The One Where Devin Loses His Mind

BB16 Episode 3 – June 29, 2014

People ALWAYS overplay this game, and pretty much it’s always to their own detriment.  So enter Devin, our resident “The Rock” lookalike, Brendon-soundalike, and sweet father of one.  Purely from an objective review, he’d be great to have in your alliance due to strength as well as not being a total lunkhead.  Yet he smashed that impression to bits in last night’s episode when after a whole 1 or 2 days in the house, he decided to play EVERY STRATEGY.  Whew.  It was exhausting watching his paranoia go into effect.  Also, almost kinda hot at one point, when he confessed his deeds to Caleb in the middle of the night, in Caleb’s bed.  Commence fanfic….now!

Birth of the Bomb Squad

What deeds did he confess to?  Well, that entails starting a little bit further back.  We have to talk about what happened early on in this episode, when Caleb and Frankie decided to work together after spending some alone time in their new HoH rooms.  Not only that, they wanted to reach out and have some soldiers.  Enter Devin and Derrick.  But then Devin wanted about 6 people, so he brought in some other dudebros, Zach and Cody.  Frankie was thrilled that he was part of this alliance from the get-go without having to infiltrate; Derrick was rightly skeptical of the whole thing, as was Cody.  Regardless, they were in.  Of course Zach was all for it because he’s a douche.  But that goes without saying.

Nomination Time

We’ve got an accelerated episode OR we’ve got a new episode structure, in which the nominations and the Battle of the Block happen in the same episode.  I’m okay with that – I’d rather get right to it as opposed to the nominations being the “cliffhanger”.  We do lose the big Lazy Susan key case though, which always was good for some dramatic buildup, and now we get a detonation box that reveals the nomination on the big ass television monitors in an effective time-saver.  The Bomb Squad was targeting anyone not in their alliance while aggressively going after perceived “floaters”.  The nominations were innocuous enough at this point, as the HoHs gave good justifications about why Paola and Donnie (Caleb’s nominees) and Brittany and Victoria (Frankie’s nominees) were put up.  Yet of course there was still emotional response.  Victoria was beyond shocked that Frankie, of all people, nominated her;  Brittany was just sad to be targeted;  Paola was all whatever as was Donnie.  Surprisingly, it was Caleb who was empathetically crying for having to make nominations in the first place….leading us to our first:

Cody vs Caleb: Who Was Hotter?

Cody is not doing himself any favors by getting such little screentime.  I was prepared to give him the win by default just because Caleb wore that stupid-ass blue baseball hat in such a douche-y manner.  I refuse to screenshot it.  But then Caleb went and got all sad-puppy on us, and dammit (!) he was able to sway my vote his way.  I give you:

Cody was definitely looking good this episode, but there was just very little to work with.  Caleb was all over this episode, so in this first competition, Caleb emerges victorious.   Good luck, gentlemen, on your next match-up.

Status and Standings

After today’s episode, a lot of relationships changed.  Of particular note:

• Christine and Nicole bonded over their shared situations, effectively forming the first real Final 2 of the season (shown in Red above) and possibly a very powerful one now that Christine is in the Bomb Squad.
• The Double Ds alliance was made invalid by Devin (just another in his ridiculous series of moves this episode) although Donnie is at this point, none the wiser.  So the alliance is still outlined because one member still thinks it exists because the other is playing him.
• The Bomb Squad formed, including Amber and Christine, thanks to Devin (ANOTHER of Devin’s craptastic maneuvers this episode – the man was BUSY).
• A serious lack of publicized showmances at this point in time.  I’m SURE there are hookups happening on the live feeds, but I’m not going by those, so we’ll see which ones actually get screentime.
• El Cuatro and Crazy 8s aren’t explicitly active but they aren’t officially broken-up either, so I’m keeping them on the board.
• After the nominations, Victoria made it clear she’s out for revenge against Frankie.  He just isn’t aware his damage control efforts failed.

Devin Loses His Mind

Let us count the ways:

• He overacts in his interactions with Donnie about their continued Double Ds alliance, which he now is fully out of but willing to pretend he’s in just because.
• Expands the Bomb Squad to HALF THE HOUSE, without anyone else’s buy-in from the alliance.  He even knows it’s a terrible idea to add Amber and Christine, but thinks it’s what has to be done because you have to know that guys alliances always crumble.  Jesus, man, relax.
• Immediately confesses his actions to Caleb (in bed….) as well as everyone else later that morning, to the utter shock of everyone.  I was worried people were going to be all good with it, but of course they’re not idiots.  Devin is a loose cannon. I’d say it’s safe to assume Devin doesn’t make the jury; hell, he may get put up after the Veto.
• Completely loses his shit over Donnie “holding court” while joking and telling stories to the other outsiders downstairs.  Immediately summons the Bomb Squad to insist that Donnie is the strongest threat out there, which absolutely everyone disagrees with.  Because they’re smart.

Oh Devin, you had such potential.  But you’ve sabotaged your game to a ridiculous degree.  You are sooooo gone.  It may even happen this week.

The First Battle of the Block!

CBS has gone all out in the setups for their challenges so far – I guess now that they’re in HD, it’s time to pull out all the stops.  Hell, I was blown away by them before but now it’s just ridiculous.  In this challenge, the backyard was set up like a 1920s Gatsby party, and the nominated houseguests were on swings, with the goal to transport champagne from the fountain to a glass vase, but having to pass the wine from one partner to another while swinging.  This was a really interesting challenge mainly to watch Paola’s CRAZY faces when struggling to even get moving.

In the end though, thanks to PowPow’s craptastic efforts to get moving, Brittany and Victoria handily won and secured their escape from the nomination block.  This victory also had the side-effect of deposing Frankie as HoH, leaving Caleb as this week’s HoH.

Summary and Parting Thoughts

Surviving Head of Household: Caleb
Deposed Head of Household: Frankie
Remaining Nominees for Eviction: Donnie and Paola
Battle of the Block Victors/Former Nominees: Victoria and Brittany
TeamAmerica Member #1:  Joey

• I think Devin is a likely target for backdooring after the Power of Veto
• The Power of Veto exists!!! Yay!!
• Frankie has a lot of work to do if he wants to keep Victoria from exacting revenge
• The Bomb Squad looks to be in danger, already.  Is it a 2nd Moving Company?
• Looking forward to seeing if Nicole and Christine can do some damage in the long term.  I think they can.
• Hopefully this TeamAmerica stuff is worth all this build-up.  I’m guessing it won’t be.
• Wondering if we’ll see any showmances/hookups next episode?  After all those lines I drew in my 2nd Status board, they’re all pretty much gone.  It’s definitely game time!