Recap - Big Brother 9 - Episode 7

After reviewing the events of the past week, this episode picked up after the Nomination Ceremony where Alex, Amanda, Matt and Natalie were nominated for eviction by James and Chelsia. The episode covers a lot of ground because so much happened in the house. This episode shows the Power of Veto Competition, the Veto Ceremony, the fight between Shelia and Allison and the two emergencies where Amanda and Allison were both rushed to the hospital at the same time for different reasons.

First, we pick up immediately after the Nomination Ceremony. Everyone is hugging, except Matt. He is angry. Matt tells the Diary Room "The kid with the pink hair must go down." Everyone settles into groups, with the nominees talking to their partners and the HOH couple going off to the HOH room where they snuggle, play in bed and congratulate themselves.

Natalie and Matt are off by themselves talking about how they had a promise from James and Chelsia that they would not nominated. Matt said "I'm mad... He told me!" Natalie said "They BOTH told me."

Alex was outside alone and Amanda went out to talk to him. He asked her to leave him alone for awhile, that he would be fine if he had some time to process everything. He told her that when the nominations were made, nothing was said about him. The reasons they gave for nominating them was all because of her.

Allison expresses her relief about not having the target on her back and she says she finally feels good in the house.

Matt, Amanda and Shelia were in the bedroom talking and Shelia was venting about how she believes Allison has turned her back on her ever since she got off the block. She says Allison has an attitude towards her now and she feels betrayed by her.

Matt went outside later to confront James about betraying his promise. Matt says they shook hands on the agreement. James replied "You are playing Big Brother dude," and walked inside. We see James in the Diary Room talking about how he noticed that the minute they walked into the house, Matt and Alex got close. He says he has to break up that relationship. Alex is then shown in the Diary Room saying "If I get past this week, it's revenge."

Shelia has pulled Allison aside to talk to her about how she feels Allison has been ignoring her since she came off the block. Allison tried to explain that when Jen was in the house, she and Ryan had no time and now that Jen is gone, she and Ryan need to spend time together getting to know each other for the game. Shelia was refusing to be understanding.

The players for the POV Competition were made with Sharon and Josh playing with the two nominated couples and the HOH couple. James and Chelsia chose Adam to host.

Alex and Matt went into the storage room to talk about the POV. Matt said "One of us has to win the POV." James walked in and interrupted their conversation, seeming to look for snacks. When he left, he said "Keep talking," but Alex followed him out.

POV Competition:

They all have hard hats on and the backyard was done up in a Jericho (TV show) theme. There were radioactive barrels filled with peanuts, electric generators and power lines. The goal of the game was to find the cords that linked the power lines together and complete the puzzle. Each set of cords were of a different size, so they would only fit one way. The cords were hidden in the peanuts. The first couple to complete the circuit and press their buzzer, won.

Adam announced the game, it's goal and the rules. He said "We have been completely cut off from the rest of the world. We have no idea what's happening outside of these walls. But new developments have led us to believe that it's possible to restore contact. The couple that can solve this puzzle and re-establish communication, will not only win today's Power of Veto, but will also allow the Big Brother house to receive information from the outside world." After he explains what they have to do, he says "Try not to go nuts solving Big Brother's communication breakdown."

While the couples were rushing around spilling barrels of peanuts, finding the cords and attaching them to the poles, we are shown different clips of the competitors in the Diary Room. Sharon said "It was more of a mental challenge, than a physical challenge... It was a matter of attaching them in the right order."

Alex and Amanda and Sharon and Josh were neck in neck. James and Chelsia were confused by the whole idea of different size cables. Matt and Natalie were just putting up cables without thinking about size at first. Alex and Amanda only had to switch a couple of cables to be done and Sharon and Josh were missing only one cable and had to dig it out of the barrel and attach it to win. When they found the cable in the barrel, each of them took one end of the cable and attached both sides at the same time. Josh then ran to push the button, but slipped and fell, missing the button completely. Sharon was right behind him and she pushed it moments before Alex got to his button.

Josh and Sharon won the Power of Veto. Alex is shown in the Diary Room saying "Unfortunately Sharon and Josh beat us by a couple of seconds and a couple of seconds costs us the Veto." Matt was shown in the Diary Room saying "That Veto was a must win and we failed to complete the task at hand."

Adam pulled everyone over to an electronic message board in the backyard and news from the outside world scrolled across the screen. They learned that John McCain was in the lead for the Republican Party and that Barrack Obama had bypassed Hillary Clinton in the Democratic Party. To Josh's delight, they learned Britney Spears has regained access to her two children. He said in the Diary Room "I follow the Britney Spears tragedies very very closely."

Then this flashed across the message board "The Hudson River Virus is threatening those cut off from the outside world" None of the Houseguests knew what the Hudson River Virus was. The entire POV Competition was actually an advertising ploy by CBS to promote their show Jericho. Jericho was coming on immediately after this episode aired and they wanted to retain their Big Brother audience for their other show. The Hudson River Virus is actually a made up story line from Jericho. It is not real, but none of the Houseguests know that. They continue to talk about it for days in the behind the scenes footage (See my Big Brother 9 webpage: www.squidoo.com/bb9).

James tells Chelsia that there is something about the colors of the competition. The four colors used in the competition are the same four colors in the block that is in the Guinna pig cage.

