S16.E12: Nominations #4 / Battle of the Block Comp #4

[lids]

I never liked Cody. I think he has saggy eyes with dark circles under them. I never saw the hotness in him that everyone kept talking about. And then tonight when he was going on and on about his man crush, I decided Cody has to go. What is he thinking? Zach Effron ruins everything!

I like to think the guys keep including Christine in their men alliances because she looks like a man. But something tells me they see her differently than the others women because she is already married and therefore already "owned" by a bro and totally not expected to solely exist for the purpose of making them feel virile and sexually attractive. So... lesson learned there, I guess.

But I swear, if I was in the house, I would name my alliance "The Alliance" just to piss Grodner off. (Sub-alliances to include "The Group", "The Unit", "The Team", "Us" and "A Bunch of People Working Together".) Oh, well.

Ohhhh, I'm totally down for this! How about: "Pretending to Like Each Other to Stay Off the Block," "Strategizing Together (For Now)" and "In the Same Room and Nobody Had the Guts to Say No."

[jackman36]

This really bothers me to say this, but I think Zach is growing on me and seems to actually be thinking ahead in the game.  By his intro, I was ready to despise him.   And who else would announce on national TV that he wanted to bang the only out gay guy on the show.  Ooops, remember you dad said your grandma was watching (guess he forgot).  And, while he does grate at times, Frankie also has a brain in his head.  If his insecurities did not make him act out so much, he could be a decent person.   Cody, WTH.  You started out being the regular dude  who seemed pretty likeable.  Then Derrick took over your brain like some scifi monster movie.  Frankie knew about your insecurities with Britt and took FULL advantage and you did just what he wanted as well.   Now, snap out of it (picture Cher in Moonstruck) and be ready to nominate Caleb if Britt or the nameless/faceless girl manage to win POV.  Everyone will give you props for making a "Big Move".  However, the hypnosis might be too good and we do not know the key word for you to snap out of it and one of the floater girls go home. 

 

Hayden or Zach for the Win!

[iMonrey]

If they had any brains, or guts, they would have nominated Derrick instead of Amber. It would have satisfied the "physical threat" condition and thrown suspicion of off nominating only women. I mean, what the hell are they thinking nominated four women? They're practically daring the women to come after them. Lucky for them the women are too stupid to do it. I think even if Amber won HoH they could still talk her into nominating two women. Derrick wouldn't have been in any danger of going home even if he'd lost BotB, because they have the numbers to keep him. It should have been him and maybe Hayden, plus two girls. Keep it even and don't make it so freaking obvious you're targeting all the girls.

[DAngelus]

I am quite certain that when "America" voted to get a physical threat on the block they were not talking about Amber.

 

Amber is in good shape (and a very nice shape at that), but can she lift more weight than the TA guys?  Could she beat them in a race? Can she outfight them? Even with Donny being 42 and Frankie being a screaming queen, I doubt it.  You can't really be "a physical threat" if you're not physically superior.  Caleb, Zach and Hayden would have qualified (as would Cody, but he was HoH), but yeah, "America" was obviously voting for Caleb and "Team America" cheated the challenge.

 

Also, "get them on the block" is too easy in this expanded, four-nominee portion of the season.  Make it so that your "threat" has to be one of the two people nominated after BotB, and that would be a challenge.  (To be fair to Frankie, he did nominate Amber next to a tongues-gibbering bowtie who killed herself off relatively early in the chess comp, but still.)

 

 

Most of those broads were just moving randomly around the board, though, with no thought of strategy. I really felt that one came down to luck more than anything.

 

The game was really chopped up in the editing, of course, so it was tough to follow even with the freeze-frame, but it did actually seem as though more strategy was used here than in the Season 6 version of this challenge.  

 

WARNING: huge amounts of chess theory and a complete reconstruction of the Comp follow; skip if adverse.

 

(Note: the following uses algebraic notation to describe the chess squares, where the squares are described on a grid from "a1" [lower left corner, Amber's starting point] to "h8" [upper right, Jocasta's starting spot]. Apologies to those unfamiliar with the usage.)

 

The thing about chess is that all the pieces have more freedom of movement the closer they are to the center of the board (even the queen has access to 27 squares from one of the four central squares [d4, e4, d5, e5] but only 21 in a corner) but with a knight's particular movement, centralization is even more important.  (A knight has eight options from a central [or center-adjacent] square, but only two in the corner.)  In S6, players picked their starting spots and some, like Maggie, who'd never heard the saying "A knight on the rim looks dim", started at the edge of the board and were shortly eliminated.  Here, with only four players, they were able to fairly start everyone from a corner, and by the end of the game, all the central squares had been used and the only remaining options were around the edge, so I do think some awareness of the general concept, if not actual strategy, came into play.

