Ruining Big Brother 18 – July 22nd

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 – James
HOH Nominated – Frank and Bridgette
Veto Winner – TBD
Evicted – #1 Jozea #2 Victor #3 Bronte #4 Tiffany
Battle Back challenge players – Glenn, Jozea, Victor, Bronte, and Tiffany
Battle Back Winner – Victor
Have-Nots – TBD

July 22nd brings the Battle Back competition special episode of Big Brother. One of the evicted houseguests will win this competition to earn their place back in the house for the summer. Trick is that they compete in the order they were evicted from the house. That means the first to leave, Glenn, would have to beat each and every other evicted houseguest to win his place back in the Big Brother house, whereas Tiffany only has to battle once. In the first battle Glenn competes against Jozea in a challenge similar to the HOH Berry competition. Jozea and Glenn run across logs and fill berry bins to fight their way to the first win of the Battle Back competition. Jozea used a special poison berry that emptied Glenn’s bin of berries to win this first battle with ease.

Then Victor and Jozea compete in the tennis-type competition that Bridgette won for HOH. It’s mostly random and largely determined by where the ball bounces. This is because the giant pseudo tennis racquets they use to bounce the balls toward the targets are hard to aim precisely. But eventually Jozea and Victor develop enough skill at the bouncing to start accurately hitting the targets. They also need to retrieve their own balls for re-use and Jozea complains saying, “Where is my ball boy?”. Unlike Jozea, we know that Victor has been working out constantly while in sequester and thus Victor wins.

Next Victor battles Bronte and right before their challenge she tells him, “There’s not a single person in that house who likes you, buddy,” to try to psych him out. Victor did get a bit of a sad face at hearing this but said nothing. The competition was a revised version of the vacation pictures HOH challenge with matching photos to facts based on pretend vacation pics of the houseguests. Victor’s strategy is much smarter than Bronte’s and he easily beats her as she seems to just put random photos with facts and hit the buzzer. She congratulates him on his win and also advises him, “Don’t trust anybody,” while hugging him, and her summer of Big Brother, goodbye.

At last, the mighty Victor battles Tiffany in a puzzle picture competition like nothing we’ve seen thus far in the Big Brother competitions. They’re rappelling off giant posters and piecing the puzzles that compose each poster together in what feels like a nightclub atmosphere. At first they both have a whole section of the puzzle wrong but then Victor seems to resolve his more quickly than Tiffany can. Thus, the eye of the tiger, Victor wins the final Battle Back competition and will return to the house on this very night. It was clear from the pre-show interviews of last night’s live show that Victor wanted it the most, so we’re not surprised and can’t wait to see the houseguests’ faces.

Julie the gathers the houseguests to tell them it’s time for another twist – the Battle Back competition. She tells them the winner will be moving back in “shortly” and James says, “This is gonna be awkward,” which is one thing all the houseguests can agree on. Then Victor re-enters the house amid shrieks and hugs from everyone. We’re happy to report that James lost none of his Natalie mojo on July 22nd, despite his romantic nemesis re-entering the picture. He won HOH and thus literally became the alpha male of the house. Meanwhile Victor got right into ingratiating himself with the houseguests and making himself comfortable. He’s extra comfy because James nominated Frank and Bridgette and left him off the block completely. He can sleep well for at least one night this week.

The show ends with Julie telling us about a new twist, The Secret Room. Clues are located around the house in hidden-but-findable ways to help a particularly paranoid or observant houseguest unlock The Secret Room. Those clues will remain in the house for the next four weeks. Inside The Secret Room lies a power the houseguest who finds it will acquire and thus change the game. We know that Mama Day figured out the twins twist last season all by herself and thus predict that if anyone figures out this twist, it will likely be Da’vonne.

Check back with Fetchland.com daily for more Big Brother feed insights and observations. You can also find us on twitter at @RuiningBB18.

– Katherine Recap