Big Brother - Season 9, Episode 30 Recap

Happy Replacements Reissue Tuesday! Ooops, wrong board. It’s a big day for me, though, as the band that has been the soundtrack of the second half of my life saw the first half of their catalog reissued today with thirty bonus tracks.

But that’s obviously not why I or anybody reading this is here tonight. It’s veto night on Big Brother, and I predict more than one big surprise in this episode.

After the beautiful recap of Natalie leaving, and Adam pissing off Ryan by tipping her off that he wasn’t the vote to evict her (and once again, Julie repeating the recap), we begin the episode. I love how they’re trying to make us think this is truly a live show, when it was actually taped last night.

I still have to laugh at Sheila’s grimace when Ryan says he kept Adam off the block because of the rough week they had last week. Doesn’t he know that Sheila has had it harder than anybody in this house? Actually, it’s been tougher on her than anybody in Big Brother history!

Sheila rushes off to cry. “I was overwhelmed, and then having to hear that lame frickin’ speech from Ryan. Lame! He’s got me between a rock and a hard place.” Sharon is proud because she’s been nominated five times in a row. Well, girlfriend, maybe the law of averages will finally catch up with you. “It’s definitely not the best place to be, but I was nominated because it’s not appropriate at this time for everybody to find out that Ryan and I are working together.”

Adam is happy to not be nominated, but “it’s still up in the air, man. Whoever wins the POV is voting somebody out. I’ll do whatever I gotta do to stay in this house another week.” He celebrates with Ryan, while Sharon goes into console Sheila. Sharon promises to get Sheila off the block, but Sheila says she needs to save herself. “Don’t worry about me.” Sharon says her goal is to make it to the final three with Ryan and Sheila because either of them will take her to the final two.

Ryan walks in and also tries to console Sheila. “You don’t understand. It’s not even about it. The block is just adding to my frickin’ stress in this house.” Oh boy. Ryan smartly walks out of the room, and Sheila whines that the men are running the house. Sharon just repeats, “it is going to be fine. I’m going to make sure we’re here for final three.”

Meanwhile, Ryan is telling Adam that it’s time for Sheila to be sent packing. “I’d rather go with Sharon and (have it) be harder”, Adam replies. Ryan suggests that Adam set up some deal with Sharon, but after Adam says he’s “bad” at making deals he offers to talk to her for him. In the diary room, Adam adds that at this point in the game he’ll do whatever it takes to get himself into the final two. “I’m not going to take a stand for somebody…at this point in the game because it would be stupid to do so.”

Ryan goes off to tell Sharon that Adam wants Sheila gone, and Sharon’s not happy. “If we can get him out, let’s get him out. If I win, put up Adam.” They go back and forth for a bit, but Sharon is adamant she wants Adam gone.

Before I go on, though, I have a question. Weren’t Sheila and Adam supposed to be shackled together right after the HOH meeting? Hasn’t CBS been promising us footage of that silliness? They haven’t been seen shackled yet, and these conversations were obviously after that. In fact, I believe everything we’ve seen so far has come after the veto competition, which has yet to be shown.

Anyway, Sheila is now asking Adam why she should trust him. “I got your back, man, no matter what anybody says. Period.” Sheila says she also has his back, which raises the question what good does that do? “I need to know that if you win POV, you’ll vote for me to stay here. Am I stupid? Am I a fool to put trust in you?” Ok, this is indeed before the POV, as Adam tells Sheila that it’s “crucial”, but all she can do is whine that she’s the one on the block and that he’s done so much that has pissed her off.

It’s now time for the shackles. Again, what us live feed viewers know is that they wore the shackles for a couple of hours, and then took them off for three more before being forced to reattach them. Adam complains that she “could be a little nice about things”, but Sheila says she doesn’t “feel like being nice right now”. She continues to bitch that this is the “ultimate loss in this game”, and also comments how he seems to be quite knowledgeable about these types of restraints. Come on, Sheila, just have fun with it.

Sharon does her annoying squeal, and Ryan laughs that this is the perfect torture for both of them. Adam immediately starts to annoy Sheila by yanking at their restraint. “Stop it!” Ugh. Adam continues to make the best of the situation, while Sheila does nothing but do what she does best. “I hate you.”

After commercials, we again see the shackled couple. Sheila gets up in her bra and panties and calls out for Sharon, who is upstairs with Ryan. “Her and Rye-Bread are scheming hard,” says Adam. Yes, she is, as Sharon says she can’t trust either of them, and their constant bickering reminds her of the relationship she has/had with Jacob. Yes, Sharon, again it’s all about you and Jacob. (Online viewers know how tedious these stories are.) She explains that “no matter how much they fight and bicker, they have a very strong bond, which is very dangerous in this game.” Sharon goes on to tell Ryan that he’ll tell him everything he wants to hear, but in the end he will screw Ryan to save Sheila.

At the same time, Sheila is telling Adam that she thinks he’s going to win, and that “we would do amazing stuff with this money. We are deserving. You and I both.” Adam agrees, while Sharon is also going on about how this is “the most important POV yet.”

