TheRealT

This is how I feel. It's nice to win comps, but it only really helps one's game if one knows how to strategize accordingly. Winning all the comps isn't really a viable strategy for winning the game. Conversely, it's entirely possible to win the game without ever winning a comp. In Cody's particular case, it doesn't really matter that he's won comps because he has let Derrick decide what he should do with the power those wins bring 100% of the time. It's true that Cody spends more time "talking game" with Derrick than Victoria does, but I don't think that indicates that Cody is more of a player so much as it's a result of the difference in Derrick's methods for controlling the two of them. Derrick has Cody believing that he is Derrick's thought partner and co-strategist and they have been in big alliances with lots of strategy meetings throughout the game. Vic thinks she is Derrick's partner on the DL and that them NOT having lots of strategy conversations is part of their strategy to stealthily work together. Players don't have to talk a lot to have a successful alliance. In S3 Danielle and Jason had a solid alliance throughout the game, but they didn't spend hours strategizing. I think Cody requires just as much babysitting as Vic does, more actually, but babysitting Cody takes the form of "strategizing" [which is really Derrick pretending to consider Cody's ideas while convincing Cody to do what Derrick wants]. Cody has explicitly stated on more than one occasion that he knows doing X would be better for his own game, but he's doing Y instead because that's what Derrick wants. As far as Vic knows, she is doing what's best for her own game. I think she's actually right about that, as she has a far better chance at Derrick carrying her to the end than Cody does.

I think denial is a huge part of what's driving (or not driving) Cody, but I think he's also afraid to give up on the easy route that Derrick is offering him. I think Cody has found that thinking and strategizing are hard work and more than he anticipated before he got into the house. Derrick has made things a lot easier for him by being a trusted sounding board/ear to bend and, even more importantly, by telling Cody what to do. Cody likes the drama of "strategizing" in the sense of talking shit, hashing out what's going on, etc., but, at the end of the day, he always goes along with whatever Derrick tells him to. Derrick constantly says stuff like, "You can't trust anyone in here completely, not even me, because we're all trying the win the money for ourselves..." It's part of his "I'm such an honest and straightforward guy" schtick. That should be a clue to Cody that he should be thinking for himself, but... thinking is hard.

I don't know if it's even possible for production to rig something that will save this season from being completely boring and predictable. Even if Donny and/or Nicole got some special power to save them for a week, what difference would it make? It doesn't seem that any of these people are going to stray from the course Derrick has laid out no matter what. I don't see how Derrick will ever be voted out even if, by some miracle, he ended up on the block. At this point, every person in there, with the possible exceptions of Cody and Caleb, knows that Derrick is going to win, yet none of them even wants to target him. Victoria and Cody think they're going to the end with him, so I guess it makes some sense for them to just continue with the program, but I can't figure out what the others are thinking. I think Caleb is so delusional that he thinks he'll win all the comps at the end and/or will continue to be protected by his alliance because he's so awesome. Frankie and Christine seem to be going with the "fingers crossed" strategy, hoping that somehow things will shake out in their favor without having any kind of specific plan. I think those two might vote Derrick out if someone else got all the blood on their hands and it was presented as basically a fait accompli where they could say they're just going along with the house. Except Derrick will never be in that position since there's no one but Donny who would ever have the guts to put him up and Donny would never be able to mobilize the house against him. I wonder what Derrick's real endgame plan is. It seems that he wants to go to F3 with Cody and Vic since either of them would take him to F2. The only problem I see with that is that Derrick wouldn't want to win HOH at F3 and have to get blood on his hands evicting one of his game-long F2s, so he'd most likely throw it. It's highly unlikely that Victoria would win, so that would put him in F2 with Cody. I think Derrick will easily beat Cody in F2, but Derrick is playing very conservatively and does not like leaving anything to chance. There is a chance that Cody would get more votes- he's "popular" in the house and if jurors finally realize that their good buddy Derrick was calling all the shots, they might vote for Cody instead. I don't think that would happen, but I'm sure Derrick has considered that possibility in his paranoid, always-in-game-mode mind, so it's hard for me to believe that he really wants to take Cody that far. There is a risk in taking Vic to F3 with anyone because there's a (probably slight) chance that the third hamster would wise up and take Vic to F2 instead of Derrick. So Derrick needs someone dumb/loyal enough to take him to F2 over Vic who is also no threat to beat him in F2. That sounds like Caleb. Has Derrick discussed a F2 deal with him?

If they DOR they forfeit their stipend. I'm not sure what the rule is if one leaves for medical reasons. I can't recall anyone ever leaving for medical reasons. Evel Dick left for some personal reason in his second season and Chima DORed/was kicked out by production, but I don't remember anyone else leaving of their own volition.

