Peter, Out.

I don't even want to talk about it.

Andrew-won-POV-Peter-would-have-been-golden-to-get-Emmett-out-but-he-did-the-stupid-thing-last-night.

The Sheyld (sic) is officially toast.

You know, I'm reminded of when the Brigade on Big Brother US got really bored near the end of the game when there was nothing better to do, and decided that they would spell their alliance "Bra-gade". There was a running joke on some forums that the Brigade and the Bra-gade were two different alliances: the Brigade was the four-man alliance with Matt, while the Bra-gade was what was left after Matt was evicted and no one knew how to spell correctly.

In that case, let's differentiate for a moment between The Shield (a pair of harmless but entertaining game-loving players) and The Sheyld, who had NO CLUE HOW TO PLAY BIG BROTHER despite maintaining their superiority in the game - basically, The Shield for the last week and a half or so.

Sorry, Peter. I'm with Marsha the Moose - you're still the cute one - but that doesn't mean you have game. Sigh.

I'll just take a little while to mourn, and then get back to figuring out which Nova Scotian looks most likely to take this game in the home stretch.

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. 

Confidential to Alec

Dear Emperor of Doom,

You've been listening to me the last few days, it seems.

Dr. Won't

I said that I wanted you to come to your senses and recognize your mistakes with Topaz, and boy, you listened, creating maybe the best tragedy Big Brother has seen in years. Shakespeare couldn't have crafted it any better himself. This villain redemption arc should play out quite memorably on Canadian cable TV, and bravo to you for it.


So, it's done, and your time playing the game of your life is winding to a close. You've lost. You're going to hang out with Gary and AJ in a ski lodge somewhere for a few weeks before coming back to cast a final vote and try to figure out a way to party with the US reality stars in Vegas next summer, which seems to be one of your primary motivations for doing the show. (You should totally hit our New York City BB15 Premier Party in June, by the way, but we can discuss that later. Moving on.)

What do you do next?

There's one major thing Alec needs to do in order to preserve a Big Brother legacy for himself, and it's the one thing that hasn't occurred to him yet.

He needs to sit Peter and Topaz's asses down stat, and make them realize that if they can't crack the Team Nova Scotia/Buck Chargers/whatever alliance (Buck Chargers is TNS + Talla), they've got to trust each other and work together 100%.

Peter and Topaz are both poised to lose Alec as their key ally, and this is simply not a good time to be playing solo in the game. Peter needs Topaz's fire and aggression, and Topaz needs... well, she needs a warm body to align with, and Peter is that, at least. If it takes a mutual desire to avenge Alec in order to unite them, fine, but if they continue to be distant, their games are over and they'll be hanging with him pretty soon.

+

-

=

Well, maybe. It'd still take a good HOH/POV run, but that's always going to be easier with two people than with one.

Alec's gameplay is the perfect illustration of why strategic alliances matter more than alliances with people you actually like. Hell, it's perfect if they can't stand each other, all the better - just as long as they stay loyal. The fact that they've barely spoken the entire game means that if they can keep it quiet, no one will see them coming until it's too late, as obvious a pair as they are.

Alec's best move at this point is to quietly accept his fate and work to see that his loyal allies are established in the game before he scoots out the door on Thursday. If so, he might actually have someone worth voting for in the finals. If not, well, they'll have a fun April together in the Jury House.

The Blind Side

We've had a season full of these so far:

I don't for the life of me understand why we're still looking at one in the eighth Head of Household reign of the season.

Why not? 

Because we've got a house full of apparent gamers, and we're in the jury phase of the game.  Anyone with an eye on Final 2, which is basically everyone except Topaz right now (and even she's got an opportunity if she plays her cards right) should be thinking about jury management. Enough with the snarky goodbye messages and last-minute secret votes, now is the time to send them out the door feeling all warm and fuzzy about you.

Three little words, Alec: "Gary's going out."

Talla has tipped Topaz off that she's likely to stay in the house, and then promptly lied to the boys when confronted about it. I'm not going to call Talla a good strategist by any means, but in this case, she's been lucky enough to stumble into a decent piece of strategy simply because she's incapable of going along with the house.

Gary will be sashaying out the door on Thursday, but whoever does him the courtesy of letting him prepare for his exit interview may be looking at a bonus vote on the jury. So far, no one has taken the bait, though he's definitely aware of the rumor via Topaz.

What's up with Alec's elbow in these caps? Anyway.

