Big Brother recap: "God is so gangsta"

Before discussing last night's Big Brother I thought I'd point you to one reporter's visit to the Big Brother house. Probably what intrigues me most about the USA Big Brother is that we get a peek at the man behind the curtain and this gives us an even better view. I certainly got to thinking a bit where the house as "a mix of gaily painted gingerbread house décor and dour minimum security prison" because, with their contact to the outside world limited to their weekly conversation with Julie Chen and the disembodied voice of a producer, it probably does feel like prison to some degree.

Along those lines, when I get drawn into a season of Big Brother, I usually also get sucked into discussions of the live feed. Big Brother is the only show where people get the chance to compare the reality to the reality TV we see. Big Brother isn't a perfect glimpse into the sausage factory since the writers don't get a chance to create season-long story arcs, but are instead forced to turn what's currently happening into drama -- so someone who, normally, would be portrayed as a villain based on their behavior four weeks into filming might skate by longer than they should because of they've already started a different story arc.

With that in mind, I've been feeling a little sympathy for Kail. She's been portrayed as being clueless about gays, but she hasn't been alone in saying dumb things about gay people. According to the live feed discussion at Television without Pity, Dick has repeatedly said that he doesn't trust Dustin because Marcellas wasn't trustworthy -- presumably confusing the behavior of one gay man as representing how all gay men behave. In dividing the house along gender lines, Zach suggested that Joe and Dustin should be counted with the female houseguests. After a fight with Dustin, Amber repeats her sister's claim that all gay men are selfish and regrets not remembering those words before becoming friends with Dustin.

None of that excuses some of the clueless things that Kail has said. I do get the feeling, however, that she was the first one to say something homophobic, making her the only housemate whose ignorance makes it into primetime. I know we have a few live feed viewers here -- is Kail being made to bear a burden unfairly? Are Dick, Amber and Zach getting a pass? When we got to talk with Joe, we asked if our perception of Kail matched what he saw in the house. He gave her a pass for being ignorant, but had a few sharp comments about Zach.

So, when we left off, Dustin had nominated Kail and Jen. As much as I want to complain about how boring it is to see the same two people nominated as last week, the strategy makes sense in this case. At the least, the repeat nominations are a good smokescreen for the old Six Finger Plan, one that makes Dustin look more like a follower than a strategic player to worry about. He lets Kail into the plan, telling her that he doesn't want either of them to be evicted but to win veto so that he can nominate his true target, Zach.

Jen, meanwhile, reacts to this nomination very emotionally, running to the bathroom for a cry. According to the live feed discussion, she later explained that her hormones were making her a bit emotional at the time. I swear I can see that look of "Damnit, I don't want to be feeling like this" in watching her cry -- and I hear it when Kail tries to bring her spirits up. "We've survived this before, we'll survive this one," she tells Jen. Jen's response, "I know, I don't care about that. I'm not crying because of that, I'm crying because it's weird" rings bells for me.

Amber, meanwhile, runs to Dustin to tell him that she thinks Jen's tears are fake and that Nick should face even more suspicion for being quick to comfort Jen. Amber's getting on my bad side. Dustin also gets on my bad side by calling Jen a whore -- now, even if were an act, what's whorish about crying over being nominated? And didn't Amber cry a lot when she was nominated, Dustin?

This week's Power of Veto generated plenty of drama. When Jen randomly picked Jameka to play on her behalf, Jameka began telling the house that she planned to compete for the veto and to use it so save Jen if she wins. "God has already ordained who is going to win, we're just walking it out, so don't alter, don't become anything but what you want to be in this game," she explains to Kail.

I'm sure this made Jameka fall in many viewers' minds, but I'm going to agree with the rationalizations I've read. For one thing, she hasn't -- so far -- prayed with requests for God to intervene on her behalf, she's arguing that the final outcome is predetermined and the only choices she has lies in how she behaves as she heads towards the inevitable conclusion.

Furthermore, it just so happens that Jameka's beliefs perfectly match what her alliance would have her do if she won the veto. I am left wondering (and I'm not the only one) if Jameka used her religion to stay under the radar. This way, she gets to use the veto to her benefit while not coming off as a power player. Afterwards, she has an excuse to deny being a part of the scheme. Instead of coming off as a threat, she comes off as a passive fatalist.

Hilariously, Jameka grabs Jen to explain her intentions a second after Jen starts to swish some mouthwash. Jen tries to delay the conversation by 30 seconds, but Jameka tells her, "You don't have to talk, you can just follow." Therefore, as Jameka tells her that she plans to seriously compete for the veto on Jen's behalf, Jen is standing there in the exercise room, swishing mouthwash and nodding.

