Hi y’all:

So, inside the house, the fall of Paulie is continuing.  To say that he is not taking being on the block well is an understatement.  In fact, it’s been a little scary to watch him this week.  Not since Audrey refused to get out of bed last season has a houseguest so totally and completely melted down as a result of being put on the block for eviction.

Probably not helping is that Paulie is currently having to do a punishment.  As a result of the veto competition, Paulie “won” something called “America’s Pie.”  Whenever a musical cue is played in the house, Paulie is supposed to drop everything that he’s doing and bake a pie.  This punishment is supposed to last until the end of the season, which does seem a bit extreme.  At first, Paulie said that he was just going to ignore the musical cue and take a penalty vote instead of complying.  Earlier today, when he heard the musical cue, Paulie responded by going out to the backyard and working out.  However, as I sit here typing this, Paulie is currently baking an apple pie so maybe he’s started to come around.

That said, I really can’t blame Paulie for being upset over his punishment.  Consider the other two veto punishments: Corey gets to dress up like Uncle Sam while Paul has to dress like a secret service agent.  (And, needless to say, Paul is loving his costume.)  Meanwhile, James won some money, Nicole won a trip to anywhere in the United States, and Victor won the veto.

When not complaining about having to bake pie, Paulie has been complaining about being on the block and the possibility of having to go to the jury house.  He has told both Nicole and James that he cannot handle the idea of being in the jury house.  Paulie says that he’s severely claustrophobic and wouldn’t be able to handle being locked up with the jury.  Of course, what’s strange about that is that Paulie has been locked up in the Big Brother House for the past two months and he hasn’t had any trouble with it.  According to James, the jury house is a lot bigger and nicer than the Big Brother house.

Nicole now thinks that Paulie might self-evict, just so he can avoid being on the jury.  I’m not sure what Paulie’s going to do.  A lot of houseguests have threatened to self-evict in the past but none have actually done it.

And the thing is, Paulie hasn’t totally given up on staying in the house.  Last night, he spent a while trying to convince Michelle to vote for him to stay.  (Michelle told him that she’d rather keep Paulie over Corey but who knows if she’s telling the truth.)  Earlier today, Paulie approached Victor and asked Victor to use the veto to save … Corey!

Paulie explained that he couldn’t campaign against his best friend and that it was unfair for both him and Corey to be on the block at the same time.  Paulie asked Victor to take Corey off the block and replace him with Natalie, so that Paulie could at least campaign to stay.  Victor, however, had absolutely zero sympathy for Paulie.  Victor pointed out that, when he was the evicted the first time, he was backdoored.  He wasn’t even given the chance to play for the veto and save himself.  By nominating him upfront, Victor gave Paulie more of a chance than Paulie gave Victor.

Tomorrow is the veto ceremony!  Victor has made clear that he’s not going to use the veto so, unless he self-evicts, it looks like Paulie will be voted out on Thursday.  Will Paulie have the return ticket, as a commenter going by the name of “I Know” has suggested?  Paulie has said that even if he has the return ticket, he’s so burned out that he doesn’t even want to play the game anymore.

We’ll see what happens!

Lisa Marie

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Hi, everyone!

You know, I’ve been watching Paulie since he was nominated and I really have to wonder: would Paulie have had any chance of getting on Big Brother if he wasn’t Cody’s brother?

I mean, don’t get me wrong.  I know that the main reason Paulie was selected was because he was Cody’s brother.  But, up until a few days ago, I really thought that Paulie was the type of player who could have gotten on the show on his own.  Unlike say Tiffany or Elissa from Big Brother 15, Paulie seemed like a legitimately strong player.  He was good-looking (or, at least, he was until Paul cut his hair) and he seemed to have a good social game and he was athletic.  Even as I slowly started to dislike Paulie, I still thought he was someone who could have gotten on Big Brother on his own.

But this week, I’ve seen a new side to Paulie.  Ever since he’s been nominated for eviction, Paulie has been whining nonstop, to the extent that he even cried.  And, after Victor won the Veto comp earlier today, Paulie has been saying that if he’s evicted, he won’t even go to the jury house.  He’ll go home and, I assume, he’ll give up whatever money he would have received for serving on the jury.

