Shocker? Elissa's MVP Twist

So this week's MVP nominee was just revealed to the houseguests on the live feeds, and it's:

MVP!

So now America is all:

Could you repeat those instructions?

Congrats, Topaz - it's not just you anymore!

...Just kidding. The internet is starting to speculate that fans mistakenly voted their favorite for MVP, but I don't think that's the case at all (despite an earnest effort from some fans to ensure that it happened - *cough*, BBGossip, *cough*). On further reflection, I don't think it's a surprise that Elissa scored this week's MVP nomination from America, and I don't think America Topazed us, either. 

Think about it for a second. Elissa, to borrow a phrase from BBUK, is the Marmite houseguest. She's loved by a passionate brigade of Rachel fans, marching alongside people who flocked to her due to her early victimization in the house, but she's similarly loathed by Rachel haters and those who feel she's taking away from the show and the game by being a waste of space.

Did Elissa come in first in nomination voting? Of course she did not. Aaryn is the season's villain, heck, she's probably one of the most hated villains ever on the show, and the Elissa fans and others no doubt teamed up to vote their keyboards off for her. (I may have thrown a few votes her way myself, hoping for a Nerd Herd-style meltdown from Aaryn.) Kaitlin may have beaten Elissa, too - we'll never know, since Judd nominated the both of them, eliminating them from eligibility for America's vote. 

About that.

But not everyone voted for Kaitlin or Aaryn. It's quite possible that Elissa is the second or third most hated houseguest, in addition to being the most popular. BBUK fans have been dealing with this dynamic for years, with the constant tug-of-war between Vote-to-Save and Vote-to-Evict. A traditional BBUK Vote-to-Evict eliminates the controversial Marmite houseguests from contention, while the newer Channel 5 Vote-to-Save propels great characters to the end, like the Shannon twins, Spencer and Heidi, or Aaron. (They're back to a Vote-to-Evict this year, if you're counting.) 

What we're looking at here is a mid-game switcheroo, from a "Vote To Save" to a "Vote to Evict". It's very possible that Elissa scores highly in both without any fan interference. 

Her brother-in-law Brendon certainly did in season 13, where despite being widely despised by the audience, he still managed to win a vote to return to the house, when a dominant Dom-and-Cassi-loving voting audience split the vote and Brendon crept in from behind with the half-hearted support of Jeff/Jordan fans:

Brendon-39.5%

Dom-31%

Cassi-28.5%

Keith-1%

Marmite, folks. There's no production interference here, there's no manipulation, it's pure and simple voting theory. 

Elissa is loved and Elissa is hated, and with Aaryn and Kaitlin out of contention, the Elissa nomination makes perfect sense. 

So voting aside, the paranoia is already running amok in the house, and the game's about to get fun. The houseguests are scattering like mice (hamsters?) and whispering wildly about who could be the new MVP, and who to save, and how to strategize the veto competition.

I have to tip my hat to Production on this one, it's already far more fun than a fourth dreary week of Elissa as MVP. 

Around the Web: #BBCan Fallout Matchmaker Edition

Now that the Big Brother Canada houseguests have returned to the outside world, most of them are on Twitter, with the notable exceptions of Topaz, Emmett, and Jillian.

OTP

As I had hoped, The Shield The Sheyld have been particularly responsive so far, with both fans and with haters, though Peter seems more comfortable on Twitter than Alec.

Vs.

Needless to say, the pair aren't getting a uniformly cheery reaction on Twitter, but they're able to find the positive:

In other news, the Alec/Topaz "thing" continues its weirdness, unabated:

Ohhhh, she probably did. 

In other Big Brother news, there's a new development in the Big Brother US winner's circle, with BB4 winner Jun Song starting a dating service focused exclusively on finding love for BB14 winner Ian Terry after a particularly self-deprecating tweet from the founder of the Quack Pack.

Wonder if she'd expand the circle outside of Big Brother winners to include Big Brother losers? Since it sounds like Alec might be back to the drawing board in that department.

And speaking of Big Brother winners and love, someone in the UK has had a little time on their hands:

Indeed.

