Thursday's show + AP task, August 23

[dingo]

Well I'm not sure where to start on this one

I was and wasn't surprised at Jen's eviction, the first unanimous even.. I totally called it wrong that I thought she'd go to finals (against all odds) but it was pretty clear she was a goner the last couple of days.. I still think she was intended to go all the way and was cut loose for mouthing off too much about vote "suggestions" and Eric as AP and so forth.. call it conspiracy theory if you like, but I think they just got mad at her for jerking them around.. and since Eric's still there, and likely wasn't intended to be once they passed the jury point, he's got her place and all's well

Show-wise, Julie probably had more lines than she's had in many a Thursday and pulled off most of them including no less than five mentions of "Power of 10", the cheesy "where there's smoking, there's fire" intro to the main event of the last few days, and the whole penalty nom turned vote fiasco, but she gave Daniele another round of HOH questions about Dick, and told Jen she'd been "compelling" instead of her former "vain robotic bitch" description

Editing for the cigs versus clothes war was as expected: incomplete and contrived to fit the storyline and the time allotted.. but ok, I'm immune to that stuff anymore

Editing was kind to Dick overall: even with his rants that aired, the full versions had a much bigger bite, and Jen came off looking like a fragile, unstable figurine that had shattered.. let's not forget, this is a girl who's only 23 and was the focus of outright hatred for most of 7 weeks from most of 14 hamsters, mostly based on stuff we never saw from the first days, and she actually held up remarkably well for what she was faced with in there which included many unprovoked and angry tirades, death threats, a drive-by mustard incident, a catsuit for a week, a bunny suit for a week, 24 hourly muck dumpings, slop several times, four nominations, having no friends in 7 weeks other than Kail, and some of the worst trash talk we've ever heard on the feeds (which is saying something)

All things considered, she held up better than most anyone could have been expected to.. if her demise was caused by eating a turkey burger, more power to her - let's not forget that she generally knew more about what was going on in there than any of them

All seven farewell messages were ridiculously sweet and sappy considering the above and the amount of trashing that continues into the night after her exit, but Eric in particular made sure that his true feelings were known on national tv.. don't forget folks, "He's playing for you, America" (at least between dress-up activities)

The "Power of 10" promotion opp was just that and only served to inform everyone - with graphic - that Nick was? is? Daniele's boyfriend in the house.. they just can't seem to let him drop back into obscurity

We really need to see some HOH comps that have some bite: hardly anyone is interested in Carol's or Kail's opinions about this or that anymore.. let's move on! At least Jessica wasn't robbed of her HOH glory this time by petty and loud fighting, and her win could put Eric in an especially sticky situation depending on what his AP directive is

AP vote is the usual Thursday task: Which houseguest should Eric "get nominated"?