Big Brother 4, July 11: Nomination Time

We’re back with the third episode of Big Brother 4. After the standard review of what happened last time (you’re better off reading about that here), we pick up with Nathan just having won the Head of Household (HOH) competition.

Jack was not at all happy about going out first, and he wondered how David blew it. Amanda still thinks he and Jack threw it (together) because, come on – David was an Army Ranger!

But anyway, we move to something of importance – the deal that Nathan and Alison offered to Justin and Robert, promising that if the two guys gave up on the challenge, they would be safe this week. Justin is sure Nathan will honor the agreement. For his part, Nathan isn’t terribly sure he really wanted to win because he didn’t want to make enemies at first. Getting back to Jack, he’s happy that somebody from the Elite 8 won.

Showing her stunning brilliance, Amanda says she thinks the original 8 might have built an alliance and so she’s worried. Jee says Nathan is a big question mark – Jee just doesn’t know where he stands.

Let the sucking up begin! Jun says she won’t make any suggestions to Nathan because she knows he’ll be getting plenty of that from others. So instead, she and Amanda talk to him about how hot he looked (no, not temperature hot) during the competition. Then Jun offers to wash his underwear. I’m pretty sure this is grounds for charges of stalking.

Speaking of stalking, Dana says all the guys are getting cuter by the minute as we see various shots of them playing basketball and doing other things shirtless. The women seem to agree that Nathan is the house babe. Jun says she is playing the “I’m so hot for you” card. Meanwhile, Alison is watching Nathan in the shower (a towel is covering the glass door, but still). He glances over (his head is above the shower stall wall) and she looks away, as if she had really meant to study that spot on the wall. Oh, yeah, she fooled him!

Nathan and everybody else get their first look at the HOH room. He gets a CD, U2’s Joshua Tree, and he loves the robe. The ladies are already in his bed and he climbs in among them.

In other news, Erika says she feels like the mommy of the house. She’s the oldest and in a different stage than most of them. She says most of the house seems very much like a college frat house.

Several of the other women discuss her. Amanda wonders how Erika ever dated Robert, and Jun chimes in that Erika probably didn’t have “those hooters” at the time. Me-ow!

Scott tells Erika that Jun, David, and Nathan have an alliance within their Elite 8 alliance. For their part, Scott and Erika assure each other that they have an alliance “to the end.” But Nathan tells Jun that he doesn’t trust Erika and nobody else does either. She’s playing different games from the original plan. Robert unsurprisingly says she should go up first and he will make that clear to Nathan.

Next it’s time to focus on Michelle. She’s laying around in a bikini. And another. Etc. Nathan says she’s cute as a button, but Justin (and later Jun) say other girls are jealous. Erika snits that she has underwear older than Michelle. Um, that’s great. I just hope you left it at home. Justin thinks she’s fun to look at and she says being sexy could be part of her plan to win some votes (um, you don’t want votes). Jack says she’s kind of the mascot. Etc.

Now for some plotting! Alison visits Nathan in the HOH room while ominous music plays in the background. The only people she trusts are him, Dana, and Jun. She says she would vote however he wants, and they might try to ride this to the top. Once again they discuss how they don’t trust Erika. Alison says she likes Robert a helluvalot more than Erika – maybe there’s a way to switch them? Nathan says the same, but Erika wants Robert out. Alison wants Erika out. Robert, Dana, Justin, Jun, Michelle, and Amanda all want Erika out. She is conniving! Gasp! How horrible! Somebody conniving in a reality TV show! Nathan is really thinking about nominating her because so many people are threatened by her, all of them know she has to go.

Moving away from complaining about Erika, it’s time for a food competition. Each team has to pair up boy/girl, and they are told that exes playing together might have an advantage. Jun figures she’s just fine without Jee and grabs Jack as her partner, but several of the other exes do pair up. Within each pair, one person has to volunteer as the lifter and one the stander. Mostly the guys take lifter roles, but Dana and Jee figure that’s too obvious and so she takes the lifter role.

When they get outside, they are greeted with a big pile of potatoes. The standers go stand on boxes and all the pairs put on t-shirts with varying food groups written on them. Each team is playing to win food for the entire house. The lifter has to put the amount of potatoes into a barrel equivalent to the weight of their stander. If it’s within 25 pounds, the HouseGuests win that food group.

