Big Brother 4, July 30: When Emotions Attack!

We being with our standard recap and I don’t pay much attention. Then I notice that the announcer mentions something about people “undermining Dana’s authority.” Oh please. She’s the Head of Household (HOH). That means she gets her own bedroom, some other perks, and makes the nomination. She’s not the freaking dictator. While I can see her yelling, “Respect my au-thor-a-tay!” that doesn’t mean the announcer has to sign on to it too.

Anyway, Julie Chen is here tonight, as she is every Wednesday. She says it’s Day 26 in the house and emotions have reached the boiling point. Well, yeah, I guess that’s true. But it’s been damned close to boiling for a while now. She says the Veto meeting angered many and that was only the beginning.

From there we see psycho Dana crying in the HOH room because she had to nominate David. Awww. Poor Dana. Dave feels the same way. In the room with her, he jokingly tells her to cut it out. Privately, he says he wanted to slap her – she put him up and created the situation.

He notes that she is playing the game emotionally. From here, we jump to almost everybody accusing almost everybody else of playing emotionally. David says Justin has been playing with emotion the entire time and is still here (er, it hasn’t been that long). Jack refers back to Dana and says her brains are in her panties and she’s playing it emotional. (A reference to her flirting with Justin.) He adds that she has “the sex appeal of a buzzard’s crotch.” Jeez, I hope Jack stays! He comes up with some of the most colorful and descriptive quotes of anybody.

Jack continues that all of ‘em are floating along on emotion. Back to Dave, who says the three stooges and the buzzard’s crotch (or “BC” – hey, it’s as good a nickname as any!) are so pissed off at Nathan that they want him out more than anything. Maybe they are willing to make a deal to keep David and get rid of Nathan. David says he is approaching them with such a deal – keep him around and he’ll help them get rid of Nate. He says he might not stick to his word, but hey.

Jack, meanwhile, says right now he wants some space to think about how got in this position and what do – it doesn’t fit his strategy (being nominated rarely does fit into anybody’s strategy). He says the atmosphere is so juvenile that it can be numbing.

Getting back to Dana and her emotions, Nathan says they got in the way of the original group having it made. At this point, I need to make a few comments. First, do I think Dana is a psycho? Yes. But did she make a good play? Probably. The fact is that members of the original alliance were lobbying to get rid of Dana. She might well have been on the block had she not won HOH. Then I doubt we’d hear Nathan complaining about wrecking the alliance. But because she made the first move and caught the alliance napping, Nathan is pissed. Well, and because she’s a psycho. And, frankly, Nathan is an idiot for saying the original group had it made. OK, so even if things went totally according to plan, that would have still left them with seven. Newsflash for Nathan: Only one person wins the game, not seven. So of course people have to think about what is best for themselves, not the overall group.

The one place where Dana really screwed up was in putting Jack up as a decoy. Even though he’s another member of that overall alliance, he was not a close ally of Alison. And people should know better by now. But Dana was indeed thinking with her emotions and just wanted Alison to go, period.

Getting back to the televised happenings, Dana’s emotions are once again the topic, with Jun also noting that Dana thinks that way. Jun tries to be rational, pointing out to BC and the stooges (I was going to say that would make a great name for a band, but upon further reflection, it really wouldn’t) that it’s a risk to keep Dave because he could easily go back on his word. Jack, on the other hand, doesn’t win physical competitions. Justin, however, thinks Dave should stay to help get rid of Nathan and Alison.

For Jack’s part, he tells us that when he was in the FBI, one of his skills was in being a negotiator. So as we hear cop-show type music in the background, we see him talking to various HouseGuests. People are still up in the air, he says. And, yes, Dana is so emotional.

Erika says it sucks to see her two favorite people – both of whom are in her alliance – on the block. She says Jack is like her dad in house. She didn’t have her dad around growing up, and this has been a great three weeks. Now she’s crying in the Diary Room. And the bedroom. And…

Julie checks back in with the HouseGuests. She notes that Nathan was the first to use the golden veto this summer (I would hasten to point out that he was the first person to ever use the golden veto, although the only person who had the opportunity last summer certainly should have!). Does he have any regrets? Nope, he’s happy with his decision. Julie presses him, not a single regret? No. OK, get over it, Julie!