Meanwhile, Emmett's loyalties, which may very well control who goes to the end of the game, continue to be enigmatic. If I had to peg him, I'd say he's uncertain and flits toward whoever he likes better on any given day. 

It seemed for a few days there like he was done with Quattro and solidly in Team Nova Scotia, but after a long-overdue strategic pow-wow last night with Alec and Peter, he's apparently back to considering dragging them along to the endgame with himself and Jillian.

Right now it would not be in Emmett or Jillian's interest to win the next Head of Household competition and show their hands, but there is some talk of splitting them up, mostly from Topaz. What are the odds that Topaz wins a Head of Household competition? A little higher if Jemmett decide to throw it, and Alec will throw it also, hoping for someone else to do his dirty work and boot Topaz. Right now, numbers are dwindling and all these dynamics are getting more and more complicated, even as they get harder to depict on the edited show.

So I'm calling it now: Unpredictable loose cannon Talla may very well win Head of Household next week, which means things could get very interesting, and no one should feel safe.

In other words, someone really needs to get off their ass and ruin the blind side, stat. 

#BBCAN Fight Night (Again)

Pretty much every fight in the Big Brother Canada house so far has come from Topaz - such a shame her time in the game seems to be winding down.

I have no idea where Topaz and Alec stand right now - are they in a relationship and faking it, or are they faking that they're faking a relationship? etc. etc.

As far as the house is concerned, they're broken up, which is why Talla has suddenly decided to flirt it up around Alec, which has not troubled him in the least. She crawled into bed with him last night feigning fear from their evening movie screening. After some consultation with Gary, Topaz decided to go awf.

Alec Pondering a Second Showmance

The full audio of the argument is here, thanks to Ash:



She also caught some of the video, here:



Aaaaaaaand, there was some making up later (no kissing - down, fools):



Gary and Topaz also stayed up late talking, with him urging her to try to reconnect with Alec. No one is sure what he's doing - is he trying to save himself at her expense? Is he really that much of a romantic?

Topaz and Gary are also going to try to work to get Emmett backdoored today, which is going to completely backfire on them, because Andrew is now solidly with Team Nova Scotia (Emmett/Jill/Andrew) and they're running the house.

Team Nova Scotia: Boring Their Way to Finals 

Topaz also crawled into Alec's bed late last night to talk, but it seems like she got rejected. There may be some Alec-Topaz talk today, and we might be able to get a clearer idea of where they actually stand. I'm extremely skeptical of them "faking" all of this at this point - it's o-vah, the only question is, can either one of them manage to salvage their game from the ashes.

Ugh. There's a lot of season left to play, but I'm not enjoying this post-blackout power dynamic. We're now poised to lose all of the season's major characters in the next few evictions, while some of the least interesting people in the house are gearing up to run the place to the end.

The only way I can see this season staying interesting is if Alec wakes up to the fact that his game is swirling around the toilet right now, and that he has to forge a genuine strategic alliance with Topaz if he wants to have a prayer of avoiding the Jury House. Unfortunately, that's just not going to happen.

Intermission: State of the Union #BBCANT

And so the #BBCANT feed outage rolls into its fourth day, Easter Sunday, a day when many celebrate resurrection. Somewhere up in a suburb near Toronto, the drama continues quietly, without live cameras, without the ever-watchful eye of the internet.

Let's take a few minutes to go through where things stand at the intermission of Big Brother Canada: Season One.

From the beginning of the season it's been a numbers game, which the dominant boys' alliance recognized when they named themselves numerically as "Quattro" and spoke openly of "The Nine", the cool, fun people they wanted in the Jury House and endgame.

The Nine, however, was largely the fantasy of Tom, who saw himself controlling it. As we all saw, he didn't, and he and Liza didn't even make the final Nine - both Gary and AJ slipped in over them.

So who are the actual Nine of Big Brother Canada Season One? Let's review where they stand and how they're shaping up for the endgame.

1. AJ

Yes, we all know from the feed leak that Topaz's reign was used to get AJ out of the house, so his game seems to be over. That's probably for the best. AJ hasn't brought much to the house, other than the running gag over his talking in third person. He never seemed at home in the game and doesn't seem to strategize at a very complex level, which puts him at a disadvantage in this house. 

But is it really over for AJ? We still don't know what "Double Head of Household" means. Most viewers assumed that the twist is similar to Big Brother US's Fast Forward or Double Eviction twist, but we don't know that for a fact.

One theory floating around the internet has it that Topaz's evictee, AJ, may still face off against Andrew's evictee, perhaps in a public vote next Thursday where Canada would keep one and send the other out.

