Big Brother Season XI [edited title]

Last night I realized something interesting about how BB works. Let’s say in the final 6 there are two solid alliances of 3 people; nobody can be swayed to the other side. Whomever wins HoH shouldn’t put up two members of the opposing alliance; you should instead put up one from each alliance. Let’s say you put up two enemies, and the third enemy wins PoV. The PoV uses it on either person on the block, and now HoH is forced to replace that person with an ally. The block is now one enemy and one ally and the HoH can’t vote. That leave two enemies and one ally voting, meaning HoH’s team is screwed.

Does that make sense, and has this scenario ever played out in any season of BB?

Oh yeah, and last night on BBAD:If J/J/M decide to backdoor Russell this week instead of next, they’ll be in a 3v3 standoff. What are the odds they are smart enough to put up one of each to avoid the worst-case scenario described above? I’m thinking…0%.

Not really. If you put up two from the other group, your chances of getting them out are 83% (i.e. they have only a 1/6 chance in that person winning POV).

In your scenario, they’re starting off with the worst case scenario and then only have a 50% chance of getting out of it.

If everyone gets to play for the POV when they are down to 6, then you should go ahead and nominate two enemies in your scenario of 3 vs 3.

If the HOH were to nominate one from each alliance, then 4 out of 6 scenarios favor the HOH’s alliance (any of the HOH alliance wins and you can put a second enemy on the block, or if the nominated enemy houseguest wins and takes themself off the block, you can replace them with another enemy and the HOH breaks the tie vote)

But if the HOH were to nominate two enemies, then 5 out of 6 scenarios favor the HOH alliance.
(any HOH alliance wins and the noms stay the same, or if either of the two nominated enemies win and takes themself off the block and HOH replaces them with the third enemy.) The only bad outcome in this scenario is if the unnominated enemy wins POV.

That makes perfect sense; thanks both of you. I didn’t really think it through. I guess in a 3v3 situation the best move is to nominate the two best competitors from the opposing side and just hope the weakest competitor doesn’t win PoV and screw you.

It amazes how no matter who is HoH and how strong their alliance is, paranoia reigns supreme. Now that I see what’s been going on the past 24 hours, I can’t really blame Russell for his freak-outs as HoH since his uncertainty was a million times worse than any other HoH this season. He never had a chance.

Chima defends herself:

What a self-serving, delusional bitch. She seems to forget that people watch the live feeds. We are NOT dependent on the editing of the television episodes to understand what’s going on in the house. She (and Natalie and Lydia, too) were full-on, brass-plated bitches from the moment Jessie left the house. Chima took it way too far.

Chima, you were not kicked because you were a “strong woman”. You were kicked because you were more of a huge tantrum-throwing baby than any other houseguest has ever been, including Evil Dick, Ollie and Michelle the Portuguese Virago from last season.

No doubt. Upthread I complained about how disgusting it was that CBS gave Chima such a kind edit; the feed recaps paint her as reprehensible, and everything I saw of her on BBAD confirmed that.

WARNING: Long windedness ahead!

I was sitting back and thinking of my least favorite houseguests over the years. I was looking for a common thread and it seems that I don’t like a combination of mean spiritedness (although some believe it is a viable strategy) and most of all self-delusion. My least favorite are Evel Dick, the Nerd Herd from S6, and the Coven (with slightly less hate for Lydia). Here is why:
Chima is a black-hearted racist evil liar…and delusional.

(G)Nat is obnoxious, was controlling of Jessie, thought the best way to win an argument is was to yell louder and more often then your opponent…and was delusional.

Lydia I give a pass to because she ain’t right in the head. She was in crazy “Basic Instinct” love with Jessie and was going to cut herself when he stopped spending time with her. She is also delusional but I think that is only because of her obsession with Jessie and anything he was involved it (the Coven).

But I don’t see them going far since I see Chima and Nat leaving very soon. Then I think Kevin will reel Lydia back to reality. So I hate them less than Dick and NH.

