Sooo… To begin the week, we must finish the HoH comp, which is the “slide down the slippery slope to fill containers with liquid” comp. There is also a smaller container that when filled, will allow an HG to use a larger scoop. James and Paul are not doing very well, but Nicole and Corey are really doing a good job of staying on their feet; Nicole is making a move at obtaining the larger scooper. Turns out, 45 hours before the eviction, Nicole basically tells Corey that if she wins HoH she’s going to make a big move and her nominations will be Victor and Paul. Both agree it’s the best move if they want to play strategically and Nicole is very sure that they are thinking the same thing. It is also important for them to make sure James is on board with them so Corey lays some more groundwork for that later that evening by giving some support and pep talk to James. Later, Nicole is with the two of them and they basically solidify a Final Three. Back to the HoH comp, Paul is really having a tough time making it up and down the slide, he’s covered in butter, his scooper is covered in butter, he’s trying to get the big scooper and he finally resorts to sliding down to his containers on his butt. After 32 minutes, Corey is in the lead, but Nicole and Paul are really close to releasing their big scoopers, but will it be worth the trouble? Corey is half way to being finished and after 52 minutes, he’s just a few inches away from retrieving his “popcorn kernel” and Paul is still trying to get his big scooper; he can’t get the ball out of the container. He knows he’s outta this comp, pretty much everyone knows they are out at this point because Corey pulls his ball and wins HoH.
After the competition, Paul and Victor are feeling pretty good; Victor knows one of them will go up as a pawn, buuut… Nicole knows it’s time to make that big move she planned with Corey before the eviction. Keeping up appearances, they celebrate separately with Victor and Paul, making the boys feel even more safe. Meanwhile, James is missing Natalie. They managed to patch things up a bit before she left and she was sweet enough to leave James her flip-flops… Yes, her flip-flops. Later, Corey pranks Nicole with the ol’ salt in the water trick and she ends up spitting it all over him and his microphone. After this segment it’s time to see Corey’s HoH room and he’s super excited to see all the pictures, a pillow with pictures, of his dog and he’s got Taylor Swift’s 1989 CD! (Ugh, I gotta admit, my gay best friend and I looove that album). After this, we finally get back to game stuff with Nicole and Corey discussing his nominations in the HoH room, as if they haven’t already decided. Nicole still thinks they need to solidify themselves with James by making sure he wouldn’t use the Veto if he wins it; she is concerned the boys got to him and that they could be working together. Corey tells her not to worry about this because James would be stupid to go to the Finals with either of those boys; he knows that if the situation came down to it: Nicole would take James to the end if Corey weren’t there and Corey would take James if Nicole wasn’t there. Nicole is nervous about the Nomination ceremony and she feels bad for the backstabbing they are about to commit, but it has to be done. Paul and Victor are gonna be piiissed and she says she might fake food poisoning so she doesn’t have to be there. lol
In the next segment, we get to see all of Victor’s attempts at flirting with Nicole; he admits they have a weird little relationship. Paul thinks it’s funny, but clearly, Nicole’s heart is not a comp Victor is going to win. Back to the game, in the HoH room, Nicole and Corey are watching James in the monitor in the kitchen, hoping he’ll come up and talk to them. The rest of the house seems empty, but they want James to come up on his own and finally he makes a go for the stairs. James confirms that he’s with them 100% and Corey is like, “see I told you”, but as Nicole points out, James is going to be in the UK with those boys all week and she’s sure they will all be talking. But James knows Nicole and Corey have his back, he understands that Natalie had to go, but he’s with them 100%; he is also in the mindset that Victor is the bigger target. Downstairs, in the UK room, Paul wonders out loud to Victor if maybe Corey and Nicole might screw them over; Vic says they won’t if they are true to his word. Victor wonders if James could be up there trying to be all “do you really wanna go to the Finals with…”, but he doesn’t think James is doing that… But he is. After the break, Nicole and Corey are flipping through the monitors and the BB house is a ghost town, but there’s Paul in the kitchen and he’s combing up sars – If I can use a How I Met Your Mother reference, I’m going to use it. 😉 So Paul is headed upstairs and Corey and Nicole prepare. After a quick hello, Paul wants to know what’s up with the plan because he knows either he or Victor have to be a pawn. He tells them he’s more than happy to be the pawn, worst case scenario, he and Victor are up, but all that matters is the Veto. Nicole and Corey just kinda say “yeah” and nod their heads a lot, but Paul still leaves the room feeling pretty confident.
