July, 2016

There are two different experiences, both called “Big Brother”.

One is the television show Big Brother, as the CBS producers present it to broadcast tv audiences, three times per week. But the other is what is actually going on in the Big Brother house; the experience of the house guests, unfiltered — or at least less filtered — by television editors.

Fetchland presents Ruining Big Brother. It’s less “spoiling” Big Brother and more pulling back the curtain, to ruin our collective illusions about reality television. Enjoy! Or better yet, recoil in horror…

Daily BB House Stats:
HOH – Bridgette
HOH Nominated – TBD
Roadkill Comp Winner – TBD
RK Nominated – TBD
Veto Winner – TBD
Evicted – #1 Jozea #2 Victor
Battle Back challenge – Glenn, Jozea, Victor

22nd will be a special Battle Back episode of Big Brother

Have-Nots – Team Freakzoid: Nicole, Corey, Tiffany
Safe team this week – Category4: Frank, Michelle, Paulie, Bridgette

Team Big Sister: Da’vonne, Paul, Zakiyah
Team Category 4: Frank, Michelle, Paulie, Bridgette
Team Freakazoids: Nicole, Corey, Tiffany
Team Unicorn: James, Natalie, Bronte

The TV show misled us initially to make it seem like there was even a smidge of a chance the house might evict Tiffany on July 7th – there isn’t. One thing the beginning did get right, though, is Victor’s unrealistic and unfounded confidence. After this quick setup, the show revolves around Frank’s multitudinous shenanigans this week, starting with how he out-of-the-blue tells Paulie about the 8Pack.

Then we see the live eviction speeches and voting. Victor gave a weird stilted voice speech that set our teeth a bit on edge while Bronte and Tiffany gave typical I-know-I’m-safe speeches. Next Victor was evicted by a vote of 9-1. Although Paul was the one vote (against Bronte) he refuses to admit it later in the house discussions of the evening. It’s an interesting wild card that may or may not come up later. A smart seed to plant because Paul’s close to Bronte and thus could raise questions of loyalty among the others. Of course, it could also be forgotten but this is BB and that rarely happens. We’ll give you Example A of this below in the freak-out aftermath of the HOH competition.

In his exit interview with Julie, Victor says he kind of knew and felt like “a sitting duck” in the house. He felt like he did his best but we disagree. If he wanted to see an example of “doing his best” Victor could have watched Paul workin’ it. Julie suggests that Vic’s biggest problem might have been his big mouth and not keeping any secrets, including his Roadkill win. Victor responds that he thought his honesty would help him stay and was happy he kept his integrity intact. So, Victor’s not a Big Brother fan if he thinks this and thus doesn’t really belong in that house in our opinion… no matter how buff he may be.

Next we see the HOH competition. It’s called “Kiss My Ace,” a tennis-themed game that’s a lot like roulette. The challenge is between Paul and Bridgette at the final stage and then Bridgette wins it (LUCK) making all of Category4 safe for the week. This means nobody can nominate Frank this week and it turned out exactly as he wanted. We haven’t mentioned Bridgette much in our “Ruining BB18” posts (other than her baking) and there’s a reason for that. Bridgette can be summed up pretty well by what she said during the very first challenge on this season of Big Brother. The newly formed teams were all precariously balanced upon their respective rockets when Bridgette called out, “Follow your heart!” to cheer them on. Um, OK. Bridgette’s cheerful and positive, yes. But there’s no denying that she’s also a bit off. At least she meets our definition of it, head on. She’s all surface and shine but what’s goin’ on inside?

These types of shifts in the game are exactly what make Big Brother a thrill to watch, especially the feeds because the aftermath of this HOH was an all night scramble cage match. Before HOH house majority was gunning for Frank. One of the noteworthy issues in this Bridgette-as-HOH backlash was the Element A we mentioned earlier in this post. The Roadkill competition plants an intrinsic seed of doubt into the house each week because (presumably) the winner remains anonymous and thus nominates someone without fault. Everybody not in the winner’s loop then wonders who it was. Michelle brings this up while discussing Frank’s shenanigans and close ties to Bridgette. “What if we told Bridgette it was Frank who put her up via the Roadkill?” she asks Nicole. This wildcard could definitely help them in the future, if they choose to use it against Frank and establish some trust with Bridgette.

Given how things went on the night of July 7th, with Frank grabbin’ ass and taking flack (as he should) this strategy may come into play sooner rather than later. Turns out Frank hasn’t just been upsetting peeps with incessant whispering, farting, and striking deals. The guy can’t keep his hands to himself. Flashback to camera four at 1:27 AM on July 8th to see/hear for yourself. He smacks Mama Day on the butt AGAIN when she’d asked him to stop several times before. Corey and Paulie rush to comfort Day but Frank says, “It’s not like it’s the first time we’ve been joking around,” as if she was somehow complicit. Oh no, you didn’t. Frank acts like Mr. Innocent as if he can’t imagine why a grown woman would mind having her ass smacked in this way. This pisses off James and makes us love him – how he stands up for Mama Day’s honor. A real man in our midst! We love it! The drama and chills are guaranteed to continue. Stay tuned to Fetchland.com for all the daily feeds action and check out our twitter @RuiningBB18.

