Recap, Week 9 (9/3)
KNOTTED KNICKERS & ARTFUL DODGERS Boogie HoH, Janey & Erika Up Mike Boogie wins HoH again, implementing his plan to have Chilltown in the finals. Will and Janey have their first argument after she gets her knickers in a knot over his harsh hot-tub rejection of her. And other romances are relegated to second place as Erika finds herself nominated for eviction alongside Janelle. The PoV has yet to be played, and you can be sure that both femmes-fatales will do what it takes to save themselves, unless of course Chilltown win it and leave the chips to fall as they may. Who is their target, and who is the pawn on the block this week? Stay tuned for all the action. CHILLING EFFECT Danielle and George are gone, leaving the house eerily quiet. Erika apologizes to Danielle for evicting her, obviously still feeling the guilt of her decision. Will comes clean that initially he had been concerned about Janelle’s HoH win, but brags he was able to quickly convince her to evict Chicken George instead of Mike Boogie or Erika. Boogie admits that if Erika had not won the PoV and removed herself from the block, he would have voted her out of the house. Apparently both Will and Boogie like Chicken George and say they will miss him. Will is in good spirits, even with his newly broken thumb. The Final Four are seriously impressed with themselves for making it this far. Erika keeps reminding Boogie that he said he is going to take her to the Final Two. “I think it’d be cute to have us as the Final Two…the two lovebirds.” Boogie sets the record straight in the Diary Room, pointing out, “Erika is under the impression that if we make it to the Final Three, I will take her to the finals. That ain’t happening.” Mike insists that the secret to successful “showmancing” is never to get real feelings for the person. Erika is then heard to sigh, “There might be real genuine feelings between Mike and I.” When Janelle asks Will if he wants to try out her new pillow, Will agrees, but makes Janelle promise not to make love to him. Will calls their relationship a “flirtmance,” adding that he thinks everyone will be saying he is having a “bromance” with Mike Boogie instead. NON-SMOKING SMOKER The girls are sharing cigarettes as well as secret deals these days. While Janelle is upfront about her nicotine habit, Erika claims she is a non-smoker. The only reason she is smoking now is due to the stress in the house. Boogie is not a fan of her new habit, calling it “not very attractive. He further complains that kissing her is like kissing “an ashtray,” and that Erika “looks like she’s aged five years” since taking up the filthy habit again. Janey announces the HoH Competition, asking everyone to change into their “unsexy outfits” and head outside. Boogie seems to like the transformation of the backyard, as it looks like a football field. Janelle announces the HoH BIG BROTHER Bowl. The competition consists of a series of questions based on what day specific events took place in the house. The HouseGuests must write their answers on their yard marker, and based on the amount they are over or under the correct number, they are penalized points. Players with a correct answer do not have to move away from the end zone. The HouseGuest with the least amount of penalty yards after seven questions wins HoH. “This is a major, major Head of Household,” Mike worries in the Diary Room, showing signs of stress as he frowns. In the competition, Mike takes an early lead with a correct answer, but soon drops back with Will and Erika after a few incorrect answers. Will and Boogie are neck and neck until Boogie gets two correct answers and ends ahead of his competitors. Mike Boogie is awarded the HoH. “I feel like I’ve actually won the show,” Boogie grins. Will is thrilled that Chilltown are on track, and once inside, he and Boogie do their victory dance in the privacy of the storage room. Will summarizes Chilltown’s plan succinctly: “Mike Boogie is going to showmance Erika; I’m going to have my fauxmance with Janelle. By the time we’re done with the two of them, they will be so suspicious of each other that no matter what happens, they will try to evict each other.” DIAMONDS ARE A GIRL’S BEST FRIEND Will asks Janelle what size ring she would be “satisfied” with in a proposal. Janey announces that she would be happy with a friendship bracelet, at which Boogie coughs, “as long as it’s on a 180-foot yacht!” Janelle puts them straight on what she is really like, saying she would be fine with eloping. Boogie proposes that the fauxmancing couple should take a crazy trip to Vegas and pretend to get married. When Janelle asks what would happen if they got tipsy and actually got married, Will laughs that he would spend the next week getting an annulment. “Why would you do that, Will?” Boogie asks facetiously, and while Janelle stares at Will and the crickets chirp loudly, he retorts with a saving comeback, “So that we can get married in Minnesota and have it legit.” Nice save. Boogie’s HoH Room is blue, but best of all, contains SpaghettiOs, one of Boogie’s favorite foods. When Will says he is going to take a bath, Boogie points out that he might as well sit in the hot tub outside, as it is bigger. So Will takes