BB19 Finale Recap: Why The "Best" Player Shouldn't Always Win

      Anyone who is reading this blog likely knows the outcome of the Big Brother finale. Paul, in a repeat of last year’s finale, was defeated 5-4 by a person many people think he should’ve beaten. Déjà vu All over again. While I don’t want to get into comparing Nicole and Josh as equals, because Nicole did have more of a case to win than Josh did, Paul’s double loss brings out some very important discussions to have about the game. Many people think Paul was “robbed” and that he was by far the “better” player in both instances, but more so in this season. I want to use this post to talk about the flaws with those perspectives on a reality show that is inherently a “social” experiment. Hopefully, this will serve to bring a new take on the finale and how the idea of someone dominating a game does not mean that they are playing it the best.

     First, before I explain why it was reasonable Paul lost, first let’s talk about some fundamentals about Big Brother. Primarily, the game has three major components. And sorry to steal from Survivor, but they are just as applicable here : “outwit, outplay, outlast.” For those who don’t watch Survivor that roughly translates to strategic game, competition game, and social game. In my time watching the show, I’ve noticed that both myself and the rest of the viewing audience puts too much emphasis on the first two and appears to disregard the third. This finale proved why that is a crucial mistake.

Big Brother is first and foremost a show that was meant to be a social experiment. It’s very basis is that you are interacting with people and trying to get them not to want to evict you. Competitions and strategy play a role, but the very basis of the game is social. To go a long with this social theme, a jury of their peers (other players) ultimately decide who wins the game. There is no manual for them deciding who they want to win. We can bitch and moan about who they choose to give it to, but their vote is their vote. If you are truly playing a social game, you would know what makes each of these players tick. It is up to each and every Big Brother player to determine how the jury members think and to cater their moves around that. That is essentially their job over the entirety of the season.

      If you are fired from your job because you were not doing it satisfactorily, does that mean your boss is “bitter” or you were “robbed”? No, because you knew the tasks that were expected of you. The task that is expected of you in Big Brother is to get the jury to want to vote for you, and ultimately Paul failed twice at the task. There is no “bitter” jury because there is no set guideline of how they should cast their vote. Dominating the game only means that you achieved “outwit”  or “outplay”, but it does not guarantee that your social game was what it needed to be to win the votes.

Jury management is the key upon which the latter half of the Big Brother game is based. I’ve seen complaints about how the jury should not be allowed to not vote for someone because they don’t like them. So let’s bring this back to the job analogy. Imagine you are giving an interview to two candidates. The first, has all of the qualifications you could ever dream, but is a total asshole that you would feel sick giving any money to by hiring them. The second, lacks some qualifications, but you at least like the person and think you could work with them. In the majority of cases, the second person gets the job even if objectively the first had all of what is perceived to be the “best” and “most important” part of the decision. Paul, to the jury was the first candidate. Josh was the second.

Paul lacked jury management. 

      When the jury cannot stand you,  that is a very bad thing. They will be looking for excuses not to vote for you, and Paul gave it to them and more. One, he orchestrated the mass bullying of Jessica and Cody consisting of them berating his “fake” military service and using his daughter against him. He then orchestrated the bullying of Mark and Elena. And yet, people blame them for not liking Paul enough to give him the money? Did you vote for the school bully to become president even if they tormented you, but had more leadership experience? If ever there was a reason to vote on emotions, it was this season. Paul’s antics extended beyond what could be interpreted as game. Cody’s military service and daughter are not game. Trash talking them after they have left is not game. Trash talking period in most instances is not game.  And when you do it about everyone, prepare for it to cost you votes.

      So now that we’ve established how Paul lost the Cody, Elena, Mark votes. Let’s talk about how he lost Alex and Jason’s. As I’ve already mentioned, many fans are enraged when the “best” person loses the game. First, my goal was to attempt you to see that the very definition of best people are operating with is flawed. But secondly, even with that definition Paul made a lot of errors. Jason and Alex and how he handled them was a prime example. Alex had even left the house ready to vote for him, but his actions lost her vote. And this comes down to one simple principle that Paul didn’t follow.

       Backstabbing does not lose you the Big Brother game, but lying about it afterwards will. Andy backstabbed. Boogie backstabbed. Derrick backstabbed. What do they have in common? They are all winners of the game and all admitted to their deeds in either goodbye messages or the jury questions. They owned up to the way that they played, and while that doesn’t make it sting less for the jury members, it at least gives them something to respect. Once someone is out of the game, the need to lie and blindside them goes out with them. However, when Jason was already evicted, Paul kept lying in his goodbye messages saying that he knew nothing about it. This had two fundamental mistakes in it. The first, there are people that know he is lying that will follow Jason into the jury house and Paul can’t make sure that they don’t say anything. Second, once Jason finds out that you are still lying in your goodbye messages, it rubs salt in the wound. It tells them that even after they are evicted, you think that they are still too dumb to recognize what has happened. Josh, on the other hand, did what you are supposed to. He owned up to every blindside in his goodbye messages, apologized for it having to be that way, and then explained why it had to be that way and why they needed to go. Josh was by no means a great player, heck he wasn’t even a good player, but that’s how you need to handle goodbye messages.

     Paul proceeded to double down on this stupid lying strategy in the jury questions. He owned up to nothing and refused to address how his actions impacted the people in the jury. All he had to do was say some variation of this:

       “I backstabbed each and every one of you. I am sorry if I hurt any of you, but in order for me to have any shot of winning, I had to take out my biggest competition threats. Marlena, Cody, I know that how I treated you was wrong, but yada yada yada some game excuse for doing it.” That’s it. That’s all his speech had to be. He’d emphasize how controlling of a strategic game he had had while also trying to make up for his bad social game by apologizing to the jury for the more ruthless aspects.

     So let’s talk about Josh. I think its pretty clear with this blog that Josh didn’t win the game so much as Paul lost it. But, that’s what happens in Big Brother and ultimately life. He at least realized the potential of Paul causing a bitter jury and decided to try to capitalize on it. Paul’s idea to make Josh the person the jury hate backfired. Instead, it made them respect Josh more because he was at least the devil who was rude to them to their face. Paul tried to play innocent while orchestrating it all. The latter is more of a betrayal and caused the jury to lose respect for Paul.

     How do I rate Josh as a winner? Well, he is in the bottom 5 winners of all seasons. For sure. He was carried far into the game because he was an emotional toddler who no one liked. When he had strategic insight, he didn’t follow through with it. He didn’t win comps that weren’t thrown to him. However, that does not make him not deserving. He did what the criteria establishes you need to do to win the game. He made the jury want to vote for him. That is what constitutes a “deserving” winner. Unless your name is Rachel Reilley and the game was rigged and manipulated to force your win.

