Jordan wins,
5-2

I have to admit, I kind of liked the twist of bring 3 to the end and rolling the Final HOH and winner into the finale together.  It made the end a bit more exciting and interesting.  Where the last few days of the feeds are usually dull as dirt, this year we at least had the scheming over who would be the respective F2 choices.

I'm glad I was reading them well enough that I was right that Kevin would take Jordan, and Jordan would take Natalie.  Once that was confirmed, I thought I wanted Kevin to win because I really wanted Natalie out of the money.  But, in the end, I think Jordan made the right call.  She probably would have lost to Kevin.  Though the fact is she really didn't have enough information to know that she would beat Natalie, but it worked out for her in the end.

My jury predictions were closer than last year, and once we saw the jury chatter and it was clear how much Jessie and Lydia now despised Natalie, I sort of revised my predictions.  The jury meeting was kind of funny--man, are those people bitter!  One of the highlights for me was when Jeff was accusing Lydia of being Jessie's puppet and Jessie interrupted to jump into the argument.

The jury questioning wasn't too bad, though Jordan ended up having to answer basically the same question 3 times, including her closing speech.  I thought she actually did a pretty good job of explaining how she had played a good game and wasn't just a "floater."  (Though, it all sounded just a little DR-coached to me.) Natalie on the other hand, basically admitted she was a floater, talking about how she had let other people do the work for her and attached herself to the various strong people precisely when it was convenient for her.

The return of the early evictees was about as interesting as usual. (That is to say, not very.)  They always seem to have one big thing for the non-jurors to reveal, and this year it was Nata-LIE.  Jordan's reaction was priceless, and Kevin's was pretty good too.  They tried to show Jeff that he shouldn't have evicted Russell by revealing the Big Lie.  The fact is that Jeff should have kept Russell regardless of whether it was true or not, so that wasn't really that interesting.  And the TVOVs were probably completely confused by the "Michele confirmed it" thing, but I was glad Jeff said it.  It confirmed to me that it really was a True Lie, just as I've been saying all along.

I thought re-hashing Chima-gate was actually unnecessary and kind of rude.  Putting the footage in the montage was fine, but they really didn't need someone to say yet again that it was disrespectful to everyone who wants to be on BB.  And asking if anyone wanted to defend her was just dumb.  As if they're going to jump up right then and there and defend her?  Please.  It came off as just another jab at Chima by the producers.  They would have been better off just ignoring her.

And no surprise on Jeff winning the favorite HG award.  I always figured Jordan was the real shoo-in for it, but since Jeff was already out of the money when the voting happened, it's no surprise that he got it.

All in all, BB11 was a pretty good season.  We had some great fights, good drama, the cutest showmance ever, and some decent entertainment.  I can't say it's a season where the best player won, but that rarely happens.  And I do think Jordan played a good game.  She came in with her genuine personality and won over fans and HGs alike.  She won comps, especially the critical 2 at the end.  She made strong alliances and stayed true to them.  As for Natalie, though she wasn't my favorite person by a long shot, she also played a good game.  She came in with the strategy of lie, lie, lie, and stuck to it. She did manage to manipulate most situations to her advantage, and she went for a long time without needing to win comps.  But when it came down to it, she couldn't win when she needed to, and that cost her.  

As they say, it is just a game.  And now it's over for us.  Once they're gone from our TVs and livefeeds, it really doesn't matter one bit who won.  So:

Congratulations Jordan and Natalie!

Thanks for the show!

Lines of the Finale:

Jeff: (to Jessie) Dude, this room's too small for your head and we're outside.

Kevin: (standing at the front door, right after being evicted) Do I leave? I forgot.

Jessie: (as the footage of the undercover action starts) We're playing cards.

Russell: (about Jessie/Lydia) I don't know where I was. Probably yelling at someone.

Jeff: (about the "true lie") But Michele confirmed it.

Ronnie: (about all her lies) Natalie, I bow down to you.

Jordan: (upon learning Natalie's real age) Shut up!

Jeff: (about taking Jordan to Hawaii) Let's just say she's on the short list.

Julie: (about the fav. HG vote) It wasn't even close.

As if anyone still watching the feeds would forget that it's finale night.... BB has a new feed blocker (complete with typo) to remind us.

The feeds are staying on a lot longer than they usually do on finale day, but BB still hasn't made the F3 drag their butts out of bed.  I think they all got pretty much packed last night, so they just need to get themselves ready and then there's nothing to do but stress.  At some point they'll have to be sent somewhere so the living room can be set up for tonight. But for now they're being allowed a little more nap time, while visions of $500K dance in their heads. (***update:  as I'm about to post, at nearly 1PM BBT....they finally get out of bed.)

