Between her reaction to not getting MVP and the comments she made to Amanda, Elissa did not come out of last night's Big Brother episode looking good. Did Amanda overreact to Elissa's comments after the McCrae birthday striptease? Maybe a little. I probably wouldn't want to watch a guy eat food off a girl's thigh either. But after making a bunch of cracks about her one-piece, using the word "gross" in relation to anything Amanda and McCrae might do just comes off as rude. I'm less concerned about Elissa's comments against Amanda as I am by how clunky her social game is in general. The MVP twist has kept her in the house since Week 1, and she's done virtually nothing in that time to establish trust or build alliances that give her any value beyond the MVP status she assumes she'll get - or did until this week.
Live Feed Spoilers ahead!
Last night's episode revealed that Elissa was the MVP nominee this week - meaning, the viewers voted for her to go on the block, though the houseguests weren't told exactly how the MVP vote worked this week. I'm thinking her nomination was a combination of Aaryn being ineligible, since she was already on the block, anti-Elissa viewers nominating her because she keeps winning MVP thanks to her sister's popularity, and Brenchal fans voting for her because they didn't pay attention when it was announced that voting was for the third nominee and not MVP. Regardless of what happened, it's somewhat clear to the houseguests that Elissa was not the MVP this week. Sure, some speculated that maybe she nominated herself, but the consensus seems to be that either someone else got MVP or America voted.
Elissa took herself off the block with the Veto, so she's safe this week, but she may not have considered that without MVP she's just another player and one with substantially less value, especially if those people in her alliance don't trust her. Rather than stepping in to prove she's a team player by going along with the plan to evict Kaitlin this week, Elissa picked a fight with Andy and McCrae over a complete misunderstanding that she refused to see, and then attempted to derail the evict-Kaitlin plan because she doesn't like Aaryn.
Now, don't get me wrong, I don't like Aaryn either. But I see the houseguests' logic in wanting Kaitlin gone first, especially after learning that she's working with Howard and Spencer - the alliance that was revealed during last night's episode. Part of the house found out about that (I think from Judd). And also, Kaitlin's come close to winning HoH a couple of times. Granted, Aaryn won it once already, but that was with Jeremy's help. Either way, McCrae, Amanda, Helen, Andy, Judd and Jessie were all on board to evict Kaitlin and they sat down to talk about it with Elissa, who eventually agreed to go along with that plan. Or she seemed on board, anyway. Later that day (Tuesday), she was talking about her religious beliefs outside and Andy and McCrae were trying to get her to keep her voice down because Howard was nearby. She just kept talking, which made McCrae and Andy exchange a smile, which Elissa took to mean they were making fun of her and mocking her religion. Even when Andy attempted to clear the situation up by explaining that they were just trying to get her to keep her voice down, she acted like they were mocking her or making fun of her religious beliefs. It was bizarre.
So that rubbed some of her alliance members the wrong way. And then later, when she got Kaitlin alone, she essentially revealed that word has gotten around about that she has an alliance with Spencer and Howard and maybe someone else. The beginning of this conversation wasn't on the feeds, but what we did see was Elissa encouraging Kaitlin to call people out because otherwise she's going home and people are trying to make her eviction a surprise. She basically went against her alliance and tried to sabotage this plan.
Now, don't get me wrong, Elissa needs to play her own game. She later tried to defend her actions by claiming that she has a right to know the truth because she makes her own vote in this game. And she's right. She needs to do what she thinks is best for her. I just don't understand how she could possibly think doing that would be good for her game. I'm guessing she thought by warning Kaitlin, things would flip and Aaryn would end up going home, though I'm not sure how she pictured that happening. It really seemed more like she tossed a grenade at the situation and hoped something would work out in her favor. She probably didn't count on Aaryn being in the bathroom and hearing the whole conversation. And she didn't count on Kaitlin admitting the conversation to Aaryn and the whole house finding out about it within minutes. I seriously think the speed at which this whole thing blew up has to be some kind of record. And Helen looked a combination of baffled and livid that Elissa would do this.
Helen, Kaitlin, Elissa, GinaMarie and Aaryn ended up in the rainbow room together with some other houseguests where they talked about the whole thing. There were points during the confrontation where it seemed like Elissa was trying to deny saying what she did. She didn't seem to understand why Kaitlin would tell Aaryn about the conversation, since they're both on the block. The Grasshopper alliance denied-denied-denied, Aaryn and Elissa admitted to not liking each other, Kaitlin seemed more aware that she's not safe, and Elissa looked completely untrustworthy to everyone. Out of everyone, I think she came off looking the worst among the other houseguests. Had she handled the situation with a bit more finesse, she might've been able to use it to her own advantage in securing some trust with the other houseguests. Instead, she came off looking untrustworthy to her own alliance and I don't think anyone else has any use for her either, especially if she doesn't win MVP again.
As of the feeds last night, it was still looking like the majority of the house plans to send Kaitlin out the door. It's possible that'll flip though. But of her and Aaryn, people seem to think she's the bigger threat. And though she made a few notable missteps this week, I don't think Elissa's next to go on the block. People still want Aaryn out and Amanda's still gunning for Howard and probably Candice. The episodes haven't focused on that, but Amanda doesn't get along with Candice and she doesn't trust Howard.
At this point, I'm just surprised by Elissa's game play. I respect her for trying to play the game, rather than just coasting (though there's a lot to be said for coasting in certain conditions) but I can't make sense of her choices. Her alliance is what's kept her in the house, and granted, they did that because she was getting MVP and that worked to their advantage. But after not getting MVP this week, you'd think Elissa would be be scrambling to secure safety and prove herself useful to her alliance so they don't cut her loose if she's lost the MVP status for good. Instead, she charged forward with a solo plan that betrayed her alliance and vaguely exposed them. The only reason I can think that she would do that, besides a personal vendetta against Aaryn, is that she thinks it'll win back the graces of the viewers. Assuming she thinks America doesn't like her because they either voted for her to be nominated or at the very least, did not give her MVP, she might think that gunning for Aaryn will get people back on her side. That's just a guess though, and it seems unlikely that she'd admit as much in the diary room, but I'll be curious to see how much of Elissa's moves on Tuesday make it into tonight's episode. Tune in to CBS to find out when the live ep airs tonight! And be sure to keep an eye out for our recap.
