Recap, Week 6 (8/17)
NO MERCY FOR MARCI HoH Chicken George Puts James & Erika Up Marcellas is evicted in a stinging 6 to 0 vote. But he won't be alone for long as next week, there's a double eviction. Boogie has won the Coup d'Etat power, but chooses not to use it yet. George stuns everyone by winning HoH and hoists James and Erika onto the block without warning. QUEEN OF MEAN Marcellas and Erika are on the block. Erika admits that she was "shocked" at Marci's nomination. Marcellas reports that Janelle told him she was putting him on the block, but said she'd "ensure" he was safe. But, he wails, "The pages of BIG BROTHER history are littered with the corpses of people who thought that they were safe!" Lounging with his red-roommates, Marcellas assures Erika that he won't campaign against her. As soon as she leaves the room, he turns to Danielle, saying, "D, I still need you to vote for me." Danielle is torn between her promise to Marcellas and her friendship with Erika. Outside, Will and Boogie are working all the angles. Will admits they are charting a precarious course through the BIG BROTHER waters, but he also knows his alliance with Boogie is the strongest in the house. Marcellas corners George, seeking his vote by pointing out Erika's targeting him in the past. George is noncommittal as Marcellas leaves him and heads upstairs to see Janelle. She swears to him that she believes Chilltown when they say that are not going to evict Marcellas. But Marcellas needs more assurance and heads into the backyard, where Will and Boogie are hanging out. They reassure him of their intent to support him. Marci seems resigned as he saunters back inside, sighing, "I'm taking you at your words." But as soon as Marcellas is out of earshot, Boogie sniggers, "Sucker, you’re going down." Host Julie Chen welcomes the HouseGuests, asking them about the past week. Howie recounts seeing his nemesis "Busto," April from BIG BROTHER 6, while Julie teases Boogie about his sprint from the "ghosts" last week. The mood is jovial as Julie compliments everyone on their classy evening attire, retro prom duds. The reason for the dress-up becomes clear later. DIVA VS DIVA "Party girl" Janey's mom, Anne, gives us some insight into the Blonde Bombshell, admitting that her golden girl has a few "issues with other girls." Apparently, ever since Janey blossomed at 15, she's had problems with other girls being jealous of her and fair-weather girlfriends who "turn on her." We also meet Danielle's mom, Rosalind, who dishes on her daughter's fighting spirit. With a mother's pride, Rosalind beams, "Danielle is a leader. She can adapt to any situation." Of the "war" between the two divas, Rosalind cannot predict who is going to triumph, while Anne wishes that the two women had taken a different path, musing, "Ideally, the two of them should have teamed up and taken that house by storm." BOO D'ETAT Julie shares a private moment with Janelle as they discuss her third week as HoH. Janelle sighs that it has been a tough time as she has lost a lot of trust and confidence in James, suspecting that he may not be the ally he pretends to be. Her trust of Marcellas has also been shaken after two weeks of fighting and making up with him. Julie recaps the Coup d'Etat Competition, and we review how the HouseGuests have fared with their guesswork in the past week. We run over the four submissions made by Danielle, Erika, James and George made prior to Clue #2 being revealed. After that clue is given, Howie and Boogie submit their answers. Janelle waits until the third clue, the Grim Reaper, appears in the house, before making her guess, "You sow what you reap." Mike is asked to go to the Diary Room, where he is informed that he has won the Coup d'Etat with his answer, “"You reap what you sow." Julie explains the power, and that he can use it anytime in the next three evictions. "For the first time in forty days, I'm speechless," he grins, looking like the cat that got the canary. KARMA CATCHES UP Time for the vote has arrived. Julie reveals to the HouseGuests that someone has won the Coup d'Etat, but does not say who it is as she asks if the winner wants to use the power. No one stands, and the nominees state their cases. Marcellas is less than gracious in his last-minute plea, whereas Erika says, "If you can use me (strategically)," then don't lose me. The live vote commences. The first is Boogie, who votes to evict Marcellas. Next, Howie casts his vote to evict Marcellas. After Howie, James votes to evict Marcellas. Next, Will casts his ballot, followed by George. Both men vote to evict Marcellas. Danielle is the final voter, opting to evict Marcellas. It is unanimous: Marcellas is heading to the sequester house. Julie and Marcellas talk after he leaves the house. He claims that Janelle is a treacherous player and a bigger liar than anyone assumes she is, but when Julie reads his quotes about