Since we do have a moment of quiet, I'll take this opportunity to say my annual "thank you" to everyone who has been visiting the site.  As always, I hope you have enjoyed my point of view.  Traffic has been up again this year, and even though I do this primarily for my own amusement, it makes me happy to know that others are reading it.  Since controversy breeds popularity, it's not surprising that our top entry this season has been gone, baby, gone about Chima's departure, with it won't be the apology that's on youtube (about the big Braden fight) as a close second.

Speaking of youtube...not only will the apology not be there, nothing will be, as Real has really (no pun intended) cracked down on posting video clips.  But they have given us an excellent alternative...Flashback.  I have to say, that's about the best addition to the feeds I could imagine.   It's been great for catching anything we've missed and for reliving the big moments.  And while I'm compliment Real...excellent job on the quality of the feeds this year.  I have had dramatically fewer feed freezes and crashes than in any past season (though, I have noticed for some odd reason, Feed 3 seems to freeze more than any other).

All in all, I think it's been a pretty decent BB season.  I'll be back later with finale coverage and some post-season wrap-up over the next few days.  And I'll be back next summer for BB12. 

One more look back at week 1:

It seems the HGs got a banner today.  Kevin definitely saw it, and claimed later that he saw Natalie's name and words like "trust."  Natalie countered that she saw "Kevin" and "liar."  We of course have no idea what it really said, or if what they're saying is true.  All we know is that as soon as it flew over the feeds went to trivia, and they go back off if the HGs start talking about the banner.

We're also getting some pretty random feed blocking today.  Just now I was listening to Jordan telling stories about her dad cheating on her mom, which weren't blocked.  Then she finished her story, asked Natalie if she was nervous about tomorrow.  Natalie said yes, Jordan said she was too.  Then she moved on to talking about her nailpolish, and that inspired button-boy to give us the control room.  What the....?!

Anyway.  Each year once the final 2 have been determined I do my own little jury analysis of how I think the evicted HGs will vote.  And normally, before final 2, I do an  analysis of who should take whom.  There are really only 2 reasons to pick a final 2 partner in BB-either you think you can beat that person, or you think you can't beat either of your choices, so you pick the one you'd rather see win.  In either case, it's all about guessing how the jurors will vote.  So the fact that BB's wacky schedule this year means I have to combine the two analyses is really quite efficient.

So here we go...and as is now our tradition here at mybbpov, screencaps are from week 1.

Juror #1, Jessie

If Natalie's in it, Jessie is pretty much a guaranteed vote for her.  Though he outed her age-lie to the rest of the jury, I don't think he really held it against her too much.  After all, she told him the truth.  And she was nothing but loyal to him in the game.  If it's Kevin vs. Jordan, I'm guessing he'll vote for Kevin, just because he's he sees Jordan as a floater.  Though, if Kevin ends up kicking Natalie, Jessie could see that as a betrayal and throw his vote to Jordan.

Juror #2, Lydia

Lydia said she wants to see Kevin or Natalie win, but then she found out about all of Natalie's lies.  If Kevin's in it, he almost surely has Lydia's vote.  If it's Jordan vs. Natalie, Lydia will probably vote for Natalie.  Even though she was mad about the lies, she'll probably still respect the gameplay.  And she's never thought much of Jordan as a player.

Juror #3, Russell

Russell said he tried to emulated the BB master manipulators, and that seems to be the gameplay he respects.  If Natalie's in it, I'm guessing he'll vote for her.  If it's Kevin and Jordan, he'll probably vote for Kevin because he's always seen Jordan as a weak player who just depended on Jeff and floated to the end.

Juror #4, Jeff

I'd be surprised if Jeff didn't vote for Jordan if she's in F2.  If it's Kevin vs. Natalie, I think he'll go with Natalie.  He still blames Kevin for backstabbing him.  On the other hand, if enough comes out about Natalie's lies and Jeff realizes Nat orchestrated most of the moves he's blaming Kevin for, he could flip.  But they rarely figure things like that out in time.

Juror #5, Michele

Michele told Kevin that she wouldn't vote for him in the end if he kicked her at F4, and I tend to believe her.  If it's Jordan vs. Natalie, I think she'll vote for Jordan because they were aligned, and Jordan never really backstabbed Michele.

Juror #7, America

I'd say it's almost 100% certain that America's vote will be for Jordan if she's in the Final 2, and Kevin if it's him and Natalie.

