Mike Boogie has aptly named this entire season of Big Brother 7 All Stars "Operation Double Date." This week the final four become the final two. Will the inevitable happen? Perhaps not! Let's take a quick look at each of our Final Four and see what we see.
Each of the four - Erika, Janelle, Mike Boogie, Will - represents an extremely strong strategy. Each, in my view, represents what being an All Star is all about. First, though, I gotta shout out to Chicken George. Dude, I never saw the first season. You're everything you were reputed to be. You're friendly, entertaining. You sacrificed like nobody else in the game (except perhaps Danielle's 24 hours solitary). I wish you well.
Erika
Erika's crisis is at hand. If she survives this next eviction, she may well win. That's the catch, of course! She's almost certainly gone with this next eviction. She will have finished 4th place twice, and Will will finish 1st place twice.
Erika has played a strong game along the lines of Sandra who won Survivor Pearl Islands (that's the season that introduced Rupert Boneham as the Pirate of the Drake and Morgan Tribes). She's been there, she's been a vote, and she's always been available to the person in power. Her first (and perhaps strongest) move was particularly annoying at the time. She won the power of veto, and refused to use it.
Even though we all knew Erika would not use the Veto, it was particularly annoying. Nakomis (if I remember correctly) was out the door. We needed another strategist in the house. What would this season have been like with Nakomis in the house? There's no question that removing Alison, Nakomis, and Diane at the start was a strong move for the rest of the All Stars.
The strongest move of all would have been to remove Evil Doctor Will the Puppet Master the first week. Or the second week. Or the third. Or the fourth. Or the fifth. But with Will in the game, that just wasn't going to happen. More on that below!
Let's get back to Erika's strategy. She says she plays an emotional game. She played quietly and brilliantly during Diane's eviction week. Any time Diane tried to plead her case in a private conversation, Erika was right there listening. It worked.
Erika has played a low-key game. She has caught and kept the attention of the real power in the house, Chill Town. She has helped ensure that somebody else was always a bigger target for nomination, even though she was able to win the endurance competitions. We've been assuming that, if Erika makes the final three, she's a serious threat. The final competition is normally an endurance competition, and Erika is strong in that area. If it's a competition like the final immunity challenge in Survivor Exile Islands, where being light weight is an advantage, Erika has it.
Is Erika's low-key strategy worthy of being an All Star? Absolutely! Her vote was always available to the person in power - and therefore she tended to be protected by that person in power. She never committed to a full alliance - and therefore never fell on the wrong side of the cut. She's made very few enemies in the process.
Thinking long term, if you make the final two, and you've made few enemies, and the other person has made enemies, you will probably win. Chris and Twila of Survivor Vanuatu are the perfect example. Twila's mouth made enemies, and Chris won explicitly for that reason.
Either Will or Erika are gone Tuesday night. If Erika's gone, that's the end of her story. But... what if she stays? She could probably win that final Head of Household, and she could probably win against Mike Boogie. Especially if she has the better part of the week alone with him before the jury vote.
If Will stays, Will wins (I'll explain that in a bit). If Erika stays, I'd call Erika a strong possibility to win. This next eviction determines the winner, I think - and that eviction is up to Janelle.
Another irony is that Erika is not the next Diane - or Nakomis. For her, there will never be the question of "bros before hos." If Erika stays, there is only one "bro" left. If Erika leaves, it's Janelle who gets to learn about "bros before hos." Erika really needed to win that Power of Veto.
Janelle
When this season started.....
