Big Brother 10: Why Dan Won

Dan’s plan when he got into the Big Brother house was quickly turned on its ear. Dan managed to not only survive, but thrive! How did he do it? Did he do anything wrong at all? Why did Dan win?

All through this season, we have examined why each player lost. Now it’s time for the big one – a look at why one player out of all of them won the big money. In Dan’s case, it’s even more than that – he won by a unanimous vote! But we still examine his play in the same way – by looking back, one last time, at What Big Brother 10 Houseguests Should Have Learned.

Dan has been a big fan of Big Brother and therefore knew the high importance of scheming and plotting. As Dan told me in my interview with him, he knew he needed to attach himself to somebody quickly to survive. He had done his homework in studying past seasons, which gave him a leg up on many of the other players.

In what seemed like an unfortunate turn of events, Dan’s choice for an alliance was Brian – who was then turned on by almost the whole house and evicted! Everybody but Dan voted against him, including several who just did it because they didn’t want to appear like they were voting against the rest of the house.

Let me digress for a moment and mention that I’ve always thought this particular “strategy” is rather ridiculous. If everybody else knows where you stand, it doesn’t matter how you vote. The only reason for voting a certain way if you don’t agree with it is if you’re truly trying to hide something. But the other players in this case knew who was with Brian and who was against him – how they voted didn’t matter, as we saw in the votes following!

Dan apparently shared this opinion and chose to appear to honor his word by standing firm with Brian. This turned out to earn him points as people believed he was a man of his word, when he knew that he would not behave in such a manner when the time was right (as Ollie and Michelle later discovered).

So Dan was scheming and plotting right from the beginning, both in terms of making alliances and in setting up a public persona for himself that he could use later. Then he played the game and the other houseguests pretty much perfectly from then on. He made one significant deal with Memphis but also a side agreement with Keesha. He made the big promise to Ollie that he never intended to fully comply with, and then backdoored Michelle.

Later, Michelle admitted backdooring her was Dan’s best move, while Ollie admitted Dan played the game well.

Still, along the way, some people thought Dan overdid it a bit. Replacement nominee roulette was one example where he seemed to go a little overboard. Did that mean he had some problems with the second rule?

Simply put, no. The second rule talks about scheming and plotting too much, keeping scheming secret, and not backstabbing until you need to. Dan did a great job on all these fronts.

Dan obviously did not scheme and plot too much, because the other houseguests never really caught on to the Renegades alliance. I liken it to the alliance between Danielle and Jason in Big Brother 3, except this one worked because the other houseguests were not allowed to see diary room sessions.

As for keeping scheming secret, while Michelle later claimed she would have respected Dan more if he had told her the truth instead of playing the game of replacement nominee roulette, Dan was absolutely correct to not reveal information to her. By making it a surprise, Michelle didn’t have time to try to rally forces to change things up. As the rule notes, “Keep ‘em guessing, and always make them think you’re on their side.” That’s just what Dan did, whether with Ollie and Michelle or Keesha near the end.

Speaking of Keesha, her eviction was a perfect example of not backstabbing until Dan needed to. He kept her around, knowing full well that she could be a threat at the end. But when the time came, she was cut loose. Amusingly, even then, Dan didn’t have to technically backstab her, because it was Memphis’ decision! So Dan came off looking like the white knight!

But that was a big part of Dan’s plan, and kept him in line with the third rule of pretending to be nice. Really, Dan didn’t seem to have to pretend much – he’s just genuinely a nice guy. Still, living in the Big Brother house could certainly turn some people from nice to nasty. But Dan didn’t let it happen.

We don’t often associate the nicest person in the house with also being the most strategic, but we have that here in Dan. A part of his game was just to have fun and be a nice guy. So, for example, no matter what might have happened in the game between himself and Jerry, Dan always made sure to say “goodnight” to Jerry. At first, it seemed like Jerry was annoyed, but it seems he grew to appreciate it, as word was passed from Jerry’s daughter to Dan’s mom to Dan that this was at least part of what Jerry was talking about when he said he was voting based on kindness. As Dan told me, “An act of kindness goes a long way.”

It wasn’t just Jerry, either. When Renny cast her vote, she said it was important to not take the little things for granted and believed in getting in touch with a person’s human spirit. Dan’s personality played perfectly into getting that vote as well. And Keesha noted that Dan’s best move was getting everybody to like him – even though she knew it was part of his game, she still likes him.

But just because Dan was nice didn’t mean he allowed his emotions to control him. Quite the opposite – he saw how other people were making that mistake and did what he could to capitalize on it!

For example, Dan admitted to the jury that his use of Monica’s name to swear on a deal was a ploy to make Ollie think he was playing as emotionally as Ollie was. When Dan took Michelle on the trip, he played up to her emotions as well, flattering her and all. She even knew what he was up to, and she still went along with it!

Then there was the way he played Keesha. He certainly has a friendship with her, but knew it was time for her to go. He also knew that she would react emotionally, and so he set everything up perfectly such that Memphis would take the fall and Keesha would advocate for Dan in the jury. It worked!