It’s not only incredibly immature but it’s also a sign of his own sense of entitlement.  It’s obvious that Paulie felt that he was destined to win the game.  It appears that it never even occurred to him that he could potentially be voted out.  This is one reason why I don’t like it when production recruits players.  Recruits always think that they’re special and that they’re going to be untouchable in the game.

Consider this season.  It’s still debatable how many of the newbies were recruited, though we know that several of them were.  (At the very least, Jozea, Bronte, Natalie, and Paul were all recruited.)  We know that both Tiffany and Paulie were recruited because of their siblings.  And, of course, the returning players were all approached by production.  Watching them, it’s obvious that all of the recruits were led to believe that they would be big stars during this season.  It’s also obvious that none of them (with the possible exception of Paul and Da’Vonne) were psychologically or emotionally ready to play this game.

And that’s why the season has featured so many players who apparently had neither the desire nor the knowledge necessary to play the game.  They didn’t feel like they had to know what they were doing.  They felt that, as recruits, they would have an easy time in the house.  Unlike the fans who apply every season, these recruits didn’t have to fight or struggle to get into the Big Brother house.  Unlike the occasional fan who manages to get in the house, the recruits aren’t focused on winning the money.  In fact, many of them don’t even need the money.  Instead, recruits are simply happy to have a chance to appear on television and hopefully promote their own careers.  James said it best when he explained that he wasn’t focusing on the game because he believed that production and the viewers wanted him to see him play pranks instead.

Just a few weeks ago, I would have said that Paulie was one of the most confident guys in the house but that’s actually not true.  Watching him now, it’s easier to see that his previous confidence was more a case of entitlement.  He played like he wasn’t worried about being voted out because he sincerely believed that he would never be voted out.  Like many recruits, he probably assumed that production had his back.  What may have seemed like strategy was instead just arrogance.

After today’s veto competition (which involved Zingbot and will be broadcast on Wednesday), Paulie told Corey that, before the season began, his therapist had wondered if Paulie was actually stable enough to enter the house.  Paulie also said that, when asked if he was in therapy, he lied to production.

And don’t get me wrong — there’s nothing wrong with being in therapy.  But, watching him over the past few days, it’s become obvious just how emotionally unstable and generally immature Paulie really is.  Paulie probably never should have been put in the house.  He had a good run but his post-nomination behavior has revealed him to be a far weaker player than he initially seemed to be.

The lesson to be learned from this season is really the same lesson that should have been learned from the previous three seasons: No more recruits!  No more relatives!  No more friends of former Big Brother houseguests.  No more returning players!

Instead, let’s hope that someday, we get a season where the Big Brother house is full of players who have actually applied to be on the show.  Give us some houseguests who actually love the show as much as we do.  Give us a season where the season’s stars haven’t been pre-determined ahead of time.

Give us the Big Brother that we all remember and love!

Here’s hoping,

Lisa Marie

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Hi everyone!

Remember how, just a few days ago, I announced that Paulie was going to win this season?  In fact, I think I ordered you to “mark the date.”  Paulie’s superhuman, I declared.  He can do anything!  There’s no way he is ever getting voted out of the house!  No one can beat him!  No matter what we think of him, there’s no way that Paulie’s going to lose!  Paulie is going to win it all!

Uhm … yeah.

About that…

Apparently, I spoke too soon.  Paulie did manage to survive the double eviction but it’s going to be a struggle for him to survive this week.  Victor, Paul, James, Natalie, and Michelle have all turned against him.  Paulie has gone from leading an all-powerful alliance to having exactly two allies in the house: Corey and Nicole.

In short, everyone got smart … well, maybe that’s giving them too much credit.  To be honest, it’s more like Paul got smart and realized that Paulie had to go.  With Victor as HoH, I’m sure Paulie was feeling safe but, instead, he’s on the block.

That’s right.  This week’s nominations are Paulie and Corey.  If either one of them wins the veto, Michelle will go up as a pawn but the plan is to get rid of one of those two during this week.

Nicole, oddly enough, is safe.  America sent her a care package and she won safety for the week.  To be honest, I think America just wanted make her wear a silly costume.  If you think Nicole’s been whiny so far, just imagine what she’ll be like if Corey is evicted while she’s wearing a silly costume.

