Well "Big Brother" has started up again for the twelfth time. This time the twist is that there is a saboteur among the houseguests. The saboteur is suppose to create as much havoc and chaos as possible. I don't think it's that big of a twist, people have done that anyway whether "Big Brother" told them to do it or not. The first act of sabotage was that the pantry with all of the food, except for slop, was locked during an unexpected blackout. Is it just me or do the houseguests look like the cast of a soap opera, not many older people this time around. I hope we'll be in for a great season.

It does seem as if the producers grasp at straws each year to find a new twist, and yes, this one seems a bit weak. They've taken "America's Player" and turned it into "Producer's Player" while trying to put a creepy spin on it via a silly disguised voice. I was sorry, too, not to see any older folks -- Jerry and Renny were quite entertaining and added a different dimension to the usual plethora of eye candy and airheads. (I must admit, until last night I never knew that Jewish folks wore a Yom Kippur on their heads! )

I don't know if in the past they used former beauty pageant contestants, but two of the girls from this year are former contestants. Monet being runner-up for Ms. Illinois and Britney a semi finalist for Ms. Arkansas.

The Amazing Race had just made a big deal about having the "Iraq and stuff" Beauty Pageant contestant as a competitor.

I think the drama may revolve around the teacher Ragan this year.

A few of them are playing the usual tactic of dumbing down their real professions etc., which always seems to backfire eventually. When will they learn lol.

Too early to start rooting for anyone, the first evictions can come out of nowhere.

Well HOH Hayden has put up potential showmance/alliance Brendon and Rachel with Brendon being the main target as he is one of the top saboteur suspects and he seems like a physical threat. Another potential alliance we have is much more interesting consisting of Enzo, Hayden, Matt, and Lane. I never would've thought those four would work together but I guess you'll never know, Enzo thinks he's the mastermind even though the group does have Matt a mensa member in it. If I had to guess at who the saboteur is I'd go with Kathy the sheriff. In the HOH competition she had the most trouble holding on to the hot dog while in the food competition she was stuck in the caramel for so long just my hunch. I think the ones accused who left during the blackout were too obvious, the saboteur would be much more suddle if you ask me plus who would accuse an officer of the law of being the saboteur? It's the perfect crime.

I was thinking the lock could possibly have been put on the door before they had sat down and the lights went out, perhaps by the last person to sit at the couch.

Looked like kind of a wimpy lock to stop people from finding a way to bust the door open lol.

Yay ! I got to watch last night. As always, for me, there's too many folks running around in there for me to catch my breath on who might be who just yet ... but I noticed that almost all of them (given what I got to see so far) could shake down into good players in their own individual ways of being one. Except that blonde deputy person . What is up with her, anyway? All I could think, as I watched her wallow around in popcorn and caramel like a firmly beached whale, was: "Yowza! I'd certainly feel secure having her in charge of dismantling a hostage situation in MY particular neighborhood. This one can't even handle the rigors of being a human Cracker Jack? Shall we give her firearms and commando power? I think not." IF she does turn out to be the saboteur? It'd all be so obvious, just two episodes in, that it'd make this year's "sabotage twist" pretty much a non-issue. Which leads me to think it just can't be her, eh? My hunch is that she's pretty much just a peevish and crappy houseguest, and that only. But I'm likely wrong. At first, too, that Enzo guy was driving me nuts. While trendy, I know, all that "Joisey" thug stuff gets on my nerves lately. BUT - aggravating behavior aside, he played that challenge brilliantly. Not that I'd be eager to arm him with assault weapons and/or public service in a crisis, either, mind you. I'm really not sure yet, but looks like it could be an interesting-ish BB summer, once they all flesh out a bit as the weeks travel. I'm noticing the lack of a 'senior'-ish houseguest this time, too. Too bad. Those are always fun, short-lived as they usually are.

Oh. And that *have not* bedroom? Gave me the serious creeps indeed ...

I am betting on Annie going home tonight.

HoH will be interesting to see who gets it.


As for the Sabateur, my guess is going to be Kathy.

For the two people that might possibly have known each other before the house, I am going to guess Kirsten and Hayden.



Edit to add.
I think Britney may be the snottiest, witchiest player I have seen on the game. These characteristics are just intensified with Monet, who may run a close second to Britney, there to gossip with.