– Katherine Recap

There are two different experiences, both called “Big Brother”.

One is the television show Big Brother, as the CBS producers present it to broadcast tv audiences, three times per week. But the other is what is actually going on in the Big Brother house; the experience of the house guests, unfiltered — or at least less filtered — by television editors.

Fetchland presents Ruining Big Brother. It’s less “spoiling” Big Brother and more pulling back the curtain, to ruin our collective illusions about reality television. Enjoy! Or better yet, recoil in horror…

Daily BB House Stats:
HOH – Paulie
HOH Nominated – Victor, Bronte
Roadkill Comp Winner – Victor
RK Nominated – Tiffany
Veto Winner – Paulie
Evicted – #1 Jozea
Battle Back challenge – Glenn vs. Jozea

22nd will be a special Battle Back episode of Big Brother

Have-Nots – Team Big Sister: Da’vonne, Paul, Zakiyah

Team Big Sister: Da’vonne, Paul, Zakiyah
Team Category 4: Frank, Michelle, Paulie, Bridgette
Team Freakazoids: Nicole, Corey, Tiffany
Team Unicorn: James, Natalie, Victor, Bronte

The show initially focuses on Tiffany freaking out after her Roadkill nomination. They show her fight with Frank and the fun ferocious aftermath. Then Paul explains in the Diary Room that he drops his ties with Victor because he feels betrayed when info he told Victor in confidence gets back to him via Paulie. This was something we really didn’t see on the feeds. In fact, most of us just thought Paul was trying to save himself and that was it. The show gave us this info because when it’s time for Paul to pick a player for the veto Victor is surprised that he picks Zakiyah rather than him. It screws with Victor’s game a little. because now he can’t possibly save Paul or ensure his own safety. When Victor asks him about it, Paul plays dumb as if he doesn’t understand that winning Veto would have kept Victor safe. At the same time Paul makes it clear in the DR that he’s not as fooled by condescending Frank as he pretends to be. This is great for us to find out and without Paul’s Diary Room sessions we wouldn’t know it.

For the Veto competition there’s a toe theme, “The Tozarks” and a spelling challenge. Each letter houseguests  have to dig out of toe fungus has a point value (all betw 1-3) so the more letters you can fit into a word the more points you get. So, the real goal is to create a nice long word. Paulie says he’s a “fan of spelling” in the Diary Room and it shows. He locks in his big ol’ word in good time. Paul’s word “slouched” is worth nine points. Tiffany’s is “twinkling,” worth ten points. Mama Day’s word is “redemption” but it’s only worth nine points. Zak’s “duration” is worth six points and Bronte spelled “powerful” worth ten points thus tying with Tiffany. But because Bronte rang in first, she’s now in the lead over Tiff. Lastly, we learn that Paulie’s word is “sustainability” also worth ten points but because he locked in his word before Bronte, he wins the Golden Power of Veto. The guy’s all powerful.

At the end of the July 6th TV show we see the Veto ceremony where Paulie takes Paul off the block. It’s clear he does it because he thinks Paul picking Zakiyah over Victor to play Veto with him was a “sign of loyalty”. In fact, it was more than that, we now know. The Veto ceremony gives us the opportunity to hear the speeches we missed watching the feeds. Tiff’s was short and sweet, as was Bronte’s whereas Paul meditated a bit on the “power of friendship”. He then chuckles to himself when Paulie pulls him off the block mumbling about the “power of friendship” as if the speech is why he’s now safe for the week. Meanwhile his buddy, Victor, goes up on the block and seems truly destined to go home tomorrow night on Thursday’s live show.

The July 6th feeds were like a game of Duck, Duck, Goose with mad whispering all around in circles. The topics ranged from one alleged showmance to the next and various alliances as well. The main point made about showmances involved Day and Tiff agreeing that as long as Zak and Nic were semi-coupled with Paulie and Corey, they can’t be 100% trusted. Bridgette and Bronte also talk openly with Natalie about her connection with James a bit. They say they’ll always help Natalie over James if they went up on the block together. It’s a sweet showmance, watching Natalie and James because they do seem to just genuinely like each other. On the other hand, when Nicole says things like, “Sometimes I just don’t even hear what Corey’s saying because he’s so handsome,” we can imagine Nic’s mother watching and shaking her head (we picture her wearing a giant cheese-cube hat) to see Nic making the same damn mistake she made with Hayden. Meanwhile Zak and Paulie have a strong trust developing but it’s not clear if they’ll choose their other alliances over each other or not.