the advice and joins his three housemates in the hot tub. The conversation soon turns to babies and parenting when Will suggests that Mike and Erika should have a baby together. Erika goes along with the conversation and is all for the idea. Will explains, “If you hear a loud ticking, it’s Erika’s biological clock.” Even Boogie admits, “she’s in her mid-thirties…I am willing to do anything at this point to make sure Chilltown gets to the Final Two.” As soon as Boogie and Erika leave the hot tub, Janey puts the moves on Will, but finds an unwilling recipient. Will’s rejection is harsh, and later Janelle comments, “The fight was about the way Will was treating me. It was really bad, messy and awkward.” Will suggests they shouldn’t even be friends, and so Janelle leaves the hot tub. Will asks for her to stay and talk with him, as he realizes, “I’m afraid she going to now win the PoV and kick me out.” Finding her later on, Will talks to Janelle and promises loudly, “I have your back, I have your back.” Unbeknownst to both, Erika is standing outside the door listening to their conversation. She twigs to the deal between Will and Janelle, when Boogie walks up to her and, instead of listening in, opens the door to let them know they were busted and Erika heard everything. Erika doesn’t appear to suspect that Boogie is in on the deal as well. After Boogie leave the storage room, Will and Janelle refocus their energies and end up hugging and hoping their plan to get Erika out of the house succeeds. WOMEN ARE FROM VENUS Boogie and Erika snuggle up as usual. “I can’t wait to get you out of this house,” Erika whispers seductively under the covers. “I think there’ll definitely be something between the two of us when we leave the house,” she grins in the Diary Room. Mike has a different view of things, however, admitting, “Erika is going to be extremely hurt after the show.” Boogie professes how much he cares for her, pandering to Erika’s emotional character, and showmancing her to within an inch of her BIG BROTHER life. “I’m a bad, bad person. I am going to hell,” Boogie groans, burying his face in his hands. MEN ARE FROM MARS The strategizing continues as Chilltown play both the girls in private, and maintain poker faces in public. Will and Boogie are concerned over who might win the PoV as they will have the power to send someone home, which means potentially one of Chilltown. While Janelle is out of the room, Erika realizes that Boogie is going to nominate her. Erika is immediately wary, asking why he is putting her up and not Will. Boogie tries to sidestep the issue, saying “It doesn’t matter,” because they are not evicting her anyway. Erika smells a rat, and so Boogie says he will surprise everyone with his nominations instead of discussing them now. BROS BEFORE HOS Boogie contemplates his choices for nomination. There are only three people to choose from, but even so, Erika clings to the hope that he will not target her. “I mean, you can’t nominate the mother of your children right?” she asks. Will is more expressive over his thoughts of possibly being nominated. “If Mike Boogie nominates me, I’m going to flip out,” he predicts, then flipping in an instant to, “Nah I don’t really care.” Mike is clear about his goal: he “will do whatever it takes to be the last man standing,” which means shedding the deadwood in his BIG BROTHER life. He calls the Nomination Ceremony to order and pulls out the one key in the box. “Will, you are safe,” he smiles. Erika looks concerned, whereas Janelle expects the nomination. Boogie comes clean to Erika that he owes the key to Will, because he has only made it this far because of his ally. Janelle knows she is a target, and all secret deals aside, she is gunning for Chilltown if she gets the chance with the PoV. Janelle and Erika are on the block, and Chilltown are sitting pretty in power. But there’s a PoV yet to be claimed, and that can mean a new HouseGuest will be up for eviction. Don’t miss the next episode as the all-important PoV is contested by the bombshells as they try to save their place in the game. Tune in for BIG BROTHER: ALL-STARS, Tuesday, September 5, 8pm ET/PT, only on CBS. http://www.cbs.com/primetime/bigbrother7/show/wk09/sun01.shtml

Big Brother: All-Stars, September 3 – Romancing the Show by David Bloomberg -- 09/04/2006 It’s down to the final four – which could also be a double-date. Mike is showmancing Erika. Will is flirtmancing Janelle. What’s the difference? What all is involved? Is there any real feeling from among any of the finalists? And, by the way, who wins HOH and who gets nominated? Lots of questions, lots of answers – all right here. On Thursday night’s episode, we ran through an entire week in one night, resulting in evictions for both Danielle and George. That means we have a final four of Chill Town plus two women who have been led to believe they are in Chill Town – Janelle and Erika. It also means we left Thursday night without an HOH. Who wins this time? Can Chill Town stick around and continue to manipulate the women? Let’s find out! Of course, we first have to revisit Danielle’s eviction. Will says it shouldn’t have been a surprise since they’ve done the same thing over and over again – tell ‘em they’re safe and send ‘em packing. Janelle says Danielle was one of the best competitors, so up against George it was a no-brainer to get rid of her. Mike says she walked out with her head held high. He would have wanted better for her, but it would have been at Chill Town’s expense, so he couldn’t have that. Erika says it was a hard decision to nominate and help send out Danielle. When Danielle left, she said she would be voting for the strongest player, and Erika says maybe Danielle will think that’s her. Uh huh. And soon, pigs will be flying over the house carrying banners for the houseguests. Please. Then we revisit the overdrive portion of the show. Janelle wins HOH with a perfect score in the competition. Incidentally, why didn’t Julie just stop the competition when Janelle had seven right and the others had no more than five? Nobody else could have won. I guess it wasn’t in the Chenbot’s programming. Mike tells us that he was concerned that Janelle might come after Chill Town. And Erika had been hoping Mike or Will would win. Will says overdrive is terrible for the way he plays the game – working slowly and methodically. He had to speed things up, which works against him. Lucky for him, he had already laid the groundwork. As we saw Thursday, he immediately pulled Janelle aside and used his “flirt game” to get her to nominate the right people. He says she listens to him because she loves him, and we see a bit more conversation that we didn’t see Thursday, where he asks her who the best competitor is in Big Brother history. She says, “Me.” And who is the hottest girl in the Big Brother house? “Me.” Mike tells us Will used his charisma and sexual magnetism to get Janelle to nominate the right way. On to revisiting the veto competition, where Will almost won but couldn’t get the medallion off the rope, meaning Erika got it. Will tells us he was trying so hard to get it off the rope that he broke his thumb in the process! I tell ya, it’s a lot more difficult to try to win a competition than to throw one, isn’t it? Mike tells us Erika doesn’t realize she saved herself – if Will’s medallion had come off the rope, she’d be gone already. Janelle says she was a little disappointed Erika won. Duh. So Mike was nominated in her place and George was evicted. Mike says George will be sorely missed. Janelle says she loved him and he was so pleasant, never having a bad thing to say about anybody. Will says George is the only juror he has not “blatantly misled and lied to.” So finally, almost ten minutes into the show, we’re up to new stuff. Sheesh. Anyway, Janelle says it feels like they got rid of the parents in the house and now the kids are all alone. Well, actually, they did get rid of the two players who are parents. And now it’s time for a patented Mike and Will phone conversation in the diary room! Mike says Big Brother kicked it into overdrive and goes on to start summarizing the events. Will says he wants Mike to cut to the chase ‘cus his thumb hurts. The bottom line? They’re both still there! And they roll with laughter! And a little pain for Will. Janelle cannot believe she’s in the final four. Yeah, neither can I. Mike says this is “Operation Double Date.” As if to prove it, Mike is sitting alone when Erika walks by and he thanks her. She says he’d better be taking her to the final two! She tells us she thinks it would be “cute” to have “the two lovebirds” in the final two. Excuse me while I gag. By the way, I was doing some review of what went on in Big Brother 2 and stumbled across something I’d forgotten. All-Stars is not the first time Mike tried to use the showmance strategy. Early on that season, he tried to hook up with Autumn (remember her?) to convince her to vote with Chill Town. She rejected both his advances and the idea of voting with him. He later hooked up with Krista (who ended up in the Reality TV Hall of Shame for being such a hypocrite). The difference here is that the strategy is actually working well. Mike tells us Erika is under the impression that if she joins Chill Town in the final three, he will take her to the finale. He theatrically looks left and right in the diary room, as if to see if anybody is listening in, and says, “That ain’t happening.” Heh. But what is happening is lots of kissing and hugging and some under-the-covers activity. Hmmm. Mike tells us he is the “King of Showmances” and talks about his hook-up with Krista that I just mentioned. He says this season he had two targets in mind, Diane and Erika. Diane was evicted quickly, then he moved on Erika. He says the number one “don’t” in showmancing is to never get real feelings for the person. This is immediately followed by an Erika diary room session in which she says there are real, genuine feelings between them, and they are “a match made in Big Brother heaven.” Oy. Next stop on the showmance express is Will and Janelle. We see them playing touchy-feely in bed (with the lights on and other people in the room). Then they go to the diary room together, where Janelle tells us she has a boyfriend and Will chimes in that he has a girlfriend. They look into each other’s eyes lovingly and declare that they are not into each other. If I were their girl/boyfriend, I sure