    With that being said, I still rank him a 3/10. The only reason he has any points was his goodbye messages and his decision to take Paul to the final 2.

      So now let’s get off my soapbox and rank the season. Man was I disappointed. As you could tell from my earlier posts about the season, I had so much enthusiasm. The new cast seemed so great, but somewhere a long the line it blew up. The idiots procreated while the decent and likable players were picked off.  Thankfully, Cody winning AFP has shown these miscreants that America doesn’t support them like they thought we did. Strategically, no one but Paul showed up. Socially, people like Kevin and Elena would have flourished in normal seasons. Competitively we had Alex and Jason. However, all of the ingredients didn’t work right. No one was really playing to win and for that this season gets a 4/10. It would be a 2 if it weren’t for how entertaining Cody was and how good the early episodes were.

   So with all of this being said, I end my thoughts on this season of Big Brother. I’m super excited to see how Celebrity Big Brother goes and to talk about it with you guys, but hopefully my schedule allows me to talk about Survivor with you guys as well. My recaps might have to just be written on the weekends a bit late.

Also, let me know if you’d be interested in a ranking list of all of the seasons of Big Brother and how they place. After every season its definitely something I think about often and it would be interesting to hear everyone’s perspectives.

BB19 and Who Has Been "Cancelled"

It's been a busy few days on the blog which continues with the posting of this podcast. But first, if you missed my blog post the other day: I discussed the recent editing snafu that the producers chose to do and relayed why it was problematic. If you want to read it, go to the home page of  this site, scroll down this post, and you should be able to see it. With that being said, here is the link to the podcast.

CBS Sucks: A Rant About the Editing of Big Brother 19

   I’ve recently had a conversation with someone where they asked me a very reasonable question. Why do I like Jessica and Cody on this season of Big Brother? It’s a reasonable question. In theory, they represent everything I don’t like in Big Brother contestants. They don’t treat the game like the Holy Grail, they care more about competitions than strategy, and they do have pretty terrible social games. But yet, I love them. I’ve discovered that what I love is their no bs approach to these houseguests and how they are the only people on this season to truly understand how everyone else in the house with them is complete and utter trash. It’s as if the Big Brother house became a landfill and Jody are the recyclable cans that ended up there by a lazy mistake.

  This is a cast of completely unrepentant narcissists and nasty people. First, we have Paul: the midget with a Napoleon complex who thinks it is his god given right to behave cruelly towards other people. The worst part is that, try as he might to justify it, his actions have nothing to do with the game. Kicking two people that are already down is NOT a game move. He didn’t get anyone new to turn on them. He didn’t make them perform poorly in a challenge and then backed off. He decided to make their lives a living hell this past week. 

   For those who saw the harassment Jessica and Cody faced on the Thursday Big Brother episode, let me tell you, there was so much you missed. Paul orchestrated that entire attack hours before it happened and told each person what they were to do. What you didn’t see was Alex and Christmas for multiple hours attacked Cody’s military service and told him that his service was a lie. Cody was a marine for 10 years and was deployed twice in Afghanistan and they had the nerve to tell him his service was fake. CBS, likely to protect ratings from dropping, did not air these remarks. Furthermore, this attacking of the two lasted for hours beyond what was shown. Jessica and Cody had to be talked out of not quitting by the diary room and the houseguests had to be warned repeatedly to stop. However, what makes the situation even worse is that after all of the warnings, all Paul got from the experience was that America would “mistakenly” think he was a bully. He might as well buy a big old track with oversize wheels because his small penis syndrome couldn’t be anymore obvious.

  Christmas ought to only receive coal this year for her behavior as well. I do not care if she is on painkillers. She has the capacity to realize that Paul’s actions were disgusting and she should not have agreed with it, or even participated.  Matt was falsely portrayed as a good guy during the episode, but that was incorrect. He did express doubt over the plan, but only because he was worried about Cody hitting someone. He was full blown egging on Raven when she was attacking Jessica.

    And don’t even get me started on Raven. She is full blown Carrie/single white female/white trash/insert any other crazy and demeaning allusion here. 1. When she was flat out called Paul’s dog, she freaking barks in response. DOES SHE NOT GET THAT THAT WAS AN INSULT?! 2. I’m angry at CBS for how they edited her fight with Jessica over Alex’s cat ears. What they did not show was that everything Jessica said was correct. Raven DID steal the cat ears and pour out the coke, and CBS EASILY had tape of it that they could have shown, but they didn’t because protecting Raven is protecting Paul. I don’t care that they still showed those two negatively. It was much worse than what was portrayed. 3. Raven is an attention whore. Plain and simple. While the stomach disease that she talks about is real, the extent to which she says she suffers does not appear to be. For a “life threatening” and horrible illness, she has not had a SINGLE instance of being sick in the house. Furthermore, after Christmas broke her foot, Raven noticeably began faking a limp and this limp was only present when other houseguests were around. Then a few weeks ago, all of a sudden she has a story about having been kidnapped. If you think this is it, you are mistaken. Jessica a few nights ago was talking about how her father is passed away and Raven with her “one up” disease (the only real disease she probably has), decides to make it all about how her mother could probably be in the hospital. Oh, Raven, your mother is so sick but you chose to spend your summer in the Big Brother house? Crazy is as crazy does and she gets a lot of it from her mother. 

   Social media participation is nothing new for Big Brother contestants’ families, but Raven’s mother has taken it to a new level. Anyone who says anything negative about her daughter is blocked and harassed. Her mother has even gone so far as to post people’s addresses on Facebook and report parents who don’t like her daughter to Child Protective Services claiming that they abuse their children. 

   The sad thing is, is that no one on this season outside of Jessica, Cody, and Mark have any redeemable qualities. Elena is the classic bystander who does nothing to stand for what’s right, which makes her almost as culpable as who does it. Alex is a petty and insecure mean girl who trashes girls and then wonders why she has no girlfriends. Jason has made several disgusting remarks about how different women should be raped and Kevin has become openly confessing to having adulterous thought about Christmas even though he has a wife and children watching the show. Kevin, in a conversation with Paul, even openly detailed how to have an affair without a wife knowing. Are we seriously supposed to believe that he has this knowledge without having done it before? 

