Big Brother 3: Why Lisa Won

Throughout the course of Big Brother 3, we’ve looked at why 11 people lost (including one who lost twice!). Now it’s finally time to examine why Lisa is $500,000 richer.

Lisa did not play a good game early on. She got into an openly-known alliance – actually, several, with the Gang of Six, Hot Tub, All-Girls, and Couples – and was targeted as being part of the power group. As the first Head of Household (HoH), she set the tone by going along with the group and nominating Marcellas and Lori in a blatantly stupid repeat of Big Brother 2’s first nomination – the one you want to get rid of and the nice one who nobody would ever vote against. Even without the new Veto power coming into play, it had already been seen that this was a bad idea, but with it, all Hell broke loose.

Gerry used the Veto, thus breaking himself out of the alliance. Then it got nasty and personal. Lisa, among others, shunned him. As I noted in my July 20 recap, Lisa said “everybody is ignoring him, making him feel like he doesn’t even exist, because he is not to be trusted.” Not a cool move, and one that could have come back to haunt her.

Indeed, Gerry did put her up for eviction against Eric – a smart move for which she never seemed to forgive him. But it was really the kicker that gave her a chance in the game. Once she got past that nomination, to quote Monica from last year, it was “AAAAWWWWNNNNN!”

Lisa suddenly realized that she would have to play the game, and not just rely on others. When the opportunity came for her to bring Eric back, she didn’t vote that way, knowing that it would hurt her chances in the end (though when she was asked about it by Eric in the finale, she gave a much more emotional answer, saying she couldn’t bear to be torn apart from him again). She hooked herself into the Danielle/Jason alliance – though perhaps never fully realizing how solid Danielle and Jason truly were. For a while, she allowed herself to be carried by this alliance, voting however Danielle told her. To many people, this shows she just coasted while Danielle did all the work. Indeed, that might be the case – but sometimes being a leader is not the best way to go. As long as her alliance protected her, it really didn’t matter much where her votes went. She was protected.

As the show progressed, she was trying to think strategically, noting that if she stayed low on the radar and tried to keep in people who were leaders, they would fight amongst themselves and she could continue to keep rolling towards the end. While it didn’t end up working that way – her vote for Marcellas to stay made her feel very uncomfortable because she hadn’t been told that Danielle and Jason were leaning the other way – she still managed.

Part of it was luck, of course. Danielle and Jason had thought strategically for so long, but then they decided to keep Lisa in the final three instead of Amy. Whether it was because they thought Amy would be more difficult to beat in an HoH competition or they wanted to uphold their promise to Lisa or whatever, it doesn’t matter. She absolutely kicked ass in the HoH contest, easily outlasting Jason and Danielle in the pool and then getting all but one question right in the final segment of the competition while Jason floundered. She made it to the final two, and then it was all over.

Part of the reason she won relates directly to why Danielle lost -- the other houseguests were vindictive and easily swayed. But part of it relates to her own skills and abilities to change her gameplan midstream, to show that she was a good person (such as when she refused all offers related to the family phone call because she wanted all of the houseguests to have a chance to make calls home), and to convince the jury to ignore her previous behavior (such as in the case of Gerry and Tonya).

Lisa had a great combination of luck, skill, the perfect final two opponent, and the proper jury to vote. All of these came together for her in order to make her $500,000 richer. That is why Lisa won.

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

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