 

(Not by Jocasta, though. She went from h8 to f7 and then d6-f5 (so far, so good)-g7-e8, taking herself right out of the game. On her very last move, she passed up h5 [not a great square, but with easy escape via f4 or g3 and access to the relatively-unused half of the board] and instead took herself to a spot where all the exits [c7, d6, f6] had already been used up, even before she had made her previous bad move.  If Jesus told her to do that, He needs more practice.)

 

Oh, and Frankie's DR about all the girls making the same first move was unnecessarily catty.  (As is Frankie himself, generally.)  You only have two options, and they're mostly equivalent at that stage.  But in fact Amber and Brittany did the right thing in mirroring Victoria/Jocasta's opening moves, as far as future strategy goes.  Say Amber, instead of playing to c2 after Victoria moves to f2, goes to b3 instead.  Then either of Victoria's two most likely next moves, d3 or e4, occupies a square that Amber could potentially have occupied in two moves (most likely via c5), and limits Amber's options.  (Vic actually did move to e4 on her second move; in fact, 3 of the 4 girls correctly went right to the center on move 2, with only Jocasta choosing d6 instead of e5.)  But with Amber at c2, Victoria's 2.e4 occupies a square that it would have taken Amber 4 moves to reach, and thus doesn't affect her game all that much.  So Amber (and Brittany) were in fact right to do as they did.

 

Anyway, I've actually been able to reconstruct the entire game, using process of elimination at some points, as not all moves were shown.  But you can tell how someone must have gotten from one spot to another, since there wasn't any other option available. Here it goes:

 

1.  Jocasta f7, Victoria f2, Amber c2, Brittany c7

2.  Jocasta d6, Victoria e4, Amber d4, Brittany d5

3.  Jocasta f5, Victoria f6, Amber b5, Brittany b6

 

(Poor moves by Amber and especially Brittany here; no need to go out the b-file when c3, e3 and f4 were all sitting there.)

 

4. Jocasts g7, Victoria g8, Amber a7, Brittany c8

 

(Horrible moves all around; amazingly, Jocasta's ridiculous g7 ends up being the only player who doesn't voluntarily go to the rim.)

 

5. Jocasta e8, Victoria h6, Amber c6, Brittany e7

 

(Jocasta self-destructs; the other three are essentially forced.  [Victoria did have the choice to play e7, but that would have eliminated Brittany.] Amber is lucky she's forced back to a better square than her opponents.)

 

6. Jocasta OUT, Victoria g4, Amber e5, Brittany g6

 

(This may be where Amber wins the game.  She has five options here, but correctly takes the center square, not only preserving her mobility but taking some away from Victoria.  Meanwhile, Brit/Vic have been struggling to stay alive, because of their poor 4th moves.)

 

7. Victoria e3, Amber f3, Brittany h4

 

(Victoria has the sense to stay central and avoid the poor alternative h2, and Amber's move is acceptable.  But why on earth does Brittany move to a rim square that Amber has just taken one of the exits away from? The far superior move was f4. )

 

8. Victoria d1,  Amber d2, Brittany g2

 

(bad move by Victoria [c4 was right there!], Amber's is about as good as she has available, and Brittany is forced.)

 

9. Victoria c3, Amber b1, Brittany f4

 

(Vic and Brit re-centralize, whereas Amber pursues a dubious strategy to trap Victoria.  In theory, this should have cost Amber the game, but…)

 

10. Victoria a4, Amber a3, Brittany e2

 

(…but instead Victoria makes a terrible move [perhaps largely at Brittany's direction] and now Amber can just follow Vic around the board, until the conclusion.  Not that anyone foresaw that, probably.  I'm guessing that Brittany wanted e2 for herself and so directed Victoria away, but that was a mistake…Brittany should move to d3 and go around the left side of the board, while Vic goes to e2 and then up the right (g1-h3-g5-h7-f8). Now they're in danger of getting in each other's way.)

 

11. Victoria c5, Amber c4, Brittany c1

 

(It wouldn't do Victoria any good to play b2, as Amber's c4 would have eliminated her.  Brittany's move may cost her a little bit, but it doesn't matter anyway;  the right-side track I described earlier would have put her on a collision course with Victoria and her other alternative, g3, would leave her with an ugly choice at her next turn between a self-eliminating move to h1 or f1, then h2 and out.)

