The players on this season of Big Brother are, without question, the dumbest group of "all stars" ever assembled. If the Landers twins were to walk in, the collective IQ of the women in the house would skyrocket.
Everyone in that house either watched Big Brother 2 or heard second-hand how persuasively charming and deadly Will was. And yet, week after week, players have refused to nominate him or vote him out. Worse, his cloak of protection has enveloped Mike as well, leaving a strong 2-player Chilltown alliance intact to wreak havoc behind the scenes all season long. Will and Mike were helped immeasurably by the existance of four players from season 6, and they wisely leveraged that threat to distract attention from themselves while throwing competitions to avoid appearing theatening. That, and the producers' weekly sacrifice of a goat on a blood-stained altar somewhere in the bowels beneath the house.
Oh yeah-- and the unmitigated stupidity of everyone else in the house. But the grand marshall of the Stupid Parade is Erika.
Ok, so she's making kissy-face with Mike. But how can she possibly believe that Mike would take her to the finals instead of Will? Will and Mike are close friends and business partners. Nothing is going to come between them-- especially because I'll bet Mike thinks that people would vote for him instead of Will in the finals. Erika is delusional if she thinks for a second that Mike's loyalty is to her and not Will. Her smartest play would have been to get rid of Will, thus leaving Mike with no choice but to stick with her. I don't think she had the votes to do it, mind you, but ousting Danielle-- who was clearly gunning for Will and trusting Erika-- was crazy. Erika needs Will gone, and the only scenario now under which that happens is if Erika herself gets nominated and wins the power of veto. The HoH is safe this week, but it's the veto winner (assuming the HoH doesn't win) who holds all the power as the only vote deciding who goes home. Nobody but Erika would both put Will up and vote him out. If Janelle wins the vote, she's canning Mike or Erika. Mike or Will will get rid of Erika or Janelle.
This is Janelle and Erika's last chance to make a smart move and team up against the guys. If they don't pool their resources, Chilltown's waltzing into the finals where Will will become the first reality show repeat champion.
And the thing of it is, he deserves it. The man has been nothing short of brilliant to not only survive this long, but engineer virtually every eviction throughout the season. It's been astounding to watch the puppetmaster pull everyone's strings so subtly that none of them even felt the tug. Janelle's been a phenomenal competitor, but Will's the true master of the game.
I wonder about Will's endgame, though. I was really surprised that George got evicted. He seemed like the perfect player to keep to the final 3, since there's no way he could win that last HoH competition. And even if by some miracle he did, I think all of the jury members (except maybe Marcellas) would vote for Will out of respect for his mastery of the game, rather than give it to Chicken Gump just because he's a nice guy.
On the other hand, both Erika and Janelle are going to be extremely tough to beat in the final HoH. Janelle is obviously great at challenges, but Erika also demonstrated during the spider-web thing how she would easily dominate any endurance challenge. Certainly Will has been throwing most of the competitions, but I'm skeptical that even his A-game (let alone Mike's) could beat Janelle or Erika. His only real strength is manipulation, and he will probably make it to the final 2 that way, but I think the only one he can really beat in the jury vote is Mike, the charmless sidekick/hit-man.
Posted by: Doug Orleans on September 1, 2006 05:27 PM