TV and Movies

[gardenman]

Yesterday saw the ever-popular High Rollers Room get opened up again. It's believed that Claire, Derek X, and Derek F won the $100 this time around. Alyssa played the comp and won it. She then took down Derek F leaving Claire on the block. She then spun the wheel to pick the replacement and it landed on Xavier. Oopsy! Her one supposed ally in the game. (Though he's really not.) I believe that in winning the comp Alyssa is safe this week also. That could be important if things break just right.

So, today begins with Claire and Xavier on the block. We'll have the picking of the POV players later today and then the POV comp. At this moment it looks like Derek X is still the big target. If Claire wins POV, she'll use it on herself and Derek X will go up. If anyone else wins it, Xavier will likely be saved and Derek X will go up as the replacement. (Tiffany could save Claire knowing Xavier has the votes to stay and that would maintain the illusion she's not in the Cookout.) If Hannah wins POV she's planning to keep the noms the same to protect Derek X and lose Claire. (Everyone in the Cookout wants to protect their side alliance which complicates matters a bit.)

If Derek X gets picked to play in the POV and wins it, he could keep both himself and Claire safe. But if he does so, someone else would have to go up. If Alyssa was truly safe for winning the High Roller and Sarah Beth is the HOH, they'd have run out of white targets and Xavier would have to face off against a Cookout member. Yikes! The Cookout plans to encourage Sarah Beth to put up Hannah who will then get the boot over Xavier. (Hannah made the tragic mistake of only being half-black and wasn't an original member of the Cookout so she's scheduled to be first out of the Cookout. Silly girl! She should have been all-black if she wanted to be a finalist this year.)

So, we have to see who wins the POV later today. If anyone other than Derek X or Hannah wins POV then Derek X is likely a goner come Thursday. Pretty much everyone else would use it on Claire or Xavier and Derek X would be the renom. From a purely game standpoint, getting rid of a top competitor is smart for the weaker players so losing Derek X is a smart game move. If you can't beat them later, get rid of them sooner. Of course, if they'd have been playing smart, Whitney would still be there as she was no threat to anyone.

From an alliance-breaking viewpoint, losing Derek X is a problem for those outside the big alliance. He was more likely to win HOHs going forward and could help break up the big alliance that's largely steamrolling things this year. The Cookout wouldn't mourn losing Hannah should things go that way (unlikely, but you never know.) Xavier, Kyland, and Derek F largely plan on flushing the girls out of the Cookout and competing against one another to get the first black male win in BB.

Just some info I dug up on Kyland. He has four sisters and his girlfriend Kaitlin in a photo from 2020 looks pretty similar to Sarah Beth even with the same purple heart-shaped glasses that we see SB wear on occasion. (Photo of them below.) Having four sisters likely taught him how to manipulate women from a young age. He calls his older sister his second mom, which also ties into him viewing SB as a mother figure and his lifetime of experience with four sisters has helped teach him how to get what he wants from women. He pretty much talks/nags them into submission.

[highmaintenancejan]

If it gets down to all cookout left.....I'm DONE!!!  ((Great job for race relations CBS...(not))

[gardenman]

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@highmaintenancejan wrote:

If it gets down to all cookout left.....I'm DONE!!!  ((Great job for race relations CBS...(not))

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I still think there's a good chance the Cookout splinters. Xavier has Alyssa and his former team captain in Sarah Beth in the game. He might prefer to be in a threesome with those two. Tiffany still has Claire, Derek X, and Hannah.  Those four could do some damage. There's potential for it to splinter. 

Winning HOH comps is important for the non-Cookout members and they've got all good players left in Sarah Beth, Derek X, Alyssa, and Claire. I don't see Azah, Derek F, or Tiffany winning much. Hannah feels safe and largely doesn't want to win HOH. Kyland and Xavier are the real HOH threats for the Cookout.

If, miracle of miracles, Derek X wins POV today and uses it on Claire on Monday, then things get interesting. Hannah likely goes up. Will she go quietly? Eh, who knows? Could she flip the house to evict Xavier? Pretty easily by exposing the Cookout. Claire, Derek X, Alyssa, and even Tiffany might all vote to keep Hannah and dump Xavier. The Cookout would be dead. 

Tiffany, Xavier, and Hannah have all expressed misgivings about what they're doing at times. They all have arguably better allies outside the Cookout and a better chance to win outside the Cookout. Azah and Derek F do nothing to help them. We could see a move or two made yet. Stranger things have happened.

The odds right now favor the Cookout getting to the final six relatively intact and the final two being Derek F and Xavier with Xavier getting the win. But everything can change.