That is my early impression of them.

Turns out the saboteur, Annie, was the first voted off. Most of America thought Kathy was the saboteur and Annie was on the bottom of that list, that was interesting. So much for the big twist this year. We should have an interesting week with Rachel being HOH. Brendon will probably be a puppet master gunning for Hayden and perhaps the rest of the brigade. I loved how the entire brigade was eliminated on the second question in the HOH competition that was pretty funny.

Looks like Witchney stays for another week and Monet, who I would have liked to see play the game without being tied to Witchy, is going to go home.

Who will get evicted and who will win HoH.

There is Brendon & Rachel, The Brigade, Kirsten, Witchney and the Floaters.

Kirsten and Witchney seem to be playing solo so far, but putting work in each week to better themselves in the game.

I am going to guess on a floater (Andrew, Ragan, Kathy) winning HoH this week.

Best drama for the week would be if Ragan won and most interesting strategy would be if Andrew won.

I think Monet will go home,then Andrew will win HOH.

This is probably one of the few times when offering yourself up as a pawn is sheer genius and not just because Matt is a member of Mensa either. By putting up Matt, this ensures Monet is leaving and he gains trust within The Brigade and Brendon and Rachel. I think that was a very good move on Matt's part. I do hope one of the floaters becomes HOH, that would make things very interesting. My prediction for tonight is that Monet gets evicted by an 8-1 vote and Britney will act like an even bigger diva then before, hopefully she'll be targeted by the new HOH in the upcoming week.

Man oh man was that a memorable live episode last Thursday, probably the best exit speech ever by Andrew and then Rachel and Kristen have a big fight right after Rachel won her second HOH, can the show only have one showmance? Is it just me or is Rachel very possessive with her "don't take my man" mentality? I don't think I've ever seen Brendon talk to any other women. It should be a good episode come tomorrow.

I've always wondered why more people don't call people out as Andrew did in their exit speech. I enjoyed it thoroughly. After Britney's hilarious goodbye message to Monet, that makes two Thursdays in a row that were much more entertaining than usual.

There was apparently also a big fight between Rachel and Kristin in the living room during the commercial break right after Andrew's exit, which we got to see a bit of continued after the HOH competition. I'm hoping they'll show that on Sunday's episode.

I'm tired of "Brenchel". The show seems determined to jam them down our throats and attempt to make them the stars of this season. I for one am not entranced by their "relationship". It all seems a bit desperate and contrived to me.

The catfight made for good T.V. last night.

Britney is starting to grow on me, she seems less witchy without Monet, in the same way I though Monet would be less witchy if Britney went home, to chat with. Her expressions/faces are some of the best I have seen on the show.

Still not sure what Kathy is doing everday.

Kristen, deciding to be tough all of a sudden seems like she is going to get her sent home. Though it will be more interesting to have more weeks of her and Rachel in the house together.

I think this is the longest I have seen a large alliance from the first week make it without any casualties, especially without having at least one member be sent home.

I didn't see anything yesterday about this, but it seems like people are stumbling into good moves.

They stumbled into sending home Annie and her being the Sabateur.

Andrew gets himself sent home because of Rachels reaction. Which the rest of the house thought meant they were aligned together. Which in a way they were through Brendon, who did know what was going on, but Rachel wasn't aware of it.

I'll try to keep my observations short (since I still am having a hard time keeping up with who's who in there ), and when I watch I make these *snap* observations. Might as well do that here, too, I guess? I can't stand Rachel, first to say . I get the idea that she's one with no (good or bad, pick one) self-esteem and is latching onto Brendan for the effect of a [maybe] potent show-mance that might get her onto "The Amazing Race" with him next year. But she's no Jordan. She's unlikable. And since he's so 'latched upon' now, so is Brendan. Were I in the house? I'd try my best to get them BOTH out, too, simply because they're so uninteresting. And, yeah, the catfight was fun to watch. But the two of those girls are playing on strict emotion when they do that. It pretty much means they'll both get gone, don't you think? Maybe I'm just responding to my own gender OR logic ... but the guys hooked up with them, if they hope to get anywhere, ought to drop either and each about now. And they both seem to be coming to that conclusion. *Show-mance* vs. *Bro-mance*? It's a *Bro-mance* year, I'd say, if anyone so early in has their eye on the prize.