So up and back the lifters run. Justin has trouble because when you pick up a soft girl, she feels like about 20 pounds. But a hard barrel of potatoes feels a lot different. Well, I would hope so!

When all is said and done, they miss fruits and vegetables, meat, and dairy (at least they don’t have to worry about keeping kosher). They get snacks and desserts, though, and, more importantly, booze! Dana is pissed about the teams that lost because she got it right and three guys couldn’t. Go have a drink and a snack and calm down!

And now for something completely different. Justin and Alison are boxing – with gloves but no headpieces. This becomes important when Justin nails Alison in the face, right by her eye. Oops. Justin says he felt bad and didn’t mean to hit her that hard – she was the one who wanted to fight him! She runs in the house and gets an ice pack.

Dana jokingly says they’ll suffocate him tonight while he’s sleeping. Alison joins the joke and says they’ll just say her boyfriend beats her. Jun points out that he’s her ex-boyfriend. Alison says whatever, she’s living with him so it feels like it’s her boyfriend, but her real boyfriend is probably dumping her right now. She bursts into tears and the women ooh and awww over her, and then she runs in the house, crying.

Regrouping in the bathroom, Alison tells Erika she feels guilty, to which Erika replies that it’s not her fault for being put in this situation. Alison says her real boyfriend probably feels horrible. Erika and Amanda tell her she’s being too hard on herself.

Then David jumps out of nowhere, scaring the crap out of Alison, and says, “Don’t’ cry, Ali, be happy!” This segues into a piece where several HouseGuests talk about him being a class clown. Dana and Erika say he’s very funny. Scott says Dave and him are a lot alike in sense of humor department, but Dana says they laugh at Scott rather than the way they laugh with David. We see a number of clips of David acting goofy, such as making a puppet out of a potholder and brushing his nose with toothpaste, etc. He hopes this behavior will distract people from him being a threat.

But some of the others see through his act. Nathan, Justin, and Alison talk about how his personality changes. They say he’ll do anything, from pretending to be dead in the pool (which we see – it does look a little spooky) to him bouncing off the walls. Dana says she enjoys him but doesn’t want to let somebody slip through the cracks. Alison says he will joke and then turn around and be completely serious – he’s a funny wildcard.

A group of HouseGuests are sitting around bored, which I imagine is going to only get worse as the weeks go by. But Amanda suggests a rousing game of Truth or Dare. Michelle has to pick the microphone off Dana’s chest – with her mouth. Alison gives Nathan a lapdance – and looks like she’s done it before. Amanda licks Jee’s ear. Robert give Amanda a lapdance and, um, doesn’t look like he’s done it before – nor should he ever do it again.

Meanwhile, the uncool kids – Scott, David, Jack, and Erika – are out in the yard playing chess on the huge board. (It’s more difficult to play and see all the moves, but at least it will be tough to lose a piece!) Scott walks in the house for a moment and stops to watch. They (mostly Jun) tell him can’t just watch – he has to play. So he leaves – it’s too collegey for him.

After all the lapdances are done, Jun goes outside to make nice. She says Scott turns to her with a look on his face that says he wants to fight her. Well, go get the boxing gloves! No, she just storms back inside, telling the others he said it was immature fun.

The fact of the matter is that the immature funsters (that would be a good name for a band) are not happy with Scott, or Erika (yeah, yeah, we know about Erika already!). Nathan is pissed at both of ‘em. Haven’t we seen this script a few times on Survivor?

Staying with the topic of Scott, Michelle tells us that Scott is talking to Amanda about the drama that went on in their relationship. Cut to that discussion. Scott talks about how he couldn’t show emotions, then goes into some stories to explain it. Amanda says she’d rather he didn’t go into it. He tries to take some of the blame and wishes he could go back and change things. Michelle asks if he wants to get back with her. No, he claims, everything happens for a reason, and he made a mistake. She thinks Scott is just saying all this to kiss up to Amanda in case she becomes HOH. But privately, Scott admits that he would actually like to get back with her – he even wants to spend the rest of his life with her and might he not get the opportunity to do that, which he says really affects him; they had something special.

Now it’s time for the explanation of what nominations are, in case anybody hadn’t seen the show last year. This is the box. This is the box that holds the keys. This is the box that hold the keys that you will turn. This is the box that holds the keys that you will turn to find out if you’re safe. Etc. As Nathan explains, people look on nervously. Michelle says the game has really begun. No, it really began a few days ago, you just weren’t paying attention.

