Vanessa Rousso never lets a good opportunity slip away and amazingly she’s turning two allies on the block in to a good opportunity. Well, for her, not them.
This afternoon Vanessa went to Shelli to assure her of her safety but to also warn her that Clay was gunning for her spot in the house. Pish posh whether or not it’s true. It’s Vanessa-ese.
Flashback to 1:40 PM BBT as Shelli and Vanessa slide in to the HN room where Vanessa makes her swear on her family to protect the words she’s about to pour out. Shelli’s getting scared, y’all.
Vanessa tells Shelli that Clay came to her last night and discussed how it looked like Shelli was going. Vanessa presents this in a way that it sounds like Clay was asserting that Shelli should be the one to go. More likely Clay simply expects that it’s Shelli since they’ve repeatedly been told she’s the target.
Shelli reinforces that view of Clay by saying she’s getting upset with Clay for assuming she’s going. He asked her to contact his family when she gets out and Shelli didn’t like that assumption at all. Shelli can’t believe Clay expects her to just lay down and die in the game.
Not to worry, says Vanessa. She’s here to save Shelli. Vanessa explains she’s locked down the votes and was able to convince Steve after a long and difficult road. “It took all day,” says Vanessa. Nah. It took a few mins yesterday as she told Steve what to do and he agreed. She says that Steve wants to keep her because he thinks she’s a threat and he likes having big threats around.
Vanessa isn’t done yet though. Remember how she doesn’t miss an opportunity? Well Vanessa points out that this morning Steve told her about forming a 4-HG alliance with Vanessa, Johnny Mac, and the surviving member of Chelli, but Vanessa says Steve wants that remaining member to be Clay because he thinks that particular 4-HG dynamic would be better. Wait a second. Didn’t she just say Steve was on board to keep Shelli?
Vanessa tells Shelli to be tough about JMac in front of Steve and not only that but she thinks the idea of that group is “dumb!” and accomplishes nothing. Vanessa says those guys aren’t even their allies. Heh.
In another move to undermine Clay and Shelli’s relationship/trust, Vanessa tells her that Austin is still upset at Clay for not coming to him to apologize. Vanessa wants Shelli to discourage Clay from making that apology so Austin doesn’t come around on Clay.
Vanessa circles back to how hard she pressured Steve to make sure he was voting in line with them. “Thank you so much,” says Shelli. “Well, I care,” replies Vanessa.
Then just before Clay arrives Shelli returns to her suspicions that Clay is no longer encouraging others to vote him out over here. Vanessa supports that theory by again talking about how confident Clay was that Shelli was going to be voted out. Clay walks in at that point and the conversation ends.
While watching this exchange earlier I commented it was pointless. Perhaps a better word would have been needless. The votes are already locked down for Shelli to stay and Shelli is solidly in Vanessa’s pocket. This would reinforce Shelli’s indebted state to Vanessa, but it also creates a risk that if Shelli talks to Clay and mentions things then it could unravel on Vanessa.
I’d argue the risk was greater than the reward, but Vanessa is a gambler and that’s what she does. She’s also lucky to be playing with a bunch of knuckleheads who would keep the second strongest player behind Vanessa. So there’s that. What do you think of Vanessa’s move to drive Chelli apart?