wouldn’t be too terribly comforted by that. Will, now alone, explains that a flirtmance is different from a showmance in that you’re just flirting because you’re lonely, no big deal. His relationship with Janelle is a flirtmance. But what about his relationship with Mike? He thinks people will say he has a showmance there, but Will insists there is nothing wrong with two grown men being together in a hot tub sometimes. He decides it’s a “bromance.” Janelle and Erika smoke in the backyard while Erika tells us she used to smoke but stopped because her grandfather died of emphysema. So much for that. She says the stress caused her to do it. Mike says he doesn’t find smoking attractive and her kisses are like an ashtray. He doesn’t date smokers. Good thing he doesn’t have real feelings for her, I guess. Time (finally) for the HOH competition. They all get dressed in referee uniforms and head to the backyard, which has been converted into a football field – complete with an end zone, footballs, and a scoreboard with Mike, Erika, and Will’s names on it. It’s the HOH Bowl. Janelle will ask a series of questions about what day a certain event took place in the house. For each day their answer is off, they are penalized one yard. The houseguest with the least penalty yards after seven questions wins. On which day did the first All-Star get evicted? I’m thinking around day 10. Will and Erika say 13, Mike says 11. Correct answer is 11. On which day did the gnomes come to life throw pies in houseguests’ faces? I’d guess 40ish. Erika says 45, Will 46, and Mike 53. Correct answer is 47. On which day did Marcellas shave Kaysar’s head in the veto competition? I’ll say 25. Mike says 20, Will 19, and Erika 23. Correct answer is 20. On which day did the houseguests find a female sheep in the living room? OK, I give up, I’ll just give the contestants’ answers from now on: All say 39, and all are right. On which day was slop first introduced to the houseguests? Erika and Mike get it right with 12, Will says 14. Mike and Will are tied at six, with Erika at seven. On which day did the houseguests play the veto after being awakened all night by wakeup calls? Will says 26, Mike 27, Erika 29. Mike is right. On which day were the beds replaced with cots? Erika says 42, Mike and Will 34. The correct answer is 34, so Mike wins! Mike is thrilled! He says he and Will have thrown a bunch of competitions, but they really needed to win this one. Will douses him with a container of water like he’s a coach whose team just won the bowl game. Will tells us HOH doesn’t really matter – it’s the veto winner who has all the power this week. And besides, Mike isn’t going to nominate him anyway. Erika tells us she knows she’ll be nominated because he won’t nominate Will. So they’re sleeping in the same bed as he puts her up for eviction. “It’s kind of hot.” Oookay. Speaking of hot, Will tells Mike that he has to invite Erika up to the HOH room to romance her, in case she wins the veto. If either woman wins veto, they have to evict the other, not Will. Sitting in the backyard that evening, Will asks Janelle what size diamond she’d be satisfied with when she gets married. She says it doesn’t really matter, but two carats. Two carats?! Good thing it doesn’t matter. But then she says she’d be happy with a friendship bracelet, and Mike says, “as long as it’s on a 180-foot yacht.” Why, she asks, do they think that about her? They both insist they don’t. But would the wedding need to be held in Minnesota? She says she’d be happy eloping. Will suggests a crazy weekend in Vegas where they pretend to get married. Janelle says they might get drunk and really get married. Will says then he’d have to spend the next week getting an annulment. Mike throws in, “Why would you do that, Will?” Crickets chirp as Janelle looks at him. Will says it’s so they could do it for real in Minnesota! Nice try, pal. Time to see the HOH room! It’s all decked out in, well, I think it’s grey or silver, but it’s a little hard to tell. He also got Spaghettios, Easy Mac, and Hamburger Helper. Woohoo, good eatin’! Will invites them into the HOH bathtub, but Mike figures they have the whole house to themselves, including the hot tub, so why squish in? Will gives in. Once there, Will starts encouraging Mike and Erika to have a baby together – and get started immediately! Will also has a name picked out: Chilliam, or Chill for short. After a bit of encouragement, Mike and Erika head upstairs. Is there gonna be some babymaking? I dunno, but in the hot tub, Janelle is laying it on hot and heavy with Will! He has to practically push her away and tells us Operation Double Date is working too well. He says she’s driving him insane and he doesn’t know what to do. He even calls her “psycho” at one point and then quickly switches to “sweetheart.” But he continues that she’s used to getting everything she’s ever wanted. They have a “fight” in which they agree not to even be friends anymore and argue about who gets to sleep in the bug room. Will says he is the wrong tree and she is barking up it. She retorts that she is the wrong tree and he is barking up it. Before I can even make a snide comment about it being a childish comeback, Will says it was the worst