Derrick has talked about watching the feeds many times. As many on this board can probably attest, having real life responsibilities don't necessarily preclude being obsessed with BB. We haven't seen any evidence of this and he can't vote someone out without talking about it to other HGs even if he lies about his intentions in the DR. Derrick is definitely aware that production screws with people's games, but he always talks about it in the context of them misrepresenting what's happening in the house on the TV show. I can't figure out why he lies so much in the DR. He even lies to the audience in the course of conversations in the house, usually around stuff having to do with TA. He and Frankie were alone the other night talking about Donny and they both acted like they hadn't been targeting him when they must realize that they've already been shown targeting him on the show. He's also made a big point of "calling Donny out" to the audience for not being sufficiently devoted to TA several times, sometimes directly to the camera when he's alone and other times with Frankie. He and Frankie seem to think/hope that the audience will love them for being so devoted to TA and hate Donny for being less committed. He's mentioned the comment Donny made about wanting to play his own game, not America's many times, always implying that he and Frankie care more about "America's game" than their own personal games, which is obviously bullshit (and stupid). He was completely pissed off when he got an inkling that Donny is popular, but rather than that making him reach out to Donny, it seems to have made him more determined to turn "America" against Donny by painting him as disloyal to America and to Derrick and Frankie. The reality is that Derrick has been plotting against Donny and Frankie for weeks (longer with Donny), while Frankie has never plotted against him and Donny has only actively done so this week. It's weird. Maybe he's become so used to snowing the morons in the house with contradictory, nonsensical, obviously untrue stories that he thinks he can do it to anyone, even people who are watching everything he does.

I just watched the bizarre scene where Derrick and Frankie deemed Donny evil for playing the game; expressed shock and hurt that he targeted them, claiming that they were the brains behind everything (as if!); and ruefully declared that NOW they'd have to go after him, but they hoped the show wouldn't portray it as them turning on Donny when really he was the one who turned on them. Jiggawhat? Just last week, during their dual HOH they devised and implemented an elaborate plot to get Donny out. They've been plotting against Donny for weeks. Whom do they think they're fooling with this stuff? I can only think that they hope the show is doing a misleading edit painting Donny as some kind of evil, disloyal to America mastermind and they are trying to provide footage to support that. Which is ridiculous. Either that or they're really starting to believe their own lies. OMGDonnydarestoplaythegame!-gate has revealed, once again, how dumb these hamsters are. When Donny talked to Cody and Christine he explained his reasoning point by point and paused after each point to say, "Do you believe me?" or "Does that make sense?" Every single time, Cody/Chris vehemently replied that s/he totally understood and believed everything Donny was saying, which made sense because everything he was saying was true. When they compared notes they found that Donny had told both of them the exact same thing, which led them to the brilliant conclusion that he was lying. Lying about what? Lying about Derrick and Frankie running things (they are). Lying about Victoria/Cody being in Derrick's pocket (they are) and Christine/Caleb being in Frankie's (less true, but still pretty accurate). Lying about the "masterminds" intentionally voting out all of Cody and Christine's allies while keeping Derrick's pawns (obviously true). The thing is, Christine and Cody KNOW all of this to be true. They have more information on the truth of Donny's statements than Donny does. They themselves noted some of this in their conversations with Donny. They were basically begging Derrick to convince them that it wasn't all true, which he did by spouting bullshit that didn't make any sense and/or was obviously untrue based on Christine and Cody's own direct knowledge. It's mind-boggling and pathetic.

Thanks for the info and the link. After reading her account of their relationship, I reiterate what I said above times 10.

