Big Brother 27-Sunday Recap for Sept. 7th
Good morning, there’s isn’t much to recap because the game has grinded to a halt. Production finds a way to do this at some point in every season, but they topped themselves this year. Luckily, I needed to help my son move this weekend so I sort of checked out for a bit. I say luckily, because I was so irritated Thursday and Friday, I would rather help someone move than pay attention to BB.
With the free time I did have, I mostly spent it on youtube. I needed a palette cleanser after the stupid decision production made. I checked out of the feeds and watched some old Ethanimale videos on BB instead. (Check out his videos, they’re great) I even watched a 4 hr interview Rob from RHAP did with Dr. Will about 6 months ago. I also rewatched Prince performing at the Super Bowl from 2007 and Queens Live Aid performance from 1985. (That’s 21 minutes of perfection that always improves my mood) I was basically trying to get over the feeling that there wasn’t any point for me to be here writing this morning. If the strategy portion for this season is over, what’s the point?
This sounds a little dramatic and I get it but thats how deflated I was feeling on Friday. I’ll get to what tiny bit there is to recap but I’d like to explain (imo) why so many people are upset with production, if you arn’t one of them. By the end, you may agree or disagree and that’s fine. I’d just like the opportunity to NOT make this about Rachel. A lot of the things I’ve read online are making this a Rachel issue. If you’re team Rachel, you’re angry her game is over. If you don’t like Rachel, you’re glad she’s gone. I know some fans were going to be upset if Rachel didn’t win this season no matter how it ended. For the record, I am NOT one of those people. I’d be just as irritated if Kelley had been the person who left Thursday night.
As Ava says, frankly, I don’t want there to be a 2 time winner anyway. Don’t ask me why because I don’t really have a reason. Maybe it’s because if we were ever going to have one, it should’ve happened on BB14 with Dan. He played the best strategic game I’ve ever seen played to this day and he still lost. Don’t get me wrong, Ian’s a fine winner and he played a very winnable game. Dan just played a far superior one. Whatever, that’s a rabbit hole I could go down and write about for hours so I’ll spare you. My point is, I’m not writing this from the perspective of someone who wanted Rachel to win this season. I think I’ve been honest in saying, this is the first time she’s played that I’ve kind of been rooting for her…a little bit. It still wasn’t going to bother me when she was evicted though.
Here’s my summary on the events from the weekend, as best as I’ve been able to piece them together. After Mickey’s eviction, there was some type of shuffleboard-ish game that Ava won. This didn’t give her the hoh for the week but instead, gave her the ability to start a chain of players to do a comp.
Apparently, Rachel asked Ava to pick her first but she touched/grabbed Ava’s arm in the process. (We have to read between the lines in these retells. Maybe Rachel almost ripped Ava’s arm out of the socket but maybe….Ava feels guilty for not understanding the strategy in the moment and she could be coming up with reasons to make herself feel better about it.) We see players try to justify their guilt all the time and it’s a normal human reaction. Remember when she yelled at Keanu during a veto comp? It sounded like Keanu had done something terrible but once we saw the episode, it was no big deal. I have a feeling this could be a similar situation.
The comp sounds similar to the hamster wheel from Reindeer Games. Each player does the challenge and each round, the next player has less time to do it. It keeps going until they reach the first player who can’t complete it. The gamble of this comp is figuring out when to take a turn. If you go early, you have a lot more time to do it but you risk being eliminated. However, if you try to be one of the last ones to go, you may not have to do it at all. As soon as someone can’t do it, the comp’s over. If everyone ahead of you successfully completes it and you’re at the end, you have to do it but have very little time.
This competition worked great on Reindeer Games and I loved it. I also liked the safety chain idea when they did it on BB Canada. (They did a safety chain where the last two people not chosen for safety were the nominees for the week) Say Ava wins the shuffleboard comp, becomes the hoh and still starts a safety chain. The last 2 or 3 picked would be the noms. There’s still a social aspect to picking the noms that way. There’s also strategy because you need to know who the person you pick is going to pick next. Who you pick can also give away who you value the most in the game. (Love the concept for doing this!)
