BB day 62 Thursday

John's blog is somewhat obsolete because this afternoon on the live feeds Helen and Elissa were best buddies as usual and were making plans to 'do the town' when the game is over and Elissa comes to Chicago to visit Helen. Also Helen knows she is the target and can't believe Andy anymore. Meanwhile on the live feeds this afternoon Andy is having second thoughts about voting Helen out rather than Spencer. "I have a feeling that this isn't the best thing..." He is right but it's doubtful that he will change his vote when thinking about standing up to the Wrath Of Amanda post-eviction if Spencer goes. So now we wait for tonight's eviction and next HOH when it will be revealed to the HGs that a separate, later HOH will bring back a previously evicted HG. I think I have found a more reliable east coast feed so that I may join the elites who know the results before it shows in their time zone.



Wednesday, August 21, 2013
'Big Brother 15' Recap: There's No Changing It
John Kubicek

In this episode of Big Brother 15, Amanda uses a phrase that should become the unofficial motto of this season: "There's no changing it." Indeed, there's no changing anything this year. Whatever Amanda wants, she gets, and any and all attempts to flip the house against her will fail.

In week 5 Amanda wanted Howard gone, and there was no changing it. Last week she wanted Jessie gone and now she wants Helen gone. There's no changing it.

Nomination Fallout

Helen foolishly STILL believes her Final 3 deal with McCrae and Andy is real and will protect her, the same way Nick thought the Moving Company would protect him back in week 2. Every single thing Helen says just makes her look dumber and dumber at this point. But that's nothing compared to Andy, whose tears are just annoying at this point because he's lying to someone he seems to genuinely like and trust in favor of protecting people who are mean and who will all beat him at the end.

Andy then continues his role as the rat by telling Spencer that Helen is targeting him. Does Andy really think this strategy is going to win him the game?

McCranda Action

McCrae and Amanda have sexy times, but then Elissa walks into the bedroom and just lays down, totally killing the mood. Elissa starts complaining about how Helen thinks Elissa is to blame for her nomination, and Amanda seizes the opportunity to drive a huge wedge between the Mom Squad. She's already working on getting Elissa to trust her so that she can control her to do her bidding next week. This shouldn't work, but somehow it does.

The Veto Players

When they pick players for the Power of Veto competition, Spencer is stoked because he mistakenly thinks that he's relevant in this game. Andy is picked too, and he's upset because he really, REALLY doesn't want to win it, because it would go against his game plan of doing nothing.

Andy lies to Helen that he would use it and that she's safe, but all of these lies are making his tummy upset. Are we supposed to feel sympathy for him? Because I don't. That sick feeling in the pit of his stomach is called logic and reason, and he's slowly smothering it in favor of idiotic loyalty to people who haven't won or done anything.

Otev the Broken-Hearted Beaver

The PoV competition involves a sad beaver who wrote love letters to former HGs. In each round they must find the correct HG's name and the last person back is out.

GinaMarie is out in the first round because she spends all of her time looking at Nick's name.

In the second round, Elissa passes Helen at the last minute to eliminate her in an impressive display of agility. Amanda celebrates because she knows nothing else this week matters since Helen is going home. Sadly, she's right. The entire week ended in that single moment.

In round 3, Elissa takes Andy out "like a wimpy girl" to send him to the sidelines. Aaryn is out in the fourth round.

This sets up a final showdown between Elissa and Spencer. Elissa's yoga skills come in handy as she finds the last name, climbs the wall with ease and wins the Power of Veto. Again.

"There's No Changing It"

After the PoV, Helen continues to sound like a moron by praising Elissa for winning when her life was on the line. She also thanks Andy for trying to win, but in the diary room, she lets us know that she believes Andy threw the competition, which is a giant red flag that he's not really working with her.

Amanda then tells Elissa point blank that Spencer is going up, but Helen will go home. She adds that there's nothing anyone can say or do to change this, so she shouldn't even try because it's just going to put a target on her. Why is this allowed to happen? Why does everyone just accept this?

Elissa then "doesn't" tell Helen what Amanda said, but since Elissa is such a terrible liar, Helen can read between the lines and realizes that Amanda is coming after her.

Helen goes up to Aaryn to explain that Amanda and McCrae are turning Helen and Elissa against Aaryn and GM, so maybe they should team up and go after that couple. These two ladies compare notes and realize that Andy has been telling Amanda EVERYTHING they've ever told him.

Wine Fight Redux

The HGs get win and it causes Aaryn to rehash Jeremy's big red wine fight from week 1. Aaryn says Amanda was being rude and bitchy that night, which causes Amanda and Aaryn to yell at each other over which of them is the worst person. Girls, girls, you're both horrible bitches!