That Kathy is just pathetic, if you ask me. "Keep me in the game, and I'll be a vote on your behalf when I'm in the jury house?" Say what? Now, there's some ambition to win it, yes? I repeat: I'm sure that the citizens in her county, where she's a deputy, are mighty relieved that she's on a 'Big Brother' leave of abscence. She's just a terrible player. Her daughter, though ? She seems to be picking up speed.

Looks like (in my opinion) the romantic couplings in the house are on their good way out right now (unless that irksome Rachel continues to get lucky). The rest are floaters and the strongest one in the alliance (who is also getting edited well, all of a sudden) is Enzo. Do ya think he'll be offered the new 'saboteur' thing . I have a s-t-r-o-n-g hunch it'll happen. He's measuring up to be a good [albeit annoying] player, from my seat. Of all of 'em, right now, I can see him making it work.

*Edited to correct that I was calling that Kathy person 'Debbie'. Sorry. She so reminds me of a Debbie I knew once ...*

She is acting more motherly to Kristen then Britney though.

Rachel reminds me of BB9's Natalie, who was a good player, but annoying as anything, especially to her partner Matt.

Living in New York City, I know toooooo many people who act similiar to Enzo. I know this is bad, but that makes it tougher for me to see him as a mastermind.

He would make an interesting sabateur, though I feel out of sympathy for her plight, people will give Kathy the chance to win some extra money.

Having a tough time really liking anyone this year.

Those that are good at the comps, have been lousy as far as personalities and/or gameplay.

Matt great at endurance HoHs, but went with the sick wife lie.

Britney good at skill PoVs, Witchy when she knows she's safe from eviction.

Brendon won 2 PoVs, showmance has made him into a whiner and not as good at comps.

Rachel good at quiz HoHs, annoying to have to listen too.



The rest have mostly been sitting back.
Even the other three Brigade members can be considered floaters so far. I don't think they had much influence over who has been booted from house, other then when Matt was HoH, though they were fine with the players Rachel targeted. The floaters, even those that threw competitions, seem to be so far unable to step it up and by laying low have cost them some of their desire to win competitions.

From reading some of the blogs from the folks with the live feeds, the houseguests jump from one conspiracy theory to another right now.

I've had very little to say so far this year ~ and it seems the rest of you haven't had a great deal either. I think we're all feeling the same about this season.

What follows is a long, rambling post summing up my feelings about the season.

Usually by this point in the season, I'm invested and have strong feelings about who I want to see in the Final 2. Some years I've enjoyed more than others (and I've been with this since Season 1), and some years there have been houseguests I just loved watching, while other years I've detested someone so much I just couldn't wait for them to take a fall. But this year, I just can't seem to care that much either way. And I'm bummed about that. I love this show and look forward to it every summer. I pay for the feeds so I can watch the end of endurance comps on Thursdays. I worry every year that it won't be brought back next year.

But the bottom line is, these people just aren't playing an interesting game. They're thwarting every attempt the producers have made at making the show more interesting. They got rid of the big twist the very first week. And they're breaking up all the showmances, which the producers pray for every year.

One of the Brigade Alliance will probably win, but they aren't very exciting to watch. There's no deals or plotting and scheming. One of them does all the dirty work and the others do nothing at all. However, after this week's eviction, The Brigade will have enough votes to decide every eviction. That doesn't sound very exciting. (The last time there was an alliance of four guys from day one was the Four Horsemen in Season 6, and one of them did win...)

The problem is, no one else is plotting and scheming either. In previous seasons -- granted, not all of them -- we've seen intricately plotted evictions and deals within deals. The only interesting deal that's occurred this year was Britney's agreement to use the veto on Hayden so that Kathy would go up and out, thereby saving both Hayden and Kristin -- who entered into a fake alliance with Rachel and Brendon to seal the deal. If that deal had played out -- wow, that might have been interesting. But within 24 hours, the whole thing fell apart and never happened.