Janelle, he is forced to admit he is prone to outbursts. Looking less the victim and more the spider caught in his own web, Marcellas heads off to the sequester house. AMERICA'S VOTE: PROM NIGHT Julie announces that this week is a Double Eviction week with the next HouseGuest going home on Sunday. The HoH Competition looks like a high school prom night. As every prom has a Queen, America has voted Janelle as theirs. As she is the outgoing HoH, Janey is ineligible to compete, but she can, and does, claim her prom crown and bouquet, thanking America. The HoH Competition is based on what "senior superlative" titles America has voted online or via cell phone for each of the HouseGuests to receive, such as "Most Likely to Succeed." If a player answers correctly, they advance a step from their starting square. If they answer incorrectly, they stay put. The first HouseGuest to reaches their final square will be the new Head of Household. Wearing blindfolds, the HouseGuests ready for the first question. Erica and Danielle get it wrong and stay where they are as the others advance. James takes an early lead, but Danielle soon catches him. It is neck and neck until George joins them and pips James for the tie-break play-off with Danielle. In the tie-breaker, Chicken George gets closer to the answer than Danielle and wins HoH. HOLY SCHLA-MOLY After congratulating George, Julie reveals the wicked double-eviction twist this week. "Expect the unexpected," she smiles. George must stand immediately and reveal his two new nominees. Stunned, he hoists James and Erika onto the block. George has set a cat amongst the pigeons after winning the HoH and nominating James and Erika. With so many deals and alliances constantly shifting and reforming, who will be voted out? George has held his cards close to his chest and has no defined alliances in place. Is his target really James or Erika? Don't miss the next exciting episode of BIG BROTHER: ALL-STARS, Sunday, August 20, 8pm ET/PT, only on CBS. http://www.cbs.com/primetime/bigbrother7/show/wk06/thu01.shtml

Big Brother: All-Stars, August 17 – Most Likely to Be Evicted by David Bloomberg -- 08/18/2006 It’s Prom Night on Big Brother! The HOH competition deals with questions of who has been given various titles by viewers. But first we have to find out who is most likely to be evicted, Erika or Marcellas? Or did somebody win the Coup d’Etat power and decide to use it such that it’s neither of them? What other surprises are in store for the houseguests? Read on to find out! Before we start this Thursday eviction episode, let’s recall how we got here. First, Erika won HOH. Then she didn’t because the buzzers were screwed up. To make matters worse, Janelle won HOH and promptly nominated Erika as the decoy. But then the real target, Danielle, won veto. Whoops! So now Erika went from the high of winning HOH to the low of possible eviction. Let me rant for a moment here. I think the producers really screwed the pooch on the HOH competition. I understand that there were technical difficulties. Fine. But in that case, why did they let Janelle play again? She was not eliminated due to a slow buzzer – she got an answer wrong! They could have legitimately excluded her from play. Or they could have left Erika as a co-HOH, like they had earlier in the season. Or they could have given her some sort of immunity. Anything, really, would have been better than what they did. But they didn’t ask me. So here we are and we just have to deal with it. Will Erika have to deal with it by being voted out? Or will Marcellas be sent packing? We’ll know shortly! Julie Chen welcomes us to day 46 of this season. Tonight, we’ll find out more about the Coup d’Etat power and find out if anybody won it. This power allows somebody to overthrow the HOH by replacing their nominations on the spot. It’s still not clear to me if the person who wins this power can use it right now or has to wait a week. No matter what, whoever is evicted with this vote will become the first juror and enter into sequestration. Plus, there is a surprise for the new HOH at the end of the show (I guess that means it won’t be an endurance competition lasting beyond the hour). Julie tells us that Janelle has wielded great power, having been HOH three times. Yet some might say Will and Mike Boogie have been calling the shots. Indeed, they have certainly been pressing all the right buttons with both sides and playing an excellent game to date. Erika says she was shocked that Janelle nominated Marcellas – but also happy, because she thinks it will be easier to win against him. Marcellas tells us Janelle told him she would be putting him up but he’d be safe. While I have never particularly been impressed with Marcellas’ game play, he is smart enough to know that “the pages of Big Brother history are littered with the corpses of people who thought that they were safe.” Indeed. Marcellas