So, without knowing juror number 6, by my guesses, Natalie could beat Kevin, but Kevin/Jordan or Natalie/Jordan is a tie.  So, if Kevin wins the Final HOH, he should pick Jordan to go to F2, which is what I think he will do.  Now, if Jordan wins, she should either figure she's playing for second and take the person she would rather see win, or she should evict whomever she thinks is most likely to vote for her despite her kicking them.

So, if Juror #6 is...

Jordan:

If Jordan ends up on the jury, she will most likely vote for Natalie.  Kevin would have had to evict her, plus she feels he betrayed her by backstabbing Jeff.

Kevin:

Kevin's a bit of a toss up. If he ends up on the jury, he will have been evicted by Jordan.  Though he seems to have a lot of animosity toward Natalie (at least in the DR he does), he might also think she played a good game.  The question is, if Jordan kicks him, will he see that as a good game move and vote for her, or feel betrayed and vote against her.

Natalie:

I think if Natalie ends up on the jury she'll vote for whomever did not evict her.  I think she believes each of them will take her, and she'll feel betrayed if she's kicked.  Kevin has been talking about cluing her in early to try to smooth things over, but I doubt it would work.

So, assuming I'm right (and for the record, my jury predictions have never been 100% right), the irony is that whoever loses the Final HOH has the better chance of winning the $500K.

This could actually be interesting.

I have very little to say about the review show.  There was really almost no "never before seen footage," even for the TVOVs.  The only thing I noticed that was not previously on the show was the Jordan/Jeff dual-DR.  I am glad we got to see a bit of that, though.  I think the part that made me laugh the most was the bit with Jessie going on and on about his greatness, with Lydia and Natalie falling asleep (and why were they at his feet anyway?), all with glowing devil eyes.

And I have to give a creative editing award to BB for the section about the Kevin/Ronnie fight.  The Kev/Nat dialog was dubbed in from later in the kitchen.  And Kevin does too remember what the fight was about: Ronnie's comment about Hitler having good public speaking skills.  My guess is that Kevin said that during the dinnertime convo, and that's why BB had them redo it.  Because during the second take Jordan mentioned the Hitler thing and got called to the DR and told that was a no-no.

As far as the game, I really can't figure out what Jordan is going to do if she wins Part III.  She's telling both Kevin and Natalie that she'll choose them, and to my ears, she's being equally convincing with both.  She's also doing an interesting thing where she's admitting to each that she's making promises to the other.  The only difference I can see is that she's being honest with Natalie about what she's saying to Kevin, but not vice versa.

Kevin, on the other hand, seems pretty committed to taking Jordan.  He and Natalie even got into a bit of a tiff today because he was going through jury votes and commented that he has no chance of winning.  Natalie tells him he won't beat Jordan and that he's "playing for second place either way."  Uh, Natalie?  Not the most convincing argument.

My best guess at this point is that Kevin will pick Jordan, and Jordan will pick Natalie. They did their goodbye messages to each other today, so Kevin and Jordan probably had to think about their F2 choices a bit.  Not to say they can't change their minds.

They sat around the hot tub for a while tonight rehashing old comps and other things that happened in the house.  Natalie's version of events is amazingly different from everyone else's.  She's starting to tell stories of some of the things that she was up to in the early days, like covering the cameras in the bedroom with blankets and pillows.Then they move on to when their families will arrive in LA for the finale.  Jordan says she thinks they might bring her family from NC on Monday, since they have such a long flight.  Natalie insists that they will all arrive on Tuesday.  I have no idea how Jordan and Kevin haven't gagged her yet.

They break out the paint kit, and Kevin does a nice job on a BB11 plate (which, by the way, he can probably get a small fortune for on eBay in a week or so).  Natalie wants a mug commemorating her BB engagement.  But she says she's not artistic enough to do it, so she asks Jordan.  And then proceeds to critique her every step of the way.  Jordan just patiently does what Natalie asks.  I seriously think Jordan should consider a career working with small children.

That's all for now...Feed 1 is on randomness again tonight.

Lines of the Day

It was about this time last year that the feed operators started giving us extended sequences of the spiders going about their daily activities in the backyard.  Many livefeeders even named them.  I dubbed them Herb and Marge. So last night when they spotted a spider in the backyard, Jordan and Natalie started screaming, Kevin ran and got the bug spray and drowned it, I thought "Oh, no! Not Herb and Marge!"

