Big Brother 3, July 18: Reversal of Fortunes

Well, it’s time for the first eviction. Would it be Lori, who was assured she was safe and was just put up so they’d have somebody to go against Marcellas? Or would it be Amy, who was assured she was safe and was put there as the backup after Gerry vetoed Marcellas last episode? Well, let’s just say that so far, it looks like a rerun of Big Brother 2.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. We begin with Gerry talking about how he will leave the house a richer man than he came in, whether or not he gets a dime. Lori calls it a beautiful confession. Marcellas says it has become a morality play, good vs. evil. Just remember, last year Evil won.

Then we get a short recap – really, a bit of historical revision – on the early alliance. Both Lisa and Josh privately say it wasn’t so much an alliance as an agreement. Riiiiight. I’m not sure what they are trying to gloss over – perhaps their replacement of Amy with Roddy in the Group of Six, but it is a bit silly. Anyway, Marcellas gives the facts when he says it really feels like it’s the beautiful people vs. the regular people. Like I said, a rerun of last year.

Now that Gerry has gone and spoiled their fun by vetoing the nomination of Marcellas, they have to find a new sixth member. I tell ya, this alliance has a revolving door. Anyway, Eric tells Lisa that he trusts Tonya a lot more than Gerry. So they bring Tonya into the alliance, which now consists of Eric, Roddy, Josh, Chiara, Lisa, and Tonya. Can’t tell the players without a scorecard!

Ah, but already the sub-plotting is beginning as the guys and girls each plan ways to overtake the other once it’s down to just the six of them. The guys figure they’d better strike when it’s down to seven, to take out Tonya so the girls don’t all stick together. Jeez, guys, your strategy is only going to change about a thousand times between now and then; I wouldn’t get too hooked on the ideas just yet. Danielle and Jason have the right idea as she says they are just going to sit back and let them fight amongst themselves. Her plan is to “be as innocent as a dove and sly as a snake.” Good plan.

Getting back to Lori, Eric says she’s not doing well emotionally. Roddy says he tried to comfort her but she’s upset about the whole alliance thing. No? Ya think? Hey, I know how you could comfort her – tell her in no uncertain terms that the alliance will back her! But they won’t do that because they are going to use her emotional issues as an excuse to get rid of her.

Lori says that Amy has changed since her nomination, going from “this is who I am” (which we saw last episode) to “accept me into the group,” which is more likely to save her ass. For Amy’s part, she says they all promised to keep her, and she isn’t worried about alliances. Yeah, that’s what they told Lori, too.

But Josh appears to be fighting (albeit weakly) for Lori. He says she is controllable, to which Tonya barks, “You think you can control that wacko?!” Yes, Tonya, he does. He thinks he controls everything. I guess as an example of “wacko” behavior (which, from what I’ve heard, is nothing compared to how she’s been seen on the live feeds), Lori tells Marcellas, “This place is Hell with studio lighting.”

It’s finally time for hostess Julie Chen to make her weekly appearance. After getting some sound problems ironed out, she begins by asking Danielle what she thinks of the veto. Danielle says it’s scandalous, beautiful, so wrong, and sick. Marcellas, of course, screams that he loves the veto! Then he plants a big kiss on Gerry’s cheek and, in his words from last episode, pulls a Bunky by breaking into tears. Julie asks Gerry if he would do it again, to which Gerry responds that he “absolutely” would.

Julie moves on to Jason and asks to what extent the extra money he would share with Lori (from the tree challenge) weighs in on his vote. Jason says it certainly came to mind but it’s so tough to vote either out.

She asks the two nominees if they have anything to say. Amy, in her usual perky way, says she loves “y’all” and enjoyed her reign as nominee. Lori says it was great getting to know the others – or does she really know them? Oooooh, insightful.

So now it’s time for some vote casting. Actually, let’s leave that ‘til the end rather than splitting it up like they did on the show. Frankly, it always annoys me when they do that.

In between the votes, we had a bunch of filler. First we met the families of the three nominees. Marcellas’ roommate, who is like a sister, knew he was sitting back to absorb what was going on around him when everybody else thought he was just being rude. When he was nominated, she says, he came out of his shell.