[gardenman]

It's looking good for Claire and bad for Derek X. The POV players are Azah, Derek F, and Alyssa. Anyone who wins POV will pull down a nominee and Derek X will be the replacement and target. He's now officially a dead man walking, and has nearly no chance to stay. Unless Sarah Beth has a revelation between now and Monday, he's a goner.

Could Hannah or Tiffany spill the beans to save Derek X? Possibly, but unlikely. It would need either Sarah Beth or Alyssa winning POV, pulling down Claire and leave Xavier on the block, then put another Cookout member opposite Xavier to get rid of one of them. There's maybe a one in a hundred chance of that happening. In all likelihood, Derek X is a goner!

[agb80]

I respect all opinions and just see a more diverse season. 

[gardenman]

It's a more black cast, but maybe less diverse than BB21's cast. BB 21 had an Iranian American in Analyse, a Hispanic American in Jessica, an Asian American in Isabella, a part Native American in Holly, two blacks in David and Kemi, a Bangladeshi American in Ovi. That was a pretty diverse cast with a wide variety of backgrounds. We had an old guy in Cliff. Southerners, New Yorkers, Chicagoans, a Pennsylvanian, some Californians. 

This year we've got one Asian American in Derek X, one Puerto Rican in Alyssa, six black Americans (five if you only count Hannah as half black).  And that's about it. More diverse? Not really. It's even a narrower range of ages in BB 23. It's a more black cast, but more diverse? It depends on what you consider diverse. 

People talk about blacks getting axed early in seasons, but in BB21 David got cut because he lost the first comp. It wasn't even a vote. Whoever lost the first comp was going to be out. It was a similar thing when Dan Gheesling was the coach and Jody was first out earlier. The loser of the first comp was out. 

The big reason BB hasn't had a black winner is largely because of the quality of players they've cast. They just never cast good black players after BB 2 with Danielle Reyes. Da'vonne is a horrible player. David was just lost both seasons and never figured out how to play. Swaggy and Bayleigh were not good players. They've largely cast black players who were bad players. This year they found four really good black players who didn't need the deck stacked. They could have won in any season. (Derek F and Azah are not good players and are more what BB typically casts.) 

Good players tend to win BB. Bad players don't. Casting is largely responsible for the lack of diversity in winners. (And we've had an Asian American winner in Jun, Josh was Hispanic, we've had gay winners (Drew, Andy, and Kaycee). The winner of the first BB was an amputee. BB rewards good players and it's almost always a good player who wins. If you don't cast good black players, you won't get a black winner. Xavier, Kyland, Tiffany, and Hannah could have won in any season. They're good players. They didn't need to stack the deck to help them win.

[gardenman]

Still no POV comp. It's going to be a late one. 

[gardenman]

Sarah Beth didn't read her whole HOH letter to the housrguests as the last part was personal and for her alone. Hannah and Derek X were left alone in the HOH and Hannah got the letter to read the part Sarah didn't want them to hear. She was disappointed it wasn't anything too shocking. She thought it might say something like "Good job as America's Player," but no. She then had trouble refolding it, but thinks she got it right. Sarah Beth has a bit of a temper and if she finds out Hannah read her letter, things could get interesting. Sarah Beth might try very hard for POV, use it in Claire, and put up Hannah in Claire's place. That could be interesting.

[SusieQ_2]

So we have Kyland's four sisters to thank for teaching him the art of manipulation in prep for playing a game where manipulation is the name of the game? I'd thank them but actually Kyland should be the one thanking them as they taught him well.

I'd be more interested in finding out what makes a full grown woman speak in such a baby voice that it sounds like Minnie Mouse has taken over her body. Or why she acquiesces to a man to the point it's clear she has no mind of her own and no backbone. I also wonder why a woman who comes into the house saying she's in a committed relationship sees nothing wrong with squeezing, rubbing, and cuddling a guy even after her supposed girlfriend has expressed resentment about it in a letter from home. Where does one learn that kind of disrespect? I can tell you this...that's no mother-son relationship like I've ever seen and if it is (it isn't) that would be even creepier. Wait, did I say I'd be interested to know about all this. Cancel that. I can't think of anything less interesting to learn about.

Okay, I admit I'm in a bit of a grumpy mood at the thought that this will be my 2nd favorite player's last week in the house. However, I figured that like everyone else does, this is the place to express my opinion.

I hope everyone is having a beautiful Saturday. 

[occasionalrain]

Sometimes I feel like Cassandra, no one trusts my assessments. I knew Hannah was a rat, didn't like her, and here she is, reading someone's personal letter, in their personal room. Sneaky dishonorable rat.