throwing competition

JoJo fought to the bitter end, but it was way too late. Watching the show I was already thinking of her as gone, and when Julie said voting was coming up, I thought "oh right, she's not technically evicted yet." In the end, JoJo didn't stick to her promises to hug-shun those who had done the same to her after noms. And when Julie asked about Willie she gave her standard line about loyalty, but skipped the bit about him being a sociopath that's been her other refrain on the feeds. (I seriously wonder if production didn't warn her off that...it might count as slander.) [As an aside, in the real world, Willie was picked up last night on a DUI (technically an "OUI" - operating under the influence" in Louisiana) after tweeting that he'd be at a bar willing to head-butt anyone who showed up with their "dukes up."]

Anyway, Danielle survived despite nearly falling when she stood to make her "keep me" speech and wearing a dress that looked like it was made of bridal shower wrapping paper. Then it was out to play HOH and what I believe was generally a competition to see who could do the most convincing job of throwing the comp. TeamBoogie wanted Shane to win because they had a deal with him that he'd go after Wil/Joe to keep the blood off their hands. Danielle had no vested interest in winning. Even though she's still got the "Dan's only player" target on her, she's done a good job of adopting the mantle of "Not a Threat." At this point she can feel pretty comfortable that the guys will go after each other. Shane in particular is not likely to go after her. Even though she's staying over his teamie, she did it without attacking anyone. And he's hardly going to blame her for staying. Ashley didn't really need to win, she's in an even better position that Danielle. Not only is she not a threat, she's got 2 teammates to take hits before anyone gets around to her. Wil said last night he'd kind of rather not win this week, because he thinks next week will be endurance, which he feels he has a good shot at. But Wil did want Joe to get it over Shane. Joe and Shane were really the only people fighting super hard for HOH. And Shane was a bit more motivated, what with having been a Have Nottie for 2 weeks, just coming off the block, and losing a teamie 5 minutes earlier.

It's not really clear what Shane is going to do. He's promised Danielle she's completely safe, but no one's gotten into his ear yet. Boogie's been sulking around, but I think that's completely an act. Frank's quite relaxed, and that's not escaping anyone's notice. Janelle, Wil and Joe are all worried that Wil and Joe will be the noms. Wil wants to offer Shane a deal to just nom one of them and one of Boogie's players, assuming he'll go for Frank.

In other news, Jenn was sulking a bit after the show because she's the only one Julie hasn't talked to. She feels like the non-HG, and it's hard to blame her. Her coach has little use for her, and no one else is too concerned about her either. On the plus side, this means she's no one's target. And speaking of coach rifts, last night, Shane announced that he's so over Britney. When the HOH comp. practice came out, she didn't do any coaching, just left them to their own devices and went to bed. It will be interesting to see how this plays out when she tries to get her 2 cents into his HOH this week.

And of course, Julie announced the coach twist. Despite all the speculation out here about complex spins on things, it turns out it is pretty much what they've been suspecting all along. I'll do some further analysis in Vote Early and Often, but my initial reaction is....I don't know. It does seem a little unfair to take people who have been coaches and throw them into competition against their own players. But, on a personal level, I'm not overly excited about many of the players, and I'd love to see both Dan and Janelle in the game. Even more, I'd love to see the 2 of them team up.

I'm also wondering what sort of semantic games CBS is playing with the twist. The vote is actually on whether we would like the coaches to be offered the chance the come into the game. That implies that even if America votes 'yes' an individual coach could decline. I can't exactly guess what most of them would do. I'm pretty sure Britney would jump in, but I also think the same attitude that makes her lean that way would get her out of the game PDQ. At this point I think Boogie would almost rather stay a coach. Especially if his full team survives the week, he's in a really good spot to have a player win. And if he came into the comp as a player he'd have to fight against the strong players he's cultivated. Dan, on the other hand, could easily come into the comp, use Danielle for an ally, maybe even get to F2 with her, and then easily beat her. But, the question with him is does he want to do that? He's got such a strong coach mentality, does he really want to toss that role aside? Janelle's probably also in a good position to come into the game. She's got a decent relationship with her players and could easily team up with them, but at the end of the day, she'd probably be able to beat them.