One thing that rarely came up in the zillions of July 6th whisperings was Victor’s imminent demise. There was only a tiny two second talk (between James and Day) about whether or not it would be a unanimous vote to evict him. Tiffany isn’t worried anymore about Thursday’s eviction but she IS set to win the HOH competition to follow and we’re rooting for her. Tiff in the power role means the house stands to be in major upset mode with all laser eyes zeroed-in on Frank. He’s a fun houseguest under pressure too because he knows how to win competitions and finagle friendships like a pro. This weekend’s gonna be a blast!

Check out our tweets @RuiningBB18 and come back daily to Fetchland.com for our feeds and TV show ruination. We’re happy to find that this year’s Big Brother is as crazy and fun as ever!

– Katherine Recap

There are two different experiences, both called “Big Brother”.

One is the television show Big Brother, as the CBS producers present it to broadcast tv audiences, three times per week. But the other is what is actually going on in the Big Brother house; the experience of the house guests, unfiltered — or at least less filtered — by television editors.

Fetchland presents Ruining Big Brother. It’s less “spoiling” Big Brother and more pulling back the curtain, to ruin our collective illusions about reality television. Enjoy! Or better yet, recoil in horror…

Daily BB House Stats:
HOH – Paulie
HOH Nominated – Victor, Bronte
Roadkill Comp Winner – Victor
RK Nominated – Tiffany
Veto Winner – Paulie
Evicted – #1 Jozea
Battle Back challenge – Glenn vs. Jozea

22nd will be a special Battle Back episode of Big Brother

Have-Nots – Team Big Sister: Da’vonne, Paul, Zakiyah

Team Big Sister: Da’vonne, Paul, Zakiyah
Team Category 4: Frank, Michelle, Paulie, Bridgette
Team Freakazoids: Nicole, Corey, Tiffany
Team Unicorn: James, Natalie, Victor, Bronte

July 5th was a whisperfest spectacular in the Big Brother house with Frank the major player both on the tongues of others and chattin’ it up himself. They say loose lips sink ships which may or may not be true but one thing’s for certain, they sure do kick BB houseguest butts right outta that house.

It started in the afternoon when Frank told Paulie about the 8Pack alliance, of which he’s (notably) not a member. Corey’s in the room during this chat so then Frank proceeds to tell them this trio is “the core,” though the core of what, exactly is unclear. This talk doesn’t earn Paulie’s trust, it turns out. He’s onto the fact that Frank’s goin’ around the Big Brother house making numerous deals to take various people to the end. At one point after this in HOH Zakiyah and Paulie wait for Frank to leave so they can talk. Once he does, it becomes clear that Paulie’s Mr. Observant while Zak plays the trustworthy non-talker. Paulie sees cracks forming in the 8Pack since Frank and Tiffany openly want each other gone. It can’t be a strong alliance if two members are already at each other’s throats – he points out. This is why Paulie isn’t really upset about the 8Pack and seems to truly trust Zak. She even tells Paulie at one point in this convo that Frank told her not to trust him. Their bond gets better.

At the same time Corey schemes with Nicole on the hammock about Frank and Tiff. He’s overconfident about being able to win HOHs and Nicole warns him that he doesn’t have as much control in the game as he might think. At the same time she says they can’t throw competitions like Frank wants them to and Corey agrees with that. They both are suspicious of Frank’s close ties with Michelle and Bridgette, especially given how Frank keeps saying Michelle would be a perfect next HOH.

Meanwhile Paul crumbles from “tough guy” character to “Mr. Clean” talking incessantly about how lonely he feels and how he can’t lie and cheat for the sake of the game. He makes the rounds throughout the house repeating this on a loop with each and every houseguest, even Tiffany. It’s an amusing shift, Paul says, how he came into the house raging hardcore with a “F*** you!” for everyone and now he’s emotionally vulnerable and open, like a wound walking around. Hilarious, in fact.

Speaking of Tiff, Da’vonne decided to go ahead and tell her that Frank’s after her – though not this week – and that she’s gotta watch her back. They have a hammock heart-to-heart in which feelings fly and Mama Day makes it clear that Tiffany has to keep her shit together if she wants to stay “in the loop”. At one point Day tells Tiffany, “I just graduated from paranoia school myself,” during their convo. Day’s endearing as well as hysterically funny. So, the two of them bond as well and the BB house continues to whirl with anti-Frank sentiments for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Even when Frank’s around or instigating the conversations, he’s not gaining trust with anyone, 8Pack or otherwise, today.

Corey, too seems to be losing allies via his loose lips. In a talk with Frank and Nicole he mentions how “we gotta get rid of the girls first because they’re emotional and unpredictable,” ummmmm, you know Nicole’s got lady parts and she’s sittin’ next to you – right Corey? Either way the house is abrewin’ with a suspicious stew. So, although this week seems like an easy breezy eviction with Victor certain to go, next week looks like it’s gonna be the BB house will look more like beatdown town. The 8Pack is settin’ to burst into flames any minute but we bet it merely smolders until the next HOH sits upon their throne. We’re kinda hopin’ the next HOH goes to Tiffany or Paul because, sure, we like sparks but flames are even more fun.

