We start with the usual recap of the first episode and get to watch the houseguests all fall off their ramps to allow Loveita to be the first HoH before the opening tease and intro photos. For some of these houseguests those intro photos are all you ever see of them because there are always a few that fly under the radar until they're eventually gone.
The actual episode gets started right after the HoH competition as the High Roller room opens up for Nick & Phil to enjoy their total isolation. The upside to this is that it gives them a chance to actually plan out their gameplay without anyone else listening in but unfortunately Phil sees it as a complete negative. Being the big brother he's always had to look out for his little brother and when he finally gets a chance to avoid that pressure (and sometimes it is pressure) in comes his little brother and he feels like every decision he makes inside the house has to take Nick into consideration. I feel his pain.
As HoH Loveita has begun working on an alliance with Sharry and goes to her to get some input and immediately Sharry throws Cassandra under the bus. I can see where Cassandra's attitude could rub people the wrong way, I had the same opinion of her just based on her intro clip. Loveita points out that they need to also keep an eye on any budding showmances, such as Jared & Kelsey. When Sharry asks about the brothers, Loveita thinks they should avoid targeting them for the time being in case they got a hidden PoV during their isolation. Now that's good thinking, because it's happened before when houseguests have been isolated so it's something to consider. They both feel that Joel is hiding something and that he's smarter than he's letting on. Maybe, but I wouldn't bet on it. At least he's safe for the first week.
Back in the High Roller room Nick & Phil are doing everything they can to keep themselves entertained. We're not seeing a lot of game chatter from these two yet but I'm sure there's been plenty of that going on. While they're stuck in isolation, Loveita runs out inviting everyone else to come and see her HoH room, which is (as usual) huge. There's the usual oohs and ahhs, and the open liquor and hugs before everyone eventually wanders back out and downstairs.
Everyone but Dallas who Loveita takes aside and tries to get some feedback from. She's operating as a fairly open HoH and this early in the game that's a good strategy to have, but she needs to be careful who she pulls in to her inner circle. So far it seems to be working for her.
Nick & Phil finally get released to what appears to be an empty house while upstairs Loveita is having some one on one time with Paige who's just learned that she's not the target . . . she's the pawn. Nobody wants to be the pawn but Paige pretends it's all good before leaving Loveita alone again with her decision. A decision she now needs to make as she heads into the High Roller room to cast her nominations.
She shortlists Kelsey because of her budding showmance, Cassandra because she doesn't trust her, Christine because she doesn't think anyone would care if she left, and Paige who she wants to use as a pawn. From her shortlist she makes her nominations, grabs their cards (that's new) and heads back out to the rest of the houseguests.
Time for the Nomination ceremony and Loveita's first nomination is Kelsey. Her second nomination is, unfortunately Paige. She tells Kelsey that she felt she did really well in the HoH competition and feels she's a strong competitor, and then she tells Paige that she was nominated because Loveita doesn't know where her head is at. That's a pretty weak reason even for a pawn, but with that she completes the nomination ceremony.
Kelsey is a little in shock because she never saw that coming while Paige is in tears. Her biggest fear is that the pawn almost always goes home and she doesn't want to go home. She's the youngest one in the house so I'm expecting a fair bit of emotion from her, but hopefully she can channel that into the PoV challenge, just in case.
Kelsey isn't one to sit around and mope about the decision so she goes to have a chat with Loveita, who is currently hanging out with Sharry in the HoH room. I applaud Loveita's honesty when she tells Kelsey that she's using Paige as a pawn and would rather she stayed over Kelsey, but that's probably going to backfire on her. Nothing like painting a huge target on yourself if Kelsey doesn't leave. With that, Kelsey walks out and goes to talk to Jared who she feels is the only person she can trust in the house. Jared is shocked to hear that Loveita wants Kelsey gone and tells her that they'll figure something out.
Time to pick names for the PoV Competition and as HoH Loveita pulls "houseguests choice" and picks Sharry. Kelsey really wants to pull Jared's name out of the bag but instead gets Nick/Phil, while Paige pulls Raul. That could still work for Paige as he doesn't seem to be aligned with anyone so far.
Apparently Loveita chose Dallas as the host for the first PoV of the season and he looks pretty natural in that Poseidon costume while the rest of the competitors are dressed up as mermaids and mermen. They need to slip, slop, and slide over plastic waves and water to retrieve marked seashelsl and return them to their treasure chest where they'll need to spell out a mystery phrase. The first houseguest to solve their phrase wins the Power of Veto and everyone has their own reasons for winning the PoV and messing up Loveita's plans.
The guys seem to do a lot better at this competition than the women and Paige is really taking a beating on this one. The worst one out there though is Loveita who really wants her nominations to stay the same so she can get Kelsey out of the house. Nick is doing really well at the seashell gathering but everyone is pretty close, . . . well, except for Paige who is having some issues with her shells. It's Nick, Kelsey and Loveita at the treasure chests trying to spell out their phrase when Nick recognizes one word and then it all just clicks. Nick has made up for his HoH blunder by winning the Power of Veto.
Kelsey's a little concerned because nobody knows what the brothers are going to do with the PoV. Maybe it's time for her to spend a little time with someone other than Jared if she wants to really mess up Loveita's game. The brothers know that they have three options; remove Kelsey, remove Paige, or leave it alone. Usually the PoV winner gets time to chat with the nominations and other houseguests before having to make a decision but in this compressed first week they've got only a few minutes to discuss between themselves before it's time for . . . .