Aaryn gets mad and goes to sulk. This gives Andy a nervous meltdown because he's worried that 3 A.M. (Aaryn, Amanda ,Andy, McCrae) is about to implode, and he's put all of his eggs into that basket. I still have no idea why he thinks that's a good idea. Does Andy honestly think he could beat any of them at the end in a jury vote?

Aaryn starts to rant about how Amanda hasn't won anything and Aaryn has had to do all of the work, getting rid of Howard, Judd and now Helen all for her. She starts to think maybe she should try playing her own game and doing what's best for her. Andy says a bunch of really dumb stuff about how Aaryn's loyalty has gotten her this far. Um, winning FOUR HoH competitions has gotten her this far.

Really, this entire scene can be recapped using the following lyrics from the musical Wicked:

"Something has changed within me.
Something is not the same.
I'm through with playing by the rules of someone else's game."

Unfortunately, while Drunk Aaryn is fed up with Amanda's crap, Sober Aaryn is a wuss.

The Power of Veto Ceremony

Before it begins, Amanda gloats about how if Aaryn puts her up, she will stay and make sure Aaryn goes home next week, because Amanda gets what she wants. Amanda can't win this game, or else her ego will get so large that it will begin to throw off the Earth's center of gravity.

Elissa uses the Power of Veto to save herself. Aaryn nominates Spencer as the replacement, though she says it's because she was backed into this corner.

Boo! If the Big Brother 15 producers were smart, they'd just give Aaryn a constant supply of wine. Alcohol actually makes her smarter and nicer.

Walter, Jason, Debra, the two Jacks, Claire, and especially Robin would be great HGs. Haven't heard of most of the others... 

http://www.buddytv.com/slideshows/big-brother/16-tv-characters-who-would-make-great-big-brother-houseguests-76593.aspx

Helen is evicted as expected. The HOH comp. is now going on. Of the returning jurors, Jessie has caught one ball. This is going to be a long one. Live feeds hopefully will come back before the winner is decided.



'Big Brother 15' Recap: Week 8 Eviction and a Juror Returns
Thursday, August 22, 2013

John Kubicek
Senior Writer, BuddyTV

If Big Brother 15 can be saved from the dull and predictable mess it has become, tonight is the night. The next big twist of the summer will see the first four members of the jury compete to come back into the game, and it could be the only thing standing between Amanda and half a million dollars.

Oh yeah, there's also an eviction to get through first, but since Amanda has already told us a thousand times that Helen is going to be evicted and "there's no changing it," that hardly seems important.

BUT FIRST...this is my Big Brother 15 live blog!

Every time Julie Chen says "juror," it makes me think of the song from the 30 Rock finale.

Julie tells us that "all Hell will break loose" after the HGs learn about the twist. Ooh, even her language is getting saltier thanks to this season.

Helen's Campaign

As a political consultant, Helen is accustomed to campaigns. But this is liking Barack Obama trying to win Texas.

After the PoV ceremony, Helen cries and begs Elissa to work with Aaryn and GinaMarie. Those four could form a powerful alliance, but it's not enough.

Andy shows up and Helen says he's the swing vote. Andy gets mock offended by her accusation that he's not on her side (which he isn't). But Helen plays on emotions and tries to guilt Andy into voting for her by saying she's a good person and McCranda are evil.

I don't like Helen's tactics, but Andy is painful in this scene because he's lying and getting offended about it. Aaryn says, in front of Andy, that she knows McCranda will probably find out about this conversation.

So Andy runs downstairs to wake up Amanda to tell her all about what just happened. As always, he tells Amanda not to say anything about it. How is everyone so stupid? Does Andy not realize that Amanda ALWAYS outs him?

Helen knows Andy is lying, so she campaigns to McCrae to stand up to Amanda and not let her control his decisions. This whole scene can be replaced with the sound of a whip being cracked.

Now we get into a whole debate about who's bullying who. McCrae tells Amanda that Helen said she's a bully, and Amanda gets angry about it. The whole thing is so stupid. I blame society for making "bully" such a bad word. It's like "floater," and it has a different meaning for everyone.

Amanda asks McCrae and Spencer if they think she's a bully, and they find polite ways to say she is without using the word "bully." She's loud, aggressive and assertive. She has the gall to claim that she doesn't personally attack people. Jessie and Candice would beg to differ.

Then the new Helissa and Aaryn/GM team campaign to Andy again, giving him a hard-sell, threatening him by saying he will become their target if he votes out Helen. This scares him because his entire strategy is based on never being a target.