Right now, there are only two alliances in the house:
1. Rachel and Brendon
2. Everyone else

There is one thing I don't think has been shown on TV...or maybe it has? Rachel and Brendon think they are in an alliance with Hayden and Enzo, who are actually just using her Big Brother knowledge to prep for competitions. Strangely, the other houseguests know they are doing this. It's kind of sad to watch Rachel earnestly trying to coach Enzo and Hayden to win competitions, when they are openly using her in front of the Everybody Else Alliance.

Some showmances are fun to watch and some aren't -- and Rachel and Brendon aren't. The live feeds have 4 cameras and one of them is always on Rachel and Brendon. Sometimes all four of them are on Rachel and Brendon -- while there are 8 other people in the house scheming...about what, we'll never know.

I can't find a clear favorite to root for this year. The most interesting houseguest to watch on the feeds is Britney. I know, Barracuda, she's witchy -- she's a self-professed "Mean Girl". But she's got a great sense of humor and she has hilarious conversations with Lane. Unfortunately, Ragan has become her new Monet, and she prefers trash-talking to hilarious conversations. But when she stops trash-talking, she's got great potential. Do I care if she wins the game? No.

If Lane's not in a conversation with Britney, he's a complete dullard. He plays a lot of pool and hangs around with his buds without contributing much of any interest. He likes to kill things, so I'm not a fan. Enzo and Hayden don't contribute a lot to the festivities either. Enzo can be entertaining sometimes, if you're not a person who's put off by the almost theatrical stereotype of his Jersey-ness. Hayden isn't interesting at all. He seems to be spending the summer hanging out in a frat house where there's very little alcohol. (It seems like more on the show, but last time they got 4 beers and 2 bottles of wine for 10 people.)

Ragan can be fun to watch, unless he's with Britney. He's got a great sense of humor and would probably be a fun person to hang out with. But when he's with Britney, he turns into a catty girl, and one catty girl is enough in the BB house. He's actually an unknowing (and uncredited) member of the Brigade, because he'll do whatever Matt wants him to do.

Matt is probably playing the best game, but with this crowd, that's not saying much. I don't think his "big move" on his first HOH really helped him that much, and this HOH he didn't really have a choice. The entire house would have beaten him to death with the pool cues if he had not put up Brendon and Rachel. The lie about his wife may work for him if he makes it to the Final 2. Both Kathy and Ragan have said they would vote for him because he needs the money the most for the operation for his wife. I can't imagine how betrayed these folks will feel if they give him the money and then find out it was all a lie.

It's hard to grasp why and how the rest of the house has come to hate Rachel and Brendon so much. She's a shallow, money-obsessed, Vegas girl who actually uttered the words "I only drink champagne". He's a know-it-all-and-everyone-and-everywhere who definitely does not wear the pants in the relationship. Tonight on the show, we saw "Suck Up To Rachel Brendon" and "Pouty Brendon". Add the "Know-It-All Brendon" and you've got all the Brendons there are. 24 hours a day. Sometimes they're really nice, but not that often.

Which leaves me with Kathy. Oh, Kathy. If all houseguests were like Kathy, we'd have no show at all. She seems like a nice enough lady, but she spends a good 80% of her time lying down! She lies here, and she lies there, but she lies. I'm convinced the shots you see on TV of her sitting up are the only shots they had.

I'm hoping things will heat up a LOT now that we're into the second half of the game. It usually does get more interesting after the point where people start going to the jury. But this crew's really going to have to step it up! Let the plotting and scheming begin!

Even though I do love this show and I probably will watch it every summer I must admit this is one of the worst casts this show has ever had. Other then Brenchal and a little bit of Britney no one is really doing anything interesting. And even though I'm glad at least Brendon or Rachel is going tonight that will make the show far less entertaining. The best bet we have is for someone online to suggest to the saboteur (Ragan) to mention in one of his messages something along the lines of "I know about The Brigade so look out houseguests" that may stir the pot a little bit and may actually force Hayden, Lane, and Enzo to do something for once. If not The Brigade will win this game with no resistance.

I am with you Starfishtwo and I also have found Britney/Witchney to be the most interesting houseguest. The faces she makes are pure gold.

I can only describe last nights show as excruciating.

I have tried to find someone to pull for, but can't.

Usually there are 2 people scheming against the house, here it's the house scheming against two people.