The Fight:

After the competition, we see Shelia getting worked up about Allison again. She says "Allison has been hanging out with everyone in the house, but me." Shelia vents to Natalie about Allison and Josh is listening in from the next room. When Shelia goes to the storage room to vent to Matt about Allison, Sharon listens in through the door. Sharon takes off running upstairs to tell everyone what is being said. Matt is shown in the Diary Room saying "Shelia is acting like a mental case."

Sharon rushes into the HOH room where Allison, Ryan, Chelsia, James and Josh are all talking. She tells them what is going on downstairs. Ryan gets ticked at Shelia for saying things about his partner. Allison decides to go talk to her.

Allison sits on Shelia's bed and tries to talk to her. Shelia went off on Allison. Allison asked "Why are you angry?" Shelia says that Allison has been "Talking down to me like I'm a piece of _____." When Shelia keeps getting louder and angrier, Allison tells her "You're being absolutely pathetic." They get into a loud argument and Ryan and Adam come in to defend Allison. Ryan said "What did she do to back stab you?"

Meanwhile, Alex and Amanda are in an adjacent room thrilled about what is going down in the house. Josh and Sharon are in another room laughing.

CBS edited this fight to make it look like Shelia was upset with Allison for ignoring her. What really happened was Shelia found out everyone in the house was talking about her yeast infection and the only person she had told she had it was Allison. Shelia assumed that Allison was going around talking about her behind her back and she felt betrayed by Allison because she did not know what else Allison could have been saying about her. Shelia never found out that the previous night, one of the guys found her yeast infection medication and then all the guys were talking and joking about her yeast infection all night and into that day. Allison had nothing to do with anyone finding out that Shelia had a yeast infection. If you want to see the real fight, and how it unfolded, read my article "Another Fight! Big Brother 9 - Shelia and Allison at Odds" (CLICK HERE).

The Emergencies:

After Allison left the room, Shelia stayed in her bed sulking. Allison went outside to run laps around the backyard while talking to Sharon, who was sitting on the patio. They talk about what happened and Sharon said "Now that they're on slop, everyone's going to get cranky." Allison stops running and tells Sharon that she has to go to the Diary Room, that she is not feeling well.

In the Diary Room, we hear Allison talking "My throat is closing." We hear her and a nurse talking and the nurse is giving her an epipen injection.

While all that is going on, we see Amanda and Natalie in the kitchen talking. Amanda is saying that she does not feel well and she heads for the bedroom. Amanda drops to the floor in the hallway. Natalie rushes to her and then rushes outside to get help from the guys. James pushes the emergency button.

The nurse rushes out to help Amanda and James holds Amanda's head while the nurse tries to get some medication into her. Amanda is having convulsions. Alex told everyone that he just saw Allison in the Diary Room and her face is all swollen up and she was having a reaction to something. Shelia just stood back the whole time holding onto herself in shock. The nurse asked for juice or milk and they couldn't find any milk so one of them handed the nurse a Vitamin Water. The nurse tried to get Amanda to drink some. Big Brother got some milk and a paper cup into the house and Amanda started to come to. James told her that she had passed out and "Stay calm and I need you to drink some of this milk for me."

The paramedics were in the house by that time and the nurse explained to them which of the women was which and which needed rescue for what. Because she had been having convulsions, they put a neck brace on Amanda and put her on a transfer board before putting her on the stretcher. We do not see Allison removed by the paramedics as she is in the Diary Room being cared for separately.

The articles I wrote when all this was happening in real time are:

"Emergency - Big Brother 9 - Amanda and Allison in Hospital" (CLICK HERE)

"Update - Emergency - Big Brother 9 - Amanda and Allison in Hospital" (CLICK HERE)

"Amanda and Allison Are Back - Big Brother 9 Emergency Update" (CLICK HERE)

After the women are taken to the hospital, everyone sits around in shock and talking. Chelsia said "I think, I think Amanda will come back." Everyone expressed their feelings of regret for all the things that have happened and been said in the house. Matt and Adam were impressed with the way James handled Amanda's emergency and stepped up and took care of her.

We see Amanda come back and go directly to bed, but Josh and Sharon rush to her and bring her out to say 'Hi to everybody." They all show how much they care for her. Amanda is touched by it all. They told Amanda how she and Allison got sick at the same exact time.

Allison came back and they all greeted her and showed her how much they care about her. She expressed how glad she was to be in the house when that happened because she does not believe she would have received such immediate medical assistance if she had not been in that situation.

Amanda and Allison go talk alone together. Amanda cries and says that when she left she realized that it is not the real her that is in the house. Allison said that she realizes that and that they all need to change the way they all treat one another. Shelia comes in to her "girls" and hugs them hard. They all embrace and talk about how it is really the person that is important here and that this is just a game.

Shelia tells the Diary Room "We are not robots, we are people, we have feelings, we love... these are people's children in this house.. sometimes you have to say yourself, it's just a game."

Veto Ceremony:

Sharon offers the nominated couples an opportunity to say why they should have the Veto used to save them. Amanda said "I understand that you probably want to respect the HOH's nominations so I am not going to sit up here and beg for you to use the Veto." Alex said "Do what you gotta do." Matt said "I respect your decision, whatever you do regardless." Natalie said "I don't want to go back to the Beaver State yet!"

Josh stood up and congratulating them on their successes in the game. Sharon said they have decided not to use the Veto. Josh said they have decided to respect the HOH's nominations.

For behind the scenes information, visit: www.squidoo.com/bb9.