by David McAlpine

When we last left Big Brother 11, Jeff started having second thoughts about his final four with Jordan, Russell and Michele. After some last-minute strategizing, Russell was evicted unanimously (the first one of the season, too!), leaving Michele without an ally in the house. The final five minus Jeff were left to slip and slide across the backyard in yet another endurance-ish competition for HoH.

So, picking up where we left off, all four houseguests are slipping everywhere and falling on their butts, though some more than others. And by some, I mean Jordan and Natalie—it was downright embarrassing. From the start, it was clear that it was a competition between Michele and Kevin, but Kevin seemed to have a groove down. By the time he was almost done, Michele was only three-quarters of the way there, so he had it locked up. After a last-minute panic, Kevin pulls the marshmallow out and wins HoH for the week.

So now there’s yet another power shift, but this late in the game it makes things a lot more interesting. Only two people are safe from nomination, and one of them is obviously Natalie (unless Kevin is going to be worse than Marcellas at this game). Who will the other one be? That’s the question on everyone’s mind at this point. Jeff thinks it’s him, because he saved Kevin, Jordan seems to wish it was her, but thinks it will be Jeff, and Michele…well, all she can do at this point is cry.

But the deep stuff doesn’t end there. This episode made me feel a lot more superficial than reality tv should, you know? Regardless, it was touching to hear Kevin’s letter from home and how Jordan lost her house—but it doesn’t change the fact that I don’t think anyone in the house deserves to win this game but Jeff.

Now, I assumed that Kevin would just put Jeff and Jordan up and call it a day because of how badly Natalie has wanted to put those two up and we all know that Natalie usually gets her way. However, after the drawn out HoH competition (no joke, it lasted 12 minutes of the episode), the hate against Michele is drawn out even more. What is the basis of hating on this girl? She hasn’t done anything terribly wrong to merit all this backtalking.

And yet it goes on and on as Jeff and Jordan try to prod Kevin to put up Michele instead of the two of them. Judging on what was said last week and how much Kevin wanted to put up Jeff, I didn’t really believe that he would even consider this, but it’s clear that the wheels are turning in Natalie’s head…which means they’ll soon be turning in the HoH’s head. Natalie makes the point that next week could be a memory competition, which Michele is really good at. So, all of a sudden, Kevin is considering ousting Michele.

Of course, Michele knows it. But she’s able to pull herself out of moping for a quick second to make her case to Kevin, and all of a sudden he’s back on getting Jeff out. Then Michele. Then Jeff. Though he wants Michele out, Kevin also wants to nominate Jeff because he doesn’t want Jeff winning veto and taking off Jordan, which would force Kevin to put up Natalie. In that scenario, Jeff and Jordan could do whatever they wanted, and Kevin doesn’t think he can trust them that much.

After more debate, it comes down to the power of pity vs. the “I kept my end of the deal,” and it’s really unclear which one is going to win out. At the nomination ceremony, Natalie gets her key, followed by…Jordan, which means that Jeff and Michele are nominated. Honestly, I didn’t think Kevin would have the cajones to go back on his word and nominate Jeff, but now that he did, a whole new dynamic has been added to the house. With the Power of Veto more important than ever, who’s going to be the one that falls short? My guess is that Michele is still toast, but she’s proven to be a fighter when she needs to be.

Tune in to Big Brother 11 on CBS on Tuesday at 9/8c to see who wins the Power of Veto and if they use it to save Jeff or Michele!

(Image courtesy of CBS and RealPlayer)

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