Anyway, this worked great for Reindeer games and you know why? Reindeer Games was about a 1 week time investment for the players, not 60 days in! On top of that, the premise of Reindeer Games was about winning the comps with very little strategy factored into it. Reindeer Games is NOT the game of BB.
This wasn’t really a safety chain. It was a competition order chain. Ava chose Vince, Vince chose Lauren, Lauren chose Morgan and Morgan chose Rachel. (The rest of the picks arn’t relevant and that’s bullshit too) When it got to Rachel’s turn, she couldn’t complete (what sounds like a maze) in the allotted time. Rachel was eliminated from the game.
Next, the ONLY people who competed for hoh were the people who did the maze comp. That meant only Vince, Lauren and Morgan’s times counted. Only 3 people were in the running for hoh…this far into the season! Lauren became the new hoh. Lauren nominated Will, Ashley and Morgan. If you’re keeping score, Rachel wasn’t nominated, didn’t play in a veto and block buster, didn’t campaign for votes or be voted out by her hg’s. On top of that, neither Will or Ashley got to compete for the hoh and ended up on the block anyway.
Starting to see the problem? One player was eliminated and 2 other players were nominated solely based on a competition they didn’t even get to compete in. To quote Ava this weekend, “I feel like I’m on the fucking challenge. This isn’t big brother.” I agree, I don’t write about The Challenge and don’t want to but I feel like that’s where we are.
I think a lot of people have been clouded by whether or not they like Rachel and thats not what this is about. Picture your favorite player, not this season, picture your fave of all time. Maybe its Dan, Danielle or Derrick if your favorite was a strategist. Maybe its Donnie from BB16 or Jordan from BB11 if you like the social gamers. Whoever it is, picture them in a game for 60 DAYS playing hard. Suddenly, they can’t do a 3 minute maze and they’re gone. No nomination, no chance at veto, no chance to campaign and no vote from their fellow hg’s. Instead, they’ve just been “eliminated” and off camera too. (Notice how production is even calling it eliminated? Even they’re acknowledging Rachel wasn’t evicted and this is different)
We didn’t even get to see the elimination, there wasn’t a Thursday night episode, no goodbye messages and no chat with Julie. Just 60 days invested, time away from their job and/or family and boom, its over. I’m sorry but thats not big brother. This is something else that I don’t recognize. The point is to be nominated by an HOH, you’re supposed to campaign and strategize and try to get the votes to stay. We’re also supposed to SEE them giving it the effort to stay.
If I’d watched my favorite player work for 60 days, only to be unceremoniously removed off camera, I’d be pissed too. If this is a player I didn’t like, I’d still be pissed. I’d want to see them be nominated, put on the block and have to campaign. I’d want to see them try to save their game in a veto comp. I’d also want to see the people they didn’t get along with or maybe treated badly vote their ass out.
The strategic and social part of the game just stopped Thursday night so this isn’t about Rachel leaving. It’s about everything to do with this game except comps ending 3 weeks before the finale. Even Keanu sat talking to himself and said it shouldn’t have ended the way it did. Depending on the day, he either wanted them in the F2 or he wanted to take Rachel out himself. Kelley certainly wanted the opportunity to take Rachel out and we deserved to see her try to do it too.
The many alumni who’ve been on social media this weekend saying this is bullshit aren’t all friends of Rachel. Most of them are upset because they also realize this isn’t the show we love. When you have the fans who watch the show, alumni who played the game, AND the people who report on the live feeds and discuss game strategy ALL saying this is bullshit, it’s bullshit!
