That cliffhanger from last Sunday’s Big Brother is finally resolved when Shelli, James and Johnny Mac are the last three hanging on for dear life. James keeps saying, “Anyone wanna make a deal?” Finally, Johnny Mac tosses himself down off the crag and Shelli pipes up with her deal: No putting up Shelli or Clay, no backdooring either. James bites and tells her that sounds good to him, so after hours of thunder, rain and terrorizing eagles, Shelli surrenders and James is crowned HOH. Pretty soon, though, these deal makers become deal breakers and the Sixth Sense alliance goes up in smoke.
SUNDAY, Nominations
It doesn’t matter what James said to Shelli up on that rock-he tells Meg, Jackie, Becky and others that this is their week to get out a big target, and the only way to do that is to put up Clay and Shelli alongside each other on the block. One of them will have to go home, and it’s clear everyone’s sorta vying for that person to be Shelli. What James doesn’t know is that Becky goes straight to Clay and tells him to make sure that he and Shelli act good all week. It’s a little bit confusing, but my theory, after watching episodes all week, is that Clay is a lovable dude among houseguests.
Frankly, I think by the end of the season, when they watch these episodes back, they might change their mind. If anyone should go, it really should be Shelli. Sure, she’s sweet and loyal, but Clay’s lackadaisical social game isn’t really a match for Shelli’s fierce niceness. James has been HOH before, but finally, six weeks into this show, the man is proving he isn’t afraid to get a little bit down and dirty. “Enough with the pawns,” he says. True that.
Vanessa knows she needs to sit down with James to reason with him. By now, we know what Vanessa is capable of. Some former houseguests (like Jason) might call it master manipulating, but it’s cool, calm and collected-if, at times, impassioned-but Vanessa’s one-on-one approach is natural. She tells James she knows her actions last week seemed sketchy. After all, she was HOH when Jason went home and he was the house sweetheart. After vetoing the house plan to evict Austin, it would be entirely possible for anyone not in Sixth Sense to be targeting Vanessa now. Instead, she says, she wants James to consider how foolish it would have been for her to make a solo move like that. She offers a deal to James that he can’t refuse: safety through the final seven, plus one person of his choice as safe. In the diary room, we can see he actually takes Vanessa’s word seriously, which is a major relief. But how will he take Clay and Shelli’s campaigning?
The showmance that just might be broken apart meets with James in a last-ditch effort attempt to convince him to keep them. Shelli explains how Austin is the one who has been acting shady, dating all the way back to Audrey’s eviction. James hears what they’re saying, but he thinks he’s too convenient that they’re throwing Austin so heavily under the bus, while wholly admitting that they know all this juicy info about Austin’s “Judas” split-personality game-playing because, duh, they were in an alliance with him! In the diary room, James says he doesn’t buy what they’re selling and still wants to go through with his original plan. If James and Vanessa team up and work together going forward, they have the clout to be the next #Henchmen (Derrick and Cody from Big Brother 16).
In nominations, James puts up Clay and Shelli, telling them that their deal is obviously off. Shelli speaks up, announcing to the house that this is proof that James is the kind of person who will go back on his word. No one really budges or looks peeved. Shelli says that she had nothing to do with James’ eviction. The camera pans to Vanessa who looks stunned and disappointed that Vanessa just said that. Since there’s no Battle of the Black comp this week, the episode ends in slo-mo with the gang getting up from their seats at the roundtable.
WEDNESDAY, Power of Veto
After the nominations ceremony ends, everyone is supposed to hug each other as per usual but when Vanessa walks up to Shelli, she’s a storm, muttering words as Clay stomps about, brushing past Vanessa. The vibe in the house is: We know you’re mad at us for putting you lovebirds up against each other, but this is a game, and you had opportunity to save yourself, trust only yourselves, and not rely on deals to keep you safe. Shelli laments to Clay over and over about how she should’ve stayed up on that rock during the HOH competition. Big Brother’s disappointments are akin to life disappointments. The minute you form expectations, you might as well consider yourself disappointed.
