and there it went
Almost 3 months ago when I posted my last "entry" it was meant to be a placeholder. I knew I wasn't going to get around to posting as much as I have some seasons, but I'd hoped I'd at least do as well as last season and get in one to two a week. I can say I thought about posting a few times early on, but it never quite happened. Part of it was due to what's going on in my real life (that's the biggest factor to be honest), and part of it was that the season just never engaged me. On the plus side, it's about over, and I don't have deep feelings of hatred like I did for certain seasons that I suffered through (*ahem*, I'm looking at you BB15).
So, how can I recap BB18 in one post? Well, I'll start with the twists. I wasn't thrilled with the re-runs. I rarely am, and these in particular didn't work for me. Sure, Da'Vonne is entertaining and gives great DR, but she's not exactly a world-class BB player. I was never a huge fan of Frank, Nicole or James. Didn't hate any of them, but never loved them the way others seemed to. I actually liked Frank better this time around, but Nicole and James less.
And the sibling twist? #NeverCared. If they'd actually been playing with their sibilings it might have been a twist, but just because Paulie was Cody's brother and Tiffany was Vanessa's sister....so what? I kind of liked Paulie at the beginning, but then he revealed himself to be the ultimate douche bag. And Tiffany could have done well but Vanessa's shadow was just too much for her to overcome.
Then there was the roadkill twist. That had potential, and I was mostly just happy they weren't doing the stupid battle of the block again. But the key to the RK would have been for at least one of the winners to keep it secret. Since none of them actually managed to do that it felt like a total flop. The Battle Back twist did a little better. For a pre-jury return I like a comp better than a viewer vote. We don't really know them well enough yet, and HGs are so apt to vote out the "big threats" early. On top of that, I always enjoy record-breaking, so it was pretty cool to have Victor win two returns and get the honor of being voted out three times in one season.
The biggest thing for me this season was how much my opinion of certain HGs changed during the season. There have been lots of years when my pre-feed opinion turned out to be way off, but I can't recall a time when I've changed my mind over the course of the season itself. At the beginning I wasn't really team-anyone (except that after Corey told his goat burning story I was team-anyone-but-him). Paul got on my nerves, and I was pretty indifferent to Victor - didn't even care when he was voted out the first time. But by the middle of the season I was 100% team SittingDucks.
Going into the finale, I'm hoping for Paul to win, but kind of expecting Nicole to take it. Even if James ends up in one of the final 2 chairs, I don't think he has the votes to pull out a win, but I've been wrong before. I'm also rooting for Victor for AFP, but I won't be surprised if it goes to Natalie.
The finale brought us a really amusing jury roundtable with Dr. Will shading them all, and Michelle crying because people were looking at her. They actually tried to convince her they weren't laughing at her, but I sure was. We got the recaps of rounds one and two of the final HOH and then finally to important comp - Paul vs. Nicole in round 3. Neither did great with the "know your housemates" questions, but Paul pulled out the win by one point. As he's been promising all week, Paul evicted James and took Nicole to the end. I still say Nicole would have taken James (and beat him) but we'll never know.
The jury questions were better than average in my opinion, and Paul did a particularly good job of answering. Nicole's answers weren't horrible, though she stumbled a bit and couldn't really seem to answer why she deserved to win over Paul (just why she thought she deserved to win). The final speeches were as rehearsed over the last few days. Paul's was great, and though Nicole started out with "oh crap, that was good" in reference to his speech, and talked about her pit stains, she pulled it together and hers wasn't all bad. The jury locked in their votes, and Julie revealed them in reverse, ending up with everything hinging on Da'Vonne's vote, and Nicole taking it in the end 5-4. Though I think Paul played a better game, Nicole's wasn't all bad. I also really think production had set her up to win all along. They wanted to see a woman take home the $500K, and bringing back a vet has worked for that before. And Nicole did make history as the first woman to beat a man in F2.
And then Victor beat out Natalie and James for America's Favorite Houseguest, so we can end the season on a high note.
And, of course, we'll be back in a week for BBOTT.
