Sunday, April 6, 2008

Big Brother - Season 9, Episode 24 Recap

So we’re almost set to begin tonight’s episode of Big Brother, and it’s going to be interesting how they handle it. A lot went down during that 24-hour period that tonight’s episode will cover, including allegations of producer tampering by one of the contestants. Will the producers show and/or explain this controversy?

There’s also the possibility that in many ways this will be a repeat of sorts of last Tuesday’s broadcast that centered around James’s fight to stay in the house. I have a feeling that they will indeed focus quite a bit on him, but the Sunday show always has a lighter tone with a few cheeseball moments.

And here we go. After the recap, as expected we start with the reaction to Josh’s eviction and Adam’s HOH win last Thursday. We begin with Josh’s parting words. Sharon is “shocked” because she expected a verbal attack from him. “It was extremely graceful.” Ryan wasn’t so impressed, describing it as “cheesy”, especially since it was a totally different persona from what he had lived with the past two months.

James notes that in targeting him, it’s all of his allies that are actually leaving. “It’s not making me weaker. It’s making me stronger. I’m fighting for Josh now. I’m fighting for Chelsia.” Sharon of course is devastated, although the producers point out one line that was unheard when it occurred – “you’re in here with a bunch of monsters”. “He brightened up my day every single day.” She breaks down again as she attempts to talk about watching walk out the door.

Adam has no sympathy for Sharon’s bawling, but as usual it’s impossible to understand what he’s saying. Luckily, the producers help with one of his lines – “we’ll see what she’s made of now, Marine.”

We move on now to the final question of the HOH contest. Adam says he’s more confident in his HOH abilities than last time, whatever that means. Of course, to Natalie it was predetermined because “three or four nights ago I had a dream that Adam won the head of household competition. It’s like God speaks to me or something.” Oh please.

James knows he’s screwed. “When Adam won HOH, I wanted to kick myself in the face. I lost Joshuah, now I lost HOH.” He wanders into the bedroom, where Sharon is pissed off because Josh is gone and she hates everybody. Meanwhile, “Team Christ” is celebrating. “God is on our side”, Natalie whispers. “Here comes the whispers”, James cracks to Sharon.

Natalie is making silly “TC” hand gestures, and Adam is kicking his heels in celebration. Natalie shows the world her crotch by doing cheerleader poses while at the same time bragging that “Team Christ is wonderful! Once you have (the power of Jesus), you never go back.” Um, Natalie, you have that clichéd phrase wrong. (Why didn’t I do the Natalie drinking game tonight?)

We move back to James and Sharon, who both agree that they hate everybody in the house. James knows he’s in trouble because “(Adam’s) been gunning for me for a long time. There has to be some way we can figure this out this week.”

Sharon and James join the celebrants in the living room, and James suggests that Adam put him and Sharon on the block and if he wins POV then Sheila goes up. “Sounds like an easy week.” Adam teases Sheila that he’s going to put her on the block and let her fight for POV. Sheila, of course, starts whining that she’s “had enough abuse the past week.” Adam carries on, asking who is going to sit next to James on the block. “Don’t even look over here,” Natalie orders Adam.

It’s now time to see Adam’s HOH, which is no different than the last time he won. There’s no baby food, but another letter from home. Again, this is a waste of time, but we just have to hear the entire letter. Adam is encouraged by a nonsensical sentence that claims the “babies” are waiting for him back in Philly. Ash, care to comment on this?

So now Sheila is sitting outside with James, which raises eyebrows in the kitchen. “Well, as long as us three stick together we’re golden”, Natalie says to Adam. “You know where my loyalty stays. My loyalty doesn’t go anywhere except with you and Ryan”

Natalie says that after James and Sharon, Sheila is next on their list. Ryan concurs, saying Sheila “is very dispensable to our team, and she’ll probably be the first to go when it comes to it.”

James, however, starts working on Adam. “There’s nothing I can say or do that will change what’s going to happen?” Adam says in the diary room that he is starting to feel bad about how James’ sadness. James, meanwhile, says that after feeling sorry for himself, his alter ego has begun to rev him back up. We see him psyching himself out in the backyard, and it carries on as he comes back inside. “Crazy James is not leaving the house…you’re going to see me win this game.”