The Power of Veto Ceremony, where the brothers would normally get to listen to Kelsey and Paige plead their case before making their decision. However, in another change to the way things usually work, there's no pleading from either of the girls and Phil gets straight to it and says that they have decide . . . not to use the power of Veto. Arrgghh! The girls are not amused. The anger in Kelsey's eyes could cut through steel.
Time for her to work a little magic and who should she go to but Phil, who already has a little bit of a crush on her. Funny how they start by talking about her eyes. Paige is a little concerned that all the guys are falling for Kelsey's flirtatiousness because that's not her style. I knew I liked Paige for a reason. Kelsey leaves the room and Phil gets up to follow her, telling Paige "damage control, Paige, damage control, . . . you're losing me" as he wanders by. I'm glad she's not playing that game but I hope she has some sort of a plan or she'll be heading home by the end of the episode.
Despite the tension, Dallas is in heaven when he cuddles in between Cassandra and Kelsey on one of the beds. He even invites Loveita into the mix but she wisely passes, looking a little glum in the process. Phil wants Kelsey to stay so he decides to stat campaigning for her.
At least he's thinking it through though. The reason he wants Kelsey to stay has nothing to do with his little crush and everything to do with her being part of a power couple with Jared, which pulls the target off of him and Nick who could still be seen as a couple even though they're playing as one houseguest. If they want to make it to the end he needs to keep the target off of them. Mitch and Joel both feel like they could be swing votes and that gives them a little power. It's always good to have at least a little bit of power.
Loveita's concerned that everyone is getting all buddy buddy with Kelsey and Jared all of a sudden and she's starting to panic. Probably a good idea but Sharry points out that they may just be getting friendly because they all know she's going home. Yeah, let's go with that. Sharry is still under the belief that the brothers are still following the game plan but she has no idea that they're campaigning for the other side. Unfortunately that means that, as per usual, there goes the pawn.
Before we get to find out which International stars have been voted in, it's time for the Eviction Vote. Arisa gives Kelsey and Paige each 30 seconds to plead their case and starts with Kelsey. Kelsey stands and tells everyone how she's in the game for the experience and she'd be grateful to continue on that journey. Paige gets up just says how much she loves everyone. Neither of those was much of a plead.
Jared is the first one to head to the Diary Room and he sadly votes to evict . . . Paige; Sharry votes to evict Kelsey; Nick/Phil vote to evict Paige; Ramsey sadly votes to evict Kelsey; Dallas sadly votes to evict Kelsey; Mitch votes to evict Paige; Maddy votes to evict Kelsey; Cassandra votes to evict Paige; Christine votes to evict Paige; Joel sadly votes to evict . . . Paige, and that makes it official; Raul also votes to evict Paige. Sorry to see her go. With a vote of 7 - 4, Paige has been given an early check-out from the BBCan Grand.
There's a quick hug or two and then she's outta there to join Arisa on stage. To her credit she kept it together and didn't breakdown into tears. Paige thinks that the one houseguest that could go the distance is Sharry. With that we bid farewell to little Paige and get right to which international houseguests are about to join the BBCan Grand.
In a Big Brother first, for the past ten days the audience has been casting their vote for one guy and one girl from other Big Brother franchises to crash our BBCan Grand. Arisa invites all four international guests onto the stage, starting with the winner of Big Brother Australia 2013, Tim Dormer; following Tim, Arisa invites a fan favourite from seasons 5 and 7 of Big Brother US, Jase Wirey; next we get the most famous houseguest of Big Brother Italy, Veronica Graff; and finally, from season 7 of Big Brother UK, the completely uncensored Nikki Grahame, who comes on stage sporting a sequinned maple leaf mini dress.
It's now time for Arisa to let the houseguests in on the first Wild Card of the season as she introduces them to the four international stars. Maddy looks mesmerized by Tim but that could just be the way they've edited the shot. Arisa tells the houseguests that one of these guys and one of these girls is about to enter the house as a houseguest competing under the same rules for the same prize. Some of the houseguests look pretty pumped while a few others look in shock, but Arisa tells them they'll have to wait a little longer as she cuts their feed and we return to the stage.
The first international guest to join the BBCan Grand is . . . Nikki, who looks dumbfounded that she won against Veronica. Arisa wishes Veronica farewell and now its down to the guys. The second guest to enter the BBCan Grand is . . . Tim, and there goes Jase. Arisa congratulates Nikki and Tim and then asks what their strategy is going into the house, to which Nikki replies that she does't have a strategy she can't even believe she's going in. When Arisa asks Tim if he and Nikki are going to work together even though they don't know each other he says that his strategy was to go in and act dumb but he figures Nikki has that covered. Burn! He then says, yeah they'll probably work together. Arisa tells them that they're safe for the first week and sends them in.
That's all we got as we cut to Arisa saying farewell and promoting all the linked programming and live feeds and . . . well, you get the idea. We now have to wait a few days to see how the houseguests welcome the international stars and I'm likely to be here watching it as well. So far it hasn't been as bad as last year and the houseguests seem a lot more likeable, well, most of them. If you've enjoyed my review of episode two let me know and be sure to come back for my review of the Amazing Race later this weekend. See you real soon.