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(S09E33) "Personally, I want to win this veto because I want to be a power whore." - Ryan

Yep, I wanted to get the atmosphere just right for this review of the latest Big Brother 9 episode. I think Ryan's sentence says it all. Well, as far as his own strategy goes, that is. He's sitting pretty heading into the final three as his position of Head of Household gives him a definite spot in the three. But the remaining three must wheel and deal, scramble, sell their souls ... whatever it takes.

Read on past the jump for the full review.

Although the show wasn't really live, we had the ChenBot for the duration. I've enjoyed seeing her wardrobe change going from winter to spring. I'm really not sure what the black female biker boots were doing for her in the cold months in Southern California, but I guess she wanted to be seasonal. Tonight we were definitely in spring fever with a coral-colored sweater set and slacks. Big hair, but that's par for the course with her.

Did we have recaps? Well, of course we did. But I noticed they weren't as extensive tonight, most likely due to the amount of content they had to fit into the episode. Fewer recaps, for whatever reason, is a plus for me. They've been recapping the recaps too much in the start of the shows this season.

We're soon right after Ryan's nominations for eviction -- Sharon and Sheila. Sharon, who has practically lived on the block for nearly half the season, is taking it in stride. She's sure her alliance with Ryan will save her. Sheila is freaking, though. She thinks Ryan's nominations speech was "lame" and says it's all "frickin' painful." As a side note, I don't believe I've ever heard anyone use the word "frickin'" as often as Sheila does. Since I don't use it myself, I may even be misspelling it. Could it be "fricken"? I know, I digress.

As Sheila cries, it's Sharon who consoles her. You see, Sharon wants the final three to be herself, Ryan, and Sheila. She wants Adam out of the equation. Sharon tells Sheila just that, but Sheila is more concerned that the guys are controlling the game and it's "us against them." Sheila doesn't trust either Ryan or Adam.

Meanwhile, Ryan wants Sheila out of the game. He firmly believes that both Adam and Sharon would pick him to go to the final two with him dependent on one of them winning head of house. He thinks that if Sheila won, she'd pick either Adam or Sharon and he'd be out of the door. He's probably right on the latter. But you have to wonder if Sheila has it in her to win a grueling three-part HOH comp. Thinking back to past seasons, they can be tough! However, Ryan doesn't seem to be thinking along those lines -- he just wants Sheila out before the final HOH comp.

Adam has gone all sneaky all of a sudden. He's been the nice guy all along, the guy who would rather not commit to anyone rather than betray them. Oh my, he's gone astray! He told us in a Diary Room segment that at this point he'll do or say anything needed to get into the final two. Nope, he's not even talking final three. He wants to be in the last two and let the jury decide if he'll win the big bucks.

When Sharon and Ryan talked, he told her that he wants her to be safe. Sharon told him that she's sure Adam will vote to keep Sheila. But Ryan thinks Adam will vote the way he wants him to -- which is to keep Sharon in the game. Distrust of Adam abounds as Sheila hits him up for a vote commitment. After all, she's had his back the entire game. Naturally, she went to tears as she told him that. Adam tried to tell her that until POV, he's at risk himself. She snapped that he was going to have to get his hands bloody, he can't always be the nice guy to everyone, and that some of his decisions have really pissed him off. She told him, I guess. If their relationship was different, that little rant at him could have sealed her fate right then and there.


Then it was time for Sheila and Adam to be shackled together, their booby prize in the recent luxury competition. They're so much more entertaining than Kail and Amber in the same situation last season. Adam's a 12-year-old boy in a man's body and Sheila tends to whine and fuss for effect. As Ryan told us in a Diary Room segment, they're the most dysfunctional marriage you could imagine. And, yeah. It was priceless. Ryan and Sharon shackled together wouldn't have had the same entertainment value.

The night before the final power of veto comp, Sheila noticed that Sharon had gone missing. Adam said she was probably scheming with Ryan. Sure enough, Sharon was up in the HOH room once again telling Ryan how Adam had to go this week. Sharon wants to be in the final two with Ryan and it just won't happen if Adam stays. She's sure he wants to evict her this week. Back in the dysfunctional bed, Sheila told Adam that only he and she are deserving of being in the final two. It's become a house divided with Adam on all sides except Sharon's side.
The idea behind the final POV comp was a good one, but I found the layout very amateurish. The yard was divided into four quadrants. On the walls were images of horses with headless jockeys. There were bales of hay set so the houseguests had to jump or crawl over them as they first took a jury houseguest's face, plastered it on the jockey, then matched two clues to the person. They had to go through the entire jury so far and in the order of eviction. No one seemed to have trouble with the order of eviction, but the clues were the stumbling block. Ryan was not only getting most of the clues right when compared to the other, but he was also practically hurdling the hay bales. He was so far ahead from the start that it was no surprise that he won the power of veto.