After Paul leaves the room, Nicole start questioning the decision to put up Paul and Victor and Corey cannot believe she’s saying any of it. She thinks that Paul will be able to get into her head later and I don’t even understand her reasoning in any of this either. Paul and Victor, as much as I like them both, are the strategic move. There’s no reason to put up James what-so-ever if you are Nicole and Corey, but she’s still thinking that maybe there’s something going on with the three boys from the UK room. That night, Corey can’t sleep and he proceeds to clean the kitchen, the hallway, the stairs to the HoH room, the stove top, the chairs… The kitchen is spotless by the time he’s done with it. The next day, it’s Nomination time and Corey makes the right move for him and Nicole by putting up Victor and Paul. After the nomination ceremony… Oh wait! It’s time for the Surprise Eviction episode! After Julie tells the HGs live, so they have time to get changed for the live show, we but first back to after the Nomination ceremony, Victor and Paul remain calm, but they are disappointed and they are still piiissed. Up in the HoH, Nicorey and James celebrate the nominations, James says again that he will NOT use the Veto if he wins it. They hear the boys slam the door to the Safari room. No one wants to go downstairs. Cut to the Safari room where Victor and Paul are venting, and Paul decides to go upstairs and work some magic to see if he can do something to change their fates to keep himself and Victor safe this week… Since Victor has decided he will be stand-offish with them because of the whole loyalty thing and he feels very betrayed, again.
Up in the HoH room, James has left Nicole and Corey alone; Paul joins them. Corey says he was going to go down there and talk to them later, they know Victor is feeling very salty. Paul asks if there is any way they can still work together if one of them wins Veto and pull themselves down. Corey points out that Victor has performed incredibly, up on the block five times, evicted twice. Paul tells him that even though Victor plays emotionally, he’s set. Corey really wants Victor to come up and talk to him so he calls him up to the HoH room. And Victor basically seals his fate because he lets them both know that he will be gunning for both of them if he stays, he will be relentless, ruthless, and he doesn’t consider them friends in the game anymore. Paul knows that either him and Victor are going home and since Victor’s attitude is getting in the way of Victor’s game, Paul is sad, but he knows that if Victor keeps this up, he’s most likely going to be the next one evicted. Power of Veto time! And it’s the comic book comp, another one of my new favorite in the game rotation of Big Brother. Since we all know how the game works, there’s no reason to explain it. Paul is the first to make a go of it, but since we don’t know the times until everyone has completed their round, and everyone seems to take the same amount of time, and everyone seems to struggle with all of the subtle differences in the comic book covers… Blah Blah Blah… Nicole wins Veto.
After the Veto comp, Paul knows the nominations are going to stay the same; his plan is to lay low and not cause any drama. Victor knows that Nicole is probably going to keep the noms too, but he’s hoping all the luck he’s had in this game will stick with him. Then we talk to Derrick from season 16 and if you wanna listen to the interview, you can watch the episode at CBS.com, and if you subscribe to All Access, you’ll be able to watch the fall edition of BB – Big Brother: Over the Top and you can do it through Your Reality Recaps, which helps us out a bit and doesn’t cost you more. 😉 After the interview segment, we see the Veto ceremony in which Nicole does NOT use the Veto. In the Backyard, Victor and Paul contemplate their fate as Nicorey and James really contemplate who they should evict. Corey is still set on Victor, James points out how many comps he’s won, but Nicole thinks Paul is smarter and that if they don’t get him this week, he’ll go to the Final Two. They all agree he’s a smooth talker and he has a lot of Jury votes. So. This is perhaps my favorite duo of Eviction speeches ever. Paul does a mini-roast on all the remaining house guests, Victor kinda does the same and says if they don’t evict him, he’ll beat them all and go home with half a million in his pocket, but it’s all about Friendship, they love them all, and watch the episode just for the speeches if you missed it. When the votes are in, Victor’s luck has run out because both James and Nicole cast their votes to evict for him.
