Big Brother - Season 11, Episode 13 Recap

Welcome to what could possibly be the most explosive BB episode of the season so far. We have the possible eviction of either Lydia or Ronnie, and either one could be extremely entertaining. There’s also the added drama of the “mystery power”, and imagine if either of the nominees were the recipients (highly doubtful, though). We’re also bound to see footage of the various fights of the last two evenings, although producers are going to have a tough time editing hours of potential footage into one or two short segments.

So here we go with the aftermath of Michelle declining to use the POV. Michelle says she was happy to not use the veto, as taking Lydia down would not guarantee Ronnie’s departure. Jordan explains the obvious - that all they need are four votes to eliminate Ronnie, who adds that Michelle’s not using the veto shows she has “no loyalty” to anybody. He admits he doesn’t know if he has the votes to stay.

Kevin heads outside to a depressed Lydia, who tells him that he may want to “avoid me like the plague”. As always, he gives her a pep talk.

Michelle and Jordan are now sitting outside talking about books, and an annoyed Russell walks by and asks if he interrupted their conversation. He says in the diary room that he doesn’t believe they were talking about books, and then asks Jordan what they were really talking about. She jokes that she can tell he thinks she’s “scheming” about him, and Russell says in the diary room he needs to find out “what’s going down”.

We jump back to the HOH, and Russell is grilling Michelle about the conversation. Michelle tries to laugh it off, and adds that Jessie, Chima, and Natalie want him out. Uh oh. She then makes the mistake of telling him about meetings she had with that crowd, and that he shouldn’t trust Chima because he’s a liar. Russell then goes off on Chima about how jealous she always is of other girls talking to him.

Now Jessie is in the HOH with Russell, and he asks when Jessie was going to inform him of Chima’s backdoor plan. “Chima would have to have the power to do that”, Jessie explains, and when pressed he adds that he’s never heard Chima say anything like that. Russell then throws out Michelle’s name as his source.

Natalie is now with Jessie and Russell outside, and Russell complains that he doesn’t know who is lying to him. Yeah, we know where this headed now that Natalie is involved. Russell sends Natalie off to grab Chima for a conversation, which she is more than happy to do. Of course, she also fills in Chima just exactly why he wants to talk, and tells her to play nice even though “we want him out in the long run”.

Chima finally heads upstairs, and the anger is automatically transferred to Michelle. “Bring her in here”, demands Chima. She heads down to grab her, and Michelle immediately knows there’s trouble. Michelle says that the backdoor story is NOT true, which sets Russell off. “You just said she wants to win HOH so she can backdoor you!” Michelle explains that she thought the two of them were a team, and “that we’d share information with each other and not the entire house”. Chima denies saying anything, and all three just end up going back and forth (as usual).

Chima, though, is offended that Russell says he doesn’t care what she has to say, and this makes her think that HE is lying to her. He storms out of the room, calling them “debases”, and then the two of them start screaming at each other while the house looks on. They are literally in each other’s faces, and after it heads outside it carries on even louder. “Her mouth was going 90 miles a minute…that girl is sassy”, Jordan says.

After Chima heads back inside, Russell yells that she needs to “act her age”. Uh oh, here’s round two! Michelle and Natalie pull Chima back, and in the bedroom Chima says that while Russell wasn’t her target before, he is now. “It’s season of the rat, part two”, says Michelle as the segment finally ends.

When we return from commercials, it’s time for Ronnie to work the house. He says to Jessie, though, that he knows he’s going home, and that “I accept it”. Yet, in the diary room, he explains that all he needs are four vote, and he has three. He thinks that Jordan may feel sorry for him, and toss him a sympathy vote. Jessie is skeptical, but encourage him to try.

Unfortunately for Ronnie, Jeff has high hopes of playing the “romance card”. Cue the sexy, porn-ish background music. “I’ve been looking forward to kissing her, and tonight is the night”. Sure enough, we hear their lips. Jordan says he’s a good kisser - “he’s not sloppy, wet”.

Sure enough, here comes Ronnie. “I’m the houseguest who refuses to leave.” Bad timing, you silly man, as Jordan and Jeff continue to kiss. Sure enough, he talks about how humble and full of class he is, although a fart noise interrupts his speech. Sure enough, it was Ronnie who farted. He begins begging for a sympathy vote, and Jeff laughs in the diary room that he was working on Jordan while Ronnie was working on them. “I can’t say the word, but Ronnie is one of those guys who stops you from doing something with a lady, if you know what I mean.”

Silliness finished, we move on to Julie’s interview with the house. She comments on Lydia’s hideous eye makeup, but says her first question is for Jordan. Yeah, you know what’s coming here. Oh wait, she’s asking about the Chima/Russell fight! She says all she could think about was to “stay out of the way”. Oh, you really are a precious angel. “It was very entertaining.”

