Big Brother 2, Episode 16: With His Head Held High
by David Bloomberg
-- 07/10/2002
Another non-surprise in the vote sends Kent packing. He was ready to leave the house of freaks, but we are still watching them. Old alliances come back to the fore, but are immediately threatened by new backstabbing. Who will the new Head of Household nominate next?
Once again, Thursday, CBS tried to make us think that the vote might not go the way everybody knew it would. We were shown scenes in which Will found out about the Krista/Monica/Hardy alliance and asked Krista about it. In doing so, he asked what would happen if Nicole found out and Krista said that wouldn’t happen. So Will went over and told her. Jeez, Krista, you really don’t know Will, do you?
Nicole was obviously pissed, and CBS probably wanted us to think that this might change her vote. But if that was the case, why did they show us her vote before revealing the final tally? If they had kept hers hidden, there might have been a change. But by showing her vote to us (along with Krista’s), it was immediately obvious that Kent was gone. The only mild surprise was that Bunky also voted against Kent, but Kent would later explain that he knew it was coming and that Bunky had to live in the house and voting against the group was a sure way to get himself evicted next week (as if that isn’t going to happen anyway).
But getting back to the Krista/Monica/Hardy alliance (called “The Untouchables” early on), Krista offered to let Will replace Hardy in the alliance if he won Head of Household (HoH). Now let’s look at this for a minute. Kent nominated Krista a couple weeks ago because he said she had broken confidences and talked behind people’s back and the like. She got all huffy about this and pissed off at him, leading, in part to Hardy nominating Kent this past week. And so now what is she doing? Well, it looks to me like she’s breaking confidences. Even with all the positive editing she has received (did you see her on TV inciting Mike to verbally attack Kent’s kids on the air? No – they didn’t show that part, or many others), she still comes off a lot less like America’s Sweetheart and more like Jerri from Survivor 2. She, of course, has her own plan to bring Will to the final 2 – which, as I noted in my review of this particular strategy, is the worst possible outcome for Will. And, believe me, he knows it.
What about Hardy? Well, we got to hear from his girlfriend, Lindsay, who says he’s wonderful. Yadda yadda yadda. I don’t care what you say, honey – he’s acting like a snake now. But if he doesn’t open his eyes soon, he’s going to find a knife sticking in his back – and it will be from Krista, not Justin.
One interesting part of this episode was a brief look at the evolution of opinion of both Will and Kent in the house. Kent started off bad, quickly got better, and in the past week has soured quite a bit. One reader asked me to explain, step-by-step, exactly what happened. I wish I could, but it’s convoluted and I’m not entirely sure I understand every step of the way. A lot of it had to do with Krista convincing the others that Kent was evil (in fact, it is quite the opposite). Hardy apparently had a disagreement with Kent about strategy, which mushroomed into a bigger fight. Nicole followed the group and had been getting pissed off at him anyway, as had Monica. Getting back to the retrospect, we of course saw that Will went from bad to worse to mostly acceptable, and even liked by some. As Nicole would later say, “Will and I are the same person, except I have compassion, ethics, and morals.” At first, he was nothing short of the Anti-Christ to her, but he’s redeemed himself. Well, I’m sure Sheryl will be thrilled to hear that, Nicole. But I guess you’ve forgotten about her and the pact you two made to get rid of him.
In the live portion of the show, Krista continued her campaign to make sure she gets Mike’s vote if she should be in the final two. Oh, sure, I suppose it’s possible that she really does like Mike, but it can’t hurt that he has the power to help her get $500,000, I’m sure. She talked about how she missed him, etc. Gag.
Also in the live portion, Julie Chen asked Kent what he meant when he had said that it’s not when you leave, but how you leave. She needs an explanation? Hello? Anyway, he gave one, saying that there is a way to play with decency, but decency is considered a weakness in the BB house. So he wants to go back to the real world where decency is something to strive for.
Of course, that’s exactly what he did. He received a unanimous vote and walked out with his head held high. As he approached Chen, he jokingly said, “Free at last. Free at last.” Inside the house, Hardy admitted that, “he did go out with grace and style.”
Kent did not have similarly nice words for Hardy after they had separated. Chen asked Kent what he thought of Hardy, and Kent said that he couldn’t disagree with the banner they’d seen saying Hardy was a lying two-faced snake-in-the-grass. He said that while this was all just a game, the fact is that everybody has to live and face people after it’s done; Kent feels he can do that, but he’s not so sure about everybody else.
One interesting question asked Kent about his relationship with Bunky. First, he said, laughing, it was platonic! But on a more serious note, he said Bunky was a super guy, sensitive, and a real person (unlike the other folks in the house). He still thinks homosexuality is perverse, sick, deviant, abnormal sexual behavior, but he respects anybody’s right to live that way and still considers Bunky his friend.
In showing the votes, once again we got to see Nicole cry (talk about kissing up to the voters for later on – I can’t recall one where she didn’t cry). Monica said Kent shouldn’t have doubted her. Ooooh, tough woman. Krista said he turned on her. Oh, yeah, you have a lot of room to talk about loyalty, hon.
Chen finally asked him what he learned. Well, he learned not to try out for any more reality shows! But he also learned that people will compromise their integrity and morals for money. He refused to do so and that’s why he was voted out. In closing, he’d love to see Bunky win, but, all in all, Kent is happy to be out of the house of freaks.
For the HoH competition, it was finally not one asking questions about the contestants. Instead, it involved sliding a housekey down a long table and trying to get closest to the end without going off the other side. They were actually allowed to practice for a while during the week, and so knew what was coming. It’s not terribly exciting to describe people sliding keys, so I’ll just let you know that Nicole finally won HoH (amusingly, it was the time that she refused to “call it” in the live portion of the show). Now, it could actually get interesting in terms of who she will nominate. Will she continue to go along with the group, knowing – because Will told her – that she isn’t really part of the group? Or will she try to break that group apart by nominating, Krista, Hardy, and/or Monica?
Maybe we’ll get a surprise in here eventually.
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