Big Brother 6: Why April Lost

“I would never campaign against her.” Those were the words April uttered about Maggie just moments before April was voted out – and Maggie stayed. Perhaps they help explain that very outcome. Certainly it is one of the factors we need to look for as we answer the question of why April lost.

And we’ll get to that. However, it is by no means the only reason. If it were, this would be a short article indeed. To figure out all of the reasons, we must delve into What Big Brother 6 Houseguests Should Have Learned. Let’s get to it.

The first rule tells April what she should have done in the scheming and plotting arena. However, this was not apparently something that really interested her throughout most of the game. Oh sure, she was a part of the Friendship alliance, but that was mostly because they were allegedly “friends.” That alliance did bring her to the final four, but she should have seen it coming that it would likely take her no further.

April did a little bit of scheming, but it never actually came to fruition. For example, she and Jennifer considered jumping ship and voting out Ivette rather than Sarah when Howie fell prey to the horrible idea of targeting Sarah and James. But they didn’t do it. At other times she briefly considered voting in a strategic rather than “friendly” way. But she didn’t do it. Talking about good play doesn’t get you anywhere if you don’t actually follow through.

The second rule says not to scheme and plot too much. Since April didn’t scheme and plot enough, it might seem odd to think that she at the same time did too much. But by talking about evicting Ivette and then not following through, she actually did. Word got back to Ivette, and while it’s unclear whether Ivette truly believed it, she seemed suspicious of April from that point forward. Certainly, the two of them were never as close friends as Ivette and Maggie, and I think Ivette’s distrust of April played into that.

Third is to pretend to be nice and act like an adult. Generally, April did the right thing in pretending – such as when she no longer really wanted to hang out with Ivette but did so anyway. However, even then it seemed to be obvious to Ivette, as April is not a particularly good actress. As far as acting like an adult, well, I know I’d have gotten sick of her talking about wanting to have sex with her husband. OK, we get it, move on! But that was not the reason she was voted off.

The fourth rule, however, definitely played a role: Don’t let your emotions control you. April went with her emotions pretty much the entire game. She joined an alliance based on emotion. She let her emotions show at the drop of a hat. She became upset when things didn’t go her way or when people did things she didn’t like, and she allowed that to affect her game play. And in the end she uttered the statement quoted in the first line of this article.

Let’s look at these more closely. Earlier in the game, Howie went through what would later be referred to as his psycho phase. But even as he was acting out, he knew what he was doing when he targeted April. He had pegged her as the most emotionally vulnerable, and she was. Instead of blowing him off, she let him get to her and was lucky her game play didn’t suffer more as a result.

More recently, April allowed herself to get upset because – horror of horrors – Ivette showed joy when she won the Veto and kept herself in the game! To make matters worse, she told Ivette that she was upset about it. Then later she told Ivette that she essentially blamed her for all of April’s own mistakes in the house! Not smart. If Ivette had any thought of keeping April rather than Maggie, April erased those with this behavior.

Of course, then we get to April refusing to campaign against Maggie. Yes, they were “friends.” But in the end, it’s a game about half a million dollars. If they are all truly friends, they should each understand that. If April wanted to win, she needed to campaign against Maggie – or at least for herself. As we just discussed, she apparently went in the opposite direction, essentially convincing Ivette to keep Maggie!

The fifth rule says to not be too much of a threat. I think we can safely skip that one. The sixth says to be flexible. As with so many others this season, flexibility was virtually nonexistent. April locked herself into the Friendship and then refused to even seriously consider jumping outside of it – even when it should have been obvious to her that she would never win that way.

Seventh is to trust almost nobody. Since April was playing so emotionally, she did essentially put her trust in the Friendship. Sure, that alliance did take her to one week away from the finish – but one week away doesn’t get her the big bucks.

As for the eighth rule, April had some bad habits (for example, frequent nose-picking seen on the live feeds), but they had nothing to do with her eviction.

April was not destined to win this game. She stuck with an alliance of “friends” the entire way, but was not the most “friendly” among them. Even if she had made it to the final two, I don’t believe she could have won against either Ivette or Maggie. But April was unwilling to do anything else that was necessary in terms of game play. If you base your entire game on a “Friendship,” you shouldn’t be surprised that it comes down to who is the closer friend in the end. Ivette had the final decision, and there was no way she’d bring April over Maggie – especially when April made it so easy by angering her and refusing to campaign for herself. That is why April lost.

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

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