No April Fools - No Jury House

Looks like the April Fools stuff was just for our entertainment. None of it was shown Tuesday or Wednesday.

As for the Jury House. Last year we barely got to see it - looks like this year it will be the same. No sign of Matt since he walked out the door. I was looking forward to at least a little video of Matt and Chelsia hanging out.

Sheila, Sharon , James

Adam and Ryan were outside talking. They feel extremely safe now. They think they have at least two weeks minimum of safety.

I had been wondering who might be the first to go of the alliance between Natalie, Ryan, Sheila and Adam - it appear that that person is Sheila.

Ryan said that all they have to do is pick between three people and they are fine. Then he simply said, "Sheila, Sharon , James." I'm sure Sheila doesn't realize her days are numbered.

While she is most likely safe this week, next week she will most likely be on the block - either against James or Sharon - or Against one of her alliance members if James or Sharon is HoH.

The only thing I see that might happen next week that would shorten potential Sheila drama is the chance of a short week.

It is very possible that next week could be a 'double eviction' week.

More on that in another post - just remember there is a good possibility that there could be two evictees next Wednesday. The current number of HGs is six. Last season when it was at six Eric and Jessica were evicted on the same night.

Sheila Believes Josh's Story?

I should not have turned off the feeds to watch South Park.

A few days ago, Josh concocted an elaborate story about Neil that he was going to use to try to get Sheila's vote. According to Jokers Updates,I guess he actually went through with it shortly before the show tonight:

Sheila talking to Sharon in the salon, tells her that Neil is Josh's real boyfriend and that they have a son named Chase (the story he was planning to tell right after Julie said he had been evicted). Says she can't tell anyone else. Sheila says he told me that before he left. Sharon says why wouldn't he tell me, Sheila says that maybe he didn't want them to be more of a target. Sheila says that's why she was crying.

Said Chase is not his lover, he is his son. Sheila says she asked Josh why, why didn't you tell us this before. Says Josh said he did this show for Neil and their son.

Sheila said she told Josh if he had told her this earlier she would've figured out a way to keep him in the house.

Sheila said she is the one person he could've trusted, because she is a single mom. Says why would he make that up.

James Catches Sheila In Another Lie

Sheila is once again defending herself about not winning anything by talking about how Evel Dick let his daughter do all the work last year. She catches herself after stating how Dannielle won seven POV's by trying to say "that's what she heard", but James catches on and smirks.

Dammit, Adam!

My two favorite players (James and my girl Chelsia) have now lost crucial HOH competitions to Adam on the last question. The first person (Chelsia) was evicted that week. Will James suffer that same fate? Probably.


Just think how different this game would be if Chelsia had answered that last question. Sheila and/or Natalie would probably be (thankfully) out of the house, but more importantly we'd have more action. There'd be no need for hours and hours of silly card games, that's for sure.

James Thinks He Will Be Nominated.

Hi, I'm Mr. Obvious. Right now 'Team Christ' is gloating over their win and Natalie is revealing that she had a dream about this last night.

Sharon has told James she didn't throw the HoH - initially I thought she might have too - but look at it this way - if James wins the POV - she will be going home. The only way to be sure she wouldn't would have been by her winning the HoH competition herself.

Sheila and Natalie have both thanked Adam for another week of 'ease.'

Ok, I need another break. Natalie's victory chattiness is starting to hurt my head.

Big Brother - Season 9, Episode 23 Recap

Our weeklong national nightmare will be over in less than an hour, as Natalie’s reign of terror ends. Who will be evicted – Josh or Sharon? More importantly, who will be the next HOH?

So after we see last night’s episode truncated into a tight 60 second spot (and Julie once again repeating the same highlights), we begin with the reactions to the veto meeting. Sharon is pretty confident that she’s staying, but admits it’s going to be a tough last few days being up with her partner. Sheila agrees because they’ve become such good friends, and have bonded emotionally.

At the same time, Josh is also confident, as he claims he has James and Ryan’s votes. Natalie has promised that if it ends in a tie, she’d vote in his favor. “I’m hoping that he can just get the votes himself so I don’t have to be someone’s executioner.” (Ooh, that’s a pretty big word for our Natalie.)

In the bathroom, Natalie tells Josh that she does not want to have to break a tie…and repeats the executioner line. Josh now has some doubts that she would even keep her word if that situation plays out, so he begins to work on Adam by playing up the fact that he’s miserable on slop. “This better be convincing”, he says before breaking into fake tears as Adam walks in. He’s really not good at acting, but Adam gives him an encouraging hug. “Cry it out if you need too,” he tells him. Josh thinks he’s playing this role so well he should be hired as a soap actor. Um, no…he stinks, which is even more apparent as he rolls his eyes when Adam gets up to grab him a tissue.