I wonder if Jay and Louise's rumored breakup had anything to do with Aaron's Big Brother marathon - I can't shake the feeling that he and Faye are privately giddy about outlasting JayLou to be the longest-lasting showmance of BBUK Season 12. I imagine their reaction looking something like this:

Maybe Jay can get a leg up now from JunMatches.com too, if she expands the circle to include Big Brother losers. (Warning: link is to Jay's very unflattering leg tattoo of Louise, don't click while eating.)

I guess all that's left to say on that can be summed up by the Bit on the Side caption team:

10 Things We're Not Talking About Re: The #BBCAN Finale

And one we maybe are.

1. The Side Show art for Part Two of the HOH competition:

She's Alive!

Long live that bottom caption.

Kind of amazing, no? There was also some weirdness with the shower curtain art on Part One, but it made no sense, so I won't bother capping it.

2. Gary's face on winning Part Two:

Hallelujah

I can hear the bells.

3. How in the final HOH round, Emmett kept waiting for Gary to answer before locking in his. Until it came down to the final question, I was ready to call shenanigans.

Hmmm

Not sure why Emmett waited so long on every round if he wasn't cheating. Maybe he was cheating, but then honestly thought he would beat Gary on that last question.

(Emmett, cheat? Never.)

4. Gary evicted Emmett.

You guys, Gary fucking evicted Emmett!

"Watch oot for the gay guy"

I can still hear the bells.

5. Alec and Gary both tearing up at Gary's answer to Alec's question:

Alec should have brought his sleep mask to the finale

6. Peter not having it with Jillian's answer to his question:

Watch check

Jillian? All he wanted was for you to own your game. Fail.

7. The final death throes of The Sheyld (sic):

1 of 2

2 of 2

Can't help it, those two guys still crack me up, even for all their failures. I'll stay a fan. Peter's got a different Twitter now than the one we all expected, by the way. Seems pretty verified, he was tweeting about being in the party van right before other official accounts started talking about the van. Then again, I already got taken in by a fake Gary account today when his mother retweeted it. So, take it all with a grain of salt for now.

8. Topaz's hilarious hissy fit over the vote reveal:

Someone call the ophthalmologist!

Also, did anyone notice who was onscreen half the time during that sequence?

Check the lower left corner - hi, Dan!

9. The internet's meltdown upon the vote reveal:

Jokerized

 10. But of course, what we're all talking about today, and will be for years, is:

Topaz'd

 Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, in a nutshell, as tragic as it is, I think it's hilarious. Did Gary deserve to win? Absolutely, 100%, without a doubt, yes. Many have said that it "wasn't fair" for Gary to return at the Final Five, but Big Brother returns players all the time, and they almost always bounce out within a week or two, as soon as they can. The fact that Gary didn't is a huge testament to his game - making the right alliances, winning the final competitions, gaining the right trust and backstabbing just when he needed to.

And that's ignoring the fact that, as Alec has pointed out multiple times, Big Brother Canada has had a Big Brother UK influence from the start. Being a big character and beloved by the audience was going to be a part of the game, and all players should have understood that from the Suzette Power Shift onward. That was a part of the game Gary played brilliantly.

That said, is it the end of the world that Gary lost? Of course not. He'll do fine with the $20K he won, it gives him a sympathetic story to propel his public career, and really puts his "the money doesn't matter" talking point to the test.

I'm sure there was a moment inside where he wanted to do this:

But he didn't, at least not on camera. Instead, we got Beauty Pageant Runner-Up Face:

Mature, gamer Gary is taking the reigns, and immature, selfish Gary is going to have to take a backseat. Totally for the best, and now he's a shoo-in for Big Brother Canada All-Stars in a few years.

And Jillian can take her $100K and her milkman and get off our screens at last. Was she a good player? She was all right. I don't blame Alec and Peter for the "bitter jury" stuff - it seems like their contention, which is worth pointing out, was that Jillian was unnecessarily nasty, making deals she didn't need to make, breaking them when she didn't have to break them, and then refusing to admit what she'd done. If she'd been willing to admit it in the jury questioning, Peter might not have rolled his eyes and checked the time, but he clearly knew she wouldn't.

