Celebrity Big Brother recap: Gift bag it up
Hello, Big Brother fans! Thanks for letting me play in the sandbox this week. As a lifelong fan of the show, I wasn’t sure if a celebrity version was going to be as interesting as the original, but the premiere actually has me pretty jazzed for this blink-and-you’ll-miss-it season.
After a Head of Household competition that saw Shannon Elizabeth take the first position of power (though with a fun twist that might dethrone her), it’s time to find out who her targets are.
The action picks up after the gift bag “recasting” twist. The women are wondering if they’ll be able to use it to their advantage. I’ll say this — every year the Big Brother women get my hopes up that they’ll work together, and every year I’m disappointed when it falls apart five minutes into the game. So let’s hope these women can stick together, if for no other reason than how interesting it would be if the house ends up being all women and they all have to turn on each other.
The recast twist ends up being something they have to request to use ahead of time, but only one person is going to be allowed to use his or her bag based on a random drawing. What’s cool about that is that everyone has to decide how much of their hand they want to show by requesting to use the twist, because odds are not great that you’ll actually receive the power (unless very few people throw their hats in the ring).
The women — plus Ross, whom they have pulled into the alliance, which is potentially very dangerous — decide they should all request the recast power to maximize their chances of getting it. Shannon also decides that she’s going to target Mark, who has offered to be a pawn, and Metta, who already wants to go home. This way, they can promise James, Mark, and Chuck safety in exchange for not requesting the power (Metta doesn’t want to anyway), and then they can backdoor James, the real target. It all seems easy peasy.
Except for two things. Keshia floats the idea that if any of the men break their promise, Chuck and James should be the nominees as punishment. That’s…not a great plan if James is the real target. And then Chuck goes against the deal and requests the power.
So when Keshia is revealed to have the recast power at the nomination ceremony, she takes over as HOH and nominates James and Chuck. The problem is that now James is guaranteed to play for Power of Veto. If they had kept him off the block, at least there was a chance he could be backdoored. Also, he and Chuck now know they’re targets. I would have kept Shannon’s idea and nominated Mark and Metta — but that wouldn’t have been as exciting, so I get it.
Here’s what I don’t get: what’s happening that’s unrelated to the game. Omarosa was always going to face some questions about why she threw in with Trump and what it was like working in his White House. Ross cozies up to her in a very sympathetic way that leads to her talking about how awful the White House is and how she would never vote for Trump again.
But Keshia talks to Omarosa about it in a way that feels (to Omarosa) more confrontational, which immediately puts the former Apprentice star on the defensive. So then Omarosa makes an eyebrow-raising comparison between her situation (defending working for Trump) and Keshia’s defense of Bill Cosby during his sexual assault trial. Neither Omarosa nor Keshia comes out looking great.
So let’s get back to the game. The women right now seem to have everything in hand, but this is Big Brother and things can turn on a dime. I just don’t think was a smart move for the women to bring Ross into the fold — and not because I don’t like Ross. I do! He’s a BB superfan. But that’s exactly why you don’t want to align with him. He knows this game, and it would be easy to vote for him to win because he’s so personable. This might really come back to bite the ladies in the butt.
Odds & Ends
Brandi: “Normally, I give my gift bags to my housekeeper because it’s full of crap, but this one I might actually want.” I hope Brandi is the first woman evicted.
Keep your eye on Marissa. That trick of going into the Diary Room to “request” the recast power and then not actually doing it was a baller move. She’s got her head in the game. I’m already pulling for a final three of Shannon, Marissa, and Ross.
Ross’ sleep mask is terrifying.