Lori’s mom says people seeing Lori may think she’s a big crybaby, but she’s usually funny, happy, etc. She’s a mother first, and we see Lori’s kids, who are described as the most important things in her life. Lori’s mother pegs Gerry and Josh as her enemies. Josh is obvious (well, maybe not). But Gerry? Why?

Amy’s parents say she is a trooper who has been through a lot of competitions. We get to see her large collections of trophies (apparently for majorette). They were upset to see her drunk and carrying on the very first day, but they think she has more confidence than Lori does.

The next filler consists of updates for four of the houseguests from Big Brother 2 and some of their thoughts on this show (of course, if you ever want all of Kent’s thoughts on this year’s show, rather than just a few edited ones, stay tuned to this website for his articles, “Inside the House with Kent”).

Nicole – looking much better than when we last saw her at the end of BB2 -- says she did a lot of charities when she got out, and is now a DJ on local radio and a housewife. She says she and Jeff (her husband) had some serious talks and they are stronger now than before. She has only really kept in touch with Hardy, who is like a brother.

Hardy has been doing some modeling and acting, and even did some with Shannon. Wonder if they were for toothpaste? He says they are not adversaries now; they are not the best of friends, but are cordial and respect one another. Also, he is still single and available.

Autumn is still pursuing her singing career and working on an album. She and Tony are still together. She says when she watched the shows, she was mortified and went for days without eating. She eventually realized she had an eating disorder and is addressing it. Good for her!

Kent says he gets letters and requests for autographs (that reminds me, Kent, if you’re reading this, a couple of the other writers here would like to get your autograph). He talks to Bunky with some regularity, and touches base with most of the other houseguests occasionally. As you may recall, he ran out of cigarettes during the show and went on to the patch. He is still smokeless. Always the straight talker, he says he knew Mike’s proposal to Krista was for entertainment only, and to get the spotlight back onto Mike rather than on Will and Nicole. He is not at all surprised that they will not be getting married. Also, he makes sure to mention the Reality Cruise, which still has reservations available!

As far as what the BB2 houseguests think of this year’s batch: Nicole wishes good luck to the “suckers” on BB3 and says she can’t stand Josh (can’t imagine why). He thinks he has it all lined up and he doesn’t. He’ll be out the door soon, she says. We can only hope she’s right.

Hardy mentions that Amy the Southern Belle needs to tone down a bit or she’ll be out. Kent says Tonya walks around a lot and if nobody gets near her with a pin and bursts them, people may get tired of her. Autumn hopes good triumphs over evil and Jason prevails.

OK, now that all the filler is done (you’d think the producers would have enough footage of what goes on in the house to fill a whole hour), we can get on to the voting. Well, first Julie talks to Lisa in private in the HoH room. Lisa says things started rough but being HoH was great and she enjoyed it even though it was stressful at times. Julie asks who she would not like to see as the next HoH and Lisa says “Josh.” Julie seems confused and asks if he is still in the alliance. He is, but Lisa says it would be too much of a power trip for Josh and too much negative energy for the rest of the house. Lisa is no dummy.

Gerry is first, saying that he has a dilemma. He is close to both, so he based his decision on who would be the best player to help him. He votes against Amy. Danielle says she gave Lori her word that she’d cover her back, but Lori goes cuckoo under pressure. Amy rubbed her the wrong way at the beginning, but that doesn’t mean she has to vote against her. Still, that’s exactly what she does. Two against Amy.

Tonya says when they first came in the house, Amy didn’t talk to her much but Lori was nice. However, things changed. So she votes against Lori. I’m sure her new position in the Group of Six had nothing to do with that vote.

Eric is next, saying that Lori is very sweet and caring while Amy is oblivious and probably never had to lift a finger. So his vote is obvious, right? Yup, he votes against Lori.

Chiara is similar as she says nice things about Lori – though she brings up the “too emotional” card – and then says Amy is her own person, which can work against her. Of course, she follows the group and votes against Lori.

Jason says he likes both very much, and it actually hurts him to have Lori stick around because it reminds the others that he is getting more money the longer he stays. Amy is amazing, wonderful, and funny, but he votes against Amy anyway.

