“The Closet Champion” Mike Mueller reviews the penultimate episodes — Celebrity Big Brother Season 3 Week 6
Episode 13: EVERYBODY IS FINALLY PLAYING THE GAME
After several weeks of just floating throughout the house, the final five are set and they all have their eyes on the prize. Miesha and Todrick have been gaming hard since day one, Todd seemed to wake up last week, and now finally Cynthia and Lamar realize they need to actually play the game if they want to win the $250,000 prize. After Miesha and Todrick refuse to give Carson a straight answer about the eviction until an hour before the live show, Cynthia and Lamar finally realize how cutthroat Miesha and Todrick have been this whole time. It’s truly unfortunate that it took them this long, but hopefully late is better than never.
SPOT THE FAKE
For this Head of Household competition, the houseguests must race around the house, looking at six different pieces of art and comparing them to the art on the memory wall. Five of the six portraits will be identical, and one will have a slight alteration. The houseguests must identify the fake artwork and lock it in. The first one to answer wrong, or the last one to finish if all others were correct, will be eliminated.
The first round is pretty easy. Mona Lisa is wearing the HOH bathrobe, and in the original, the HOH insignia is in blue, while in the fake, it is in yellow. Miesha and Todrick get the answer right away (of course), and Cynthia is next, however she chooses the wrong painting. Lamar takes his sweet time but finally comes back with the right answer, and Cynthia is eliminated.
For the next round, the art-pop-inspired camera painting has one of the cameras inverted. All three contestants get the answer correct, but Lamar is just a little slower than Miesha and Todrick, and he is eliminated. Miesha and Todrick will be in power once again.
For the final round, a Banksy-inspired painting has one of its lines removed. It is a very minor detail and gives Miesha and Todrick a lot of headaches. Eventually, Todrick locks in with the right answer and wins his first competition of the year.
A VERY FORMAL FORMALITY
Since the house is pretty clearly divided, with Miesha and Todrick on one side, and Lamar, Todd, and Cynthia on the other side, Todrick’s choices are pretty simple. His target is Todd, since Todd is the biggest threat to the duo, and he chooses to put Lamar next to Todd. If Cynthia can pull off a miracle win in the Power of Veto, she can remove one of them and Todrick will have no choice but to nominate Miesha. This is very cut and dry. However, don’t think for one second that Todrick isn’t going to take full advantage of his Head of Household role.
For the nominations, Todrick goes all out and makes it a ceremony that will go down in Big Brother history. Wearing his croc heels, the HOH Robe with a blanket attached to act as a train, full make-up, and some very dazzling jewelry, including a Cleopatra-like headdress, Todrick gallantly announces his arrival from the top of the stairs and dramatically struts down, making his grand reveal. You can almost hear the royal trumpets playing in the background! The houseguests are all cracking up, and Todrick even has some confetti to throw as he reveals Todd and Lamar on the nomination wall. Todrick’s game has been pretty shady, but this is a ray of light to break up the tension in the house. It is a fun moment that will surely live on in Celebrity Big Brother lore for years to come.
Episode 14: A SPRINT FOR THE FINISH
As Julie Chen welcomes us to another episode of Celebrity Big Brother, she informs us that it will be a double eviction night! When Chris Kattan left the house prematurely, a lot of people thought this season would not have a double eviction. Thankfully for all of us, that’s not the case. Double eviction nights have become a standard for Big Brother and have led to some of the most memorable moments in the game.
DON’T BE A LUGE-R
The Power of Veto competition has taken on an Olympic vibe as the contestants must compete in a luge-inspired game. The celebrities will compete head-to-head and must roll down a ramp on a luge cart and cross the finish line as close to the designated time as possible. Speed isn’t going to win this game, finesse and coordination will.
The first matchup is Miesha vs. Cynthia. As soon as the names are pulled, Cynthia already has a defeatist attitude, thinking there’s no way she can beat Miesha. C’mon Cynthia, you’re doing this for the whole house, girl!!!
