Big Brother 16 - At the End of the Day

Joey | Paola | Devin | Brittany | Amber | Jocasta | Hayden | Zach | Donny

Joey showed promise early on, making such a good impression in the pre-season interviews that she was the first Team America selection. But she didn't really know enough about Big Brother and as a result she fizzled fast. Her attempt to unite the women was admirable, but it showed a lack of understanding of both BB and female group dynamics. Once Joey got on the Bomb Squad's radar, her attempts to save herself all missed the mark too. Her Alex routine was a crazy move for someone on the block, and her attempt to convince Caleb to go after Devin was just plain crazy. She never really had a chance to compete in comps, but her strategic play was so bad no amount of comp success would have made her a strong player. She was entertaining while she lasted, but not so much that we were crushed to see her go.

Like Joey, PaoPao was a BB recruit and didn't really know the game. I think she legitimately sucked at the comps, but she also didn't particularly try to be any better than she was. She was all set up to be a long term safe pawn, always available to go up to make sure a stronger player lost BOB, or be a safe nom against a true target. But she popped her head up above the radar when it became common knowledge that she was throwing comps. And making a Deal with the Devin didn't help her. She would have been a great tag along to the BS, but when Devin decided to sever ties, the rest of the Squad was against her. Zach's blow up at the veto meeting could have been her saving grace, but she had to go and have her own blow up. On the other hand, that blow up was fantastic. She'll always be remembered for "Devin, you have 5 personalities and they all suck!" PaoPao could have been fun to have around, but at the end of the day she just didn't bring enough to the game to make her worth keeping over Zach.

Devin made some classic Big Brother mistakes right off the bat. He let himself be known as a Big Threat (not that he had much hope of being seen otherwise, but still). He played too hard, too fast. And most importantly he violated every rule of alliance making in the book. He formed alliances too early, he formed too many competing alliances, and he formed too big an alliance. I think the Bomb Squad was, in fact, the largest alliance in BB history. Pretty much the entire house was in it at one time or another. Devin also inexplicably did an about face and decided to save his own target and threw an alliance member up on the block. Again, this move was the fault of not understanding BB. He heard Zach say he wanted to go home, and instead of recognizing it as strategy, Devin took it seriously. And it backfired on him in a big way.

At the end of the day, Devin did give us some great entertainment. He was a comedy show and half, and he united the house early on when it works. And by that I mean, he united them because they all were after him, not that he built the BS. And speaking of the BS, he also gave us the most apropos alliance acronym ever. He also accidentally made a lot of us out here realize that Zach was actually really damn entertaining and we needed to be rooting for him.

Oh, and he has a daughter.

Brittany came in as the "hot mom" and we were all supposed to be surprised that she could look so good after having three kids. As if moms have to be frumpy or something.
She filled that role really well, getting even the younger guys talking about her. And when Devin suddenly fell madly in love with her after just as suddenly having decided that she was a Huge Threat and had to be the target of his HOH, it made for great entertainment. She spent a couple weeks in that target zone. Her biggest problem was that she didn't really understand the game. She took things a little too personally and couldn't figure out why they were after her, so she couldn't change it. She really wasn't a comp threat, despite winning a few BOBs and her social game was awful. But she won a lot of us over when she went and kicked those 2400 goals. There was absolutely no game value in it, despite what she tried to talk herself into. But it showed her as such a good sport, and provided entertainment on the feeds, which is all we really ask for. At the end of the day, I was happy with where she went in the game. Her lack of true BB skill would have gotten annoying if she'd stuck longer, and going pre-jury means she got to home to her kids.

