Sometimes I think I am really quite adept at observing all of the personalities on Big Brother and then coming up with a feel of how people in the house are positioning themselves. Other times, especially with this cast, I am left stupefied by what actually ends up happening in the house. I understand that the houseguests don't have the advantage of seeing everything that is going on in the house with nice little subtitles when people whisper, but you would think that as they line themselves up to vote out a third person, somebody would have developed some sort of awareness for the alliances forming in the house. This is clearly way too much to ask of the current houseguests.
Yes, there is some sort of ambiguity inside the Big Brother house as to the obvious power inside the house. As Mike was telling everybody in week one, and has become eminently clear to us viewers at home, Scott and Jase are the strongest duo in the house and along with Michael and Drew, form the Four Horsemen who have orchestrated enough of the game to have removed their choices in the previous two eviction ceremonies. Scott and Holly are joined at the hip, so Holly is at least an adjunct to the Horsemen. Marvin mistakingly believes he and his macho schtick are also in tight with the Horsemen and even tried to suggest "Santa Monica Van Gang" as the name of the new group.
What's left? We have Adria, Nakomis, Diane, Karen, and Will. They are a decent bunch, but only Nakomis has the ability to actually play the game. She has a subtle quality to her personal interactions with everybody, so as not to alienate anybody but, as her diary moments attest, she can think for herself and knows you can't implicitly trust anybody in the house. Adria seems to have both things as well, but she has so much on her mind involving all of the switching with her sister that her head is not always in it. Diane has the attitude, but too often fails to hold her own in confrontations. Karen isn't doing anything after being up on the block last week and Will is trying to lay low as long as possible.
The veto competition dominated this week's episode. After nominating Holly, Drew caught the ire of many of his teammates. Drew correctly assumed that Holly was a divisive force among his alliance and believed removing her would solidify the Horsemen. The problem with this idea is that Scott and Jase believe that they both have a chance at a solid piece of Holly, so neither of them really wants her to leave. Jase tries to rationalize his thoughts of saving Holly by talking about the numbers game. He is partly correct because keeping Holly and removing somebody from the Girls alliance does keep Holly's vote on their side. But if Jase was really interested in the numbers game, they could easily vote off Holly and keep Marvin, who is looking to hitch his wagon to anybody at this point. I personally think that Jase wants to keep Holly around because he knows that he is going to be put up at one point and keeping Holly means that he is always going to have at least one vote in his favor when the time comes. Eventually, the Horsemen convince Drew he made a bad mistake and that he must nominate either Marvin or Adria when they win the veto and take Holly off. These guys actually brought Drew to tears with all of their subtle people skills.
How were they going to win the veto? Holly was going to pick Jase, Drew would pick Scott, and after informing Nakomis of the new plan, she would pick her brother Michael, making it 5 people out of 6 who would be willing to pull Holly off. The problem with the plan is that Nakomis has a head on her shoulder and knows that the Horsemen don't care about her, but rather "keeping Jase and Holly together for another few weeks". Somebody was looking out for the viewers this week because Nakomis won the veto challenge, meaning that Holly would almost certainly spend the time on the block for the rest of the week. Diane, elated that Holly wouldn't be saved for the second week, bounced over to Nakomis and gave her a hug.
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