Speaking of Nicole, she is now the only houseguest to have never been nominated during this season.  Considering how much everyone appears to distrust her, it’s interesting that Nicole hasn’t been targeted yet.

Anyway, that’s what is happening in the house right now!  It should be an interesting week as Paulie tries to convince everyone not to vote him out.  However, I think it may be too late for him to change anyone’s mind.  Natalie and James are certainly never going to vote for him, not after what he said to Natalie last week.  Michelle can’t stand him.  Paul views him as being a threat.  Nicole isn’t going to vote out Corey.  Victor may not have cared who was evicted during his first HoH but he definitely cares now because he still blames Paulie for the first time he was evicted.

In other words, I think it’s going to be “Bye bye, Paulie.”

We’ll see what happens!

Lisa Marie

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Hi everyone!

If you haven’t seen Thursday night’s double eviction yet (and I know that it has been preempted by football in some cities), then be warned that this post is full of spoilers!  Proceed with caution, unless you don’t mind finding out what happened before seeing it firsthand.

Okay, so tonight was the double eviction episode and, like almost all double eviction episodes, it was a bit of a mixed bag for everyone involved.  It never got quite as bad as that time Judd was voted out because everyone thought he was America’s player but, at the same time, I know that a lot of watchers were disappointed with the ultimate result.

The first part of the double eviction went off as planned.  James used his advantage to cancel out the votes of Corey and Paul.  I was hoping that he’d be allowed to announce his picks in private and then everyone would vote without knowing whose two votes had been nullified.  But instead, he had to announce his picks in front of all the houseguests.  Considering that Big Brother didn’t give James any choice about whether or not to use the power nor the option of pretending that he didn’t have the power, that seemed a little unfair to me.

But no matter!  The votes were cast and, by a vote of 3-2, Zakiyah was evicted from the house.  (Paulie and Nicole voted to evict Michelle while everyone else voted to evict Zakiyah.)  Judging from the look on Zakiyah’s face, I suspect that she may have known what was going to happen.  Neither she nor Paulie looked as shocked as they should have.

Zakiyah did not have the return ticket so she was sent to the jury house.

The game continued.  Corey suddenly came out of nowhere and won HoH.  After talking to the boys in the house — and not any of the women — Corey nominated Michelle and Bridgette for eviction.  Corey then won the veto.

Before the votes were cast, Bridgette gave her usual incoherent speech.  Then Michelle stood up and yelled that she knew she was about to be evicted and then called Nicole a snake.

However, Michelle was wrong.  Only Natalie voted to evict Michelle.  Everyone else voted for Bridgette, which just goes to show that absolutely nobody in the house takes Michelle that seriously.  Bridgette was evicted and did not have the return ticket.  So now, Bridgette can go to the jury house and talk to Da’Vonne about how much she loves Frank.

Anyway, the end result of the Double Eviction was that things pretty much remained the same.  If Paulie had been evicted, it would have been a major shift in the power.  But, once Corey won HoH, that plan went out the window.  Paulie may have lost Zakiyah but, in the end, he was still in control of who went next.

Anyway, after all that, it was time to play for HoH again.  The feeds went down but they have now come back and it appears that Victor won HoH for a second time!  We’ll find out what that means when he makes his nominations tomorrow but, if I had to guess, I’d say that we’re about to have another week of Paulie and Paul running the house.

One final note: Paul has been wearing a duck floatie for almost the entire day.  He’s still wearing it.  Paul is, without a doubt, the most annoying person I have ever seen in my life.

Lisa Marie

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Hi everyone!

Well, it looks like the show is finally going to get interesting tomorrow night!  Up until last night, Michelle appeared to be a goner.  But now, it appears that James, Natalie, Paul, and Bridgette have changed their minds.  James is going to use his special “America’s choice” powers to cancel out Paulie’s vote.

(Will he have to announce, before the vote, whose vote he is cancelling or is it something he’ll be allowed to do in private?  I’m not sure.)

