Big Brother 18: Will Tiffany Survive?

Hi, everyone!

So, yesterday, I was totally convinced that Tiffany would be easily voted out on Thursday.  Even though the other houseguests (except for Frank) didn’t seem to be that enthusiastic about evicting Tiffany, I still assumed that they would go ahead and do it.  The best strategy in Big Brother is often to play it safe and voting out Tiffany is the safe option.  It keeps Frank from getting mad and it’s not like Tiffany really has any strong allies within the house.

And, as I sit here writing this, I still think that Tiffany will be voted out.  Even though almost everyone in the house hates Frank, he could still easily win HoH on Thursday night or someone else from Category 4 could win HoH and Frank would have immunity as a result.  As much as almost everyone in the house dislikes Frank, none of them want to get on his bad side until it’s absolutely necessary.  Say what you will about Frank, it’s a mistake to underestimate him as a player.  Frank may not have been HoH this week but he was able to persuade Bridgette to everything that he wanted.  He was even able to talk her into not using the veto to save one of her strongest allies in the house, Bronte.  Don’t underestimate the power of Frank.

But, at the same time, every one knows that the main reason Tiffany is on the block is because Frank dislikes her personally.   And by voting her out, they will not only be giving Frank what he wants but they’ll also be losing a potential future vote to evict him.

Of course, Tiffany hasn’t exactly helped herself this week.  When she was the first nominated, I complained about the fact that she got in bed and spent the entire day crying, instead of campaigning.  Well, now that Bridgette has declined to use the veto, Tiffany is out of bed and she is campaigning.  Unfortunately, Tiffany is a terrible campaigner.  Instead of telling people why she would be a good ally, she spends a lot more time trying to turn houseguests against each other.  Tiffany has a paranoid personality and her entire campaign to stay is built on the premise that everyone else is just as paranoid as she is.  Instead of concentrating on trying to convince people that they need to vote out Frank, Nicole, Corey, and a bunch of other houseguests who aren’t even nominated this week, Tiffany needs to give people a reason to keep her around.

If Tiffany does have anything going for her, it’s that nobody in the house really cares that much about either Paul or Bronte.  Nobody would really miss either one of them if they were voted out.  In fact, that’s one reason why this week has felt so weird.  There are three nominees and yet, because all three of them are either annoying or totally clueless, none of them are really viewed as a threat to win the game.  To a lot of the houseguests, it doesn’t matter who gets voted out this week.  They just want to vote out someone so that they can concentrate on getting rid of Frank.

And that’s why there’s a sliver of hope for Tiffany.  Nicole and Corey have both said that they’re willing to go against Frank’s wishes and keep Tiffany.  They were planning on targeting Bronte but then they talked to James, who said that he’d rather keep Bronte and get rid of Paul.  James told them that if they could get enough other houseguests to agree, he would be willing to go against Frank and vote out Paul.

Because there’s three nominees, it only takes 5 votes to evict someone.  If Nicole, Corey, and James voted to evict Paul, they would only have to convince two more houseguests to vote with them.  Unfortunately, finding those two houseguests is turning out to be more complicated than it should be.

Da’Vonne, for instance, said that she’d be willing to consider voting to evict either Bronte or Paul but only if she knows for sure that everyone else is going to keep their word and go after Frank next week.  Da’Vonne doesn’t trust anyone in the house.  Unfortunately, in order to make a big move, you occasionally have to be willing to trust other people.  Zakiyah was considering voting for Paul but then she talked to Paulie and Paulie told her that he doesn’t trust Tiffany.  Paulie thinks that Tiffany is more likely to come after him and Zakiyah than Bronte or Paul.

So, in short — is there a chance that Tiffany could stay?  Yes.  Nobody’s really happy about the way that Frank has run Bridgette’s HoH and keeping Tiffany would be a way to put Frank in his place.  However, Tiffany probably will be evicted because, sometimes, doing the easy thing is the best strategy.

We’ll see what happens!

Lisa Marie