and Erika talk while Danielle sits in the room with them, and he says he won’t campaign against her. No sooner has Erika gotten up and left the room than Marcellas tells Danielle he needs her to vote for him. Wow, all of five seconds before he broke his word about campaigning! That may be a new record for this show. He says if he stays, all hell is going to break loose and he’s going after Janelle. Danielle, in her pink robe, tells us she’s stuck between a rock and a hard place. She promised Marcellas previously that if at any time she decided she needed to vote him out, she would tell him. But she also has a friendship with Erika. Outside, the Legion of Doom (Will, Mike, James, and Danielle) talk. Will and Mike say Marcellas has to go this week. Recall that those two convinced Janelle to put up Marcellas to begin with, claiming he would be a pawn. But Mike says he hasn’t trusted Marcellas since day one. James says best case scenario, Erika stays, wins HOH, gets rid of Janelle, and then gets booted the next week. Will tells Mike flat-out that Erika will stab him in the back. He then tells us that Chill Town is the Beatles of the game – Will is Paul McCartney and Mike is John Lennon. Erika is Yoko Ono, and she will ruin their career if they’re not careful. Danielle believes that if they do this, Janelle will realize she’s been bamboozled and all hell will break loose – there will be no turning back. Odd, I didn’t realize you could turn back in this game anyway. Well, unless a buzzer is broken. Erika asks George if she has his vote. He doesn’t answer specifically, saying only that he likes her. Then she says she wants to protect him and he tells her she’s covered. Note that he didn’t specifically say she has his vote, but I’m sure she walked away thinking that’s what he said. Then Marcellas asks George for his vote, and George says he hasn’t made any commitments. Marcellas reminds him that Erika took him out of the first HOH competition. Oh, come on – that was weeks ago and they didn’t even really know each other yet! Plus, he says she took out George in another HOH as well. OK, well, yeah, that’s true. Marcellas says he has George’s back if George has his. George just says, “I know, Marci.” Next, we see Marcellas with Janelle as she tries to convince him that he’s safe. He doesn’t buy it. I don’t blame him. So he storms over to Chill Town and says Janelle told him they promised to vote to keep him in the game. They whisper assurances, but Marcellas wants to know why he hears from everybody else that they’ve wanted him gone since day one. Mike says that perhaps the others have their own self-interests. Marcellas says he’ll take them at their words. As he walks away, Mike mutters “Sucker!” under his breath. With that, Julie takes us live to the houseguests in the living room. It’s Prom Night, and they’re all dressed up in ‘70s and ‘80s type clothes. Mike is in a powder blue suit with ruffles, Howie is in a tux and has sideburns and a moustache. Oh, did I mention his hair is pouffed up and sandy-colored? Will has a black suit and pink shirt, while George looks like Elton John in his heyday, with a silver jacket and big red sunglasses. Marcellas has his afro wig on, and it’s actually appropriate. James looks almost normal in comparison to the rest of the guys. The HOH competition will send them back to high school. But Julie says there have been several blasts from the past this week. Yeah, like the HOH competition being held and then held again. Oh, that’s not what she means. She’s referring to, among other things, having April from last season come back. What did Howie think of “Busto” appearing there? Howie says his beef with her is over, it was a game, she betrayed them, and he said what he had to say. He was nice to April just like Mike and Will were nice to Nicole. He says it was good to see her and he loves her. Julie can’t believe what she’s hearing – he loves her? Or is it a “spool of lies”? Ha! The other houseguests bust up in laughter. The previous week, ghosts of Big Brother contestants past haunted the house. Julie asks Mike if he believes in the phrase, “Women and children first”? Apparently, she is referring to him getting scared and running away. Mike says he was just trying to make the women feel comfortable in knowing that men get scared too. Heh. They show us exactly what Julie is talking about, and we see Mike pushing past Erika and Janelle to get out of the room. They all laugh again. Before we go to commercial, Julie says we should stay tuned to see if anybody has won the Coup d’Etat and, if so, if they will use it to change the nominees just before the live vote. Aha! So it looks like the winner, if there is one, can indeed use the power right away. When we return, Julie talks about how Janelle and Danielle are competing fiercely with each other. So of course we have to hear from their mothers on what they think of it all. Do