Ryan's winning was enough to make Sheila refer to herself in the third person -- "I don't know where this leaves Sheila." Uh-oh. She knows just about as well as we know that Ryan is likely to want her out this week. But there's always some time for last minute scheming and scrambling, right?

After we have a segment with Julie Chen reminding us that if the nominations remain the same Adam will cast the sole vote for eviction (duh!), it's time to get down and dirty in the game of Big Brother. First, Adam and Ryan talked. Adam kept telling Ryan he would do whatever he wants him to do if the nominations remain the same. He'll vote Sheila out if that's what he wants. Ryan turned to his bully mode, showing the side which makes me describe him as such, looking at Adam and reminding him that he holds the power and his fate in the game. He tells Adam if he makes one false move, he could boot him. He power trips. Adam tells him he'll do whatever, dude.


But then Adam talks to Sharon, mysteriously calling her "dude," too. The anxiety is getting to him, it must be. He suddenly jumps out with the offer to save her if she promises to take him to the final two. Of course, she'd have to win HOH to do that, but he jumped at making the deal with her. She didn't commit, but immediately ran to Ryan with some ammunition for her agenda to get Adam on the block and out of the house this week.

A Diary Room segment with Adam during this part shows a light bulb going off in his head. Why, Sharon and Ryan just might be working together. D'oh! When Ryan confronted him, Adam lied and tried to turn it around that Sharon approached him for a deal. He even said she hinted that she and Ryan were working together. Ryan didn't really seem to believe him, but maybe bro' blood is thicker than ... um ... whatever he has going with Sharon. He was taken aback when Adam mentioned he could be working with her and lied to Adam denying it. Ah, the lies that bind, got to love 'em, eh?


It was then time for Julie Chen to talk to them. When she asked Ryan if it was dangerous holding all the power, I expected him to jump up and yell, "Power! Gimme power, I want POWER!" Instead, he just got all smug and said how he's not worried. Julie made a mistake in saying that Sharon has the record for being nominated, five times in a row on the block. She corrected it later and made it the six times that it is.

The veto meeting was held with Julie peeking in on the plasma screen. Ryan said one good thing about winning the POV is that no one can change his nominations. He continued on saying that the nominations will remain the same and he has no reason to change them. Sharon and Sheila remain on the block and it's Adam with the sole vote for eviction.

Sharon gave the same exact speech she has given every week. She seemed to be fairly confident that she'd be safe. When Sheila spoke, her voice trembled and a few tears were shed. She said she wants to stay, but she'd take a page from Sharon -- "If it's God's will, I will say goodbye." She burst into tears and hugged Sharon.

Then it was Emo Adam's turn to bat. His voice cracked as he voted to evict Sharon. It sounded like he had a prepared speech, yet he just croaked out a few words as his eyes filled with tears. All that really came out was that it was a tough decision and Sharon was evicted. I swear Sheila cried more than Sharon. They all hugged and Sharon left the house with class and almost a bounce in her step. The coverage of the house after she left had Ryan bleeping, so we didn't hear much of what was said. Sheila practically collapsed weeping. She was sure she was going to be evicted.

Sharon was very upbeat and probably more personable than I've seen her all season as she talked to Julie. She's sure that Adam plans to go to the final two with Sheila if he can swing it and said that Ryan might regret keeping Adam instead of going into the final three with herself and Sheila. She also said that she's going to give the Jacob relationship more time as they do share a lot together.

The goodbye messages were the kicker. Both Sheila and Adam left teary nice messages. But Ryan outright lied in his, putting the blame for her eviction solely on Adam. To think of it, the editing of the show puts it on Adam, too. But the editing of the show isn't always the reality of reality television. I hope Sharon reads some of the feeds reports and finds out how things really go down without the television editing.

Then it was time to start the first part of the final HOH competition. All three houseguests take part in the first part. The winner of the first part sits out the second part while the other two vie for the win. The winner of the second part takes on the winner of the first part in the final part. The winner of the final part is crowned HOH and decides which of the two will go into the final two with him (or her).

This competition was endurance, called "Up a Creek." The backyard was done up with a little lake (or really large puddle), a platform with boogie boards and waterskiing tow ropes. Water poured over the boogie boards and the platform went to an angle, then BB gave them rain. If a houseguest takes both hands off of the tow rope, they will be eliminated.

All three looked pretty stable as the show ended. Tomorrow night we'll see the end of the first HOH part, the second part (taped), and the third part will be live along with the final eviction.