Big Brother 10: Why Brian Lost

I’m obviously running a bit behind with this first column of the new Big Brother season. Heck, I didn’t even get What Big Brother 10 Houseguests Should Have Learned posted until after Brian was evicted! But the cause of Brian’s eviction almost seems so obvious that it makes this column unnecessary. Almost. We’ve seen before that the obvious isn’t always the answer – or at least not the entire answer. Will that be the case with Brian? Let’s take a look.

The first rule, as it is every season, is to scheme and plot. We can certainly say Brian understood the need to do this! Furthermore, he knew that he had to follow the portion of the rule that says, “From the very beginning, you have to start making alliances and cementing relationships.” Brian did that, and he picked the first HOH as one of his early allies to help himself even further. Indeed, it looked like Brian was setting himself up to be in the perfect position.

But then Brian ran afoul of the second rule, which warns players not to scheme and plot too much. Brian had deals floating everywhere, and it didn’t take people too long to figure it out. As the rule notes, “If you spend all your time scheming and plotting, and you try to scheme and plot with everybody, everybody will know what you’re up to. In the end, nobody will trust you and they’ll turn on you.” It’s like I was describing Brian!

I think one problem in this regard was that Brian, as he admitted when I interviewed him, “did three weeks of game in seven days.” Rather than making an alliance that would get him through the first few weeks, he tried to set himself up for the entire game. Big Brother rarely works that way. Alliances form and separate, suballiances form and fight each other, people join and unjoin and rejoin. It would have been good for Brian to make a solid pact with a couple people – maybe Dan and Jerry or Dan and Steven with Jerry as a guy to be duped later – but trying to make pacts with so many people in the house just set him up for failure.

I believe a big part of Brian’s problem was that he hadn’t seen much of the show. He saw some of Dr. Will’s act in All-Stars, but he was no Dr. Will – as he would no doubt admit himself.

Moving to the third rule, I think Brian did fine in pretending to be nice. Several people commented on how fun he was to be around. Indeed, even though Steven and Angie knew it would put a potential target on them, they still hung around with Brian after he had been nominated and it was obvious that he was the target. We may be talking about those particular moves soon, but to me it shows just how personable Brian was – they were willing to risk their game to hang out with him.

Showing that friendliness was as good a strategy as any to try to overcome the target that had been painted on him. I knew it wouldn’t work, but it was probably the only chance he had at that point.

By pursuing that strategy, Brian was hoping other players would ignore the fourth rule, which says not to allow emotions to control you. They didn’t fall for it, but neither did Brian himself – this rule had nothing to do with him going home.

The fifth rule, however, had plenty to do with it. It says not to be too much of a threat. Because of Brian’s excessive plotting, he was immediately labeled as a Dr. Will wannabe, a real gamer and schemer. It’s a bit surprising in Big Brother for people to so quickly eliminate a potential later-in-the-game threat like this, but it was smart. An annoyance like Renny can go at any time, but if you let a player like Brian get a foothold, you might never get rid of him. See: Dr. Will.

Sixth is to be flexible. Brian didn’t really have time to be flexible. He put together his strategy and worked it – and it backfired. But one point to note is that this rule says, “Sometimes, the best play is to not play. Lisa didn’t really play the game of Big Brother for weeks – she just stayed out of the way and let the battling powers eliminate one another. Similarly, Drew tried to stay in the background and always let somebody else – whether Scott and Jase or Adria and Natalie – take the heat. BB9’s Adam played similarly early on after barely surviving the first eviction.” Brian didn’t manage to survive the first eviction – indeed, he was somewhat the opposite of Adam, because just as Jacob took the attention away from Adam last season, Brian took attention away from Renny this time.

The seventh rule is one that Brian should have paid better attention to. It says to trust almost nobody. Brian certainly could have trusted Jerry and Dan. But once he started dragging other people into his various alliances, he opened himself up to too many possible turncoats. Sure, you can try to believe that everybody with whom you make a secret alliance will keep it a secret, but it’s unlikely to happen, especially that early in the game when things shift by the minute.

As we suspected when we began this article, Brian’s overscheming played a major role in his eviction. However, other issues were there as well. As part of that overscheming, he trusted too many people. And more than that, he showed himself to be a threat. Dr. Will was able to pull off the tactic of showing everybody how he would scheme and plot and backstab, yet still manage to stick around. But Brian was no Dr. Will. He couldn’t pull it off, and certainly not in the very first week. That is why Brian lost.

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

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