Big Brother 10: Why Renny Lost

It came down to the four allies and Jerry… and Jerry won HOH. Somebody had to go, but Renny’s departure may have been the least contentious eviction all season. No hate, no recriminations, just some tears. While the fighting was done once Ollie walked out the door, we will still only have one winner. So that leaves us with the question: Why did Renny lose?

I suspect the results of our look at Renny’s eviction will be a bit different from what we found for previous houseguests, but the only way to be sure is to go through What Big Brother 10 Houseguests Should Have Learned to see where she went wrong enough to end up in the jury house instead of the final four.

A big part of our answer comes right away in the first rule, which tells players to scheme and plot. While Renny did some of this, I would argue that it wasn’t enough.

Looking at my interview with Renny, we see that see outlined her various alliances – Steven, Ollie and the girls, April and a group, Keesha plus others, and then the foursome of Keesha, Dan, and Memphis.

Indeed, Renny followed the part of this rule that says, “From the very beginning, you have to start making alliances and cementing relationships,” as she had a handshake deal with Steven from the get-go. Unfortunately, she picked the wrong ally there, as Steven didn’t last long. But on the plus side, Renny figured that out and kept herself in the game rather than going down with a sinking ship.

But even with all of this, when I asked Renny what her strategy was, she said it “was for the houseguests to like me and eventually trust me. It never changed.” I’m glad she pushed the trust issue, but she didn’t use it to maximum effect – that is, she didn’t really scheme with anybody to make use of misplaced trust in her. She was likable, but she was also trustworthy, so those who trusted her (thus violating the seventh rule on their own parts) never had to pay a price for it.

When it came down to Jerry vs. the foursome, Dan and Memphis were in the perfect position because they had each other’s backs with a secret alliance that had been going for quite some time without anybody ever catching more than an inkling about it. Indeed, Memphis had also made deals with Keesha and Jerry, while Dan had a good relationship with Keesha as well. Renny, on the other hand, was in a great friendship with Keesha (I think the two of them proclaimed their love for each other more often than April and Ollie!), but didn’t have any other deals.

Considering that Keesha was on the block, that meant Renny or Jerry had to win the veto to keep herself safe – and Renny was not exactly great at the competition aspect of Big Brother. A player who can’t power through competitions needs to have the alliances to back herself up. Renny was fine as long as the foursome had other targets; once they were gone, though, she was in trouble.

After all the type we just spent on talking about why Renny didn’t scheme and plot enough, it should be pretty clear that she didn’t have to worry too much about the second rule, which warns against doing it too much. That’s true… except for the part of the rule that says players need to avoid open partnerships. Her friendship with Keesha was clear to the Renegades, and they knew that either woman had a good chance of bringing the other along to the final two if given the chance. So that chance had to be removed.

The third rule tells players to pretend to be nice, and Renny certainly succeeded there. If anything, she did it too well, since the guys were afraid nobody could beat her at the end. More on that later.

Fourth is to not allow your emotions to control you. I don’t think Renny did that too much. She did somewhat hold a grudge against Jerry for nominating her in the first week, so she put him on the block instead of Ollie against April, which would have been a much better strategic move. She was lucky that her nomination held.

And, of course, her friendship with Keesha was somewhat allowing her emotions to override her better judgment. Indeed, she told me, “it was a toss up that maybe Keesha would beat me. This is why I always told Keesha it would be good to go to the end with her.” This makes no sense whatsoever to me! If Renny could beat anybody else, then she should have wanted to go to the end with anybody else – you don’t take somebody who might be able to beat you!