After Victor’s interview with Julie, it’s time to play the HoH competition and it’s not an endurance comp, of course, because the next episode will feature another eviction. It’s a true/false “fill in the blank” where they bleep words in people’s speeches to make it seem like they say something naughty instead of something nice. In round one, everyone gets a point; in round two, only Nicole and Paul get a point – James misses a question about Natalie. Round three: Nicole wins a point. Round four: everyone wins a point and our stats are James, 2, Paul 3, Nicole 4. Round five: Nicole and Paul win a point. Round six: Paul wins a point to tie up his and Nicole’s scores at 5/5. Round seven, final round: everyone wins a point, but it doesn’t matter for James because he only has three points, and Nicole and Paul are tied so it goes to the boards. The question is how many seconds from beginning to end did the BB Slide in Theater last. Paul’s guess, and they really give them both a lot of time to do math in this, is 4800, Nicole checks in at 6001. Actual number of seconds: 4511 seconds – PAUL has won HoH and guaranteed himself a spot in the Final Three. He’s very excited…
Nicole and Corey; however, are not very excited because they flipped on Paul and Victor and sent Victor home. James feels great, though! The night before, Paul and James talked about their experiences with Nicorey; Paul thinks their only chance to get to the end is if he and James work together. So James feels good with Paul being HoH. At the Nomination ceremony, he does the expected and puts Nicole and Corey on the block, but really, as James says, everyone is on the block except Paul because all that matters in this HoH reign is the Veto. Whoever wins the Veto will cast the sole vote to evict. And since we’re in the final episode for this week, it’s time to get out of the BB house and see what’s happening in the Jury House… Before Natalie arrives, we learn that Michelle is a pretty decent artist with her drawings of “Snakcole” and that the house is divided with Paulie and Zakiyah being one side of the house… Sooo… While Natalie is filling everyone in on the details of her last week in the house, she mentions that she would have used the Veto on James. Da’Vonne says that’s sweet and Michelle taps Paulie on the shoulder and says “something that Paulie didn’t do” aaand thus begins the chaos. Paulie says that the passive aggressive girls in the house have been making Zakiyah feel bad on purpose, and he thinks they are being mean to her because she “has his back and is talking to him again”, buuut… Michelle says she was just joking around with the comment, but Da’ doesn’t like how Paulie came at her and blah blah blah Paulie says something about Da’Vonne’s daughter and production ends up separating her from Paulie, but she is HEATED! Bridgette’s skin is boiling. Michelle and Natalie are being real quiet and Zakiyah… Well, you should really just watch the episode if you haven’t because it’s CRAZY!
Before the Veto comp, we peek into the Jury House again to see Victor’s big entrance. Everyone has had a couple of days to reflect on events. Da’ doesn’t like that she let Paulie pull her out of character so she’s just letting him and Zakiyah have their space. When Vic joins, everyone is disappointed to see him, congratulates him on a well-played, history-making season. They watch the video and get to see their comic book covers and have a good laugh; they all kinda weigh in on future events and we get to the Veto. In this baseball-themed Veto, the players have to run the bases on a mini baseball diamond to set a counter answer the announcer’s “what day” questions. Each player is also allowed three “outs” and James is the first one to lose all three of his outs and must take a seat on the bench leaving Paul to fight it out alone to win so they can successful break apart Nicorey. Luckily, Nicole is having trouble thinking of day numbers while running around the bases adding up numbers and she’s the next one out of the comp. So it’s down to Paul and Corey and Corey has two outs while Paul has none, BUT… Paul isn’t fast enough in the next two rounds so it all comes down to a final showdown. Paul is very carefully running around his bases, but Corey is just, like, stepping on the buttons, not paying attention aaand Paul wins the Veto and of course, he doesn’t use it. Sooo, after Corey and Nicole’s sorta brief speeches, James casts his vote and evicts Corey.
And that’s the week, folks! I’m posting this on Friday with less than an hour to go until the next Big Brother episode, which is a recap show followed up by the beginning of the first round of the three-part Final HoH comp. And after that… It’s FINALE TIME! Woohoo!