This sentence cracks me up. In all seriousness, I think it might be a good idea for Tim and Christine to re-evaluate their relationship. From what I've gathered, they've been together since they were teens and got married when Christine was 20-21. I was struck by Tim's plea to not forget about him in his HOH letter because that's an incredibly bizarre thing to say to one's wife. I think that Christine is attracted to Cody and, at least subconsciously, is really invested in her relationship with him on both a physical and an emotional level. If Cody asked her to be with him after the show ends (which will never happen), I think she would be seriously torn, not because what "she has with Cody" is real, but because she's realizing (at least subconsciously) that her relationship with Tim isn't so perfect and that she may want something more/different. I wouldn't be surprised if Christine takes some drastic action with regard to her marriage after she leaves the house and faces Tim's and the public's feelings about her carrying on in the house. She'll either end up splitting with Tim (NOT to be with Cody) or she'll have a baby or something to recommit to her marriage. Oh, there are a few more pleasures in store. Seeing Christine voted out, seeing Frankie voted out, and (fingers crossed!) seeing Derrick voted out. Derrick (and his minions) are playing a very cowardly, hypocritical game. As everyone falls all over themselves to avoid getting Blood on Their Hands, Derrick is especially hypervigilant about NEVER going on the block, NEVER publicly taking responsibility for any decision, NEVER failing to quietly suck up to the designated boot as they leave, NEVER allowing the slightest criticism or accusation against him to go unchallenged, etc., etc., etc. He doesn't have the balls to make "big moves" that might put him at risk, which is working out because he doesn't need to since he has multiple minions who gladly put themselves at risk to help his game. The rest of them are too chickenshit to do anything without the alliance's stamp of approval, even when they explicitly acknowledge that doing something else would be better for their personal games. These people can't even have a private conversation without running back to report it to Derrick. What harm would it do to just listen to Donny and reflect on what he said without asking your opponents in the game what you should think/do?

Derrick's strategy is pretty one note- he just bullshits everyone, telling them what he thinks they want to hear. He even bullshits "America" in his DRs. When someone (well, Donny) isn't buying it, he doesn't have an alternate strategy. That's why I think he isn't a great BB player and wouldn't have done nearly as well in a season where all the stars didn't align for him as they have. This is how I feel. I made my peace with Frankie putting Zach up instead of Derrick because at least it meant Frankie was fucking his own game and he's the one I'm rooting to lose the most. However, I really don't want Derrick to win either because that will mean that this season will continue to be completely boring and predictable. I definitely don't want Christine to win and I'm really looking forward to seeing her get Britneyed like she said she wants to. I don't want Cody to win because he's just SO USELESS and I hate it when dumb, jocky, blandly pretty guys like him do way better than they should (which he already has). I would love to see most of the cast humiliated by a Victoria/Caleb F2, so I'd be ok with one of them (preferably Victoria) winning I guess. I loathe Caleb, so it's really sad that I'm sort of hoping for him to come in second and it's insane in every way that I'm sort of rooting for Victoria to win (which I don't even think is possible). Sigh. This fucking show.

Not necessarily. Derrick is crafty and manipulative in ways that give him pretty decent plausible deniability when the truth comes out. Frankie and Zach know that Derrick was involved in plots to get them out, but they both still like and trust him. Caleb knows that the Detonators were formed without him, but he doesn't believe it/thinks it doesn't matter. Nicole knew that Derrick betrayed his "alliance" with her and Hayden to vote Hayden out, but she blamed Frankie and Christine for it. I think Victoria will be upset when she gets out of the house and finds out that Derrick really was in all of these alliances without her, but I"m not sure that anyone else will really be mad at him even when they get out and find out "the whole truth." Even Vic probably won't be that upset if he takes her to F2 and she gets $50K. He'll say he was telling everyone that he was in all these alliances, but he was ultimately loyal to her. If Vic gets voted out before F2, it won't be directly/obviously at Derrick's hand. Same with Cody. If it comes to that, Derrick will probably get both of them to give him permission to vote them out because "it's what the house wants" and they don't want to mess up his game. Of course, that's assuming that he can continue to orchestrate everything without getting any Blood on His Hands. He tends to manipulate the others in ways that make them think whatever he wants is their idea (or at least "the group's" idea) and, technically, he doesn't make anyone do anything. They choose to do what he just happens to want them to do. The Skittles meeting is a good example. Clearly, Derrick orchestrated that to save Victoria, but, even after watching the tape, no one will be able to say, "Derrick forced me to do that." They all agreed to it in an open meeting.

Frankie is a c***. I don't think game moves like putting one's "best friend" in the house on the block are necessarily indicative of low moral character, but Frankie relishes being a c*** about it. He knows that Zach idolizes him and that Zach is almost 10 years' his junior and is a young 23 while Frankie is a very old 31 (in terms of looks and attitude), but he enjoys trashing him to the rest of house and rubbing Zach's nose in the fact that Frankie has "won" and crushed Zach's dreams. It's incredibly nasty and incredibly pathetic considering that this is a game show and that Zach has never been any real match for Frankie in terms of deviousness. Frankie's STILL actively spreading lies about Nicole (and calling her a c***), which can't be about game because she's already out of the house. He's just an asshole and he gets off on picking on people who are weaker. That bitch Christine is no better, though she pretends to be.

