Househappenings

It's hard to have yourself a "free week" once you get deep enough into the season that future jurors are getting voted out, but if anyone could have found a way in season nine, it would have been Adam. He's not my favorite houseguest by any stretch and I'd probably like him even less outside the house--most of the time he's just kind of gross--but I sort of admire his determination to just hang out, smoke, read the Old Testament and not get involved in heavy gaming.

Maybe Adam's safest route would have been to nominate Sheila, with whom there's never been any love lost even though they've sort of wound up on the same side (they both voted to keep Matt last week, which was the opposite last week of what James wanted). But even though he did his best to steer clear of the drama James kicked up last week, to the point where I suspect his vote was made intentionally to force the ultimate decision onto the Head of Household, it looks like he's been paying attention after all. The only thing to do logically was nominate James along with Chelsia, and that's exactly what he did. Joshuah and Sharon, who have pulled off the Chilltown feat of getting everyone to believe they're not the primary threats even though they have alliances or understandings with literally everyone, have stayed off the block again (though this might not stick if a nominee wins a veto). And Adam seems to still be on decent terms with Ryan, even though it was James's closest allies (and James himself) who are the reason Ryan is still in the house.

James's ability to win challenges was always going to make him pretty visible, but he really climbed up on his high horse after getting voted back into the house (I wonder if he was chastened at all by the revelation that many of them would have picked Alex over him had they known that was the choice--and that's even assuming no one lied because they didn't want to offend the houseguest who still had some power in the game). He might have been nominated as a threat anyway, but now he's up because he's a threat and because he made enemies where he didn't have them before, not even when he was being voted out the first time.

I'll be interested to see who emerges as the leader of the not-quite-an-alliance alliance of Adam, Ryan, Natalie, and Sheila (Sharon and Joshuah as standby members). It's a curious combination because while there are some forceful personalities there, the better game players seem to be in the other group. With Matt still around it's obvious where the anti-James sentiment would have began and ended, and that might mean that Natalie, of all people, might be the de facto leader, the person Chelsia and/or James go after first if and when they get back in power. Somehow I think Adam will come out of this week OK.