The Nerd Herd had the same devotion to Cappy that the Coven has to Jessie, but they succeeded where I think the Coven will fail. But after playing some of the most mean-spirited game I have seen, and despite America voting against them every opportunity they had, they still kept telling themselves: “I wonder why we don’t win AC? We are really good people. Why doesn’t America see how good we are as people?” If James didn’t get nervous and bail on his alliance it could have ended different.

That leaves Evel Dick, my least favorite player. Although he played one of the meanest games, I would have at least chosen to see it as “entertaining” if he wasn’t the most delusional HG in BB history. And from interviews, continues to be despite having a season worth of broadcast and feeds to show him he was wrong. If he had acknowledged even once that the season was given to him on a silver platter I might change my mind, let’s recap:
Dick and Danielle entered as part of the “secret enemies” in the house. While the other enemies really did dislike each other and sought to evict their enemy, D&D pretty much called a truce 5 minutes in and vowed to do whatever it took to get each other to the end. It just so happened that Danielle was also one of the strongest players to play the game, competition-wise. So he had super-strong partner as his pre-made from the start. The only player that saw right through him and actively had the skills to outmaneuver him was Eric. Eric then became [del]Dick’s[/del] America’s Player. America, who loved the entertainment Dick provided, then had Eric play the best possible game he could to help Dick out and, as a result, totally ruin Eric’s own game (and chances). At this point the game essentially ended and the delusion began. Dick began to think (and thinks to this day) that Eric was a truly weak player because he had America helping him and look how badly he was playing. (No Dick, America was helping YOU.) He thought having the strongest player carry him to then end was a hindrance. He thought that Zach, who played well also and helped power D&D to the end was a traitor of the lowest sort when he sided with Jameka once they were in the final four. He told Zach that he should have stayed with them and they would have carried him to the end. (Ummm, this IS the end Dick, did he expect that either he or Danielle would take Zach to the final 2?) And then he berated Zach for having the gall to, you know, try to win or something. Jerk.

Sorry, this got longer than I had planned. Carry on.

Though I dearly love them, I’m starting to get frustrated with Jeff and Jordan for a couple reasons.

Jeff clearly has real feelings for Jordan while it’s obvious that Jordan put Jeff in the “friend zone”. This is normally a painful dynamic to watch just in its own right, but it’s made so much worse because Jordan is intentionally leading Jeff on for game purposes. Exploiting unrequited love is an ugly thing to do.[spoiler]Both of them are more paranoid than Russell ever dreamed of being. It drives me crazy that they will eagerly take an enemy’s word over an ally’s. Of course, Michele has never helped matters all game. Seriously, she’s friggin’ crazy. Even given that she has no ability to recall whether or not events happened to her, her coping mechanism to overcome that is the exact same set of mannerisms that on normal people screams “I’M LYING TO YOU!” It’s so goddamn irritating to watch her unintentionally torpedo every alliance she ever tried to join.

Here’s a tip: If you can’t recall conversations you’ve had in the past 48 hours, you shouldn’t go on Big Brother. In fact, basic social interaction is probably a pipe dream. Just stay in your research lab.[/spoiler]At this point I think I’m actually rooting for Russell and Natalie to make it to the final 2 based purely on who has played the best game. This despite the fact that I fucking hate Natalie and can’t wait to see her get evicted.

I agree with your choices and I would add Mike “Boogie” to the list. He played the game well enough to win the All-Stars season, but he is the biggest douchebag I’ve ever laid eyes on. The way he exploited Erika and laughed and bragged about it on camera was really terrible. He is just a despicable person.

I have to disagree. Dr. Will and Mike Boogie are my all-time favorite players. No one ever played better than them. It was all game. I can’t stand people that go through the whole process of auditioning, getting selected, getting in the house and then go, “Whoa, these people are liars! And they’re mean!” No shit, that’s-the IDEA. Boogie played the game perfectly, including his faux-mance.

