Nicole is losing it, but the producers choose not to show very much of it. Monica and Will are in power now. Monica will use her power for Good, how do you think Will will use his? Meanwhile, ex-Survivor contestants get ready for battle with the final four.
Tuesday’s episode of Big Brother 2 began as the previous Thursday’s episode ended – with Monica, Will, and Nicole sitting on a waterbed outside as part of the Head of Household (HoH) competition. Subscribers to the RealityNewsOnline Free E-mail Update already knew the outcome, but here are some of the gory details.
While they sat on the bed, we got the first real mention of banners (messages flown over the house by advertising planes). They had been hinted at occasionally but I believe Kent even noted that they weren’t supposed to discuss them on the air. This time, though, it couldn’t be ignored. As the three of them sat there, a banner came over the house, claiming to be from Jeff (Nicole’s husband), and saying that he was hurt by Nicole and Will in the hot tub (where, apparently, Nicole had worked on some sort of attempted seduction of Will, though it’s unclear if she was serious, joking, drunk, sober, etc.). Nicole was understandably upset and said into the cameras that nothing happened and everybody knows how much she loves him. Hardy indicated, in a separate interview, that Big Brother had contacted Jeff for her -- of course, he didn’t mention that this violates the rules… Instead, he said they did what was appropriate. Maybe yes, maybe no. But the fact is that there are rules against outside contact, and they broke ‘em.
Aside from this, we also got to see one of the lame attempts BB used to try to get one of the houseguests to give up the contest. This one offered a chauffeured limo to a fast food restaurant. Whoopee. Hmmm. Let me think about this one – a burger and fries or a chance at half a million dollars? Oooh, that’s a toughie.
As the first bit of foreshadowing for the day, Hardy mentioned that Nicole looked precarious and Will was moving all around. Next we see Will lying on Nicole and sharing the topsheet with her, then moving it to cover himself better. Without thinking, Nicole took her hand off the key to pull it back. It wasn’t even close. Remember how Rudy moved his hand off the idol back in Survivor 1 and thus gave up immunity to Kelly? Nicole’s was even more obvious. She was outta there.
Will, of course, took full responsibility and apologized, but didn’t change the outcome. He said it wasn’t a trick, he was just cold. Then, as soon as Nicole walked away, he whispered to Monica that one of them (Hardy or Nicole) is going home! Later, Will confessed that he just didn’t know how he was going to sleep at night now that he caused Nicole to lose the HoH competition. In case there was any doubt, yes, that was sarcasm.
In another bit of foreshadowing that went on while we watched all of this, we heard from Will and Monica about how Hardy and Nicole were a team that needed to be broken up. This was obviously not new information, but it pretty well indicated where all of this was going (as if there was even a chance it would go any other way).
So, Will and Monica were left. Will still had his hand tied to the key with a shoelace, and Monica had a deathgrip on hers. While they discussed strategy and how Will wants to get rid of Hardy, Nicole hit the Diary Room and then the wine.
Eventually, Hardy came out with another option – a mystery envelope. They had 60 seconds to decide if they wanted to take the envelope and give up HoH. Will took it. He said he came in the house to gamble, so what the heck. Of course, what was more likely going through his head was that he figured Monica would put up Hardy and Nicole, and then he would get to vote one of ‘em out. Now he had the chance to actually win something as well! So he took it.
What did he win? The giant peanut butter jar prop (not even any peanut butter in it!). But the real prize is that, as he would later say, he has the power in the house because he will be the only voter. Thus it was no surprise that he trashed the peanut butter jar (though he should have kept it to put on eBay – he probably could have made six, seven dollars for that).
Hardy and Nicole were upset that Will took the mystery envelope because they had made a secret deal that if he won HoH, he wouldn’t nominate both of them. First, they were stupid to believe Will. Second, he would have done exactly that anyway. Third, that deal was for if he won. He didn’t, and he never said he wouldn’t throw the competition. So, technically, he didn’t even break the deal. Hardy added that Bunky had warned him he’d be sorry if he kept Will, and sure enough, just a few hours later, Bunky was proven correct. Well, gee, that’s a big surprise, Hardy. Maybe it’s time you started building up some brain power instead of just muscles.
