Big Brother 13 recap: Thursday, September 8, 2011

Julie Chen, dressed in a sleek all-black pantsuit opens the show tonight. What is that block thing hanging on her necklace? It looks like some kind of Chenbot remote operation device. She tells us the Power of Veto will “make one Houseguest the most powerful player in the game.” Don’t you love the way she rolls her lips when she says that?

We get a brief recap of events leading to Adam’s winning the Power of Veto, Kalia’s departure and Adam winning the next Head of Household competition. Tonight, we will find out who Adam nominates for eviction, who wins the Power of Veto and who gets sent packing, leaving the final three Houseguests to duke it out in the final round of HoH competitions. In Diary Room, Porsche admits that she’s pretty much on her own, while Adam says he’s firmly in with the veterans Rachel and Jordan.

Adam calls the other three Houseguests to his new Head of Household room. The first thing we see is a framed photo of him and his girlfriend, Fara, which he kisses fondly. He’s hoping to win the money so they can start a life together. There’s even a picture of Tori Spelling kissing him on the cheek!

Nominations are today and the gals are nervous. The first one to see Adam is Porsche. She tells him that she thinks they have a good shot together. He listens to her and says it would be great, but he doesn’t make any promises. Rachel drops in next with a “Hello!” It’s an unusual situation for Rachel to be in, with Adam in power for once. She tells him, “I’m scared to death, obviously.” Adam is loving it. Jordan is the next to visit and he tells her he’s not saying yes, he’s not saying no about not nominating her. “Don’t lie to me,” she says, “I can read everything in your face.” In Diary Room, Adam says “I’ve have these three beautiful women together” and he’s reveling in the attention that he’s finally getting after floating along for so many weeks.

Just before the nomination ceremony, Adam places a single key into the turntable, leaving out his and the two Houseguests who he will nominate. Then he holds the nomination ceremony. He pulls the key and… it belongs to Rachel. Jordan and Porsche are on the block. Justifying this as fair play, he says that Rachel already won a PoV competition earlier, but Jordan and Porsche haven’t yet. In Diary Room, he says “We are so close to the end… you want to be in the final three, you have to earn it. Porsche and Jordan, I want to see what you’re made of.”

Julie comes back to let us know that the Power of Veto competition is next. We also get a close up of her with the metal square necklace. It appears to be a silver dragon inside the square. Hah! Dragon lady, indeed. In a serious regal tone, she asks, “Who will win the Power of Veto? Let’s find out.”

The Power of Veto competition has four booths, each labeled “Jukebox Veto” and a stacking peg below it. Each jukebox has 20 clues, 10 on each side. There are 10 blocks with four Houseguest names on it on each side. The blocks have to be stacked so that the two front-facing names, left and right, match up the with two clues at each level on the left and right. The clues have to do with past events in the House, so it’s a combination of a memory test and a block puzzle solving exercise. If any are incorrect, they will have to take the blocks off the peg and re-stack the blocks in proper order.

All four are competing. Jordan starts by stacking all of her blocks on the ground in the order she thinks they should go. The others instead start stacking them on the peg one by one. After already stacking five blocks, Adam is unable to find a block with two names side by side that he is looking for and realizes he got one wrong earlier, so he starts unstacking some of his blocks to re-sort them and put them back on. Jordan does the same thing and says in Diary Room later that when she is racing somebody, she gets all nervous and gets flustered.

Porsche thinks she’s got them all in order on the ground and stacks them all up, but has an error. We see the one error on TV, but all she hears is a *buzz*, so she has to check all of her answers and blocks again, unaware of how many errors she made. She figures out her mistake and re-stacks them in proper order. Porsche wins the Power of Veto and is in the final three with Adam!

Rachel now goes on the block in Porsche’s place, joining Jordan, and Rachel is in tears. This duo will be split up and they’re heart-broken over it. Well, there goes a few more boxes of Kleenex and the Big Brother consumable household item budget gets strained even further. Jordan seems to be stoic about it, but Rachel having a tearfest.

For once, Porsche is relaxed. Rachel goes and sees her and compliments her on how she’s played the game. In Diary Room, Porsche is already planning out making the final two and the jury votes, considering who it’d be better for her to be with. She reasons that she has a better chance of getting jury votes if she is with Rachel instead of Jordan in the final two.

The dragon lady Julie calls for the final Veto meeting. Porsche obviously uses the veto to take herself off the block, leaving Rachel and Jordan open for eviction. Now it’s time for them to give their speeches about why they should not be evicted, starting with Rachel and then Jordan who says, “I know I’m going home.” Keep in mind that Jordan won a previous season of Big Brother and the $500,000 prize and it seems to be the consensus that someone who hasn’t won (Rachel) should have a chance to win. Indeed, Porsche casts the single vote from the couch to evict Jordan.

Jordan walks out to a cheering crowd, while the remaining three in the House share a hug and watch her picture on the wall go gray. In her exit interview, Jordan says she’s a little disappointed. Julie asks about Porsche and Jordan admits that she never talked to her. Julie also asks why Jordan is forgiving of Adam if he nominated her and she says it would have been her or Rachel anyway. Jordan compliments Rachel, saying she deserves to stay in the game for winning everything as a competitor and that they balance each other out. All three remaining Houseguests have kind words for her on her exit, with Adam saying, “You’re so sweet. Thank you, thank you, hug, hug, hug.”

We’re reminded again of America’s vote to pick one of the season’s contestants for the $25,000 popularity prize.

Part one of the final Head of Household competition begins. It’s called the “The Big Brother Mixer”, a “perfect blend of strength and stamina.” The winner will go to Part 3, while the other two will vie in Part 2 to remain in the game. They’re on a giant blender that descends into a pool of “butter”. It’s a question literally of who can hold on the longest.

And so ends tonight’s show with the final live episode next Wednesday night. Stay tuned!