Originally Aired Tuesday, August 8, 2006
Episode Rating: **** (four out of five stars)
Episode Overview: With Janelle and James on the block, the stakes are high as six HouseGuests compete in the best Power of Veto Competition BIG BROTHER 7: ALL-STARS has yet seen.
Episode Highlights:
- The Power of Veto competition separates the desperate from the greedy.
- Danielle spends 24 hours in solitary confinement.
- Howie shaves Chicken George's chest.
Recap:
We rejoin the BIG BROTHER 7: ALL-STAR house immediately following Sunday's nomination ceremony, in which Danielle put Janelle and James up on the block. Janelle is taken aback by the James nomination, thinking that him and Danielle were buddy-buddy. Which they are. She just doesn't know it. James is playing his secret alliance off well, Danielle's idea of nominating him as a pawn working perfectly. Howie and Kaysar are convinced, as is Marcellas.
Hey, what do you know? It's James in the Diary Room talking about his hatred for Janelle. Weird.
We get a fruity little segment of Will and Howie shaving all of their body hair out in the back yard. Will even shaves his armpits. Chicken George gets in on the action, convincing Howie to shave his chest. I'm shuddering as I type this.
Georgie and Danielle have a heart-to-heart in the Head of Household room about...well, I'm not sure what it's about. George starts by stating that he can't see himself finishing the game, then CBS pipes in the After School Special piano music, and all of a sudden the two of them are totally feeling each other's pain, because they are the only parent's in the house.
Next, a segment on how Howie is annoying the hell out of everyone, butting into serious conversations with inane, childish babble that adds nothing to the proceedings. Howie is a weird dude.
The players for the Veto Competition are selected: Will, Boogie and Marcellas will join Danielle, Janelle and James. Danielle thinks that this is the perfect group because it will pit five against one, with the hopes of keeping Janelle on the block.
Here's where things get interesting: The Veto Competition. It feels like the BIG BROTHER 7 producers really have an axe to grind with this cast; the things they are doing to them are somewhat perverse.
Anyway, the Veto Comp takes place in the backyard where six makeshift graves have been set up. Which is interesting, because the competition itself has no graveyard theme, yet the contestants must lay in graves while competing. Whatever works, I guess. Each player starts with 40 veto points. They will be asked a series of questions that will either contain a reward or a sacrifice and a positive or negative point value. For instance, the first person to buzz in when a phone call home is offered for 5 points will have 5 points subtracted from their total. Whoever buzzes in when offered 7 points to have the house go on slop for a week will receive seven veto points. Whoever has the most points after the final question wins the veto.
It becomes clear very early that the only two HouseGuests even trying to win the veto are Janelle and Danielle. Will, Boogie, James and Marcellas are only going for the prizes. Will ends up receiving $5,000. Boogie gets a plasma TV and a trip for two to Aruba. Marcellas gets a slop-free pass for the entirety of the show. James gets a house Margarita party and a phone call from a loved one.
Janelle and Danielle, once the dust has settled, wreak immense amount of havoc with their sacrifices made in the Veto competition: all beds are replaced by cots, hot water is taken away, the non-POV comp contestants receive slop for the week, and Danielle gets herself solitary confinement for 24 hours. Not only does that massively suck in its own right, Danielle lost the competition to Janelle, so she'll have nothing to show for her day in solitary.
Yes, Janelle won, and this really flips the game. Everyone's plan all along had been to evict Janelle. Danielle is extremely pissed off at her Legion of Doom alliance for not even trying to win the competition, basically throwing her and her nomination (Janelle) under the bus. You can tell she really wanted Janelle ousted. Danielle cries a lot and, for once, I really can't blame her. 24 hours in a little room by yourself with nothing to show for it has to be a horrendous experience.
Will and Boogie laugh it up in the Diary Room, happy with themselves for winning the prizes. Will, ingeniously, starts spreading the rumor that it was Marcellas who took the $5,000 as well as the slop pass, all along knowing that it was he himself who took it. This fires everyone up, especially Janelle, and there is a movement among the players to try and convince Danielle to nominate and evict Marcellas, mostly because of his (non-existent) actions. Danielle gets out of solitary and hears this plan, but she doesn't like it.
You gotta respect Danielle, not succumbing to the desires of her alliance and sticking to her guns. At the Veto Ceremony, she nominates Kaysar in Janelle's stead. He's definitely the favorite to be sent home on Thursday, unless something drastic occurs in the next 48 hours.
-Oscar Dahl