– Katherine Recap

There are two different experiences, both called “Big Brother”.

One is the television show Big Brother, as the CBS producers present it to broadcast tv audiences, three times per week. But the other is what is actually going on in the Big Brother house; the experience of the house guests, unfiltered — or at least less filtered — by television editors.

Fetchland presents Ruining Big Brother. It’s less “spoiling” Big Brother and more pulling back the curtain, to ruin our collective illusions about reality television. Enjoy! Or better yet, recoil in horror…

Daily BB House Stats:
HOH – Paulie
HOH Nominated – Victor, Bronte
Roadkill Comp Winner – Victor
RK Nominated – Tiffany
Veto Winner – Paulie
Evicted – #1 Jozea
Battle Back challenge – Glenn vs. Jozea

22nd will be a special Battle Back episode of Big Brother

Have-Nots – Team Big Sister: Da’vonne, Paul, Zakiyah

Team Big Sister: Da’vonne, Paul, Zakiyah
Team Category 4: Frank, Michelle, Paulie, Bridgette
Team Freakazoids: Nicole, Corey, Tiffany
Team Unicorn: James, Natalie, Victor, Bronte

July 4th brought lots of patriotic socks, waiting and wrongness to the Big Brother house. First thing in the morning they held the Veto ceremony and Paulie took Paul off the nomination block before putting Victor up in his place. There weren’t as many fireworks in the aftermath of this as we anticipated (or secretly desired) because Victor accepted it quickly. He even broke our hearts a bit saying he originally planned on shaving his face when he got HOH but, “now I guess I can just shave it for Thursday night,” boo freakin hoo… That’s sad stuff, bro. Never give up! Never give in! We wish Victor could hear our cheer because with Natalie’s broken heart there’s no way she’ll cheer him on to a win in this game. This guy needs a pep talk, STAT.

Later, Nicole and Victor clean the kitchen together and he confides that he “feels surrounded by snakes,” to which Nicole can only nod with compassionate understanding. He also says that he can only trust her, Bronte, and Paul at this point, which isn’t really right at all either. If anything, Bronte holds her girl alliance sacred and little else. In fact, after the Veto ceremony she has a little Feisty McGee moment, yelling at the cameras,”See ya Victor! Bye bye! Paul, you’re fucking next!” But Bronte’s not right either. She has no idea that lots of the houseguests want her out and it may not have been wise for her to brag about how great she’ll be in competitions during her Veto speech. Why expose your strengths to your competitors? What makes her think that’ll make them want to keep her around?

Although the party wasn’t on feeds, we know the houseguests drank sangria, ate heartily, and repeated their latest mantra “friendship” on an infinite loop. Once the feeds came back we saw James hiding in the telephone booth of the London room to eavesdrop on ladies alliance info. He also goes in and out of the bro-town after party in HOH. This gathering includes Paulie, Corey, and Frank with intermittent and informative James moments sprinkled in for tiny bursts of semi-excitement. James spies on the girls and reports back to the bros. One juicy info bit he gets is that Tiffany told Nicole she’s in “two alliances” and this of course gets the mental wheels circling among the bros.

July 4th is Bridgette’s first baking-free day and involves a fifteen-plus hour braiding session for Da’vonne. Seriously, Mama Day re-braids her hair piece-by-piece for hour after hour all day long, “Girl, the struggle is eternal,” she says to Zak while waiting patiently for the Fourth of July party. It’s a patience game day for the Have-Nots in every way because they gotta wait for the party in order to avoid eating another plate of slop. But the real story of July 4th Big Brother is that everyone’s off in their own world in a way and subsequently coming to the wrong conclusions… maybe it was all that Independence Day sangria going to their heads.

During the non-James HOH talks Frank seems to be running the show. He insists that all the other 8Pack members have to throw the next HOH competition so their team members can’t win and Frank can be HOH next. Also, he talks about how Tiffany’s unpopular among the houseguests because she’s “taking pages out of her sister’s playbook too much” and “nobody likes Bronte anyway”.

As Frank talks Paulie interjects with nodding and keeps saying, “We gotta nip that in the bud,” but it sounds a lot like, “… nip that in the butt,” instead. Even if he’s actually saying that cliché right, Paulie’s got the rest of his July 4th strategizing quite wrong. He makes a classic Big Brother error and lists off other houseguests saying he can’t imagine any of them will be able to win HOH. This is typical HOHitis where the POWER role goes to the head of the “temporary king” and they thus underestimate the abilities of their competition. Paulie “can’t imagine Paul or Bronte winning HOH,” but we sure can. In fact, we predict it’ll happen soon.

The resonant and eternal theme of Big Brother is “expect the unexpected” and the show runners are highly cognizant of the fact that different players in the cage match have different abilities. They vary the competitions for this very reason. But as wrong as he is about future HOHs, Paulie makes us laugh a lot tonight. At one point he says he thinks British accents are called “victorian” because of Victoria Beckham. Then later when talking to Zakiyah, Paulie asks if she has any Asian, German or Italian in her… with the followup question, “Do you WANT some in you?” Hahahahaha. That’s entertainment, folks.