Sure, enough, the cam operators are clearly bored.  The HGs didn't even drag their butts out of bed until noon-ish for Jordan, and around 3:30 PM for Kevin/Natalie. Jordan lounged by the pool for a while, working on her tan, then the camera had fun zooming in super close.  Now feed 1 is making a tour of random artsy shots.

There's nothing new to report game-wise, so I'll follow the cam operator's lead and just give you random shots of the day.

Last night Natalie did go through her dress options for finale night.  I'm not sure what, or if, she decided, but personally, I'm voting for the pink and black one.

Okay, now the cameras have moved on to some sort of camera mating ritual where they're watching each other move around.  This is just getting weird.

~Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Once again, I didn't spend much time today watching the feeds, but I don't think I missed much.  It seems they slept most of the day.  When I finally tuned in at the beginning of BBAD Kevin and Natalie were in a fairly interesting debate about the existence of God.  It's one of those real reality moments that I love about the livefeeds: just people have a discussion about something in their lives.  And in a few short minutes they gave me some great lines:

Kevin: I was looking for that mofo left and right.

Last night Kevin told Natalie that they need to be nicer to Jordan, hang out with her, and not talk so much shit about Jeff.  They've figured out for some clips that BB showed them last night as part of their "spontaneous" reminiscing for Sunday's retrospective show that J/J were featured a lot and must be loved by America.  Early this morning I caught Jordan sitting in the pool just grinning to herself.  So cute (and no, she's not naked).

I'm starting to worry that thinking about America's Vote has made Kevin reconsider taking Jordan to F2 if he wins on Tuesday.  He figures she has Jeff, Michele and America's votes and if he kicks Natalie, she'll vote for Jordan, thus Kevin would lose.  But if he takes Natalie, he might have America's vote.  He did confront Nat a bit today about Pandora's box and some of her lies.  He even told her that he doesn't believe she's 18, and doesn't understand why she'd lie about that.  She said they could talk about it after the show. (**Correction: It seems *he* said they could talk after the show.  Which makes more sense--if she said it, you'd think he'd be super-suspicious.)

But even as I typed that, Nat gets called to the DR and Kevin and Jordan have a check-in where he reassures her he's taking her if he wins.  He hasn't, at least that I've heard, been so direct with Natalie.  He just says things like "I've been loyal to you all along" and "why would I have evicted Michele, if I was going to backstab you?"  Nat's not buying that last one.  She even told Jordan that the Michele eviction means nothing, because it benefited Kevin too.

Jordan is also telling both of them she's picking them if she wins.  To me, her reasoning to Kevin sounds more believable.  She says no way she'll win against Nat, but with Kevin, it's a toss up.  But she also tells him that when Natalie asks what she's going to do, she says she doesn't know.  But then when Kevin is in the DR and Natalie does ask, Jordan says she'll take Natalie, but she's telling Kevin she's saying "I don't know."

I gotta hand it to BB.  This was a pretty good twist to keep the feeds interesting for the last few days.  Usually we just have the final 2 pondering their jury arguments, and we don't get to hear much.  But now we get to hear all the scheming.  And get to share in the stress.  Which is way better than the usual boredom.

And in honor of all that stress, I have to give Line of the Day to Jordan.  She said this today and yesterday.  Yesterday, I said "oh, Jordan TMI!"...but, it's just so Jordan to share so much.

Jordan: I have the worst diarrhea.

Before tonight, I don't think I have ever actually *cheered* out loud at BB liveshow.  I've yelled at the livefeeds, and cheered for veto winners, but I don't get quite so excited at the TV show.  Usually.  Jordan did it!  And smoked it!  The last minute Jedi-drilling (which it seems was inspired by the DR) paid off.  And practicing the ball rolling last night helped too.

And then we have that bitter biznatch, Nata-LIE.  Even as Julie was trying to sign off, she couldn't lose gracefully.  Sure, it's frustrating.  She got a week off in her rolling heads, and totally screwed up the second half as a result.  But her time was bad enough that to win she would have had to hit all 10.

Anyway, a few quick comments about the show.  Jeff's JH arrival was anti-climactic.  It feels so long since he was evicted, I'd kind of forgotten we hadn't seen his arrival yet.  I did think it was funny that Russell was standing there with a large carving knife as Jeff walked in.

The return of the "greats" was okay.  Everything they said was pretty predictable.  Danielle likes Natalie on a game level because they had similar strategies.  Boogie....I can't even remember what he said about the game.  All I remember is the baby gift and the "men are better speakers" comment. Dick was right on the money (no pun intended) that Chima wasn't thinking of the big picture.  And Janelle's rooting against Natalie, just like most of the rest of us.

