triple threat

I said last week not to count Vanessa out just yet, and she did manage to pull out a save. Steve did veto himself, and Becky followed through with the re-nom, and it was a great blindside. Becky had managed to tell everyone except the people who would tell Vanessa, and spilled to Austin only at the very last minute, so Vanessa was fairly convinced Johnny Mac was going up. When Becky pulled a switch-up, Vanessa started on one of her usual loops of being "genuinely confused" as to why anyone would consider her a threat, and asking if she'd done something to offend Becky "personally." Becky shut her down and just said that she didn't like being pointed out and forced to agree to a deal.

Vanessa turned this into Becky screaming at her, but it still seemed like she was doomed. Next she took a page from Audrey's playbook and marooned herself in bed for a while and then complained that no one came to check on her. Things still looked set in stone for Shelli to stay, but as it turned out, only minimal effort was required to flip James by telling him that Becky had been playing both sides while he'd been HOH. Before long Jackie and Meg were signed up, and the AusTwins were thrilled at the chance to keep their puppetmaster. John and Steve were a bit out in the cold. Steve had told Vanessa he wasn't sure he could vote for her to stay and she was pretty pissed at this "betrayal." Johnny Mac was all lined up to do what Becky wanted, but somehow in the eleventh hour they got the message and Shelli got bounced on a unanimous vote. The whole thing was capped off by a fabulous moment when Johnny Mac responded to Julie's DR greeting with "yeah, whatta ya want?"

We then got sucked into double-eviction land. Steve and his "photogenic" memory pulled out the HOH win based on video-clips, despite the fact that I think he was actually trying to throw it. Jackie and Meg hit the block, and then Johnny Mac grabbed the POV. When he chose not to use it, there was shock and horror everywhere, especially on Meg's face. Jackie got sent to jury with only Becky's vote on her side.

Afterwards, things hit a level of nastiness out here we haven't seen much this year. There was tons of hate directed at JMac for screwing over Steve. It got diffused when JMac and Steve finally had a chance to talk and it turned out the Steve had asked him not to use the POV. My personal theory is that Steve was planning to put up Becky if the veto had been used, but knew that the only was John would use it was if Steve would promise to put up Vanessa. Steve's still trying to stay in a good spot with his various alliances, and it's working.

So, they hopped out to play the next HOH and when the came back Liz had the golden key. This means the AusTwins are safer than safe this week. Vanessa's also pretty sure to survive the week, since the AusTwins don't want to directly take her out. But there has been lots of Vanessa-bashing going around, setting her up as a prime target for next week.

Liz popped Johnny Mac and Becky up on the block. For about half a day, JMac was The Target, but after a fairly brief talk with Liz and Austin, he managed to get it redirected at Becky (well, really at Vanessa, but the AusTwins are convinced that JMac will not target them or something so they now want to keep him). Liz was big on the "don't want any more blood on my hands" and really didn't want the POV used. If either of the nominees won, she was probably going to toss Meg up and the other original nom would go home.

POV turned out to be OTEV, and Johnny Mac was first out, possibly due to throwing the comp. Sounds like it got down to Becky, Liz and Austin, when Becky and Austin got into a tussle over Clay's name. Austin came out on top of that, but it's made Becky more of a target since she fought so hard. Liz ended up winning the veto, so chances are near 100% that she'll leave noms the same.

Things could always flip, but Becky's got nowhere near Vanessa's skills, so I'd be surprised if she doesn't head out to jury on Thursday. It's really becoming all about next week. We have a solid trio in the AusTwins, a solid duo of Meg/James, and a weird combo of Steve, Vanessa and Johnny Mac. Steve is aligned with both of them, but they really do seem to hate each other. I believe Vanessa thinks she's still in good with the AusTwins, but I really can't say for sure. At one point she told Steve she had a target, but she wouldn't tell him who it was because she wanted him to figure out his own target and see if it was the same. He did guess the twins and she said no, but wouldn't go beyond that. It could be Austin, but Steve probably won't go for that.