Another week in the Big Brother House, another racial slur out of the mouth of Jack Matthews. Yes, once again this week, the most controversial thing going on inside the game of Big Brother has not actually been touched on at all by the three weekly episodes airing on CBS. It’s as if CBS thinks it can somehow hide what happens in a game that is about people living in closed quarters and who are filmed 24/7. Well I have some news for you Big Brother and CBS: Just because you choose not to address Jack’s ongoing racism in the house doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. It’s been a major distraction for those aware that it’s been going on, and for those that don’t, it’s sort of pathetic that the show has decided to keep you in the dark the way it has, instead of – at the very least – trying to frame it as a learning moment in the game’s history.
Oh yeah, there was also a game being played this week, with one player nearly making a big move before deciding to chicken-out at the last minute. We’ll get to that too.
I’ll try to avoid spoilers above the warning label, but as I do at the beginning of every one of my Survivor recaps, please heed the following: Remember that this recap assumes that you are caught up on all of the aired episodes of Big Brother 21. If you are not and don’t want to be spoiled, please come back later! It’s important to add that while we WILL hit on all of the important developments since the last recap, so if you need to go further back please click on the “Big Brother” Topic on this page to access past recaps…also, this is not a linear “blow-by-blow” recap, but is more of a discussion and reaction of what we just witnessed together.
CLICK THE CONTINUE READING BUTTON FOR MORE, AND THIS IS YOUR LAST *SPOILER* WARNING!
One quick bit of housekeeping: Regretfully, there will NOT be a Big Brother Recap on this site for the next two weeks, as we will return with coverage the week of August 15th. I’d like to come up with a good excuse as to why, but the real reason is that I am going to be gone on a much-needed vacation with my family and young son, and although I will be doing my best to keep up on all things Big Brother, I simply won’t be able to produce any articles over the next couple weeks…so in the meantime until I return, feel free to use the comment section on THIS article as a sounding board for anyone with thoughts and comments over the next few weeks, until we’re back the week of August 15th!
With that out of the way, onto the big story that I alluded to in the opening paragraph. Yes, Jack Matthews, who continues to be painted in a loving light over the CBS airwaves (are they still referred to as that?) each and every episode, said another inappropriate comment this week, as seen not on the show but on the live feeds. You can watch the newest blunder here. And you can also refer to my Recap from a few week’s back to find out as to where all of the outcry is stemming from. But in a nutshell, as the “6shooter” alliance was talking game out on the hammock and discussing Bella in particular, Tommy said the common saying, “The proof is in the pudding.” To which Jack replied, “The rice pudding.” Now, if you don’t understand why this is offensive, you may be part of the problem.
Jack‘s comments aside, the 6shooter alliance took out another person of color this week in getting Cliff to essentially backdoor Bella. Now, I don’t think they are consciously targeting people of color, but it isn’t mere coincidence that the first four people out of the game are all minorities. We’re knee-deep into Season 21 right now and at this point there’s no turning back, but at the very least the show should be addressing this and making it part of the ongoing story…there is precedence on the show for such a thing (again refer to the above Recap link for more). Why is Jack being given so much slack?
For a minute or two at the beginning of this Big Brother week, many fans were excited that the dominant 6shooter alliance might finally be broken up…there is nothing more depressing than watching a massive alliance on Big Brother pick off one person at a time all Summer long. Nothing more depressing, or at least that’s what I had thought prior to watching Cliff go from hero to zero this week, in my eyes anyways. Having just been blindsided and voted out of the game, Cliff won the Comeback Comp and then promptly won HOH…it was perhaps the greatest power swing the game has ever seen in such a short amount of time. He then followed through with his promise to try to shake things up by targeting the two biggest threats in the house and two of the driving forces behind the 6shooters, in Jack and Michie. Heading into the POV Comp this week, it looked like all was good and that this game was going to get back on track.
But when Michie won the POV, Cliff‘s plan hit the fan. With Christie‘s “Diamond Power of Veto” advantage – giving her the ability to have the POV Comp winner choose the replacement nominee instead of the HOH – Cliff began to panic. Michie was of course going to pull himself off the block, but if Christie were to then use the Diamond POV power, Michie could then choose the replacement nominee, which would have been Bella. So in a sense, Cliff figured, Bella was doomed this week no matter what.