It’s time for an out-of-context cheeseball scene. James gathers up Adam, and since the girls are all upstairs they, along with Ryan, “TP” Sheila’s bedroom. Um, this actually occurred over a week ago. Sheila laughs, along with a handful of other gags pulled on her eight days ago. James, though, goes too far by pouring flour on her as she’s sunbathing. “That’s fucked up.”

Sheila continues whining later inside the house. “You ask for it, Sheila”, says Adam. “I’ve been abused more than anybody in the house,” Sheila complains. “I’ve been through so much in this game.” In the diary room, Sheila says that it’s no big deal because she has three brothers who constantly abused her. Funny thing is that when this all went down she was much more upset than what we’re seeing here, and most of the blame was put on James.

We get more crap about Sheila’s problems, and again we hear about how hard it is for her as a “single mother”. Adam comforts her, and says in the diary room that while he misses his family, it is harder for her than anybody in the house. “Adam gets me more than anybody in this house.” OK, this is also old footage, and seriously edited in a way to make us all feels sorry for Sheila.

After the tears are finished, it’s time for Sharon’s token appearance in this episode. She admits that her method of playing is to lay low, and let the alliances come to her. We see this happen, as Ryan starts talking to her about secretly working together. “Just as long as no one suspects anything…” Ryan promises her that he’s going to try to get Adam to put up Sheila instead of her.

Ryan begins to work on Adam, saying that maybe he should go work out a deal with Sharon and put up Sheila next to James. “It was a way to try to prove myself that I am trying to be loyal to Sharon”, he says in the diary room.

After commercials, it’s time for more cheesy acoustic guitar as Sharon shows the world how she’s playing “mommy” by getting James out of bed for the food competition. “Now that Josh is not here, it’s up to me to look after James.” James admits that he actually likes that she’s taken him under her wing.

It’s now food competition time, and Ryan in particular wants to do well as being on slop was miserable for him. This contest involves mashed potatoes and gravy, and they have to build pathways with the potatoes that lead the gravy into containers that represent not only food items but a grill and toys. There’s really no reason to go into the details, except to say they won everything but fruits and vegetables. Oh, and they all agree it was tough because the platform was slippery. Yeah, and Sheila annoyed everybody (as usual)…even Natalie.

With the filler segments completed, it’s now time for the real game, as James starts working on Adam once again. James says his plan is to show Adam that he’s never done anything to him; that he “may be the only one in the house I haven’t wronged”. Adam admits in the diary room that he feels bad that James is all alone. Ryan interrupts their conversation, but disappears quickly to let Natalie know what’s going on. “He has to put him up,” she declares. “That would be the dumbest move.” Ryan goes off to find out what Adam is thinking.

Adam admits that he’s thinking of putting up Sheila and Sharon. Ryan couldn’t be more pissed. “What are you thinking, man? I’m getting Natalie up here.” Oh boy. While waiting, Ryan complains more to Adam. “He’s trying to work with everybody to get us out of here. He’s going to work with you? My ass, man.”

Natalie shows up, and asks if he wants to be “smacked upside the head”. She wants him to re-read the Holy Bible. What does that have to do with putting people on the block? “What doe sit say about the evil doers?” Oh boy. Natalie explains in the diary room that if he isn’t put up and does win POV, that means Sharon would go down and either Ryan or her would go up.

She goes on to blabber about how James has been trying to work deals with James for weeks (which is only partially true), and that “he will tell you exactly what you want to hear. He’s a bum and a con artist. That’s what bums do.” Bwahahahaha!

James comes up to the HOH to talk about the situation some more with Adam. “You were straight with me from the beginning. I thought we had a relationship. Why did you want me back in the game if you don’t want to work with me?” Meanwhile, Natalie decides to break up their conversation. Natalie confuses the issues, which leads James to yell “yeah, Natalie you’ve read me this whole game.”

