It's all up to Will. Will he boot Nicole or Hardy? Oh, come on, like there's even really a choice! After that's over with, they begin the final Head of Household competition.
Will finally had the power he was looking for his entire stay. He, and he alone, would cast a vote to evict either Nicole or Hardy. Throughout the episode, the producers kept trying to convince us that it might actually be Nicole. Mind you, it was a live vote so they couldn’t be sure, but his earlier comments – and simple common sense – made it clear that Nicole was never in any real danger. Will is here to play the game, and he knew that Hardy was his biggest competitor. There really was no choice. The fact that Hardy also caused the eviction of Shannon is just gravy.
Subtract out the stuff about who Will would vote for, and you’ve lost half the episode. But I guess it was either filling it with that or more scenes of Nicole crying. Still, there were some other parts. They did a short focus on Monica, with Will talking about how she stayed under the radar and didn’t make any alliances (well, except that whole “Untouchables” thing). Monica said she’d managed to stay around because she listened rather than talked. Hardy added that he did, indeed, underestimate Monica and that he didn’t think she’d win a Head of Household (HoH) competition. Well, he was wrong.
Another segment dealt with the bond between Hardy and Nicole, which formed early and stayed strong, including a plan to go all the way to the end. Still, Hardy’s first impression of her was that she was a “bitch on wheels.” Well, they say first impressions are often correct – his was. For her part, she initially thought he was just “eye candy.” But it evolved into a brother/sister relationship. Will, of course, sees things differently. He said if they were such good friends, one would have sacrificed him/herself for the other, as Shannon did for him. Oh, is that what you call becoming a psycho-bitch? “Sacrificing yourself”?
In the live portion of the show, Nicole and Hardy got to speak, but didn’t say much related to the game. Nicole said that she wins and loses either way – if she was voted out, she’d walk into the arms of the most wonderful man in the world (and probably one of the most pissed-off men in the world, considering all that has happened – but she didn’t mention that). If she stayed, it would mean she’d lost her little brother and a great guy. Awww. Hardy just said hi to a bunch of people. He could have saved it and said hello to them more personally in a few minutes.
When Julie Chen spoke privately with Monica, she asked if Monica regretted her decision. Monica, having a brain, said she did not. Chen tried to drag out of her which she preferred to be voted out, but Monica refused to budge and said it wouldn’t matter to her. When Chen asked who Monica would prefer to face in the final two, she indicated it would be Will, without a doubt, for the simplest strategic reason of all: She thinks she could beat him. Indeed, she is probably the only one who can now.
Will was given the choice to cast his vote privately or in front of the others, and he chose to do it in the open. He claimed it was a difficult decision (yeah, right) and said that he respected Hardy as a competitor, but he did hold him responsible for Shannon’s eviction. So, out he went, among hugs and Nicole continuing to bawl that it was all her fault. Jeez, get over it already.
Once out of the house, Chen asked Hardy what went wrong. He said that nothing went wrong, but instead a lot went right to get him this far. He said he didn’t blame Nicole for losing the HoH competition, because she had a lot of extenuating circumstances. When Chen pointed out that Will was still there and, well, Hardy wasn’t, Hardy responded that he had made a critical error in judgment (no, really?). He believed the word of a snake and the snake bit him. Similarly, he said that if he could change anything, he would have evicted Will. Hindsight is 20/20, Hardy, but maybe you need some glasses to see what’s in front of you. After some additional inane banter with Chen, and the usual video clip goodbyes (with more of Nicole crying about it being her fault – gosh, I just can’t get enough of that), Chen asked him who he thought would win. He actually thinks it will be Nicole. Personally, I’d say she’s the only one I’m sure won’t win.
After he was reunited with his grandmother and brother, it was back to the house for the final HoH competition of the game. Or, should I say, the first part of the final HoH competition. The entire competition will actually take place over the course of a week. Part 1 was tonight, part 2 will be shown Tuesday, and part 3 (between only the top two from the first two parts) will air live on Thursday. Then the winner will immediately vote to evict one person.
Unlike in past HoH competitions, the current HoH is allowed to participate. The first part was a series of words used by each of the previous evictees (not including Hardy) to describe each of the remaining houseguests. They had to guess which one of them a term described. Each question was based on what one evictee said, and Chen gave several words. The last one was the one they had to figure out.
Autum: truthful, consistent, disloyal, brave. Each person picked him/herself, but it was Nicole, so she jumped into an early lead.
Kent: quiet, obsessive, immature, energetic. All of them picked Will, and all got it right.
Krista: open-minded, reserved, funny, strong. Will and Monica picked Monica and got it right; Nicole picked herself and didn’t. So they were tied.
Shannon: sincere, assertive, sexy, aggressive: Will and Nicole picked Nicole and got it right; Monica picked herself and didn’t.
Sheryl: steadfast, insightful, amusing, explosive: Will picked Monica and got it right; Monica and Nicole picked Nicole. So Will had 4, Nicole 3, and Monica 2.
Bunky: hardworking, sincere, [a word I missed because of poor signal], arrogant. There wasn’t even a thought about anybody other than Will for this one, so they all got it right.
Mike: strong, funny, loyal: The answer was Nicole, but nobody got it.
So part 1 ended with Will at 5, Nicole at 4, and Monica at 3. But that can all change in the second part.
As we said goodbye for the night, we saw the three remaining houseguests debating over why Sheryl said that Monica was explosive. After all, she was only here for a week and Monica hadn’t even built up a head of steam yet, let alone exploded. Apparently, they have forgotten that they are on a TV show and Sheryl could easily have watched the whole thing from the comfort of her own home. Indeed, she would have a vested interest in doing so since she has to cast a vote in two weeks.
So, if we have one thing to look forward to, it’s that we won’t be able to predict who will go next – which will be an interesting change. If Will wins HoH, he should boot Monica because she is likely to get more votes than Nicole (for example, Krista would definitely vote for Will over Nicole, but might vote for her professed good friend Monica over Will). If Nicole wins, her best shot is also to boot Monica. If Monica wins, she’s already made it clear she wants to be standing next to Will, so Nicole would be gone. But we won’t even know who the final two competitors for HoH are until Tuesday, so we have a while to think about it – as do the houseguests.
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!
