominic won. It's pretty clear that Adam did throw it (either that or he just naturally sucked; he came in last). It also sounds like Rachel was legitimately trying to win. From what I've been able to gather it was some sort of thing where they had to walk along a balance beam carrying gumballs which they then had to chew and stick to something. It also sounds like if you fell off the balance beam you could get back on by taking a punishment, and Rachel took a 2 week slop sentence at one point. Then Jordan had the option to take 2 weeks of slop as well, and Jeff told her not to because she was so far behind anyway. Then Rachel said "Brendon, if the HOH isn't going to try maybe we shouldn't either." It seems Jordan didn't hear the comment, but Jeff did and went off on Rachel.
I certainly may not have all the details right (in fact, I'm sure I don't) but that's what I can gather...we'll find out for sure on the Wednesday show. In any case, the re-run alliance is fracturing. Daniele is playing all sides against the middle (and doing it really well). Brenchel are turning on JeJo big time. They're not only trying to make deals to get rid of Cassi, but also to make sure the target is off of them. At the same time Jeff and Jordan are starting to think about how to best ditch Brendon and Rachel. The original deal was that the re-runs would stick together until jury starts, but at this point I would not be surprised to see things fall apart next week.
Kalia has become Jordan's new best friend in the last few hours, basically making sure that she's not the repl-nom. Jordan's feeling is that nom'ing Kalia and Lawon and kicking Lawon would just be a waste of her HOH, so she has pretty much concluded there's no choice but to nom Cassi/Shelly and kick Cassi. The DR reminded her the other day that she's not allowed to tell someone they're going up, though they didn't mention the part where you are allowed to tell someone they might go up or that they're safe. Being the good girl that she is, Jordan has been being really careful about what she's saying to people about their own fate, but she did confirm her plans with Jeff. But there's still a good 36 hours before repl-noms, and we could get some campaigning yet.
Oh, and Porsche's still in there.
