Big Brother 8: Why Dustin Lost

When America first voted for Eric to target Dustin for nomination, it looked like a pipe dream. Then Eric was able to convince Jessica to put Dustin on the block after Dick vetoed Daniele and Dustin foolishly volunteered to be a pawn. America again voted for Eric to target Dustin, and it still seemed unlikely. In the end, though, Eric pulled it off! So what happened? How did Eric turn the house upside down? Why did Dustin lose?

Although “avoiding America’s wrath” is not one of the rules outlined in What Big Brother 8 Houseguests Should Have Learned, we can actually determine the reasons in the usual way. Let’s see what we can figure out.

The most important rule to follow is to scheme and plot. Dustin seemed to understand that, and was indeed part of the most successful alliance in the house – the Late Night Crew (LNC). Even after part of the LNC, Dick and Daniele, broke off, Dustin stayed with the LNC Lite and seemed to be a major force within that alliance.

Among other things, Dustin knew he needed to control people in the house. Earlier, he talked about how he could control Kail. He obviously had total control over Amber. These were good things – if he hadn’t made it so obvious. We’ll discuss that more later.

Another area where Dustin schemed well was for last week’s eviction vote, when he told Dick that he would vote out Eric, but saved Eric instead (an action he probably now regrets!). His supposed deal with Dick allowed him to play both sides. If he voted out Eric, he had some protection. If he voted out Kail, he had his original alliance.

But there is one area where Dustin failed miserably. He volunteered to be a pawn, a decoy. He wanted to go up against Dick and show him what’s what. But he forgot a key rule:

Anybody who has been watching the show should know by now that the ‘decoy’ strategy all too often does not work. For those unfamiliar with what I mean, it’s the idea that you want to get rid of a specific person and therefore the Head of Household nominates that person and one other who they think is ‘safe.’ However, it has failed far too many times, with the ‘safe’ person being sent home in those cases. In short: Don’t do it!

One reason Eric was able to convince others (namely Jessica, who directed at least Zach) was that Dustin was a bit too obvious in his scheming and plotting, thus violating the second rule. On the one hand, everybody seemed to know about his supposed deal with Dick and Daniele to vote out Eric last week. But then some of those same people blamed him for that very deal and decided it showed he was too sneaky. I’m not sure I get it, but it does seem like Jessica figured if Dustin could make that deal so easily, what was to stop him from making a real one?

Another area where he was too obvious was, as indicated earlier, in his control over other houseguests. He flat-out admitted Kail was putty in his hands. And it was obvious that he had completely taken over Amber’s brain. Indeed, Amber was so mad at Eric for threatening to reveal her “secret” (that she told to millions of viewers!), that it was unbelievable that she could ever vote to keep him. Yet after Dustin worked on her for a while, that was exactly what she did. If Dustin had that kind of control, it made him twice as dangerous.

Dustin generally succeeded at the third rule, pretending to be nice. Indeed, he was mostly a good guy, from what we saw. However, there were times when his arrogance showed through. We saw some particular instances in Thursday night’s episode, including when Zach flat-out blamed his arrogance for Zach’s vote in his goodbye message. While I didn’t particularly think it was a big deal, I didn’t have to live with the guy 24/7. That kind of behavior can wear on people, especially if they’re already looking for a reason to vote against you.

The fourth rule says not to allow emotions to control you. I think Dustin did a fairly good job in this. Indeed, he had to control the ball of emotions known as Amber! And he seemed to understand that he was playing a game, so he didn’t get carried away with feelings. I know I, for one, would have been seriously tempted to inflict major bodily harm on Dick this past week, but somehow Dustin remained calm. A good job there.

On the other hand, Dustin’s allegiance to the LNC Lite was at least in part due to emotional attachments. It might have been better for him in the long run to let Eric get voted out (obviously, with 20/20 hindsight, it certainly would have been better, but I mean even at the time). And I think that’s one reason he was so shocked to be voted out. He thought the LNC Lite was not just his alliance, but his friends.