Big Brother

THE POWER OF THE VETO

Comfortable with having nominated Marcellas and Lori and with how she presented them to the group, Lisa remarks, "I don't think my nomination reasons could have been better. I'm proud of myself." Lori is pragmatic about it, but disappointed: "I haven't gotten to know them well enough, and they haven't gotten to know me well enough." Marcellas is sad for Lori because of her reaction, but tries to bond with the others. Eric tells him that maybe he can stay in the House if he learns the secret BIG BROTHER handshake they've developed. Danielle approaches Lisa in the HoH room to thank her for being "professional" about her nominations, but Lisa doesn't trust her motivations. Still trying to maintain alliances, Josh approaches Jason, trying to convince him they should work together in the coming weeks. Jason agrees, but later admits he doesn't trust Josh. Oblivious, Josh says that he thinks Jason "wants to be like me, and I can use that." The normally sweet Jason says that if Josh screws him over, he's ready to do "dirty, nasty things" to get back at him. Looking ahead to the second nominations, Gerry, Lisa and Chiara want Jason, whom they call "Wonderboy," to be a "dummy nominee" to go up against whomever they really want to evict.

Preparing for the next Food Competition, the HouseGuests are asked to each name five foods they're craving. Josh likens the experience to a "tooth extraction without anesthesia" because everyone throws out random, unusual choices. All of Amy's choices are different kinds of cheese. Over a card game, Josh and Marcellas discuss why Josh should vote to keep Marcellas. Getting down to the point of BIG BROTHER, Marcellas declares he should stay only if Josh thinks he can beat him at the end. Inside, Jason tells Danielle Josh approached him about teaming up, which makes Danielle nervous because nobody has approached her at all. Danielle thinks Josh is pulling the strings in the House, manipulating everything, including Lisa as HoH.

AMY IS THE CHEESE
The Food Competition is called Eggs Over Easy. All the requested items are written on eggs, which are tossed over a wall from man to woman. The HouseGuests can keep whatever items they safely catch and place in a collection basket. Among the variety of items they get are sardines, corn dogs, yogurt, scallops and, to Amy's delight, varieties of cheese. After the competition, things deteriorate into a playful egg-fight between Josh and Amy, leaving her with yolk dripping down her face. Later, when their winnings appear in the supply closet, Jason hides Amy's cheese as a joke, making her very sad. Feeling bad, Jason eventually reveals the hidden stash.

MUSICAL BEDS
Marcellas refers to the knowledge of his homosexuality as a "horse that's out of the barn," meaning it's something he's pretty sure everyone knows by now. That night, he hops into the double bed with Chiara and Eric after Lori has concerns about her kids seeing her spooning. Across the room, Roddy shares a bed with Lisa, putting six people in a room meant for four. Despite this arrangement, an ongoing flirtation is developing between Roddy and Chiara. She calls him "Hottie" instead of Roddy, while he says in the Diary Room that she's a "great-looking girl." He asks when they can smooch, and wants her to join him in the shower. He whispers to her at night that he's learned she's a "super great girl," while she teasingly calls him a "dork" for telling her.

CHESS AND CARDS AS METAPHORS
Jason uses the metaphor of the chess game he's playing with Josh to describe the overall BIG BROTHER experience. There are pawns, pieces you need to protect and pieces you need to sacrifice in order to win. "We all knew, in order to win, we had to remove 11 pawns from the board," he says. Gerry uses the playing cards to make his point to Marcellas. On the counter he lays out 12 cards, one for each HouseGuest. Taking away 3 for HoH and the two nominees, leaving nine cards, Gerry illustrates that Marcellas needs to line up support from five people and work them. Whether Gerry's overall strategy includes protecting Marcellas isn't clear, but he says he's worked out the order in which he needs people to be evicted in order for him to win. Part of his plan is to tell Danielle that Eric, admitting he's more threatened by her than he is by Lori, pledges his support to Danielle. Calling himself a "negotiator working angles," Gerry hopes he's not working too many of them.

EVERYTHING CHANGES
Danielle asks Marcellas if he'd be happy to stay in the House; at first, he's not sure. He decides to give everyone a "reason not to evict me" by turning on his sense of humor. His desire to stay in the House might work out for him. A mysterious message appears on the plasma screen: "What is the meaning of Ø? Find out tonight." The HouseGuests think they've done something wrong and expect punishment, but instead it's the introduction of the biggest wrinkle in the game: the Veto Challenge. Lisa explains that the HouseGuests will compete for Veto power weekly; the winner will have the power to take one nominee off the chopping block, if they so wish. (A winning nominee cannot take him- or herself off the chopping block.) The reigning HoH will then nominate a replacement--anyone else except the Veto holder.

REVERSAL OF FORTUNE
With this stunning change, everybody watches as their strategies fly out the window. Gerry says he was "upset in a scared kind of way," and Josh says he sees "all of [his] work crumbling." Lori, with everything to gain and everything to lose, was "basically speechless. I don't know how this affects my position." The first Veto Competition involves shooting balls from a hydraulic gun at mannequins with HouseGuest photos for heads. Aiming at the HouseGuest each competitor wants eliminated from the competition and calling their name before firing, each HouseGuest gets four cannon shots. HouseGuests collecting three balls in the baskets beneath their photo are eliminated from the competition. Eric doesn't want the Veto, so he shoots at himself. The final three are Josh, Marcellas and Gerry. Marcellas eliminates Josh, while both Gerry and Marcellas have two balls in their baskets, leaving Lori to decide. After a few missed shots, she eliminates Marcellas, leaving Gerry as the first Veto holder. Marcellas is pleased, noting that "Gerry and I can wreak havoc" if he's saved, but Lisa thinks Gerry will have "screwed himself" if he messes with her nominations.