If that's the case, AJ is still toast, but I wouldn't count him out just yet. He might return to his spot in the firing line, but if the house is shaken up, he might be able to sneak himself into a better position.

2. Talla

Talla is an odd duck in more ways than one. I know very little about her despite hours of feed viewing, except that she's highly animated, farts a lot, and has very soft hair.

Talla knows she's playing a game and strategizes appopriately with her allies, Andrew and AJ, but she's out of her league against gamers like Alec and Gary. She's not disliked within the house, but she also doesn't have alliances with stronger players who can drag her to the end. Most people in the house think they control her, but no one is exactly sure what she would do on her own. Talla is a free bird and a loose cannon.

Talla is also the smallest person in the house and a dangerous threat for the next endurance competition, which the boys recognize. That's both an advantage and a disadvantage for her.

Talla's game will go one of two ways at this point, and much of it is out of her control. If the core alliance in the house stays strong, Talla is on the outside and will soon be sent packing. If there's a schism, however, Talla will become a key vote and could easily vanish from the radar and sneak her way to the end.

3. Emmett

Milk boy Emmett is widely acknowledged across the internet to be playing the best game of classic Big Brother at this point. He's well-liked by everyone, and is a physical threat who somehow is still off the radar as a target, because he's been able to subtly forge alliances with almost everyone in the house. He's in all three major groups at this point: The remains of Quattro, headed by himself and Alec, the "Team Nova Scotia" alliance with Andrew and Jillian (tying him in to the Three Stooges of Andrew, AJ and Talla), and also has an enigmatic understanding with Gary that hasn't yet been tested in the game but which ties him to the house underdogs.

That doesn't mean it's going to be smooth sailing for him, but even if physical threats start to be targeted, Alec will probably be on the radar long before Emmett.

Emmett has a decent understanding of how to play the game, but he may not be able to manipulate at the level of an Alec or a Gary, and could have a hard time digging himself out if his muscles and charm finally start to threaten the other players.

4. Alec 

If I had to pick anyone for an Easter Sunday resurrection, it would be Alec. This guy is playing one of the more interesting games in the house, for better or for worse, and his game is surprisingly risky for someone who considers himself a student of the game. At the same time, he's a creative player with a deep knowledge of the game who might just have the skill set to pull himself out of a tight spot.

Who in the world cuts strings with a loyal (if skeptical) showmance at the final nine, especially when they still have allies like Gary in the game? A desperate man, that's who. I've said before that Alec wants to be the Spock of the house, emotionless and entertaining, but he's actually a highly personal and emotional player. He wanted Tom out because he disliked him, and that instinct only amplified after Showergate. He soured on his showmance with Topaz and decided to cut her early rather than trying to play it out for a solid ally and jury vote. Logically, Alec knows how to play the game and strategize, but he just doesn't know how to keep his emotions from getting in his way.

I still wouldn't count Alec out. His uncanny ability to play the victim should come in handy in the wake of his breakup with Topaz, and he was better-liked than her in the house to start with. If he's able to martyr himself and stay in the house's good graces, he can paint Gary and Topaz as the villains and stick himself safely with the house majority.

I also have to give Alec some credit for recognizing, as a fan, that Big Brother is supposed to be an entertaining show. His bizarre live show costumes and slip-ups, his characters like "Ricardo", his recent Diary Room montage with Peter, his continued insistence on walking around shirtless - all of it spices up the feeds and the broadcast shows. 

Love him or hate him, Alec has been one of the breakout stars of Big Brother Canada. He will probably be in danger sooner rather than later, and how he plays in the hot seat will determine whether that stardom ends soon, or Alec continues to dominate the chatter around the show.

5. Jillian

There's not much to say about Jillian.

She's not a bad gamer - she's well-liked and well-aligned within the house. Most of her allies don't talk much game with her, but trust her nevertheless. She's now unofficially the fourth member of Quattro, having replaced Tom, and is building a solid friendship with Peter to strengthen the foursome.

The one thing that puts her at risk is her open partnership with Emmett. If anyone decides the pair needs to be split up, Emmett is the obvious choice to go home, but Jillian would probably leave before him due to the alliance dynamics of the house.

Still, it's unlikely that she will leave before the end of the game, which is unfortunate, since she doesn't bring much to the house other than as Emmett's appendage. I'm concerned that Jillian's bland, solid gameplay could be shaping us up for a very boring live feed endgame at the tail of an otherwise entertaining season.

