Big Brother 2, Episode 21: HoH – Hardy Owns the Household
by David Bloomberg
-- 07/10/2002
Peanut butter & jelly is the cause for much whining, but the real question for the day is who will win HoH and what that person will do with The Power.
You know, I hate to sound like a cliché but there are people in the world who barely have enough food to eat on any given day; but if you listen to the players in Big Brother 2, you’d think that eating peanut butter & jelly for four days is absolutely the worst punishment in the world. Hell, we don’t even have to look at the poor starving children in third world countries for a better example – just look over at their sister show, Survivor. As you may recall, some of the contestants would have done almost anything to get their hands on some peanut butter!
But whining over PB&J was the order of the day on Wednesday’s episode. They started with Bunky’s admission that he had been the one who took the $5000 and made them all put up with this horrible punishment. Remember that Hardy sold out, too – just at one step higher. The others acted like they already knew it was him but thanked him for admitting it. Will said he shocked himself by not giving in, Hardy said the only thing Bunky was guilty of was bad bartering, and Monica said she would not try to make him feel guilty about it.
Privately, Will noted that this all just proved to him what he already knew – Bunky and Hardy are slime, too. Publicly, he said that his own evil was rubbing off on Bunky and Bunky’s good is rubbing off on him. Yeah, well, we’ll see. To Nicole, Will noted that this only showed how Hardy would sell any of them out under the right circumstances.
Because there was a long Head of Household (HoH) competition plus the result of the America’s Choice question, there wasn’t a whole lot of time to show other politicking. But, frankly, not much has changed. Bunky continued his attempt to get Monica to aim for Hardy instead of Nicole by pointing out that she could definitely beat Will (Could she really? Don’t be so sure.) and probably could beat Nicole – but might not be able to beat Hardy. Will lobbied Hardy to get rid of Monica or Bunky, saying that Bunky might be a threat. Bunky? Bunky?! This is news.
Remember how Will was saying to Nicole earlier that Hardy would sell them out? Well during the Monday meeting, Hardy whined some more about the PB&J and said if it happened again he’d make somebody’s life Hell. The others chastised him for the threat, and then Nicole questioned him about whether he’d sell out (again) if they offered him $10,000 or $15,000. He was forced to admit he’d consider it. So, yes, Will was right. Whether this has any impact on Nicole’s thoughts has yet to be seen.
The America’s Choice question asked which of the houseguests should get a letter from home. Nicole was really hoping it would be her because she’s a newlywed and it’s her husband’s 40th birthday. Nope, sorry. It’s Bunky! Nicole suggested that America must hate her and Will “comforted” her by saying that now she knows what it feels like. Ouch. Bunky, meanwhile, read his letter from husband, Greg, and then, unsurprisingly, broke down in tears. But he did say the letter had him energized to keep going as long as he could.
Big Brother also decided to allow all of the houseguests to make “private” 60-second videos to send to a loved one. “Private” – except for the clips they show us, of course. Nicole made a PB&J cake for her husband. Will made a tape for Shannon to tell her how much he loved her – though he kept screwing up, acting like a self-described dork, and starting over. The others had just the usual type of message you’d expect.
One amusing part of this episode was a montage of the houseguests imitating one another. Will checks himself in every mirror he passes. Nicole swears constantly and yells about doing the chores. Hardy does a “Hector” imitation (huh?). Monica has a number of catchphrases like, “It’s on!” and “I’ll cosign that.” Bunky has “Thank you!” and “Fantabulous!” It’s impossible to reproduce the imitations in print, so if you missed it, you’ll just have to trust me when I say it was pretty funny.
The HoH competition was a two-parter. After practicing with remote-controlled cars and studying a U.S. map for a while, the houseguests (sans Nicole, who was the last HoH), were each seated in a lifeguard-type chair that oversaw a huge map of the U.S. They were asked 12 questions relating to evicted houseguests (though, amusingly, one of them related to Nicole, so maybe that’s a hint for the future). The answers were each a state, and the players had to drive their cars to a pole in the middle of that state and yell out the state name. The top two finishers would move on to the second round.
Hardy kicked serious butt, ending up with seven points. Bunky pulled into second with three. Will had two and Monica had none. Will might have done better if he’d spent more time practicing and less time crashing into things. But, hey, that’s Will.
The second part took place the next day, after some more practice with the cars (Will was banned from playing with them because he misbehaved). The backyard had been turned into an all-terrain obstacle course, complete with flags carrying the names of evicted houseguests (no mention of Nicole this time). One at a time, Bunky and Hardy were taken out blindfolded, given 60 seconds to study the course, and then were told to hit each flag in the proper order of their eviction (starting with the first). Bunky had some problems in a couple, but did it in a respectable 2:20. Hardy got hung up by Shannon’s and almost ended up in the water at Krista’s, but hung on to get it done in 2:07. Hardy won HoH for the third time, and Bunky was just happy he wasn’t humiliated.
There are four days until nominations, so that’s plenty of time for politicking. Will thinks he will be nominated, and probably evicted (with good reason – Hardy has nominated Will each of the previous two times he was HoH). Bunky thinks he will be nominated with Will. Hardy also thinks Will will be nominated, since he is the last vestige of Chill Town. But then, Hardy has turned on people before – will he turn on Nicole now? I honestly don’t think so, though I’m willing to bet that much of the next episode will feature hints that he might do just that, just to try to keep us on our toes until the last part of the show, when we actually see those nominations. I agree with Bunky – it will probably be him and Will. But it seems that “HoH” stands for “Hardy Owns the Household” – at least for now.
But we won’t find out ‘til Saturday. There is no show on Thursday this week (I had originally thought the Wednesday show was a makeup for Saturday, and there would still be one on Thursday, but I guess not.) See ya then!
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