Elissa started freaking out last night as more time went by and she wasn't called to DR and presented with the MVP envelope. By this morning she was acting so strangely that she even had Judd yelling at her (as much as Judd "yells" anyway). Judd basically told her if she didn't stop "lying" about not getting MVP, he was going to backdoor her.
So, imagine everyone's surprise when the MVP nominee was....drumroll....Elissa! Judd apologized to Elissa for thinking she was lying, and they all went into paranoia mode trying to figure out who was MVP. Aaryn was the gut reaction, but she immediately denied it and said even if she had gotten it, she wouldn't be stupid enough to nom Elissa because a.) that would be obvious, and b.) it wasn't helpful for her chances of staying. (Which is totally true. Aaryn's best chance of staying would be to get Howard on the block.)
The leading theory in the house quickly became that Elissa was MVP and had nominated herself. McCrae said he went and asked the DR if MVP could self-nom and they had said yes. There was also some thought that she somehow knew she was safe, that perhaps this week the MVP nom was immune from eviction, and this was a test of loyalty. There was a passing thought that America could have voted, but none of them believed that America would have nominated Elissa.
I still strongly believe that Aaryn got the most MVP votes. But since she was already nominated you have to look at who everyone who didn't vote for Aaryn would have voted for. Elissa's a pretty polarizing figure. She's obviously got a lot of fans, but those who don't like her, really don't like her, so it's not really that surprising she got the second highest number of votes.
So POV was up next and it was one of the reward/punishment comps. I didn't manage to get a full rundown of the prizes/punishments. What I do have is that McCrae got $5K, Aaryn has to dye her hair (but hasn't yet, many hours after they came back in), Judd's in solitary confinement in the cockpit room with a really annoying alarm clock, Helen has an 8 PM "curfew", and Elissa has to sit out the next POV--but she won this one.
So the twist is alive and well. Come Monday we will get to find out who is up next in the MVP nominee line-up. A lot of people out here are predicting Amanda, and that wouldn't surprise me. But frankly, none of them would really surprise me. The problem with this twist is that it doesn't really allow for the same option as an in-game MVP. Even though Judd was known to be HOH before the voting, he was still an option to vote for. And we didn't know the HOH noms before we voted, which normally the MVP knows. And without having a second vote for the replacement nominee, that "decision" isn't based on anything. There were several better ways to have done this, but BB wouldn't want to bother with the complication. And frankly, I can't blame them.
In other news, while Judd is locked up in solitary, Amanda and McCrae have taken over HOH (mostly Amanda). This is only cementing the anti-Amanda sentiment that was already starting to run through the house with a lot of people feeling that she's overly demanding and manipulative. If Amanda ends up on the block, things could get really interesting.