Cassandra was a little stressed to find the numbers so close so she goes to Joel to see if it was him, but Joel informs her it had to be Tim. Now Cassandra's angry at Tim and when she confronts him he said he knew that she was safe but he wanted the numbers to be tight. A bit of a gamble on his part to almost vote out his closest ally, not counting the explosive firecracker that is Nikki.
We also discover the pressure that Joel was under just before the vote when Loveita tried to convince him that Cassandra had to go. Loveita had to know that wasn't likely to work because Cassandra is probably Joel's closest ally in the house as well, but I understand why she would try. Without the numbers Loveita risks having herself back up on the block next week. When Cassandra enters the room to chat with Joel Loveita basically sends her off and that's why Cassandra thought that Joel may have turned.
So we're now back to the HoH competition to see who wins, which is where we left everyone in my last review. It's interesting to see Jared and Dallas paired up when they're gunning for each other in the house. They both want to win, but their best case scenario is to probably throw it to ensure the other person doesn't become the new HoH. Phil is hoping to slip and end up locking lips with Nikki, while Raul is not interested in kissing a girl, he wishes he was paired with one of the brothers.
So far Mitch & Joel are pulling ahead, but Tim & Maddy are right behind . . . while Nikki & Phil have yet to successfully move one ball across the course. It's beginning to look like Kelsey & Ramsey could pull it off but the closer they get to completing the challenge the more Ramsey throws it to ensure neither of them is HoH. With all that going on, Nikki & Phil finally get a ball in their well. Mitch & Joel are on their final ball and . . . they win the competition.
In order to decide who actually becomes the new HoH they go to the old schoolyard standby, . . . rock, paper, scissors . . . and Joel wins with a rock. Unbeknownst to any of the other houseguests is that they had already decided who was going to be the new HoH if they won and had already planned their r-p-s stunt to make it look fair so nobody gets upset at either of them. Well done boys. Joel is the new Head of Household.
Immediately Maddy feels that Joel is going to send her home because nobody knows where his head is at nor what his gameplay is. Kelsey feels that her alliance is probably safe but Joel is now starting to stress about finally getting blood on his hands as he tries to figure out who he needs to nominate. He knows that everyone in the house is going to start coming to him with their own agenda but Joel is smart enough to also know that he has to play his own game and do what's best for him.
Time once again to see the new HoH room, with pictures of Joel's family, his favourite chocolate bar, a few beers and a hacky-sack. Then Joel reads his letter from his parents about how proud they are of him. They also mention how his brother is watching him from above and, of course, that triggers the tears, followed by the usual hugs and then Joel shows his hack-sack moves.
Now that Joel is the HoH he has to figure out where everybody stands and he starts with Tim, who is quietly manipulating the two main sides of the house against each other while he moderates through the middle of it all, which is pretty much what Joel and Mitch have been doing since day one. Having won the Australian version Tim is the one houseguest that Joel can get a few pointers from but he has to be careful because he doesn't want to just hand this win over to Tim. Tim explains how the numbers have now forced Dallas and Maddy into an underdog situation and that he really likes Cassandra but he doesn't want anyone to think there's a showmance going on between them because couples become targets. Tim isn't allied with anyone in the house and that works for Joel.
Jared goes up to have a chat with Joel and advises him not to listen to Loveita if she's trying to pressure him into making moves that aren't good for his game. Jared's best advice is basically that Joel needs to play what's best for Joel, hopefully that will include keeping Jared and Kelsey safe this week. Meanwhile downstairs Loveita and Cassandra are concerned that things are going to become awkward in the house and they both decide that they need to stop being awkward. Cassandra is saying that Loveita is acting like she's in high school while Loveita denies it but the truth is they're both acting like they're in the wrong drama clique.
Time for the HaveNot competition as the houseguests race out to the backyard in their baseball outfits and Joel ascends into the stands. The houseguests have been randomly divided into two teams, the Blueberries and the Red Rockets, and each batter gets three swings to hit the ball over the wall and into the field of play to score a run, failure to do so is strike and three strikes and you're out. On the other side of that wall the opposing team can try to catch the ball in their oversized costume gloves and effectively that's also an out. The winning team gets to celebrate while the losing team will be this week's HaveNots.