Unless somebody decides to let her know ahead of time, Zakiyah is going to be blind-sided.  As of right now, the plan appears to be to evict Zakiyah, nominate Corey and Nicole for eviction, and then backdoor Paulie is either one of them win veto.  (I can understand not going after Paulie directly — Paulie is a strong competitor and if he was nominated and then won the veto, chances are that he would be so mad that he’d win HoH and come after whoever nominated him.)

So, with all thing going on, it’s time to …

OPEN UP THE DIARY ROOM!

Cast your vote in the comments or use the poll over on the right side of the page.  Do you vote to evict…

MICHELLE, the mean girl who cries a lot

or

ZAKIYAH, the mean girl who flirts a lot?

Cast your vote and, while you’re at it, let us know who you’d like to see evicted during the 2nd half of tomorrow’s double eviction!

And then be sure to watch on Thursday!

It should be fun!

Lisa Marie

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Hi y’all!

I am so confused right now, and by that I mean that I’m even more confused than usual.  I have been trying to keep track of who is going to be voted out on Thursday and the target has changed so many times that it’s become a real struggle to keep up.

When the nominations were first announced, it appeared that Zakiyah was going to be the target.  After all, Zakiyah was Da’Vonne’s best friend in the house and Paulie was making little secret of how little their showmance actually meant to him.  If anything, Paulie seemed to feel that evicting Zakiyah would be a good way to break up with her.

(And, considering that Bridgette’s creepy Frank crush has turned into a creepy Paulie crush, it’s not like Paulie would have to worry about being single for long.)

But then Paulie reconsidered and he decided that he’d like to keep Zakiyah around for a little while longer.  So, despite refusing to save her with the veto, Paulie still told everyone that they needed to vote out Michelle.

And, for once, some of the houseguests actually thought for themselves and realized that there was no good reason to keep Zakiyah.  While Michelle is a free agent who is desperately in need of an alliance, Zakiyah has shown that she will always do anything that Paulie tells her to do.  If you want to weaken Paulie as a player, the only logical move (other than nominating and evicting him) is to evict Zakiyah.

And so, James told Natalie that he was thinking of canceling out Paulie and Corey’s votes with the power that he got from America’s Care Package.  This would leave only five people voting and then he, Natalie, and a third person would vote to evict Zakiyah.

(Of course, everyone in the house knows that James has this power and he’s promised Zakiyah that he will use the power to help her out.  Of course, he also promised Michelle the same thing.  Apparently, James has to use the power on someone.  Just saying, “I choose not to cancel anyone’s votes,” is not an option.)

So, anyway, it looked like Michelle would be safe but then she made the mistake of trying to campaign.  She talked to Paul and she told him that, if he voted to keep her, she would go after a “big target” in the house.  Paul ran off and told this to Paulie and then Paulie told everyone else.

That was a big mistake on Michelle’s part.  As soon as James heard that Michelle was talking about going after “big targets,” he immediately assume that meant she was saying she was going to come after James and Natalie.  As well, both Nicole and Paulie are now even less inclined to keep Michelle around.  If Michelle had kept quiet or instead continued to point out that Zakiyah will never betray Paulie, she’d probably be okay.  Instead, she managed to alienate almost the entire house.

So now, James is probably going to cancel the vote of Paul and maybe Natalie, just so Natalie doesn’t “get any blood on her hands.”  That’s not good news for Michelle and right now, it looks like she’ll be a unanimous eviction.

EXCEPT … earlier tonight, Bridgette was having a conversation with Michelle.  Bridgette said that she wants to shake up the house so maybe she’ll vote to keep Michelle.  She even said that she was over some of the fights that they had earlier this season.  Is Bridgette telling the truth?  Maybe — but then again, I don’t really see Bridgette have the courage to go against the house.

Probably Michelle’s biggest obstacle is that Thursday is a double eviction.  As soon as the houseguests learn that, they will probably decided to just get rid of the easy target because, otherwise, they’ll put huge targets on their backs during the second part of the double eviction.  And right now, the easy target is Michelle.

We’ll see what happens but right now, I think Michelle will be joining Da’Vonne at the jury house.  (Even if Michelle has the return ticket, I imagine she’d just be re-evicted during the double eviction.)

Lisa Marie

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Hi y’all!

