Princess Pawned

First, the show.

Dick's post-nom, "get everyone to hate me" plan was portrayed pretty well.  I still laughed at him banging the pots and doing his Amber impersonation.  It was actually funnier on the feeds b/c it went on for sooooo long.  And the one thing the TV viewers didn't get was that Dick didn't start his wake-up calls until after BB's (but then again I don't think the TV viewers know that BB wakes them up).  Not knowing BB had already said it was time to get up for the day makes Dick seem even more obnoxious.  They also got a great shot of Daniele laughing.  From what I saw on the feeds, I was pretty sure she was amused, but her hair was over her face, so I couldn't be sure she was smiling.  And the retreat to HOH made them all look like a bunch of babies.  They left out all of Eric's wildly offensive comments, and also the worst of Dick's Amber trashing.

The veto comp itself was more suspenseful than I expected.  I loved Zach just saying "forget this."  Can't blame him.  I wouldn't be drinking liquidated hotdogs for just anyone either.  And the fact that the croquet came down to one point, and the very last stroke?  Couldn't have been scripted better.  Even knowing the outcome, I was getting a bit nervous at the end there.

And even though the Tool did fail the Jessica silent treatment task, it still managed to create some drama.  Of course the ironic thing was that attempting that task almost blew his success in the nom Dustin task.  It also showed that Jessica is really dependent on Eric, and that she really doesn't trust him at the same time.

All the father-daughter bonding stuff was custom made to keep Dick's ratings up.  Even his horrible behavior was passed off as "protecting his daughter."  (I don't mean "passed off" in a CBS-is-lying-to-you way; that really was his plan, they just helped him look his best while doing it.)  And Dick asking Daniele if she was taking her vitamins and offering to crush them up for her was almost too cute.  I mean, she is almost 21 years old, she ought to be able to take a pill w/o Daddy's help.  But at the same time it made him look super-sensitive.

And of course, he vetoed her nomination.  His speech, at least what we saw of it, wasn't as moving as some of them had made it sound on the feeds.  But it was the only thing he could do, and I'm sure it raised his standing in the eyes of some viewers.  And then the Princess got pawned, and I'm pretty sure that his cocky DR speech at the end sealed his fate with the Tool vote.  Now we just have to hope that the same attitude, and the prancing around in the cape as if he's king of the castle, will piss off enough of the hamsters that we can get him kicked.

I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but I'm really hoping for a dramatic booting of Dustbin on Thursday.  And, not to be greedy, but I'm hoping he doesn't see it coming.  After all of his cocky little speeches about how sure he is that he's staying and all his other b.s. I want him to be totally shocked when the votes come down.  We need this years super-shocked reaction.  Something has to top Boogie's reaction to Will's eviction last year....when, to quote Janelle, "he looked worse than Jase when he found out there were twins in the house."

To recap our progress on the Princess Pawn Plan:

1. Dick wins veto. Check
2. Dick saves Daniele. Check
3. Princess volunteers to be pawned/Tool gets him pawned.  Check
4. America tells Tool to sacrifice the Pawn.  Check
5. Dick doesn't do anything stupid to blow it.  ???
6. Daniele votes to keep her dad.  (I would hope so.)
7. Tool convinces 1-2 other people to vote out the Pawn and/or Jessica to break the tie and kick Princess Pawn.  (We'll know when we know.)
   

The funny thing is, it actually is in the best interests of Jen, Zach and Jessica to keep Dick.  If they do, then Dick's targets will be Eric (just b/c) and Amber/Jameka b/c they voted him out.  And Dick+Daniele will still be a huge target.  If Dustin stays, Jen and Zach are targets of the RCA as soon as Daniele goes.  And the RCA will really have the numbers, Tool notwithstanding.  We know you really can't count Tool b/c we control his vote.  So putting him aside, if Dustin stays it's Dust, Whamber, Jameka, and Jessica (4), vs. Daniele, Zach, Jen (3).  And Zach and Jen ought to think Eric is with the RCA, making it 5 vs. 3.  If Dick stays, it's flipped A/J/J (3) vs. D/D/Z/J (4)...but again, everyone is assuming Eric is part of the first group, making it 4-4.  But any way you look at it Zach and Jen are better off w/Dick than Dustin.  There's no way they're going to get in good with the RCA, but especially not if they're still 5 strong.  And if Jessica makes a deal with Dick, then she flips over to that side.  With what she knows, it's pretty even either way, but with what we know, she should go over b/c America is pretty darn likely to tell Eric to vote out Amber or Jameka over anyone on the other side, so that alliance is crumbling.