    The sad thing is that this week has almost had me not hating Josh as much. At least in Josh’s case, I can pinpoint his issues to some sort of psychological issue that he can’t control. The others are just horrible human beings that are exhausting to watch and read about. I was really excited about this season at the start due to the fights, but with Paul in this house, it’s taken a turn toward revolting and without Jessica, Cody, or Mark in the house, I’m not sure I could continue watching. What makes all of this worse is that CBS indirectly allows this behavior to continue to flourish for the sake of ratings by not airing it. If they had a truthful edit, these contestants would be getting blasted and actually have to face real consequences for their actions.

   So I’ll continue to wave my Jessica and Cody flags in support for non-trash Big Brother contestants. I will also continue to write about what actually needs to be said about this season, even if CBS refuses to show it. You can’t just cast horrible people and expect to get no backlash for it. 

I'll see you next time,

Julia

War for the Planet of the Apes : "An Obvious Allegory"

   Have you ever really enjoyed a movie but still rolled your eyes at some of its more heavy-handedness with its message? Oh, you’ve watched every Marvel movie ever? Good, we are all caught up. Well, last weekend I went to see War for the Planet of the Apes, and I found myself in this exact position. In fact, I spent more time thinking about how obvious the message it was sending was, then about whether I was enjoying the movie. The movie was decent, but certain parts kept it from being as good as its predecessors, regardless of what the critics say.

    But before we dive in, I want to thank everyone who has been a part of my blog journey so far. As of last Thursday, it has been a year since I started this blog. In celebration, there is a lot of cool content to look out for on the blog this week. First, tomorrow or today depending on when you view this, I will be posting a rant blog about the recent harassment going on in this season of Big Brother. On Monday, Big Brother coverage continues with the posting of the most recent podcast I recorded. Other content during this week will include: my thoughts on the Bachelorette finale and a review of the new Dark Tower movie, so keep an eye out for all of this coming up on this special anniversary week of the blog. Now, back to the review.

  As I said before, this movie was decent. There was a lot going for it. The visuals were absolutely stunning as usual and the acting for the most part was top notch. Woody Harrelson in particular relished every second of his being the villain. He was by far the best part of the movie. In my opinion, the movie’s only real complexity came from his storyline. Without going too much into spoilers, the movie spends a lot of time considering whether or not his actions compared to the apes are moral. And while he was clearly evil, I appreciate the fact that it is also made clear that his motivations aren’t wrong, and that his reasons for committing the atrocities he does are based on a fear that ends up coming true. 

   However, that’s really the only exceptional part of the movie. Perhaps my hopes were too high considering how much critics liked the film. They cited its “message” as particularly insightful. However, even a blind individual could see the message. Similar to how its predecessor Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was somewhat of a retelling of the story of Julius Caesar being betrayed by Brutus (fitting considering the main ape’s name), this film played out as a retelling of the Holocaust. We have the villain (Hitler), who believes that the only way to save the human race (Aryans) is to defeat who they believe to have caused all of the problems, the apes/jews.  It is an easy way to get an audience emotionally invested through the parallels, but also feels cheap. The past two movies worked because there was no clear way for the humans to deal with the apes. Everyone’s actions, even if they were misguided, were reasonable. In this movie, it’s made abundantly clear that we are to sympathize with the apes and only the apes. That takes away any chance to have real discussion over the issues presented and instead makes it seem like a generic popcorn flick, when interviews with the producers make it clear it wasn’t supposed to be.

  Overall, I’d give the film 3 out of 5 stars. It is a decent film, but don’t go into it expecting it to be incredible. One last note to touch on that explains why I gave this film a higher rating than my comments above might have suggested: if you know anything about the movies that this is a prequel of, it is worth seeing. There is a subplot in this film with the child in the movie that explains how humans end up the way that they do in the original films. I found it interesting to follow once I connected the dots as to what it all meant, and this subplot in particular is how you are able to realize that the villain might be right in all of this. If you have no idea about anything in the originals, then the child will likely feel added on and her scenes will lack gravitas if you can’t make the connection as to what she alludes to. If you are fans of the originals, you should definitely check this movie out.

  May Andy Serkis move on to another Oscar worthy portrayal of an animal in a blockbuster franchise. He honestly could make me like anything. Except snakes. I will never like snakes.

  If you like the idea of me doing spoiler-lite reviews of movies when I see them, comment on this video, my Facebook post, or let me know how I’m doing in person. If enough people like them, this could become regular content on this blog and I can even dive into my thoughts on some older releases.

  Thanks and have a great day,

   Julia.

BB19 "Why These Meatballs Are Cooked"

 In this most recent season of Big Brother, I have been irritated in a way I have never been irritated before. No, it’s not the cast. They are pretty entertaining. No, it’s not the horrible gameplay. If it’s entertaining I eat it up. No, it’s not that little Napoleon Paul is running around and projecting his small penis issues onto other males in the house. It’s Josh. He annoys me like no other and I sit every night creating a little voodoo doll, praying to Satan, and sacrificing stuffed animals from my childhood in the hopes that he is evicted. My therapist tells me this isn’t very healthy and so I have been instructed to try to think of at least one positive. After many hours of hopeless searching, I have found one. His dumb as I’ll get out catchphrase has inspired me to write a special blog post.

  While goose cooking is a very popular idiom, I for one think it is fairly cruel to cook geese. How PETA has not revolted against this saying, I will never know. So I propose changing the saying, in honor of Josh, to someone’s meatball is cooked instead. Only for cases like Lorena Bobbit or Hannibal Lector is there a danger of the phrase becoming literal.

   Did I mention earlier that 90 percent of the people in this house’s game sucks? I did. Well did I mention that I still love this season the most that I have in years? Seriously, it has been incredibly entertaining and must watch television in a way that I was not very hopeful for. But alas, even if I love it, nothing can be immune from my snark. Just ask my father, he is the victim of it the most. And quite honestly, all but one of these contestants will end up flat out losers, so why not talk about why that will be the case. So buckle on in, sip whatever you are drinking, and let’s get started.

   

   Christmas

How sad is it when someone breaking their leg is probably the only reason they are still in the house right now? What she fails to see is that her original strategy of guns blazing on all of the competitions would have only ended with her getting sniped or discharged from the Big Brother house. Man, I continued a gun metaphor for a whole sentence. My humor must be depleting. The NRA will probably give me a membership card though.

Right now, her meatball is cooked because her meatball is basically glued to Paul’s meatball. What she doesn’t understand is that Paul’s meatball has a knife sticking out of it and is prepared to chop off any meatball that is dead weight. And a person who can’t win anything is deadweight to a meatball like Paul.

