Big Brother - Season 11, Episode 24 Recap

It’s game night in tonight’s episode of Big Brother. Besides the POV competition, a good portion of tonight’s episode is bound to center around a luxury competition called “Pandora’s Box” that is supposed to be a “game changer”. We’ll see if that’s really true, as BB producers like to exaggerate the ramifications of almost anything. Oh yeah, we’ll also see a revisit to the past as the HG’s see some strange creatures lurking behind the mirrors. Exciting stuff, I know.

Let’s start off as we always do on a Tuesday with the (predictable) reactions to Kevin’s nominations of Jeff and Michelle. “In my eyes, Kevin’s really just a snake”, says Jeff. “Let’s go to war, and let the best person win.” Kevin adds that he doesn’t care which of the two goes home, so even if one of them wins veto one of the strongest goes home.

In the storage room, Kevin and Natalie tell Jeff that he’s not going home. Oh really? Natalie says what we’ve all been saying for the last two weeks - that Jeff is dumb for thinking they were serious about a deal.

Michelle walks into the pool room, giggling as usual, and tells Jordan that she “lucked out”. Jordan doesn’t agree, and she thinks “I’ll be gone the next week”…which may be the smartest thing she’s said all season. Michelle says that she “has to win veto”, but kind of catches herself because that means Jordan would go up. She adds in the diary room that at this point she doesn’t trust anybody. The piano music continues as Jordan complain about how it “sucks” that she let Jeff down.

Moving on, the acoustic guitars commence as Jordan and Jeff are talking about how they have to win veto. Jordan says the best case scenario would be for Jordan to win veto, because Jeff would come down and then Natalie would have to go up. Jeff instructs her to try her hardest.

We then see Kevin walk into the HOH, and is shocked to see a door with a question mark. He reads the instructions that tell him to open the door to “Pandora’s Box”, which could lead to something good or bad for the entire house. He’s told to look at the screen, which instructs him to stick his hand in a hole (hehehe) to release $10,000. Dumbfounded, he babbles to himself for a couple of minutes (I’m sure as instructed by the producers) before saying he’s going to do it “because I’m a greedy bitch”. He finally opens the door, and is shocked to find a “total room”. Tentatively, he sticks his hand in the box, and screams when he’s locked in. Of course, that means it’s time for commercials.

Back from the break, we hear Kevin squealing in agony as the rest of the house is downstairs with no clue what’s going on. Michelle and others wander out to find money floating from the sky, as Kevin views from a monitor next to the box. Natalie says somebody should go get Kevin, and also that she’s always wanted “money to rain”. Jordan babbles nonsense about how money doesn’t fall from trees. What? Jeff adds that he’s stuffing it anywhere and everywhere he can.

Kevin is not happy to be stuck in the box as money falls, and after a message appears that there’s a key somewhere in the house to let him he starts screaming for Natalie and Jeff. Natalie appears in the HOH, and Kevin tells her to go look for it. She rushes downstairs, but instead of looking for the key she continues to pick up money. To say Kevin’s not happy is an understatement. “I bet if this was Jessie bent over the box, you’d be quick to help him out.” He’s probably right.

As Natalie continues to pick up cash, Jeff figures out that there has to be some kind of catch. He wanders upstairs, and Kevin wonders how he can entice him to get him out of the box. He yells out that the only way to keep the money is to find the key, because that’s the “only way” they’d help him out.

Jeff continues to pick up some cash, but is also sort of looking for the key. He finally finds it stuffed into the couch. Instead of assisting Kevin, though, he goes back outside to gather more cash. “This house is filled with some greedy folks!’

After seeing the totals of what everybody grabbed, Natalie wanders back upstairs. She believes that there’s an additional $10,000 waiting to be released, and doesn’t believe what Kevin is instructing her. She concludes that she has to steal the key from Jeff to claim the prize. Oh boy. She heads back downstairs, and Jeff immediately concludes that she knows something. She follows him up the stairs, and he’s a bit creeped out. “You’re not going to figure it out without me”, she claims. He finally releases Kevin, and he heads out to nab the few hundred bucks he can grab. Kevin again babbles about how everybody is out for themselves. Well, that was an interesting time waster - at least better than Jeff and Jordan cuteness or Natalie freaking out over bugs.

When we return, it’s POV time! Everybody has astronaut costumes, and they’ll be called out to the yard one at a time. Kevin says the Pandora’s Box contest really showed Natalie’s true colors, so he HAS to win POV. Yeah, right. He’s up first, and sure enough it’s the morph game. Funny how they don’t show the aliens that sort of scared the HG’s earlier that evening.

There’s no need to go through the play-by-play of this game, but we see Kevin sort of struggle to come up with the correct combinations. (It is funny, though, when Kevin gets catty about Laura’s “horse teeth”.) He’s pretty confident that he’ll win this game.

