Does anyone else think this show is getting a little predictable? For the second week in a row, two people have been put up on the block, but the HoH insists that they might backdoor Vanessa. Of course, this week, Austin wasn’t able to backdoor her, as she won the veto, but let’s be honest: we knew that he was never going to nominate her anyway, didn’t we? Whether because they’re too afraid to go against her, or because they just don’t want to listen to her whine constantly, or because they don’t want to give her the chance to get back into the house once she’s evicted, or (in Liz’s case) because they actually like her, the Austwins have talked a big game about sending Vanessa to the jury, but the fact is, none of them are willing to pull the trigger. If someone else were to nominate her, they’d go along with it, just as long as they didn’t have to do the work themselves.

That said, this episode isn’t super shocking, but it had some good moments. At the top of the hour, John and Steve talk to each other because they’ve got no one else to talk to. John assures Steve that there’s no way that the Austwins will use the Veto if any of the three win the veto competition, so the boys are going to have to do their best to win it. Steve seems a little surprised by this revelation, though I don’t know why. Haven’t the Austwins proven that they don’t care a whole lot about their alliances? After all, they’ve got deals with everyone in the house, something that Liz is upset about. Don’t worry though, Liz, according to Austin, you didn’t have a choice about aligning with every single person in the house.

I call shenanigans. They didn’t have to make deals with everyone in the house. The alliance with James and Meg really confuses me. Austin’s reasoning is that with James and Meg posing as another duo in the house, these two will be targets as well as the Austwins for the rest of the house. Except that….everyone who isn’t Meg and James was part of the alliance. Even before they made a deal with John, the only people not in their alliance were John, James and Meg. So they’re now aligning themselves with James and Meg to make them targets for the other side of the house when the other side of the house was…Meg and James. I don’t get it.

Another sign that Austin isn’t really backing Steve: he tells Steve that as long as the nominations remain the same, Steve won’t be going home, which A) tells me that Austin doesn’t plan on using the veto or taking Steve down from the block if he has the chance, and B) tells me that if John wins the Veto and Austin has to put Vanessa or James or Meg up, Steve will be the one going home. Steve still seems to be taking it rather hard, as evidenced by the fact that he wants to rebuild a relationship with Vanessa, which has seemed to completely fall apart over the past few weeks. Good luck, Steve. You’re going to need it.

On a lighter note, James’s prank for Julia was genius: he climbs into the little wardrobe that sits next to Julia’s bed, and then starts knocking on the wood, scaring the crap out of her. She feels the area next to the bed to make sure he’s not there, and of course, he’s not. She actually jumps/falls out of bed when he finally pops out at her. Amazing. These pranks have become my favourite part of the show.

For the veto competition, Austin picks Vanessa to play, John picks Meg as usual, and Steve picks Julia. Everyone except for John and Steve wants them to lose, so the boys are on their own. Before we start the competition, though, we get a visit from none other than Zingbot! After he shoots out a few good insults (my favourites were the ones about Austin apparently smelling gross and Liz meeting Austin’s family….and girlfriend. Perfect, Zingbot), Liz seems put off by the fact that Austin has a girlfriend – or ex – as Austin wants us to believe. I’m sure she’s an ex now…because you cheated on her, Austin, and she dumped you. I’m sure you’ll get the memo when you get home.

The other thing I noticed was that I don’t think I’ve ever seen Julia look so happy or alive as when she met Zingbot. It was weird, seeing her smile like that. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen her smile in a non-sarcastic way.

The Veto competition is called Newly Zingle. Zingbot is on Zinder, a new dating app for robots. The pictures that come up are combinations of three house guests – one person’s eyes, one’s nose, and one’s mouth. The players have to guess which features belong to whom and the person who can solve all six puzzles in the shortest time wins the veto! Julia looks like she could hold onto the veto for a while, and then Vanessa steps up and takes it from her in half the time Julia took to get through the challenge.

So there will be no backdoor of Vanessa this week! It looks like John might be the one who goes h – oh, what was that? John and Vanessa bury the hatchet and want to work together? And Vanessa was the one who initiated this conversation? Weird, but okay. I’m not sure why Vanessa would suddenly wants to work with John when she was the leader of the Let’s Get John club a few days ago, but hey, if it means that John gets to stay in the house, I’m all for it. I like Steve, but John is more entertaining for me to watch.

Anyway, Vanessa tells John that she wants to use the veto on him, but she needs to talk to Austin about it first. Austin, of course, hates her idea of saving John and targeting Meg, of all people. Austin points out that James likes Meg the way that Austin likes Liz (disagree. James likes Meg, but I highly doubt he’s obsessed with her the way that Austin is with Liz), and that if they get rid of Meg, James will be after him and the twins. I really don’t understand why Vanessa’s next argument isn’t “OK, let’s go after James then,” since Meg can’t win a win a competition to save her life. Instead, she goes back to John with the bad news. She can ‘t go against Austin, or he’ll go against her next week, so John just has to sit tight and hope that they’ll vote Steve out instead.

This urges John to actually play the game. He tells Vanessa about the 5 person alliance they’d created last week and that she’d been their target. Vanessa is floored. She’s also PISSED. She doesn’t really seem to believe John until she takes the conversation to Liz, who confirms the story, but says that Steve was the one who’d orchestrated the plan. Now she’s doubly pissed. How dare he try to spearhead a ploy to get rid of her (which I’m pretty sure he didn’t even do; I’m pretty sure that Julia headed that one up. Correct me if I’m wrong)? It’s not like she just did the same thing to him a few days ag – oh wait. Yes she did, when she suggested they get rid of Steve instead of John “because at least John is loyal.” I’m rolling my eyes right now. This woman is so hypocritical!

She confronts Steve about the whole thing, and Steve is shocked by the situation. So shocked that when she demands to know if he was the one who orchestrated the plan to get rid of her, all he can do is splutter a no, which she takes to mean he’s lying. She out and out tells him that he’ll be out the door this week.

Not surprisingly, she doesn’t use the veto on either boy, so John and Steve will be our final nominees for eviction this week. My guess is that Steve will be the one walking out the door, only to maybe walk back in when the four evicted contestants compete to rejoin the game. Personally, I don’t know why Steve is shocked that Vanessa blew up at him. As they all talked about last week, this is what Vanessa does. She blows up at someone, and a few days later, they’re evicted. It’s like a curse.

So my prediction is that Steve will be evicted and Becky will rejoin the game. She’s not my first choice to come back (that would be Jackie), but she has said that she’d go after Liz, so if she does make it back into the game, it’ll be interesting to see what happens if she gets a chance to target her. I guess we’ll find out more tomorrow night! See you then!

– Rebecca