by David McAlpine

Last time on Big Brother 11, Lydia set out to get herself off the block and leeched on to everyone’s sympathy in the house. Russell won the Power of Veto in a stunning display of the houseguests’ lack of spelling ability, then went on to make an ass of himself and the Athletes. With the Athletes concerned for their safety, Russell vetoed Lydia so Jessie could put up Braden, creating a split in the house.

First highlight of this week’s eviction: Julie’s first “but first” of the season. Oh, how I missed that. Second gem: Braden looks super intense in the eviction chair while Chima…is putting on lip balm. Back to the happenings of the house, where we’re reminded of how Lydia can’t pull off a fake surprised look. Ronnie continues with his disillusionment that he’s the master strategist in the house and Lydia throws herself all over Russell.

Jeff feels personally attacked by his clique, while Jordan and Laura worry the Populars won’t be able to win anything without Braden. Braden doesn’t exactly help with his “I don’t care” surfer attitude, but it’s probably the smartest thing to do, especially since it’s the first week. Lydia takes a step up on the petty-meter (believe me, I didn’t think it was possible, either) by complaining that Jordan didn’t cry when she was nominated, yet Jordan claims they’re friends.

Russell continues his “bull in a china shop” strategy by trying to get Braden to confront Lydia and make him look bad. Surprisingly, it works, and Braden calls out Lydia on her lying (which, turns out, she’s not good at, either), then makes tells her she should get a tattoo about getting evicted because she played the game too hard too early. Kevin jumps to Lydia’s defense, then Jeff steps in for Braden, and the sides of the house start to form.

Lydia brings up the fact that Jordan didn’t cry when she got nominated (again), and Natalie just shuts the door in their faces to let them have it out. Why she’s yelling at Jordan when she makes it clear she’s mad at Braden and Jeff is beyond me, but it sets off Jordan, which Lydia turns around and does the whole “you’re yelling, I’m talking” thing. I love Lydia’s attitude, but I hate the way it comes off on her.

Jordan tries her hand at strategizing and enlists the help of Laura to save Braden. She talks to Ronnie (our fellow RealityWanted member), who tells us of his yet-to-be-seen power over Michele (speaking of which, where the hell is Michele? Is she a mute?), but gives them that condescending “nice try, but I don’t think so,” half-agreement pat on the back. Jordan believes it anyway as she sets her sights on getting the last vote she needs: Casey. We never see her interact with him, though, just him giving a wild-eyed confessional about being the swing vote.

It’s back to the live shot, where we get our first real glimpse of Julie from the side and damn, she’s pregnant. Next is obligatory Q&A time, and Jeff, Russell and Jordan give uncomfortable answers about the myriad of fights in the house this week. Jessie gives a strangely subdued HoH interview, then it’s the live shot to the two nominees, where Braden looks scared and Chima still has her lip balm face on. Braden wishes everyone good luck and says how nice it was to meet everyone, then Chima stands up in her no-pants outfit and lets it fly. In a glorious speech that reminds us all this is live television, Chima gets half of her speech dropped (because she was recounting the several names that Braden called Kevin, Lydia and, yes, Julie Chen), then calls him a bigot, a racist and a misogynist—and she’s proud of it. The audience goes silent and follows with some impressed “ooh”s after the tone of Chima’s words set in. Then the voting begins:

Russell: BRADEN
Natalie: BRADEN
Jeff: CHIMA
Jordan: CHIMA

At this point, it makes me wonder that, with all this live voting, it’s obvious that the producers line the votes up so, in the case of a close vote, it’ll be suspenseful for the viewing public. Couldn’t the houseguests easily figure out how the people are voting based on the way they’re called into the Diary Room? Just a thought.

Kevin: BRADEN
Laura: CHIMA
Lydia: BRADEN
Michele: CHIMA (with some “wow”s from the audience—definitely a player emerging)
Casey: CHIMA
Ronnie: BRADEN (with his awkward schemer hands…Ronnie, you’re not a mastermind—stop it!)

For the first time in Big Brother history, the first vote results in a tie, which eeks the first bit of emotion out of Chima we’ve seen all night. Jessie makes it simple and evicts Braden, sending him out the door. After Braden walks out, Lydia crawls all over Russell again, while everyone else fetters out.

Braden isn’t shocked to be thrown out, and he seems to have known that Ronnie was the one that sold him out. He looks completely defeated, and doesn’t even produce one of his great made-up words to sum up his time in the Big Brother house, just “discombobulated.” Kevin and Lydia still can’t let their beef with Brandon go in the goodbye videos, which just makes them look worse.

It’s time for the Head of Household competition, “Most Likely To…”, where the houseguests are quizzed on the results of a viewer poll based on their first impressions of the house. Each clique has one person at the buzzer and, when someone buzzes in, they must answer. They get it right and they can eliminate another player of their choice at the podium, they get it wrong and they’re eliminated.

Laura eliminates Chima, Jeff eliminates Kevin (though all he really does and point and grunt, which is all Kevin deserves), Laura eliminates Russell, then Casey takes out Natalie (again, with just a point). Laura gets a question wrong, and I can’t tell if people on the side are clapping because they’re happy she’s out, or the other three are hitting their buzzers trying to ring in, even though they can’t. Casey eliminates Jeff and the entire Athlete clique, Lydia eliminates Jordan and the Populars (without missing a beat), Ronnie eliminates Casey by default, and Michelle takes out Lydia by default. In the final question, Ronnie (with his super intense challenge face) beats out Michelle, earning him the power as the new Head of Household…great. We’ll get to see lots more of the “master strategies” he has up his sleeve.

Be sure to watch Big Brother 11, Sunday at 8/7c on CBS to see who Ronnie nominates for eviction, and keep it tuned to RealityWanted.com for our exclusive interview with evictee Braden Bacha!

(Image courtesy of CBS)

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