Something I read on the blog I follow, Ragan said how he, and we find out Britney too, were trash talking the other possible contestants they had seen at some point prior to the show.

If it was Big Brothers idea to get the nastiest trash talkers in the house hasn't turned out well.

To read the backwards thought processes the players are using, especially to figure out the sabateur and alliances, is amazing.

Last week you thought Ragan and Kristen had got it and understood, at least parts, of the Brigade. But they couldn't bring themselves to push hard enough at the same time, with Rachel, Britney and Brendon, to make it work.

If other houseguests put the time and effort they do into scheming against Rachel and Brendon, they might start playing an interesting game.

Whew! I'm so relieved. I thought I might be developing some latter stage of Attention Deficit Disorder, or something. But you guys reassured me that these folks are just plain dull, so I'm not imagining it. Good heavens, it just took me watching the show (taped it) to realize that I've been calling that sheriff one Debbie! And, oops, her name is Kathy! Does she even need a name? Does she matter enough to merit accuracy? I'm thinking not ...

Just some random thoughts, though, after viewing Wednesday's episode:

1. The "saboteur" guy. Every time he says anything, why am I thinking Paul Lynde? I liked Paul Lynde plenty, mind you. But he was better planted on Hollywood Squares than in a Big Brother house, for sure. Just my opinion, though.

2. I'm with you all, too. All of a sudden I'm Britney's biggest fan! (Did I get her name right ?) But I'm still (kinda) paying attention to Enzo, somehow, too. Which segues into this "Meow Meow" business? Say what? Sorry. But that's just weird. Whoever came up with it? Please stop them from doing it to someone else, OK?

3. It was so clear, watching, what real BB 'chemistry' is. That'd be Jordan and Jeff, yes? Brendon and Rachel? Fascinating people, aren't they? With a chemistry much like Pop Rocks and Coca-Cola. I just have to think Rachel will get the boot tonight - despite that (odd) play by her boyfriend last night. He's like the Coke in the mix, right? Can't blame the soft drink. That Rachel woman is the Pop Rocks all over the place, and to everybody! And her hair color annoys me, so that's it. She needs to go yesterday .

I'm pretty much on board, I reckon . I could not care less who might, or should, hit the Top Two. Or who gets to the Jury House. But I'm hooked, now, so will continue to watch.

And that Matt guy, too? While I'm here? Agreed. He's likely the best 'player' in the mix. But that "sick wife" lie? Nope. I can't like him much for that. Good grief, even Evel Dick or Doctor Will didn't resort to fabricated dying spouses to further themselves. But, then? I guess they didn't need to.

All righty, then. I'll be quiet now. Just thinkin' out loud.

SPOILER ALERT HOH WINNER DISCUSSED BELOW









CBS is going to get the most out of this week, and probably the week after.

Brendon won the HOH competition and will get revenge for his beloved, lol.

Congrats to him, I thought he was going to be a mess after Rachel left. No telling how horrible his attitude is going to be this week.

Rumors are already floating that they didn't tie his rope as much as the other contestants lol.

I don't think any real alliances will be made with him.

Unless Matt screws up and has the Diamond Veto voided or goes against the Brigade for his own interests, then Kathy, Ragan or Britney will be going home.

There are 5 voting houseguests, Matt can make it so that at least 3 of them are Brigade members. Brigade, if they stay together as one, control who goes home.

Only way the above scenario changes is if the Brigade is happy with who is on the block, Matt accidently tells someone he has the Diamond Veto and gets it voided, or he doesn't want to lose another Jury Vote, which would make 3, by puting up the person who will go home, and (cue scary music)sent to the Jury house alone with Rachel.

Things could also happen where the Brigade implodes on itself and is scrambling, not knowing Matt can save them.

Odds are on Brigade being safe I think, Matt having to use the Diamond Veto and Britney to the house. The jury house would be more fun to watch then regular house then lol.

Enzo will have a lot of work ahead of him this week, until veto ceremony, trying to steer Brendon to the targets the Brigade wants.

OK, maybe Enzo is a "Meow Meow" mastermind like he claimed.

The highs and lows of the houseguests are severe this year. From in your face strutting, to the sky has fallen.

