Big Brother 11: Why Jeff Lost

Dangit, I fell behind in my columns again! In this case, I’m going to partially blame Big Brother for evicting Michele on Tuesday, before I was able to talk about Jeff. But no matter, it’s time to do just that – talk about Jeff. After all, he went from being in the catbird’s seat to sitting in the jury house. What happened? Does he even understand it himself? Why did Jeff lose?

We’ll answer these questions in the usual way, by taking a stroll through What Big Brother 11 Houseguests Should Have Learned to determine where Jeff went down the wrong path. Let’s get to it!

First and foremost is the rule telling players to scheme and plot. Jeff did seem to understand this, especially since he had been on the losing end of such scheming for the first few weeks in the Big Brother house, watching ally after ally head out the door.

Jeff knew he needed to have close allies and had to get rid of those who would go against him. I have no qualms with that aspect of his game play. However, the problem arose because Jeff didn’t seem to understand who his allies actually were!

This is where the second rule, warning against scheming and plotting too much, comes in. Jeff was set in a final four deal with Jordan (of course), Russell, and Michele. Russell and Michele were, to all appearances, going to be loyal to that final four deal. But Jeff never could wrap his head around the trust issue and actually decided to believe his season-long enemies, Natalie and Kevin, rather than his final four allies! So rather than evict somebody who had been opposing him the entire time, he targeted and disposed of Russell.

I know Jeff still believes he did the right thing. He told me, flat out, when I interviewed him, “If I had put Kevin out that week, I guarantee that Russell would have won HOH and put me up the following week.” Obviously, from Jeff’s perspective, that was the case. I simply believe he was wrong. And better to go with the person who will possibly betray you (Russell) than the ones who definitely will (Natalie and Kevin). Jeff backstabbed Russell too soon, leaving the door wide open for Natalie and Kevin – and they took full advantage of it.

Moving on, Jeff did follow the third rule pretty well, pretending to be nice. Indeed, I don’t think he was pretending and America agreed, giving him the Coup D’etat power (though he did need to do a bit more pretending in this area when he was HOH and let the power go to his head). That power turned the game completely around, leading to a decimation of Jessie and his alliance – and it should have led to them all being sent packing, Natalie and Kevin included.

But Jeff got caught up in the fourth rule, which warns against allowing your emotions to control you. I know Jeff didn’t like Russell. Heck, I can’t imagine how anybody would have liked the jerk he was being in the house (though he later claimed to have just been putting on an act). Indeed, Jeff told me, “Russell was never a friend of mine in the house… I saw him as an enemy.”

I understand all of this, but Jeff needed to put those personal feelings aside and see the strategic situation for what it was. Even if Russell did make a final two deal with Michele, there was no way their bond was tighter than the one between Natalie and Kevin, who had been allies the entire game. Furthermore, as I’ve already discussed, there was at least a chance Russell was being honest, while there was no chance Kevin and Natalie were. Jeff needed to ignore his emotions and play with his head, evicting Kevin or Natalie. But he failed to do that.

Jeff also failed in the fifth rule, warning against being too much of a threat. I admit, there wasn’t much he could have done here, but it was certainly a factor. I mean, with a choice between evicting him or Jordan, of course Kevin and Natalie are going to go after him! Jordan was a non-threat in many ways. First, she’s shown that she’s not very bright. Second, she is not exactly a challenge threat. Third, she was less of a threat to beat either Kevin or Natalie in the final two than Jeff was, in large part because Jeff could say he played the game. Again, I don’t know that Jeff could have done much differently, but this factor certainly played a role.

What about the sixth rule, being flexible? I’d say Jeff did okay here. If anything, he was too flexible in being willing to trust his old enemies, but he did at least allow for the possibility of aligning himself with different groups (starting with Russell, who had of course been on Jeff’s bad side in the very first week). Jeff just ended up being flexible with the wrong people.

And he also trusted those wrong people, in contravention of the seventh rule. His overarching trust in Jordan was well-placed. But we’ve already noted that his trust in Kevin and Natalie most certainly was not. Bluntly put, he should have known better.

That’s what this all comes down to, really. Jeff never should have trusted Kevin and Natalie to go against what they had stood for over the course of the entire season. He overthought his position in the game and overschemed, which resulted in a double-cross that sent him packing. That is why Jeff lost.

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