“I just want to stay. I don’t want to campaign. So what do you do? You have to throw somebody under the bus, and I don’t want to do that.” Adam wipes off a little snot on Josh’s nose, and tells Josh that it’s just as hard for him as it is for those on the block. “It sounds like you’ve all decided already to keep Sharon anyway,” Josh replies. Adam claims that he’ll give him a vote.

Natalie is not outside in the hot tub with James and Josh, and wants reassurance that if she keeps Josh that they won’t come after her. James is non-committal, but says they’ll talk if the situation arises. Natalie then goes up to tell Sharon that Josh is making deals to save himself, but that she wants to keep her. Here’s what I don’t get – why can’t people try to save themselves? Why should Sharon’s feeling be hurt over this? They may have been partners, but at the end of the day they’re both trying to win the money.

To make matters worse (at least for us viewing at home), Natalie decides to bring Sheila into the conversation. Sharon meets her on the steps and tells her, “James and Josh are trying to get me out of here.” When she gets into the HOH, they fill her in that the two are trying to get Ryan and Adam to flip their votes. Sheila, as expected, is over the top in her fury. “Oh my God. He’s sneaky. I can’t believe he would do this to her…that’s not right.”

Natalie now says that if it’s a tie, she’s keeping Sharon. Dig this great Natalie quote – “if I want to keep the girl power together, I need to go work Adam and Ryan and make sure they vote out Joshuah.” Women’s lib, with an assist from the boys?

Ryan is brought in first by Natalie. “Joshuah is going to tell us anything we want to hear. That’s the only thing that scares me.” Ryan points out that they are safe if Josh stays. If Sharon makes HOH, this may not be true…at least for him. Natalie wants Josh to feel like he’s safe, and then “bam”. “Sharon just worries me, man. I know if I can’t trust her.”

Sharon asks Natalie how their conversation went, and Natalie confides that Ryan doesn’t know if he can trust her. Sharon doesn’t get it, but Ryan walks in at that very moment. “I’ve never been gunning for you”, says Sharon. “I’ve never been after you. Josh and James, you know they’re gunning for you…I know if I leave, you are all fucked.”

Baller’s up next, but first we see Sharon repeating that she’s not after him. Suddenly, Ryan sees her as a “very trustworthy person”. God, these people can’t keep an opinion for more than five minutes. As usual, Adam just lies around and listens, adding little more than a “yep”. Ryan joins them, and is now completely on board. Natalie is ecstatic.

James and Josh still believe that Josh is going to survive. “That is unreal”, says James. “This is definitely the best possible scenario.” Acting a tad cocky (as usual), Josh says it’s time for Sharon to go because he’s done babysitting her. They both agree that she’s going to be blindsided by this. Well, not really.

After commercials, we head to the living room for the typical nonsense. Sheila gets the first question, as Julie asks a convoluted question tying in her fight with James and his later “words of encouragement”. Suddenly, she’s all complimentary about him. “He’s highly intelligent, and he’s playing a smart game. And it was some really good advice.”

Obviously, we move on to James, and his reasoning for calling out Sheila at the veto meeting. He babbles about how she wasn’t true when she pumped him, so he wanted her to see that he was true about wanting her to succeed in the game. Does that make sense to you? Not me.

Adam tells Julie that he loves her before answering a question about “all the tears” in the house. James rolls his eyes (again) when Adam claims that he also gets a little emotional at times. “I just have a level head.” Oh boy. Exchange the word “level” with “empty” and I think you have a more accurate description.

Up next, Josh is asked about being up on the block with his best friend. “It’s really hard to campaign against such a great person as Sharon. We’ve been together from the beginning, and we know each other’s deepest, darkest secrets. It’s hard not to use it against each other, that’s for sure.” Sharon’s response is that she loves him, and not much more (as usual).

Oh god, we now get to meet Josh’s mother. Wait, she’s kind of cute for an old woman. You know the drill – we get the whole “I love him/he’s the life of the party” babble, and of course she’s never seen the kind of outbursts we’ve seen from him this year. After a clip of his rampage against Amanda (and her fine ass), she says she’s especially shocked by the language. “Sometimes when I’m watching him, I just want to wring his neck…I keep telling myself that that is his strategy.” We now get his life story, and how he played football and had girlfriends. One question – who is the guy next to her that gets out maybe three words the entire segment?

It’s now time to cover your ears, as we move up to the silly conversation with the HOH. Julie the crack journalist just has to begin with another round of questions about Matt. “When I look at Matt’s picture, I just think about all of the good times we had, and the memories that we shared together in this house.” Yeah, like when those great times when he’d hide from you?