Having failed to get anything interesting out of Nathan, Julie moves on to Alison, noting that at the veto meeting, she said she deserved a second chance. Why? Alison says that Dana lied to her face (just before nominating her, Dana apparently told her she was safe) so she wants a second chance where people can be honest. Dana chimes in that honesty goes on a lot around the house, right Julie? Julie says she’s staying out of it! Getting back to Alison, Julie asks her if she’d be gone had Nathan not used the veto. Definitely. She says Dana made it clear that she wanted her out and Dana was to be respected. Dana holds her tongue this time.

Moving to Alison’s ex, Julie notes that Justin came in second in two HOH and two veto competitions. Justin says he always wants to win, but second seems come to him. One of these times, he says he’ll win one.

Quickly jumping to Robert, Julie says his separation from his daughter seems to be taking a toll – is there anything he wants to say? He loves her more than anything and can’t wait to get out and see her.

Time for the first few thoughts from the votes. Alison says Dave is easy on the eyes, smart, in good physical condition, and very important for competitions. Jack is wonderful but things may be difficult for him because he’s a lot older than the others in the house. She votes to evict Jack.

Robert says this decision is the toughest because his heart says David should leave, but he loves him. Jack is a threat. He was in the FBI and knows how to hide things – that’s what’s scary about him.

Nathan says both are great and he hates to see either of them go.

Now it’s time for the obligatory thoughts from family and friends of the nominees. Jack was one of the few to come in without an ex, but for him, living with an ex would have been nothing new. Why? Because although he’s divorced from Pat, he and his ex-wife still are together all the time! She says they have three daughters and enjoy themselves in their relationship. OK, I gotta say, this whole thing is a little weird. But whatever. Pat says Jack being older could play against him. Next we see Jack saying the atmosphere is like a junior high prom. Lots of “dude”s and “totally”s – that’s their vocabulary, he says. Also, lots of testosterone and women in heat. He says he’s amused by it, as he is amused watching his own children.

Pat notes that Jack is a man who will not let you exclude him. He manages gracefully to get himself included. Jack notes that he can’t avoid standing out because of his age. They know how old he is and that he has not performed well in competitions (we see him fall in the luxury competition that aired last night). He’s a step or two or three behind the young guys and sometimes the women. Pat suggests that it’s part of his strategy to lay low and not win competitions. Jack, however, says he’s not throwing competitions – he doesn’t like to lose.

After a bit on Erika and how Jack’s relationship with her is more father/daughter than anything romantic, there is some discussion of his sleeping habits. He apparently sleeps always on his back, looking like he’s in a coffin. Jack says it’s because, on stakeouts, you don’t want blankets or anything else in your way if you have to quickly wake up and grab your gun. In the house, though, he sleeps on his back because he thinks Dana is gonna come in and “stab my ass.” Heh.

We’re live again, and Julie is talking to BC in the HOH room. Julie reminds her that the other HouseGuests can’t hear her, so she is free to speak her mind. Dana says she doesn’t care if they can hear or not! So, any regrets? The only regret Dana has is that she didn’t initially nominate Nathan with Alison. When did she realize this was a mistake? After she found out that Nathan would Veto Alison. Dana goes into psycho mode and calls Nathan unappreciative, saying he should have been grateful that she didn’t put him up initially, but instead he dissed her by taking Alison off. Now he’s a big target with lots of people pissed off at him. He put more value on Alison than the others in his alliance. He should have wanted to keep a stronger player like Dave. (Um, why? The idea is to win the game, and to win, you need to get rid of the stronger players.) She claims that Nathan needs attention and now he can be the hero. Er… what? I didn’t realize that illicit drugs came as one of the perks in the HOH room, but she sure sounds like she’s been partaking of some.

On to the topic of Justin. Julie says we’ve all seen BC and Justin flirting – are the feelings real? She says they are genuine in that she feels comfortable with him; it’s not BS, not about the game. It feels like a real friendship, plus flirting, of course. He’s beautiful and also a good person deep down inside. Awww.

Now that we’re done with BC, time to check in on what Jun and Jee had to say in their voting discussions. Jun says that because Jack is an older male, they look to him for wise epithets. Ooookay. David is the most dangerous person in the house. He can keep a straight face when he lies (as opposed to, say, Alison, who gets drunk and spills the beans to anybody in the vicinity). She votes to evict David.

Jee agrees that David is a dangerous player with a knack of getting people on his side. But people may think Jack is a weaker player, yet he makes a huge impact on the house.

