I always find it a little nerve-wracking when a floater decides to make a big move in this game. It’s even more nerve-wracking when that person is forced to make a move. When Joel went against Cerberus, I was so nervous for him. When Mitch went up against them again, I was on the edge of my seat. And when the brothers were made HoH, I wondered, would they make it a trifecta of people championing the cause of eliminating the three-headed monster for good?

Of course they didn’t. They apparently trust Jared and Kelsey, even though they’ve been told by at least a few different people that the duo would go after them the next time they had the chance. But the boys feel they’ve made the right move by showing Jared and Kelsey their loyalty. By not nominating them, the brothers believe the other two will solidify a deal with them to work together, which I find ridiculous. Didn’t Mitch prove the other week that Jared and Kelsey couldn’t be trusted, since they’d solidified a deal with Maddy and Ramsey that they didn’t intend to follow through on? I’m not sure how the brothers figure they’ll be any different from the other two people, except that this deal would be worse for Jared and Kelsey, numbers-wise, since the boys only count as one vote. If they couldn’t follow through on a final four deal, what makes you guys think they’ll follow through on a final three?

Meanwhile in the diary room, Ramsey gets some bad news from his mom – his dad has had a serious heart attack and will need surgery. Ramsey, understandably, is extremely upset about this news and immediately breaks down in tears, then goes out and tells the other house guests that something bad has happened and that he wants to be alone. The news quickly spreads around the house, and Maddy heads up to the room to talk to him. To me, she seems completely impersonal as she speaks to Ramsey about this horrible thing that’s happened to his dad. She’s sort of smiling as she asks him how he’s doing, which makes me think she thrives on the drama of it all. And then, when he tells her he’s considering leaving the game, she protests, telling him not to leave, and that clearly is not the correct reaction to his news. He blows up at her, incredulous of her selfishness, and then he tells her to get out of the room so that he can be by himself.

So Maddy takes off, tears a-flowing for her too, and I have to wonder how much of those tears are because she actually cares for Ramsey and doesn’t want to see him hurt, and how much of it is because he’d just yelled at her. I’m leaning more toward the latter, as when one of the other house guests asks her what’s wrong with Ramsey, Maddy responds by saying she doesn’t know and doesn’t want to know. Then she sort of backpedals a bit. I’m onto you, Maddy. Please leave the house this week.

Jared goes to see him next and gives him actual comfort, correctly guessing what had happened to his dad and then reassuring him that everything would be fine. Jared’s dad had also had a heart attack at some point in the past, so he knows how Ramsey feels at the moment. I haven’t been a Jared fan for quite a while, but this made me like him a little more. Dammit. I don’t want to like him! I was enjoying hating on his ‘holier than thou’ attitude!

The PoV challenge is an interesting one. One by one, the players (including Tim, Kelsey, and Nikki), must look at before and after pictures of the house guests. In the first picture, the house guests are doing various activities while wearing dirty clothes. In the second, the clothes have been cleaned by Oxy Clean laundry detergent. The players have to identify which item of clothing is different, then find the item somewhere on the clothesline in the yard, then throw the item into the big laundry basket, basketball style. If they miss the basket, they have to take a turn on the spin cycle, which is basically just a fancy looking merry-go-round. The shortest time wins someone the veto and $5000. Everyone does relatively well except for Nikki, who takes more than twice the amount of time to finish the game. Not surprising. The ultimate winner is Ramsey, who is playing for his dad today.

Not that he needs the win in the end, as he decides that he’s going to leave the game to be with his dad. The procedure is a straightforward one, and his dad will probably be fine, but you never know, and Ramsey doesn’t want to take the chance. He’d rather leave the house to spend some time with his dad just in case it’s all the time he gets with him.

So, that leaves Maddy all alone in the house, and she uses this fact to her advantage when she tries to appeal to Phil. She’ll be loyal because she has to because she’s got no one else. He seems to be listening to her, but he doesn’t seem too eager to help her. The only person she could probably beat at the moment would be Jared, and even that would be a stretch.