6. Peter

Peter's taken a great deal of heat from game critics, and rightfully so. As the show's default narrator, he's been allowed to paint himself in the Diary Room as a mastermind. But as we feed viewers all know, he's spending all his time lounging around the couch, nibbling at chicken nuggets and watching the game evolve.

But the game has mostly gone the way he wanted, while he's done very little. You can't underestimate how significant that is. He seemed shaken after he lost Liza in the Double Eviction, but he didn't let his housemates know how flustered he was, and went back into Hyena Mode, lurking and waiting for the scraps of the kill.

The true test will be when Pete lands himself in hot water, which could be sooner rather than later, more from Alec's doing than his own. Peter has stayed off the radar like any good Big Brother houseguest in the pre-jury weeks of the game, which is probably for the best, since as he's the first to admit, he hates everyone. But, he can't stay off the radar forever.

Peter doesn't manipulate as well as he tells Alec he does, and he's not forging any alliances on that couch. The question for Peter will be: Are his true alliances with people like Alec, Emmett and Jillian enough to propel him into the endgame strategies he fantasizes about, or will he be left on the outside of the social core of the house going into the final weeks?

7. Andrew

As we all know due to the feed leak, Andrew currently holds Head of Household power, and at a very critical time. Andrew's decisions this week could very well determine which alliances make it into the final weeks of the game. Last time Andrew held the power, he went with the house consensus and seemed to resent it, but will he make the same choice this time?

Andrew is a paranoid player, who just last week was openly and rightfully skeptical of Alec and his machinations in the house. On the other hand, Alec may have dug himself out of that hole by saving Andrew during Topaz's short reign. Or did he?

Andrew seems to shift his game from day to day and conversation to conversation, and while he seems to be shifting out of the Three Stooges and into Quattro, it's hard to say if that's intentional or just for strategic appearances. Andrew, like Alec, is an emotional player, but he's not quite the same level of strategist.

Right now, I'm not sure if I can see an endgame victory path for Andrew. He has two choices this week: stick with the house consensus and target Gary/Topaz, or shake things up by targeting some combination of Alec/Peter/Emmett. If he chooses the first path, he stays on the outside of the house's social core and is still high on the hitlist, but if he chooses the second, he makes himself an even bigger target with the remaining competitive threats from Quattro.

At this point, Andrew is still a wild card, and I'm curious to see what choices he will have made by the time the feeds come up tonight.

8. Topaz

Right now, Topaz's game is the one we know the least about.

We know that up until her Head of Household victory, she was in a vulnerable position, threatened by her declining relationship with Alec and his work against her. We also know that sometime after the feeds went down, the two of them broke up, and are now decidedly at odds.

At odds with Alec is not a good place to be. As I said earlier, he can play the victim like no one else's business, and with her constant bickering with Big Brother over alarms and rule-breaking, Topaz is not exactly positioned to gain sympathy from the rest of the house.

We also don't know what a vengeful Topaz looks like - will she take it lying down, or will she go to the mat and try to bring Alec down with her? She has an opening if she can play on Andrew's paranoia of Alec. The one thing protecting Alec so far has been that no one is talking about his game, but if Andrew and Topaz compare notes, they could easily figure out what he's doing and start working to take him down once and for all.

Topaz is perhaps the biggest wild card in the game right now - she could be anywhere between 0 and 60 right now, and we won't know where she stands until later tonight. Still, her chances of making it to the end are currently slim to none, unless she can manage to strengthen new alliances as a single girl in the house.

9. Gary

I said most of what I wanted to say about Gary yesterday. He's been a breath of fresh air on the show and the live feeds, and has astute perceptive skills to propel him in this game where social dynamics are everything. He's also a physical threat in ways that often go unnoticed by the other houseguests. At the same time, he's socially immature and annoys the house on a regular basis, and has never been part of the "in crowd", though many of its members individually do seem to like him quite a bit. He's also a personal player, though he's wise enough to try to separate his emotions from the game and try to at least fake an alliance with Alec even in the wake of his betrayal.

Unless things change drastically, Gary will remain where he is on the hit list and eventually be sent packing.

That said, underdogs with social skills have a way of continuing to slide through to the end in this game. Gary is a target that others can hide behind, and if he realizes that and plays it to his advantage, he could make it farther.

I don't think it will happen and don't expect that Gary will go much further in the game, but given that he wasn't even supposed to be in "The Nine", he's done okay for himself.

***

Reason Number One why Andrew should consider flipping the house this week?

That.

Tonight, we'll find out where the game stands, and we'll know more about who's positioning themselves for the run to the finals.