“The Closet Champ” Mike Mueller reviews Celebrity Big Brother Season 3 Week 3 (Episode 6-7)
Episode 6: A QUEEN RE-CROWNED
Following Chris Kirkpatrick’s successful eviction of Mirai, it was time for a new HOH to be crowned. For this competition, the Celebrities must change from their ski gear down to their bathing suits and jump into a hot tub in the fastest time. The catch? They must keep three buttons pressed down while they disrobe, and any time they let go of the buttons, their time will speed up to a rapid rate, causing their chance for success to go downhill. Before the competition starts, it seems like this would be all Todrick, since he has athleticism and flexibility, plus is used to quick changes from being on broadway.
Odds-on favorite Todrick goes first and has the right idea, trying to keep as many points of contact on the buttons at all times. Todd, Chris, Lamar, Cynthia, and Shanna try their hardest but don’t really have the flexibility for this kind of competition. Miesha and Carson seem to get the concept, and it is clearly a three-person race. Ultimately, Miesha pulls off the small upset and gets her second Head of Household victory! This spells bad news for Carson and Cynthia, who are squarely on the opposite side of the “athletes alliance.”
WELCOME TO THE GAME, TODD
It looks like Todd finally realized he was in a game for a quarter-million dollars! After Miesha wins power, Todd joins her, Lamar, and Todrick in the kitchen and pledges his loyalty to them. Smart, in the sense that they are the ones in power, but Todd is a floater if ever there was one, so don’t be surprised to see him kiss up to the other side of the house if they get power next week. While Todd isn’t on anybody’s radar for immediate elimination, he needs to lock in some sort of alliance. Otherwise, he is in a prime spot for a 5th or 6th place finish.
Meanwhile, Chris and Shanna sit somewhat comfortably in the middle. They discuss a plan to possibly get Miesha to eliminate Chris Kattan, who has clearly shown no desire to be here. If they push too hard, it will blow up in their face, but if they can drop some subtle hints and perhaps convince Carson and Cynthia to offer a truce, Miesha might consider it. Whatever happens, they need to keep their head down this week, because they are sitting in the best position in the house.
THE LINE IN THE SAND
Before the Head of Household ceremony, Todrick talks to Miesha about Chris Kirkpatrick being a bigger threat to his game than Cynthia is. While he is correct, it is not in Miesha’s best interest to make an enemy out of Chris just yet. At the Head of Household ceremony, Miesha decides to put it all out there and directly nominates both Carson and Cynthia for eviction. It may not have been a bad strategy to keep Carson off the block in order to possibly prevent him from playing in the veto (like she did with Teddi), but at this point, two-thirds of the house will be playing in the veto competition, so it’s likely Carson would play anyway. There is no doubt about who Miesha wants to move forward in the game with and who she wants to get out of here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ay4vJsvhOU
Episode 7: BOLD STRATEGY, CARSON, LET’S SEE IF IT PAYS OFF
After the nomination ceremony, Carson, Cynthia, and Shanna are in one of the bedrooms, discussing strategy. Carson says if he wins, he will take Cynthia down, so she, Shanna, and Chris Kirkpatrick would have a better shot at taking out the power duo of Todrick and Miesha. While it is a kind gesture, it’s not extremely well thought out. Carson is the best competitor from that alliance, and taking himself out would only serve to weaken the group as a whole. Cynthia seems pretty dead set against that happening, and rightfully so. While it’s not a great strategic idea, it does show that Carson has a pretty big heart and is willing to sacrifice himself for his friends, which is very noble.
AN UNEXPECTED DEPARTURE
Since the beginning of the game, it was clear that funnyman Chris Kattan was not having a good time. Quiet, reserved, and arms perpetually folded, everybody could see that Kattan was not in his element and struggled to adapt to the conditions of the house. Unfortunately, he makes the decision to remove himself from the game. While he certainly was not putting himself in a position to win, it is still disappointing whenever someone quits the game. Kattan seems like a lovely and kind person, and hopefully he is at peace with his decision and happier out of the game.
REINDEER GAMES
The Power of Veto is up for grabs, and the contestants are Miesha, Carson, Cynthia, Shanna, Lamar, and Todrick. Before the competition, Todrick attempts to explain to Lamar how the power of veto works, but it doesn’t really seem to be getting through. Apparently, he hasn’t been paying attention at the previous POV ceremonies.
This competition requires the houseguests to rock back and forth on a reindeer-style rocking horse. Once they rock twenty times, they get 90 seconds to stack as many snowflakes on a platform as they can. If they need more time, they can run back to the reindeer and rock twenty more times for an additional 90 seconds. Once a houseguest thinks they have stacked enough snowflakes to win, they can lock in their score and time, but if the timer ever hits zero before they lock in or get back on the reindeer, they are disqualified from the competition.