 Matt

Look, I really wanted to like this meatball as much as I wanted to like IPA’s. He is from my home state and seemed like a nice enough guy. But, like an IPA, all he has me feeling is bitterness. He’s the little soldier meatball who goes around asking for his orders from the Napoleon meatball commander. When he isn’t being mindless when it comes to the game, he is mindless when it comes to his showmance Raven. Honestly, he won’t win because Raven will probably murder him in his sleep in an attempt to steal sympathy from when one of the other girls lose their showmances. No Jessica, you shouldn’t be scared that you lost meatball Cody. My meatball Matt was killed last night.  *Insert victim noises here*

   Raven

With all of these ailments she keeps faking, at this rate she will be faking death by the finale. The jury can’t very well vote for a dead girl. This isn’t the Oscars. With that being said, she may not even make it to where she has to fake her death. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE in the house is catching on to her. Soon she and her female ghostbuster meatballs are going to have to bust the ghost of her game because it, along with herself, are dying soon.

    Mark

Is anyone really surprised that anyone who said Brendon from BB12 and 13 is his favorite player is the one that is flopping pretty hard? No one. You in the back? Are you sure you aren’t just drunk? Mark is following Brendon’s strategy to a tee. Be overly emotional and latch onto a woman with big boobed women. The only difference is that Elena’s are real and Rachel was an intolerable harpy. Mark’s only real positive is that he hates the biggest meatball of all Josh. That’s enough for me to take it easy on him. Yes, this is my version of taking it easy.

     Elena

She perhaps is the dish I’d call the “meatball surprise”. I had her pegged as a potential first boot, and her game acumen has actually seemed to be fairly good. However, like Christmas, she appears to like the taste of the Paul meatball too much and is therefore at best an appetizer to the actual meatball meal. If she truly wants to be the meatball dessert, she needs to take out Paul or she is doomed to Christmas’s fate. Paul doesn’t like competition at the Best Meatball in the Show finale after his devastating loss last year.

     Cody

I love Cody. It pains me to refer to him as a meatball after Josh keeps calling him one, so after this sentence, the word shall be blacklisted. I love Cody because he can’t stand everyone in the house and doesn’t stop himself from showing it. That’s probably why the rest of the house can’t stand him and why he is doomed to lose. However, when he is inevitably in jury he can wrap himself up in some Jessica freedom and all of the men in the world will think that he is the real winner.

     Jessica

I can’t talk about Cody without mentioning his better half. And I really do mean better half. She is better socially, probably more well-rounded in competitions, and knows a thing or two about how to play the game. Her issue is one that any female with eyes was at risk of developing. It’s called Cody-itis and it’s when a female just becomes too enamored with the good looks that is Cody that they develop tunnel vision. Side effects are doubting your gut, not talking to other people, and sending house resident superfans back to the real world. The cure is eviction of the disease and praying your social game is enough to get you far enough to win out on comps.

   Josh

Now that my favorites are done, let the meatball metaphors commence. It’s only fair that I go from my favorites to perhaps my least favorite contestant ever. Yes, I might hate him more than Rachel from BB12 and 13. This is a mix between a Christmas miracle and the worst curse I could have ever received. This instigator meatball goes around picking fights and harassing people, but then goes and bawls in a corner like a reject from The Bachelor when they respond back. 9/10 times outside of this house, if he instigated like this he would be punched. Yes, even in Sesame Street, Utopia, Barbie world, suburbia, he gets punched. He is that annoying and not self-aware. If you like Josh, please discontinue reading my blog. It will not help your disease get better.

              Dear CBS, fire your psychologist that clears people for this game. They obviously missed a spot.

  Alex

We have yet another meatball that is stuck to the Paul meatball and she will fall for the same reason that the rest will. However, there is something slightly different about this meatball. She’s the meatball where you go in expecting it to taste like an actual meatball, but then you bite in and realize that it’s tofu. She’s not what you expect in all of the worst ways. She claims to be a gamer, but seems more like a button masher. She claimed to be a Big Brother fan, didn’t even know who one of the most famous players ever were when he was interviewing her. She initially comes off as cool and a competitor, but she endlessly badmouths girls prettier than her and wants to throw away her game for Paul. Basically, even if this meatball is cooked, do not eat it. Your resident health inspector, me, does not approve.

   Jason

This rodeo meatball is perfectly likable as a person, if not a little undercooked in the brain portion. He will be cooked solely because he is trusting the tofu meatball Alex. She has no instincts for how to play this game, yet he treats her like she is Mohammed telling him all of her prophecies. But instead of leading him to salvation, she’s leading him to the boiling pot.

  Kevin

The mobster meatball is probably in the least offensive spot in the house. No one dislikes him and all of the little meatballs love coming together around him. However, he is a little bit of an older meatball, which means when it’s time to clean the fridge up, Napoleon meatball might decide that his usefulness has expired.

      Paul

All evil leader jokes aside, I like the Paul meatball as a character flavor. He is entertaining to watch. You could put him on display in a meatball museum or painting. But, when you bite into him his looks are better than his taste. Our resident Napoleon/Hitler/Stalin/ Bill Belichick meatball will eventually fall as all evil leaders do. As the dictator meatball, he will inadvertently blow up his own game and leave his meatball minions to pick up the pieces and lose World War 3. He’s played well so far, but I’d bet money that he can not sustain it.

So there you have it, your very own recipes on how to cook some Big Brother meatballs. I recommend you buy the meat from your local asylum, since that’s where casting finds these people anyway.

BB19 Season Premiere Week Recap

Hey guys! This was a great podcast talking about this premiere week of Big Brother. I think you will really enjoy what we have to say. We're still working out some kinks but every week I promise we will get better and well I think I'm pretty funny and worth sticking it out for:)

If you disagree, I'll send my cyborg sniper boy Cody after you.

BB19 Cast Assessment Podcast

Hey guys! As you can see, some things have changed since I first announced I'd do a podcast. Due to technological ability as well as time constraints, I've decided to do this podcast with two other people. Because of that, the medium  changed to youtube videos instead of just sound, but rest assured I will keep posting the links to the videos here so it is easy for you to get to and watch.


In this episode of the But First podcast, we go over the house guests that have been revealed and how we think they will do. We then participated in a draft towards the end. It will definitely be interesting to see if I do well since I never have done a draft for Big Brother.


I hope you enjoy it and that you stay tuned for our second episode being streamed live next Friday night after the new season of Big Brother has premiered. I hope you enjoy the podcast, let me know what you think either in youtube comments or here!