Derrick does seem to care a lot about what "America" thinks of him, but I think he also thinks he can hoodwink America. He knows that only a small fraction of what they do/say is aired on the TV show, so he makes little speeches like the one throwing Donny under the bus for not completing that TA mission even though Derrick also agreed that it was a bad idea and Donny said that he would do it if D and F wanted to. I think he's more grounded than a lot of the famewhores on the show, but he still hopes that maybe he could get some moneymaking/famewhoring opportunities after the show. If he were a popular "character" on the show he might be able to make money in his local area doing ads for local businesses, appearances at clubs, etc. I say "might" in the sense that such a thing is theoretically possible and I think Derrick has thought about that kind of thing and aspires to it, but I think it's highly unlikely that Derrick would be offered such opportunities. He's not very charismatic or funny or anything and he's a cop, so I think there's very limited appeal for "Come party with Officer Derrick at Club X!" If he's thinking bigger than that, he could be the next Jeff Schroeder or something doing higher profile, national appearances. I think he got excited when he was chosen for TA and thought that maybe it meant he was popular with the audience and that's the real reason for him giving lip service to TA being so important to him when, clearly, it isn't. I don't think Derrick even has much potential as a legendary BB player/winner. He's playing a very good game, but he's faced almost no adversity, so it's really not as impressive as it could be if he did. He, Cody, Caleb, Christine, and, to a lesser extent, Frankie have basically coasted through the game thus far, being in control of everything and never being in any real danger. It has made them very arrogant and insufferable in how they regard the other hamsters, looking down their noses at them as if those 5 are these amazing players/people who are so superior. Caleb and Christine have actually been outside the power structure for some of the game, but they never realized it, so they've felt just as safe as the others the whole time. It's boring to watch. The dramatic tension of the show relies on the possibility that the right/wrong person could win a comp at any time and those who are on top one week can be on the bottom the next. This season it's been pretty much been clear every week that a certain person would be going or another certain person if the primary target won a comp or Derrick changed his mind. Every. Single. Week. We've now reached a point where people openly talk about the fact that NO ONE CAN BEAT DERRICK IN F2, but still the only person even thinking about getting him out is Donny. I can't give Derrick full credit for that, though, because the other HGs are just so lame. I think even Frankie only wants to get to F2 because that will mean he's the star of a wildly successful network show that's on 3 nights a week (you know that's how it is in his head) for as long as possible.

This is a very good point. Derrick has an excellent manipulation/mind control game going, but it's only working on the HGs who are in the bottom tier in terms of self-confidence, intelligence, strategy, emotional stability, etc., etc. Donny sees right through him, despite Derrick's attempts to snow him as he does the others. Even Frankie isn't under Derrick's spell. Fortunately for Derrick, most of the others are very easy to manipulate and it's pretty obvious which buttons one should push to get to them. It is impressive how much patience Derrick has, listening to everyone drone on and on about their problems and their point of view while he collects information and strategically drops little comments and suggestions.

Has anyone even mentioned wanting to get Derrick out? I know that Donny has talked about realizing that Derrick is calling all the shots, but I'm not even sure that Derrick would be his top target if he got the chance. Does anyone have a real (in their minds) final two deal that doesn't include Derrick? Derrick is playing a hell of a game, but it's like no one else is even really trying. I can believe that Frankie has some kind of endgame strategy in his head, but everyone else seems to just be hoping to last to the end and have things somehow shake out so they'll win. I could see Cody and Caleb being dumb enough to think that they could beat Derrick in F2, but do Christine or Victoria really think they could beat him? I don't think Victoria has really thought about it and she's just grateful to Derrick for the guidance and emotional support and figures that she'll be happy with either first or second after he drags her to F2 (which actually makes sense for her), but what is Christine thinking? Does she have some secret plan to get Derrick out at some point or does she think she has the remotest chance to beat him as she continues to burn jury votes? Does she think she has a F2 with Cody? It's just weird/annoying/frustrating. Why aren't these people trying to win the game?

Donny just isn't a very good player. He seems like a great guy and he's good in the sense of being smart and observant about what's going on in the house, but he's not good at coming up with strategies to advance his game and thwart those he correctly identifies as threats. In a different season Donny might have hooked up with other players who were better at strategizing and done better in terms of having an impact on the game. He's also been hurt by the double HOH twist, which has made it nearly impossible to shake things up even when someone like him wins HOH. I think Derrick is an excellent player, but he's been greatly helped by this particular combination of hamsters. That's not his fault and it doesn't diminish the good work he's done, but things might be different if there were at least a couple more players who were more of a challenge for him to control or isolate. The many sheepish hamsters this season have basically had no strong shepherd to follow besides Derrick or one of his minions. There's no other game in town. Derrick has done a lot of great work to create those conditions, but it's been tremendously helpful that Frankie is the second most strategic player. Frankie has decent game skills, but he can't touch Derrick in terms of reading and influencing people and Frankie is 1000X more obvious than Derrick and significantly more concerned with bullshit like building up his brand and his show biz career. Derrick is all business all the time, which is great for his game but makes him kind of a boring "character." In addition to finding him boring (outside of his mad manipulation skills), I don't like him much as a person so I'm not a fan, but I do give him credit for excellent game play.