Finally, Sheila and Adam are sent to the diary room to remove their restraints, and he also goes on about how annoying the past 24 hours have been. Sheila is now laughing, and even apologizes and says she loves him. “Not really.” Funny how they never mention the real reason she’s been so emotionally unstable – menstrual cramps.

It’s now time for the veto competition. Adam describes the entire set, which is based around race horses. A face and two matching clues must be placed on the horse, and the first one to correctly finish wins. There’s no real need to go on about what everybody says and does in this. Ryan admits that he’s become a “power whore”, Sheila says it is “crucial for her or Adam to win”, Adam says it’s “huge”, and Sharon says that the “worst case scenario” is for Adam or Sheila to win.

As one may expect, Sheila is immediately having trouble. She recalls Matt as being the person in the air in the one competition he won with Natalie. She does jump ahead at one point, or so the CBS editing shows us. Ryan jumps into the lead on the third horse, and goes on to win. Sheila says she’s “scared to death”, as always. Sharon says that Ryan must take her down so Adam doesn’t bounce her.

Again, it’s commercial time, and after we get back we see Ryan lecturing Adam that he’s got to be able to trust him. (I think this segment may be from a few days earlier when Ryan first won HOH.) “You’ve got to understand the trust issues I have with you.” Adam claims that if Ryan wants him to evict Sheila, he will do so. (Yes, this segment was from earlier, as evidenced by Ryan’s comment that he has “total control this week”.)

Now Adam comes to Sharon, and talks about how it sucks that he has to make a choice between her and Sheila. Sharon keeps repeating “I don’t know” until Adam notes that she would definitely take Ryan over him. “No, I wouldn’t.” Adam then makes her a deal. “I’ll keep you if you take me.” He tries to get her to shake on it, but she refuses because she wanted to talk to Ryan first. “What if you don’t tell nobody?”

Sharon runs upstairs to inform Ryan of this encounter. “He’s going to take her. I told you.” She implores Ryan to take her off the block. Well, the editing doesn’t really make it seem that way, but that is how it went down.

At the same time, Sheila goes to Adam and begs him to keep her over Sharon. “I need you to understand that I have your back in this game. If I win frickin’ HOH, you’re coming with me.” That’s a big “if”, Sheila. “I want to stay in this game, Baller.” Well, duh, who doesn’t?

It’s now Adam’s turn to head up to the HOH, and Ryan immediately confronts him about the deal with Sharon. “You trying to cut deals behind my back?” Adam stupidly denies even talking to her. While he somewhat accurately describes the conversation with Sharon, he lies when he says he didn’t offer a deal. Again, he says he has no qualms in giving Sheila the boot. “I don’t know what to believe, dude,” Adam says.

We now go back to Julie, and the inane talk with the final four. Too bad CBS didn’t show the viewers the most important conversation of the day that happened just minutes before this episode was taped. Julie begins with a stupid question to Ryan about the danger of “holding onto all this power”. Ryan says he’s not worried because it’s good for him. As Sheila would say, “durrrr”.

Sharon is congratulated for being the first person in BB history to be nominated for eviction five times in a row. She says she “honestly” doesn’t know why she’s managed to survive every week. Sheila is then asked about being shackled with Adam, and she goes on about how “the day we became singles was the best day of my life in this house, and when I realized that I was going to be shackled with him…made me want to run out the door.” Nice words, Sheila, for the man who in just moments can decide whether you stay or not. For his part, Adam says he “accepts her for what she is, take her or leave her. I’m stuck with her for another week…or maybe not”.

OMG, it’s finally time for the veto meeting. Ryan announces that he has “no need to change my nominations, nor any ulterior motives for changing them”. Sharon addresses the house first, and babbles the same speech she’s given for five straight weeks. Sheila basically just copies her, and hugs Sharon.

Adam stands up, and says it’s not an easy decision but he’s decided to evict Sharon. Sheila is more upset than Sharon (imagine that), so Sharon keeps repeating “it’s ok”. As we wait for the interview with Sharon, we see Sheila bawling. Ryan yells out at her, “did you think you were going?” “Yes,” she sobs.

Julie can’t believe that Sharon is handling her eviction so well. Sharon says she’s a “little” shocked, but “this is a game”. Oh Sharon, you just never run out of clichés. She thinks that Ryan ultimately had more faith in Adam than her, but that he maybe should have listened to her. After once again repeating the “if it’s my time to go” line, we get to the goodbye messages. Wow, nice play by Ryan in saying this wasn’t how he intended this to go. (Of course, these goodbye messages were taped before Ryan and Adam agreed that they should evict her.) Sheila tearfully says Sharon’s taught her a lot in this game and showed her what a “true Christian” is. We conclude with a question about Jacob, and Sharon says she’d like to try to make it work again. As Sheila would say, you think?

We conclude with the beginning of the first of three HOH competitions. As always, round one is an endurance competition. It’s called “Up a Creek”, and they have to balance themselves on a raft as water flows down the platform they’re sitting on. Yeah, I don’t think Sheila’s going to last long. Oh yeah, they also have a rain machine pouring more water on them, which begins as the show concludes.

See you tomorrow, when we see who becomes the final HOH. I’ve got some vintage Replacements to put on my Ipod.