The final Head of Household competition was, I think, the closest in BB history. Janelle just kind of fell apart, making some really bad guesses and losing her chance at $50,000. Yes, fifty. Regardless of who she chose, there was no way she could win the grand prize-- the jury is just too stacked in the other players' favor. Much of the blame for that can be laid squarely at Howie's feet for making the colossal mistake of wasting his first term as HoH and getting manipulated into nominating the very two players the competing faction wanted to get nominated, fracturing his power base in the process.
I don't care for Maggie's supercilious demeanor-- in a game like Big Brother, there's no such thing as playing dirty-- but I have to hand it to her. If the other players had had ANY brains whatsoever, Maggie would have been evicted weeks ago. She was not only the brains behind the "Friendship" alliance, but their backbone and anchor. Had the others realized that and ousted her at the first opportunity, the rest of that alliance might have crumbled. Instead, the doomed other faction let emotions rule their nominations. Janelle may have been the tougher competitor, but Maggie was the better player. Yvette cries a good story (at every opportunity), but I expect the jury to recognize Maggie's solid play and give her the money.
Nobody goes on a show like Big Brother or Survivor to make friends. Once, just once, I'd love to see someone reach that final three moment and make the intelligent choice instead of the emotional one. "Jane, you've been my best friend these past weeks, and I don't know how I'd have gotten through this without you. But everyone loves you, and if I take you with me to the finals, there's no way I can beat you. I hate Bob, but so does the jury-- if I take him with me, I'll win the money. And the money is why I came here. We all came here for the same thing, and we all knew the rules. We knew we'd be getting close to people and then voting them out of the game. It's hard, and it stinks, but that's the game we signed up for. The game came first, and our friendship developed second. I have to finish what I started and make the best play I can to win the money-- and that means voting you out." Just once.
Posted by Peter at September 17, 2005 05:14 PM | TrackBackYeah, I was seriously disappointed when Janelle lost. I actually think there's a small chance April might have voted for her over Ivette, but maybe not.
Howie actually made the two biggest mistakes in the game: his second HoH nominations of Ivette and Beau were totally stupid when he should have been gunning for Maggie. I guess Maggie played the Jedi mind trick on him.
I agree with you about those final-three moments, except I think Alison picking Jun over Robert in Big Brother 4 was strategy more than friendship. But I have to respect Colby in Survivor Outback for simply not having the stomach to reward Keith with second place (or to even have him around one more day). He clearly knew he was giving up the win, but it was more out of spite than his friendship with Tina.
Posted by: Doug Orleans on September 17, 2005 06:39 PM