Julie and the HGs

Julie shows them the Have-Not competition in the dark to their delight. Amanda says she was scared that Elissa was leading her, then adds "I'm just kidding." She's NOT kidding. GM explains that searching for Nick's hat in the dark was good practice.

Then we see Elissa's brutal ferocity during the PoV competition. Andy says he was just terrified of her.

The Eviction

Spencer adds nothing new in his 205th nominee speech of the season. Helen gives a shout-out to her family and starts tearing up almost immediately. She's all emotional and nice.

McCrae votes to evict...Helen
Amanda votes to evict...Helen
Elissa votes to evict...Spencer
Andy votes to evict...Helen
GinaMarie votes to evict...Helen

Helen is evicted 4-1!

At least it's not unanimous, for the first time in three weeks.

It's easily the most emotional goodbye, with lots of hugs and tears. Julie asks Helen about the alliance with McCrae and Andy, and she reveals that she started to worry about Andy, but she trusted him because he's so nice and not a liar at all. Julie then asks about targeting Amanda earlier, and Helen says she thought Judd was a bigger threat because he was MVP and Howie's cousin, though now she realizes that may not have been true. Helen adds that most of her crying was just strategy.

Goodbye Messages: Andy's is nonsense about strategy and McCrae says he needed to protect his queen. Amanda adds that she's known for weeks that Helen wanted her out.

Helen adds that if she could do it again, she would've saved Howard and taken out Amanda. Personally I think her mistakes began when she didn't take Jeremy's deal in week 3, but Howard was also a bad decision.

Julie then tells Helen that she'll be competing live tonight against the other members of the jury to get back into the game. Helen is shocked and stoked.

The Jury House

First up we get to see the jury house. Candice sees Judd and she's definitely surprised and asks who did it. Finding out that he got backdoored by Aaryn is even more of a shock.

The next week, Jessie walks in and they're all confused and upset, but they instantly want the gossip. She tells them that Helen thought Judd was the MVP and that's why he went home. So somehow Helen is getting all of the hate from the jury.

Then the three of them get a note about how one juror will go back into the game. They're stoked. And they also had time to mentally prepare and time to eat, unlike Helen.

The jurors say they'd put up Helen and Amanda, which is bad news for Amanda because Judd is calling her the devil. But Candice still wants to go after GM.

The Jurors Compete

It's now time for the live competition between the four jurors. Julie tells them that the HGs inside have no idea about this.

So Julie decides to inform them. She gathers the HGs in the house to the living room to tell them about the twist. Elissa is happy, McCrae says he knew it and everyone else is worried.

Instead of just one, all four jurors come back into the house and it's total insanity. Candice even hugs GM and says happy birthday, so clearly something is wrong.

Everyone heads to the backyard for the jury AND HoH competitions, simultaneously. Ooh!

The HoH/Jury Competition

The HGs are all standing on a wall and whoever is the first to catch 10 balls wins. If the first person to catch 10 balls is a juror, they come back and become HoH. If not, the first juror to catch 10 is back.

In the first round, Jessie is the only one who catches a ball.

But this is also an endurance HoH competition, with sprinklers spraying them down too. Man, this is SOOOOO tense and such a great time for endurance.

They've been at it for over 1:20. Judd outlasted the other three jurors to become the returning HG. On the HGs still in the house Elissa holds a lead of 6 balls. Whoever gets 10 first becomes HOH, so now it's between Elissa and Judd.

Judd is down ! But will remain as the returning juror. On the other side Elissa leads with 8 but almost fell a minute ago., 5 for Amanda , 4 for GinaMarie,

Elissa wins HOH ! at the 1:40 mark. the best outcome ! Now she will nominate Amanda and McCrae for eviction.  

'Big Brother 15' Spoilers: Week 9 HoH Results
Thursday, August 22, 2013

John Kubicek
Senior Writer, BuddyTV

After the game was changed on Big Brother 15 with the jury members returning into the house, a new HoH endurance competition began on Thursday's show. Amanda, McCrae, Andy, Elissa, Spencer and GinaMarie competed against the four jury members, Candice, Judd, Jessie and Helen.

SPOILER WARNING: This article contains Big Brother 15 spoilers.

In this competition, the HGs are all on a wall and must stay up while being sprayed with water. At various intervals, balls will be thrown at them. The first person to catch 10 balls is the new HoH.

In addition, the first juror to catch 10 balls is back in the game. And if a juror is the first to catch 10 balls, they come back as the HoH.

On the live show we saw two shots fired. Jessie caught 2 balls. I'm pretty sure Judd, Spencer, Andy, Elissa and Amanda all caught 1 ball, though I might be off on one.

I'll provide live updates throughout the evening. All times are Big Brother 15 local time, aka PT.