Clay starts yelling a James. Shelli runs from the other room snapping her fingers at Clay like a dog, “Stop it! Stop it right now!” Clay simmers down. James books it to the backyard. Vanessa is called to the diary room. She is clearly upset with their behavior. “How unfair. You don’t accept responsibility and put the blame on other people,” she says, her voice straining. Imagine beyond these few episodes we get each week, there are minutes and seconds worth of drama that unfold all hours of the day in the BB house. Without technology (house rules suggest the houseguests can’t even hum or sing songs), there is a lot of downtime. Vanessa’s emotions are shot. She and Shelli have it out. Shelli tells Vanessa that she’s on the block with Clay this week because of Vanessa’s decision. Dumbfounded, Vanessa echoes back: “Because of your decision, wow…” Shelli tries to apologize and pull Vanessa back in, saying she didn’t want it to come to this, but Vanessa says she is done. She walks out into the backyard crying. Everyone is sitting out there, aware of what just transpired. “Do you know how infuriating this is that they’re trying to pin this on me?” She says to the few houseguests who walk up to comfort her. James tells Vanessa that confirms his decision-he knows that Vanessa takes responsibility for her role in sending Jason and Jeff home, but Clay and Shelli continue to remain elusive.
Shelli sees everyone outside whooping it up and laughing now and motions to Clay from inside in the house, “Oh, Vanessa’s out there laughing with everybody. Isn’t that cute?” She walks out and asks what everyone is talking about. No one answers her. She asks James if he can come in and talk to her and Clay and James asks if Clay’s calmed down, because Clay is a child and needed to cool down after his tantrum. Clay says he got upset because they have James’ back and he’s pissed James didn’t see that. Shelli is cleverly attempting to appease James by telling him that he was never their target. James says he knows things don’t add up, and that their explanations are too little, too late-because what they’re really doing is cementing proof that James was on the outside of their “loyalty” the entire time. He wasn’t aware of their plans, and was often the pawn attached to forging a plan for them. It’s a proud moment for James. He holds his ground and doesn’t let Clay’s behavior intimidate him.
Shelli goes back to Vanessa to try to make nice. It’s unclear if this is because she is desperate or genuinely upset that she’s caused such a big tear in their relationship. She apologizes to Vanessa with tears streaming down her face and says she wouldn’t ever turn against her. Vanessa breaks down and hugs Shelli, who is now a ball of mess standing in the bathroom. Vanessa whispers, “You still have me,” once more proving that Vanessa plays with heart. She did the same for Austin. She meant no harm for Jason. She’s even tried buddying up with Jackie, James and Meg, knowing how broken down the Sixth Sense is. But she’s doing it all with heart.
In the POV comp, Vanessa, James, Jackie, Clay, Shelli and Becky compete in “Game of Throws,” a medieval dart-catapulting luxury comp. Luxury comps are fun. Someone can win money, a trip, and yes, even the golden POV. Vanessa, “Lady in Gold,” goes first. She gets a 26 and stays in the game. Eventually, she gets out and wins a castle vacation in Ireland, but that trip is soon snatched up by Clay, allotting her with a not-so-luxurious prize of being a Knight in Shining Armor’s Squire for the week. That Knight is Jackie, who gets out of the game, too. Left standing is James, who not only has the golden key to the HOH room, but also now carries even more bling with the POV necklace. After the big win, Shelli is called up to the diary room to surely record her goodbye message to Clay, or tell the cameras how terribly unfair this is. Either way, Meg takes this as opportunity to go lay some flirting down with Clay in the bathroom.
James says Meg is drunk. She did seem to be chugging loads of that medieval brew during the POV comp. Smooshing herself up against Clay, they hug for a long while as she tells him she can’t vote him out. He keeps saying she needs to, and she begins to cry. The tears become a sexy cry as Meg launches herself toward Clay and he puts his hands around her waist. She runs her hands through his hair and face when #BBScandal appears across the lower screen. Uh, yeah I’d say so. But Clay doesn’t seem to be shutting this down, at all. Shelli looks at Clay with wet eyes and says he knows, and she knows that they’ve had something special from the get go. He just kinda nods along. “I can’t wait to get you drunk in New York City, baby!” Meg says as she collects herself and runs away.
