So much has happened over the last three days, and CBS just doesn’t have the time to show it all on Wednesday’s episode. This week’s Big Brother Gossip Show took over 90 minutes on a four-hour section of Friday night feeds. All of that footage will have to be reduced down to less than twenty minutes of network content.
I bring this all up again today because I noticed something on last night’s nomination ceremony that I believe set the stage for everything that happened Friday night. Paul really believed he was going to flush out Jessica’s power during his nominations of her and Cody, and he clearly did not know how to respond. He was stupefied. He was stunned into silence.
Paul’s ego cannot handle that sort of situation, especially in a segment that’s designed for TV. He cannot be made to look a fool on television, especially as he crafts this Derrick-esque persona on how he’s supposedly orchestrating each and every thing that happens this season.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Paul was going to spend Friday night creating some sort of drama to counter what happened during the nomination ceremony. He didn’t have to wait long, as Cody and Jessica heading up to the HOH room gave him the match to light his flame.
If you watch that scene again (approximately 7:20 BBT on last Friday’s feeds), it’s not nearly as explosive as the retells made it sound. It was a heated discussion, but it wasn’t a verbal brawl. It was only when Paul told Jessica to quiet down that it began to get ugly, and the real ugliness didn’t happen until Paul had his audience.
The two threw a couple of “fuck you’s” back and forth, but ultimately Cody did exactly what Paul said to do. He left the room! It was only when the door was open that Paul started calling Cody an “emotional pussy” and other inanities so that the entire house could hear him.
With a bigger audience, Paul’s exaggerations became worse in every retell, as did his fake tough guy persona. None of these retells reflected what actually happened, but they did the job. The minions believed each and every word, of course, but it also caused a rift between Cody and Jessica. They sort of broke up for a bit, and on numerous occasions Cody has said she shouldn’t use the Hex as he wants to give up his game for her benefit.
Would she do something that stupid? Here’s where Jessica again proves she’s no brain surgeon. Paul came to her yesterday with a deal - sacrifice Cody (i.e. don’t use the Hex) and they’ll keep her safe for two weeks. Oh, and Paul promised that everybody will make Alex their target because they apparently all really love and support Jessica when Cody’s not around.
Why would Jessica believe for a second that Paul, along with his minions, would follow through on these promises? There’s not a chance that would happen, and she should know that.
There are people that believe it would be better for her game if Cody wasn’t in the house. Maybe this would have been true a few weeks ago. Not anymore. He’s her only real ally, and will always be a bigger target than her, as even Elena and Mark now report to Paul whatever they say.
In fact, last night Jessica and Elena had a great conversation on Jessica’s game plan that should have raised some suspicions in Elena’s mind about Paul. "They keep saying that it will make them happy if I don't use it”, Jess said at one point.”Their mistake is thinking I care." What did Elena do? She immediately ran upstairs and reported their chat.
And let’s be clear that the minions will never actually accept Jessica. That’s ludicrous. Think about Survivor for a moment. What is always said to an outside person thinking about joining the majority alliance? That they will be the first person to be chucked aside by their new friends. That’s what will happen to Jessica. In fact, Paul the over-thinker has already floated the idea of getting rid of her this week instead of Cody.
Will we ever get rid of Paul? Will people finally think about actually winning this game, or is jury really their only goal? Kevin did broach the topic with Jason yesterday, but Kevin is all talk and Jason won’t do anything without Alex’s approval. And who does Alex feel honored to be working with? Paul.
That’s why this new “Temptation Competition” scares me a bit, as it could be yet another protection for Paul. I can see it happening now. Jess or Cody (if he survives this week) is the next HOH, so Paul again gathers his minions to orchestrate his survival:
Paul: Ok, Alex, I need you to lick my scrotum.
Alex: It would be an honor, sir.
Paul: Matt, your job is to rim my ass.
Matt; On it, boss!
Sure, the last-place finisher in this comp is now an automatic third nominee, but Paul will just put on his “we have the votes to save you” cap and they’ll do their duty to save their savior.
To be fair, none of this would have happened if Jessica had better handled this Hex. Expecting Paul to actually work with her was a disastrous mistake, especially as she eventually confided the entire gimmick. She should have remained vague. The grins on their faces as Paul nominated them should have ended the conversation. It would have torn him up this entire week.
Previous to that, Jessica was idiotic in not allowing Cody to compete in that first Temptation Competition. All that accomplished was giving them another thing to fight about when things went awry between them this weekend.
All of this rambling leads up to today’s POV meeting. Paul again had all sorts of plans for what he was going to say, and he made demands on what Jason should say before Paul saved him. Cody refused to participate in this silliness. When asked to do the traditional “please keep me off the block” speech, Cody reportedly had nothing to say. Not shockingly, Paul (along with Josh) responded with the usual rants. “You don’t give a speech”, whined Josh. “You don’t participate, and you don’t have a personality? What the fuck are you doing here?” (Paul apparently also wasn't pleased with something Jessica said in her speech, but at this time of writing it's unclear what she said.)
So will Jess use the Hex? It seems so at this point on Monday afternoon, as she and Cody just talked about how next week is “do-or-die”. They have three comps to save their asses. “I do want us to win HoH. If one of us wins that (safety) and one wins the PoV, we are not going anywhere.” Then again, eviction night is still three days away.
BTW, Mike and I did a little research this weekend. Did you know out of all the seasons that have featured returnees, there’s only one where a vet didn’t end up in the top two? Obviously, the all-stars season (7) featured a top two of veterans but look at these stats:
Season 11 - Jordan won. Jesse, the lone vet, was eliminated by a Coup D’etat.
Season 13 - 6 returnees, with one of them, Rachel, winning.
Season 14 - 4 returnees initially in the game as “coaches”, with Dan losing to Ian..
Season 18 - 4 returnees, with Nicole beating Paul.
Season OTT - 1 returnee, Jason, who lost to Morgan.
Can you now understand why so many people don’t like mixing vets and new players? They have a built-in advantage called experience, which is almost always mixed with production tricks to ensure they last at least a month. This year’s domination by Paul was set up by those idiotic friendship bracelets that pretty much put together a team for him coupled with a first-week viewer’s poll where he was the only recognizable name. Under no circumstances would anybody else have won that first Den of Temptation.