At this point, the outcome of the vote becomes fairly obvious. Jun has pretty well made it clear that she is aligned with BC and the stooges. So if she’s voting one way, odds are the stooges are voting that way as well.

Before we find out who gets the boot, though, it’s time to check in with four more former HouseGuests from Big Brother 3. We begin with Eric, who is still at the firehouse in Connecticut. He says they made him relive everything, especially the crazy sleeptalking. He talks about the PB&J diet and notes that he was one of the few who liked it, and may like it even more now! As we learned when Lisa brought us up to date, he is no longer with her – it wasn’t meant to be. He thinks they both had some things they needed to take care of before trying a relationship (she had 500,000 things to take care of!). He does keep in touch with everybody, though not so much with Gerry. Nothing against him, though. And he does have the lizards that Eric liked so much when he was in the house.

Which makes a nice segue to Gerry, who says his school is home to three evicted HouseGuests – him and the aforementioned lizards. He admits that he has some fun poked at him because of things that went on during the show, such as when his bathing suit fell off or when he wasn’t washing his hands after going to the bathroom. But he bears nobody any ill will – they all went through the meat grinder together.

Next up is Amy, with her dog, Bucky. She is surprised that she is still recognized as much as she is. There were times on the show where she looked so hammered (er, “looked”?). But she insists she is not some raging alcoholic – she just sees nothing wrong with the occasional happy hour (or happy 24 hours, I guess). And yes, she still loves cheese. In fact, the local grocery store gave her a year’s worth. Regarding Chiara, she takes us back to when she nicknamed her “Chi-whore-a” and we see a number of clips of her insulting Chiara. But after the show was over, she went out with Chiara and she’s one of the funniest and most entertaining people she knows.

Segue to chiwhor—whoops, sorry. Old habits die hard. Segue to Chiara, who is back in New York and having a great time. She says BB3 was a chapter in her life, but didn’t change her life. It’s weird to see the stuff she said and did while on the show. But she insists she and Roddy were never a couple in the house. For example, we never saw them kiss, right?! We see a clip of them kissing. She says we never saw them do anything like a relationship! We see a clip of Roddy inviting her to stay the night. They were certainly not a couple! More clips of them kissing and cuddling and doing other couple-like stuff.

Now that we’re done with the folks from BB3, we’re back live again for Jack and David to have their final words. Jack says he’s been “backstroking through the fountain of youth” (you just can’t make up quotes like that!) and he’s enjoyed it. He feeds off of the energy, excitement, and enthusiasm the younger folks have. If he leaves tonight, he will cherish individual memories of all of them. (Even the buzzard’s crotch?)

David says the whole thing has been a great joke for him, and that’s the way he’s handled it. It’s been entertaining to live with a bunch of sniveling whiny bitches. Heh. Then he gives props to the troops fighting and dying so we can sit at home and watch BB4. Hmmm… I guess I didn’t realize that’s why Bush sent in the troops…

Now, time for the final two to share their thoughts on the vote. Justin says Jack is a threat because he’s very smart – he thinks through everything and doesn’t make emotional decisions (obviously a rare quality in this house!). He wants to trust Dave, but Dave looked him in the eye and lied once before, and he probably would again. He votes to evict David.

Erika says this is probably the hardest decision she’s ever faced. It’s like having to pick between her father and her brother. Both are strong, Jack has wisdom, David has youth. She votes to evict Jack.

At this point, if it wasn’t obvious before with Jun’s vote, we know for certain that David is going. As Justin votes, so vote the other two stooges.

So it’s time. Julie says, “By a vote of five to two, Jack… you can unpack your bags. David, you are evicted.” That was just mean, Julie! David gives hugs all around, even to Dana.

As David makes his way to Julie, Jack and Erika. Erika (not surprisingly) is crying. Jack says he’s glad to still be there, but sorry to lose Dave. The others console him that it’s a game and Dave gets to see his friends and family. Jack says he’s a great guy.

Back to Dave with Julie, where he says he expected to be booted as soon as Nathan vetoed Alison. He feels that Nathan did it because he thinks Alison will help him in the game. And once David was on the block, he knew that the others would jump at the chance to get rid of a strong player. He says he was a threat, so he takes it as a compliment.

