Just when I thought this week might rollover with little potential for drama thanks to the HoH results we went and got a pleasant surprise thanks to a late night talk between Becky and the Austwins.
Going through the usual routine of pre-noms talks Becky made her way up to the HoH room and things were a lot different from what I expected as Becky broke open some cereal and big reveals.
Flashback to 2:35AM BBT as Becky arrives to make her case to Liz, the new HoH. Austin and Julia are there with Liz as Becky explains why it was she had to go after Vanessa last week. She sort of apologizes to them saying she had no idea they were with Vanessa and she wouldn’t have done that if she knew Vanessa was so well connected. Austin is quick to correct Becky saying that they’re not “with” Vanessa.
The talk continues on with some general fluff until things get more interesting. Jump ahead to 2:53AM BBT as Austin asks Becky to tell him if there was a plan to send him out the door back when Vanessa and Jackie were HoH. Becky doesn’t hold back.
Becky admits that yes, there was a plan to get him out and yes, Vanessa was in on the plan. Becky says that’s why Vanessa was willing to let Clay go up on the Block and why she (Becky) was willing to go up with him. Austin realizes he would have been gone that week if the plan had succeeded.
At 2:55AM BBT Becky breaks out the Fruity Pebbles and charts out Vanessa’s methods as a chameleon in the game. This demonstration method actually works pretty well because she can use the various colors and shift from color coded group to the next.
Becky sets up the various clumps of Houseguests like Austin and the twins, Clay and Shelli, etc. She then moves Vanessa’s pieces through the season week by week showing how she shifted to fit her needs. Becky points out to Austin that it wasn’t that he necessarily did anything wrong (well, that Julia reveal wasn’t great), but that he just didn’t serve his purpose to Vanessa anymore and so he was expendable to her as she shifted to the next group.
This continues on as Becky gets to that 8-HG meeting from the week before where she decided she had had enough of Vanessa with her round robin “promise me your word” gathering. Becky shows how Vanessa collected the HGs she needed to exclude the players she wanted targeted: Chelli. Becky points out how quickly and publicly Vanessa abandoned Chelli just as she had been willing to do with Austin once they no longer served her purpose.
Austin and Liz seem very intrigued. Liz declares that Vanessa really is a chameleon. So what does this mean for Vanessa and Becky? Becky may have actually saved her butt this week, though don’t expect Vanessa going anywhere just yet.
Becky finishes her talk and leaves giving the Austwins a few minutes before Vanessa shows up. Flashback to 3:17AM BBT as Becky has left and the Austwins discuss. This next stuff is interesting.
The Austwins are all floored. Julia says her “mind is blown.” Austin says they can’t target Vanessa now, but they’re “in too deep” with her. He has an idea though. Austin says they could keep Becky to go after Vanessa. As I joked earlier, they need to keep a mongoose to get out a snake.
This flip would mean JMac has to go home this week and they’d have the votes between Austin, Julia, James, and Meg to make that happen. Flipping to keep Becky over Vanessa’s expressed target of John will be a big move and undercut Vanessa’s control over the Austwins. Once that happens she’ll know and move fast to correct. Austin says Becky has to still be the pawn against John, but they can make a deal with Becky that they’ll vote to keep her if she keeps them off the Block next week.
“Sorry, Vanessa, but f**k, are you kidding me?” says Austin as he’s clearly had enough with her. Stack this on top of her paranoid attack at him last night accusing him of trying to help the Goblins prepare for the comp and it’s all just pushing him over the tipping point. The twins aren’t happy either.
Liz says that James didn’t come up with the plan to throw that comp himself, he was told to do it by Vanessa. Julia says she could tell Vanessa didn’t want to be HoH that week so she knows the pieces all add up. “You have no idea how livid I am,” says Liz. She’s furious that Vanessa never told her when her game was on the line and was kept in the dark while being used as a pawn. Austin doesn’t want this getting back to Steve since he knows they’re close.
Over the past few days we had seen Julia start to pull up to Vanessa’s side and they had even discussed maybe splintering off together as Julia knew Austin and Liz were growing closer. I was very anxious to see if Julia would just run this info back to Vanessa, but I don’t think she will. Julia says she thought she could trust Vanessa but now she doesn’t. She appears sincere.
Unfortunately Steve shows up and crushes gametalk as he tends to do. Steve asks if it’s been the 5 minutes of waiting that they had asked of him when Becky left. No, it’s been two minutes and there’s a clock in the kitchen, but come on in Steve. Sheesh. So that’s that. But there’s one more interesting part.
Vanessa arrives soon after Steve and asks the Austwins what Becky had to say. Flashback to 3:23/4. Nothing much, says Austin. No game talk and they didn’t give Becky any information in return either, he tells her. Oh yeah? No game talk? Interesting, we say. Austin quickly changes the discussion back to naming their alliance and things move along.
Okay, so the Austwins are on to Vanessa and their trust in her is deeply cracked, but they won’t risk making a visible enemy of her with a nomination. Things could change by Monday for a renom scenario, but that’d have to be a lot of shifting for us to see that. Oh Vanessa is going to lose it if they let her know Becky is staying because they’d have to have a motive to do that and it’ll be obvious what it is. Once again, the Feedsters are about to win as someone in there is about to lose.