Seriously, where is the anger in this house?  We’ve seen bullying.  We’ve seen pettiness.  We’ve seen a lot of crying.  We’ve seen a lot of cattiness and dishonesty and all the rest.  But where is the anger?  Is there no one in the house who is willing to stand up and say, “We’re sick of being pawns and we’re going to change things around!?”  Is there no one willing to say, “It’s time make a big move because we’re sick and tired of being at the mercy of the whims of just two guys!?”  Is there no one willing…

Oh, why even bother to come up with a third example?  We already know the answer.  At heart, these houseguests are not fighters.  They’re far too content to just spend the summer hanging out in the backyard.  They’re too easy going.  They’re not willing to make big moves because a big move might mean that someone gets mad and yells a little.

In short, it’s all very high school inside the house right now.  Paulie is the class president who everyone secretly hates.  Paul is dorky little sidekick, who no one can stand but they feel like they have to stay on his good side because he’s friends with Paulie.  Corey, Nicole, and Victor are kind of in the popular clique but aren’t popular enough to actually be leaders.  James and Natalie are the class clowns.  And Bridgette, Michelle, and Zakiyah are the kids who, for various reasons, are destined to always be on the outside.

And really, Bridgette, Michelle, and Zakiyah should all three be furious right now.  They should be getting together and plotting and scheming.  They should be begging James and Natalie to help them stage a coup against Paul and Paulie.  And yet, none of them are doing that.

Earlier today, at the veto meeting, Paulie did not use the veto.  No shock there.  What is shocking is that both Michelle and Zakiyah seem to be okay with that.  Zakiyah, especially, should be furious.  And yet, both of them seem to have accepted the fact that they’re on the block and that one of them is going to be voted out on Thursday.

And right now, it looks like the plan is to vote out Michelle.  That’s what Paulie wants.  However, James has the power to take away two votes and earlier today, he was telling Natalie that he’s thinking about using it to keep Paul and Paulie from voting.  He feels that he can work with Michelle, whereas Zakiyah is always going to be Paulie’s servant.

And he’s absolutely right.

What’s sad, of course, is that James figured this out on his own.  Michelle didn’t approach him and make this case.  If Michelle stays, it’ll be because James decided, on something of a whim, to keep her around.

Of course, the thing with James is that he’s always talking about potentially making a huge move.  But, when push comes to shove, he almost always ends up playing safe.  If he doesn’t use his care package powers on Thursday night, they’ll go away forever.

In short, James needs to remember that America gave him the power to take away two votes because, in theory, they thought he could use them to make a big move.  If he doesn’t and if he gives away the biggest advantage that he’s had in the game so far, then it will be very hard for me to continue to hope that he makes it to the end of the game.

Seriously, it’s great that James is likable.  But at some point, he needs to start playing the game.

They all do.

Lisa Marie

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Hi everyone!

Well, after watching the latest episode of Big Brother, I feel a little bit guilty.  I was really critical of Michelle for crying so much after she discovered she was nominated.  I saw her laying in bed and sobbing and talking about how she felt like she was about to throw up and I thought to myself, “Girl, stop whining.  It’s Big Brother!”

But then I watched Sunday’s episode and, for the first time, I got to see the nomination ceremony.  I heard what Victor said to her and Zakiyah after he nominated them.  I watched as he tossed beads at them.  And, as I watched, I actually started to appreciate Michelle’s restraint.  She may have cried but she didn’t leap over the table and try to rip Victor’s eyes out of their sockets.  That’s what I would have done and I imagine I would have been kicked off the show as a result.

To be honest, there really hasn’t been a truly good nomination speech this season yet.  We all want interesting and memorable speeches but we also don’t want speeches that are cruel.  It’s never fun to watch someone being bullied and that’s what Victor’s speech was.  I still think the worst nomination speech of the season was Bridgette’s incoherent babbling during week 3 but Victor came in a close second.

Seriously, Victor is a such a jerk!  I can’t believe that I wanted him to come back into the house.  And what’s especially annoying is that Victor isn’t just a jerk — he’s a dumb jerk as well!  During tonight’s episode, he told us that Da’Vonne told him, “They are going to vote you out next.”

Then he added, “But I don’t know who ‘they’ are.”

ARE YOU SERIOUS, VICTOR!?