Natalie’s up next, and she likes her odds because the only way she can go up is if Jordan wins. She seems to do much better than Kevin, and she makes a comment about how her and Michelle would make a horrible baby. “I felt confident in my time, and I might come out with a victory.”

It’s now Jordan’s turn, and she says she has to win because Jeff has carried her in the game. As you might expect, she doesn’t do so well…but it’s all because of the alien portion of the morph because she’s really observant. Sure you are, my dear. Funny thing is that she really struggles with the morph of herself and Jeff. She knows she didn’t do well.

Before she begins, Michelle says that she HAS to win because “I’m pretty sure the house is against me”. Her strategy is to immediately jump to the board after pushing the buzzer. She appears to whip through them pretty quickly…except for the last one.

Finally, it’s Jeff’s turn. He repeats Michelle’s “win or go home” mantra, and adds a “do or die” cliché for the hell of it. He also whips through the first couple, but like Jordan he stumbles over the morphing of himself and Jordan. “Obviously, I need to spend more time looking in the mirror.” Poor Laura’s “horse teeth” are again mentioned. I bet she’s loving that right this second.

Everybody is brought back out to the backyard for the results. Kevin’s time is 3:05, but Natalie beat him at 2:55. Jordan, though, took 5:09, but Michelle jumps ahead at 1:52. It’s all up to Jeff. Unfortunately, Jeff’s days are numbered, as it took him 3:01 to complete the contest. For some reason, she starts giggling again, but she adds in the diary room that it proved that she can play this game by herself.

Jordan and Jeff are crushed, as they know that Michelle is going to take herself off the block…which means that Jordan and Jeff will be the nominees. Michelle attempts to hug Jeff, but he tells her to “get away from me”. He adds that it would have been nice for Jordan to “pull her share”, but he has to live “with the consequences”. Oh, don’t be such a sore loser, Jeff.

Cue the acoustic guitars one more time, as Jeff and Jordan are having another pity party. Jordan asks if he wants to be left alone, and he says “it doesn’t matter”. She apologizes over and over, but Jeff says he’s pointing the finger at himself. “I’m not going to talk smack. I’m not going to go out like that.’

Upstairs, Natalie and Kevin are celebrating, and Kevin notes that it’s kind of better this way. He can now tell Jeff that he had his chance to get off the block. “We need to send Michelle home” next week, and Natalie says she’s going to be fighting “100%” so she can be the one to send her home. At this point, even Kevin is rolling his eyes at this weekly pronouncement. “I believe in positive affirmations, but Natalie hasn’t won anything!”

The Jeff/Jordan pity party has moved outside, and Jordan once again sighs that she’s “so mad”. Michelle wanders out, and Jordan heads inside. Michelle says that she’s going to fight for Jeff to stay by talking to Kevin. Jeff is skeptical, but Michelle says without him she doesn’t have much of a shot at winning. Jeff is a bit confused, thinking that Michelle’s idea is to convince Kevin to put up Natalie, but she really means to fight to have Jordan evicted. Hmmmm. He asks her to talk to Kevin for him.

Jordan is now in tears as Jeff joins her back in the house. “I don’t do good under pressure at all.” She adds in the diary room that if it wasn’t for him she would have been gone a long time ago. She wants him to campaign for votes, as she thinks he deserves to stay over her. “I don’t care if you throw me under the bus.”

Operation Save Jeff then commences, as Kevin and Michelle are sitting by the hot tub. She thinks the best final three would be the two of them with Jeff because Natalie has so many friends in the jury house. He claims that he has thought about this very scenario, and being with her is one of his “better scenarios”. They both claim to believe that Natalie is sticking with Kevin only to eventually discard him. Kevin claims in the diary room that she’s making sense, but anybody watching the feeds knows he really doesn’t believe this.

With minutes left in the broadcast, it’s obviously time for the veto ceremony. As Michelle contemplates her decision (what decision?), the rest of the house dutifully comments on what they think will happen. Kevin makes it sound like he’s actually thinking about putting up Natalie. Yeah, right.

Finally, Michelle brings everybody into the living room. Obviously, she does take herself off the block, and Kevin obviously puts up Jordan. Michelle babbles that next week Kevin is her target, and Natalie babbles about how Michelle used “what little brains she has” to take herself off the block. She’s also confident that she’s going to win the $500,000! Jordan says that it “stinks” to be up with Jeff, but she still wants Jeff to stay instead of her. Jeff babbles that its’ the “worst case scenario”, and that if he stays Kevin better watch out next week.

Kevin concludes the broadcast by noting that gay cast members have historically not made good decisions in the house, so he need to make sure he made “the smartest decision”. He’s got a point there.

See you on Thursday for Jeff’s demise!