Something very strange is going on inside the Big Brother 13 house. Following Monday’s veto ceremony, I thought the week would be painfully predictable and dull, but instead, there have been some dramatic shifts in loyalty and some very interesting deals being made.

SPOILER WARNING: This article contains information from the Big Brother 13 live feeds not shown on TV.

So Jeff used the PoV to save Porsche and backdoor Daniele, at which point it seemed obvious that Daniele was going to be evicted without much debate. But that’s not what’s going down.

In a very surprising move, Shelly, who has pled her undying allegiance to Jeff and Jordan from the beginning, is heavily campaigning to keep Daniele. Crazy, right?

Or maybe it’s not. Basically, Daniele knows that Jordan and Rachel are going to vote her out, so her only hope is to win over the newbies. Porsche is smart enough to know that Daniele is a better ally than Kalia, so they teamed up to make a sales pitch to Shelly, and it worked.

Shelly might be loyal to Jeff and Jordan, but she’s also now proving that she’s smart enough to know that she has no shot at winning if she goes to the final three with them. Shelly doesn’t want to get rid of Jeff or Jordan, but she knows that they need to go for her to have a chance at winning, and Daniele is the best person to do it. Suddenly Shelly seems to be playing to win, and it’s refreshing to see.

Equally surprising is that Adam is absolutely refusing to join Shelly’s campaign and flip against Jeff and Jordan. He now doesn’t trust Shelly, but he hasn’t told Jeff and Jordan about it yet either. Still, he’s made it clear that he, Jordan and Rachel are definitely voting out Daniele, so Shelly’s attempts to flip the house are pointless. Adam is smart enough to realize that Jeff and Jordan are threats, but he’s cocky enough to think that the newbies can get rid of them on their own.

Adam’s plan is to win HoH this week (easier said than done) and to get rid of Rachel (also easier said than done), despite the fact that Jeff and Jordan are pushing for Adam and Shelly to keep Rachel for a little while longer to help them get rid of Kalia and Porsche (in reality, Jeff and Jordan are open to the idea of sticking with Rachel to the final three and letting her take out Shelly or Adam).

I admire Adam’s optimism that he will be able to get rid of Rachel and Jeff in the future, but history suggests that he can’t do it, and neither can Shelly, Kalia or Porsche. Of the eight HGs still in the house, the veterans have won eight competitions while the newbies have won two. If Adam thinks he and the other newbies can get rid of Rachel and Jeff without Daniele’s help, he’s fooling himself.

The funniest part of all of this is that Jeff and Jordan are slowly starting to realize that the newbies are considering turning. Shelly had a long conversation Monday night with Jordan where Shelly essentially said that she doesn’t want to go to the final three with Jeff and Jordan. Jeff might seem like America’s sweetheart, but anyone who watches the live feeds knows that he curses more than anyone and went off last night to Jordan about how the newbies aren’t doing anything and that they’re riding his coattails, letting him do the hard work of getting rid of Daniele before they stab him in the back. What, did he think they’d just roll over and die?

I say it’s funny because Jeff hasn’t done much of anything in terms of competitions before this week, and now he’s suddenly furious that his alliance (Adam and Shelly) aren’t pulling their own weight and winning stuff. I guess he forgets that Jordan is almost as useless, only winning one competition that Rachel, Jeff and Brendon let her win.

Watching Jeff go on a profanity-laden tirade about how these newbies are going to try to take him out after he helped bring them this far is priceless, because he seems to think that Adam and Shelly should just let him and Jordan win the game. His moral outrage would be a lot more acceptable if he wasn’t denying that he promised not to backdoor Daniele, which he did and which Daniele is telling everyone about.

I’m not ruling out the fact that Shelly is only campaigning for Daniele as a way of trying to win Daniele’s vote in jury, but if not, then Shelly is certainly stepping up her social game and really working on making alliances and deals to give her the best shot at winning. If she keeps this up, Shelly might become the first person in Big Brother history to win the game without ever winning a competition (not counting Will from season 2 who never won HoH, but the veto didn’t exist back then).

(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.