Big Brother: All-Stars, July 23 – “The Most Strategic Player”

OK, James is the HOH, so now we should see some decent strategy – unlike what we got from Kaysar last week. Right? Well, we can only hope so.

We begin with a reminder that Nakomis, who was voted out Thursday, was Diane’s best friend in the game. So Diane says she’s going to “fight and win this game for her.” (Speaking of Nakomis, she had a lot of interesting insights when Sandy Lamparello interviewed her.) Mike Boogie is sad to see Nakomis go, but on the other hand, he’s glad to see Diane stay because “she’s hot.”

After Nakomis leaves but before the HOH competition, Jase just sits on the couch. Hopefully, he’ll give us a clue as to what’s going through his head. But in the meantime, Will says he wanted to stir the pot, so he reminds the others that they voted her out and they’re all playing the game.

Will also helps me out by commenting to Jase about him not exactly giving her the biggest goodbye. Jase just shrugs, but he tells us that she won’t be on the jury so he doesn’t have to “kiss her ass” and pretend he cards that she’s leaving. After all, she is the one who created the six-finger plan to evict him last time around. He doesn’t want to be fake.

We’re reminded that two people voted for Diane to leave. Will knows he was one – who was the other? He doesn’t know, but it was Janelle, who is currently complaining about not having anybody to smoke with. Maybe you should quit, Janelle. Smoking, that is, not the game. Just a suggestion.

Janelle tells us the rest of season 6 voted “with the herd” to get rid of Nakomis, but Janelle had given her word, so she voted against Diane. Sounds like season 6 wanted to save Nakomis but, when they found out they couldn’t, they decided not to make the split between them and the rest of the house even more obvious than it already is. I doubt it really worked.

James, however, says he voted her out because he’s doing what’s best for himself and Howie, not Kaysar and Janelle. Nakomis is a “strong and scary” player while he knows he’s safe with Diane. Howie adds that he felt threatened by Nakomis.

Cut to a rerun of the end of the HOH competition. Both James and Danielle guessed too high on the tiebreaker, and you could tell by the look on James’ face that he was sure he had lost because of it. But, surprise surprise, he won! And Howie was the first to run over and congratulate him. So much for James pretending to not be a part of season 6, if that charade is even still being attempted.

Mike Boogie tells us that he gives credit where credit is due – season 6 is good at HOH competitions. In response to my thought about Howie’s celebrating, he tells us that everybody else can kiss his ass because they’ve all been gunning for season 6 since day one. You know, that’s an awful lot of ego coming from the guy who went out first in this competition and is the only season 6 player to not have won HOH in All-Stars yet.

Danielle tells us it’s another week of season 6 in power and of her “kissing some serious ass.” James, meanwhile, tells us it’s “about damn time” he wins HOH – he didn’t win it last season – and it’ll be nice to not be scared.

Will tells Mike that he assumes they’ll go up. Mike doesn’t think so, though – James was mad at Kaysar ‘cus he didn’t like last week’s nominations. He seems to think James will use these nominations to somehow call out Kaysar. Now that’s just dumb. Mike continues that James is “enamored” with them. But Will says James is egotistical, winning HOH has gone to his head, and he thinks he’s going to win it all. They both agree that James is smart, but Mike says James told him it would be too obvious to get rid of Will and Mike. Uh. Okay.

From strategy to… clean-up. We see clips of Chicken George vacuuming, cleaning the shower, etc. Mike says George is the “Alice” of the house, the house-mother. Mike figures it’s pretty cool that there’s someone to do all that for them. Several other contestants make similar comments, with Howie adding that George may fade into the background while cleaning and be able to listen to the various conversations going on around him. “Chicken George may be the most dangerous player in the game right now.” OK, Howie’s had enough to drink. Cut him off.

Apparently, James and Janelle caught George listening in on a conversation they were having in the storage room. Oops! George does indeed let us know that he just listens a lot and hopes that will get him farther in the game. Well not if you keep getting caught, it won’t!

Changing topics again, James yells out, “Who wants to see my HOH room?” Crickets chirp and people don’t really move at first. Eventually, they all gather and find a room redecorated in red. There is a picture of him kissing Sarah, and he lets us know that they’re still living together in Chicago (hey, Sarah, let me know where you guys are and I’ll drop by when I’m in town soon!).

Howie thinks Sarah is still hot and loves the pictures. Jase tells us he’s tired of looking at season 6’s family and friends – he doesn’t care about anybody’s family except his own!

When most of the others leave, the season 6 folks stay behind to celebrate. James tells the other three he has to work the house to see which people are “kind of” their allies and which are definitely not. Howie, master of strategy, says it’s time to take out the powerful players in the house. Uh, no, that should have begun last week. James also wants to make sure there is another target left in the house other than them. You know, James, there might be other targets, but if somebody else wins HOH, none of those targets are going to matter.