7:10pm: No live feeds yet.

7:18pm: Still no live feeds. So I'll use this time to root for Jessie, Judd or Helen, cuz I think they would all go after Amanda. Heck, maybe even GM or Elissa at this point. Just not McCranda, Andy or Spencer.

7:25pm: The feeds are back. McCrae and Spencer have fallen off and are out!

7:28pm: Jessie has 3 balls. Judd has 2 balls. Helen and Candice each have 1 ball. Elissa has 4 balls.

7:29pm: After another round, Jessie has 4 balls and Judd has 3.

7:30pm: Andy falls off! OK, it's kind of hard to get an accurate count, but I think here's where they stand as of now.

Elissa: 5 balls
Amanda and Jessie: 4 balls
Judd: 3 balls
Candice and GinaMarie: 2 balls
Helen: 1 ball
McCrae, Andy, Spencer: OUT

7:35pm: The feeds have gone off for more trivia.

7:37pm: Jessie is out! Oh no, that opens up the juror game big time. As she fell, she cursed out Amanda. I guess if everyone falls, the last one standing wins by default. Also, it seems the jurors must leave the backyard immediately after falling.

7:40pm: On the last round, Helen and GM both caught the ball, moving them up to 2 and 3, respectively.

7:42pm: Some crazy dude in a wig and a foam finger came out, yelling, and was chased down by a security guard. I guess this is part of the competition?

7:45pm: Another round of balls. Helen and Judd both caught one. Helen is now at 3. Judd is at 4.

7:50pm: Score update:

Elissa: 5 balls
Judd and Amanda: 4 balls
Helen and GM: 3 balls
Candice: 2 balls
McCrae, Spencer, Andy and Jessie: OUT

7:54pm: Helen is playing some SERIOUS game, telling Judd and Candice that GM tried to save her and can be trusted, along with Elissa and Aaryn. Helen is really messing up McCranda's game, and it's beautiful.

7:55pm: GM had 4 balls, but one bounced before she caught it, so it was removed

8pm: OK, right now I'd say Amanda is fighting for her life, because I honestly think any of the other five people left would target her.

8:01pm: Judd got blasted in the face with one of the balls. This seems very dangerous. I think it's also one of the hardest competitions ever, combining endurance with a little bit of skill, because catching the balls is a huge distraction from just staying up.

8:02pm: Elissa caught another ball on the last round, so she's up to 6 and has a two-ball lead.

8:06pm: Helen is out!

8:07pm: Candice is out!

8:07pm: JUDD IS BACK IN THE GAME!

8:08pm: Judd tells everyone he wants to start fresh and hold no grudges. This is clearly a lie and everyone is cheering him on, because they have to. He adds that he's happy they got rid of Helen.

8:10pm: Judd and Elissa catch balls. Judd is at 5 and Elissa is up to 7. Judd is being very nice about how he doesn't blame anyone and his only problem is having to spend two weeks listening to Candice's stories. He's telling them all about the jury house. Damn, I missed Judd, he's so nice and adds a great element to this house.

8:14pm: The crazy superfan is back and gets taken down by the security guard!

8:15pm: Score update:

Elissa: 7 balls
Judd: 5 balls (and back in the game)
Amanda: 4 balls
GM: 3 balls
Everyone Else: OUT

8:18pm: Judd is out! But he's still back in the house as a player.

8:19pm: So now Elissa and Amanda are each going for their first HoH and GM is going for her second.

8:20pm: Elissa and Amanda each catch another ball. Elissa is at 8, Amanda is at 5. Amanda and Elissa almost fell off, but had pretty miraculous recoveries

8:25pm: Proof that I do not have the power of telekinesis: Amanda has not fallen. I'm willing it so hard right now.

8:31pm: Elissa and Amanda each caught a ball. Amanda has 6. Elissa has 9 and is one away from winning.

8:32pm: Elissa catches her 10th ball!

ELISSA IS THE NEW HOH!

Wow, amazing! Her ally leaves, Judd comes back and now Elissa is in charge. Amanda and Aaryn need to be worried. VERY worried. Elissa is a wild card, but I hope she gets rid of Amanda, if only because it will make Amanda SOOOOOOOO mad to know Elissa got rid of her.

I'll be very curious to see how she handles this since no one really seems to like her anymore, especially with Judd back in the mix. Amanda thought she could control Elissa's mind, but her mind is a total mystery to everyone.

She's also at three competition wins, second only to Aaryn this season. It's also one more than her sister, Rachel Reilly, got the first time she played.

Fun Fact: Amanda is now 0/15 in competitions, one shy of what Chef Joe did last season.