Jillian is a good player in the Rachel Reilly "Most HOH wins" kind of Big Brother game, but without Emmett, she wouldn't have gotten to the end, and without a disaster of a vote, she wouldn't have won.

Still, she won fair and square a little crooked, it's hard to dispute that.

So congrats, Jillian, for what it's worth. Ultimately, your strategy of sticking with Emmett turned out to be the thing that got you to the end.

I'd say drinks are on you for that first real-world date.

Exeunt

#BBCAN Morning Conspiracy Theory

Who's Number One?

I will have a lot more to say about the astonishing Big Brother Canada finale later, but I did want to highlight this intriguing conspiracy theory making the rounds this morning, posted at Survivor Sucks by mabc:

Been a lurker for a while, first post as I wanted to share some interesting things! As much as I believe this is true... there are conspiracy theories that are intriguing. Here are some things I noticed:

1) Notice how AJ does a face palm sign and says something foreshadowing about someone making a $100,000 mistake. Notice Topaz smiling. THEN he sits in Alec's chair and says something to Topaz and Topaz smacks him (Is the face palm a symbol for a "plan" they concocted?)

2) Alec comes up and also does the face palm sign and says "Darkness" (their plan?)... "I'll absolutely love how you'll win" (more foreshadowing to Jillian winning in this horrible way)

3) Topaz ALSO does the face palm sign! 150% secure x2... dig at Jillian's lies for sure. Is she really dumb enough to make such a mistake? She sure was squinting a lot (poor acting?)

4) Peter doesn't do the face palm (maybe since he's the last and just does his own thing to complete this plan) Now what injustice? 

Possibly the four believe that Jillian deserves to win, but wants to mess up her win. Maybe to them it was not fair that Gary got to go back in the house and not them. Maybe they feel that since production screwed them over with the Topaz twist they want to mess up the show ( also Gary winning is probably what production wanted). Could they have thought about such a scenario and pre-plan this whole thing? 

Wow. Could they? Hmmm. It's wild, but it would explain some of those ironic and weird comments from Alec, AJ, and Topaz, as well as why no one seems that upset about it today.

The #BBCAN Crystal Ball

I conjured up my Ouija board tarot cards magic wand crystal ball tonight, and here's what it had to say about what the next few weeks hold, as the last group of Big Brother Canada contestants are released into the big wide world.

Jury House Stew

AJ: Bearing the curse of the forgotten first jury member, AJ will cultivate a small Twitter following, which will dip when he confuses followers by still referring to himself in the third person, making them think it's a fan account. Joins his friend Murtz for a double interviewing act for awhile, further confusing the issue.

The Emperor of His Own Doom

Alec: His relationship with Topaz will last longer than anyone expects, largely because he's too insecure to end it publicly at first. He will move in with Peter as planned and create that Sheyld Youtube channel I've been rooting for all along, focusing on entertaining and often wildly incorrect Big Brother game analysis. He will also realize, much to his relief, that nobody in the psychology world gives a goddamn whether or not his wiener showed on Canadian cable access (it didn't). 

Topaz Glitter

Topaz: Will stay with Alec a little longer, just to stick it to the haters, because she's stubborn like that. Eventually she'll give up and dump him, within a couple months of watching his Diary Rooms and simultaneously getting bored with him. Will be amazing on Twitter.

Marsha's Favorite

Peter: After a couple of months of moping over Liza, will sleep with her once and then move on to try to date either someone from the Big Brother US crew, or a moose. His depression over missing Dan's visit to the house will be alleviated when Dan has him on a webchat, one of the many podcast appearances Peter will be making in addition to his own Youtube channel.

Add caption

Andrew: Will move in for the kill when Emmett and Jillian break up, but fail and end up dating one of Jillian's sisters instead. Will also spend months, if not years, complaining on Twitter about how the game was stolen from him by Dan Alec Production Emmett Marsha the Moose.

No, Talla, We Don't

Talla:  Tries to trademark Do You Love It t-shirts, but sales are poor. Starts her own Youtube channel, but ratings are low. Will live on forever in countless .gifs. 