I really care? No. But I’ll recap it for your anyway. Janelle’s mom, Ann, says Janelle was pretty average ‘til she hit 15, when she blossomed in front of their eyes, meaning she got a lot of attention from men. She did sometimes have issues with some other girls being jealous of her. Oh please. She thinks that’s why Janelle is very selective when it comes to having female friends. Yeah, or she doesn’t like competition and feels insecure. Either one, mom. Danielle’s mom, Rosalind, says Danielle was a go-getter. When Danielle got pregnant in her teens, it changed a lot in her life and she stepped up, making mom proud. Danielle is analytical while Janelle is emotional, Rosalind says. Gotta agree with that. Ann says Danielle knows that Janelle is much smarter than she lets on. Rosalind says Danielle is the leader who can adapt to any situation. If there is something she wants, she’ll fight ‘til she gets it. It’s the third round of a fight – Danielle thinks she’s getting Janelle out and Janelle wins veto; then Janelle thinks the same thing of Danielle and Danielle wins veto! Ann says the two women have a lot of “simularities” – yes, that’s how she pronounces it. They’re both strong leaders and game players. Ideally, they should have teamed up and taken the house by storm. Rosalind says it’s a war and she can’t wait to see who wins. Time to talk to Janelle alone in the HOH room. After the veto competition, Janelle started to question James’ loyalty – what are Janelle’s thoughts on him at this moment? Janelle really wants to believe she can trust him in the game, but his actions proved otherwise as it seemed he threw the competition and gave excuses as to why he didn’t eliminate Danielle. What about Marcellas? She accused him of talking trash about her (he did, and she deserved it). What’s the status of their relationship now? Janelle says they are working on repairing their friendship. Do they have a secret alliance to the end? Janelle says she wants to go to the end with season six and doesn’t feel like she can trust Marcellas anymore. Now for the Coup d’Etat. The houseguests were given three clues and could only guess once. Danielle guessed “Do not assume” after seeing the sheep. So did Erika. James went with “pull the wool over my eyes.” George knew that a female sheep is a ewe, so his guess is “You are expected to expect the unexpected.” I still can’t believe he guessed that. The second clue, of course, was the giant needle and thread. No, despite what Howie told the others, he didn’t guess “a spool of lies.” He went with “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” Mike goes with “You reap what you sow.” Clue three is the grim reaper walking into the house on the upper level, eyes red and glowing. Reap – sounds like Mike may have gotten it right. He’s very happy about it, too. Janelle guesses “sow what you reap.” I just shake my head at the fact that some people believe she’s just pretending to be a dumb blonde. Mike is called to the diary room and told by Julie Chen that he was the first houseguest to guess correctly, winning a power they call the Coup d’Etat. She explains that he may exercise the power only once – and it’s valid for the next three evictions, beginning with this one. Right before voting takes place, Julie will ask if the person with the special power wants to use it. If he is, he will stand up and overthrow the HOH by replacing the two nominees with anyone he wants – other than the dethroned HOH and the veto winner, who are immune. The voting will take place immediately. Neither him nor the dethroned HOH will be allowed to vote, though. In the event of a tie, he will break it. Big Brother will not reveal the power to the others until the day he chooses to use it. Mike says he’s speechless! Hooray! Now it’s time for the live vote. But first, will Mike use the power? I’m thinking no – he has no reason to do so at this point. Why waste it? Anyway, Julie tells the others that one of them did indeed get the right answer and has a new power. However, they are not allowed to reveal the power until the moment it’s used. Really? Not allowed? So Mike can’t even tell Will? I find that hard to believe. So does the person with the power want to use it? Nope. So Erika and Marcellas have to give their final speeches. Erika says if the others think they can use her in their strategy, keep her around. If not, throw her out. Marcellas says they each get to choose how to play the game. If they want the game to be about “lies and scumbagging each other,” and they can live with that, that’s great. He’s tried to be honest and be friends. If they can lie to him and send him out, oh well. He wants to stay and asks them to keep him. Time to vote! Mike is first, and he votes to evict Marcellas. Well, that tells us what Chill Town is doing – they double-crossed Janelle! Howie votes to evict… James! Heh. He says he’s just kidding, and then