Big Brother 11: Why Jessie Lost

I know I’m a bit late with this column – there was so much going on with Chima and her nonsense over the course of the week that I’m afraid Jessie’s eviction got kind of forgotten about. But we’re rectifying that now, so let’s just move forward.

Indeed, Jessie’s eviction was the primary cause of Chima’s breakdown, or at least the final straw for her. She was very upset about the Coup D’etat, and I’m sure Jessie was not happy about it either. While he told me in my interview with him that he learned to “accept the unexpected,” he also added, “I knew my fate was not in my own hands, but in the hands of America… that’s what’s not fair!” So can we totally blame the Coup D’etat power for Jessie’s eviction? Why did Jessie lose?

Even though Jessie’s eviction didn’t follow the usual path, we still will – by going through What Big Brother 11 Houseguests Should Have Learned to see how he ended up in this predicament to begin with.

First and foremost, players need to scheme and plot. Jessie certainly understood this, having been through a few weeks of the game once already. And indeed he quickly formed an alliance of his cliquemates plus a couple Brains. That alliance dominated the early stages of the game, knocking out opponent after opponent. Of course, this had a downside, which we’ll get to in a little bit.

But one thing Jessie never bothered to really do was make secondary alliances. He supposedly had one with Casey, but then turned on him and got him evicted. Casey’s idea was to have a secret partner on the other side of the house, and Jessie would have been wise to do the same. However, he chose to worry about comments Casey supposedly made behind his back (which is always going on in Big Brother) and cut off his only outside alliance. Meanwhile, he didn’t make any real strategic advances to the likes of Jeff or Jordan.

This means those two always knew exactly where they stood – on the outs with the main alliance. That violates the portion of the second rule that says scheming needs to be kept secret. By making the “sides” so obvious, Jessie left himself open to problems should his opposition ever gain power – which is exactly what happened.

Other than that, he of course didn’t scheme and plot too much, since his main focus was on loyalty to his group. I would argue that he did backstab Casey too soon, though, as already mentioned above.

The third rule advises that players need to at least pretend to be nice. I will say that Jessie was nicer this time around than last, but that isn’t necessarily saying a whole lot – at least for those on the outs. We’ve heard several references from opposing players about Jessie’s ego and indeed he did strut around quite a bit when he was in command of the team that seemed to be leading the game (winning HOH twice didn’t hurt his ego either).

The presence of America’s Choice means we really need to address this a bit more, though. As one reader pointed out, while players and writers (myself included) sometimes complain about how America’s Choice changes the game, the fact is that it has become part of the game. That means that, unlike a show such as Survivor, you can’t play only to your competitors without fear of reprisal. There was no way Jessie, with his personality, was going to win America’s Choice to get the power of Coup D’etat. Compare that with nice-guy Jeff. Was there really any surprise to America’s Choice? Not much. So players can’t just pretend to their opposition that they’re nice – they need to play to the viewers at least a little bit as well.

Fourth is to avoid letting emotions control you. Unfortunately, Jessie was an emotional player. He worried more about things like respect and loyalty and friendship than he did about strategy and tactics for winning the overall game. Indeed, last season I criticized him for refusing to change his personality for the game. This season, he told me he still saw no reason to make those changes. I would think that two losing seasons might make him reconsider, but apparently not.

Several areas where his emotions interfered include his turning on Casey, standing by Ronnie when everybody else turned on him, and his ongoing situation with Lydia. All of these worked to his detriment in the game.

Earlier I mentioned that being the leader of an alliance that knocked out player after player had a downside. The fifth rule is where we encounter that, because it says not to be too much of a threat. Indeed, anybody dominating the house to that extent is going to paste a target right on their chest. As we’ve seen time and time again, you can’t count on your side winning every HOH and Veto competition (or even on “your side” staying “your side” for too long!). Eventually, somebody else will win the power and then you’re in trouble.

In this case, Jeff was granted the power not through winning an in-house competition, but rather a popularity contest of sorts. While Jessie indicated to me that America’s vote seemed to target him, I’m not sure I would go that far. Maybe many people voting for Jeff knew he’d target Jessie; maybe they just liked Jeff more and wanted to give him some power. Either way, the fact remains that Jessie put himself in the position to be the one who needed to be knocked out of the game. He may be upset about how it happened, but he was the only one to blame for the fact that it happened to him.

Also earlier, I mentioned how Jessie was loyal and dedicated to those in his alliance, but refused to make separate alliances outside his main group. As such, he failed in the sixth rule, which talks about being flexible. He should have realized the futility of just clinging to one alliance and hoping it would survive, but that’s precisely what he did. If he had made overtures to Jeff, maybe things would have ended up differently. Heck, if he had just modified his behavior – adding flexibility within the game – he might not have been the huge target that he became.

The seventh rule really didn’t apply to Jessie’s eviction. He trusted those close to him (and not necessarily even all of them), and didn’t trust anybody else. Since Jeff didn’t backstab him, but came at him with the knife right to the chest, there was no betrayal here.

The question remains – was Jessie’s eviction caused solely by the game-changing Coup D’etat? The answer? Yes and no. Yes, that obviously was the immediate cause. But Jessie cannot blame that alone. He needs to also blame himself. After years of America’s Choice and America’s Player and the like, he should have known that making an enemy of America was not a good idea. What was worse was making an enemy of some of his housemates! He had the opportunity to play a different game and to be a better schemer and all-around player. All the pieces were there for him, but he didn’t use them. Instead, he stuck by one alliance, polarized the house, and hoped for repeated HOH and Veto wins. Sorry, but that just doesn’t work, whether or not America is involved. That is why Jessie lost.

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