Big Brother 11: Why Natalie Lost

Natalie was not exactly America’s favorite player this season, but it seemed like she would be the jury’s favorite – until almost all of them turned on her. How did she end up only getting two votes against Jordan, who barely seemed to play the game? Why did Natalie lose?

Even though Natalie made it to second place, as you’ve no doubt heard before, that just means first loser. So we still need to address the problem of why she couldn’t quite make it all the way, and we still do it in the usual manner – by looking back at What Big Brother 11 Houseguests Should Have Learned. Let’s get to it!

First and foremost is a rule that Natalie certainly understood – the need to scheme and plot. She understood that this was a game and she needed to lie and betray others. As she told me when I interviewed her, “I lied a lot, but this is a game. I turned off who I was in real life and started playing a game.” She made alliances, stuck by those alliances, made and broke promises to other players, etc. To all of this, I say good for her…

… To a point. That point is the second rule, which warns against plotting and scheming too much. And that is exactly what Natalie did. As has been pointed out by our recappers all season long, Natalie told unnecessary lies. She lied just to pull one over on people. She lied just for the sake of lying. Eventually, those are going to catch up to a player.

Let’s look at the “I’m 18” lie for example. She says she did it so people would underestimate her and think she’s just a naïve young girl. But I cannot remember a single time when we saw somebody say, “Gosh, Natalie’s just a naïve young girl so we can keep her around and not worry about her.” No! Indeed, she bragged to the jury (and to me) about how Jeff nominated her against Jessie because they (“she,” in her mind) were running the house! I know she has tried to take credit for making it as far as she did and saying the “I’m 18” lie got her there, but the fact of the matter is that it just didn’t.

Instead, we saw her slipping up many times – if her housemates had been paying any attention at all, they would have known she was lying. I suspect one reason they didn’t all put two and two together was that it seemed like such a stupid thing to lie about, so why would anybody do it? It just didn’t really enter their minds.

Natalie found out how difficult it was to maintain that lie all the time. What was worse, though, was that she told a couple people the truth, and those people spread it all around the jury house! This contributed to the view held already by some/most of the jurors that Natalie was a huge liar and hypocrite (because she criticized others for lying). So if anything, the “I’m 18” lie – and others – backfired on her and helped cost her $450,000.

Another area in which Natalie failed can be found in the third rule, which says to pretend to be nice and act like an adult. Here’s a hint: Dressing up as a queen while making your nominations and telling somebody that their nomination is totally personal while comparing them to the Devil is not pretending to be nice or acting like an adult. It’s not even acting like an 18-year-old. It’s just acting in a way that says, “I don’t care if I get your jury vote,” which isn’t very smart.

Also adding to the problem was that Natalie ignored America. I mentioned it in a previous column, but we need to remember that as much as people may complain about America’s Choice interfering with the game, it’s been going on long enough that it is a part of the game and players need to understand that. Natalie being witchy while Jordan was nice meant that Jordan got America’s vote from the jury and put Natalie at an immediate disadvantage.

Perhaps even more important was the way she fought with Natalie for Jessie’s attention while in the house. The two of them became opponents within the same alliance. Once Lydia arrived at the jury house, I have no doubt whatsoever that she did whatever she could to turn people against Natalie, especially after Natalie’s lies were confirmed. The thing was, Natalie acted that way towards Lydia for no good reason – Natalie had a boyfriend and it wasn’t a romance competition. So why do it? I still don’t understand, other than simply that she was a witch.

Speaking of acting witchy, this rule specifically notes, “One part of the game that many players don’t think enough about is the goodbye video. Everybody gets to make one to say ‘sayonara’ to the person who is voted out each week.” The rule then goes on to note how easy it is to simply say, “Good game,” rather than being nasty. But Natalie was unnecessarily nasty (once again, to Michele in particular). Did she forget Michele would be voting for the winner as part of the jury? I don’t care if she thought Michele would never vote for her anyway, she needed to try! After all, I’ll bet she also thought Jessie would never vote against her and look what happened there!

But actions like this were caused because as much as Natalie told us she was playing a game, she also allowed her emotions to control her, in violation of the fourth rule. This happened numerous times – too many to mention – and ranged from the way she got into arguments that weren’t hers (often jumping in to defend Jessie) to the way she attacked Michele because of what had happened with Chima weeks earlier when she should have been focusing on the game instead. She attributed this to her loyalty to Chima, but it was simply poor game play driven by emotion instead of her head.