I watched the end of the competition on the feeds. I'm not one to consistently accuse the producers of rigging, but it did seem to me that Brendon's rope was less tangled than the others. Honestly, it was hard to tell -- Brendon's rope was dark in color and shot against a dark background, not to mention that the feed cameras are poorer quality than what we see on TV. I'm looking forward to seeing the competition on TV tonight and see if my gut reaction was correct.

You can't blame the producers for wanting Brendon to win HOH -- it provides the most drama for the viewers.** There are certain competitions where it's much easier to "promote the desired outcome" -- games in which each houseguest is assigned a specially-built area are the easiest to rig. I think everyone's pretty much aware that reality shows are heavily scripted and edited, containing much less actual reality than the finished product implies. Big Brother is no exception.



** Specifically, Brendon winning HOH allowed him to open Pandora's Box, which released Rachel into the house for 24 hours while removing him for the same period. If a different HOH winner had opened the same Pandora's Box, Rachel would have come back to spend 24 hours with Brendon and we already saw that show ad nauseum. This way, Rachel was forced to talk to all the others in the house and stirred up a lot of crap in the process.

All right! The show is finally getting interesting! (Whether it will remain so remains to be seen.) Matt will be using his Diamond POV tonight and will get to choose who goes up in his place. I'm sure he won't put up a Brigade member or Ragan, so he only has Britney or Kathy to choose from. I think he'll chose Kathy.

Matt has been complaining a lot this week about the unfairness of Rachel being allowed to leave a message for Brendon with the pretzels. According to him, the producers at first denied they were aware of it, but later admitted it was an "oversight" and said it would "not be allowed in future seasons". But Matt's irritated with Kathy, because she was the one who told him about the pretzels, and she waited until after he was nominated to do so. So he feels she could have warned him, but chose not to. My personal belief is that the entire scenario was manufactured by the producers, who wanted to make sure Matt was on the block to ensure that the Diamond POV realizes its full dramatic potential.

No one is really sure if Matt will get to vote tonight. It seems a bit off if he's allowed to pick a nominee and then vote. That would leave the only voters as Enzo, Hayden, Ragan, and Britney or Kathy. If he chooses Britney, Enzo/Hayden/Kathy will vote for Lane, Ragan for Britney, and Britney will go home. If he chooses Kathy, Enzo/Hayden/Britney will vote for Lane, and it doesn't matter how Ragan votes, Kathy will go home. So whoever Matt chooses to replace him as a nominee will almost certainly be the one to go.

The Brigade, meanwhile, is planning to vote out Matt. The official story is that, to be fair, they will split their votes. But their secret plan is to vote Matt out. They feel he's not as loyal to the Brigade because of his side alliance with Ragan and his recent closeness with Britney (which is really only because they are Have Nots together). (It's funny ~ don't they realize their "weak link" in the Brigade has carried all of them through the whole freakin' game?) Hayden and Enzo have been debating all week as to whether they should tell Matt beforehand they are voting him out -- they are concerned about losing his jury vote if they don't tell him. Personally, I'm hoping that they'll be so convinced Matt is leaving that they'll do something stupid, but I'm not expecting such an outcome. There has been a lot of speculation this week that someone in the house has some sort of mystery power, so the houseguests are not going as confidently into this eviction as they usually do. I think Brendon is pretty confident he's getting Matt out, and I can't wait to see his reaction when he realizes Matt will be left in the house to come after him.

This is the point when last season Chima self-destructed after Jeff used the Coup D'etat. I doubt we'll see that much drama this year -- although Brendon will definitely be very ticked off, and he did throw that bowling ball in a little hissy fit! But tonight's show promises to be the most exciting one this year!

Yeah even though this has been a generally weak season this should at least be an entertaining episode, I wish I was going to be around to watch it live tonight but alas that's what DVR is for. My best guess is that Matt will use the DPOV and put up Kathy and she'll be sent packing. Even though I would love to see Matt take down "his three buffoons" aka The Brigade that just doesn't make much sense for him to do at this point. Not because he couldn't beat them he definitely could, especially with Ragan and possibly Britney on his side, it's just that he would probably lose a lot of jury votes that way. I hope we see The Brigade crumble but the odds of that are about the same as Kathy winning a competition .