Zoe's Brother

Gary: Where do we start? Big Brother Canada All-Stars, Big Brother US special visit, featured in the Toronto gay pride parade, starts working up his fabulous drag routine for a national tour. Gary conquers the world.

Look at Jillian... looking

Jillian: After Emmett dumps her shortly after the show, will mope a bit before getting on with her normal life and disappearing. I can't come up with anything more colorful than that. It's Jillian.

Milkman

Emmett: Waits a month or two before dumping Jillian, just long enough to make it look like it was maybe real. Will enjoy his newfound riches back on the dairy farm, ride in the Toronto Gay Pride parade with Gary, and enjoy playing the field in Nova Scotia.

Big Brother Around the Web: Do You Love It edition

From the official BB team, converted by OnlineBigBrother.com, I bring you Tallaisms:

Speaking of things people love, or don't - via the Jury House:

Topaz, girl, I feel your pain. I do. 

For Pete's Sake

I missed most of this, but for some reason Big Brother decided to pump some disco music and give Talla pom-poms tonight. There seemed to be a task involved, because I did spot her going into the Diary Room at one point.

Wipeout

It was incredibly annoying, and I barely caught any of it, which I'm not too bent out of shape about.

Shimmy

 I'd like to think that this was Marsha the Moose's last, best effort to try to save her Peter this week. It's Tuesday night nearing bedtime, and the boy has yet to put forth any serious effort to campaign. Best guess is that he thinks he's safe because of his previous deals with Jillian and Emmett, because they are so trustworthy.

Peter.

Yep, the magic moose is about his best option at this point.

Oh dear

Speaking of players with terrible game...

The @BigBrotherCA Twitter took a trip up to the undisclosed jury house location this afternoon. 

Our losers (and one soon-to-be returnee) were found munching on tomato soup and grilled cheese with their handlers.

Gary prepares for his inevitable return to the cameras

Interestingly, Alec and Topaz seemed to be a) the subjects of an on-camera interview, and b) still together. I mean... well, what is there left to say about that? Moving on.

Apparently they don't know yet about the twist that will send one of the four of them back into the game. At this point Gary is the most likely to return, despite my best efforts. I'm not entirely against that, I think it will be hard for him to win the game, but he'll liven up the feeds for at least a few days and maybe bring some jury house gossip with him. (Like, seriously, what the hell, Alec and Topaz?)

Still, it would be nice if Peter showed at least some understanding of the fact that he's currently packing his bags for a trip up to this undisclosed winter location. 

Marsha should really throw her boy a clue.

Psst... Peter... campaign or something!

Petering Out

So it's come to this. 

Peter's cheese stands alone against an alliance of four, and the only thing standing between Slice TV and Nova Scotia domination is a public vote. (You can also tweet #bbcanbringbackalec to be counted, FYI, just saying.)

The feeds spent a long, sad few minutes focused on Peter alone in the kitchen last night, thinking. His eyes were flicking back and forth the whole time - clearly there was a great deal racing through his head.

He has to know he's at risk this week - he may not be nominated straight out, but if he doesn't win Veto tomorrow, he's gone, whether or not Alec gets voted back in.

So why didn't he pull Topaz down?

It seems like there was some kind of exchange with Emmett during the commercial break - we'll probably learn more on Sunday night's episode. Regardless Peter apparently was inclined to use the veto on Topaz, but because of whatever confrontation happened with Emmett, he changed his mind. That was why he looked so shaken when the commercials ended and the veto ceremony started.

Peter followed this unusual melancholy with a little Alec-like mugging for the cameras, and today he seems to be as social as he ever is. He's also a Have for the week, which is good if you're rooting for him going into tomorrow's all-important Power of Veto competition (as you should be, if you want an interesting end to this season.) 

The question is, can he pull out a third Veto win in a row, or will he go down to the comp-beast skills of Emmett, Jillian and Andrew?

In other news, Alec got on the Big Brother Canada Twitter account today and confirmed that he and Peter are officially spelling the name of their alliance "The Sheyld". Um... uh... you should still vote him back anyway, just because.