It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out that Da’Vonne was talking about the exact same people — Paulie and Paul, in specific — who has just engineered her eviction.  But apparently, that required too much thought on Victor’s part so he decided to just ignore what Da’Vonne told him.  And then he promptly allied himself with Paul and Paulie.

And yes, the new all-boy alliance is called The Executives.  Corey, Victor, Paul, Paulie, and James are all Executives and why shouldn’t they be?  Since the remaining girls don’t seem to be planning on actually playing the game, the boys might as well form a second-rate Brigade and give themselves cutesy nicknames.

And, of course, within the Executives, there is another alliance.  The Board.  Victor, Paul, and Paulie.   Victor may think he has a final three deal with those two but I’m predicting they’ll still vote him out as soon as they get a chance.

As I watched Sunday’s show, I thought about impressions change over time.  When this season began, I really liked Michelle and I couldn’t stand Natalie.  Michelle was the dorky girl with the sarcastic sense of humor.  Natalie was the Spy Girl who was always carrying that big wooden spoon.  But, over the past week, I’ve realized that I’ve really changed my mind about both of them.  The minute that Michelle felt she had been accepted by the popular kids, she turned into a mean girl.  And the minute that Natalie got away from the Spy Girls, she became a lot more likable.

And by that same token, I thought Victor was a little dumb but otherwise well-meaning.  But after tonight’s episode, my opinion has changed.  I can’t wait for Victor to discover that his current “friends” aren’t planning on carrying him to the end.

As for what’s going on in the house right now:  Michelle and Zakiyah are on the block.  Paulie has the veto and he’s probably not going to use it.  Because yesterday’s veto comp ran for so long, the feeds have hardly been on since Thursday and it’s a little harder than usual to pinpoint who the number one target it.  I have a feeling that most of the houseguests would be happy with getting rid of either Zakiyah and Michelle.

If I was them, I would vote out Zakiyah because Zakiyah isn’t particularly good at comps.  If Zakiyah has the return ticket, they probably wouldn’t have to worry about her coming back in the house and then automatically winning HoH during the double eviction.  Michelle, on the other hand, has won a comp in the past.

That said, I think Michelle’s going to be voted out.  Paulie may be getting tired of Zakiyah but I don’t think he’s totally prepared to get rid of her just yet.

We’ll see what happens!

Lisa

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MARK THIS DATE!  It is August 6th and there’s still several more weeks to go but, right now, I am totally confident predicting who I think will win this season of Big Brother.  As of right now, I look at the house and I consider the people within and it seems to me that Paulie is pretty much the player to beat.  And, if things keep going the way that they are right now, Paulie is going to win Big Brother 18.

Seriously, can anyone stop Paulie?

I watch Paulie in this game and I find myself wondering if maybe he’s a hypnotist.  Somehow, he can magically convince people to do almost anything.  Even people who should be really angry at Paulie still do pretty much whatever he says.  It’s amazing that Frank was evicted because of his arrogance and yet nobody seems to mind when Paulie acts in much the same way.

Paulie has the power.  Even getting his hair destroyed by Paul has not lessened Paulie’s abilities.

Why do I think Paulie is going to win this game?  Because if the house hasn’t turned against him yet then it’s never going to.  Paulie has the magic.  Paulie is going to win.

Speaking of Paulie winning things, that what he did earlier today.  He won the veto!  Apparently, it was one of those challenges where the houseguests have to run through the house and search for stuff.  As a result, the house is a total mess right now.  The Big Brother voice has asked the guests to clean up but, if I was them, I would say, “You came up with the challenge, you come clean this stuff up!”

Anyway, Paulie has got the veto and he’s planning on keeping the nominations the same.  That’s right — he’s not going to use the veto on his showmance and he’s already been laughing about how mad Zakiyah is going to be towards him.

I would be mad, too.  In fact, I would probably dump him.  But we all know that’s going to happen.  Paulie won’t use the veto.  Zakiyah will be mad for a few hours.  And then she’ll probably go back to wondering what their children will look like.

That’s the power of Paulie and again, that’s why I saw mark this date.

Because today is the day that I predicted that Paulie is going to win Big Brother 18.

Of course, I could be totally wrong.  It happens!

We’ll find out,

Lisa Marie

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