Announcing My Exciting Future With Big Brother and this Blog

Long time no see! I apologize for the sudden break of content on this blog. Last semester was incredibly chaotic when it came to being able to set aside time to blog and as a result I was not able to fully commit to keeping up with new content. But with a new season of Big Brother coming this summer on June 28^th, I want to get back into this, but first I want to explain the new direction that I will be heading in which is based on one assumption:

Writing is not the best medium for what I’m trying to do.

Those who know me know that I love to debate and more importantly I love to talk. I could talk for hours about reality t.v. and I really enjoy that. I had a decent response to the blog, but found that the most productive and entertaining way for me to share my thoughts is in a different manner.

So I’m going to be podcasting!

Yes, you read that correctly.  I’m going to be starting a Big Brother podcast. Podcasting really is the best medium for me for many reasons:

1.       Jokes and sarcasm don’t always come across obviously in writing. Hearing someone share their opinions makes it all the more clear when they are joking or if they are serious. I’m a sarcastic person, and you guys should get to hear that.

2.       Podcasting doesn’t require a listener’s full attention like reading a blog does. You can put me in the background while you are doing something else. I won't be offended.

3.       Podcasts are convenient. You can listen to it whenever you choose or have time to.  If you stop it, you can easily pick back up where you left off.

The tentative plan for the podcast is that they will be posted after every Big Brother episode on the Soundcloud app and eventually, if enough support generates for them, on iTunes. For those who prefer not to use smart phones to listen to them, I will also be embedding the podcasts into new posts on my website so you can always check back here and see if a new one has been posted.

I hope that everyone who enjoyed my blog will continue on with me as I try out podcasting to further dissect the hobby that I love.

Spilt Tea over BB: A Big Brother Podcast is launching June 28^th after the season 19 premiere of Big Brother. A special preview episode will be available before the premiere where I will be ironing out the kinks that go a long with being a novice podcaster and asking for your feedback on the direction you’d want the podcast to go. It will be an interesting episode where I talk about what I value in a Big Brother player with a little background information on how I came to be obsessed with reality television.

You won’t want to miss it and I hope to hear from you soon!

Julia

The Bachelor Nick Recap "Mental Health or Cheese Pasta?"

   Hello friends and welcome back to another episode recap of The Bachelor. I apologize for my absence last week, prior obligations made it virtually impossible to set aside an hour for writing. But, lets be honest did I really miss much? Taylor and Corinne fought and there were some one on one dates. Lucky for us the exact same thing happened this week! Okay, not exactly, but pretty much. As long as Corinne is on the show each episode will revolve around her and we will all know what to expect.

  The episode starts off resolving the cliffhanger from last week of Corinne and Taylor fighting. Corinne is angry because Taylor basically called her stupid and Taylor is angry that Corinne told Nick that Taylor basically called her stupid. Taylor defended herself by saying that she was saying Corinne wasn’t “emotionally intelligent”, but that’s basically saying that you did call her stupid in a specific area. Neither girl came off looking great and I would rather gouge my eyes and ears out then listen to them continue to whine about whether or not Corinne is stupid. She is a 24 year old with a nanny who doesn’t know how to make cheese pasta, I think that question has already been answered.

  So the rose ceremony happens and what do you know? The final roses are given to Corinne and Taylor. Its almost as if producers knew that they would play a major role in the next week’s dates. Wait, are you saying that the two of them get put on the dreaded 2 on 1? No! That’s totally a coincidence. Insert rolling of my eyes here. The girls get told that they are traveling to New Orleans. Funny story, my father and stepmother traveled to New Orleans maybe a week or two after this show would have filmed here. Okay, its not that funny, but I was tempted to ask them if they recognized any of the places that the girls traveled to. Then I remembered that my father would rather be caught dead then admit to if he had seen an episode of this show. Spoiler alert: He watched The Bachelorette finale. Do with that information what you will.

        Chris Harrison arrives with the first one on one date card and it goes to Rachel. She is excited because she feels like she has not gotten much time with Nick. Or at least she says she is excited. She’s a lawyer, she is probably really great at lying by now. For their date they stroll around New Orleans dancing and making out. The two appear to have a lot of chemistry and I am thoroughly convinced that Nick’s type is assertive lawyers. He finds out that Rachel’s dad is a federal judge and starts asking about what he should call him when they meet. Nick is worried that Rachel’s father will judge him for having been on the show multiple times. Nick, Rachel’s father is a federal judge. He is going to judge you, but not for having been on a show he likely does not watch. He will probably cross examine Nick until he is forced to admit that he doesn’t have a real job and just wants to work in L.A. Nick, cross examinations are not fun. I can already see the storyline of their future hometown date being about Nick’s worries with her father. Because let’s be real, Rachel is going to get a hometown date.

Rachel gets the rose and the group date for the episode begins. The girls have to go to a haunted house and basically spend the night. There is an incredibly scripted segment of the “bartender” telling them about Mae and how they can’t touch her stuff or she will be mad. Did anyone seriously buy any of this? Like, seriously? I would have been touching all of the stuff and then laughing as the other girls freaked out.  All of the sounds and movements that then happened were obviously created by producers to scare the girls. I would have enjoyed the date, but I worry about the future work force if its full of people as gullible as these girls were. I was rooting for Jasmine due to her being skeptical, but then she was saying she believed in ghosts by the end of it.

     Before I talk about the second half of the group date, I want to talk about the awesome Bachelor tie in segment that they ran as a commercial. No, not the dumb ones with the Quantico “actress” if you could even call her that. I am talking about the preview they gave for Beauty and the Beast. I think I was more interested watching Josh Gad and Luke Evans make Bachelor puns to Disney songs than I was in the entire episode. Maybe they should have been the hosts for the Bachelor life after show last year?  10/10 I would have watched.

  Okay, back to what you actually read this to know about. Nick started taking the girls one by one to have conversations with them on the group date. I do not really remember the order so I am just going to talk about the ones I remember. I start with Danielle M, who ends up being the one to get the group date rose. I do not know what went so great with the conversation that she got the rose because these two are just so bland together. There is very little chemistry and all that there really is is the fact that she is a sweet girl from his hometown. If you do not see it, watch her conversation with Nick and then watch any of his conversations with Rachel, Vanessa, Raven, etc. They are miles a part in chemistry even if he is not letting her know that.

 Then we have the other Danielle, Danielle L. I think she giggled the entire conversation in between telling him that she could see herself falling in love with him. So basically she regurgitated everything she said to him last week. Nick proceeded to make out with her because that’s likely the only reason she is still here at this point because it certainly isn’t her use of words keeping her around.

