Big Brother recap: Another veto, another win from the Committee
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I feel like I'm going a little mad writing these Big Brother recaps three times a week. It's like I'm stuck in an endless loop, a Groundhog Day situation where no matter what I do, I'm forced to live through yet another week of the Committee steamrolling the competition and try to find new ways to write, "So, the Committee wins again and everything you think is going to happen is exactly what happens." I'm running on fumes over here, people! I want drama and big moves and some good gameplay, but it just isn't happening! There are only so many words in the English language to describe my endless disappointment!
On Sunday, the Committee controlled the nominations once again, with Cody winning the HOH competition and, despite mutterings of putting Christmas on the block, promptly put David and Kevin up for eviction, leaving the six Committee members safe alongside Enzo, who's Cody's Final 2. Clear sailing, it looked like, unless David or Kevin won the veto and pulled themselves off the block, forcing Cody to go after one of his own. Could it happen, finally?
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Because the nominations are so predictable, the first chunk of the episode is rather dull. There's just not a lot of moves to be made at this point, so we're either watching the players hit the same talking points they have been all season, or listening to David and Kevin in the Diary Room as they recite the same stale lines about needing to win the veto to guarantee their safety. So, we get Dani talking to Nicole about how badly she wants Christmas gone and how she hopes Kevin or David wins the veto. We get Christmas and Memphis talking about the need to keep the nominations the same so that the Committee can keep rolling. Then there's Enzo, who truly seems to want a big move to happen. While he's guilty of talking big moves and failing to make them during his own HOH, I do get the sense that, despite being aligned with Cody, he's a little sick of the controlling alliance. To paraphrase Enzo himself: It's time to make some enemies, yo!
There are really only two interesting moments in the first half of the episode. First, there's Kevin talking with David about his feelings of not fitting in anywhere in the house because he's biracial, half Black and half Japanese. He mentions all his chats with Da'Vonne and how she only saw "three Black people" in the house and how that's always been a pattern in his life. It's a moving conversation, and addresses a dynamic in the house that hasn't been explored previously. Then we get Nicole stirring the pot a little and looking ahead to the moment when the Committee members have to turn on each other. She tells Christmas that Dani is gunning for her (though Dani is hardly the only one who thinks Christmas should be the first member of the alliance to go), hoping to secure some trust and put Dani's name out there as a potential threat.
That brings us to the veto choices and competition. Tyler is picked once again, Nicole gets to play, and when David gets a "Houseguest's Choice" he chooses Enzo based on their previous conversation about shaking up the game with a backdoor play. I hope that Enzo is being truthful and is ready to make a big move, but I'm not totally convinced he'd do so during Cody's HOH. After all, that's the guy he's supposed to take to the Final 2.
Anyway, the competition is a familiar one: OTEV is back! The slippy, slidey competition involves barreling down a ramp and searching for tie-dye T-shirts that contain the names of evicted houseguests that act as answers to questions from OTEV. The last one back up the ramp is out of the round. Plus, there's a hidden shirt that snags you a $10,000 prize, but takes you out of the competition. That's important to note, because that shirt is the cause of some "controversy."
In the first round everyone goes looking for the shirts, and after a few players find them, David is scrambling. He stumbles upon the shirt that awards him $10,000, and despite being on the block, he decides to take it. He's going to take the money so that he doesn't end up with no veto and no prize. Is it the best move? I'm not sure. I think it's smart to play for the veto and hope something drastic happens in the game to change your standing, especially when you're on the block. But, David also knows that he's a long shot to win because the Committee has made it clear they want nothing to do with him. And this also needs to be said: The reaction from the Committee when he takes the money is so, so annoying. They act like he's being arrogant and "a rookie." Their idea of the game is that he should fight for their approval at every turn, and that he's somehow insulting them and the game by taking the money. The truth, though, is that the Committee loves to condescend to the people they're voting out, they act like whiny, entitled children every time someone else wins something, and David knows the numbers are stacked against him anyways. The Committee has proven again and again they're not shaking things up, so why not walk away with some money when you're the easy target for the next two votes? Hard to blame him for taking the guaranteed money in the face of everything that's happening in the house.
Before long, we're down to just Enzo and Cody in the finals. If Cody wins, nominations stay the same. If Enzo wins, there's at least some chance he pulls David off the block and gets Cody to backdoor Christmas. Alas, as has been the case all season, the predictable wins out. Cody snags the POV, he chooses not to use it, and David and Kevin are left on the block. Luckily, Thursday's episode is two hours and will feature the first ever triple eviction, so that should force some much-needed change upon the house.
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