How, Dan, Do You Want It?

Late this morning, a letter appeared under the front door accompanied by the ring of a doorbell.

The source of the letter was revealed on Twitter minutes earlier: Dan Gheesling, 7-0 underdog winner of Big Brother 10 and 6-1 controversial runner-up of Big Brother 14 was standing just outside the entrance, waiting to make one of his own. 

The final five houseguests gathered in the living room and Talla read out the announcement: a visitor was coming who was familiar with what they were going through, and could be used as they wished. The speculation began immediately, with Peter being at the top of the list, but they quickly and correctly moved on to the stars of Big Brother US, with Will, Janelle, Dan, and even Hayden and Mike Boogie making their wishlists.

Andrew insisted that he could care less, that he wasn't interested in anyone else's strategy, and he just wanted to play Veto and get it over with. He and Gary are nominated, with Andrew possibly being the target, not that he knows that. Andrew has vocally said multiple times that he's a Jeff fan and couldn't stand Dan, something to keep in mind as we revisit the next series of events.

After a bedroom lockdown, the houseguests emerged to find a mysterious clue in ketchup. This one baffled me for a few minutes, because all I could think of was Eric and the America's Player mustard task in Big Brother 8, but then I remembered the hypothetical bottle of ketchup that Britney Haynes repeatedly said would have beaten Dan in the Big Brother 14 finale. 

Talla confirmed that yes, it was ketchup.

Finally, the doorbell rang again, and as the houseguests sprinted up the stairs, Dan Gheesling made his grand entrance.

Talla was not excited in the least. (She was the only person to name Dan as a player she wanted to meet today in all the speculation, and after over an hour of flitting around the house chanting "Oh my god!", she was more than ready to take flight for the payoff.)

Dan feigned like he hasn't been watching the show the whole time, pretending like he needed to be introduced to all of them. Once introductions were complete, Talla mentioned his funeral, and he immediately leapt up, donned a red headband, and announced that they all had to tell him why they deserved to stay in the game, because he would be selecting one of them to leave that night.

Emmett, who at this point is sick and tired of twists messing with his game, was even less impressed with this latest one. He's been complaining all week about the twists, especially Gary coming back, and how they're interfering with his otherwise perfect game. Emmett hasn't watched enough seasons of Big Brother US to understand that this is fairly typical when someone's on a dominant win streak like he and Jillian have had.

Dan finally revealed that he was just kidding, to (almost) everyone's amusement. Don't miss Andrew the Dan hater bum-rushing him there. Despite complaining about Peter playing a Dan game for weeks, for most of the time they were greeting him, Andrew was more or less the closest person to Dan. He also made a somewhat awkward remark about Dan's wife being with him for the celebrity. Andrew, that's why you're still single.

Note Andrew's proximity to Dan once more, on the house tour.

And again as the houseguests explained to Dan what's been happening in the game that he's been watching over the internet for the last two months. They were kind enough to gloat over the evicted Alec and Peter as Dan fans, which was in fact inaccurate - Peter is the Dan fan, Alec was actually a Dr. Will fan and didn't particularly care for Dan.

Eventually, the houseguests began to take Dan up on his offer to provide pre-veto advice. Talla babbled her way through her incredibly one-dimensional strategy to Dan, who gently started to alert her to the fact that she may not want to put all her eggs in the basket of a four-person alliance where two are in a showmance and three are from the same region. 

Gary similarly took Dan up on his advice, and Dan Socratic Method-ed him until he finally saw the Power Move that Peter missed last week: getting Talla to win the veto and pull one of them off the block to force Jillian up. It's a pretty weak hope for Gary, and Dan didn't push it hard, but he did make Gary really start thinking through his options and the power he has in the game. It was a fascinating conversation, since Gary has been quiet since his return, but he is thinking. Dan was able to latch on to that deeper, more complex Gary and wrest him out from under the immature, impulsive Gary. Was it enough to get him through this week? Hard to say.

The subtext of both conversations was that Dan thinks Gary and Talla should align, which is absolutely correct, but he was able to get both of them to voice why they're uncertain about doing so. With a few more hours in the house, Dan might still be able to get an underdog alliance going before he leaves.

If only he'd had a couple hours with Alec, Peter, and Topaz. Anyway.

Emmett was far more reserved, only talking Dan through his past game moves, not his future. He doesn't trust Dan, voicing later to some of the others that he's afraid info given to Dan could be leaked. 

Andrew and Jillian for their part scorned the offer, since neither one respects Dan's strategy - Andrew, despite fame-whoring it up around Dan, was later heard complaining that Dan was just lucky.

A feed leak revealed that today's Power of Veto competition may be How Bad Do You Want It, so Gary's pre-game strategy session with Dan may play to his advantage. Gary knows that winning himself is his only hope, and he feels that he owes it to Canada to try to survive in the game, since they voted him in. 

So, how, Dan, do you want it? Looks like if Dan has his way, it might be a slightly more interesting endgame than we'd been anticipating.