RNO Roundtable: Who Should Win ‘Big Brother 4’?

Jee still looks up to Jun as his caretaker. Even though he has made it clear that he doesn’t want to see her again, some feelings are still there. He might not vote for her because he felt they were allies and she voted him out, but on the other hand, he may realize it was good gameplay. I honestly think in the end, Jee will vote for Jun. If so and all my other predictions are correct, Jun wins.

But in case I’m not right, let’s keep going. Nathan. Wow. Where to begin? He knows he was stabbed in the back by Alison, but after being voted out, he kept wanting to see her so he could snuggle with her. Ew. Every fiber of my being is saying he will vote against her, but I still think he might ignore rational thought and vote for her. We’ll call his vote up in the air.

Erika seems to be the type who understands it was all a game. Same with Jack. It would not surprise me at all if both of them vote for Alison because of gameplay. On the other hand, it would not surprise me at all if both of them felt betrayed enough by her to go with Jun. On the third hand, both Alison and Jun betrayed the Originals alliance, so who knows. I give up!

So I can’t give a specific vote-by-vote breakdown. But based on what I’ve laid out here, I do think the jury will vote Jun the big prize.

Should they? That’s another tough question. While Sting7 is right in saying that Alison played the hell out of the game, there are different ways to play. Jun and Alison were both floaters, but while Alison drew attention to herself, Jun tried to stay under the radar. A perfect example is when Nathan came into the HOH room while Jun was there (not HOH, but in the room) and started slamming her for being two-faced, etc. If that had been Alison, she would have cried, screamed, stomped, pouted, etc. Jun just looked at him and basically said, “Oh, really?” And it worked. She didn’t respond to him and his claims fell on deaf ears. In the meantime, she made a secret alliance with Jee that was never really discovered, and plunged the knife into his back when the time was right. She made sure that Alison knew she was the only person Alison could possibly beat at the end, thus making it to the final two without having to be the one to boot Robert.

Both women are nasty and said a number of horrible things both in private and to other HouseGuests, so I won’t even consider that aspect. But in the end, I think that it could be argued that Jun should win. She played the game similar too Alison in some ways, but very different in others. By allowing Alison to be the focus of attention, she has put herself into a situation very similar to Dr. Will of Big Brother 2. Sure, she lied and played both sides, but she’s up against a psycho, just as Will was up against Nicole. It might just work for Jun, too.

Brian: As far as the game itself, this was a pretty decent season. There were lots of shake-ups and shifts in the power bases - it never devolved into the Big Brother equivalent of Pagonging. It definitely wasn’t predictable. The TV shows themselves overall were quite good; furthermore, you almost needed to watch them because the Diary Room confessionals were the only way you could figure out what was going on inside some of the players’ heads.

The problem? Well, the charitable way to put it would be that by and large, most of these people just weren’t all that likable. The blunt way: what the hell kind of rock did they find most of these people under? I found it hard to like or root for anybody beyond David, Jack, and Erika - one of whom left all the way back in the third week. (I also liked Amanda and Michelle, but they left way too early to really develop any sort of rooting value; honestly, I barely remember them at this point.)

The best I could say for any of the others was that they were OK. And the ignorance, prejudice, homophobia, and just general ugliness that came flying out of the majority of the players’ mouths on the live feeds was completely appalling. (I’m not counting Erika’s apparent slur against Jee because for one, it seems completely incongruous with the rest of her behavior in the house, where in general she was one of the most compassionate people there, and for another, there’s a school of thought that she was just imitating something Jee said about himself in a joking manner or something along those lines. But even if it was meant in the worst possible light - again, what does that say about this season that with only one ignorant comment as opposed to tons, she was still one of the most likable people in the big picture? This isn’t open to an email debate or rehash, by the way - this is all I care to say or hear on the subject.)

Therefore, this year had a much different feel to it than the two previous seasons. I’ve watched shows like Love Cruise and Paradise Hotel where there are one or two decent people, but by and large I just wanted to throw the whole lot overboard, so I’m not unfamiliar with that sort of dynamic; nor do I have a problem with it if I know going in that’s what to expect. But to have the same thing coming from Big Brother, where the past two seasons have been a great, balanced mix of people I loved, people I hated, and people in between? Was just extremely jarring and disappointing.