   The last two segments to mention were probably the most hilarious of the group date and for separate reasons. The first was Alexis’s time with Nick. Shark/Dolphin Girl has probably been the most consistently funny girl on this show. She isn’t coming off stupid like Ashley S. in past seasons did, but just that she wants to have a fun time. Last week off camera she apparently told Nick that she has a fear of Nicholas Cage. So this episode he dressed up in a Nicholas Cage mask and forced her to face her fears. It was a hilarious segment and while he will never pick our wanna be dolphin, she might be quickly becoming my favorite. Anyone who can make fun of themselves on this show is alright in my book.

  The next conversation was hilarious in a different, but albeit disappointing way. Raven meets up with Nick and in a slip of the tongue says that “that is when I knew I loved you.” HA HA HA. You love Nick?! HA HA HA. Yeah no. You have had one date with him. Congratulations Raven on saying the funniest joke of the season thus far. She then became worried after she told him and he didn’t give her validation after saying it. Considering how the whole conversation was framed as a joke, I’m willing to bet that he thought her confession was a joke. Secondly, you want a reward for telling him the lies you are supposed to tell him? Insert some sort of Gen X-rs making a commentary on Millennials joke here.

  Anyway, now that the group date is through, we have what is the centerpiece of the episode. Taylor and Corinne are forced to go on the 2 on 1 date. For those who do not know or can’t infer from the title, 2 girls go on the date, only one gets the rose. The other has to go home. How convenient that the date with the highest stakes has the two girls who hate each other the most? Or that the villain is on this date? Its not like that hasn’t been the formula for the past few years or so…..

    In all honesty, I don’t have much to say about the date. Both girls were unabashedly and unfortunately themselves the whole way through. I think I was more interested in their scripted confessional moments than I was the date. At one point Corinne mentioned let’s “Make Corinne great again,” in an obvious spoof on Donald Trump. But 1.) This was filmed during the election cycle so she likely had to be fed that line and 2.) Would Corinne have even known who was running for election before Election Day? Let’s be real if she even voted, she had her nanny do it for her. Corinne continues her attacks against Taylor and tells Nick all about how Taylor “attacked” her. If what Taylor said is attacking, I am sure Corinne feels murdered after all that social media has said about her. I’m sure it sucks when you act like a complete idiot on national television and have to deal with the critiques from people who do not know you. Too bad I can’t have sympathy because so much of what she said was so idiotic to say on camera that it gives validity to everything Taylor would say about her. I am not a Taylor fan by any means. I think she came off condescending. Corinne was right about that. But, that doesn’t mean that Taylor wasn’t right. She has a degree from John Hopkins. If she says a person has no emotional intelligence, I’m inclined to believe her over an airhead who doesn’t know how to add cheese to pasta. Yes, I will continue to bring up the cheese pasta example. It’s so blatantly ridiculous how could I not? 

   Either way Nick sends Taylor home. For those who are interested, he does a blog for People.com where he explained in more detail why he sent her home. He basically summarized it by saying that all of the emotional intelligence issues and lack of self-awareness problems that Taylor was complaining about Corinne having, applied to Taylor as well so he sent her home. That’s fair enough. But, even then I would have sent both girls home. You can’t take issues with one girl not having emotional intelligence and then keep the other girl who has been proven to have issues and not get along with the other girls. Then you look like a hypocrite and a liar. 

The episode ends with Taylor coming back about to give Nick a piece of her mind. I am sure that it will be train wreck television and I will be back next week to dissect it some more.

Power Rankings

1.)    Rachel- Her date went very well this week and they have tons of chemistry. He even acknowledged thinking about and wanting to meet her family. Guaranteed final 4 here we come.

2.)    Raven- Usually the first person to tell the lead they love them makes it far. He also just had a good 1 on 1 date with her last week where she met his family. The person in that position is also almost always guaranteed a hometown.

3.)    Vanessa- She did not get much airtime this week, but the fact that they still made sure to show her even if it wasn’t with Nick solidifies that she will make it far.

4.)    Corinne- At this point Nick is making stupid excuses to keep her. I don’t see that stopping anytime soon.

5.)    Danielle M.- Mainly because she got the group date rose. I don’t think she comes close to winning though.

The Bachelor Nick Recap "Backstreet's Back Alright"

    Another night has passed as well as another episode of Corinne being the center of attention on the show titled “What the Heck is Nick Thinking?” I swear the number of plain bad decisions last night was appalling. Is it really possible that a man who has gone through the process twice before can really be The Bachelor who seems to be the least considerate of what the girls are going through? Seriously, I think he beats Juan Pablo for least considerate Bachelor considering the latter didn’t make out with a girl in front of everybody. The latter also didn’t encourage a girl he has no interest in to make a complete fool out of herself on national television, but we will get to that later.

     We start the episode off with the aftermath of Nick sending Liz home. We get a montage of the girls who were at that group date telling the girls who were home about the whole story. Because in case the viewer still doesn’t get it, Nick had sex with Liz. I know. You hadn’t heard it before. It’s a good thing I have hawk like hearing or no viewer would EVER had known this happened. Anyway Nick ends up making another big public speech about it and honestly blows the situation out of proportion. He worries the girls will leave for no reason. 1.) The producers wouldn’t let them. 2.) A one night stand is not a big deal. You weren’t in a relationship with her and you didn’t talk to her past that. Nick probably doesn’t remember more than 5 words they said to each other that night. Any girl who wants to leave based off of that he should have counted his lucky stars. 

   Then there is a segment with who else but Corinne. The girl breaks out in hives if the show goes 20 minutes without her on the screen. She talks about wanting something serious, but then proceeds to have a guy she has known barely a week in real time lick whip cream off of her boob. Yeah, guys are totally going to take you seriously now. Those guys in your private messages on social media are totally looking to bring you home to mom. They aren’t looking for a booty call at all now….. Also, I bet Nick’s fiancée was totally thrilled to see him participate. Nick eventually stops it and says it was going too far, but Nick maybe you should have thought of that BEFORE you licked the top of her boob. Just a thought.

             So the rose ceremony happens and 3 girls were sent home. Hailey was the cuckoo Canadian whose intro video including Daniel telling her he’d sleep with her. Elizabeth W. was utterly unremarkable and Lacey who got more airtime listening to Corinne vent than she got with Nick. Also, this continues the trend of Nick being a kissing bandit. He was making out with Lacey episode 2 but sends her home that rose ceremony. Usually, the Bachelor doesn’t make out with people who leave the first episodes……Okay, I know I am bias and don’t really like the guy, I’ll move on.