There was also loads of intriguing groupchat in the bathroom that shifted from girl talk to “relationship talk” when Paul and Paulie joined in with the ladies. The funniest moment is captured in this picture. The ladies were all talking about stuff guys do that’s TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE and Natalie mentions, “when a guy likes another girl’s picture on Instagram” and everybody laughs out loud. This was just before Mama Day finally finished her day of infinite braiding.

Tune in tomorrow for more BB feed updates as well as checking out our tweets @RuiningBB18. We live and love to ruin Big Brother for you one day at a time.

– Katherine Recap

There are two different experiences, both called “Big Brother”.

One is the television show Big Brother, as the CBS producers present it to broadcast tv audiences, three times per week. But the other is what is actually going on in the Big Brother house; the experience of the house guests, unfiltered — or at least less filtered — by television editors.

Fetchland presents Ruining Big Brother. It’s less “spoiling” Big Brother and more pulling back the curtain, to ruin our collective illusions about reality television. Enjoy! Or better yet, recoil in horror…

Daily BB House Stats:
HOH – Paulie
HOH Nominated – Paul, Bronte
Roadkill Comp Winner – Victor
RK Nominated – Tiffany
Veto Winner – Paulie
Evicted – #1 Jozea
Battle Back challenge – Glenn vs. Jozea

22nd will be a special Battle Back episode of Big Brother

Have-Nots – Team Big Sister: Da’vonne, Paul, Zakiyah

Team Big Sister: Da’vonne, Paul, Zakiyah
Team Category 4: Frank, Michelle, Paulie, Bridgette
Team Freakazoids: Nicole, Corey, Tiffany
Team Unicorn: James, Natalie, Victor, Bronte

This summer’s skywriting incident happened July 3rd when a plane wrote in the bright blue sky, “Will You Marry Me?” right above the Big Brother backyard, so the houseguests could see it. Of course, it’s not necessarily a message to them but we find it fun to see their minds whirling; wondering if it could possibly have been meant for them somehow. A secret code between Vanessa and her sister? Who knows? The world may never know and they can’t possibly… but their grey matter will circulate scenarios about it anyway. BB does that to a bro.

On the Sunday night, July 3rd Big Brother TV show, it’s a hilarious HOH challenge because Paul’s goin’ nuts watching Zak and Day tiptoe trepidatious across logs while the other teams leap and zip across the yard like their lives depend on it. We find out that Paulie got HOH because his team, Category4, allowed him place the last berry – a ginormous blueberry – knowing this particular deed guaranteed HOH status.

Then we see Victor weeping in his diary session. A sweet sensitive soul for the moment, he says Jozea was a good guy and they were going to the end together. Bronte also seems overwhelmed with emotional betrayal and regrets. Their alliance realizes Day and Zak aren’t on their side after all which means they definitely don’t have the numbers needed to win this game.

As we know, Paulie nominates Paul and Bronte for eviction. Because Paul knows the true target is Victor, he says “The better beard’s gonna win,” in the DR after nominations are announced. Bronte, on the other hand, says she’ll never trust a boy in the Big Brother house again. Her newfound strategy is to “go under the radar” and keep herself hushed and sweet. We hope that serves her better because snarking at Paulie to his face certainly backfired hardcore and Fetchland loves nothing more than personal growth to improve gameplay. In his diary room, Victor seems surprised to not be up on the block but then turns out he DOES know what a backdoor is when he talks to Paul about it later in a knowing manner. So, all that appearing comfy and cool around the house was just an act! The feedsters assumed Victor was just clueless but perhaps it all really was just ACTING.

Next we have the Roadkill challenge and it’s a monetary competition involving counting dollahs, so hollah… especially for stressed out math teachers losing their shit under pressure. As soon as the competition ends, Victor tells Paulie right away that he won, thus outing himself to the entire house and ensuring his exit even more. Vic thinks it”s going to earn their trust, not realizing they don’t care if they can trust him. He’s not in their alliance – end of story. So, then he tells Frank too. Unfortunately, Victor tells these guys before Paul can advise him (rightly) not to do so. It’s too late when he finally talks to Paul, Victor already blew his wad. Then he tells Paul he wants to put James up as the Roadkill nominee and Paul says this too is a horrendous idea. Afterward, with Paul’s words ringing in his ears, Victor asks Frank and Paulie if they’re playing him. He says he’s thinking of putting up Tiffany rather than James to them. Next we see the Roadkill nomination reveal and, as we already know, it’s Tiffany, just as Victor hinted to them.

Favorite feeds talk for July 3rd:

Nicole: I don’t think I like you guys calling me a troll.
Corey: A cute troll… though.