votes to evict Marcellas. Whoa. That’s a bit of a switch. He must have found out where the vote was headed and decided to go along with it. James also votes to evict Marcellas. Will goes with the rest of ‘em and votes to get rid of Marcellas. George votes to evict Marcellas as well. Danielle somewhat sadly votes to evict Marcellas. It’s unanimous. Ouch. Julie returns to the living room to tell them that by a vote of six to zero, Marcellas has been evicted. He doesn’t look particularly shocked as he just claps his hands together and hugs Erika. Then he walks to the door, gives a little hug to Danielle, and leaves. It is interesting that after the way he left his original season and came in hating Danielle, she is almost the only one he said goodbye to at the end of his time on this one. Marcellas walks out to join Julie and she inquires if he wore the wig for protection so she wouldn’t smack him in the head again, like last time. Ha! Meanwhile, Danielle and Erika are hugging and Danielle is crying like it’s a funeral. Returning to Julie and Marcellas, Julie says he had a deal with Janelle that he was safe – what are his thoughts about her now? “The girls lies as much as she breathes.” He knew she would “scumbag” her if she had the chance. His deal was basically to get rid of Kaysar and Howie for her. Huh? The two of them went from being best friends to him seeming to hate her. Julie whips out some quotes of him insulting her. He says it’s a game and emotional, and admits it was somewhat extreme. He tried to play the game this time without talking so much trash, but he thinks that’s what did him in – he wasn’t talking enough! At the end of the day, he thinks he’s sitting there because no matter what he said, he probably wouldn’t have put Janelle up if he won HOH because he’s a softie. He says he’s incapable of double-crossing people. Time for goodbye messages. George says Marcellas can send him the slop-free pass. James says he hopes Marcellas isn’t watching because if he is, that means Chill Town screwed them over and his girl nominated him. Um, it was unanimous, James, I think Marcellas feels screwed over by everybody. But it’s still a smart move to say stuff like that, given that Marcellas is now in the jury. Janelle says Marcellas was always intended to be the pawn and she never intended to put him in harm’s way. Uh, nomination is in harm’s way by the very definition! She feels it was a stupid move on her part and hopes he can forgive her. Will says he is charismatic, funny, good-looking, and people spark to his personality. Marcellas rolls his eyes. Will continues that he was a threat to him and Chill Town while Marcellas shouts out, “Evil Dr. Ill!” Will closes by asking Marcellas to forgive him for what he’s done. He even looks sincere about it! Danielle says she hopes Marcellas understands that it’s a game – an ugly one – and he is her friend. Marcellas says he came into the game thinking he was going to get revenge against her and prove he wasn’t an idiot. He found something much bigger than all of that. For four years he’s hated Danielle for what she did to him. He’s hated himself for not saving himself (a move that earned him a Reality TV Hall of Shame induction). So imagine how profound it is to find out in one week forgiveness for the person who’d been his biggest enemy for so long. He feels free, lighter, and happier. You know, as much as I’ve ragged on Marcellas over the years (and have no doubt, he’s deserved it), it is good to see him get over his anger. I guess some good can come out of this game. After commercial, Julie welcomes us back and informs us that the houseguests don’t know it yet, but it’s a double eviction week! Whoever wins HOH will have to immediately nominate two people live. And then the eviction will take place on Sunday. Time to play for HOH. They all walk out and see big stars on poles, each of which has one of their high school photos on it. The houseguests are laughing and “Oh my God”ing so much that Julie has to ask them to settle down. They pretty much ignore her. Julie continues that they asked America to vote for who they wanted to be Prom King or Queen, and America chose Janelle. Really? I guess she still has her fans. The idea was that the winner would get an advantage in the competition, but since Janelle can’t play, she just gets a tiara and flowers. On prom night, seniors get voted titles like “most likely to succeed.” America voted on who among the houseguests should get such titles. Julie will ask the houseguests the same questions and they will answer by raising their right or left hands. I guess hands don’t malfunction very often, so we should be okay. Right answers will mean a step forward. The first person to get to the end or be ahead after eight questions will be the new HOH. First they put on their blindfolds so they can’t see the others, and then the questions begin: Who did America