   The week 3 dates start with a date that I would have been jealous of. A group of girls got to go to a Backstreet Boys concert and dance with them on stage to Everybody. I’ve read a lot of comments online from people insinuating that the girls were too young to like the Backstreet Boys. I think those people are idiots. I am 20 and younger than all of these girls and I knew of the Backstreet Boys when I was a kid. It may not have been during their heyday but damn straight I knew the words to Everybody and I want it that way, if not more songs. My sister who is the average age of a Bachelor contestant had their CDs and we would listen to them in the car. So yeah Me 1 Dumb Comments 0.  

    Anyway as I was saying, I would have been so jealous to be on this date. Even though I am a horrible dancer, unlike Corinne, I would have still made the best of the situation. Though I guess the tone was set off on the wrong foot for her from the start with Nick pushing her off of him when she jumped on him for a hug. Everyone saw that right? It was glorious. It also adds proof to my theory that he doesn’t actually like her and just keeps her around knowing she causes drama. Corinne gets upset because the girls have to learn a “planned dance” (Corinne’s word for choreography) and whomever does the best and has chemistry with Nick wins. Danielle L wins and gets to dance and be serenaded with Nick in front of the other girls. She also gets the group date rose. In instance 5,402 of what was Nick thinking he starts making out with her in full view of the other girls. Dude, you do know they did not disappear right? He would have been pissed if Andi or Kaitlyn had done that to him, but he goes and does it to his girls.  It also irritated me because it made me sympathize for Corinne for a minute who was upset having to watch them make out even though she goes on to do the same thing later. But, he made me sympathize with Corinne for a minute.  That is unforgivable Nicholas.

   The last interesting thing that came out during this date was Corinne letting it slip that she has a nanny to the other girls. Apparently she still needs a person to wake her up, do her laundry, and make her bed, you know things that my mother had me doing when I was still in high school if not earlier. Then she admits that she can not make cheese pasta and that she needs Raquel to make it for her. Cheese pasta?! She can’t make cheese pasta! I don’t cook and I could make cheese pasta! You put pasta noodles in boiling water and then add what form of cheese you are using. It’s not rocket science, though I guess it is to Corinne. Okay, all is right in the world and I am back to no sympathy.  Nicholas, do not do something stupid and reverse this. 

   The next date is Nick’s one on one date with Vanessa, which is another date that looked really fun. They rode on a plane and got to experience the sensation of zero gravity. Vanessa’s stomach experienced the sensation further than the rest of her body and caused her to throw up. It gave the perfect opportunity for Nick to look like a decent human being and comfort her. I swear this was the only date where I came off liking Nick. Also Vanessa is perfect, why is she on this show? She has a real job, she isn’t hawking products on Instagram, and she calls Nick out when he is being stupid.  She’s rivaling Raven for my favorite this season. The two appeared to have tons of chemistry on this date. So much so that during the dinner portion Nick starts crying because of how optimistic Vanessa makes him. On the first date. DING DING DING.  I think we have our winner this season. Let me remind you that the least lead to cry about how grateful he was for a girl was Ben H. about his winner Lauren B. The seasons done we can all move on, expect the proposal.

    Except it’s not and there is still another group date in this full episode. In all honesty compared to the other dates, this was a letdown. They had three Olympians come and had the girls do a track competition for more time with Nick in a hot tub. Rachel was going to win the competition, but dropped the “ring” that served as the marker of who won. So Astrid picks it up and wins the extra time. Then in instance 10,504 of what is Nick thinking he again makes out with her in the hot tub where everyone else can see. Is anybody noticing a trend here? It also ends up meaning nothing because he gives the group date rose to Rachel for impressing him. Dominique also ends up being sent home because she threw a fit about Nick not giving her a fair chance. Which is probably true, but not something you say to a guy you need to impress.

   We end the episode with yet more Corinne drama. She decides to set up a moon bounce (producers decide to set up a moon bounce) and basically get on top of Nick and make out. In the front of the house where all of the girls end up seeing them. In case number 5,000,405,601 of… I think you can finish that sentence by now. This leads the girls on a rampage to critique Nick to his face about his encouraging of Corinne. The episode then ends on a cliffhanger of the amazing Vanessa telling Nick “I don’t judge her. I judge your actions.” And her saying that if he was going to act like that, she would rather she did not have a rose. You go girl! Next week we will see Nick try to squirm out of this situation, but in typical Nick fashion I am sure it will only last 5 minutes. 

Kiss count: Corinne, Danielle L., Vanessa, Astrid, Alexis, Rachel, Kristina, your mom, her mom, random chick in Asia, basically everybody in the world = 7,000,000,000

Power Rankings

1.) Vanessa

  In all honesty, I think the season is pretty much over unless she chooses to leave at some point. She is basically the mix of Andi and Kaitlyn and I already mentioned the significance of Nick crying earlier. Also, apparently he was still okay making out shortly after she puked. Which gross, but shows he likes her.

2.) Danielle L. 

   He seems to be attracted to her. I don’t see a connection beyond that, but its Nick, so that might not even matter. She also got the group date rose.

3.) Rachel

Another recipient of the group date rose and he seems to enjoy talking to her.

4.) Raven

  As I’ve said before, the show keeps showing small moments of her even when they aren’t very significant. That’s a telltale editing sign that she goes far. 

5.) Corinne

  Yet again, not because I think he likes her, but because she will get kept around for drama.

    Until next week, I hope everyone has fun until What the Heck Is Nick Thinking returns next week with an all new episode. 

The Bachelor Nick Recap "Why I"ll Never Like Nick Now"

    I never knew the experience of being downright disturbed while simultaneously being very entertained until last night. I mean, has The Bachelor ever had such a downright unaware contestant as Corinne? Honestly, it feels like she takes dumb blonde to another level. It’s clear from her one liners that she is actively trying to stir up drama, but I think she has deluded herself into thinking that people will actually like her for it? I don’t know. Watching Corinne actually think she is a capable human being that is going places is confusing to say the least. But, I’m sure we will be talking about Corinne for quite some time, so let’s jump into the episode.

While the show is still in Los Angeles, the dates always consist of trying to embarrass the contestants instead of actually being something fun to do. This trend continued with the first group date, which was a bridal photo shoot where each girl was a bride or a bridesmaid and a stereotype themed wedding shot with Nick. All I can say is did you see how many girls Nick stuck his tongue down their throats tonight? No, seriously. I think he kissed every single one during the shot and then was making out with others in several quick clips during this group date. It was so bad that I can’t even do a kiss count for this episode because every few seconds it was a different chick and I couldn’t keep track. Damn boy. You can’t possibly like all of the girls you were making out with.

