I just want to start off by saying that the theme of the beginning part of this article is going to be “Really?” because the house guests are behaving in ways I just don’t understand. Expect some angry ranting. You’ve been warned.

In other seasons of this show, lies and exaggeration have been very helpful when trying to turn the tide against another player, but not here. Not this season. This season, secrets are revealed within minutes of the first telling, and lies almost always end up backfiring on the fibber. You’d think that by this time, the house guests would realize that such stories don’t work. If you lie about someone, every single person in the house – including the person you lied about – will hear about it in about five minutes.

Yet Vanessa can’t seem to stop herself. The other night, she’d talked to John (in my opinion, with the express purpose to throw him under the bus and get him evicted in case she couldn’t oust Becky), and when he refused to cooperate with her (really? You want to help him with his game, Vanessa? Yeah, that sounds legit), she went right up to the Austwins to tell them that Johnny was untrustworthy. Crazy, even. In fact, according to the feedsters, Vanessa told the alliance that she was afraid that Johnny would come after her with a knife. Again, I say, really? Johnny? The guy who couldn’t even be bothered to sit up during your conversation, Vanessa? And what’s more, after the nomination ceremony, Vanessa tries to cover her tracks with John by telling him that he’ll be fine. He won’t be voted out. Oh, and by the way, after their conversation earlier? She’d just gone upstairs to find out whether or not Liz was going to put him up. She’s clearly the crazy one if she thinks he’s going to believe that load of garbage.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that Becky spilled the beans about Vanessa a few days ago, the Austwins seem to believe her story about Johnny for now. Austin goes in to give him a hug after Johnny’s nominated, and he’s shocked to get a death glare from his fellow housemate (though it was really more of a blank look). And not only shocked, but offended! Uh, maybe because your girlfriend just nominated him! Did you expect him to be all sunshine and roses afterward, Austin? Really? He goes straight to the twins about his misgivings about John, and they agree. They think he may be volatile. They don’t understand why he’s moping around and acting angry. And once again, I say, really? You’re working with his enemy, and it’s clear that she’s in your ear. He knows that Vanessa’s been talking crap about him. And YOU JUST NOMINATED HIM. Do you expect a thank you card and flowers now? WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?!

Then we get a clip of Liz putting a peeling mask on her face and then squealing and whining when it hurts as she rips it off. I swear they put this clip here to give me time to let my anger simmer off a little bit, but it doesn’t work. Watching Liz be an idiot when she’s in power this week only fuels it more, Big Brother.

Anyway, Austin says that these nominations are all about watching how people react to them, including Vanessa. They definitely don’t trust her, so they decide to pull John in (finally) to ask him about what went down between him and Vanessa, since they suddenly seem to remember him following her upstairs the other day and calling her fishy. He tells them the truth that she’d told him; that she’d been going up to see if Liz was going to nominate him. The others are floored. Here’s another outright lie that she’s told. As much as they might not want to believe what people are saying about their fellow Angel (barf), they can’t ignore the fact that both Johnny and Becky have told them a lot of bad things about her. John tells them straight out that Vanessa is his target and points out that everyone who has blown up at her has gone home, except for Austin, who would’ve gone home if Becky and Clay had succeeded in winning that BoB.

Comic relief Part Two: In the middle of the night, James sneaks into one of the bedrooms and scares the crap out of Julia. I can definitely understand how good a soldier he must’ve been. Dude knows how to use stealth. The room was pitch dark, and yet he knew exactly where to go without hitting anything, and he managed to crouch down on the floor right beside Julia without her knowing until it was too late. Priceless. I wish they’d show all his pranks. These are hilarious!

When it’s time to pick players for the veto competition, Liz gets House Guest’s Choice and picks Austin (which I think further demonstrates that these guys know how to tell this token apart from the rest, as it’s come up in every competition). John picks Meg (which he always seems to do, according to Meg; maybe he can pick her token out from the rest too), and Becky picks Steve. Julia is upset that Liz had picked Austin to play instead of her, but Liz doesn’t seem to care. I’d probably have picked Austin to play over Julia too. He’s got a slightly better chance to win than she does.

