Big Brother 2, Episode 26: Survivors Beat Houseguests at Their Own Game

We picked up Wednesday right where we left off Tuesday. Monica had nominated Hardy and Nicole, and we heard some of the normal strategic discussion before we get into the Survivor-related stuff.

Nicole was “flabbergasted and disgusted” that Will might win first or second prize. Um, Nicole – you let him stick around after you made it your supposed mission to get rid of him. So, who, exactly, is to blame? Yes, that’s right. You.

Hardy continued to whine about Will violating the “spirit” of their agreement. Oh get over it. He would have violated the letter of the agreement if he’d had the chance, you idiot! Will told us what everybody else with a brain knew – they should have evicted him last week, and “anybody who believes me at this point is dumb.”

We saw a bit more about Nicole breaking down because of the “rumors” on the internet about what she did in the hot tub and what’s going on with her husband, Jeff. She spoke to Jeff in the cameras and we heard that this is really the only way to communicate. Oh, yeah, I guess they didn’t want to mention how they violated their own rules on communication to pass notes from Jeff to Nicole.

But they did continue to mention the banners, which had been a taboo subject up until now. In fact, they showed the one from Jeff saying: “[Heart] U N STAY TORMENT W 4 ME – CSI” which translates to, “I love you Nicole, stay and torment Will for me (CSI was a code they worked out to know it was from Jeff). Nicole responded that this was her one objective at this point. Um, yeah, didn’t you tell Sheryl that about two months ago? Hmmm.

We had to wait a little while longer still before the Survivor folks came in so we could see the result of the America’s Choice question. This turned the backyard into a “winter wonderland” complete with snow, stuffed penguins, and a stuffed polar bear. Three of the four were excited. Nicole hates snow, was upset by the stuffed dead animals, and, as Monica said, “some people like to complain.”

Finally, it was time for the Survivors to arrive. Monica handed out Big Brother 2 t-shirts to everybody and said there was a secret special event challenge. When the doorbell rang and surprised everybody, they opened the door to find Sue, Gervase, Jeff, and Alicia – and they all pretty much freaked out with excitement.

Overall, we didn’t get to see some of what were probably the funniest parts, judging from the Manly Man’s look at the webcams, but what we did see was pretty amusing. Nicole was mad at Will because she said he didn’t know any of these people and she did, but Will retorted he still liked ‘em better than anybody else in the house! Nicole later said that she wished they had elements to survive in on Big Brother -- oh give me a freaking break! She couldn’t even survive a week of peanut butter and jelly. Yeah, she’d do really well with a little rice and some rat (oh, wait, she’s a vegetarian like Kimmi – rice would be about it).

While the Survivors went into the house thinking that they had it much rougher than the houseguests, they did realize that in their games, they could take a walk and get away from it all, while the BB folks were stuck with each other. As Gervase said, here you’d always hear Sue’s voice. Ye gods.

Will shared some of his strategy with Gervase, noting that every week, he lies to somebody else, and then every time he says he won’t lie anymore and they believe him!

The big competition pitted Survivors against BBs. First, all four team members were linked together at the wrist to form a human circle. Then they had to collect blocks from around the yard to put it into a giant block tower spelling “SURVIVOR” or “BBROTHER.” When that was completed, they could unhook themselves, strip down to bathing suits, jump in the pool (which was filled with icewater), grab a key and take that key to a tiki torch at the other end. They would then snuff the torch, and the first team to snuff all four won. The winning team split $15,000 – good, it wasn’t another Big Brother ridiculously small prize like a weekend getaway to the next-door lot or something.

The BB team took an early lead, despite Jeff throwing one of their blocks in the pool (Will had suggested they do the same early on, but his teammates rejected the idea). The Survivor team also stole a block or two for good measure. But BB got the tower done first and stripped with such exuberance that Hardy had to pull his swimsuit back on again! They were cruising to win until it was Monica’s turn. She jumped into the pool and froze in more ways than one. She just couldn’t do it. The Survivor group caught up and were passing her by, but she just could not get under the water to get the key – it was too cold. So the Survivor crew ended up winning, although the other houseguests said they didn’t have any hard feelings toward Monica.

Later, they had another competition, but this one was with the Survivors rather than against. Each houseguest was shown a printout of a website dedicated to them. Then they paired up with a Survivor and had to crack a code which would lead them to a computer mouse. The first one to find the mouse would get to see more of the pages dedicated to them. Hardy and Sue found the mouse first (just seconds ahead of Nicole) and we got to see a very little bit of him looking at some photos of himself on the Web. Alas, it didn’t appear to be RealityNewsOnline.

So Nicole made dinner for everybody (no rat, sorry) and they talked some more with the Survivor folks. All of them said the houseguests will look back on this and end up being friends with everybody involved. As Gervase said of Sue, “I hated this bitch!” But after awhile, you end up being with them voluntarily. This continued in the Monday meeting, where Alicia told them to have a good time, play smart, and focus on the positive. Gervase said they would look back and say it was fun. Jeff emphasized having fun and said that it hurts him to see Nicole taking it all so personally, and she might regret it later. He added that he has a different perspective of everybody than he did before spending the day with them, and now thinks somebody different will win (which is meaningless since we didn’t know who he thought would win before). Sue noted that there is a half million dollars up for grabs, so if they are trying to claw each other’s eyes out, she doesn’t blame ‘em. It’s just a game, but they should play hard. “Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser.” Um, Sue, how many games have you lost in just the last year or so? There was obviously Survivor, and there was celebrity Weakest Link and there was Cannonball Run. I’m probably forgetting some. At least she finally won something here.

Of course, the nominees from BB got to say something too. Nicole thanked the Survivor folks and then apologized to Hardy for messing things up for them and said she loves him like a brother. Hardy said he wouldn’t say anything that made it more likely he’d stay because then it would be more likely that Nicole would go. But he added that he’d done and said things in the house that he shouldn’t have, and he holds only himself responsible (Wow! What an amazing attitude – he’s not going to blame somebody else, like the “internet geeks”).

So, the Survivors left and it’s back to the game again. Hardy figures he’s done, because Will would be a fool to let him stay (kind of like you and Nicole were fools to let him stay?). But Will kind of likes the idea that Nicole is sure she’s staying and Hardy is sure he’s going. It would be fun to turn that upside down, and since he doesn’t care what they think of him, he might do it. Yeah, right. Nice try, Big Brother, but you aren’t going to fool us that easily. On Thursday, Hardy is gone.

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