Big Brother 6: Why Sarah Lost

Sarah was not the target this week – she was collateral damage. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean she was an innocent bystander. What did Sarah do to put herself into this position? What could she have done to get out of it? Why did Sarah lose?

How do we answer these questions? By looking back at What Big Brother 6 Houseguests Should Have Learned, of course! So let’s get to it.

The first rule says to scheme and plot. Sarah didn’t do a whole lot of this, leaving most of the game-play to boyfriend James. Even at the very end, when there was a potential plot afoot to evict Ivette, Sarah didn’t do much towards trying to save herself.

Of course, Sarah was in a couple alliances over the course of the game, but it was pretty much as a tag-along with James. She was part of Eric’s group while James was. She moved over to Kaysar’s Krew when James did.

This makes it particularly ironic that she – by way of James – failed the second rule. James schemed and plotted too much, failed to keep his scheming secret, and backstabbed before he needed to. Sarah didn’t do any of these things, but was associated with James because she failed a different part of the second rule: couples. As the rule notes, “Let’s face it, open partnerships … are just begging to be split up, especially in a game where each week two people are nominated. What’s the best way to split a couple? Nominate ‘em both!”

Yes, everybody came into the house in pairs. But the rule also noted that once the secret is revealed (because I knew it would be), “Anybody with a partner left should be willing to downplay it as much as possible.” Sarah and James did exactly the opposite – they were the most obvious pair in the game, with James even going so far as to team up with Sarah and help her win Veto the previous week so she could take him off the block. Yes, it was a smart move in that particular competition, but it also showed that they were essentially playing as one person. James was the target, but as April said in her Diary Room session before voting, “Sarah is part of James.”

With that in mind, let’s look at some of the things James did. I do believe he was correct to jump to Kaysar’s Krew when it was obvious that Eric’s group would not support him when he was on the block. However, like it or not, that move alienated “The Friendship.”

At that point, James should have considered himself part of Kaysar’s Krew and just dealt with it. But instead, he tried to have it both ways. He went to Ivette and swore on the Bible that he would nominate Howie and Rachel if he won HOH. That, in and of itself, wasn’t very smart. These things have a way of getting around in the best of circumstances. But he went beyond that and reversed himself just a day or two later, admitting to her that he would have to go after Maggie!

How many ways can we talk about how bad this was? He schemed and plotted too much and admitted to planned backstabbing far before he had any reason to do so. And by telling big-mouth Ivette, he should have known that his flip-flop would not remain secret.

If James had just kept his mouth shut and not said anything about nominating Howie and Rachel, or at least if he had not flip-flopped a little later, he and Sarah would have likely been perfectly safe. In all likelihood, Maggie and Ivette would have been nominated. But instead, James and his other half, Sarah, were put on the block, with Sarah sent packing.

Of course, that’s not all there is to it. The third rule says to pretend to be nice. Sarah seemed to be perfectly nice, and it didn’t really seem like anybody had a problem with her. James, on the other hand, raised the ire of various people in the game. Instead of letting certain things lie, he would often pick at them like a scab. For example, after James switched to Kaysar’s Krew, he insisted on going back to Maggie’s group to try to explain himself in logical terms – terms they didn’t, or wouldn’t, understand. All he succeeded in doing was making them mad at him.