Later Corey and Nicole strategize in the backyard, in other words, Corey talks about getting Tiff out and Nicole just says he’s gotta stop playing emotionally. Then only a bit later (around 9:30PM Big Brother time) Da’vonne talks about how she thinks Tiffany has a solid primary alliance with Paulie and they should think about getting her out… So, Tiff’s on a lot of tongues lately. Big surprise. But a critical point also comes out in this convo between Mama Day, Michelle, and Nicole. Tiffany would be great to keep around mainly because she’ll be happy to nominate Frank and take care of that dirty work for them. This is reinforced soon after when Tiff joins them and Da’vonne talks to her about how “we need to get rid of Frank” just to see the light go on in Tiff’s otherwise empty eyes. It’s fun to wtach Da’vonne conspiring and inquiring. We love that Mama Day action. Either way, the BB house plan for now is to take somebody (likely Tiff or Paul) off the block and put Victor up in the Veto ceremony tomorrow – July 4th. We’ll be posting about it pronto to keep you informed up-to-the-moment.

Happy Independence Day! Check out our Ruining BB18 tweets @RuiningBB18.

– Katherine Recap

There are two different experiences, both called “Big Brother”.

One is the television show Big Brother, as the CBS producers present it to broadcast tv audiences, three times per week. But the other is what is actually going on in the Big Brother house; the experience of the house guests, unfiltered — or at least less filtered — by television editors.

Fetchland presents Ruining Big Brother. It’s less “spoiling” Big Brother and more pulling back the curtain, to ruin our collective illusions about reality television. Enjoy! Or better yet, recoil in horror…

Daily BB House Stats:
HOH – Paulie
HOH Nominated – Paul, Bronte
Roadkill Comp Winner – Victor
RK Nominated – Tiffany
Veto Winner – Paulie
Evicted – #1 Jozea
Battle Back challenge – Glenn vs. Jozea

July 22nd will be a special Battle Back episode of Big Brother

Have-Nots – Team Big Sister: Da’vonne, Paul, Zakiyah

Team Big Sister: Da’vonne, Paul, Zakiyah
Team Category 4: Frank, Michelle, Paulie, Bridgette
Team Freakazoids: Nicole, Corey, Tiffany
Team Unicorn: James, Natalie, Victor, Bronte

As July 2nd starts we find out right away that Paulie, Bronte, Paul, Tiffany plus Da’Vonne, Zakiyah are playing in the Veto competition. It turns out to be a team challenge involving spelling. The biggest word wins and apparently players got blasted with water while spelling. After the challenge ends it’s revealed through cage-matcher convos that even though Paulie ended up winning Veto, really Frank didn’t want to take heat for using the Veto and basically gave it to Paulie. He’s already takin heat as HOH anyway, right? Now that HOH has the Veto power, his wish to backdoor nominate Victor is totes in the works. Paulie plans to take Paul off the block and put up Vic in his place. Although it’s unclear what Paulie will say exactly, one valid point he could make in the Veto ceremony is that Paul remained kind to Paulie when he was on the block whereas Victor and Bronte were pretty darn nasty. This type of “reasoning” is classic Big Brother and would count as a valid strategic decision in their world.

Even though it was kinda busy with the POV competition on July 2nd, the cage match wasn’t really ON tonight and thus the cage-matchers stayed pretty chill. Bridgette continued to run the kitchen as Bridgette’s Bakery whipping up treats for everyone on a constant cycle of yum. Once stuffed with tasty goodness, the houseguests sat around telling stories and playing riddle games. First Tiff started a game where people had to guess what she was thinking and then after about twenty minutes of questions, Tiff finally just flat-out told them what she was thinking. It was words that have more than one meaning. Scintillating stuff. After Tiffany’s “game” Paul proposed his own version of a riddle which was later mocked and derided at length in his absence, although we at Fetchland happily admit we kinda enjoyed it. Paul presented a mysterious scenario and then the others could ask him yes or no questions to figure out the story behind the scenario. Although it was a fun challenge in many ways, the cage-matchers found it frustrating rather than funtacular.

But we at Fetchland are starting to grow fond of Paul in general. He’s playing the game without rockin it hardcore and balls out, like Frank. Playing this way can have advantages, especially for a character like Frank who jokes and mocks and says-it-to-your-face but it’s not for everyone and, seemingly, not Paul’s way. He’s more subtle and friendly even if he doesn’t appear that way. Looks can be deceiving, after all. Another thing we like about Paul is that he’s teaching many of the houseguests chess one-at-a-time with buttloads of patience and solid advice. We love that! Paul’s a gamer and gets away with revealing that he’s a strategic thinker but still makes social connections and keeps people close while competing with them in a strategy game. It’s not as easy as Paul’s making it look.