 

12. Victoria a6, Amber a5, Brittany d3

 

(No, I take it back. This is where B/V blow it.  If Victoria goes to e6 or d7 here, she can make her escape to the right side without Amber being able to catch her as in the actual game. And it's not as though Amber has options any more, since b2 is now a self-eliminating move, and a5-b3 just leads to a1 and out.  If Victoria can stay free just long enough, she'll win.  For example:

 

12.  Victoria e6, Amber a5, Brittany d3

13.  Victoria f8, Amber b7, Brittany b4

14.  Victoria h7, Amber d8, Brittany a2

15.  Victoria g5 (and still has h3 and g1 open ahead), Amber OUT, Brittany OUT.

 

If Victoria goes directly for f8, not only does she get to the h7/g5 pass before Amber can cut it off as Amber does in the actual game, but by using e6, she stops Amber from even pursuing her.

 

Or Victoria could have been even more ruthless, and blocked Amber's path directly, trusting Brittany to stay alive while she and Amber killed each other off:

 

12: Victoria e6, Amber a5, Brittany d3

13. Victoria d8, Amber ? 

 

If Amber plays b7, she kills Victoria, but she also kills herself.  So she plays b3, Brittany plays b4 and then it's 

 

14.  Victoria b7, Amber a1, Brittany a2

 

and on move 15, they're ALL out of moves, but Brittany wins because she goes last.  But that's probably way too complicated to calculate in advance, so Victoria should have just played 12. e6 on general "stay central" principles, and then spotted the f8-h7-g5-h3-g1 route and figured that would be enough to see her home. instead, I guess she [or Brittany, if she was directing Vic] tried to take a longer route, not realizing that leaving e6 open for Amber would cost them.  And so the game ends…)

 

13. Victoria b8, Amber b7, Brittany b4

 

(Moving instead to e1 or b2 would leave Brittany without further moves.  Not that it matters.)

 

14. Victoria d7, Amber d8, Brittany a2

15. Victoria f8, Amber e6, Brittany OUT

 

(And Victoria's leaving e6 available for Amber here costs her the game.)

 

16. Victoria h7, Amber g5.

17. Victoria OUT.

 

Well done, Amber. Although, as I say, Brittany played poorly at several points and missed the opportunity Victoria had to win the game for them. And how bad was Jocasta, killing herself off on move 5 of a 16-move game?  More time to spend talking to Jesus, I guess.  I hope He can stand her more than I can.

 

(Wow, I've never gotten to reconstruct a chess game [or variant thereof] on this show before.  That was awesome, if only for me.  Thanks, BB! And thanks for your patience, those of you who bothered to read this.)

Edited July 21, 2014 by DAngelus

[Cosmocrush]

Frankie is super theatrical which makes sense since he said he was on Broadway for three years.  Add in that he seems to be a huge BB fan and his DRs make sense.  What doesn't make sense to me is a 31 year old man (who looks older than that)  acting like he's much, much younger and much dumber or at least I hope the dumb part is an act.  Grow up Frankie. The glitter nails and imitations of a 14-year-old girl aren't even a little bit attractive on a man his age.  I guess it's consistent with someone who calls his 21 year old baby sister his bff at least. 

 

I think this act probably worked for him ten years ago and he stuck with it but how "cute" will this act be at 35 or 40?

Edited July 21, 2014 by Cosmocrush

[Thalia]

I believe my bona fides on the issue of feminism and my dislike of sexism on this show are well-established, and it is with these credentials that I now announce how much I hate those Latisse eyelashes that Brittany is sporting.  They were all I could notice when she was in the DR last night.  I kept wondering how she could see through them. 

[Wandering Snark]

Agreed Thalia, those things are rediculous. Wasn't in Pao Pao that brought enough lashes for the summer? I think we know who inherited them. Like she herself said she's not one of the young girls so she should stop acting like them.

[methodwriter85]

 

Cody is dead to me with his Zac Efron obsession. At least Hayden's man crush is someone who can actually act and has an impressive resume. I did love that Donny knew who he was, though - by his bushy eyebrows!

 

      I need to interject here- Zac Efron is actually a good actor. If he was devoid of acting talent, there's no way he could have pulled off the court room scene from 17 Again. Dude pulled off being a hurt 17-year old boy and a regretful middle-aged man all at the same time. He hasn't had luck getting critically acclaimed roles but that doesn't mean Zac can't act.