Nicole, looking like death not even warmed over, chimed in that she has never had such immense distaste for someone in her entire life. Well, gosh, you had the opportunity to get rid of that person only hours before. But you didn’t. Let’s see, who do you have to blame here? Oh, yes – yourself. Besides, it seemed like she was blaming Will not only for her losing HoH, but for the stuff going on with her husband. Frankly, although he can be blamed for a lot of things, that one wasn’t Will’s fault.
Overall, we didn’t hear much about Nicole’s problems with Jeff. There were a few mentions of it and we saw her crying a lot, but they didn’t mention that they had to persuade her to stay in, that they had broken the rules to allow contact back and forth with Jeff at least four times, that they had put her on Xanax, etc. And why did they do all of these things? It’s certainly not because they care about Nicole and Jeff – after all, they were promoting the whole Nicole/Will love interest bit in weeks past (it was obviously baloney, but they still tried). No, it’s because the ex-Survivor contestants were going to be coming in and they needed Nicole for four-on-four competitions. Plus they needed to keep her in the house so it wouldn’t screw up their scheduling of the finale. Disgusting.
The food competition was fairly amusing and lifted some spirits for a little while. The houseguests had to carry whatever food they could through an obstacle course. But this was merely a sideshow to the main event of the breakdowns, scheming, and, of course, the nomination.
Nicole knew that if Monica was smart, it would be her and Hardy. She also figured that with the week she’s had with Will, he’d vote to boot her out. Maybe, maybe not. Still, she said, Monica hates Will, so maybe there is a chance. Oh, please, who are you fooling?
Monica said that when she considered the nomination, she thought about Krista and Bunky. Bunky, I can see, but Krista? Jeez, she had you fooled, didn’t she? Anyway, the nominations were, in the usual unsurprising manner, Nicole and Hardy. She used Hardy’s line to note that it was nothing personal, but they had a power of two that had to be broken up. She further added that when Nicole nominated Monica and Krista, she didn’t break up an alliance, but did break up two friends. In other words, it was at least a little bit personal, no matter how she prefaced it.
Knowing Will’s devious mind, he will get rid of Hardy, who is the biggest threat. Sure, Nicole has been nasty to him lately, but he will probably just view that as a way to control her. Plus, she might end up taking a voluntary exit anyway if the stuff with her husband continues. Finally, even if she sticks around to the end, he probably has a better chance of beating her than of beating Hardy in the final two. So we will be saying goodbye to Hardy on Thursday.
But first, we have a special show Wednesday, an hour earlier than usual. We got a bit of a lead-in to that show when Julie Chen brought in the four ex-Survivor contestants. From the first series we have Gervase and Sue; from the second we have Jeff and Alicia. As a reminder, both Sue and Jeff were on Cannonball Run a little while ago – it appears they are trying to be on every reality TV show out there.
Before sending them into the house, Chen talked to them a bit. She asked if the four finalists in the house could have survived in the Outback, to which Alicia quickly answered “no!” Now, realize that Chen was asking the people who didn’t themselves “survive” through their shows. Indeed, only Sue even made it to the top four. Still, they are probably right in saying that the houseguests couldn’t cut it on Survivor. I mean, they were bitching and moaning about having to eat peanut butter and jelly for three days, while the Survivor folks ate only rice for weeks, and would have killed to get their hands on some peanut butter.
All of them seemed to feel that Nicole is miserable (good call, guys) and several referred back to Bunky’s characterization of her and Hardy as “the Bully and the Bitch.” And they liked Will, with Jeff calling him “My God.” Jeff added that if Hardy or Nicole win, he will turn off his TV and never watch it again. At this point, that sounds like a safe bet.
So, as we left the show, the four ex-Survivors were ringing the doorbell while Chen claimed none of the houseguests knew they were coming. However, this may have been a bit of a lie, as one correspondent has informed me that, indeed, BB did let Nicole know about it (though perhaps not everything) as a way to keep her in the house. But considering the way they’ve been breaking their own rules and hiding the true extent of Nicole’s problems from viewers, that’s the least of their indiscretions in recent days.
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!