The Big Sister team were the sad and sorry unfortunates this week, getting Have-Not status because of their last place “berry position” in the HOH berry-themed competition. Thus, the “special extra” for the Have-Nots this week is berries. Right on theme as always, baby. This is a tastytacular one compared to many of the “specials” in the past including pickles, liver, and sardines. Who doesn’t love berries? And they can have as many as they want! Hooray! Zakiyah, the queen of practical facts, points out that blueberries are a “feel good fruit” because they actually release positive rain chemicals for you when you eat them. She also thoroughly cleans the kitchen and looks like a supermodel the whole time. Later on in the HOH room Frank made a joke about Zak’s “big ass hands” as large as Frank’s, saying, “That’s the next twist, Zakiyah used to be a man!” and Zak stayed her cool and unimpressed self. She may not SEEM like she’s playing the Big Brother game but cleaning, staying positive, and not-reacting are all crucial ways of playing the game of Big Brother… and nobody looks better doing it.

Check out our up-to-the-millisecond tweets @RuiningBB18.

– Katherine Recap

There are two different experiences, both called “Big Brother”.

One is the television show Big Brother, as the CBS producers present it to broadcast tv audiences, three times per week. But the other is what is actually going on in the Big Brother house; the experience of the house guests, unfiltered — or at least less filtered — by television editors.

Fetchland presents Ruining Big Brother. It’s less “spoiling” Big Brother and more pulling back the curtain, to ruin our collective illusions about reality television. Enjoy! Or better yet, recoil in horror…

Daily BB House Stats:
HOH – Paulie
HOH Nominated – Paul, Bronte
Roadkill Comp Winner – Victor
RK Nominated – Tiffany
Veto Winner – TBD
Evicted – #1 Jozea
Battle Back challenge – Glenn vs. Jozea

July 22nd will be a special Battle Back episode of Big Brother

Have-Nots – currently none

Team Big Sister: Da’vonne, Paul, Zakiyah
Team Category 4: Frank, Michelle, Paulie, Bridgette
Team Freakazoids: Nicole, Corey, Tiffany
Team Unicorn: James, Natalie, Victor, Bronte

Paulie nominates Bronte and Paul with a plan to backdoor Victor. Soon after this Victor wins the Roadkill competition, a math challenge that (from cage-matcher recounts) sounds similar to the card game Uno. He doesn’t keep it particularly quiet and the whole house knows pronto. Victor’s smarter than he seems, though. He doesn’t put up his nemesis, James and instead nominates Tiffany, the black cloud of emotions that both sides would be happy to evict at this stage. She spends loads of time “nervousing” and projecting her behavior onto others. Tiff says stuff like, “Michelle’s such an emotional player. She should just trust in the numbers,” while Tiffany’s actually the paranoid one – to the max and every minute, actually. Even when she’s smiling and “chill”, it’s tangibly awkward in the room.

Paulie tries to talk her out of her nerves but it’s obvious, even with all her OKs and nodding, that Tiff’s still out on the ledge of her own discontent. Meanwhile other cage-matchers are asking the smart questions. Paul asks Paulie who he’ll nominate if Victor wins the POV and takes Paul or Bronte off the block. It’s a good inquiry because everyone knows if Victor doesn’t win POV, Paulie wants to put him on the block next to Paul and Bronte. If Victor wins Veto, Paulie answers, Natalie’s next in line to go up. So, now Victor and Paul strategize next steps with that info in hand.

As soon as Victor puts Tiffany up on the block he tells Paul and Frank right away, saying it’s good for Paul… and even Frank. Victor points out that Tiffany makes everybody uncomfortable, pretty much an undeniable fact these days, given her black cloud and sunglasses-at-night.

The 8Pack are already talking about how expendable Tiffany is, saying they’ll just put Paulie up in her place. This not only keeps their alliance numbers but also shifts the 8Pack to an even-gendered balance. They’re currently five ladies and three gents and would be four and four afterward. Of course, this annihilates the dominance of the Fatal Five alliance and thus, the vote might not fall exactly how the 8Pack predict. There may be fracturing of the 8Pack already in the forecast if they don’t stick to the original plan. Truth is, the Fatal Five Females would be smart to keep their five intact as long as possible. F*** that phallic trio, we always say.

Meanwhile Paulie and Zakiyah play footsie, talk game, and look beautiful whispering together. On their topic list, Bridgette’s playin’ both sides, Natalie can’t stop cryin’ (because she was 1st out in the HOH comp), Bronte thinks she’s some kinda ringleader know-it-all, while Paul and Victor are bro desperados. They’re right on track with their shared observations. Zak and Paulie are both happy now too because Victor’s comfy with his Roadkill win and thinks he’s safe “bein with bros” in his illusory alliance with Paul, Paulie, Frank, and Corey. Paulie tells Zak how Paul and Victor were lightening fast in their willingness to betray Natalie and Bronte. Tsk fricking tsk. Sure the guys are playing Bros Before Hos. But what they don’t know is that the ladies are playin’ Ovaries Before Brovaries. In the meantime, we find it impressive how tight-lipped Zak remains with Paulie. She’s not telling him anything about the 8Pack alliance even as Paulie keeps referring to the “nine” alliance they both trust the most. We feel for you, Paulie! But we’re also proud of Zakiyah for keeping secrets close to the vest. She’s playin’ the game for herself and we love that.

