We are almost there… less than a week until the Big Brother 21 finale – and while we know which 3 players will be competing in the Final HoH competitions, who will win is still up in the air. The last 2 weeks have shown us some of the ugliness that this game brings out of players. After living in that house during my season – one thing I never expected as a fan watching at home, is how much the 7 Deadly Sins surround you at all times. Greed is the biggest factor that you cannot control. The closer and closer you get to the end of the game – that shiny bag of gold gets shinier and shinier. You can see it, you can smell it, and you can almost touch it – but what you need to do to actually hold it may surprise you. As fans, we just expect players to be robots and not play emotionally – but most players cannot do that.
Last week – I was feeling generous and only handed out bacon to the final 5 – but this week is a different story.
Nicole Anthony – 5 strips of Bacon – winning the F4 HoH (even if it was thrown to you) to guarantee a spot in the Final 3 is such an amazing accomplishment. The day you walk into the house – the goal is to be able to compete for that final HoH – and Nicole has had such a wild ride over the past 92 days. We will talk much more about her personal growth in next week’s final rankings – but while she may have made some mistakes along the way – the fact is – she has earned her spot to compete – and no one can ever take that away from her.
The big storyline of the week is Cliff v. Jackson – and Nicole also gets this week’s top spot for not getting dragged into the battle. Yes – she would love nothing more than Cliff to be in the F3 with him – but she is not doing anything over the top to upset Jackson & Holly – despite being fully aware that they will take each other to the F2.
Jackson Michie – 3 strips of Bacon – other than winning F4 HoH – winning the final Veto of the summer guaranteeing you the chance to compete for the final HoH is also a major accomplishment. However with that win comes a lot of power & stress. Jackson has to make the decision on who to bring to Final 3 with Nicole & himself. There are a couple of schools of thought in making that decision – bring someone you think you can beat, bring someone that will take you to F2 if they win, or bring someone you would not mind losing in the F2. Sometimes it’s the same person, so the decision is easy – sometimes it’s not.
For Jackson – as much as you may not be a fan of him in the game (or in life) – one thing is for sure – he is loyal to the people that are loyal to him. Once you break your trust with Jackson, it’s nearly impossible to regain it (as we have seen over and over and over and…). When Cliff & Nicole were “waffling” last week on who to evict – Tommy or Holly – that was the breaking of trust – and any glimmer of hope that Jackson would cut Holly for them went out the door with Tommy. Jackson may have allowed Cliff to think that he was considering cutting Holly for him, but we all knew he would never do that after what happened.
Holly Allen – 3 strips of Tofu – it’s so sad that Holly is letting a 24-year-old “boy” she met 90+ days ago control her & her chances to win half a million dollars. Maybe Holly is so well off financially that the prize money is not as important as having a boyfriend. I know that infuriates some of the Big Brother community – as so many of you want to be able to play the game and win the money to help make a better life for themselves.
The fact that Holly went against her gut – and threw the final 4 HoH to Nicole could be seen by some as admirable. Holly kept her end of a deal that she thought she should have never had to make in the first place. I am not really sure why Jackson was so hell-bent on making her honor that deal when he would not have – but she once again just went along with what he wanted her to do. Who knows – perhaps keeping that end of the deal will end up rewarding her the $500K – but that would probably be more of a bitter jury than a great game move on her part.
This brings us to the Tofurkey of the Week – and for the 3rd time this season – that honor belongs to Cliff Hogg. One thing is for sure – Cliff loves to wheel & deal – and so far all of his deals have been successful in getting him close to the end of the game – but as we saw this past week – Cliff has gotten sloppy. As I mentioned in the opening, the seven deadly sins are part of the Big Brother game – and Cliff experienced several of these in the past week. Greed first & foremost since he is trying to do whatever he thinks he can to win $500K, Envy – as he was unable to win that final Veto. And especially Pride & Gluttony – as he was so successful in his other deals – he had this false sense of power that he was able to do whatever he wanted with no negative consequences.
While it was pretty outlandish that he would think Jackson would take him over Holly in the first place – the way he went about making & then re-affirming his Final 2 deal with Jackson was quite laughable. Who in their right mind would say to someone – if you win the final HoH – you bring me – but if I win – I will bring someone else? He wanted it all – and while his other deals were reasonable & manageable – this was just ridiculous. There was some skill in dangling his jury vote in front of Jackson in a last-minute attempt to have him vote out Holly (who has been his ride or die for how long now????????) – but the way he went about it was horrible. And that is coming from someone who tried a last-second Hail Mary on finale night to get to the final 2 chairs.
Ok – there we have it – another week in the books and 3 more competitions before the jury hand out the title BIG BROTHER SEASON 21 WINNER – and all the confetti (and money) that goes along with it. My question of the week is – who do you think is more hypocritical – Cliff for complaining about Bitter Juries in the past and acting like he will be a bitter juror or Jackson for saying he does not appreciate someone strong-arming him when he did the same thing just about all season?
Let me know what you think of my rankings & your answer to my question of the week in the comments section below.
For more thoughts on BB21 – follow me on Twitter @HeavyMetalTeddy – and listen to my podcast Big Brothers – @BigBrothersPod
From outside the Big Brother House – I’m Adam Poch – have a great day!!