I've noticed that a lot of people have this problem on BB being completely separated from people whom they know and trust in a way that is pretty much unparalleled in "real life." It's especially true for young people, which is one of the problems with having a cast that skews so young. I doubt that Nicole, Victoria, and Zach, in particular, have ever made a major life decision on their own. They've probably made relatively few "major life decisions" period. Now they're in an environment where every decision plays into their chances of winning $50-$500K and they can't talk it over with anyone they trust in their normal lives. So they end up latching onto whatever individual(s) and group that they can, hoping to fall back into their real life pattern of being guided and protected by people who genuinely care about them. Frankie, Derrick, and Donny, in contrast, are much more comfortable keeping their own counsel and that's a huge advantage in the game, both strategically and emotionally. Frankie likes lots of attention, so he likes to have people around and "liking" him, but he's not really emotionally dependent on their approval or support. Nicole and Vic can't handle the idea of anyone being mad at them, talking badly about them, or making them look "stupid" on TV and they, like Zack, desperately need someone they can trust to tell them what to do. The same applies to Christine and Cody to a lesser extent and Derrick uses that emotional neediness to control all of them in different ways.

This seems abundantly clear to me. According to Tori, this "therapist" has "counseled" her through being married to her first husband, deciding to leave him for her soul mate Dean after an affair of less than a month, marrying Dean as soon as their divorces were final, and pumping out four kids. There are so many OBVIOUS bad decisions along that path, so either Dr. Wexler has pointed some/all of that out to Tori and they're pretending for the cameras that none of that past work happened or Dr. Wexler has just gone along with the fuckery of Tori's life for the past decade supporting her in her delusions that she deserves a princess fairytale life and that anything bad that happens is coming out of nowhere and SO UNFAIR. Dr. Wexler is obviously colluding in the fake narrative they created for the show, which seems bizarre and antithetical to the goals of a real therapist. How could she do real therapy with Tori and/or Dean where they really open up about their issues, then film a scripted session for TV? The idea that the TV sessions weren't scripted and actually reflect the "therapy" she's providing is even more disturbing. I would think that a therapist who was truly concerned about Tori's (and her kids') well-being would have advised her against doing the show and refused to participate if Tori did it anyway. How could an ethical mental health professional participate in a process that is detrimental to her patient? How could any sane person think that doing this show would be beneficial to Tori or her kids in terms of anything but money? I almost included Dean in that, but I think that the show may have actually helped him by showing what a train wreck Tori is and, thus, making him more sympathetic.

I agree. The thing is, Tori is just as fucked up, just in a slightly different way. She brings self-absorption to a whole new level, she's endlessly needy and whiny, she has an eating disorder, she's delusional and childish, etc., etc., etc. I'm sure that she's a NIGHTMARE to live with (not that I have any sympathy for Dean). The most interesting thing about the "therapy" sessions was watching the two of them jockey to keep the spotlight on themselves while avoiding taking any responsibility for anything. I was actually impressed by Dean's ability to bogard most of the sessions from Tori, who is clearly a master at keeping the focus on her and her myriad issues, particularly with her bought and paid for enabler, Dr. Wexler. I don't think that Tori is any more capable of being in a healthy relationship than Dean is, particularly since she seems to have zero self-awareness and her idea of "working on herself" is apparently to do "treatment" with Dr. Enabling Famewhore for the better part of a decade (if not longer). Tori can't even take her head out of her ass long enough to give the slightest consideration to how her kids feel or how her choices affect them; everything is ME ME ME. I actually think Dean would be easier to deal with (though he's a shitty person too).

I also found this odd. They alluded to Dean being an alcoholic and drug addict for a long time a few times, but they just glossed over it to focus on the HORROR of him ruining their fairy tale romance. Did Dean's substance abuse have no negative effects on the family until he boinked Emily Goodhand? Tori didn't seem very upset about his drinking and drugging and she didn't seem to be majorly concerned about him relapsing in Toronto. Even the "therapist" hardly touched on it. I might think that they were trying to preserve Deano's future hireability by not emphasizing the fact that he's a longtime addict fresh to recovery, but they didn't seem to have a problem portraying him as so emotionally fragile that he's thisclose to killing himself if someone looks at him sideways.