This year's edition of Big Brother is really off to a ridiculous start. There has been more scheming and confrontation in this first week than there was in the first month of last season. We received a new twist into the Power of Veto, Project DNA seems to have taken a little bit of a hiatus for the moment, and Jase and Scott have showed us that no matter how dumb and macho we think they are, they will do their best to outdo themselves the next week. Faced with the hegemony that is Jase and Scott, other members in the house started to circle the wagons in anticipation of the epic battle that is sure to come.
The central focus of this episode was Jase's nomination of Mike, or "The Don" as they have taken to calling him, not so much for the depth of his machinations as the fact that he is the oldest. Mike does have an uphill battle. Unlike other people who have carried "the oldest" label in past years, Mike does not bring that quirky lovableness that is necessary for the aged to stick around. He is not particularly flashy, and fearing backlash from Jase and Scott, the rest of the house has made him a social outcast.
Now, some people would mope around and be resigned to the fact that they have a whole house of people against them. Mike, however, is not one of those people. Unlike some people who have become favorites to be voted first, he has decided that he is going to confront people and say things that nobody else wants to hear, if for nothing else than to force them to think about actions other than the safe bet of voting him out. This strategy was highly evident in a couple of scenes where he confronted Scott and Jase about their alliance, or partnership. Both guys denied that they had any special tie to the other when Mike singled them out. Mike wasn't superbly eloquent in his confrontations with these two, but was obviously bringing the heavy brainpower into the conversation and neither Jase nor Scott was able to come up with a rebuttal. Jase even walked away from the conversation, seeing how outclassed he was.
I believe that Jase and Scott are completely idiotic for believing that their alliance of the Four Horsemen(Scott, Jase, Michael, Drew) is going to last for any significant period of time. Their absolute devotion to this alliance and their absolute faith in the strength of their strategy is a necessary component to the rest of the game, so I am able to tolerate it for now. Everything in the house revolves around the basis that Jase and Scott are as good as one person. Diane, even though she was given notice about her scheming ways, went right back to scheming after seeing Nakomis and Mike were up on the block and that voting Mike was almost a sure thing.
The dynamic has shifted to one that is classic for people who have watched the show. We have two sets of power groups and a group of "floaters" that do not have strong ties to the other groups. Some people choose to float around with loose alliances, believing that avoiding outward signals of partnership makes them less of a threat. Some people choose to float because they know that without a strong alliance, they can be in demand when it comes time for voting and therefore they have a bargaining chip. Still others are forced to float because they don't fit in anywhere and nobody wants them as part of their alliance.
The two power groups are the Four Horsemen and The Girls(Diane, Adria, Nakomis,Lori) . Power groups often break down along gender lines, and it is no different this year. The hyper masculinity of Jase and Scott simply accelerated the process this year. The Four Horsemen really believe they hold all of the cards and that they won't have to show their hand until the end. The Girls, meanwhile, are relying on the arrogance of the other group as part of their strategy. They believe that as long as the Horseman are confident enough, they will weaken their alliance unintentionally, thereby allowing the Girls to pick them off one by one.
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