This episode of Big Brother 15 opens with a viewer discretion warning. Sigh. I was initially opposed to Aaryn being expelled, but this nonsense has totally hijacked the entire season and now I just want her gone so it can stop being about race. It’s not fun to watch. And when you factor in the George Zimmerman verdict, aren’t racial tensions already high enough OUTSIDE the house?

'Big Brother 15' Recap: Fight Night

In the aftermath of Nick’s eviction, we get an escalating series of fights as Aaryn, Kaitlin, GinaMarie, and Jeremy keep digging their graves, though Jeremy probably does the least amount of damage to his image.

Fight Night, Part 1: GinaMarie vs. Everyone

After Nick’s eviction, GinaMarie sobs uncontrollably. It’s basically the equivalent of the mourning of St. Jessie by Lydia and others on season 11.

GinaMarie then goes off, screaming about how everyone is just hiding behind Elissa winning the MVP every single week, calling them “scrubs.” She’s not wrong, but she’s missing the point. Yes, they’re not playing fair, but it’s smart.

Elissa says that “Last week was full of revenge, bitterness, and anger,” but this week will be different now that Helen is in charge. I fundamentally disagree with her assessment. Last week was about fairness. Sure, Aaryn and Jeremy hate Elissa, but the primary reason they wanted her out was because they didn’t think it was fair that she was here and winning MVP every week. It wasn’t just revenge for David’s honor.

Aaryn hilariously says she’s now in the “minority” of the house. I’m pretty sure the irony is lost on her. But not on the show’s editors.

Fight Night, Part 2: Aaryn, Kaitlin, and Jeremy  vs. Jessie

One of many fights begins when Jessie walks into the bedroom where Aaryn, Kaitlin, and Jeremy are lamenting being on the losing side. Kaitlin is angry that Jessie turned on them and Jessie stands up for herself, saying it’s because Elissa and the other side respect her and don’t treat her like crap.

Kaitlin then says Judd is just Jessie’s fifth attempt at a showmance and Aaryn calls her a “slutty bitch.” Later Kaitlin and Jeremy both lay down in bed with Jessie to tick her off. It’s so juvenile, like when you hold your hand close to someone and keep saying “I’m not touching you, I’m not touching you!”

Fight Night, Part 3: Aaryn and GinaMarie vs. Candice

Aaryn then flips Candice’s bed over for no real reason. When Candice sees it she’s mad. Then Aaryn walks in and starts putting on a fake ghetto accent, daring Candice to do something about it. GinaMarie gets into Candice’s face asking if her “black” is gonna come out. This is just plain ugly.

Howard comes in and literally picks Candice up and carries her into the Have-Not room to calm her down, trying to convince her to rise above all this petty racist crap and be better than those dumb women out there. I know some people think he’s being a coward for not standing up and getting into a fight with Aaryn, GinaMarie, and Kaitlin, but he’s just trying not to give them the satisfaction of getting under his skin. He’s playing the game, and I respect him for that. Lasting longer than Aaryn is the ultimate victory.

I also kind of respect Jeremy. Sure, he was being a jerk to Jessie, but sitting next to someone and refusing to move away is just childish. During the whole race fight, he just buried his head in his pillow and said nothing. When it was over, he turned to Aaryn, Kaitlin, and GinaMarie and said “Y’all are not making it better for yourselves.”

Jeremy might be a jerk, but he’s not a total moron and he knows that there’s a line you shouldn’t cross. And getting into Candice’s face begging her to let the black come out is definitely way past that line.

Fight Night, Part 4: Aaryn vs. Amanda

Somehow Amanda shows up and gets into it too. She and Aaryn yell at each other as Amanda tries to point out that Aaryn is being portrayed as a racist, but Aaryn once again refuses to believe this. I honestly feel like this is just Amanda rubbing salt into the wounds, gloating about how she’s in the majority and Aaryn is gonna lose.    

Aaryn’s “Apology”

Once things calm down, Aaryn offers an apology to Candice. The apology consists of Aaryn explaining that she’s not really a racist, she respects all races, but if she ever says anything that sounds racist, it’s a joke. In other words, she’s saying, “I’m sorry if you took it the wrong way.”

Candice calls the apology “dirt” and doesn’t care. Yeah, that’s probably right. As I’ve said before, I believe Aaryn hates Candice, but I think it’s a personality issue, not a race issue. Unfortunately, when you genuinely hate someone and you use racial language to express it, that’s a lethal combination and it becomes impossible to distinguish the two.

The Have-Not Competition

The teams must toss rancid milk across the yard in buckets to fill up a jug.

Howard is on a team with GinaMarie, Kaitlin, and Aaryn and he desperately wants to throw the competition just to force those three awful girls to be Have-Nots for the week.

You’d think this would be easy. You’d think Howard could just fumble around and lose on purpose. But no. The team of McCrae, Amanda, Judd, and Jessie is so monumentally terrible that, even with Howard trying his absolute worst, his team still wins. It’s just like when McCrae accidentally won the first Power of Veto. This season is so bad that people can’t even succeed at failing on purpose.

So it’s a double date all week in the Have-Not room with Amanda and McCrae plus Jessie and Judd.

The Moving Company Is Closed for Business

Now that the Moving Company is dead, McCrae comes clean to Amanda to strengthen their bond. He talks about how he never trusted the Moving Company at all and all he wanted to do was protect his queen, Amanda. She feels like a bit of an idiot for not suspecting it at all. Their whole dynamic is getting a tad sinister, like MacBeth.

The Nominations

Jeremy goes up to Helen’s HoH room to tell her all about the Moving Company, trying to give himself a chance to survive by throwing Aaryn under the bus. It kind of works, but Helen doesn’t trust Jeremy because he just betrayed his friends.

There are some things you need to know. McCrae didn’t just tell Amanda about the Moving Company, he also told Andy and Judd. Second, Amanda told Helen about the Moving Company shortly before Jeremy did, so Helen already knew. To me, that seems like a really big piece of information to keep from the viewers.

Helen then talks to Howard, whose guilty conscience is eating at him about voting to keep Nick. He finally confesses to Helen that he did it, but he doesn’t give the real reason and then he totally screws himself by NOT coming clean about the Moving Company, even when she asks him directly about it.

Here again, I’d like to point out that a lot of Helen’s crying in these scenes is fake. She’s said as much to Andy on the live feeds. She’s just trying to emotionally manipulate people. But I guess for the show’s producers, the narrative works better if people think Helen is a genuine person.

So Jeremy is trying to improve his game and his position in the house, congratulating Helen and Elissa on winning, telling Helen the complete truth about his alliance, and trying to distance himself from the most toxic person in the game who everyone hates and thinks deserves to go home. Howard is lying through his teeth every time he talks to Helen, and he’s someone she originally trusted more than anyone. I’ll give you one guess who the target is this week.

At the end of the day, Helen nominates Aaryn and Kaitlin and she very obviously puts the keys in the order of who she trusts, from most to least: Elissa, Andy, Candice, McCrae, Amanda, GinaMarie, Judd, Jessie, Howard, Spencer, and Jeremy.

Helen explains that she thinks Aaryn and Kaitlin are both strong competitors and wants to give them the opportunity to win the Power of Veto to save themselves. This is the biggest lie I’ve ever heard because her plan is to backdoor Jeremy. If she actually believes in giving strong competitors a chance to save themselves, she’d have nominated him outright. I know she’s playing smart and that lying is part of the game, but I just enjoy pointing it out.

(Image courtesy of CBS)

John Kubicek

Senior Writer, BuddyTV

John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire DiariesSupernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.