Oh, I love endurance comps on the livefeeds. I'm almost as excited as Andrew was when Rachel won HOH...okay, maybe not that excited.
But first, the show. They did their best to make it seem as if there was some chance that Monet would stay, but it was never going to happen. The portrayal of the house meeting was pretty slanted toward Brendon/Rachel. They left out all of Matt's coherent arguments. To be fair, the TVOVs would have been completely confused by his explanation about wanting to not have to vote. And the footage of Andrew was not from the right day, but again, it made better TV imagery.
They did capture the Catty Girls pretty well. Britney's catty but funny, Monet's just catty. Even when Julie gave her a chance to apologize and blame it on the craziness of BB she didn't take it. But whatever, she's gone. I am glad they cleared up who started the Kristen's vote rumour. I sort of suspected Rachel had just made it up, but wasn't completely sure. The interesting thing is that Kristen completely believes it was Matt.
Matt's eviction speech was fantastic. Loved all the superfan references. And "back to you Chenbot" goes in the permanent LotD collection. And I think Julie is honestly amused by it and not at all offended. Don't call her sweetheart or Mrs. Chen--but Chenbot's just fine.
Anyway, Monet was kicked 7-2. Kathy gave her a "sympathy vote" which may come back to bite her if Matt wins HOH. It's a great reason for him to give as an excuse for nom'ing her. Monet's Julie chat was all tears and whatnot. I will give her credit for acknowledging that she learned a bit about herself in the house. Oh, and is Rachel going to say "you tried to come between me and my man" every week? When, exactly, did Monet do that?
So then the real fun begins. It's a surfing race to HOH. The comp. started around 5:51, and by the time the feeds came back at 6:09 BBT, Kathy and Lane were both off their boards. They started falling fast after that with Kristen at 6:11, Hayden at 6:17 and Britney just seconds later. That filled the Have-ies for the week and things got a little more interesting.
Rachel was cheering Brendon on, hoping for a two-week reign in HOH. I was rooting for anyone but him. It seemed clear to me that Enzo wanted to throw the comp. He started bouncing up and down on his surfboard for no apparent reason (other than to "slip" and fall off). He's no one's target, so it's a reasonable strategy. I bet he's just wishing he'd managed to fall before he got stuck being a Have Nottie 2 weeks in a row. He hung in until about 6:41 BBT, then pretty much jumped.
A few minutes later, around 6:45 BBT, Brendon came off, in what looked to me to be a legitimate fall. He's also the only one I caught a screencap of during the actual dismount. That left us with Andrew, Ragan and Matt. I'd be happy with any one of them.
But Andrew was looking uncomfortable for a long time, and around 7:28 BBT he came down. I do feel bad for him getting stuck as a Have Nottie, since he basically won't be able to eat anything. Maybe they'll get kosher baby food.
So then we were down to Ragan/Matt. Ragan had said a few days ago that if it came down to them, he'd throw it to Matt. He had also told Andrew that if he (Ragan) won Andrew was safe. Matt didn't make the same offer. Everyone else went inside and Matt/Ragan started "negotiations." There wasn't a whole lot to discuss, since they're pretty much on the same page anyway. They're both talking about making Kathy the Target. They figure she has no chance at POV and they don't want her on the jury. The debate is over who to put against her. Ragan thinks Andrew (who, remember he promised safety) and Matt's thinking Brendon/Rachel so he won't look hinky.
I don't know if they ever came to an agreement, and we got feed blocked for about 40 minutes. By the time we came back, they were all inside in their warm jammies & sweats and Matt has the HOH key.