Revenge of Slop Brain

When feeds finally came back on at around 1:30 AM early Saturday morning, we found our Peter-evicting, HOH-throwing Alec holding court from the Head of Household bed and picking through his HOH crate. (In Canada, they are crates, not baskets.)

Freshly fed on a diet of trail mix and muffins (as shown on After Dark) Alec began contemplating his options, and promptly revealed himself to have a case of the famous HOH-itis. 

As the room cleared out, he and Peter reviewed their options, and things started off just fine. Using another classic Brigade gameplay strategy, they ran through the house, both allies and potential enemies, trying to ascertain who would target others on their behalf. Alec even happily speculated about Topaz's eviction, showing once again that the lack of trust in the cuddlemance is mutual. (Or was it for Peter's benefit? Probably not - Alec seems to be more honest with Peter than with Topaz, and honesty is always the best way to suss out true alliances.)

Unknown to Alec, however, a storm was growing downstairs. After Alec's blatant HOH throw during the Double Eviction, Andrew held Head of Household for one night, and didn't get a basket (crate). Alec then proceeded to win basically his second competition in a row, securing food and power for a full week, along with a bonus $10,000 prize. Despite his attempts to befriend Andrew and rope him in as a side ally, Andrew wasn't having any of that from Alec, and vented throughout the night to his own allies, AJ and Talla.

A la volonté du peuple

Later in the night, having settled on his nominations of Suzette as target and AJ as pawn, Alec decided to execute a strategy to make AJ feel comfortable with going up as a pawn. Despite the fact that no one should feel comfortable as a pawn in the wake of Danielle's eviction, he still thought he could pull it off with some social validation, and a dance ensued to get the right people in the room before assuring AJ that he had the votes.

Not use the veto? Yeah, right! 

Alec's strategy was risky to begin with, and riskier when he asked AJ for permission and got a flat no. But he went off the rails when he tried to persuade AJ to consider not using the veto on himself if he won. Too much, too soon, and Alec also had no idea that AJ's ear was already filled with anti-Alec whispers from Andrew. This went over like a lead balloon.

Alec's real strategy at this point is to nominate AJ and Suzette, and the replacement nominee will be Talla, who will go home if Suzette is off the block. However, Alec and Peter suspect (rightly so) that Talla would flip if she knew this, so they're telling AJ and the others that Gary would be the backdoor option. As of right now, this would not actually happen.

Private pawn

I wouldn't say it's a given that Suzette is out the door Thursday, but I'm okay if she is. The game is finally starting to shape up for the critical mid-stretch, and an easy week with fermenting tension is not a bad thing at this stage. There may not be much drama in the eviction, but the next weeks will depend heavily on the suspicions that are stoked from this week.

Alec and Peter have some elements of a good strategy, but their ability to read people is failing this week. Will they pick up on the dissension in the ranks and adjust their strategy accordingly, or will Alec's ego start to send him in the direction he sent Tom just this past week?

Alec and Peter are also playing a critical piece of Brigade strategy entirely wrong. Alec seems to be expecting the house to put him on the block with his public cuddlemance Topaz, and knows that he has the alliances to stay over her. But Topaz wasn't the one holding court all night with Alec last night, and everyone in the house is aware of Alec's close relationship with Peter, mentioning them in the same breath. If Alec goes up as a target, it will very likely be Pete on the block next to him, yet neither one of the superfans seems to have grasped this obvious concept in their scenarios.

The eviction may not contain much drama this week, but that doesn't mean it's going to be a quiet week.