His thought-pattern is flawed, however, if you consider that HE was the HOH and this was supposed to be HIS WEEK! In his mind, striking a deal with Christie to guarantee his safety for the next two weeks was worth doing the 6shooters’ dirty-work and putting up Bella, giving Christie the ability to hold on to her Diamond POV power for another week. But the reason this is flawed is because Christie and the 6shooters just blindsided him and voted him out of the game! PLUS, there was a brief moment during the POV Ceremony where Christie has a chance to use her power, and the minute she didn’t use it, Cliff could have gone back on his word and could have put up whomever he want. So in other words, it wasn’t a bad move for Cliff to negotiate for Christie to not use her power, but it WAS a horrible move to then go through with putting up Bella, someone that is not well-liked in the house and who was not at all gunning for Cliff.
In that moment, after Christie chooses to hold on to her Diamond POV power, can you imagine what would have happened if Cliff would have suddenly replaced Michie with Christie? 6shooter would have been officially broken up, and either Jack or Christie would have been guaranteed to go home. Sure, this move puts a humongous target on Cliff if Jack were to have gone home and Christie stayed, but I actually think that Christie would have been voted out in this scenario…and with her exit, Cliff would have flushed out her power as well. Talk about a big, bold move.
Projecting that scenario even further, Cliff could have spun it as not only a big move, but in campaigning for Jack to stay over Christie, he could still have worked on and honored his secret alliance with Michie and Jack, who may have been mad at Cliff for doing Christie dirty, but who frankly would have bigger fish to fry with Nick and Bella still in the game. For me, I see no value at all in Cliff choosing to be a “man of his word,” when the word of others in the house means diddly-squat.
Now instead, Cliff falls back to a position of having to rely on others for himself to go far in the game. He is banking on the couples having to turn on one another eventually, like they turned on Nick and Bella, and he is correct in assuming that this has to happen at some point. But is anybody at all out of the 6shooters going to opt to sit next to Cliff in the end? Um, no.
For some reason unbeknownst to me, the “others” in the house (Sam, Nicole, Jessica, Kat and Nick) just can’t seem to figure out that they need to band together in order to have a fighting chance, and this has been frustrating to watch. They all now talk openly about the fact that there is a six-person alliance in the house, yet none of them are willing to align themselves to try to fight the power. Bella may not have been the right person to rally around, but had the block consisted of Jack and Christie, all of the “others” would have been in a much better position than they will find themselves in heading into the next week.
What will the game look like when I return to this column the week of August 15th? Barring a double-eviction along the way, we will see at least two more house guests walk out the door, and just because Cliff may not be one of them doesn’t mean that his HOH this week was a success. It wasn’t. And unless he goes on to win the game, I’m standing by the assertion that his HOH was, by and large, a great big steaming pile of Hogg crap. But if there is anything like karma in this world, we’ll hopefully get to see Jack sitting in front of America like a man, facing questioning from Julie Chen-Moonves-bot about all of the horrendous stuff that has been seeping out of his mouth this Summer.
Quick Recap of the Week
HOH: Cliff
Original Nominations: Jack and Michie
POV Winner: Michie, who used it on himself
Final Nominations: Jack and Bella
Evicted: Bella, in a vote of 8-2 (votes for Bella: Michie, Christie, Tommy, Holly, Analyse, Kat, Jessica, Nicole…votes for Jack: Nick and Sam)
New HOH for upcoming week: TBD
Upcoming Big Brother Episode Schedule
- Sunday, 7/28 – See who is crowned as the new HOH, and who they nominate for eviction
- Wednesday, 7/31 – POV competition and ceremony
- Thursday, 8/1 – Next Live Eviction
Reminder! There will NOT be a Big Brother Recap on this site for the next two weeks, as we will return with coverage the week of August 15th.
TELL US – WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON JACK? DID CLIFF MAKE THE RIGHT MOVE IN PUTTING UP BELLA? AND IF YOU HAD TO ROOT FOR ANY ONE OF THE 6SHOOTERS TO WIN THE GAME, WHO WOULD IT BE?
[Photo Credits: Monty Brinton/CBS ©2019 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved]