Regarding Chelsia, there were a million ways Julie could have questioned Natalie, but instead she went for the softball. “How do you think Matt felt when he saw her walk through those doors?” “I think Matty was ECSTATIC to find her in the big brother sequester house.” Oh boy, she goes on to say that since he’s not her boyfriend, he can do whatever he wants, BUT “I trust him. She’ll probably try to do something with him to spite me, though. That’s the kind of girl she is, you know.” (I need a drink after hearing that drivel.) I can’t bear to listen to the rest of her garbage about Ryan and God.

Finally, it’s the moment of truth. Sharon gets to plead her case first, but all she says is that she is “thankful to be here…if it’s my time to go, it’s my time to go.” As you may imagine, Josh is a bit more prepared. “This is the most dysfunctional family on TV. Believe it or not, as much as I may hate you all I truly do care about you inside.” This goes on and on, and concludes with him saying he wants to stay.

Sheila begins the voting, and obviously votes to evict Joshuah. Ryan also goes for Josh, as does Adam. As expected, James is the lone vote to save him. Josh is evicted, but before leaving gives a self-serving lecture on being true to your self. Silly Sheila is near tears, but you know she’ll be bitching about it later. While we wait for his interview, everybody consoles Sharon.

In his interview with Julie, Josh rambles on about how it’s such a tough game (I think he says that at least 4 times), and how it’s clear that he was evicted because he’s the toughest competitors in the house. Oh yeah, and if he “would have stayed, he would have picked them off week by week.” Hmmm, I don’t think many would agree with that assessment.

OMG, let the self-serving platitudes end! Now he claims that he’s only mean when provoked, and that he likes to “stand up for others in the house. I only wanted to make sure other people were respected…and the only way I knew how unfortunately required screaming and getting in their face.” Oh boy. Julie doesn’t help matters by complimenting him on his “acting”. The goodbye messages are as you may expect, but I have to laugh at his reaction to Natalie’s “I still love you as my fellow brother of Jesus Christ” comment.

Finally, we move on to the HOH contest. Natalie’s bummed because it’s finally a quiz that has to do with numbers in the house! Bwahahahahahah! I can only imagine how she’ll later babble about how she would have answered every question correctly…and how Sheila didn’t understand the questions.

Everybody but Sheila(!) gets the first question right, and Ryan and Adam join her in getting the second question wrong. She does get a point on the third question, and Sharon takes the lead. Everybody gets the next question wrong, but they’re all correct on the fifth question. Sharon misses the sixth question, and it’s now a three-way tie between Sharon, James, and Adam. OMG, Adam gets the last question correct, and is the new HOH. Things don’t look good for James once again!

Joshuah Out! Adam is New HOH

Joshuah was evicted 3-1, James being the only vote to evict Sharon.

Adam won HOH on the last question in a competition Natalie would have been very good at. I say this now because it is a warning that you will hear about it all night long.

This also means Sheila is safe for another week. DAMMIT.

More Thoughts On Last Night's Episode

As I'm sitting here waiting for the eviction show, I thought I'd write some more thoughts about last night's episode. This may be shocking to hear from this curmudgeon, but last night's episode may have been the best crafted show they've ever shown.

For the first time ever, the entire episode told a story. Even the silly recap at the beginning actually fit the plot arc. We saw (again) Chelsia being evicted, Natalie winning HOH, and James and Josh being nominated. This set the stage for a story that revolved around James, and the mental and physical demands of being the person who is always in danger of being evicted.

Sure, there are some quibbles with the editing. James' initial confrontation with Sheila didn't show at all just how Sheila's refusal to drop the subject brought on the ensuing battle, and the back-and-forth between Sheila/Sharon and Josh/Natalie drastically needed to be paired down a bit. Yet, it all fit together to show us how a depressed and defeated James was renergized after his clash with Sheila; how his game play in the POV blew away everybody else that competed; how Josh "suddenly" decided to fight to stay in the house; and climaxed with James somewhat self-serving speech at the POV meeting that not only declared his frustration with constantly being the target but also called out others who have yet to contribute anything but whining and plotting.

They did all of this without resorting to the cheesy garbage that mars the majority of episodes. There were no "beebies". Josh didn't do his silly morning dances. Natalie didn't pray to God and Matty, or babble her most recent theories about whatever number has come to her head this week. They stuck to this week's game story, and I pray that this continues in the future.

Very Quiet Day Before The Show.

Only thing to note is Natalie making sure Sheila and Adam know that if it is a tie she will keep Joshuah.

So look for the vote to go 3-1 to evict him.

Sorry Josh Fans.

Live show at 8pm Eastern Tonight.