Interestingly enough for a random division the teams are basically split along the sides of the house. By the bottom of the second inning it's beginning to look like the Red Rockets are going to win, but there are still three more innings to go. The Blueberries have yet to get a run but at least they get to drink some beer before becoming HaveNots. Not sure how beer is going to go with slop, but I'm guessing not well.
It's the bottom of the last inning before the Blueberries finally get on the board and when Tim's hit gets caught he follows it by tossing the bat over the wall, which caught Maddy in the legs. Ouch! It's down to Cassandra . . . and she's out. The Red Rockets win with a score of 6 - 2 and Cassandra is about to enter her third week on slop. However, the Red Rockets get to save two members of the Blueberries from the HaveNot room and they choose to save Cassandra and Nick. Tim is a bit apologetic for having thrown the bat but Maddy seems to have healed fine so it's all good.
Back in the HoH room Joel asks for a little one on one time with Mitch and Raul and sends out the brothers, but as they go out in comes Kelsey. She's feeling confident that she's safe because she's been including him in all of her decisions but she still wants to touch base and make sure it's all good. Kelsey gives Joel a big hug and then heads out, followed by Raul and you can see Mitch roll his eyes as he admits that they're starting to get to him. Just now?
Maddy and Ramsey are getting a little worried but they still have no idea where Joels' head is at, even though they think that Jared's might be getting a little inflated. With the house divided so evenly Dallas finally admits that it's basically him against jared to see who strikes first and then he's off to chat with the HoH. I think that, if I were HoH I'd just lock my door. Dallas does make a valid argument against Jared's side of the house but that's still where Joel has been leaning the most since the beginning of the game so changing his stance now could be a risk he's nt willing to take. I guess we'll see soon enough.
Not to be left out of any decisions Loveita heads up for a chat with Joel and he basically tells her that he needs to decide whether he's going to target the threesome of Dallas, Maddy and Ramsey or the threesome of Jared, Kelsey and Raul. Obviously Loveita wants him to side with Dallas but Joel's playing all his cards close to his chest so she advises him to talk to Mitch because apparently Mitch knows who is leading each group. Like he hasn't been doing that since the start of the game.
Joel and Mitch discuss the pros and cons from both a gameplay point of view and a personal one. Neither of them really trusts the alliance of Dallas, Maddy and Ramsey but they're a little concerned about the solidarity of the other three. However, that solidarity has managed to keep both Joel and Mitch safe to this point so now may not be the time to turn on them. Personally I think it's still too early to make that move but the decision is all up to Joel as he heads down to make his nominations.
Everyone waits patiently while Joel goes into seclusion and creates his shortlist, which starts with Raul who he feels is the anchor in that three person alliance, Kelsey because she's the other anchor, Maddy whom he really doesn't trust, and Dallas because he tells a lot of lies in the house and is a large part of why there's such a division inside the house. Joel locks in his choices, retrieves his cards and heads out for the Nomination Ceremony.
Joel's first nomination is . . . Raul and neither Jared nor Kelsey look very happy about that, to make matters worse his second nomination is Kelsey. Jared looks to be in shock. Joel nominated Raul because he's a strong social player with an unbreakable bond with his alliance and that doesn't help Joel's endgame, and he nominated Kelsey because she's . . . well, it's the same reason and I think it's a weak one but I'm not the one in the house.
Raul can't figure out what the heck Joel was doing with those nominations but instead of being angry with Joel he's angry with whoever put those ideas into Joel's head. Kelsey, on the other hand, is a little ticked at Joel and she intends to fight hard for that PoV to take back control. She's definitely a fighter and Joel may have decided to back the wrong horse in the BBCan Grand but that's something he'll have to live with. It'll certainly make for an interesting week.
On that note, I'm actually caught up on my reviews so I can take a breather for a bit and await the fallout from these nominations. This could all be a great way for joel to backdoor Dallas or Maddy but at this point it doesn't look like it. I'll be back in a day or two with my Survivor review and then I'll follow that up with more Big Brother Canada recaps to keep us all up to date. Later houseguests.