Big Brother 9: Why Jacob & Sharon Lost

This season on Big Brother, contestants are being voted out as couples (at least for now – I still think it will change at some point). As such, there is little point in writing two columns, one for each evictee. So as long as they’re evicted as couples, I’m going to write this column for couples.

With that said, we begin by looking at a couple who wasn’t even really voted out – though I suspect the outcome would have been the same. They were chosen to leave the house by “Power Couple” Jen & Parker. However, the result is still the same – they lost. What happened in such a short time to cause this? How did they end up going after it seemed obvious it would be Sheila & Adam instead? Why did Jacob & Sharon lose?

Even though we’re switching to evictions of duos, one thing won’t change: We’ll be looking back at What Big Brother 9 Houseguests Should Have Learned to see what contestants did right and what they did wrong. Or, in some cases, what their partners did right or wrong.

That particular point already raises its ugly head right here in our very first column of the season. And it even comes up in the first rule, which emphasizes the need for players to scheme and plot.

One of the key aspects of this rule at this early stage of the game is:

“From the very beginning, you have to start making alliances and cementing relationships. It can be difficult to know whom you can trust after just a couple days – or even hours, sometimes – but if you don’t start fast, you’ll be watching from the comfort of your own living room like the rest of us.”

It appears Jacob was trying to do some scheming of some sort, as he indicated he was going to stir things up. But it also appears he had no clue what he was actually doing. Maybe he wanted to bring together some of the other duos. But then why mention it to Jen? Maybe he wanted to appear to be helping Parker? But then why bring it up in front of other people and not have a plan on how to use it? It was just stupid.

I will give Sharon credit for trying to clean up Jacob’s mess by inventing a story to tell Parker. It was a decent plan to try to refocus the attention away from her partner – she just happened to pin it on Ryan, the one person Parker’s partner would never turn on and would believe above all others. Whoops!

I think it’s clear that in addition to Jacob’s failure to properly scheme and plot, he also managed to simultaneously scheme and plot too much. How? Because, as mentioned above, he mouthed off without a plan, just to stir things up. He fired off statements in several different directions rather than focusing on a specific goal. He made it so nobody could trust him.

Going for the trifecta, this action also violated the third rule, which says players should pretend to be nice. Jacob, by calling Parker a “snake” and “gutless” to his partner, crumpled up any thought of being nice into a little ball and threw it into the trash. Then when he acted all arrogant and wouldn’t divulge anybody’s name as being the person who supposedly said it, it only got worse. Of course, he couldn’t truly give out a name, because he made it up; but he could have adopted a better attitude in the way he approached it.

The fourth rule says players should not let their emotions control them. While I think this team had the possibility of violating this rule in the future, they didn’t really have time for it to get to that point. Yes, Sharon did get extremely upset when Jacob came into the house and then when she was paired with him, but as far as we could see, that didn’t really play into the decision to evict them.

The fifth rule could have been a factor. It says not to be too much of a threat. While it might not immediately seem to apply here, one part of this rule says, “if you are so untrustworthy that people don’t know which way you will vote, you may be perceived as a threat to them sticking around.” Jacob made an impression right off the bat that he was indeed “so untrustworthy.”

Sixth is to be flexible. Frankly, there wasn’t time for this couple to be too flexible. They were there, Jacob mouthed off, they were gone.

As for the seventh rule, Jacob didn’t give himself an opportunity to trust or not trust anybody. He spoke ill of Parker to a couple of the other guys, and then directly told Jen. Of course Jen was going to let Parker know what was going on. He shouldn’t have thought any differently. But considering his goal was to stir things up, it’s pretty clear he wasn’t trying to keep it a secret.

What was Jacob trying to do? Honestly, it looked to me like he was trying to get evicted! At least, that’s certainly how a person should act if that’s their goal. Jacob wasn’t trying, but the effect was the same.

You have to feel bad for Sharon. She did what she could in terms of trying to clean up for her (ex-)man, but there was too much mess. It was obvious that Jen & Parker didn’t want to boot Sharon. But as Jen said, Sharon was just in an unlucky situation. The good they saw in her could not outweigh the bad they saw in Jacob. Sometimes stirring things up can work to a player’s advantage, but Jacob was playing with a hornet’s nest. That is not where you want to do a lot of stirring. Jacob was clueless and did everything wrong in the way he played his (short) game. That is why Jacob & Sharon lost.

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

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