Big Brother 12, Week 8
By Eric Hughes
September 7, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Instead, it was the show’s Jury House – where ex-housemates go to live until the season finale – that provided a good amount of entertainment during Thursday’s live eviction episode.
There already were Rachel and Kathy - an odd pairing consisting of one part Las Vegas cocktail waitress, one part small-town sheriff. I can’t imagine much of interest happening between them to in one big house.
Then Matt showed up. You know, the dude who’d been playing both sides of the house all season, the player who was the deciding factor in getting Rachel and Kathy evicted and the man who made up that stupid lie about his wife suffering from some rare, medically expensive disease. (Hence why he really wanted to win the game’s half million prize).
He made his way inside and caught up with Rachel and Kathy. They talked about Big Brother-y things and then watched a week’s worth of episodes.
Then Brendon, too, entered the Jury House, marking, as Matt said, the time “to drop the bomb on them.” The bomb, of course, being the big reveal of his wife’s apparently perfect health.
As expected, Rachel, Matt and Brendon didn’t take the news in stride. Brendon said Matt was going to hell, Rachel called Matt the most horrible person she’d ever met and Kathy, well… Kathy got up and left the room.
Matt followed her into the kitchen and was berated for playing with her emotions. She questioned whether Matt had ever lost anyone to some untreatable medical condition. For the newbs out there, Kathy is a cancer survivor.
I think the worst part was that earlier this year, Matt had told Kathy that he felt he could feel better about his wife’s health thanks to Kathy’s successful battle with cancer. She brought this up with him with cameras rolling, and you could tell the point hit Matt pretty hard.
I don’t know. It isn’t too often for Big Brother’s drama to be poignant. But those moments in the Jury House were especially well done in ripping Matt apart. He totally deserves it, and I hope the episode makes Matt realize the weight of his lie.
Yes, it’s a game. But Kathy’s anger – I hope – rocked Matt. Living life in the way he played the game is a dangerous way to live.
Said Kathy: “There is not enough money in the world that would sell my soul to the devil. And that right there is pretty close to it.”
Anyway, the rest of the week was pretty lackadaisical, but I’ll do what I can here to review what went down.
For the week’s Head of Household competition, houseguests had to catapult giant balls into bins marked by playing card descriptors like Ace of Hearts, Queen of Spades and so on. Houseguests who scored 21 in the least amount of tosses moved to the next round, while players who scored less than 21 (or got 21, but with too many tosses) were eliminated. Last man standing won.
Britney did horribly and was the first to go. Said Britney: “Three-time PoV winner. One timem HoH. I mean, I’m embarrassed.”
So Lane eventually won the competition, and invited the remaining four houseguests into his HoH room.
Enzo couldn’t get over how massive Lane’s brother is, thanks to a photo of them within the room. Said Enzo: “His brother’s huge. He’s like a gorilla with tattoos.”
Later, Lane was tempted by Pandora’s Box and accepted. By opening it, Lane got to pick envelopes off a Big Brother money tree (up to 10 grand). Lane came away with a paltry $91.17.
As a consequence, the houseguests faced a series of punishments. The only one we saw Sunday was the least interesting: no cups or utensils while eating for 24 hours.
At the end of the episode, Ragan and Enzo were nominated for eviction.
On Wednesday’s show, Enzo took off his penguin costume with a public “shunning.” He’d been forced to wear it for a week thanks to a PoV competition from the week prior.
For the shunning, Enzo welcomed everyone outside to the backyard pool and insisted on taking off his costume with the season’s pool mascot, a rubber ducky named Howie, watching.
Said Enzo: “The penguin suit has been lifted… I don’t want to see another penguin suit for as long as I live.”
For the week’s PoV, Otev the Broadway Clam sang tunes related to two houseguests, and the players in the game had to dig up discs that meshed together the two names that the song was about.
Enzo claimed victory with a last ditch victory against Ragan. When only they remained, Otev sang his song and Enzo – like a cat – immediately jumped over to the area that he knew the CD to be in. This involved Enzo all but bulldozing over Ragan, a move that Lane said “made up for every loss [Enzo] had all season.”
Though hilarious, you felt for Ragan. He knew with the PoV loss that he’d likely be evicted. Said Ragan: “I just feel an overwhelming sense of heartbreak… I’m heartbroken… It’s gonna be a lonely week.”
The house’s second punishment was an interesting one: Houseguests had to speak with sock puppets on their hands for the day. That’s right. Whenever a houseguest spoke – whether to someone else or even to themselves – they had to mimic what they were saying with their sock puppets.
At one point, Ragan was perched on the backyard hammock, alone with his puppet. Feeling lonely, he related the sock puppet to Wilson in Castaway. Ragan: “My sock puppet is like my Wilson right now… I want my life back.”
Even better was the third punishment. Houseguests had to dance whenever music played in the house. They could be in mid-conversation, they could be sleeping, they could be, as Enzo was, taking a shower. No matter the case, houseguests had to boogie down until the tunes diffused.
Hayden proved to be a terrible dancer. Even worse than, say, me.
At the end of the episode, Enzo removed himself from the chopping block and Lane nominated Hayden.
Just about zilch happened on Thursday’s live episode, save for the drama in the Jury House.
Ragan made a case for why voting houseguests should vote Hayden out, but Hayden was too well liked and Ragan was eventually evicted by Enzo and Britney. And then there were four…