Meanwhile, Austin talks to John about throwing the competition, and John seems totally into it, which blows my mind. He figures if the throws it, then it’ll show the Austwins that he’s serious about working with them. When Austin tells the girls the news though, they’ve got mixed feelings about it. Throwing the challenge will make them trust Johnny more, but they’re afraid that Becky will win and take herself down.

Otev joins us for this week’s Veto competition! This year, he’s Otev, the Rockin’ Roll. Bread roll, that is. He’ll sing a song about an evicted house guest, and the players will have to dig through giant pies and desserts to find the pat of butter with the correct name on it. But in each round, there will be one less drum at the top of the hill, and the last one back will be out. John succeeds in throwing himself out of the game and is the last one back in the first round, and Steve follows suit in the second round. He doesn’t want to win either. He just wants Becky to lose, which strikes me as odd. Shouldn’t he at least try to beat Becky first before he throws himself out of the competition? Not that it matters anyway, since Becky is out third, but still. Meg slips on her way up the slide to Otev and falls flat on her face, hard. It looks so painful. She keeps going though, really trying hard to win this for her crew…only to be out the next round. And in the final round, between Austin and Liz, Liz pulls ahead and steals the win and the veto.

I usually love Otev, but this year, he drove me crazy. Every time he sang the word “butter” in that hair metal, high-pitched Axl Rose kind of voice, it grated on my nerves. I was happy when the competition ended.

Afterward, Vanessa goes to Liz about John and Becky, once again, badmouthing them both. Liz keeps her cool, and it seems to be that Vanessa’s ability to ferret out liars is slipping, because Liz isn’t a great liar. The old Vanessa would be able to smell her lie a mile away, but now she seems to take Liz at her word that Johnny isn’t working with them. Liz, of course, runs straight to Austin. Now she’s afraid that keeping Vanessa around for another week could be a mistake because Vanessa is second guessing Austin again, and the last time she had second thoughts about him, she tried to get him evicted. She’s worried that if Vanessa stays and wins the next HoH, she’ll go after Austin because she doesn’t trust him anymore. And when Vanessa cries to Liz and Steve about feeling lonely and left out, it makes Liz even more nervous.

Unfortunately, not nervous enough to keep her from engaging in a gross make out session with Austin. Ugh, barf. It was weird to watch though. She says she’s more into him now, and she kissed him back and stuff, but she definitely didn’t seem to really enjoy what they were doing. Her body language suggested that she was uncomfortable with him nuzzling into her. She even pulled away from him once to turn off the lights, and then after a few more moments of kissing and cuddling, she ended it. It makes me wonder just how into him she is. I wonder if she’s into him emotionally but not physically. Nonetheless, she wakes up with a hickey on her neck and Julia is not happy. I think her dislike for Austin is hilarious. I don’t know if she actually dislikes him as a person or if she just doesn’t want him with her sister. I hope we’ll get to find out for sure.

At the Veto meeting, Liz decides not to take anyone off the block, and tells us that, as much as she wants Vanessa gone, the entire house wants her out too, so she’ll just let one of them get rid of her next week. It’s a cowardly move, and I think the wrong move for Liz. They’ve already got John on their side now, so they don’t need Vanessa. Plus, in final two situations, the jury always seems to like to crown the person who made big moves during the game. And it couldn’t get much bigger than ousting Vanessa. The house – otherwise known as future jury members – would be happy with the result, and it would give her a claim to the Big Brother throne. Unfortunately for her, someone else will get that glory. Hopefully. I’m not sure how much more Vanessa I can handle this summer. I have to admit, as much as I can’t stand her, I think it’ll be funny if Vanessa wins HoH next week and gets rid of one of the Austwins. We’ve already had a couple of giant wrong moves. Why not one more?

My prediction for the winner still remains the same: one of the twins or Austin will win. Apparently John told Steve earlier in the week that his new targets after Vanessa will be James and Meg, and if that’s true, then the Austwins will be even more powerful. I can only hope that Vanessa will go next, and that Jackie will make it back into the game. Then maybe James and Meg will have a chance. Otherwise, we may as well crown Queen Liz right now.

– Rebecca