Week 8

[Nicole Schaffrich]

I'M FINALLY HOH!!!!

This bridesmaid just became a bride, bitches!

More to come after work.

[Nicole Schaffrich]

It's been a very brief but very interesting week. Let me start off by saying that I am SO excited that I finally won HoH! I can't believe that it took me this long and I wish it had happened during a regularly formatted week (I'm still a bit confused by the haste of this round, unless maybe it was just to make sure things didn't drag over the Thanksgiving holiday), but I'm so grateful either way. The unusual format of my HoH reign did come with some challenges, though.

Firstly, I knew all along that, if I won, Dustin and Steven would be nominated. Everything I said to them was the truth and there was nothing personal about my decision; I made a strategically sound promise to the girls that we would work together to make it to the end. Sure, a hiccup occurred along the way (named Jun), but other than that, everyone has stuck to the plan…as far as I know. We agreed that Steven would be evicted before Dustin and that was purely for reasons related to gameplay. Steven is simply a better player: he's a bigger competitive threat and, in some ways, a better talker. He appeals to a different register from Dustin. I have genuine respect for Steven because he was always demonstrated respect towards me. And if not for my promise to the girls, I would have loved to work with him. In fact, after he evicted Jun, I even contemplated trying to work out some kind of deal with him. But the abridged week made that impossible because I had to make my nominations without having any time as Head of Household to press for info or work out arrangements. Moreover, I never had the chance to warn Dustin or Steven in advance that they would be on the block. That's almost sure to make an (even bigger) enemy out of the person who eventually survives the eviction…in this case, Dustin. So while I believe that Steven deserves to be in the game more than Dustin does (not that that's really all that relevant, anyway), I had to ensure that Steven was evicted because I knew he'd come after me - and possibly succeed in evicting me - if he stayed.

Initially, I didn't think it would take very much effort. After all, our initial plan was to evict Steven at this stage of the game, anyway. But then Renny filled me in on something that Porsche had heard from Sarah. In confidence, Sarah told Porsche that she was considering using the Power of Veto on Steven in order to make sure that Dustin was evicted, because she says she feels closer to Steven. Well, that's a red flag, isn't it? Firstly, it casts a rather large shadow of doubt over Sarah because it strangely echoes Jun's sentiments from last week. In fact, I found myself asking nearly the exact same question: If we're all sticking to the plan and they're both going to be evicted anyway, why mess with the order? And more importantly, why mess with it so drastically? Surely, Sarah knew that using the Veto on Steven would force either Porsche or Renny onto the block. And with only three votes being cast this week, that would mean Sarah and Steven would control the vote and possibly send home one of my allies. The other central reason that this news concerned me was because I thought Sarah and I had worked out a private arrangement. If this was an important consideration for her, why not bring it up to me? Why go to Porsche instead?

I made it clear - without being pushy - that I wanted Steven to be evicted. Would I have respected the girls' opinions if they told me they preferred to evict Dustin first instead? Absolutely. But this wasn't a unanimous feeling. Instead, Porsche pointed out that Steven was offering her a similar deal of safety, saying that he would nominate Renny and me if he won HoH. (Of course he would, he nominated us both last week!) And while I appreciated Porsche's honesty and her forwardness in discouraging Sarah from believing Steven, this brought up an entirely new concern. This whole game, I've been worried about securing some kind of insurance plan for myself…unsuccessfully, I might add. If a member of our alliance wins HoH, I don't want to be at the bottom of the totem pole. It's a shitty thing to say, but I need to cover my own ass and make sure I can survive the week. I don't fault Porsche or Sarah for doing that at all; it's good gameplay. But it also says something about their loyalty to our alliance, especially if they were considering evicting Dustin in order to maintain the insurance plan that they believed to be more beneficial. Renny brought this up to me and it made complete sense. Now is the time for the two of us to work on our own insurance plan. I don't believe that Dustin is a major competitive threat in this game. To my memory, he only performed noticeably well in one challenge: the mini HoH that he lost because we voted for Porsche to win. But just because he likely won't win the next HoH, that doesn't mean there isn't a possibility he'll be in a position to vote against me. Renny suggested we tell Dustin that Porsche and Sarah were strongly considering voting to evict him; the goal is to swing his favour in our direction in case one of us ends up on the block next to either Porsche or Sarah. It's dirty, yes, but this close to the end of the game, it's no holds barred. I still have my loyalty to Porsche and Sarah, but my loyalty to Renny trumps that. And my loyalty to myself trumps everyone altogether.