Marcellas says Amy is his best friend in the house, one of the few he will have a relationship with outside the house. He loves Lori because she sacrificed herself for him, and he is forever grateful. But not grateful enough to save her, as he votes against her. Ouch.

Josh says Lori is in a bad place. She is a good-hearted woman but not cut out for games like this. Amy is a whack-job, obnoxious, self-centered (yes, he actually said that somebody else is self-centered), but overall a good girl. Still, he swore on his love for his girlfriend that he would not vote against Lori, so he casts his vote against Amy. I have to admit, this was quite a shocker. Here is Mr. Alliance going against what the alliance planned to do! At first I thought he must have known that they had the votes, but I don’t think he could have known. Yes, the other four alliance members were going against Lori, but that still put them in a minority with Josh going against Amy. It was only because Marcellas voted against Lori that they got their way, and I rather doubt Marcellas confided that information to Josh.

We don’t see Roddy’s explanation, but I’m sure it had an excuse that Lori is too emotional, etc. It doesn’t matter, because Lori is evicted by a vote of five to four. The alliance could have been overthrown a second time in a matter of days (the first was Gerry’s veto, of course) if only Marcellas hadn’t sided with Amy. He was really the deciding vote – and after he talked about how much he owed Lori!

Anyway, Lori gets and gives hugs all around, saying “this is not a bad thing.” Then she gets lost on the short walk to Julie – ah, live television! Julie begins by asking for her reaction. Lori says she was not surprised to be nominated, and she is who she is. It’s a game, and you don’t know what to believe there. She’s not mad – she’s okay with it. In fact, when Julie asks if anyone inside disappointed her, she says she is not easily disappointed in people. Would she have done anything differently to stay in? Absolutely not. She says she could not have let Marcellas be evicted.

We are shown short goodbyes from Jason, Gerry, Marcellas, and Danielle. What, no alliance members? Marcellas says he hopes in the future he can do something for her. Um, Marcellas, you could have done something for her in the present by casting your vote the other way!

But enough about the past (recent though it is). Now it’s time for the next Head of Household (HoH) competition. This one involves a series of questions about items and events that have occurred in specific rooms in the house. The contestants, who are lined up in little booths so they can’t see each other, raise various props to indicate the answers, whether it’s kitchen/dining room, living room, tiki bedroom, bathroom, map bedroom, or none of the above. All it takes is one wrong answer to be out. As the camera pans over the players, Josh looks like he’s about to have a conniption fit. Man, that guy gets freaky in these competitions. Anyway, here are the questions:

• Where do Godzilla and Rodan reside? Answer: Tiki bedroom (they are the lizards). All get it right.
• Where did Lori sleep the first night? Answer: Map bedroom. All get it right.
• Where did Lisa reveal the nomination box for the first time? Answer: The living room – a trick question. Josh, Roddy, and Danielle are out.
• Where did the last group to enter settle? Answer: none of the above – the cot room. Eric is out.
• Where was Lisa’s room before she became HoH? Answer: The tiki bedroom. All get it right.
• Where are their green armchairs? Answer: Bathroom. Jason is out.
• Where are their silver dragonflies? Answer: Kitchen. Gerry, Tonya, and Chiara are out. Only Amy and Marcellas remain.
• Where did Lisa says she’s a crazy photographer during the day and a crazy bartender at night? Answer: Living room. Both get it right.
• Where is there a painting of chairs? Answer: Living room. Marcellas gets it right, Amy gets it wrong.

Marcellas wins! From the lowest lows of certain eviction to the highest highs of HoH! Will he seek revenge upon the alliance? One can only hope. Remember that he has six people to choose from. Even if one of his first two picks is vetoed, he can easily replace him or her. One would presume that Gerry, Amy, and Danielle are almost certainly safe. Lisa is almost a certain pick, and Josh should be. But we’ll have to wait to find out for sure.

Meanwhile, Lori went from a sure thing to stay to the first evictee. As I said earlier, it’s BB2 all over again. Why don’t reality TV contestants pay attention and learn something from previous shows? Did they forget already what happened to Sheryl, who was put up against Nicole because Nicole was a sure thing to be evicted first? This strategy doesn’t work! Ah well, maybe the folks on BB4 will finally figure it out…

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline, and can be reached at rno@pobox.com.

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