This episode of Big Brother 16 features an intense Power of Veto competition and a shocking, game-changing PoV ceremony. But none of that matters, because it’s all about Ariana Grande!
Yes, Frankie tells everyone about his “mega, mega pop star” sister and hopes that it will make them so starstruck that they will forgive him his many, many lies in the game. He vastly underestimates the intelligence of his fellow HGs, and his boastful pride seems to do the opposite. There’s also more of the men telling the women what to do, and the spineless women of this season agreeing to it every time.
The Zankie Fight
After the Battle of the Block that Caleb failed to throw, Zach and Frankie continue to have a huge fight. Zach was completely loyal to Frankie and he feels betrayed and heartbroken. Zach calls Frankie a huge liar and Frankie doesn’t care because that’s how the game is played and he’s safe for the week. Frankie keeps saying he never turned on Zach and he’s the reason Zach stayed, which is all a pack of lies.
Caleb calls out Frankie for throwing all of the guys under the bus and Frankie comes clean about it. Derrick tells the guys to go behind closed doors to hash things out so they don’t blow up his game too.
The Frankie J. Grande Show
Frankie decides to play his ace card about being Ariana Grande’s brother to get everyone back on his side. He’s upset because this isn’t how he envisioned his big revelation happening.
Frankie sits the boys down in the bedroom and tells them that he’s a “social media mogul” and his sister is a “mega, mega pop star.” He says he was paranoid and this is his apology. Well, it’s actually a giant misdirection so he can confuse people to give himself time to repair relationships in the game.
The news doesn’t go over so well because the guys don’t seem to care and Derrick immediately spins it against Frankie because his sister is rich and he doesn’t need the money. Frankie lays it on thick by adding that he’s poor and doesn’t take money from his sister, but he’s donating all of his winnings from the show to a charity to build schools in Africa.
Then he tells the girls and they’re a lot more excited. Nicole says that Frankie is “freaking famous” and his response is “I know.” Victoria is excited, but Christine knows that his boasting is going to cause a lot of backlash. Even Victoria realizes that Frankie is trying to use his sister as an “escape goat.” That is somehow both the smartest and dumbest thing she has said all season.
It’s hysterical because everyone sees through Frankie’s ruse for exactly what it is. But Zach is particularly traumatized, tearing up in the diary room while screaming that Frankie is playing for charity, he’s going to win Fan Favorite and Zach doesn’t even want to keep playing. It certainly sounds like Frankie has led the HGs to believe that he’s literally playing on behalf of charity, which is a blatant and incredibly despicable lie, on par with Matt Hoffman claiming that his wife had a terminal illness.
After the house calms down, Derrick goes around and makes sure everyone knows that Frankie’s announcement was a game move. We also see how much work Derrick has put in with Victoria, letting her cry on his shoulder. He basically admits that he’s using her and his Final 2 deal with her is second to his Final 2 with Cody.
The Power of Veto Competition
Caleb, Nicole and Derrick join Christine, Zach and Donny in the Hawaiian-themed Otev competition. Voiced by Gilbert Gottfried, Otev is a Pissed-Off Penguin who insults the HGs in his questions for each round, and they must grab the correct answer and return to him. Otev is so freaking mean that it’s hilarious. He even curses.
Donny is out in the first round, followed by Nicole, Christine and Derrick. It comes down to Zach Attack vs. Beast Mode Cowboy. Zach asks Caleb to throw it since he’s already safe this week, but he declines. Still, Zach comes through at the end. Zach wins the Power of Veto! He celebrates by saying that “When Zach Attack needed it, he gotted it.” I think I love Zach more than I’ve ever loved any Big Brother houseguest in the history of the show.
Zach Almost Blows Up Derrick’s Game
After the PoV, now that Frankie and Zach are both safe for the week, they talk about their fight. Frankie tries to make things better and Zach confesses that he loves Frankie so much. Only this time, Zach is “acting” and he tells us that if he gets the chance, he will take Frankie out.
Then Zach talks to Victoria and tries to get her on his side because his own alliance just tried to get him out. He tells her all about the Bomb Squad and the Detonators, which makes Victoria feel betrayed by Derrick because she had no idea he was in all these other alliances and thought he was working with her.
Victoria cries to Nicole about Derrick now that both girls know everything that Zach told them. She runs back to Zach, who realizes that he accidentally ruined Derrick’s game. He tells her not to say anything and then covers his butt by telling Derrick that Nicole told Victoria about the Detonators.
Derrick knows Zach is lying and has a meeting with Nicole and Victoria to get to the bottom of this. Derrick completely denies everything that Zach told Victoria, even though it was true. It works because Zach DID lie about the cover-up, though he immediately confesses to that once Derrick calls a house meeting.
Sadly, Zach blows up and yells at Victoria. Derrick is so happy because he manages to come out smelling like a rose and Zach is the liar even though everything Zach told Victoria was the absolute truth. The only lie he told was to Derrick, but since these HGs are all idiots, they fall for it and don’t see that Derrick is the real liar.
Team America Mission
The mission is to get someone to volunteer as a pawn and then vote them out, but since Donny is on the block, it would look weird for him to convince someone to go up, so Derrick decides that the mission is impossible. They fail.
The House Turns on Nicole
Derrick realizes that the replacement nominee has to be himself, Cody, Victoria or Nicole. Since he has Final 2 deals with two of them, he needs Nicole to go on the block.
The boys decide to use the information that Nicole agreed to backdoor Christine if the plan worked for Caleb to throw the BotB and then Frankie won the Power of Veto. Caleb and Zach bring this to Christine, bending the truth because it was actually THEIR idea for Nicole to backdoor Christine. They also say that everyone thinks Christine is working with Nicole and they pretty much threaten Christine that if she doesn’t nominate Nicole, the Bomb Squad will turn on her and evict her next week.
It’s just depressing all around, because four boys came to Nicole with a plan, she agreed to it and then, when the plan backfired, they all blamed it on her and threatened Christine to force her to nominate Nicole. Remember back when Joey asked the women to form an all-girl alliance in week 1? I bet they wish they said “Yes,” because right now, the three remaining girls are all just doing whatever the boys tell them to do.
The Power of Veto Ceremony
Obviously Zach uses the Power of Veto to save himself. Christine nominates Nicole, saying that she’s taking the knife out of her own back and returning it to its original owner. That’s just mean. Afterwards, Nicole cries, Derrick knows the decision, like all of them, is entirely up to him, and Christine tells us that she isn’t sure if she did the right thing, but she had to pick a side, and she chose the Detonators. The fact that she isn’t sure she did the right thing means she probably did the wrong thing.
(Image courtesy of CBS)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
