Love Britney, sad to see her go. I’m voting for her to win AC. Wonder if Nick will be pissed she forgot him in her speech? heh.
The recappers are boiling over with seething rage that the Brigade made the final 3, and are using the most ridiculous rationalizations to downplay the Brigade’s accomplishment. Because they annoy me as much as Enzo annoys them, I’m loving it.
Here’s how I see it. On day 1 after Hayden won HoH – remember that they go a week before the feeds come on, so the first eviction was actually day 13 – they did the saboteur blackout. Once the power came back on Enzo, Matt, Lane and Hayden all could vouch for each other during the blackout so they knew none of them was the saboteur. Enzo decided to form an alliance with them based on the blackout and the first HoH.
Remember back to that first HoH, where it was two teams. The winning team was Hayden, Lane, Matt, Britney, Monet and Kristen. The losing team was Enzo, Brendon, Rachel, Kathy, Ragan, and Annie. There was an unspoken understanding that Hayden wasn’t going to nominate anyone from his winning team, so they were all safe. (And they were; he nominated Brendon & Rachel, then when Brendon won PoV he nominated Annie.)
Enzo understands this dynamic, and so targeted every guy on the winning team to align with. The idea being that he would be safe if he aligned with HoH, and his alliance of four would be safe at least one week. That they could all vouch for each other during the blackout was icing on the cake.
Enzo did his Enzo thing, naming it the Brigade and giving everyone nicknames. This was day 1! For the first couple weeks the rest of the guys were like “yeah, whatever” and kind of rolled their eyes at him in the DR. But Enzo was committed, and his force of will bound them together in the early days.
During the first week everyone in the newly formed Brigade had a single non-Brigade person they were close to. Hayde/Kristen, Lane/Britney, Matt/Ragan, Enzo/Monet. Monet was the first side alliance to go. After that, as a free agent Enzo started working the entire house, dropping hints that the three pairs were tight. “Yo, Hayden and Kristen are tight, I think they’re an alliance, yo. Watch out for that shit!” He’d drop hints like that to Rachel each time she won HoH for all three remaining pairs. This ensured that no two Brigade members would ever be on the block at once, since every member was closest with a non-member in the house.
As it became clear that Brendon and Rachel were challenge monsters, the Brigade consciously and collectively decided to “send Enzo in” to get close to Brendon and Rachel, giving him a new side alliance. After Kristen went home, with Enzo’s help Hayden managed to get into this side alliance as well.
At no point in the entire game were Lane, Enzo or Hayden anybody’s target. All three played a fantastic social game, getting along with everyone, stepping on nobody’s toes, and appearing weak in competitions. This strategy was bulletproof, and let them sail easily to the final 3 uncontested, even after cutting Matty loose when he grew too close to Ragan.
Interestingly, Hayden, Lane and Matty ALL got “in too deep.” Both Hayden and Lane told their saide alliances in their goodbye messages that they would have chosen them over the Brogade, and I believe both meant it. I think only Matt (and Enzo) was Brigade to the bitter end, so it’s ironic that Matt was the one cut loose.
In the end, the Brigade’s gameplay – spearheaded by Enzo – was both flawless and phenomenal. I’ve never seen an alliance executed with such surgical precision before. My hat’s off to them, all of Enzo’s final 3 bragging about making history is, IMO, 100% justified.
That it drives the recappers nuts makes it all the sweeter. I love Lane (and Britney) to death, but in final two voting I would have to give my vote to Enzo first, Hayden second and Lane third. Because they all already know this, Lane is guaranteed 50k, and Hayden (the challenge monster) will almost certainly win the final HoH and thus 500k. Enzo could win America’s Choice, but I really want Britney to get that. I’ll be okay with Enzo getting it, just please not Brendon.