Househappenings

Sharon is up on the block after James's use of the veto, but no one seems to think she's in much trouble. In fact, even though there are only eight people left in the house--it's getting to the point where you would think it would be hard to stay under the radar--she's still an afterthought in everyone's eviction scenarios.

Sunday's show depicted Sharon as suffering one of the more unusual cases of cabin fever we've ever seen on the show, as she got a segment regarding her curious attachment to her guinea pig "fur-riends." Well, they are kind of cute, and more to the point, they're living things that aren't scheming about how to keep her from winning $500,000. But it was amusing to see Sharon acting childlike in that house, since she hasn't really come across as sentimental in any way. And it was only a two minute segment, as opposed to the lengths she goes to on the feeds with those damn things.

I think it's interesting that Sharon was cast. Of all the people in the house, she and Ryan strike me as the two who really needed the twist in order to get on the show (and of course, these were the two who came into the house already knowing someone else). Sharon doesn't fit the usual young woman "types" that Big Brother likes to cast from. She's not boy crazy like a Chiara (or Natalie for that matter), not excessively outgoing or demonstrative like an Amanda, not a goofball like Holly or Jessica. In short, she's not much in the way of entertainment. Sharon reminds me a little bit of Rachel from Season Six, who was cast as Howie's very unlikely partner. Rachel was unusually serious and straightlaced for any reality show, much less BB, but she might have gone a ways had her side of the house not lost control of the numbers game.

But Rachel wasn't terribly interested in the game and it showed. Sharon is different--she knows exactly what she's doing in there, knows the value of being under the radar and works hard at maintaining it. She and Joshuah are still sort of working together after the dissolution of the soulmateship, and it's a good arrangement for both since Joshuah is more of a public personality (he also thinks he's really running the show and will be able to take Sharon out when the time comes. We'll see). But it's really surprising how little drama gets associated with her, because there's been no shortage of it in there, and because Sharon wasn't shy about stirring it up in the days after she re-entered the house. No one is on to her, though. She's like these people who rise to the top in Communist countries, by mastering the bureaucracy and grinding away. She and the guinea pigs will inherit the earth.

Well, maybe. I don't think her being on the block is going to cost her--it's hard to see a scenario by which Chelsia stays, unless the guinea pig talk drives the rest of them insane--but still, volunteering to go on the block is never a good idea. But this is twice as a nominee for her and I'm not sure anyone in the house has even noticed. Another positive sign.