vote as “most intelligent” – Will or Danielle? I say Will. And indeed that is correct. Everyone but Erika and Danielle get it right. Who did America vote as “biggest whiner” – James or Marcellas? I’d vote Marcellas. Yup. All but Will get it right. Who did America vote as “worst dressed” – George or Howie? Gotta be George. Yup. Only Danielle and James get it right. Really?! Who did America vote as “best dressed” – Janelle or Marcellas? It has to be Janelle, she always wins. Indeed it is. Everybody but Mike gets it right. Who did America vote as “life of the party” – Mike or Howie? I’m thinking Mike. Nope, it’s Howie, and Mike yells out, “What?!” Only Danielle and James get it right. James has the lead. Who did America vote as “most likely to break hearts” – Will or Mike? Hmmm. I’ll go with Will. Yup. Everyone but James takes a step forward, so now James and Danielle are tied. Who did America vote as “most likely to win a Nobel Peace Prize” – Erika or George? Um, can I go with “none of the above”? No? Then I guess I’d pick George. Yup. George is the only one who gets it right, and it looks like he’s tied for the lead now too. Who did America vote as “biggest flirt” – Janelle or Howie? I’d have to go with Janelle. Correct. All but Erika and James take a step forward, meaning James just lost the lead! After eight questions, there is a tie between George and Danielle. George can’t believe it! “Wow, this is so cool!” They pick up a blackboard and have to answer a question with a number. Closest to the answer wins, but if they go over, they lose – unless both go over, in which case it’s back to the closest again. The question: As a result of the “Digging Your Own Grave” veto competition, how many minutes total did the BB7 house go without hot water in the bathrooms? George guesses 360. Er, George, that would be six hours. Don’t think so. Danielle can’t do the math quick enough and guesses 308. What? Did both of them fail math?! The answer is over 6000, so George wins! He can’t believe it! They all come over to hug him. But that’s gonna stop in a minute, because Julie is about to tell him that he has to make his nominations right away. Holy cow – if there is one person who won’t be prepared for that, it’s George! But it also is good in a way, because he won’t have to deal with the intense lobbying from all sides. Julie goes back to the living room to drop this bomb on them. As she says it’s a double-eviction week, George says, “Oh no.” George is asked to stand and announce his nominees right now. “Oh no!” He nominates James and Erika. Whoa. Didn’t see that coming. There is shocked silence, which means nothing for us to really eavesdrop on as we leave this episode behind. OK, so let’s think about this. Why did George nominate those two people. I think he picked James because James nominated him a few weeks ago. It was an easy one. I think he picked Erika because he knows she’s not really in either of the two main alliances. So it’s another kind of easy one. This being the case, if nobody wins veto, I think Erika will be headed home. The Legion of Doom won’t want James to go – unless Chill Town sees it as an opportunity to get rid of a dangerous player. Hmmm. http://www.realitynewsonline.com/cgi-bin/ae.pl?mode=4&article=article6361.art&page=1

Since George is a floater, I fully expected him to put Janelle and Howie on the chopping block so I was shocked when he put up James and Erika instead. Does this mean that George has aligned himself with what's left of the Season Six alliance? Is this a backdoor mission to get one of those two off and then put up the real target (Howie or Janelle) in their place? Since this is a double eviction week, are both people left on the chopping block after the veto ceremony going to be evicted or is just one of them going to go and there's going to be another HOH, veto, and eviction this week? Maybe George feels bad about not keeping his word to kaysar and getting him evicted so he wants to help his alliance. I'm just so glad Danielle didn't win HOH and that Howie and Janelle aren't up on the block (yet).

Thank you Pika for the re-cap and your ideas. I did notice that George has gotten closer to Jani. I remember George was in Jani's room talking with her when she ran out to tell Howie to say that his answer was "a spool of lies". Then she went back to her room to keep talking with George. I also remember Jani saying she didn't want to put o George on the block because she was afraid he would get the boot. She thought that no one would vote out Marci. She really thought he was safe. But I am sure that Will had a long talk with Jani before the vote to let her know that Marci would be leaving. I noticed when Marci got the boot she wasn't shocked or surpirsed. Dani was crying because she had to vote out Marci and had gone back on her word that he had her vote. She is also close to Erika because she says Erika is her friend.