Yesterday saw Jessica get voted out by everyone but Cody (though Josh is convinced there were two votes as he's sure he heard Julie say the votes were 6-2 instead of 7-1. The votes were 7-1) Jessica left after reminding the house that Paul was controlling all of them and no one would win unless they got Paul out. Paul's sheep all went "Baa!" and huddled around Paul to protect him from the mean old Jessica.
Paul made a big point afterwards of how Jessica would still be in the game if she'd just kept her hex power and hadn't used it in their deal. Which was a fake deal as Paul told his sheep at the time and had Jessica not used the hex they would have voted her out then instead of last night to get rid of both her and the hex. If you're on the block and you've got a power to take yourself off, you take yourself off. She'd have been gone last week instead of this week if she hadn't used the hex.
The HOH comp followed several performances by a pair of quick change artists that were quite impressive. Cody hung in there for quite a bit but then got eliminated. As soon as Cody got eliminated Paul and his sheep celebrated as though they'd won the game. Uh, no. You haven't won the game yet. Alex then won the HOH comp in a showdown between her and Raven.
Immediately the scheming began on how to get rid of Cody. The plan seems to be to put up Mark and Elena, since they know they're already near the bottom of the pile, and then backdoor Cody. In an effort to prevent Cody losing the Temptation comp intentionally to be sure to play in the POV comp, they'll turn to their expert comp thrower in Matt and have him lose one for the team. There was talk of putting up one half of each couple (Matt/Raven and Mark/Elena) but Paul decided to keep Matt/Raven in the dark about how they'll be next to go after Cody, Mark, and Elena and to keep them in the dark.
Raven's trying to turn the house against Kevin a bit and doesn't seem to sense how much danger she's in. Raven and Matt have to start winning comps soon, or they'll be heading out the door before too much longer.
So, at this point in the game we've got eleven houseguests, nine of whom seemingly will do whatever Paul asks with only Cody resisting him completely. The rest either follow blindly (Alex, Matt, Raven) follow with some independent thought but follow anyway (Kevin, Jason, Christmas, Elena and Josh,) or appear to follow, but have bigger concerns longterm (Mark.) Only Cody refuses to follow at all.
Paul's done a masterful job of manipulating the house and in a normal season his manipulation, manic as it often is, would have gotten him in trouble, but this is a very compliant cast. Each player seems to feel, "As long as it's not me, I'll go along with whatever Paul wants." Then when it becomes them that's the target they have no support to save themselves as everyone else doesn't care as long as it's not them.
Paul's in a ridiculous ten person alliance with eleven houseguests and each week they let Paul set the target. Next week he'll be in an eight or nine person alliance with one or two new targets (likely Mark/Elena.) The next week he'll be in seven or eight person alliance with the target being whoever survives of Mark/Elena and likely Raven. Kudo's to Paul for pulling it off, but what the heck are the rest of them thinking?
This is going to be a cast that at the end of the season will look back and say, "What was I thinking?" RIght now the person who would be least likely to win a jury vote would be Cody. That would make him the perfect person to keep around for a while. His only support in the house is Mark and Mark's not that solid. Mark also could win more jury votes if he was in the final two (no one really hates Mark all that much) so if you've got a choice between Cody and Mark, you take out Mark.
Hopefully now that they've all made the jury, they'll start thinking about jury votes and how to get the votes of the jury to win the game. Who's most likely to get the jury votes now? I would say Paul was the most likely to win any jury vote at this point. That should make him the big threat and the big target. If I was a player in the house, he'd be the guy I'd most want out of the house. He's good in comps, he's got the jury votes all but locked up if he makes the final two, he's got friends in production, I'd want him gone! Christmas and Kevin seem to see that. Alex seems blind to it and wants Paul in her final three with Jason. (Very, very dangerous for Alex, and I suspect Paul doesn't want Alex in his final two.)
This week looks like it'll be another largely boring week with Josh continuing to antagonize Cody, with some combination of Cody, Elena, Mark and Raven on the block with Cody the clear target for eviction. The next few weeks look likely to follow the same pattern as the sheep follow Paul's commands and flush out Cody, Mark, Elena, Matt and Raven. Hopefully one of the stronger minded sheep wins an HOH and shakes things up at some point. Early in the season I would have had hope for Alex, but she's the most compliant of the sheep right now. Christmas or Kevin seem the most likely to try and make a move, but even if they put Paul on the block, getting the votes to evict him will be a challenge for them.
This is arguably the least suspencseful, most predictable season of Big Brother ever. We need someone to emerge as an alternative to Paul leading the house, but it won't happen this week, and likely not for the next few weeks.
We now know there won't be a jury battle back so this coming Friday's show (a week from tonight) will likely be a midpoint recap show. We've got a double eviction coming up Thursday where it's likely the house will do whatever Paul instructs. (Likley evict some combination of cody, Mark, Elena, and Raven.) I believe we're just a week or two away from Christmas getting out of her cast and into a walking boot which may make her a bit more competitive. The season is largely on cruise control right now as Paul just slides through to the end. We need an upset of some sort to take place to end the predictability and create some uncertainty. It's not like the house hasn't been told what's happening, but as long as each houseguest feels safe, they're just doing whatever Paul suggests as they walk him to the final two.
Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!
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