Amber was another typecast who came in not really knowing anything about BB, but making a valiant effort. She was not what you expect from usual BB actor/model, which may be why she didn't fall victim to the Week 2 model curse. She was sort of saved by her beauty in that it was why Devin pulled her into the BS, but in the end the BS was also what destroyed her. Amber was trying so hard to play correctly both in the way she felt was morally right and the way that she felt was "BB right" and ended up just making herself a target. She really wanted to stay loyal to the BS boys, but at the same time she wanted to be the undercover spy with the outsiders. I think her real downfall was that she was just such a legitimately nice person. The BSers would see her talking to others and notice a true connection. What they didn't get was that though the connection was there, Amber didn't feel she had to let it rule her game. But at the same time she didn't want to be mean to anyone and every time she tried to talk about it she just made her teamies nervous.

Of course we can't talk about Amber without talking about Caleb's creepy stalker obsession with her. It ranged from amusing to disturbing, getting some out here seriously concerned for her safety. I honestly never thought she was in any actual danger, but it's one of those things that you don't want to joke about too much. The obsession actually got funnier when she was gone and safely out of his reach. He was still wearing her slippers and scarves, after having been partly responsible for her eviction.

Oh, Jocasta. What can I say about Jocasta? She was horrible at BB, but she was Comedy Gold (c)BB14Ian on both the show and the feeds. Her illnesses and injuries gave Calamity GM a run for her money. They also seemed remarkably well timed, as well as miraculously recoverable. I'm not sure what kind of minister she actually was - her religious knowledge seemed spotty at best - but every time she put on her preacher bathrobe we knew we were going to get a show. She "saved" a few of them without their knowledge or understanding. She'll always be remembered for speaking in tongues on the show, for great DRs, and for hosting the memorial for grandpas, only to have Frankie say she could "kill herself" a few days later. But at the end of the day, her BB gameplay was just horrible. She could barely win a comp to save her life and her strategy was non-existent. She kept saying she wanted to be nothing but honest, yet she apparently completely made up the story of Brittany stealing her sob story. No one wanted her around too long because they could never be sure what she would do next. She was the perfect one to be first to jury. By the time the votes roll in the F2 will barely remember her, and how she will vote is anyone's guess.

I gotta say, I was never a big fan of Hayden. His sufer-dude-I'm-not-a-surfer-dude affect just annoyed me, and his goofy flirting with Nicole was a lot more irritating than cute in my book. And just to be confusing every once in a while he'd shift into game mode. He'd start talking in a different voice and it would be so clear that he was no dummy. I guess it was his strategy to come off as an airhead so no would find him a threat. But it backfired on him in more ways than one. The HGs figured out it was an act and took him out at their first chance. And for me, the dumb blonde act was so convincing that I just put him in that category and was surprised when he sounded like a normal person. At the end of the day I think I would have found Hayden a lot more appealing if he'd just come in and played straight up instead of trying to be a "character."

Zach is without a doubt the myBBPOV winner for BB16. And he's yet another example of how I shouldn't draw conclusions on them too early. Even without watching any preseason stuff, I hated Zach off the bat. It didn't take me too long to come around enough to finding him tolerable, but it wasn't until around the time he first went on the block that I started to really like him. Despite the fact that he slept about 20 hours a day, during the few he was awake, he gave us the one thing we really need from a HG: entertainment. Zach was pretty much always on, and in a way that seemed comfortable, not like the affect we got from Hayden or the over-the-top'ness we got from Frankie. The other great thing about Zach was that he was completely unpredictable.

Donny was the everyman that we always say we want on BB. And for once that seemed to actually click with many fans. Despite always saying we want ordinary people, it tends to be the somehow extraordinary that end up being the true favorites. But Donny was different. He was consistently either underestimated or overestimated by the other HGs. They fluctuated between thinking he wasn't that bright and would never win a comp, and thinking that he was James Bond with a beard. He became the surprising veto king of the season and saved both himself and others. He was also a true friend to anyone who needed one. He wasn't exactly drama-filled, but he did bring entertainment to the feeds. He had great one-liners, great stories, and just a general watchable quality. I admit, I cried along with him when he got evicted. Though Zach was my personal favorite, I won't be surprised, or disappointed, if Donny ends up winning AFP.

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