Big Brother 2, Episode 22: Hardy in the Seat of Power

Now that Big Brother 2 is back on its regular schedule again, it was nomination time on Saturday night. Hardy, of course, had won Head of Household in the previous episode, and he was trying to figure out who to nominate. This time, he said, it was a bit more difficult than previous times because he actually likes everybody who is left (yes, even Will).

But pretty quickly, we heard how Hardy was thinking. He was not going to nominate Nicole under any circumstances – they will be the final two if he has his way. Bunky has been coming on strong and is a serious threat. Monica has been keeping a low profile. Will is a character, and funny like a court jester. So, the only way to base votes is on strategy.

And we got to hear plenty about that strategy. Will continued to play the “I’m so weak I’ll never win in the end” card, and Nicole finally told him to shut up about it already. Bunky suddenly found a backbone and stood up to Hardy on several occasions. In one case, with nominations just a day or so away, Hardy wanted to trade some protein bars for some of Bunky’s cigarettes (I didn’t know Bunky smoked, and Hardy hadn’t but picked it up in the house – indeed, Will noted that Hardy has come to the dark side, since he picked up smoking, has bags under his eyes, and dyed his hair black). Bunky offered a trade of one bar from Hardy for one cigarette. Hardy was less than happy with that trade and tried to bargain him down. Bunky held fast even when Hardy insinuated that nominations could depend on it. Go, Bunky!

Will wondered privately where Bunky’s backbone came from, since he used to be a “quivering jellyfish.” Monica talked about how proud she was that Bunky finally stood up for himself. She said he can’t let people chop him down and Hardy is the type of person who does that. Indeed, during the food competition (see below), Hardy was really getting snippy with Bunky and cut him down several times that we saw. Still, Bunky decided that he didn’t need to kiss anybody’s butt anymore, or to take all the crap he’d been taking. He pretty well figured he was going to get nominated and maybe even voted off, so it was time to tell them what he thinks. Nicole didn’t think this was such a hot idea for him, but considering she was plotting with Hardy to vote him off anyway, it doesn’t really seem to matter.

Will, on the other hand, has been going in the opposite direction. He turned on the charm for Hardy and increased his joking ways. Indeed, he shared with the viewers that the only thing he likes about Hardy is that Hardy thinks Will is funny. Sure, he knew he’d still be nominated (after all, in both of the two previous times Hardy was HoH, Will was nominated), but he hoped it would help with the voting. And it might. Hardy said repeatedly what a fun guy Will was. And, he added, if you plan to be here another month, would you rather have a fun guy around or somebody (Bunky) who was becoming a threat?

To build on this, Hardy and Nicole agreed to make a deal with Will. Hardy told him that if he promised not to nominate Hardy and Nicole should Will win HoH, they’d let him stick around at least another week. If he screwed with ‘em, he’d be sent packing. Oh, bright idea, guys! The only way you’ll know if he screws with you is if he wins HoH and nominates you both – by which time it will be too late! Of course, in the Diary Room this is exactly what Will later said he would do. He added that he would happily stab them in the back and leave them bleeding on the kitchen floor – and wouldn’t even clean up the mess. He added that Hardy was too dumb to realize that Will would make any deal he could to stay alive in the game, so he looked Hardy in the eye, shook his hand, and said they had a deal.

I have to agree with Hardy that Will has become a fun guy – but for different reasons. It is amusing to have the evil doctor around, just to entertain the home viewers. In fact, I’m beginning to actually root for the guy, despite what a complete jerk he was early on. He is playing the game well and, even though he has been an admitted liar the whole time, he actually has these fools believing him!

Speaking of Will, one of the short intermissions to plotting and scheming was a short bit about his hair – his scary big hair, to be exact. It finally got so out of control that he had Nicole cut it – and she did a pretty good job. OK, that was exciting.

Slightly more interesting was the food competition. Their peanut butter and jelly penalty ended at midnight after four days of eating the stuff and they all counted down the seconds until they could rush into the storage room and pick up the fast food they’d requested. Then, shortly after, it was time for the new food competition.

This one involved essentially a huge version of a the game Jenga. They had to stack three blocks per level and make a tower. Each block was marked either as a fat, a carbohydrate, or a protein, and each level of the tower had to include one of each. For building the tower, they got to pick one food from each group, and then for each block they moved without knocking over the tower, they got to add one more of that food type. In building it, they put the proteins and carbs mostly in the middle, which was where they would draw from (Bunky wanted more fats, but this was one of Hardy’s snippy moments and he basically told him f*** off). Even with the snippiness, and Monica’s fear of heights (they had to climb to the top of some mobile stairs to put each block on a new level), they managed to pull together as a team and get a lot of different food items.

Another interlude involved the closing of the Blue Bedroom. But before this was done, the houseguests were allowed to say goodbye by painting the walls however they liked. Each person did some painting: Bunky painted a huge “Big Brother 2001” logo. Monica painted peanut butter and jelly. Nicole had her own diner painted. Will painted Ophelia the pig and a Chill Town logo. Hardy painted a sign indicating he had slept there, alone.

OK, with that out of the way, we can move on to the nominations. Hardy began by noting that it was a game and he likes everybody (though you couldn’t really tell it by the way he’d been treating Bunky in this episode). Unsurprisingly, he nominated Will and Bunky. He said he nominated Will because not doing so would have been like Christmas without the presents (of course, since Hardy has it all planned out as to how the vote will go, it’s not like it really matters). In nominating Bunky, he said the past week and a half has really impressed him and he admires Bunky, etc. But it’s also made him a threat to the way Hardy wants the game to end (as in, with money in his pocket). At the end, Bunky got up and gave Hardy a great big hug. Awww. But is that what Bunky really thinks?

No. Bunky noted that Hardy has bullied around a lot of people, and, apparently knowing that he’s going to be voted off this week, he said he’ll have final say on Hardy when he comes back to vote at the end of the game. Not surprisingly, Will doesn’t have a very high opinion of Hardy either: “He has no power, he has no anything. He’s just a scared little boy with freaky black hair and a puffed-up chest.” Monica isn’t too impressed either, noting that Hardy’s tower will crumble.

I have to agree with all of these assessments. When Hardy first came into the house, lots of people thought he was just this vain none-too-bright guy. Then we began to like him. Now, I’m back to the original assessment. I think he was lucky Chill Town existed or else people might have started to focus on him instead. He talks about threats, well who is more of a threat than a guy who can win three HoH competitions? He had really better hope that Nicole wins the next HoH competition, or the game won’t end the way he plans it to.

Meanwhile, the game almost certainly will end for Bunky on Thursday. Monica will vote for Will to leave, Nicole will vote for Bunky, and Hardy will use his tie-breaker to get rid of Bunky. Sure, it’s possible that they will somehow smarten-up and figure out that Will is playing them – I’m sure banners are flying over the house telling them so. But I doubt it. Besides, they pretty well know that Bunky won’t nominate Monica if he wins HoH, and that leaves only the two of them anyway. Bunky is gone, and the only question left is whether Nicole can pull off the HoH competition.

Be sure to sign up for our e-mail update so you can stay informed about new articles on the site! And take a look around our Big Brother 2 Page for everything from episode recaps to features and commentary.

Remember to take a peek at the rest of the site. You can find our most recent articles at the Home page and take a look at our sections on WWF Tough Enough and Survivor. You can even buy reality show stuff at our Reality TV Store!

For more news about reality TV, be sure to check out RealityTVFans.com, SirLinksALot, and the Manly Man!