Not only that, even the players still in the house think this is stupid. Many of the conversations this weekend have been about this just being a competition show now. Will, Ashley and Ava have all discussed how they’ve wasted their time the past two months. They’ve said all the work they put into having a social game didn’t matter. They said they shouldn’t have bothered. This isn’t your typical whining because they’re on the block. I agree with everything they’re saying. (Almost everyone in the house has complained and they’ve done it so much, the feeds have started cutting away from them when they do it) Lauren and Kelley will be doing it too soon. I think they just haven’t done it as much because they’re safe this week and Rachel’s gone. Even Vince, who wanted Rachel out, thinks it sucks.
They also found out the block buster didn’t end when jury started so naturally, they’re confused. Any alliances or social game is out the window when you have to potentially nominate over half the house. This isn’t confirmed, but they’re also speculating that the type of comp Rachel went out on might continue too.
It seems production takes one step forward and 20 steps back all the time. The AI Arena was a success so they brought it back. Great, no problem but like they usually do, they find a way to take a good thing and ruin it. It’s the first twist since the veto that actually made sense and didn’t help a majority alliance get even further ahead. People like Kelley and Keanu have been on the outs all season and would’ve been gone if not for the block buster. I actually like this addition to the game but not to the point where it doesn’t make sense anymore. Productions like that one relative or friend we all probably have, who over seasons their food when they cook. You know the one I’m talking about? The one who thinks ‘if a little garlic is good, then a shit ton of garlic must make it better.’
Finally, I’d like to address why I think many of us care so much. If you’re a casual viewer of the show, you’re probably not even reading this, but just in case, let me explain. First, there aren’t many shows people can say they’ve watched for 25 years. To put it in perspective, I haven’t been married to my husband for 25 years or had my job for 25 years. My son is 29 so I’ve known him 4 years longer than I’ve been watching this show.
Second, there’s no other show like it because of the live feeds. I accepted long ago that AFP is usually chosen by people who don’t know as much about these people as we do. That’s fine, there are more tv only viewers than live feeders and the producers have episodes they need to produce. The edit they give some of the players has ALOT to do with who wins AFP. They can have that because I get the experience of basically watching an entirely different show by watching the live feeds. It’s 2 different experiences and that’s okay.
Third and lastly, it’s the live feed experience and the time commitment to it that makes it different. Taran Armstrong recently said on his podcast “we live with these people and they live with us.” I quoted him because I couldn’t have said it better. They live with us every day and every night and for 3 months of every year. For some of us, (depending on when you started watching) that’s a quarter of every year, for 25 years.
Most of your favorite shows probably come on once a week for a couple of months. If you’re out of town for work or on vacation, maybe you catch it airing wherever you are or maybe you record it and watch it later. BB is different because what other show experience let’s you see what’s going on in real time, almost any time you want? What other show can you grab your phone and see what’s happening in the middle of the night, when maybe you just woke up to pee? Big Brother is different and it’s supposed to be different. That’s what makes it appealing to watch.
It’s what makes grown ass adults be okay with watching other grown ass adults get slimed, wear chicken costumes and many other stupid things that would fit better on a kid’s show. We sit thru silly gimmicks, scripted DR’s and fart segments on the episodes. We do this because we still get to have our separate game playing out in real time on the feeds. Hell, we even have our own lingo. Single words or small phrases mean something different to us. How many of you have been in a group setting and heard someone say “but first, ride or die, under the bus, let’s go” and thought about BB, even if just for a moment? There’s other things that are as tradition to us as holidays and the super bowl. People who don’t watch this show don’t know what it means to hear “hoh, otev, the wall, BB Comics, zingbot.”
Even production doing a stupid twist to either slow down or completely screw up the endgame is a tradition at this point too. It’s something we’ve come to expect and laugh about. (It’s the ‘how will they fuck it up this year’ joke) They never think these twists through and it costs them too when you think about it. Do you think they wanted Rachel eliminated like this? Hell no! They wanted Rachel on that block, crying and having a tantrum if she didn’t win the veto and begging people to keep her when she campaigned. They always do shit like this, but this time they’ve gone too far. They’ve actually broken their own game.