Lamar proves that his confusion about the Power of Veto wasn’t a clever act as he times out almost immediately, and the competition is quickly down to 5 players, which is great news for Carson and Cynthia. Miesha has a very nice stack going, however, she is too focused on the snowflakes and allows the timer to run out, eliminating her from the competition.
Seeing how quickly people are timing out, Cynthia locks in with a score of 9 snowflakes. While it is not an impressive score, anything is better than 0, and if the rest of the contestants suffer the same fate as Lamar and Miesha, she can steal this veto with a pretty low score.
Shanna has the steady hand and spatial awareness to excel at this game, and she locks in shortly after with a very impressive 22 snowflakes, leaving Carson and Todrick in the game with a very tough score to beat. Unfortunately for both of them, the pressure to beat Shanna’s score is too much and they both lose focus on their clocks, timing out and giving Shanna the Power of Veto and a very interesting decision to make.
FINDING A REPLACEMENT
Rule number one in Big Brother: DO NOT VOLUNTEER TO GO ON THE BLOCK! Pawns go home all the time in this game, and while volunteering to sit on the block does make you look like a good team player, it is not a deterrent for anybody to vote you out. Todd Bridges did not get this memo, and when Miesha brings up having to put someone up as a pawn to sit next to Carson (operating under the assumption that Shanna takes Cynthia off the block), Todd jumps at the opportunity to prove his loyalty. For someone who had been playing a floater game, this is not a great idea.
While Miesha is a competition beast, she is also very astute. She sees a change in the way Chris Kirkpatrick is acting toward her and is realizing he is likely going to be coming for her and Todrick sooner rather than later. Her observations are absolutely correct, as Chris and Shanna have decided this is the week to make their true allegiance known, and do what they can to save both Carson AND Cynthia and come after Miesha and Todrick.
Miesha pulls Chris into the bathroom for a bit of an impromptu interrogation session, and it is literally Kirkpatrick’s life in the game hanging in the balance. If he can convince Miesha he is going to stick to the plan and stay loyal to the “athletes alliance,” he can execute his blindside plan. If not, he will go up as the replacement nominee, forcing the hand of the house to vote out either Cynthia or Carson, whichever is still on the block.
During the conversation, Miesha asks Chris point-blank if he will vote Carson out. Chris is trying to keep his “integrity” and doesn’t want to lie, so he attempts to skirt around the question and simply say “everything I’ve done in this house so far has been for you” which, while technically true, is not what you want to hear when you ask someone a “yes or no” question. While he’s a very talented singer, Chris is not the best actor and doesn’t do a great job of convincing Miesha. Straight up, if he plans on blindsiding that side of the house, he needed to lie right there, but couldn’t pull the trigger. His attempt to keep his integrity intact could have just cost him $250,000.
At the Veto Ceremony, Shanna makes the direct move of taking Carson off the block. If they wanted to better execute a blindside, they should have taken Cynthia off the block so as not to raise Miesha’s suspicions even more. Unfortunately, that’s not how it went down, and Miesha, being the smart person that she is, puts up Shanna’s number one ally in Chris Kirkpatrick. Shanna and Chris had a golden opportunity to take control of the game and they let it slip through their fingers.
DRAMMMAAAAAA
While arguments and explosions are common in the Big Brother household, Celebrity Big Brother tends to be a bit more civilized. The Celebs are very aware of their public image and want to do what they can to look good and decent on television. Additionally, while CBS loves the ratings that drama creates, they don’t want to dissuade Celebrities from participating in future seasons.
All that being said, when dirty laundry gets aired out, it’s going to be aired on TV. Cynthia and Todd got into a screaming match over Todd’s hurt feelings that Cynthia voted against him in week one. Cynthia had given Teddi her word that she would not vote her out, so when Todd became the last-second replacement, she felt like she had no choice but to vote him out. That, coupled with the fact that he is aligned with the other side of the house, has kept them from ever mending that bridge. While cooler heads eventually prevailed, it may have shifted the direction of the vote.
BYE BYE BYE
Despite her blow-up with Todd, the house unanimously decided to vote out N*Sync’s Chris Kirkpatrick. He and Shanna made an attempt to shake up the house, but Miesha ultimately got out one of her biggest remaining threats. Keeping Cynthia in the game does keep the Carson-Cynthia power duo intact, and it is likely they will have the support of Shanna moving forward, but without Chris to help in the competitions, things are looking very good for Miesha and Todrick to be the final two if they can survive one more vote. The next elimination will be pivotal for how the end of the game plays out.
Big Brother Season 3 Week 3 (Episode 6-7) is now streaming on Paramount+
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyUADgaqsTc
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