Fav quote of the night: Paul – I have a headache… hopefully I won’t die.

– Katherine Recap

There are two different experiences, both called “Big Brother”.

One is the television show Big Brother, as the CBS producers present it to broadcast tv audiences, three times per week. But the other is what is actually going on in the Big Brother house; the experience of the house guests, unfiltered — or at least less filtered — by television editors.

Fetchland presents Ruining Big Brother. It’s less “spoiling” Big Brother and more pulling back the curtain, to ruin our collective illusions about reality television. Enjoy! Or better yet, recoil in horror…

Daily BB House Stats:
HOH – Paulie
HOH Nominated – TBD
Roadkill Comp Winner – TBD
RK Nominated – TBD
Veto Winner – TBD
Evicted – #1 Jozea
Battle Back challenge – Glenn vs. Jozea

July 22nd will be a special Battle Back episode of Big Brother

Have-Nots – currently none

Team Big Sister: Da’vonne, Paul, Zakiyah
Team Category 4: Frank, Michelle, Paulie, Bridgette
Team Freakazoids: Nicole, Corey, Tiffany
Team Unicorn: James, Natalie, Victor, Bronte

The TV show was full of tension as the much-anticipated first live eviction resulted with the loss of BB’s beloved messiah. Jozea seemed a bit stunned and accessed old familiar recordings like a robot sitting beside Julie for questions right after his exit. All Jozea really said was, “I’m bold,” and “I’m honest,” before sinking into the numb reality of his actual situation and role in BB18. In a way, Jozea actually could be a messiah of sorts this season because there’s a chance for revival now that Big Brother introduced a new challenge behind the scenes. It’s called the Battle Back challenge. Much like with Survivor’s Redemption Island concept, the last houseguest voted out each week will battle against the next in pairs to fight for a chance to get back in the game. These pairings will continue until at the end the final winner of the Battle Back competitions has a chance to re-enter the game of Big Brother.

After Jozea’s sad and shocking (to some) exit, Julie sent them in the backyard for a new HOH competition. Although they usually put feeds back up right away when the live show ends, June 30th was an exception. So, we missed seeing the results play out. Instead, we heard about them from the houseguests long afterward. In the end, Paulie won HOH, so the power remains on the veterans’ side, at least as long as he remains unaware of the 8Pack alliance. Paul and Victor, still stunned from Jozea’s departure, pitched an alliance to Paulie. In the process they slammed “lying and shifty James” as well as arguing that the three of them could go far because beefcakes be bold with bravado, bro. They talked about their loyalty and strength, etc. and it’s not really clear how Paulie will respond but either way, he’s in a strong position.

The after game faces were priceless, from cheerful flirting between Nicole and Corey – to Bronte and Victor mumbling about “shitting their pants right now” into the bathroom mirror side-by-side. Lots of convos continued but it wasn’t the fireworks fiesta many feedsters anticipated. Thing is, these newbie cage-matchers may not have been masters of the game coming in but they’re not dummies either. It’s a magical moment to see hipsters wake up and realize what they don’t know in a situation might actually outweigh what they do know. Grasshoppers be learnin’ big time, bro. Frank and Tiffany had a post-feud pow wow and they too experienced some deep learning on June 30th. Tiff says she realizes that maybe her tone when talking to others can be a bit aggressive and Frank tells her he has the same challenge. Perhaps it’s because they’re so alike in this way that they locked horns? They bond. So, a slice of personal insight pie was enjoyed by all on this last evening of June.

Even we at Fetchland were reminded of an important life lesson on June 30th Big Brother 18. We noticed a retweet from former BB15 cage-matcher, Amanda Zuckerman, a beautiful and ferocious competitor in her own right. She tweets a perfectly timed and helpful message about humanity; that team we’re all on together.

Jozea couldn’t possibly process everything that just happened when he’s sitting there next to Julie only minutes after leaving the BB house and he probably feels like a fool. Big Brother has taught us over the years that being in your early twenties on a national TV show doesn’t always bring out the best in a human. But one thing it does for certain is hold up a mirror for us to see this humanity in ourselves and often flinch in recognition. We’re just lucky that when we acted an ass (in our 20s especially – right guys?) there weren’t six million people watching and eager to cheer our demise from their respective couches. But, yes, Jozea did sign up for this and we’re not saying it’s a crime being entertained by a fun show. Let’s just also remember he’s a human too. And how much fun would it be to see him re-enter the game? Anyone who remembers Rachel’s, “I’m BACK, bitches!” knows this resurrection would be a certifiable blast.

It’s going to be a busy holiday weekend ahead in the Big Brother house with the Roadkill competition, nominations, Veto competition and subsequent Veto ceremony all before those of us outside the BB house are even back at work next week. Stay tuned to Fetchland for all the dirty deets on the feeds daily and you can check out our tweets at @RuiningBB18.

– Katherine Recap