Julie notes that Dave’s outrageous behavior was not the only thing he did for the cameras! She points out that his time with Amanda in the HOH room before she was booted was a Big Brother first. He says it’s always good to be first. He’d like to see her again. Julie asks if the relationship was affected because he was living with his ex, Michelle, and Amanda’s ex-fiance, Scott, had just left? He said it was in his mind a little bit, but with Michelle it was no big deal – they dated five years ago. Right before Scott left, although he said he loved Amanda, he also said he couldn’t stand her, so that didn’t really interfere. He figures why stop something when it’s started? Scott is an adult and Dave is sure he won’t be mad about it. Um. Yeah. Because the reason Scott was booted is that he’s so stable.

Julie asks if his outrageous and nutty behavior is really who he is or if it was part of a strategy. He says it’s partly who he is, part to be boisterous to hide his smarts. One of his kicks was to disrupt the house and get reactions. Cursing or getting under somebody’s skin was fun and a great boredom buster.

Did the other HouseGuests find it as amusing? Let’s see their taped messages: Dana says he knows how she feels. He knows she did not want him to leave on her watch. (He makes a face at this, probably thinking the same thing I am – that she was the one who had the choice!). She cannot tell him how sorry she is. Justin says he brought life to the house. Without TV or radio, he gave them entertainment. Jun says he brought smiles and laughter and she knows the whole house feels the same. Jack says he was like a son. Erika says she would wish him good luck but she knows he doesn’t need any luck. He is such a force (tears start to come) that the world is a better place with him in it. As the tapes end, Dave fakes tears in response. Heh.

So, does he have any final thoughts? He says that as much as he made fun of the others, he has nothing bad to say, though their opinions of him may change when they see what he said in the Diary Room! So, who is waiting to greet him? Amanda? Nope. His buddy from the old army platoon. Dave says, “Holy shhh…” and covers his mouth as Julie thanks him for not saying it.

Now that Dave is gone, it’s time for the next HOH competition. Everybody had plenty of time to practice for this one, and some took advantage more than others, Julie says. Each person was given a big water cooler jug filled with ping pong balls. They have to drop them into a small tube. Nathan and Alison have been practicing pretty much since they got the equipment. Justin also has spent time on it, as he wants it really bad.

In the actual competition, there is a five foot drop between the jug and cylinder. They will get to drop for one minute; whoever has the most balls in the cylinder at the end of that time wins. So, let’s go!

At first, nobody is hitting the mark. Erika is first, then Jack, then Jee. Alison has two, Nathan one, Robert one. Thirty seconds left. Alison five, Jun two, Jee two, Erika two, Jack six! Justin has two, Alison seven, Erika three. Time up!

The final count is: Jee two, Jun two, Justin two (at least he didn’t come in second again), Robert two, Erika four, Jack six, Nathan two, and Alison seven! We have a winner! The look on Dana’s face says, “I am sooooo screwed!” Still, she gives up the key and shares a hug with Alison. Surprisingly, neither moves their hands up around the neck of the other.

Since there is a little time left, Julie is back to talk to the HouseGuests again. She congratulates Alison and asks how it feels. Alison says she knew she’d be a target if she didn’t win. What’s the one privilege she looks forward to most? Her own room. Dana, as outgoing HOH, is asked if she has any words of advice. She says she hopes Alison doesn’t plan on sleeping much because that “own room” of hers will be a revolving door full of people!

How does Jack feel about escaping? Jack says Julie scared him by calling out his name first. But he’s very happy to still be there to compete. The loss of Dave is tough, and it was a long few days.

Julie tells us that Friday we will find out who Alison nominates (or you can check out our Big Brother 4 Spoiler Page to find out sooner). As we leave and eavesdrop on the HouseGuests, it seems they are discussing the upcoming food competition, in which they may have two teams of four.

So, once again the worm has turned quickly! For the second week in a row, one of the main targets won HOH and instead will turn her sights on a new target. I think it’s safe to say that Dana will be one of the nominees, and it’s fairly likely that Justin will be the other unless Alison follows in the path of stupidity laid down by so many HOHs before her and decides that since she really wants Dana out, she’ll nominate a “decoy” against her. If it is indeed Justin against Dana, I think Dana is toast (presuming she doesn’t win the veto). Even though the three stooges were on her side, they will want to keep their more sane member, Justin. We’ll see for sure shortly!

Want to keep up with important events in the house? 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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