“Pretty much,” is her nonsensical response. “I’m not asking you to trust me”, retorts James. “I’m asking Adam to trust me. I’m not asking Natalie to play the game with me; I’m asking Adam.” This goes back and forth for awhile, before Adam says that “it’s too little, too late”. Natalie goes on that it’s an everyday thing that James is mean to everybody. James counters, “the whole house against me is not an everyday thing?” At this point, James starts bawling, and both Natalie and Adam show sympathy. “When James started crying, I kind of felt like I said my piece and maybe it’s my time to leave.”

Wait a second! Those watching the live feeds heard Natalie leave because she was called to the diary room. Interesting!

James uses the opportunity to continue working on Adam, who also starts to break down. “I’m just trying to be straight up,” James says. Adam eventually agrees to not put him up. “Just don’t use the POV if I don’t put you up.”

It’s now time for nominations, and as Adam does the scripted portion, James talks about how “this is one of the stories of the underdog pulling through.” Ryan, meanwhile, is still furious that it’s even being considered. “If Adam does not nominate James for eviction, that puts Natalie and me in a bad position.” Adam’s pissed that everybody is telling him what’s best for him when “it’s actually what’s best for them. It’s time for me to think what’s best for me.”

During the ceremony, Adam babbles about fire and passion before pulling Natalie’s key. As you may expect, it’s Sheila and Sharon who are on the block, and Sheila is pissed! Adam explains that he has set in motion the events that would occur if James was up and won POV. He wants everybody to go out and work their asses off to win POV.

Sheila walks away telling Adam that he’s “topped the list of being the biggest jerk in this house.” Adam explains that “there comes a time and place in a game of Big Brother where everybody must perform. I’m doing this to make sure that the POV a serious, serious epic battle for everybody in this house.”

As expected, Sheila goes on some more about the bond she felt she had with Adam, but “he took a knife and stabbed me in the back…over and over”. James, meanwhile, feels great that somebody does believe in him in the house. Ryan and Natalie, though, think that Adam’s a “frickin’ idiot.”

That’s it, folks, until we return Tuesday for the “epic battle”!

James To Sheila - Save Me And Shock Natalie.

James is in the Sauna room with Adam and Sheila - he has proposed to Sheila that she and Ryan agree to vote out Sharon.

James says that he will be able to go after Natalie more than Sharon ever will and he talks about how Natalie has been acting like she has won this game already - Sheila appears to agree - saying she has noticed how Natalie has been saying she doesn't think Sheila should win.

Who knows if this little plan of James has a snowballs chance in hell. Adam seems completely open to it - he just keeps saying he can't say much because he is HoH.

I really really doubt that Ryan will go along with all of this - he has been working on Sharon and is tighter with Natalie than Adam and maybe even Sheila.

Makes for some interesting live feeds though!


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James Discretely Stirring the Pot


Although Adam has offered to campaign for him, James says he has accepted the fact that he's going to sequester because he'll never get Sheila and Natalie's votes. Instead, he's quietly pointing out some truths that the other boys have ignored. Among other things, he's told both Adam and Ryan that they're now going to be outnumbered, especially in the next HOH competition. He also advised Adam to divide them by getting Natalie to say more derogatory things about Sheila.

Finally, somebody is saying the things we've been chatting about for weeks.

This is a nice clip of James and Natalie going back and forth:

It's Official - James Up On the Block Again!




Ryan used the POV to take down Sheila, and Adam put James up. Afterwards, James joked to Natalie that she had a "50% chance" of being put up. "I was sweating bullets", she replied.

Why Are They Given So Little Booze?

With few exceptions, the Showtime broadcasts this season have been a bore. Half the house ends up in bed within the first hour, leaving the other half to just rehash the same "us 3 to the end" conversations they've had all day.

The exceptions to this rule are the nights they're allowed a little alcohol. "Little" is the key word here. They're rarely given more than one beer per person, or two bottles of wine to split with the whole house. Isn't that like one glass per person (I'm not a wine drinker so I have no clue)?

Yet this little bit of drink has helped them break away from game talk and actually have (somewhat) real conversations. Last night (videos below) was a perfect example. They all had a good time, and a little ribbing resulted in laughter instead of the usual running up to the HOH room to complain how evil James is.

I'm not saying that they should give them unlimited booze, as there are limits on what personal details should be revealed on Showtime. But let them have a little fun!