Ruining Big Brother 18 – August 22nd

Daily BB House Stats:
HOH – Natalie
HOH Nominated – Corey, Victor
Veto Winner – Paul
Evicted – #1 Jozea #2 Victor #3 Bronte #4 Tiffany #5 Frank #6 Da’vonne #7 Zakiyah #8 Bridgette #9 Paulie
Battle Back Winner – Victor
Return Ticket Holder – Paul
Have-Nots – Victor, James
Have-Not Supplement – Pies

On August 22nd Victor talks to the feeds while he plays pool and thinks aloud, “Like I said, I have an inkling that I am going home,” (Misses pool shot.) “Dangit, twice in a row! Just like evicted, twice,” and feedsters shake our collective heads in dismay that he’s likely correct. Michelle puts Corey on the block in Paul’s place when he uses the Veto on himself.

Thus Nicole immediately shifts into game mode; first yapping her lips all afternoon about what a great person Corey is compared to others who, “talk personal,” and “are hurtful,” then she makes cookies. There’s a rule in Season 18, it seems that as soon as you go up on the block you get mad domesticated. Since Nicole’s lost herself to Corey and he’s busy staring at the wall, it seems like she’s taking care of the homestead stuff for him. So, Victor’s cleans up  at the house like Rain Man at the blackjack table and Nicole’s the current in-house Betty Crocker. She’s baking her blues about potentially losing Corey.

Paul seems to have sensed the house shifting around him. So, even though everyone keeps telling him all is well with his game and that Corey’s going home on Thursday, his intuition tells him otherwise. Invariably when things feel awry in the Big Brother house, it’s for a reason. The big bummer for us = Paul doldrums. He talks to us about it in the wee hours of the morning because he took a long daytime nap and can’t sleep. He says he’s pretty sure he’s gettin’ “boned this week” and that Victor will go home. Paul notes that the showmances are obviously working together and he finds Michelle completely unreliable these days. So, now that Vic appears to be leaving, Paul assesses the potential resultant damage. His conclusions include that Michelle’s driving him crazy and he doesn’t understand her. At the same time she’s the one he could most likely beat in a final two situation. Paul describes her as “loose lips, can’t win comps, and destructive,” so he’s trying to figure out what to do next. Should he win HOH? Hope for the care package? Paul’s worried that with Victor gone he’ll be next. Of course, the house doesn’t know about the battle back but Paul mentions that he hopes maybe Vic can come back again somehow. The one time we get to see Paul smile on August 22nd is chatting with Corey. In their conversation Corey tells Paul he’s feeling anxiety and has never felt that way before. Even with this bit of happiness in Paul’s day… it was a tiny smile. We miss our happy Secret Service Paul!

Corey, meanwhile tells Paul that Nicole is the ONE to take to the end because she won’t get a single vote. That’s not what Nic thinks Corey’s thinking about her when he says she’s “the one,” though. She thinks he’s smitten. Yeah, smitten with a $500K sure thing. Sometimes an action tells you a lot about a person… In Corey’s case it’s that clapping he did on the heels of Paulie’s tense overclap after the Natalie confrontation. The guy hasn’t got a clue when it comes to social cues. It’s not that there’s anything bad about Corey, per se. He just seems out of it. Literally, like out of the game. So far Corey hasn’t campaigned or even really considered campaigning to save himself this week. All he’s really done is say he doesn’t care and then have a late night/early morning chat about feeling anxiety for the first time in his life. Maybe this anxious feeling means he’ll start playing the game from here forward. The only sign of life we’ve really seen thus far from Corey was during that double eviction when his heart jolted with electricity from the Zakiyah blindside and he cranked out two wins in a row while bleary-eyed and baffled about what was happening. Where am I? How did I get here?  Who are these people?

But Baffled though he is, Corey does have one thing right. He tells Paul  that if he takes Nicole to the end, he’ll win it all. Ugh. Please please don’t let that be the story of Season 18. There’s still a month left! Not that we care who wins… but we do care HOW they do it and smoching, cuddling, and napping are not a strategy or game play at all. Either way, Thursday night is around the corner and last hope all wrapped up in the beautiful sad burrito of Victor on the block. If he’s evicted maybe he can come back… truth is anybody coming back could be awesome if it pumps some blood into this dreary ass, anemic household. We need some action up in here!

– Katherine Recap