Tim tells the boys to put Jared up too, but his scheming backfires on him. Instead of making the boys look to Jared, they suddenly realize that Tim is a dangerous player who has probably been manipulating everyone throughout the whole game. In no time, he becomes their target, and he makes their job easier when he goes to them and tells them that he wants to be their pawn against Maddy. Face-palm. Of course, they jump at the chance to get rid of him without seeming like the bad guys. He’s practically giddy when they call his name to take his place on the block, but it isn’t long before he starts to feel worried about what he’s just done. Cassandra tells him just to lay low and let Maddy dig her own grave.

Maddy, meanwhile, is like a cornered animal, lashing out and fighting to get free, and she’s just as ruthless as Mitch was when he was in her position. After all, she’s got nothing left to lose – everyone in the house already hates her. She talks to Phil again, and he tells her to be the villain – to show everyone that she’s the threat that they should keep around as a shield. If she plays into the house guests’ fear of her as a threat to everyone, it could just save her.

The brothers also have another mission, besides sending someone home – they have to pretend to fight with each other. If they can convince the other house guests that they’re really fighting, then they’ll win a training session with UFC fighter Elias Theodorou. These guys are very convincing! If I didn’t know that it was fake, I’d probably fall for their stunt right along with the rest of the house guests. Maybe these guys will have careers in acting once they’re out of the house. They win the training session, and this pleases no one more than Nikki, who swoons and flirts with Elias from start to finish. She’s adorable.

After the training session, it’s back to work. Phil talks with Jared about Tim, and Jared admits he doesn’t really trust the guy either. And elsewhere, Maddy tells Cassandra and Joel that Tim has made deals with everyone in the house. She also tells Cassandra that Tim had told her he wouldn’t work with Cassandra. I don’t think this is actually true, but I’m not sure. Either way, it gives Cassandra and Joel both pause. Cassandra even admits that if it suits her own game, she has no problem voting him out. But she’s still loyal, loyal enough to tell Tim what Maddy has just told her, and this makes him nervous.

Not that Cass needed to tell him anything, since Maddy decides to have a discussion with everyone in the house – including Tim – about why they need to get rid of him instead of her. She brings up the fact that while she’s got no one, he’s got at least two people who would never vote against him – Cassandra and Nikki. She reminds them that this means that Tim has the greatest chance of winning, since he’s got an unbreakable bond of his own with his two ladies. He’s everyone’s friend, so there’s no one who could win against him in a final two. And she’s right. Even Tim is impressed with her speech.

It’s not enough to sway anyone though. Not a single person votes for Maddy to stay, so she’s out the door and off to the jury house without even getting her goodbye messages from the other house guests. So long, Maddy – we won’t miss you. I know I definitely won’t miss watching her constantly lick her lips. Man, that’s annoying.

Finally, we get to the new HoH competition, but this time, the house guests will not be participating. Instead, their loved ones will play for them. In a game called Rock and a Hard Place, the family members are positioned around a pit into which rocks fall. All they have to do is hit the buzzer when they think 1000 rocks have fallen. The closest person to 1000 will win HoH for their loved one, as well as some time with their house guest. Of course, we don’t get to see who wins until Sunday, so all I can hope is that Joel’s loved one is good at counting.

That’s pretty much it! I’m actually surprised that they even evicted anyone, since Ramsey also went home this week. This has to affect their airing schedule. If they let go of two people when they’d only planned on getting rid of one this week, they’re going to have to adjust things somewhere down the line in order to keep with the schedule. That being said, I’m glad Maddy’s gone. I was just getting so tired of her, and I think the way she handled Ramsey when he was hurting really said something about who she is. I hope that Ramsey could see that too. He’s clearly an emotional person, and when he needed emotional support the most, it seemed like she was only thinking of herself, wanting him to stay in the game, even though his place was clearly at his father’s bedside.

We’re getting down the nitty-gritty now. It’s getting harder to ride coattails, and everyone has to play the game or risk getting evicted. The brothers will have to be separated at some point, and when that happens, the dynamics will shift again. This is a great game, and it’s refreshing to truly not know what’s going to happen from week to week. I honestly don’t know who is going to win this season, and that makes for very entertaining TV.

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