comeback ever and is something a four-year-old would say. She leaves the hot tub as he is pleading with her to come back and talk. Whoops. Will says Janelle is easily angered. He’s afraid she’ll win the veto now and boot him! So he eventually catches up with her and they talk in the storage room. She says she’s mad at him and he tries to make up with her. Erika comes downstairs and puts her ear to the door to listen in on everything as Will says he has Janelle’s back. Does she really think he would evict her if he wins veto? She says she hopes not. He says the plan is to get Erika out of the house. Janelle relates that Erika told her the plan was to evict Janelle! Remember that Erika is listening to this whole thing. Will says he can only promise her he won’t do that, but she wants proof. Before the conversation can progress further, Mike comes and sees Erika at the door. He pretends to not realize she was listening in and knocks on the door, alerting Will and Janelle. Erika says Mike isn’t good with spying, so she will be in charge of teaching their child spying lessons. Little does she know that Mike was very good – he was being a counterspy! Mike walks into the storage room with a “What have we here?” They motion him inside and he mouths that Erika is right outside. Will smacks himself in the head and they play-act that they want Mike to leave so they can have some time alone. Erika and Mike leave and Janelle says she doesn’t want to be in the house with Erika, because Erika upsets her. Will calls Janelle “sweetheart” and says he’ll do everything he can to get rid of her. She believes him and they hug. Awww. Gag. Will asks, “Who’s the hottest girl in the storage room?” Heh. Upstairs in the HOH room, Mike and Erika cuddle under the covers. Erika says she can’t wait to get Mike out of the house. Mike says what he likes is that they both have enough respect for each other that they aren’t trying to push things. Erika tells us there will definitely be something between them when they leave. Oh, she is in for such an ugly surprise. Indeed, Mike recognizes this as well. He tells us she will be “extremely hurt after the show. I’m a bad, bad person. I’m going to hell.” Mike, Will, and Janelle discuss their plans: Win the veto. OK, good strategy. Janelle tells us they’re saying she’s safe but she doesn’t really believe them. “Chill Town lies a lot.” No? Ya think? She wants to believe them, but… Chill Town also tells Erika essentially the same thing. Erika recognizes this and half-jokingly points out that this is probably occurring. Mike and Will can only laugh and hope she doesn’t realize that’s exactly their plan. Mike says both women have thought themselves to be members of Chill Town for several weeks now. They’ve apparently put so much trust in the women that neither can really question Chill Town now. “It’s perfect,” Mike concludes. The time for nominations approaches. Gosh, wonder who it will be. Janelle “totally expects” to be nominated. Erika doesn’t know what Mike will do – “you can’t nominate the mother of your children, right?” I really hope Big Brother pays for the therapy she’s gonna need when this show is over. Mike says the nominations are pretty obvious. Will says if Mike nominates him, he’ll flip out, take Mike’s hat, and throw it – oh, wait, Howie already did that. Never mind, he says he doesn’t really care. And you know what? He means it. As if we are going to believe Mike would nominate Will, we hear Mike saying last time he played the game, it was for friendships. But this time he’ll do whatever it takes to be the last man standing. Final nomination ceremony time. Mike notes that the other three have already been in the final four (I hadn’t even thought about that) and he’s new to it – he’s a fan of all of them and is honored to be part of this final four. With that, he pulls the one key: Will. Mike says he nominated Janelle because “it’s purely strategy.” She’s a great player. Erika, he knows, really wanted to see her key, but she is “far too special” to ever be just “some girl who kissed a guy on a reality show and got did wrong.” Oh my. He says he wishes he could have put another key in there, but he probably couldn’t have gotten this far in the game without Will. Besides, he thought the last key pulled for Big Brother: All-Stars should be Will’s. And there we have it. Erika hopes it doesn’t come down to “bro’s before ho’s.” Janelle thinks all three of the others are after her and she needs to put a stop to the madness that Chill Town has created. Huh? She is part of the madness that Chill Town has created! Mike thinks Chill Town has set things up perfectly, with both women thinking they want to go final three with them. Hopefully, Chill Town will have both of the final two seats. If one of them doesn’t win All-Stars, it’ll be a crime. At this point, I’ve got to agree with him there. Will notes that he is the only previous winner who was invited onto All-Stars. Now he’s in the final four and has a shot at winning it a second time, which would be “pretty monumental.” Again, I have to agree. So who wins the veto? Will they use it? You can find out Tuesday night! http://www.realitynewsonline.com/cgi-bin/ae.pl?mode=4&article=article6412.art&page=1