Big Brother 9: Why Allison Lost

Wow, that wasn’t even close! First, Allison & Ryan lost by a vote of two to nothing. Then, immediately after she thought she’d been saved, Allison lost to Allison by a vote of six to nothing. That’s gotta sting. But what happened to make it such an easy decision even when the housemates were given no time to re-plot and formulate a new plan? Why did Allison lose?

This was the first individual eviction of the season, and it couldn’t have happened at a better time. Out of the three previous evictions, one partner was mostly responsible while the other was mostly an innocent victim (though last week, Alex did play his own role, so we can’t totally blame Amanda). This week would have been the absolute worst example of that occurring, as Ryan was mostly beloved while Allison was mostly reviled. But we’re jumping ahead – we don’t want to leap to any conclusions before going through What Big Brother 9 Houseguests Should Have Learned to see where Allison went oh-so-wrong.

The first rule, of course, is to scheme and plot. Inherent in this rule is the idea that you need to create a plan and some sort of strategy. Unfortunately, Allison never really seemed to have one. As she admitted to Julie Chen after being evicted, she went into the game without any plan – and it looked to me like she stayed that way the entire time she was there.

One glaring example of this was the way she reacted to Ryan’s revelation of his relationship with Jen. Instead of realizing what a great strategic advantage this could be for her, Allison was upset because she couldn’t have Ryan for herself. Or something like that. To be honest, I never really understood the reasons. But then, I rarely understood anything that was going through Allison’s mind.

That aside, the point is that Allison & Ryan should have secretly paired up with Jen & Parker and become a force in the Big Brother house. Instead, Allison’s shortsightedness caused fighting rather than unity, weakness rather than power. It was so bad that the others thought she would reveal the secret and thus they revealed it themselves instead (which wasn’t the brightest idea either).

Eventually, Allison realized she needed to play the game. But by that time, she was on the block and desperate. And she went about it in a way that broke the second rule, which warns against scheming and plotting too much. She ran around the house, telling people whatever she thought they wanted to hear. Heck, she even tried to swing Josh, who had made it his very obvious goal to get her out of the house! And she did it in such a transparent way that it only made him angrier.

If Allison had any chance upon being nominated, she ensured she lost those chances as the week went on. For example, she whined and complained so much to Matt & Natalie about how they wouldn’t be there if it weren’t for her & Ryan, it was just over the top. And it didn’t convince people to vote to keep her – it convinced them to send her packing.

Indeed, that latter point could certainly be seen when there was a choice between voting off Allison or Ryan. Ryan had kept quiet and been a nice guy while on the block. Allison… not so much. And Allison was voted out unanimously.

Of course, there is another obvious point to discuss in the second rule: “open partnerships … are just begging to be split up.” Allison & Ryan were nominated the first time for this very reason – Ryan’s pre-existing relationship with Jen. But then Allison & Sheila stupidly made up a story about being lesbian partners, even going so far as to add in details about them having adopted a child and the like.

It was just plain dumb. This is a game that encourages the targeting of partners, and they created a fake partnership! D’oh! I know Allison is now saying it was a joke (and that it wasn’t her idea – as if that makes it any better), but they should have thought about how unfunny it would be to get voted out because of it before they started telling people.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the two of them decided it would be better to tell people the truth. So now Allison was viewed as a liar. And she lied about something that was taken as an offense by Josh!

Let me state for the record that I think Josh overreacted. Massively. He is a holier-than-thou jerk who apparently believes he can do or say anything he wants but then gets offended if other people do or say anything. And then he turns into Dick Donato. I want him off my TV set. OK, truth be told, I want all of them off my TV set – but especially Josh.

That rant aside, what Allison did was still stupid.

The third rule tells players they need to pretend to be nice. Allison obviously had problems in this area, as she couldn’t even pretend to be nice to her partner’s girlfriend, who could have been a close ally in the game! She tried pretending to be nice to several other people, but then would get caught talking about them behind their backs. Overall, she just wasn’t very good as this aspect of the game.

Why? In large part because she also wasn’t very good at following the fourth rule – “Don’t let your emotions control you.” Allison very obviously fell prey to her own emotions in the very beginning, when she found out about Ryan and Jen. Her reaction there damaged the game for her from that point forward and she never really got away from that.

The fifth rule wasn’t much of an issue for Allison. It says to not be too much of a threat, but I don’t really think that applied to Allison. Well, I suppose once the siren sounded and the couples were split, Allison was the obvious target for some of the houseguests because if she had stayed and potentially won HOH, they could have been her targets. But that wasn’t a main reason.

Sixth is to be flexible. But this version of the game to this point hasn’t allowed for a whole lot of flexibility. Because there were so few duos, alliance-hopping couldn’t really take place. The initial evictions – including this one – were mostly based on personalities rather than strategy. So there wasn’t much opportunity for success in this regard.

Finally, we have the rule that says to trust almost nobody. I’m not sure if Allison ever really trusted people. Maybe Sheila, at least for a little while. But this was not the cause of her downfall.

As I already noted, Allison’s main problems involved her personality and lack of strategy. When she should have hidden a pairing up that could have helped her succeed strategically, she instead made such a big deal about it that others felt the need to reveal it. And when she should have kept her mouth shut, she instead helped create a fake pairing that drew further attention to her.

Going back to what Allison told Julie Chen points to the biggest problem: Allison had no plan. It seemed she just did and said whatever came to mind. If that meant trying to befriend somebody one moment and talking about them the next, she did it. If it meant pretending to have a gay relationship and telling a gay man about it, she did it without any thought for potential consequences.

Allison turned these rules inside-out. When she should have been strategic, she was emotional. When she should have been quietly gathering strength, she was loudly pushing herself on people. She had no idea how to handle herself in the Big Brother house. And that is why Allison lost.

Do you want to see all the action in the house yourself? Then click here:

Watch Big Brother 9 Live Feeds

Do you want to see all the action in the house yourself? Then click here:

Watch Big Brother 9 Live Feeds

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