Empowering the powerful players and taking what little power is left from the outsiders, Big Brother 19 episode 3 is hard to watch for this Survivor fan.
This episode has confirmed my deepest fear; Big Brother 19 is approaching late teens / early 20s Survivor tier in terms of production interference. While Boston Rob and Russell Hantz aren’t fed Californian recruits, former NFLers and dumb players in a head-to-head competition, CBS is making sure Paul has as best a chance to last in this game.
By opening up an American public vote for who deserves the Pendant of Protection after two hours of Big Brother 19 houseguests getting settled and a full season of Paul almost winning last season, of course, America decided to give three weeks of protection to the one play the fans were familiar with. It’d be like giving Coach and Ozzy safety until the merge of South Pacific; that’s just how imbalanced Paul is in this game.
This level of meddling set up a raucous episode 3, where two players messed with Head of Household Cody’s plans.
Bumping cuddlies
As mentioned in the feeds highlights recap (spoiler warning), it seems like everyone is in heavy flirt mode. Cody and Jessica seem to be genuinely into each other, Raven digs Matt as his “Silver Fox” lifestyle, and Mark seems to be hanging on every single word Elena says. She even summed up these hookups with the most intelligently bereft, vomit-inducing nicknames of “#Marlena,” “#Jody” and “#Maven,” each getting their own hashtag.
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I’m Canadian, so when I watch Survivor, most of the time I don’t get the CBS-pushed hashtags appear on my screen. I do inherently understand the essentials and knew #WWMD (What Would Monica Do), but hashtags to hype up romanticisms destined for failure due to the nature of Big Brother 19 seems both inherently mean and potentially toxic.
Getting to know all about you
One thing that Survivor Game Changers severely screwed up was building up their characters as relatable. Even if all of the players on the island were returnees, with the exception of a few people at key moments of the show, it was about gameplay, strategy and BIG MOVES all the time. It really missed having a heart, leaving even the finale with nobody to cheer for.
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Mark really put Josh’s paranoia problems in perspective by revealing the losses he encountered in his life with his dad (at a young age) and his mom (at 17). While they can’t fit all the hours of Josh’s game into the PoV hour, it did seem to help him grow as a player who’s coming apart at the seams just six days into Big Brother 19.
There are plenty of other interesting tidbits about the players shared this episode, including Jillian getting an operation in Tijuana and Kevin calling emojis “Mojos.” Even in gameplay-heavy episodes, this show does take the time to add segments of levity, not just opening and closing moments in between strategy talk. I guess it helps that there are at least three hours of coverage each week.
She haves me, she haves me not…
One of the things that I keep forgetting Big Brother has is the Have-Nots. Basically, each week several contestants must eat slop (gruel and oats), take cold showers and sleep in an uncomfortable bed for a week. This year’s Have Not deal seems to be getting worse all the time, with a grosser slop and a bed laden with plastic pyramids forming a makeshift bed of spikes.
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Honestly, knowing this was coming to me in the future, I’d be buzzing that $25,000 buzzer that Kevin won in episode one. I’d need to have some guarantee of money beyond the weekly stipend to deal with this nonsense, even if it means getting yourself into another Temptation (as part of this summer’s theme).
Panda, Panda
Why, exactly, Megan had left Big Brother 19 before the live feeds even kicked on was a mystery until today. Someone commented to Jessica, telling her to go over and entertain Cody. She said she wouldn’t with “Pao Pao” (Alex) sitting beside him. Thankfully, Big Brother production was quick to pull up a side-by-side comparison to Paola Shea from Season 16, as the level of meta-commentary by these contestants is ridiculous for this newbie.
Either way, Megan (seemingly innocently) goes over to tell Alex she was called “Panda” by Jessica, referring to her through a derogatory slur against Asians. Alex seemed to be stirred up more from Megan’s push at how it was racist than being offended in the first place, which just made Megan look more nefarious by comparison.
Paul overheard that, told Jessica, Jessica set the record straight and Alex blew up on Megan publicly, making it the second public spat with her of the game and the second callout of the episode (if we’re counting the eviction notice of “I just don’t like you” from Cody continuing today). Overwhelming her, Megan pulled herself from the game after staying in the Diary Room for hours.
It’s this kind of insidious he said, she said dynamics of Big Brother 19 that makes the game feel so toxic compared to Survivor. Even in an instance where one player outted another in that show, at the very least, it was a one-time major event over 34 seasons of play. Sure, people attacked others in a personal manner in Survivor, but at the very least, their actions aren’t consumable for the public 24/7.
Power of Eviction Veto Temptation
As one of the Have-Nots, Paul could not take sleeping on a bed of spikes (who would?) and instead opted to take a chance to escape. With 50/50 odds to escape or extend another week, Paul ended up making it out of the Have-Not experience fairly quickly.
It served as a warm-up for the Den of Temptation, where CBS intervention reached its heights. What was seemingly an ornery room bestowed its crystal-laden magic on Paul once more, giving him the Medallion of Power Pendant of Protection based on America’s vote. The consequence of three weeks’ worth of protection? “One of your housemates will be in jeopardy for the next three weeks.”
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Not only that but in taking the Temptation, Paul picks a random poison vial to choose who gets “poisoned” for three weeks, setting up a circumstance where he can argue he didn’t choose who took the fall. Every part of this “Temptation” is to the Week 1 fan favorite’s benefit, and with only one returning player in a season of newbies, the deck was stacked in Paul’s favor.
Final Thoughts
With Megan self-evicting, Cody used this opportunity to extend an olive branch to Alex. Rebuffing it, Cody decided to put her up on the block, taking the opportunity to take out one of two players in the opposing alliance (with one being the most respected players in Cody’s mind). It’s also the first time Cody’s shown any tact in Big Brother 19, showing that there may be more than meets the eye with him.
On a final note; Kevin is love. Kevin is life. I want him to win, even though I know he won’t.