     But, apparently what he does “like” is blatant villain behavior in Corinne. Not even two episodes have past and she has no trouble blatantly advertising to the world why no man will ever take her home to his mother. This is the first technical date with a guy and she decides to take off her bikini top and have him hold on to her boobs. This is the first date. Many girls won’t even kiss a guy on the first date let alone basically force him to get to second base.  And of course she makes sure to do this in front of all of the girls because according to Corinne, everyone should be out for themselves only. Sure, but are you really out for yourself when all you are doing is guaranteeing you will never be hired for another job as long as you live? Some of these contestants are incredibly shortsighted.

       Of course, this isn’t where Corinne decides to wise up and act like she is older than 13. Instead, she decides to make a Bachelor first in the history of all villains from the franchise. She does not interrupt just one person to steal extra time, but two. She tries to justify herself later saying that interrupting people happens on these show and it is what the girls sign up for. That’s technically true. But, she didn’t just interrupt. She interrupted a girl when she had ALREADY HAD TIME WITH HIM, to get a second time with him. That’s usually what only the villains do. Then she did a Bachelor first, and interrupted another girl to get a freaking third time with him. Even the villains of the past know that that was a dumb move. I freaking cheered when Taylor interrupted Corinne to have some more time after Corinne had interrupted her. Corinne of course then became a total baby and tried to have it out with Taylor afterwards acting as if it was done because Taylor “had a problem with her.” Guess what Corinne? I have a problem with you too. And no it’s not jealously, but as my family says “you can’t fix stupid”, and so I try to avoid it when possible. 

    This brings me to something I am sure going to struggle with all season. I officially know that I can never like Nick. It’s done. It’s sealed. He gave the group date rose to Corinne KNOWING that she had interrupted three times and showed no class by parading around topless. I already knew he likely didn’t want to actually be engaged at the end of this, but no one is that stupid to miss the red flags that she gives off. He did it on purpose likely to start drama, and I am not going to like someone who is just a producer puppet and mouthpiece. It makes everything he says and does completely insincere and you can’t trust a word out of his mouth. I strongly dislike people like that.

    Anyway the only other conversation that was notable during this date was Nick’s talk with Raven. She talked about her last relationship ending because she walked in on him cheating on her. Yeah, that will end up a relationship. Nick appears to like her. Oh, and in the blooper scene for the night Alexis and Nick celebrated the fact that it was the anniversary of when she got her boob job. Real classy. Where did they find these girls? That’s a decent joke around your friends, but on national television? 

   The second date of the episode was a one on one with Danielle M. I freaking love this girl. She seems so sweet and understated in a way that screams normal. It is rare that you find a girl like that on these shows. With that being said, I also think she does not stand a chance in winning. She is absolutely stunning and amazing, but she had little to no romantic chemistry with Nick. While they were in the hot tub on their yacht, they weren’t any sparks. I do think she will make it far, but I don’t see her making it to the end, which is a shame because she might actually be my favorite this season. She also opens up to Nick about the death of her fiancé who died of a drug overdose. I can’t imagine the guilt that that likely caused her, so the fact that she is trying to move on is admirable.  If only she had a different lead bachelor who might actually appreciate that. All in all, the date only was about 15 minutes of screen time because the rest of the episode was the Liz and Nick show.

   Could the producers please stop replaying the loop of Liz explaining how she and Nick had sex at Jade and Tanner’s wedding? Everyone who even watched 10 seconds of an episode knows that. Its repetitive at this point. I was praying for her to be eliminated just so that we didn’t have to hear about it for another episode. Liz is another person on this season that I doubt I will ever like. Its not that she seems like a bad person, but I wish she would just be honest about wanting attention from the situation. Whenever anyone talked about Nick, she would do this BLATANTLY OBVIOUS smile as if she wanted to scream and talk about it again. She even got called out on it once. Then, the first chance she gets, she tells Christen all about their past because she feels like she can trust Christen. Which of course means that at the next group date Christen ratted her out to Nick.

  The last date of the episode was a group date at the Museum of Broken Relationships. Each girl had to act out a breakup with Nick. None of them were all that interesting but were incredibly awkward. But, Liz’s took the cake for awkward. Look, I feel bad for her. She is getting trashed everywhere and it likely hurt watching Nick blatantly ignore her. But, it is also what she should have known was going to happen. I do not like Nick, but he is correct in his assumption that it looks suspicious that she waited so long to pursue him. Who knows? Maybe she was genuine. But, her conversation with him to explain herself went downright terribly. Here is a brief summary of basically what was said in my own words.

Nick: Jade knows me. If you wanted to pursue me, you could have.

Liz: You were busy, shooting Paradise and stuff.

Nick: Girl, please. Paradise only takes 18 days to shoot. It’s been 9 months.

Liz: Well, I don’t like talking to people on the phone if I’ve met them. I want to see them in person.

   Me: So why didn’t you ever try to see him in person? You could have gotten his number from Jade and asked him to hang out. In person.  Also, I thought you didn’t contact him because you didn’t like him UNTIL you watched Paradise. So, he wasn’t too busy shooting Paradise when you actually decided you liked him. It was a girl scrambling because she knew that her coming on the show didn’t look right. Maybe she had good intentions, but she can’t deny how it looks. Nick was so obviously fed up by the end of the conversation that he dumps her and sends her home. He then goes to tell the girls about his past with Liz as the episode ends on a dumb cliffhanger. Look, the show would never let every single girl leave and dump the lead. Nor would most girls leave if they could because they want tv time. Trying to convince the audience that it is a possibility is flat out dumb.

Power Rankings

1st place: 

Corinne- Not because I think he actually likes her, but because its clear he will let her go far to keep on the drama.

2nd place: 

  

Raven- Outside of really Corinne and Danielle M, she was really the only one shown having a decent sized conversation with him. Also, I love her because of her comment about Nick and Corinne. "If that's what he likes, no wonder it's his fourth time on the show." Damn, girl. Also, couldn't have said it better myself.

    3rd place: 

    Danielle L. – Since Nick likes girls who take their top off apparently and she doesn’t own a top that covers a decent amount of her chest, by deductive reasoning, Nick likely likes her.  

   4th place: 

     Rachel- She had no time on this episode, but that’s because the person who has the first impression rose never gets a date this week. I expect her to come in strong on screen time next episode.

   

   5th place: 

     Danielle M.- I love her, but the lack of chemistry will ultimately send her home.