A New Twist to 'Big Brother 3'

Friday, July 12, 2002

Gerry © CBS Television

On the Saturday (July 13) episode of "Big Brother 3," the nominations officially ended any pretense the players had of being decent, honest human beings. Each house guest is now desperately maneuvering to gain alliances and power and the only distinction between them is the amount of talent each one has for not being completely obvious about it.

Gerry has surged ahead to become the alpha weasel of "Big Brother 3," easily outpacing Josh for sheer gag-inducing acts of manipulation. When he remarks to Lisa, "I have to tell you, an intelligent woman is such a turn on," you pray that his children cannot see him sinking to this level.

Josh continues to make the rounds among the house guests, forming easily breakable alliances with anyone who will make eye contact. He invites Jason into a partnership, but withholds that he is already in a group with Amy, Gerry, Eric, Lisa and Roddy. After Josh tells the camera that he thinks Jason would like to be more like him (heaven forbid) Jason admits that there may be something untrustworthy about Josh.

Jason wins this round of "Spot the obvious."

When Jason confides to Danielle that he was approached, Danielle does the math a bit faster. She realizes that since she has not been approached, "there is a big target" on her back. She vows to get even with Josh, and it's a safe bet that Danielle can do a better job than Lisa did during nominations.

Meanwhile, Josh and Gerry, the two alliance members who selected Marcellas for immediate eviction, approach him separately to offer advice. Gerry counsels Marcellas to work the crowd a bit to ensure that he won't be voted out -- seemingly undermining the decision of his alliance. It's advice Marcellas takes to heart, as he puts down his rubber ducky and warms up to the other house guests.

It's now time for a food challenge, and the contestants are told to pick five food items each that they would like to have for the rest of the week. Amy's cheese obsession is disturbing, as is the fact that someone chose tartar sauce as a necessary staple. Later, they are told to change into swimsuits and meet in the backyard. (One guesses that if the competition was doing a crossword puzzle, they would still be told to wear swimsuits.)

They will be playing a game of "Chicken" which entails the men tossing eggs over a wall to the women for sixty seconds, then the women tossing the eggs to the men for another minute. Each egg represents one of the selected food items, and each broken egg means an item gone. The women drop most of their eggs, the men catch most of theirs. Fate smiles on Amy, and three kinds of cheese are won.

As a hilarious prank, the other houseguests hide the cheese from Amy, and tell her that it is gone. She is distraught and near tears until the others take pity on her and return her precious cheddar. Either Amy is a plant working for the Dairy Farmers of America, or she needs to enroll in a cheese-dependency program. Wow, what a highlight, "Big Brother 3."

On to the real fun, musical beds.

Eric declares that he is bored with the current sleeping arrangement and jumps into the large bed shared by Lori and Chiara. Lori, the only house guest seemingly aware of the surveillance cameras (and a thing called shame) does not want her children watching her in bed with a hunky firefighter, and trades Marcellas for his single bed. Chiara jumps in and out of bed with Roddy. Marcellas uses the opportunity to work the room, and has everyone laughing hysterically at Tonya's expense.

Also laughable were the seduction lines Roddy used on Chiara. He asks her, "When are we going to smooch?" She responds in her typical coy manner, "Not until the fifth week. By then I will probably want to have your children." Later, he reveals, "I learned something today. I learned you are a super great gal." A touched Chiara replies, "I think you are a dork."

It's like Bogart and Bacall.

Self-described "father figure" Gerry is caught on camera giving heartfelt advice to all of the houseguests. He tells Josh that he will definitely vote Lori out if that's what the alliance decides, then tells Lori that he will do everything in his power to keep her in the game. Then he listens as Eric badmouths Danielle and tells Danielle that? Oh, whatever, Gerry's just a snake.

Finally, "Big Brother 3" reveals the earth-shattering surprise that was promised earlier in the week, and it actually will change the structure of the game, one hopes. For the first time, a houseguest will be able to win veto power over the nominations each week.

The houseguest who wins veto power can block one of the current nominations and force the HOH to choose a new potential evictee. The HOH cannot nominate the houseguest with veto power. If a nominee wins, they cannot save themselves. If HOH wins, they can keep the nominations they made earlier, or change one.

Gerry and Josh are incensed that the power balance that they had worked to build all week may be shifted. It is now possible for one houseguest to ruin the plans of the alliance.

The actual veto power game involved shooting balls at a cutout of each houseguest. Each contestant got four shots, and had to shoot at the person that they did not want to have veto power. One by one, each houseguest had to be eliminated until there was one left.

Oddly enough, most people chose themselves as the person they did not want to win. Realizing the importance of having actual power, Josh and Gerry avoided this tactic. Gerry eventually won out, but viewers will have to wait until Wednesday's episode to see if he saves Marcellas or Lori, or keeps the nominations as is. Either way, someone's going to find out that Gerry's been talking out of both sides of his mouth.

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