So who will Nathan nominate? Well, in case we didn’t get it already, he’s getting really sick of Scott. Jun, Dana, and Alison join Nathan in HOH room. Then Scott comes in. Dana says Scott is starting to freak out. He tells the others that he’s sticking to what was said; he’s with the eight. Well goody for him, but he’s not the one who has to worry about sticking with the plan yet, is he? Nathan assures him that they’re with the plan. No problem. Nothing to see here. Be on your way. But Scott says there is a lot of insecurity among some of the Elite 8, yet hopes they are all still together. He tells the others that insecurity will kill them, so don’t think for a minute they aren’t eight. As if he has the power. Still, in a way he’s right – if people are insecure they might form separate alliances. If they are certain of being in the main alliance – whether it’s true or not – they might not bother with sub-alliances or counter-alliances.

As soon as Scott leaves, the others make fun of him. So I’m thinking they didn’t really get that point I just mentioned.

OK, now it’s finally almost time for the nominations. Alison says there will be a lot of stress added after Nathan comes out with the nominations. Erika is concerned. Scott says he’s not nervous, if it happens, it happens – it’s a game. Dana says there are no guarantees until the key comes out of box.

In case we missed it the first time around, Nathan re-explains how he will nominate people. OK, OK! My four-year-old gets it, fercryingoutloud! Moving on.

Nomination time. You know, looking at that nomination box, it’s a good thing Michelle didn’t win HOH – I don’t think she could have carried out the box! It’s bigger than she is.

Nathan says he cares for each of them, he’s glad he’s had an opportunity to meet ‘em, etc. But then he says he hasn’t had the chance to know everybody as a person. Er, okay. I’m pretty sure you just contradicted yourself, but whatever. He continues that it’s not personal, it’s a game.

Dana’s key comes out first. Then Alison, Jack, Robert, Justin, Jun, David, Erika, Scott, Michelle. (Smart thinking mixing in some of the exes before all of the Elite 8, otherwise it would have looked too much like a boot order.) So Jee and Amanda are nominated. Nathan says he chose Amanda because he hasn’t had the chance to really get to know her (again contradicting himself from before). He’s tried, but he just doesn’t feel like he can trust her in a game sense. But he loves her as a person. (How does he know if he hasn’t been able to get to know her?!) Scott looks furious as Nathan is speaking. Anyway, Jee was nominated because Nathan needed somebody to compare against Amanda. He says Jee was his best bet – nothing personal but this is way it has to happen.

Amanda is not happy. She says she has not said one bad thing about Nathan, and she thinks he’s defending somebody else. Trust is a big word and she doesn’t know where it came from. She’s not sure how, but she will work way to stay in. Scott says privately that the speech had to be the most pathetic thing he’d ever seen. He didn’t like the disrespect Nathan showed Amanda and he’s pissed off. Because of that, he says he will do everything he can to “send that hick boy home.” Those cracks in the alliance are growing bigger by the minute.

For his part, Nathan says he was looking out for himself and the alliance the eight originally formed. Jee says the alliance felt Amanda should be out (in other words, it ain’t exactly a secret alliance). Even Jun says as much as she doesn’t like him, she didn’t want him nominated yet. But he’s a pawn. She thinks people want to keep their own exes around so they can use them later. With that, we end until Tuesday.

OK, it wasn’t the smartest thing in the world for Nathan to let everybody know that he wants Amanda out and he just put up Jee to be a pawn. However, at least he learned a lesson and didn’t put up somebody popular and from within his own alliance as the second nominee, expecting the popular one to easily win while the other left. We all know how well that has worked in the past. This way, even if Amanda sticks around, another one of the five exes leaves and the Elite 8 is happy – though perhaps we should call them the Two Groups of Four at this point since it’s obvious the eight really aren’t in it together anymore. As I figured, that didn’t last long – an alliance based on who happens to be in a certain location at a given time doesn’t have much chance of lasting once personalities come into play. And with that thought, we’ll leave you until Tuesday.

But if you want to keep up with important events in the house, be sure to check out our Big Brother 4 Spoiler Page for news on who wins contests and other ongoing info.

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com.

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