Who else has been fighting the temptation over the past few days to stay away from the spoiler sites to see who won HoH this week? I know I have. When we left off on Thursday, the house guests were in the middle of a competition involving pairs working together to move balls from a dinner table, over a bridge, to a well and all without using their hands. We saw rivals having to work together which was scary, because afterwards the winners would have to decide which one would be HoH. While Phil and Nikki couldn’t even get one ball across the bridge until the very end, a few other pairs quickly took the lead. Mitch and Joel worked well together, despite the fact that Joel is so much taller than Mitch. Jared and Dallas moved quickly, even though they’re bitter rivals who want nothing more than to steal the power for themselves. And Kelsey and Ramsey made good time, though Ramsey quickly decided he’d rather throw the competition than be HoH or let Kelsey have the throne. Tim and Maddy also did well, but I can’t imagine Tim would want to win any more than Ramsey would, so they’re kind of a non-entity too.

So who won? Well, after what seemed like forever, Mitch and Joel dumped their final ball into the well. And after a little Rock, Paper, Scissors – Joel became the new HoH! Yay Joel!

HoH-dom aside though, we’ve got another little drama to deal with: the fact that Cassandra got one more vote than she’d been expecting during the eviction ceremony. She immediately blames Joel, but he insists it wasn’t him and suggests maybe it was Tim, who confesses when she pushes him about it. But Tim had a plan. He’d been pretty sure that everyone would vote the way they actually did, and he’d wanted to make the vote closer, so that the two big alliances would continue to fight each other and leave the people in the middle alone. Then, once they’d picked each other off, the middle would rise up and rule the house.

That might be a little bit difficult now though, since Joel is in charge. He’s one of those middle people, and now he’s got to make a decision: which alliance should he target? Team Dallas has no idea what Joel is going to do, since he’s a bit of a wild card. Team Kelsey, on the other hand, is confident that he’ll target their enemies, since he’d voted with them for the past few weeks. I, personally, think they’re a little too confident, but then, that’s the way it is with mean girls. They expect others to just follow their command.

Joel, however, hasn’t made up his mind yet, and Tim gives him some good advice. He tells Joel that if Team Dallas were to get into power next week, they might not have the numbers to target Team Kelsey, so they might target the floaters instead, which wouldn’t be good. If they evict someone from Team Kelsey though, then Team Dallas would probably leave them alone. It’s a good point. Team Kelsey is far stronger than their adversaries because these are three people who would never turn on each other. Plus, they’ve got all the bases covered. Jared is a real physical threat, and he’s got the honest cowboy thing down. People just automatically want to trust him. And Kelsey and Raul are both very strategically cunning. They’re very good at manipulation. Team Dallas doesn’t have that.

As always, we need to break up the strategy talk with a competition. In this week’s Have-Not comp, the house guests are divided up into opposing baseball teams. The red team consists mostly of Team Dallas, while the blue team consists mostly of Team Kelsey. Each inning, the team at bat will try to hit the ball off the T-ball stand and over the hedge. The other team, equipped with large glove shaped cowls around their necks, will try to catch the balls. If the ball falls in play or is fumbled by the outfield team, the team at bat scores a point. If the other team catches the ball, the batter is out. And, of course, three strikes and they’re out as well.

Immediately, Team Dallas pulls out into the lead, keeping Team Kelsey at zero points until the last inning. They’re really cocky about it too, which annoys the blue team. At one point, Tim, so frustrated at trailing behind the red team, throws his bat over the hedge and hits Maddy with it. Then he starts tearing at the hedge in a little tantrum. It’s not pleasant to watch, since he’s usually so easy going. And it gets him nowhere anyway. The red team wins, and they decide to save Cassandra and Mitch from slop. So that means that Team Kelsey and Tim are Have-Nots for the week.

Back in the HoH room, Joel is talking to some of the other floaters about what they’re going to do when Raul barges in and basically demands to talk to Joel and Mitch alone. Kelsey comes in too, and it’s clear that Joel and Mitch are put off by their behaviour. Cassandra had tried to do the same thing to Loveita earlier, but Loveita had stood her ground. I don’t understand how these people can be so rude, just barging in on conversations and then demanding the others leave so that they can talk to the HoH. I get that it’s a strategy, since the less your enemies talk to the person in charge, the less they can influence him or her, but come on. That, to me, speaks of privilege as well. These people are clearly used to getting what they want, so they just go out and take it. Well, Mitch admits to Joel that Team Kelsey is getting on his nerves, so this little stunt may have just backfired on the mean girls.

After getting advice from Dallas and Loveita, who wants to work with Dallas, it’s time for Joel to make his nominations. He’s still torn, so his shortlist includes people from both alliances. He doesn’t trust Team Dallas as much, because they’re a little sketchy, and Dallas has outright lied in the past, but Team Kelsey is inseparable, which is super dangerous. The longer they leave the three of them in the house unchecked, the harder it’ll be to separate them. Personally, I’d chicken out and put one from each alliance up on the block and let everyone duke it out, but that’s just me. In the end, Joel nominates Raul and Kelsey, who are both shocked by the turn of events. Kelsey is disappointed in Joel, so I’m sure she’ll lay the guilt on thick in the coming days. And Raul wants revenge, wanting to take out all of his allies so that he’ll be alone. This seems a little bit psychopathic to me.

In the end, I definitely think he made the right decision. Even though Team Dallas may not be super trustworthy, Team Kelsey is much stronger, plus there is the fact that they’re just not nice people. These guys would be the popular people in high school, so the unpopular kids would either want to be accepted by them, or they’d want to take them down. And when they’re miserable people, option two is more likely.

So it sounds like Team Kelsey is going to lose a member this week. The only way out of this would be if Jared gets to play in the PoV competition and wins. He’d take Kelsey off the block, and then they could campaign to keep Raul over whoever Joel would put up in her place. Even then though, Raul would be in trouble, since I’m guessing the rest of the floaters would follow Joel, except for maybe Tim. Who knows what he’d do.

What’d you think of this episode? Are you glad that Joel won, and that he targeted Team Kelsey? Who do you think will win the Veto, and will they use it to save one of the nominees? Tell me what you think! And we’ll see you on Wednesday!

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