I can’t speak for anyone else but I’ve tried to explain the best I can why I was so pissed off this weekend. I’ve also tried to demonstrate how this has nothing to do with Rachel Reilly. This is about people working on a show they obviously don’t care about anymore. It’s people coming up with twists they don’t fully understand. It’s people who overused the garlic so badly, the final product isn’t edible anymore.
If you’ve managed to hang with me this long, thank you and I appreciate you. I wanted the chance to talk about it from a different perspective. Maybe if you think differently now, I’ve changed your mind this morning. If you have a different perspective, leave me a comment and maybe you’ll change my mind. Selfishly, I also needed to get all this off my chest. If I’m being honest, it’s the only way I was going to be able to keep coming back here 3 or 4 days a week to finish out the season. There simply won’t be much to talk about anymore.
As for the feeds, Morgan is still riding high from her veto win. Will hurt himself during the comp so won’t be able to do anything in the block buster comp, unless it’s something he can do standing still. Talk continues about the weird relationship between Morgan and Vince.
Lauren gathered enough courage to talk to Keanu and tell him he would be the replacement nom, which may have happened by the time I’m done writing. Keanu put up a good fight and made arguments as to why it shouldn’t be him. The problem is, his arguments only apply if Lauren wants to keep him in the game and use him as a pawn. Keanu doesn’t realize he isn’t the pawn. He’s the new target since Morgan isn’t available. Keanu said he can’t believe he kept her safe last week for her to do this to him this week. (Rachel tried to tell him that Lauren wouldn’t value his game but you know, Keanu knows everything)
Kelley made a push to Lauren last night to try and make the replacement nom Vince. You’d think after things that have happened this season, Kelley could figure out Vince is an ally of Lauren’s but no. Kelley may be the only person loving life this weekend because Rachel left. She still doesn’t understand the game at all. Kelley said, “Rachel said if you come for the queen, you’ll lose your head. Looks like I still have my head.” (Well ya, but Kelley didn’t come for her, production did)
Morgan and Vince tried to give Ashley tips if the block buster comp is the one with all the ropes. Morgan wants Keanu gone because he he’s coming after her. Vince wants Keanu gone because Keanu keeps telling Vince that Morgan and Lauren need to go next. Keanu doesn’t understand he’s not in Vince’s end game plans. I think Vince has wanted to bring Lauren to the final 2 for a while now. Even if he didn’t, I think he does now. Both Ashley and Will told Vince and Morgan they didn’t respect Lauren’s game. They said they would even vote for Kelley over her in a F2. What they were really telling Vince without realizing it was, you should take lauren to the final 2.
There was more talk about how it’s just a competition show at this point. Most of them have agreed, there’s not much need to talk strategy anymore. (soooo much fun for us, right?) Will even said he doubts anyone’s watching the live feeds at this point since there isn’t much gaming to do. Basically, they’re just sitting around waiting for Keanu to beat them in the block buster on Thursday, have Ashley be evicted and then see if they have to do another elimination style comp.
Morgan’s still playing with the M&M’s and trying to talk strategy nonstop. It’s not because there’s anything she needs to strategize over. It’s because she’s one of those players who doesn’t know how to turn it off.
I’m sorry ya’ll but this is where we are and probably because the producers couldn’t seem to plan out their final weeks of the show. Yes, I believe most of this is happening because of scheduling incompetence. It just turned into a way to speed shit up and get to the final 2 for the finale. If they need to speed it up that bad, why don’t we just do one long endurance comp and the last one standing is the winner of BB27. At this point, it wouldn’t be any worse.
I’m sorry my pictures today don’t make much sense but my heart just wasn’t in it. On average, I have somewhere between four and six hours of time invested in every recap. Obviously, I’m not writing that long but getting my screenshots, cropping them and trying to make them relevant to what I’m saying is time consuming. I’m expecting the rest of the season to suck, I don’t give a damn who wins at this point, but I promise to get my shit together and do better for you on Wednesday. Have a great Monday.
Mel
