Well, it’s only episode two, and already, we’re going to lose a house guest. I can’t remember how this usually goes on the American show, but I’d thought we’d have a tiny bit more time to get to know everyone. I don’t know about you guys, but I definitely don’t think I know enough about any of the house guests to decide which ones I like and which ones I don’t. Unfortunately, we’ll have to say goodbye to someone without hearing more than a few words from them. Hopefully the right person will go home.

First though, we get to see Nick and Phil being ushered into isolation in the High Roller room. It’s a really nice, plush room, thankfully, so at least they’ll be comfy, but Phil is PISSED. He clearly blames Nick for everything, for even being in the house in the first place, even though as far as we know, neither brother knew the other was going to be there. I think that Phil is being a little bit hard on his little bro. Watching the scene, I actually felt a little angry on Nick’s behalf at Phil’s little outburst. I thought it made Phil seem selfish and childish. But these two are brothers, so before long, they’re back to being besties again.

Meanwhile, Loveita, the first HoH, has a bit of a task ahead of her – she’s got to figure out whom to nominate for eviction. I don’t envy her. I would not want to be the first HoH, unless I knew that I would be the target if I didn’t win. Loveita seems like she can handle it though. She plans on being a benevolent leader, hearing what everyone has to say before making her decision. She names Sharry her second in command, and then the two of them get to work.

The first name that comes up as a possible nomination is Cassandra, and that makes me excited. Based on first impressions, Cassandra and Ramsey are the two that I’d like to see get booted from the house, just because they both seem to be so into themselves.

But Loveita’s main focus turns out to be Kelsey. Everyone can see that Kelsey and Jared have something going on, and Loveita had promised Jared she wouldn’t nominate him if she got HoH, so that leaves Kelsey as the prime target. Honestly, I don’t understand why some of these house guests make their showmances so obvious right from the start. It’s going to automatically make them a big target. And it has.

So the decision has been made. But who will go up on the block with Kelsey? Poor little, sweet Paige. Loveita tells her that she absolutely is not the target but that she’s going to be nominated with Kelsey. Paige holds her own with Loveita, which is admirable, but as soon as she’s by herself, the tears start flowing. I don’t blame her. I’d probably cry too in her situation. Everyone knows that pawns are at least as likely to go home as the target.

Loveita heads into the high roller room to make her nominations and on her short list are Kelsey, Paige, Cassandra, and Christine, because apparently no one would care if she left. Ouch. In the end, though, she nominates Kelsey and Paige, as she said she would. Kelsey goes straight to Loveita to find out what’s up, and Loveita tells her right to her face that she’d rather see Paige stay than her. Wow. Those are balls. And it’s also a huge risk to show her hand like that. If Kelsey stays, Loveita could be in trouble next week.

Next up is the PoV challenge! Kelsey desperately wants Jared to be able to play so that he can save her, but she’s out of luck. Loveita picks house guests’ choice and picks Sharry to play. Nick and Raul are the other two players.

The challenge is called What the Shell. Players, dressed as mermaids, have to wriggle over slide-like waves to the beach and then use their tails to reel in starfish with letters on them before wriggling back over the waves to their chest. Once they’ve got all the starfish, they need to unscramble the letters to create a mystery phrase.

This game looks pretty hard for just about everyone except for Nick, who seems to fly over the waves. Paige hits her head at least once when trying to get over the waves and that girl cannot afford to lose any more brain cells. We actually don’t get to see that much of the challenge since they have to fit so much into one hour. In the end, Nick wins the veto and at the Veto ceremony later, they decide not to save anyone.

So Kelsey needs to do everything she can to save herself, and that includes flirting with just about everyone she can. At one point, she and Cassandra both cuddle up to Dallas and of course, he just loves that. But she really should thank Phil, because he’s the one who’s really doing her work for her. He knows that he and Nick are a big target, but a showmance is an even bigger target, so he knows that he’s got to save her, so that she and Jared can be his shield. He talks to the other house guests about saving Kelsey more than Kelsey does herself.

As the time ticks away toward eviction, Loveita seems to get more and more nervous about Kelsey staying. It’s clear that she’s a lot more popular with the rest of the house guests than quiet little Paige, who seems to just sit by herself most of the time. Sharry reassures Loveita, though, that everyone is just being nice to Kelsey since they know she’s going home. And I wonder if Sharry is actually that naive, or if she’s just saying what Loveita wants to hear so that her friend won’t freak out.

Now comes the eviction! It’s a lot closer than I thought it would be, but then, there are a few people in the house who haven’t even been mentioned all episode, so it’s impossible to know who they would vote for. In the end, the vote is 7-4, and Paige gets her early check out. In the shortest eviction interview I’ve ever seen, Paige admits that she didn’t make enough connections in the house. No kidding! I’m not sure if she coasted, believing Loveita when she told her she’d be safe, or if she’d already accepted the fact that she’d be going home. Either way, she did nothing to save herself, so it’s not surprising to see her go.

And now we get to the fun part! Which international house guests will be moving in? Arisa brings all four out, and the whole thing seems awkward. She doesn’t really seem to know how to talk to them, and they seem awkward too, which is odd, since they’ve all had success on their own countries’ shows. I was looking for more charisma, but there really wasn’t any.

Anyway, she introduces the four to the house guests, and while there’s excitement at first, the only person who seems truly into the idea of two new house guests is Phil. He’s practically bouncing off the walls, so I wonder if he’s seen some of the other countries’ shows before. Everyone else is much less positive. In fact, Maddy’s response is “That’s not fair!” I can’t wait to see how this plays out.

We get to the girls first, and, not surprisingly, Nikki from the UK wins a spot in the house. But when Arisa calls her name, there’s just no response at all from her. She’s completely confused. And it’s not until Veronica walks off stage that Nikki realizes she’s won. Oh, this is going to be interesting.

And then we get to the guys. This is the part I’ve been waiting for all night, because I’ve seen Tim a bit on the Australian version of the show, and I love how obnoxious he is. Surely he’s not going to get in though? Canadians are much more likely to have seen the American version than the Australian version, so Jase is surely going to get the last spot. Apparently not! I don’t know if more people than I thought watch the Australian version, or if they just hate Jase that much (I didn’t watch way back then, so I have no idea what he’s all about), but Tim makes it onto the show! SO. EXCITED. Arisa asks Tim what his strategy is going to be in the house, and his response – “Well I was going to play stupid, but it looks like she’s got that covered.” And then he points to Nikki. Oh yeah. I’m going to love this. And even better, these two will be safe this week, so we’ll have at least two weeks of them both. I can’t wait.

The show ends with the two of them entering the house, so we won’t get to see reactions until Sunday night. I’m so looking forward to this. I’m also looking forward to the fallout between camp Loveita and camp Kelsey. Loveita has to be freaking out after going so hard for Kelsey and losing, after all it’s her own fault. She just assumed that she’d get what she wanted without really talking to everyone about her plan and it backfired. It’ll be interesting to see what happens now, especially if either Kelsey or Jared wins HoH next.

What did you think of the show? How far will the Showmance last this time around? And will Tim and Nikki get a fair fight in the house? Let me know what you think!

– This article and other Big Brother-related stuff by the estimable Rebecca Griffin