As punishment for not winning POV and not receiving any of the luxury items, Shelli must perform 2,400 battles including a joust and some kind of sword regime, essentially a “changing of the guard,” and this must happen in 24 hours. She kills it. Meanwhile, Vanessa is Jackie’s squire, and must shine her day and night. The shining goes on everywhere-the bathroom, the pitch-black bedroom, the kitchen-wherever Jackie goes. By the time the POV ceremony is about to begin, Shelli is still hopeful that James might just use the POV on her and put up Austin as a replacement nominee, but as we all know, James hasn’t been swayed at all. He keeps his noms the same and the looks of devastation set in hard across Clay and Shelli’s faces.
THURSDAY, Live Eviction
Clay and Shelli made a promise: No campaigning, not against each other, no way. But on some level, Shelli explains she has to do a little bit of campaigning, in a way that won’t hurt Clay. What she doesn’t realize is how toe-up Clay is over her, so she doesn’t even need to worry her silly self over it. Clay plans to throw his entire game to ensure Shelli goes far. He just knows: He wouldn’t last in this game, but Shelli can potentially win it all. He begins to tell the house throughout the week leading up to eviction night that he wants everyone to vote him out. Begrudgingly, the house just might go along.
Vanessa confronts Shelli about James saying that Clay and Shelli came to him saying a shit ton about the Sixth Sense, Austin, and their entire alliance. This isn’t good and Shelli knows it. Instead of going into defense mode, she tells Vanessa she’d rather clear the air with the entire Sixth Sense alliance ASAP. Outside, the six of them: Clay, Shelli, Vanessa, Austin, Liz and Julia talk about their game. Somehow, they end up deciding that they’ve succumbed to the pressures of the house, but the best thing they could possibly do now is keep their alliance together instead of turning against each other. If they can pull it off, that’s something incredibly rare in BB history: an alliance actually keeping their shit together through to the end. Shelli says she loves them so much. Liz says she’ll never forget what Shelli did for her. Meanwhile, James, Jackie and Meg talk about how weird Vanessa and Austin are being. They figure they’d both want Shelli out for the ways she’d been behaving, but they’ve been mildly campaigning for her to be the one to stay.
Vanessa, Austin and Liz all discuss Shelli. They’re torn, too. They know they aren’t big fans of Clay, but they also know that Shelli is a powerhouse and this is an opportunity to just get a big player out. A lot hangs in the air. How will the house vote? Julie Chen sends each player, one by one, into the diary room to cast their vote. The entire house votes Clay out. Johnny Mac tells Julie when she asks how he’s doing, “It’s been a weird day.” We could take that to coincide with his vote because we see it all over Jackie’s face as she says Clay’s name. The house didn’t want this. They wanted Shelli out. But Clay and Shelli somehow made a deal, and Clay convinced everyone to follow through. He gave Shelli his game, but, you guys, she gave him her heart, which is apparently worth way more than $500,000.
After Clay is evicted and he has a teary goodbye with Shelli, Julie interviews him and asks him about the Meg thing. He writes it off and minimizes the situation as Meg being typical Meg because she’s had her rounds with “just about everyone” in the house. It’s a disappointing moment for the guy everyone thinks is a mega sweetie in the house. It shows us why showmance or no showmance, it was indeed time for Clay to go. He never takes accountability for his role in house play, not even with Meg, whom he was 100 percent equally flirting back with. Back in the house, the HOH competition is underway now and it looks like it’s going to be another one of those longwinded comps where we won’t find out who won until Sunday night. Any predictions?
Tweet me @the_hoff, #TeamVanessa and let me know what you thought of BB this week! Tune in Sunday on CBS at 8/7c, Wednesday at 8/7c, and Thursday at 9/8c.