The veto competition itself was annoyingly lame, with the competitors being challenged to decipher visual puzzles that represent Big Brother terms -- let's just say I wouldn't want to be stuck on a Pictionary team with the artist who came up with these puzzles. The ideas are really basic but drawn in a way that those basic ideas aren't clear. Check out the puzzles:

However, the players are also given a couple opportunities to give up their points for a prize and Dustin loses the game by buying both of the prizes offered.

When Dustin throws the game, he makes a bunch of housemates angry with him -- something I think reveals how some of these players can be completely foolish. For most of them, the plan for the week was to nominate Kail and Jen with the intent to have everyone competing hard for the veto, so that Zach could become a replacement nominee. With a strategy like this, why would the HoH want to win the veto? I mean, if he were to win the veto, he'd have to explain why he's undoing one of his nominations. Basically, they're yelling at a member of their alliance for going along with a plan they agreed upon a few days earlier.

Dustin's defeat brings Amber to tears. Again. This time, she's upset over "that greed, that selfishness" Dustin displayed. Anger that Dick, Eric, Jessica and Danielle echo -- pretty much the whole bleeping alliance that agreed that this week would be the about nominating two pawns who could win the veto in order to get Zach nominated for eviction at the last minute. These guys are calling themselves the "Late Night Crew" but one of the YouTube posters has taken to calling them the Waffle Alliance. Considering how last week, Dick kept telling people that Kail was going home (even during the Veto competition he tried to get Jen to give up her pursuit of the veto, promising that she wouldn't need it to avoid eviction) only to suddenly switch to targeting Mike at the first sign of defiance. Now, the alliance is mad about someone following the plan -- "Waffle" seems like an apt name for them.

Jameka seems to be the only member of the Waffle Alliance not angry with Dustin. "As long as you don't get in God's way of doing what's right for you, he's going to prevail," she tells Amber. Now, maybe Jameka is fully into this fatalism she's spouting, but I'd rather see Jameka as the only member of her alliance who can stick with a plan -- one who realizes that reminding the other waffles about their plan would only make them angry. That's not to say I think Jameka is being disingenuous about her faith, but a strategic player who tried kept her alliance to stick to their plan and realized that asking "Isn't the plan to..." was only going to make people angry. At this point, she's the only one who managed to advance the Waffle Alliance's original plan this week, without finding herself on the receiving end of a lot of misplaced anger.

It's around this time that my partner turns to me and asks if Amber kinda looks like Robert DeNiro with her constant frowning expression. I have to admit he can use the same facial expression to do a convincing imitation of both of them.

In talking to Amber, Jameka comes up with a line that could turn our to be the best line of the season, "God is so gangsta, that's what I love about him." I have no idea what she means and I'm scratching my head over them, but they're not words that you can forget.

In the diary room, Eric says that Dustin "lost the respect of all of his allies." Maybe, but I honestly suspect the Waffles will forget all about Dustin's trip to Barbados as soon as the next shiny thing catches the light.

I'm going to skip past a few scenes to the next meeting of the Waffles as they discuss who should be nominated during the veto ceremony -- Nick or Zach. The majority of the Waffles want to vote out Nick, inspiring many shots of Daniele looking anguished, frustrated and at a loss for words. Even though Dustin started the meeting by asking that no one try to change Jameka's decision to save Jen from eviction, Danielle tries to make a case for evicting Jen. "If I had my wish this week and I could take anybody out of the house, Jen's up on the block. It's not personal, I don't like the way that Jen's playing the game. Jen sucks at everything. She does nothing well. The only thing she does is she lies to people and she manipulates people and uses people at their weaknesses to get farther in the game and I don't think that's right." Y'know what that argument was missing? A nice "IHATEHER! IHATEHER! IHATEHER!" Danielle then heads off to the bathroom to cry. (That reminds me, we didn't get the Dick and Danielle Daddy-Daughter Show, last night. Yay!)

The Veto Ceremonies are usually pretty boring, but this week there was a bit of schadenfreudaliciousness in watching Dick and Daniele squirm while trying hard to look like they weren't squirming. As expected, Jameka vetoes Jen's nomination. Dustin -- who previously said the plan was to nominate two strong players, veto one and nominate Zach as a replacement -- has Nick replace Jen as a nomination for eviction. See why they're called the Waffle Alliance? Kail also squirms at the Nick's nomination since she worries that "Everybody loves Nick." Wow, the Waffles have been keeping her out of the loop. Oh, yeah, and for some reason Amber starts crying at the nomination ceremony. Does it really matter why?