Wow, this week has had some ups and downs, and it’s only been a few days (well, technically a little more than a few days-apparently the BoB challenge was played on Friday morning, only hours after the HoH competition, due to the holiday on Saturday)! First, when Becky and Shelli became HoH’s, they agreed that Audrey had to go. After all, she’s extremely manipulative, and no one trusts her. And then Shelli and Clay decided that Da’Vonne was the bigger threat, so they needed to get rid of her first. Their plan worked: John and Da’ lost the BoB challenge without John having to do anything, so the two of them stayed on the block. And when we left off on Sunday night, the only hope Da’ had of staying in the house was to win the Veto and save herself.

Obviously, Mama Da’ isn’t happy. She knows that Shelli is after her, and she’s also certain that John threw the challenge. Of course it had nothing to do with her terrible strategy. She feels like the entire house is working together to get rid of her. Oh Da’, just you wait. It’s about to get worse for you. Meanwhile, John looks a little shell-shocked. He’d known what he had to do to win favour with the power couple, but it seems to finally be settling in that he’s actually on the block, and he might go home. Shelli and Clay assure him that he’s safe, but as it’s been said so many times already this season, pawns go home all the time. He doesn’t know these two people, so he doesn’t trust them. It just makes him more determined to win the Veto.

In a more delusional part of the house, Audrey thinks it is super weird that no one else is talking game with her, as if she didn’t just get called out for manipulating EVERYONE else in the place. So she’s got to sink to eavesdropping level and listen through walls while James, Meg, and Jason talk. I can’t really tell if she can hear what they’re saying though. Not that they’re talking about anything super important anyway. They’re just speculating about what’s going to happen next and what will happen if Da’ and Audrey get put up on the block against each other. One surprising thing though-James tells Jason he hopes that Da’ goes home before Audrey. Guess that alliance isn’t quite as strong as I thought.

Let’s talk about the kitchen. Every single year, no one does the dishes or cleans up the place, and this year is no different. Dishes fill the sink and the whole counter space, and it’s obvious by Julia/Liz’s gagging that they haven’t been done in a while. Gross. Well, it won’t be long before the ants take up residence again.

When it’s time for the Veto competition, Shelli picks the House Guest’s choice button and obviously picks Clay. John picks Meg’s name out and Da’, who was really hoping to pick Jason’s name out of the box, gets Steve. By this point, Da’ has one expression that will probably never change until she’s out of the house: anger. She knows that no one else who is playing will take her off the block. John will save himself. Shelli and Clay want her gone, and Steve and Meg won’t want to rock the boat. She must be on the delusional part of the house, because she’s convinced that everyone wants her out because she called out Audrey for her manipulations. Apparently she’s forgotten that she’s openly gunning for Shelli and Clay.

The Veto competition is called High Maintenance. In this game, contestants challenge each other and go head to head as we hear Kathy Griffin’s voice naming a list of seven items that she demands her assistant bring her. When the elevator doors open, a picture of the assistant with the items is displayed, but one item is missing. The contestants have to figure out what’s missing and go to their prop room to grab it. The first to bring the correct item back wins the round and the other person is out. If the wrong item is brought back, that person is out.

John’s name is drawn first, and he chooses to face off against Da’. She’s PISSED, and once again, her strategy for the game is terrible. Kathy lists the items she wants, and while John spends a few minutes looking at the picture to figure out what’s missing, Da’ runs back and forth, bringing out just about everything but the missing item before she realizes that it’s in the picture. This gives John the time to figure it out and pick the correct item for the win. Round one and Da’ is out! Her only hope now is that John will win and take himself off the block so that Shelli will hopefully replace him with Audrey.

This continues on for four more rounds, and eventually, John, does indeed win. Now Shelli is nervous. She’d been hoping the nominations would stay the same so that she wouldn’t have to do anything else. She’s also worried that Becky will be angry with her for not going through with their plan, so she and Clay bring her up to the HoH room and let her know what’s going on. Becky isn’t super excited about the news-apparently Audrey has spread rumours that Becky has said some really racist things-but she plays nice and goes along with them. She’s still hopeful that they’ll be able to target Audrey next week.

So Becky is squared away, but they still need to find someone else to take John’s place. They ask him to keep himself on the block and trust that the house won’t vote him out, and he’s understandably like, “uh, no.” Vanessa smartly tells them that they need to put up another woman so that there won’t be any chance of the women voting together to get another guy out. She suggests Meg, but Shelli and Clay decide on Liz.

When they tell Liz the plan, obviously she’s distraught. She’s playing for two people, after all! They assure her that no one would vote her out over Da’, but also warn her not to tell anyone, because if Da’ knows who she’ll be up against, she’ll start campaigning against her. So immediately, she tells Austin and Becky what’s happening, and this is probably the best spilled secret ever, at least for her. It motivates Austin to fight for her. He overhears James, Jason, Jeff and Meg talking and decides to take matters into his own hands. He tells Vanessa that he’d overheard the others talking about wanting to flip the house on Shelli (see Audrey? This is how you lie to people), and she takes this news straight to Shelli. This new foursome agree that if they put up Liz, she could be voted out over Da’, but if they put up Meg, who’s tight with James and Jason, they’d have to choose between two allies, virtually ensuring Da’s departure. This is why I LOVE Austin (who I keep wanting to call Tarzan) and Vanessa. I hope they make it to the end.

So now the two on the block are Meg and Da’, and it looks like Da’ will be heading out next. However, we still have Kathy’s twist to deal with. Three people won’t be able to vote. I think it’ll end up being a moot point because I can’t see anyone voting to evict Meg over Da’, but we’ll see. Da’ insists that it’s not over, and she’s still got something up her sleeve. Is she blowing smoke, or is she poised for her own BB Takeover? We’ll find out!

– Rebecca