Julie moves on to Michelle, and asks her about the mood of the house. “I think the house is definitely divided”, she replies. You think? “It’s tense tonight.” Julie asks if it’s never not tense, and of course that’s right.

Ugh, we move on to Jessie, and his first ever week on slop. Did America’s gift of squid and squash help at all? “It helped for like the first three days, and that’s it.” Ugh. He reminds us again that he’s a body builder, so he can eat anything for more than seven days.

Russell is in the HOH when we return, and Julie begins by asking him if his emotions got the better of him. He agrees, and he goes on about how it was a moment where everybody snapped. Julie then asks about how he will deal with the backlash, and he admits it will be tricky. He then kisses her ass about how beautiful she is, and Julie says that won’t help him win the game. The final question is which of the two - Jeff or Jessie - will be the better ally. He really doesn’t answer, as expected.

Julie then moves on to the coup d’etat vote, and after 12 million votes it’s time to tell us who won. No surprise, it’s Jeff!!! Unfortunately, he can’t pronounce “coup d’etat” as he reads the instructions on the car. “This is crazy. I love it!”

It’s now time to return to the house, and Julie asks the house if the “coup-holder” wants to use it. Nobody stands up, so we move on to the final speeches. Lydia goes first, and babbles about being blessed and grateful.

Ronnie then stands up, and immediately starts crying as he thanks those who cast him because “being in this house is an absolute dream come true for me on so many levels.” He thanks Jessie for helping him lose twenty pounds in the house, and then says that when people go vote they need to decide who will help them get to the end. He ends it by saying that his wife told him he needs to see the good in everyone, and that he does see it in everybody but Michelle. “I have come to believe, and I wanted to say some very truthful things but I’m going to be nice, that you’re the worst human being I’ve ever had the misfortune of meeting. And I absolutely feel sorry for you.” Ugh! Double ugh!!!

Julie cracks that she doesn’t think he’ll be getting a vote from Michelle, and the voting indeed begins with Kevin. He votes to evict Ronnie, but Natalie votes to evict Lydia in hopes of a “miracle”. Chima is up next, and votes to evict Lydia. It’s 2 - 1 in favor of Ronnie!!! Nice planning by CBS!

After another commercial break, Jessie also votes against Lydia. Michelle, though, votes to evict Ronnie, as does Jeff and Jordan. (Gotta love Jordan being the deciding vote.) When the announcement is made, Ronnie hugs everybody but Michelle, who cries out he had no “ill will” towards him. “Be quiet…and scene!” he yells as he walks out.

Everybody is pretty subdued as we wait for the interview, and Julie does indeed start by asking his rant against Michelle. “She has no absolute loyalty to anybody in that house other than her”, he explains. God, I wish I was doing this interview. “I made a miscalculation of trusting her last week...and she absolutely flipped on me the minute I was nominated.”

Julie does throw a somewhat tough question at him regarding whether the same could be said of him. Come on, you know it’s “different” when it’s for Ronnie’s benefit. “The difference between Michelle and myself is that I have ultimate loyalty to Jessie, Natalie, and Chima…Michelle would ultimately betray anybody.” He babbles on about “actions”, as he had from day one. He brags that when she refused to see the logic of keeping him, he “put the vice on” her to try to sway her vote. Ugh.

The goodbye messages start with Kevin telling him that “he got what he deserved”. Jessie tells him that he’s awesome, and Russell says that it was a “strategic move”. Chima also says he’s awesome, and vows to get Russell for him. Michelle immediately says how much she hates him. “You lied to me; you manipulated me; backstabbed me over and over. Get the heck out the door, you dork.” Good riddance.

It’s now time for the HOH competition, and as expected it’s a questions comp. We see footage from last night of viewer messages to the house, and everybody’s reactions to the silliness. Sure enough, the competition (“Say What?”) are true/false questions about these messages. I’m not going to replay each question, but on the first question Lydia and Michelle are eliminated. Everybody answers the next question correctly, but on the following round Jessie is eliminated. Jordan and Jeff are the next to go out, leaving Natalie, Chima, and Kevin. Looks like Jeff will have to use his mystery power. Chima is the only one with the correct answer on the next question, and wins HOH! Will she do as she promised to Ronnie?

We return one last time to the house, as Chima squeals her happiness, and thanks Ronnie for the study group they had about the messages. As always, she laughs at her own joke when she replies “lotion” to Julie’s question about what she’s looking forward to receiving as HOH. This is going to be an interesting week. The final question is whether she looks forward to the power or luxuries more. No surprise, it’s the power and safety.

Wait, we’re not done. We get a viewer question for Lydia about what kind of tattoo she’d get to depict her time on Big Brother. “It would be a gigantic key with ‘11’ inscrolled on the top of it, maybe with Kevin‘s name on it since he‘s my sugar bear.” Kevin is then asked who he thinks needs a makeover the most, and he answers with Natalie. (Duh!)

Filler time is now completed, and the show is over. See you on Sunday!