Things are full swing in the Big Brother house with the masked superhero Brendon and towel-caped Dominic trading missed swings and air punches in the garden. Welcome to the staged set where every kind of stunt is taken to the next level. We enter into this week with Evel Dick now long gone, Keith voted out by the house with some of the more clueless newbies still wondering who voted for who, and ever-shifting alliances along with new enemies made in a manner worthy of a chapter in Machiavelli’s treatise The Prince.

In case you missed Evel’s explanation of what caused him to voluntarily leave the house, you’ll find his side of the story in a video that goes almost ten minutes (warning: explicit language). In short, he didn’t want to leave Big Brother this season but he felt he had to depart the house for reasons he prefers to keep private and CBS was willing to honor. ‘Nuff said here, despite the continuous rumor mongering in the blogosphere that Evel makes some strong statements about. As a result, his estranged daughter Daniele is gifted the Golden Key that keeps her in the game through the top 10. Although she was initially upset with this development, we later see that she seems to relish her newfound role as the outsider on the sidelines as she listens in and watches the puppet dance of the veterans pulling the newbies’ strings.

During this past week, Rachel wastes no time exercising her (mouth about her) powers as HoH. That laugh of hers brings chills down the spine of even the spineless. Her writing is even scarier — read her HoH blog here. (And, looking at her photo, are those real?) For the week’s nomination, she puts Keith and Porsche on the chopping block. Following this, Rachel announces the first Power of Veto competition, with she & Brandon, Jeff & Jordan, and Keith & Porsche competing, and Adam as the host. Brandon and Rachel win the PoV contest handily. Rachel then announces at the Veto meeting that she will not to use the PoV on Keith & Porsche, thus leaving them on the chopping block. Both Keith and Porsche are (or should be) busy finding the votes to take their partner out of the game. Oddly enough, though, both Keith & Porsche seem to be happy with Rachel’s decision to leave them vulnerable to elimination, as they both think that the other will be the one to be evicted. Ultimately, Keith’s unfounded conspiracy theories and overconfidence become his downfall as the vote goes 6-4 against him with only Adam, Cassi, Dominic, and Lawon voting for him while Shelly and Kalia surreptitiously vote against him. The next HoH competition is the exclusive by-invitation-only Big Brother Open golf tournament that even Tiger Woods cannot compete in. While the other contestants putter around as usual like they do in the house, Jordan lands the ball in the 3 hole and takes the HoH trophy, keeping it in veteran hands.

This episode, the repercussions of the split newbie vote leads to an irreparable crack in their former alliance. Now suspicious of each other and with Adam falsely taking flak for switching his vote, Shelly and Kalia fly through the bombing zone unscathed. Shelly escapes scrutiny as she conspires with the veterans, Kalia simply stays silent about her vote with a downcast look, Lawon goes ballistic “like a hot volcano in Hawaii”, and Adam remains confused about what happened. Adam later goes to the HoH room to get Jeff and Jordan’s take on the game, saying that as the show’s veterans they know how to play the game better. Essentially, Adam does the wolves’ equivalent of a rollover and throat-exposing submission gesture while Jeff is the big bad wolf with gleaming yellow eyes that see Adam not as a wolf pup but the untrustworthy and vulnerable stray calf that left the newbie herd.

Meanwhile, Dominic (one of the few newbies whose actions Machiavelli might approve of) says “it’s time to get crazy and start making some deals” and the first person he seriously approaches is Danielle. She appears rather sinister with her hat shading her eyes from the glare of the garden lights. Dominic later privately confesses that he is about “to sell his soul” to Danielle as he approaches the idea of an alliance with her. Danielle, even though she holds the Golden Key which both provides her immunity yet leaves her powerless in other ways, realizes that she is in the potentially pivotal role of kingmaker. The other newbie not mentioned so far, Cassi, has earned Rachel’s ire as they engage in a passive-aggressive cat fight. Without exchanging a single word, Cassi walks around and behind Rachel as she grabs a snack and then sits in the dining area staring at Rachel’s back. Just as a cat would, Rachel senses a pair of eyes stabbing into her spine and eventually she turns around and they silently face each other off.

Jordan forces a break in the ongoing scheming by convening the Have and Have Not competition for the week. She states that the pairs of contestants will dress in a single ant and the winners will choose the two Have Not teams. With the help of a partially opened costume such they could more a bit more freely, Brendon & Rachel outrace the other teams, with Adam & Dominic not far behind. As a result of being in front of the costume and on the bottom when she and Lawon had to crawl, Kalia gets squished when they fall and she seems to be injured as she moans in pain at the end of the competition. Medic! It turns out Kalia is okay, but she is probably wondering if this is what she had signed up for when she sent her application to join the Big Brother household.

This episode closes with the nomination ceremony with Jordan still considering which pair to nominate for eviction. The two targets are Adam or Cassi and ultimately she chooses Adam and Dominic as the pair to be nominated for eviction in what she described as a “strategic” decision. Dominic doesn’t look all that surprised as he probably (correctly) surmises that Adam is the true target. Adam, on the other hand, is one step further away from the newbie herd and into the waiting wolf pack. His loud roar from a week ago has suddenly turned into a weak moo.

Finally, it’s America’s Vote time! CBS asks, what do you think of the House Guests? You can “make your mark” and cast your vote here. So, what’s the catch? You have to answer 20 questions starting with: Which House Guest would you want to give you mouth to mouth resuscitation?

Eek! Would you really want to go swimming with these people?