Speaking of rooting, how great was it that we could hear the slightly muted applause and gasps from the audience during Jordan's turn, and dead silence for Natalie? You know, I might even feel a little sorry for Natalie...if she didn't come off as such an irritating biznatch.

So, back into the house and our tale of two Kevins...as soon as Jordan won, I thought "wow, if Kevin is telling the truth, Jordan is now guaranteed F2. Who woulda thunk it?"  But the big question is, is Kevin telling the truth.  Or more accurately, which Kevin is telling the truth?

The Kevin we see on the feeds seems to be almost an entirely different person from the one we see on the show in the DR.  On the feeds he seems 100% BFF with Nata-LIE, but in the DR he's been saying for some time now that he wants her gone.  The TVOVs will see DR Kevin as the only Kevin, with the snippets that make the show just seeming to be convincing gameplay.  But, for the livefeeders, man, it is convincing.  And we'll see no more DRs, so as we watch the next few days of feeds, will we get any clues as to which Kevin is the real Kevin?

The feeds came back on super-fast after the show ended...we had the F3 chatting by 6:03 BBT.  Natalie was still bemoaning her loss and generally being bitter, and Kevin was trying to understand how she screwed up. Jordan was telling her she did just fine, and not to feel bad.  And while Natalie was playing the sore loser role, Jordan was clearly keeping her smiles in check to not make her feel worse.

Then they started being called to the DR.  As each went in, the other 2 got to have their check-in.  First to the DR was Jordan, and Kev/Nat chatted.  She said her life was in his hands, and if she'd known what Part II was going to be, she'd have never thrown Part I.  She wanted him to swear on everything that their deal was still intact.  He wasn't being as reassuring as he's been, giving me the first clue that maybe DR Kevin is in the house.  Kevin kept saying that if Jordan wins part III, she's for sure taking Nat.  Nat said no, she isn't.  She said Jordan just says she doesn't know what she'll do, and that means she's not taking Nat.  Nat/Kev each accuse the other of having a "secret" deal with Jordan.  Kevin says "of course I have an F2 deal with her.  So do you!"  Nata-LIE swears she doesn't.  She then starts in on how many jury votes Jordan will have, trying to show Kevin that there's no way he'll beat Jordan.

Next it's Kevin to the DR, and time for Natalie/Jordan to talk.  Jordan says she told "them" she's taking Natalie to the end if she wins part III.  Natalie seems to believe her and basically just tells her what she and Kevin talked about, and reiterates that Jordan can't beat Kevin.

Then Natalie goes off to the DR and Kevin/Jordan check-in.  Jordan tells Kevin she was getting nervous that he's going to backstab her based on how nervous he was before the liveshow (when they still thought there would be an eviction tonight).  He tries to reassure her, and tells her they're still solid.  Jordan goes into a long analysis of how Natalie would beat either one of them in the finals, but against each other it's a toss-up.  Kevin agrees, and he tells her that he decided to ditch Natalie after Pandora's box.  He also says he doesn't want to string her along for the next 5 days and that's why he's stopped making swears and promises now that she's lost HOH, P2.  He's pretty much saying what we've heard from DR Kevin all along.

So, it sounds as if both Kevin and Jordan intend to take the other to F2.  But there's enough doubt that either might take Natalie to make things interesting.  They do have a good 5 days ahead of them with nothing to do but waffle and stress over what to do, and campaign to each other.  Look for extreme campaigning from Natalie to both J&K.  And if we're lucky they'll keep comparing notes and all the scheming will backfire on Nata-LIE.  They've also talked America's Vote a bit (for my thoughts on it look for an update to "Vote Early and Often" shortly).  Natalie tells Kevin that Jordan will absolutely have AV, and Kevin and Jordan tell each other Natalie will absolutely have it b/c of the engagement and being "about to start college."  Kevin says to Natalie that since there's no show on Sunday, America has seen all of them that we're going to so there's no point in "talking about it" (i.e. campaigning for AV).  He says "I don't even know if I want to say anything for the livefeeds."  Um, Kev?  Who do you think votes in these things?

Lines of the Day:

Natalie: Chima was in Russell's hole.

Natalie: (about Jordan) I don't think we've bonded.  She helped me put a tampon in, but I don't consider that bonding.

Kevin: I made up my mind after Pandora's box.  Bitch screwed me over. I was gone.

Jordan: Ever since Jeff was evicted, I've been going over scenarios.