The Emperor of (His Own) Doom

With fellow nominee Peter winning this week's Power of Veto (seriously? Now you win a competition?) Alec's chances of surviving the week are not looking good at this point.

I cannot get enough of this cap series.

Alec started the game as a player with a lot of promise, which is why I've been paying attention to him - a self-professed student of the game, a Big Brother international superfan, a social psychology doctoral student, and a decent athlete to boot - so yeah, I had high expectations. 

Unfortunately, Alec has failed to realize them. He wanted to be Dr. Will, but Alec is more of a Dr. Won't.

The Shield Moms - can anyone spot which Mom is doing the sign wrong? (Hint: her son did not win the POV.)

He and Peter have been stars of the broadcast show and seem to be favorites of Production (I mean, their moms got a segment together?), but at this point, nothing short of a miracle is going to get him through to next weekend.

Trio

Alec has played an interesting game, but not a winning one. If I had to sum up Alec's game flaws, I would say that he's overconfident, he plays way too personally, and he doesn't understand how to campaign or secure alliances for the long haul.

Let's run through some of the specific mistakes he made along the way:

Why Alec Lost Big Brother Canada

1. He Turned on Quattro!

Yes, it was delicious to watch villains Tom and Liza go out back-to-back in a double eviction, especially after Tom douched it up about Showergate. But Alec was targeting Tom before that, simply because he didn't like him.

Now, I didn't particularly care for Tom either, so I get why Alec was eager to boot him with Liza. But Liza's manipulations were easily neutralized once people realized she was lying, and she and Tom were allies and huge shields for, well, the Shield.

Sending Tom out of the game too early raised Alec's target and cost him a chunk of his own side of the house.

It's hard to say if Tom would have left if Alec hadn't turned on him - he was Gary's target for the week long before the Shield got in his ear (but shhh, let them think they were running the show.) Still, if Alec had managed to save Tom for a few more weeks, he would have had a loyal ally to hide behind as he slipped deeper into the game.

2. He Annoyed Andrew!

Sealing his fate 

I've said before that this was one of his biggest mistakes. Up until this night, Alec and Andrew were forging some sort of cautious trust, but after Alec forced Head of Household on Andrew in the Double Eviction and went on to score $10,000 for it by winning the next Head of Household, Andrew has been counting the days until he could send Alec packing, while Alec remained oblivious.

Alec only realized this in the last few days, and missed his chance to solve this problem quite easily during Topaz's brief Head of Household reign.

Speaking of which...

3. He Sold Out Topaz and Gary!

On paper, running a Brigade strategy sounds great. In practice, it's not as easy as the original BG made it look.

This group really sucked at it. Tom and Emmett both fell prey to the classic Brigade pitfall of "actually caring about your side alliance more than the main alliance", and Alec's attempts to prevent the same just made him look shady and untrustworthy to the rest of the house.

And then there was the disastrous Fast Forward. For some reason, Alec decided that his weak alliance with Andrew meant more to him than his solid alliance with Topaz, and kept the dangerous Andrew over loose cannon AJ. Why? Well, apparently because he liked Andrew better than Topaz. That's the best I got.

Topaz knew right away just how badly he'd screwed up, but Alec, far too cocky about his game as usual, just couldn't see it:

No, Alec, you're not.

No, Alec, you don't.

Thank you, Topaz.

(If only.)

The short-lived Fourgy Alliance, when Peter and Alec faked a secret alliance with Gary and Topaz, was probably the one thing that could have positioned the Shield solidly in the game for a few weeks.

If they'd been sincere about it and tried to target others with more connections in the house, instead of house outsiders Gary and Topaz who could have been pulled into a firmer alliance with them, the Shield might not be looking at getting split this week.

4. He Quit POV!

"Would you get mad if I killed you?" (The Canadians keep quoting this wrong, by the way.)

We won't know until Wednesday's episode exactly what happened, but for some reason Alec decided to give up in yesterday's Power of Veto competition, allowing Peter to land his first competitive win.

(I still can't get over that.)

To The Victor

His one shot was either winning POV or having Topaz pull him off the block - Peter's victory seals Alec's fate once and for all.

So why would he do it? Did he think that Peter needed the save more than he did? Did he do one of his quick calculations and realize that he couldn't win? Did he think he could get Talla or Andrew on the block and get them out instead?

Whatever the reason, I have a feeling Alec will look back on that moment as the one that finally sealed his fate.

***

Ready for the taking

The kicker to all of this is that Alec did have the tools to get to the end of the game, if he'd realized that Topaz was his best potential ally after Peter. I genuinely want to smack the guy for not realizing this earlier. 

One of the most valuable things you can have in the Big Brother house is a loyal ally, yet he's been tossing his left and right for people he would rather get along with. 

Unfortunately for Alec, he'll be spending most of the jury phase in the Jury House, with the people he already tossed.

***

Too late

One of two weird things is happening in the last few days with Alec and Topaz, by the way. 

He's looking at her longer, he's not recoiling from her kisses anymore, and he seems just as affectionate in private as in public. Either he's gotten much better at faking it with her - which is a distinct possibility - or she's finally broken through to him with her sweetly protective "turning the other cheek" act, and he's starting to fall for her a bit. 

My inner romantic would be satisfied if it's the latter - if Alec finally realizes how much he's screwed up with her, right as he loses the game. 

Unfortunately, because this is Alec, he's probably just getting better at faking it.