Cynthia takes the “lay down” approach, while Miesha sits upright. To the surprise of nobody, Miesha has the correct strategy and wins the first round, finishing less than 2 seconds off of the designated time.
Up next are Todrick and Todd. While you might think this would favor Todrick, with him having great balance and finesse, Todd has a secret weapon: he’s a huge video game nerd! Video games are all about timing. Understanding this, Todd takes a very smart approach and gets the victory over Todrick. Next are Miesha and Lamar, who have a very close race, but due to the short target time of 8 seconds, Miesha’s early push gives her a nearly perfect time, only being off by .27 seconds.
Finally, Todd faces Miesha in the finals, and Todd pulls the upset and defeats Miesha! Kids, don’t ever let your parents tell you that video games don’t pay off! Todd has saved himself and will have a 1-in-4 chance at winning $250,000.
THE GHOST OF KATTAN
Chris Kattan may have left the BB house a long time ago, but his spirit still remains. The ghost of Kattan has found its way into Lamar Odem’s body because now Lamar is the one waking up for a late-night cake binge! The ghost even makes Lamar trip over the furniture in the bedroom, just like Chris did. Again, while this is an intense, strategic game, it’s great to see these little moments take place to remind us that everybody is human, and we all love seeing someone trip! When Chris did this, he exited the game shortly after. Hopefully, Lamar does not suffer the same fate.
NO GAME 7 MAGIC
At the live veto ceremony, Todd of course uses the veto on himself, and Todrick puts up Cynthia as the replacement. The vote is really just a formality, as Todrick and Miesha hold the tiebreaker, so whoever they want to go home will. The vote is split, one vote each. Todd votes to save his friend Lamar, but because Todrick is the tiebreaker, he and Miesha get their way once again, and Lamar Odom is eliminated.
Interestingly, Todrick’s elimination speech sounds like he is about to eliminate Cynthia, and if the finals come down to Todrick and Miesha, that speech may have turned Lamar off and could have lost Todrick a vote. What Todrick did was obviously for the benefit of drama, and as a viewer, it was a wonderful swerve, but if Todrick loses 5-4 in the final vote against Miesha, he’ll look back on this and wonder what might have been.
Trying to recap what Lamar said on his exit interview wouldn’t do it justice, so if you haven’t seen it, please go out of your way to find a clip somewhere online. He is truly a great and gracious person, and we at The Pop Break wish him nothing but the best.
DOUBLE EVICTION DRAMA!
After Lamar’s exit, the remaining houseguests are informed that they will be doing a whole week’s worth of Big Brother in one night. For the Head of Household competition, the celebs will be shown three movie posters, with information about each movie listed on the poster. They will then listen to a group of friends about what movie they want to watch. Based on their specifications, the celebrities must correctly identify which movie the friends should watch. ONLY The first person to ring in correctly will receive a point. The person with the most points after seven posters will win.
After six questions, the celebrities are tied 2-2-2. It all comes down to the final question. Miesha pulls out yet another impressive win on the last question and guarantees her safety for the final three. Miesha makes the obvious decision to nominate Todd and Cynthia. However, this doesn’t really do much to help Todrick’s chances. If Todd or Cynthia win the Power of Veto, they will remove themselves, Todrick will have to go up, and the POV winner will have the last vote. The only person whose position is secure is Miesha.
FROZEN IN TIME
For the POV competition, the celebrities will be asked about an event that happened in the house this past season. They must then decide what day the event occurred. However, the way they lock in their answers is by rolling their ball down a slope and having it land in the proper space for the day they want to answer with. This is a great combination of memory and skill. Points will be awarded to the person with the correct answer, or the answer closest to the correct day.
After the original rounds, Todrick and Miesha are tied for the lead which means one of them will win POV and both are guaranteed a spot in the final three. Miesha gets the tiebreaker answer correct, giving her yet another competition victory. This spells the end of Todd and leaves Cynthia with a seemingly insurmountable hill to climb.