 

     It's kind of funny that Cody tried to describe 17 Again as that movie where Zac Efron switches bodies. No, no- Matthew Perry wishes he was 17 again, and he becomes Zac Efron.

[Maverick]

 

(Wow, I've never gotten to reconstruct a chess game [or variant thereof] on this show before.  That was awesome, if only for me.  Thanks, BB! And thanks for your patience, those of you who bothered to read this.)

 Yes, but I still don't know where the train from Chicago travelling at 30 miles an hour that left at 11:47 am meets the train from LA travelling at 43 miles an hour that left at 1:07 pm.

[Nashville]

(Wow, I've never gotten to reconstruct a chess game [or variant thereof] on this show before.  That was awesome, if only for me.  Thanks, BB! And thanks for your patience, those of you who bothered to read this.)

Hey, geeks gotta geek. :D I'm apparently a geek too, 'cause I read through the whole thing.

[iMonrey]

 

It's kind of funny that Cody tried to describe 17 Again as that movie where Zac Efron switches bodies. No, no- Matthew Perry wishes he was 17 again, and he becomes Zac Efron.

 

What the hell movie was he talking about where Zac Efron comes home from a war? I guess I just don't know my Zac Efron movies.

[ottoDbusdriver]

What the hell movie was he talking about where Zac Efron comes home from a war? I guess I just don't know my Zac Efron movies.

 

High School Musical 7: Class Trip to Kabul

[networker]

 

What the hell movie was he talking about where Zac Efron comes home from a war? I guess I just don't know my Zac Efron movies.

 

The movie was The Lucky One.  Taylor Schilling from Orange is the New Black was his co-star.

[ProfCrash]

To be fair, the fact that "America" voted for Frankie to be part of Team America has probably convinced him that he's popular with the viewers, an idea I'm sure the Diary Room people encourage. So he probably thinks "America" is enjoying his antics. And the fact that he knows the show well enough to hum the HoH room reveal theme shows he's pretty damn familiar with this show, which I'll give him credit for, as opposed to the underwear models who were recruited for it.

 

That said, the Team America challenge was utter bullshit. I am quite certain that when "America" voted to get a physical threat on the block they were not talking about Amber. They were talking about Caleb and that challenge should have been more specific. And yes, since "we're" voting to choose these challenges, we should also get to vote whether or not we think they've succeeded at completing them.

 

Zac Efron? Really? Maybe the twist this season will be that Frankie is actually straight and all the other guys are actually gay.

To be fair, there is a world of difference on how a casual viewer reacts to the house guests, how people who read BBs react to the house guests and how feed watchers react to the house guests. I have a feeling that Frankie is well received by the casual viewer, tolerated by readers and more strongly disliked by feed watchers.

[Harperlee1]

Does anyone else find it strange that houseguests get all "I can't sleep alone! I need a cuddle buddy!" with each other? And I know this season is more touchy-feely than others, but I've noticed it in other seasons, as well. I can't remember the last time I slept alone, but I'd rather sleep alone than some random person. Especially if there isn't any... canoodling, you know? Like, I can understand, "you're hot, let's cuddle." Obviously I'm not taking into account the times when there are more beds than people and you *have* to share a bed with someone. I just can't imagine, as an adult, ever having the desire to share a bed with a girlfriend (I'm a girl) to cuddle and pillow chat. Is it just the culture of the Big Brother house? Recalibrated norms in an extreme situation?

[ghoulina]

Yea, the excessive cuddling is weird. I can understand it more on a show like Survivor, where they can get really cold at night. But I would much prefer my own space to sleep, than having some random houseguest all up in my grill. 

[Kris117]

That was a huge fail. How did the boys decide Amber was a  physical threat and not any of the guys in their alliance?  How convenient. I'm very annoyed they got cash for something they would have happily done anyway.

 

 

I think America should be able to decide whether the Team America challenge was successfully completed. 

 

It's more than two weeks after this episode, but this still bugs. I absolutely agree that America should have been able to vote on the mission success, and I don't think TA earned that $5000. While Amber was certainly more of a physical threat than the other three women she was nominated with, she would not have been on my top five list of physical threats in that house. Top five challenge threats, maybe, but not physical. I also believe that had America chosen the second option of nominating four floaters, TA would have nominated the same four women, and found some rationalization for labeling Amber a floater.