Agreed on Dr. Will. That guy knew the entire time that it was a game, nothing more and nothing less. He had a good time in there and it showed.

Anybody that could look every contestant right in the eye and say “I will lie to you every chance I get this season. Don’t ever trust me,” and then WIN the game as the result of actually doing it is a badass. And IIRC, they hadn’t even introduced the POV as an aspect of the game at that point. All-time favorite Q & A in the final episode:

(Some contestant I don’t remember): If you win the $500,000, how much of it will you donate to charity?

Will: Umm…let’s see? Uhhh…none of it!

Yeah, Dr. Will was the best player ever. But I like Dick, too. Despite everything said about him, there were a zillion opportunities to get rid of him, and he survived them all. And honestly, I don’t think the relation with his daughter became an actual alliance for quite a long time. I remember her being genuinely embarrassed by him until nearly the end, when people started rejecting her by association.

Doesn’t the final vote depend on there being an odd number of people voting, in the jury house? Since Chima is expelled from the game doesn’t that throw off the numbers? They can’t put whoever was sent home just before the jury started to congregate, because that person has had the opportunity to see the entire show since their eviction. What will they do?

I have read that they will have America vote and be the seventh vote.

Man Lydia is messed up. If I were Jesse, I would run and hide. She may hunt him down and kill him after the show if he doesn’t show her some love.

The delusion runs strong in these ones.

“It fell out of her hand!”

Yes, and then gravity suddenly started working sideways and pulled it 20 feet into the hot tub.

Incidentally, remember how Lydia and Chima were sitting on the washer and dryer? They were doing that ALL DAY, doing the same clothes over and over, so that Jeff and Jordan couldn’t wash clothes. They monopolized the practice set-up, “guarding” it so that the other faction couldn’t practice. There was a lot more that the Witches of Jessiewick did the day or two before Grodner kicked Chima’s ass out.

You don’t know the half of it. Lydia has threatened to cut herself if Jessie stopped paying attention to her. They really messed up with the psych screening this season, between Lydia and Chima.

What IS it about Jessie, anyway? Last season, he had a posse of undeservedly entitled buddies who considered being outsmarted/outplayed to be treason/betrayal/disloyalty/cheating, too. He seems to attract poor sports of all kinds.

Quoting me from Sunday:

I should be on staff at Big Brother since I’m clearly on the same page as production. heh.

Anyone else notice the voiceover guy saying how the next HoH competition would begin on Thursday? Dead giveaway for an endurance competition, IMO. This despite the fact that Natalie is convinced it won’t be because they’ve already had two, there’s always one at final four, and no season has ever had more than three.

I spoiler boxed a lot of what they did the previous page. Now that the network show has caught up, here was my rundown of the Manson Girls’ antics for those who don’t read spoilers:

Loved how Jeff easily got a hole in one every shot he took until it was just him and Jordan, then letting her take it. I tend to think he did it solely because he wanted Jordan to be happy, but it was the greatest strategic move he could have done. Because of that he can compete for HoH on Thursday. This isn’t rocket science so it might have occured to him too, but I tend to doubt it. At the time of the golf competition…[spoiler]…he hadn’t yet decided that Russell was against him, so he probably figured Russell or Michele could win it for the team if it were physical or mental, respectively.

The only reason he thinks Russell is against him is because Natalie pulled yet another successful total fabrication, just like the Green Room Lie. This time she sent Kevin to tell Jeff that Kevin overhead Russell say to Michele that Russell would evict Jeff next week. Unfortunately Jeff and Jordan totally believed Kevin, their enemy. And again Michele drives me insane because when they asked her about it, she first said she couldn’t remember in a way that screamed “I’m lying!” Then later that night she says she remembered the conversation while in the shower. GAH!! So now either the lie stays intact and Russell is betrayed Jeff or the truth is revealed and Michele betrayed Russell. Why, Michele, why?! Michele couldn’t possibly be worse at the game of Big Brother.

On the flipside, Natalie is quite the gamer.[/spoiler]