Big Brother Power Rankings: Week 2

In terms of first weeks in the Big Brother House, this one's been a doozy both on and off the regularly televised show. We have alliances everywhere, showmances galore, Hitler appreciation, garden-variety racism - when they say "expect the unexpected," they weren't kidding.

Some notes:

* Big Brother is moving to a format where evictions will happen on Thursdays beginning next week. Thus, Power Rankings going forward will be on Fridays.

* This week's Head of Household competition went over the allotted broadcast time. In weeks like that, I will be checking spoiler sites to find out who won in order to project the week.

So for some details on the week and more, let's take a look behind the jump:

In no particular order:

* We have at least one strong alliance, "The Moving Company," which consists of Jeremy, Nick, Spencer, Howard, and first week HoH McCrae. Assuming Jeremy doesn't turn the entire house against him, this could get interesting.

* The House has learned for sure that Elissa is Rachel Reilly's sister, so naturally she's now the biggest target, and even ended up on the block even though she was MVP. The Moving Company alliance thinks they might be able to control her nominations if they keep her around, which is an interesting strategy.

* You can't talk about Big Brother this week without talking about the racism scandals that are going through the House. None of them are acceptable, some more mild than others, and all of them ridiculously ignorant to the point where we've had two houseguests lose their jobs over the publicity. In terms of societal benefit, Aaryn (who I have in a pool) and GinaMarie in particular are the worst offenders and are indefensible, but as of this writing, it doesn't appear to be impacting the game in any meaningful way, and will not be factoring into the rankings here.

* In eviction voting this week, David got 7 votes to Elissa's 5 and Jessie's 0. Candace was a nominee, but McCrae vetoed her nomination and put Elissa up as a replacement. David seemed genuinely shocked about the results, and Aaryn looked to be on the warpath almost immediately, given that she was in a showmance with him.

* Then we had the HoH competition, where they groups teamed up to fill large plastic containers with barbecue sauce. The team of Aaryn and Jeremy won, and Aaryn took the HoH. Aaryn hates Elissa. All the girls hate each other. This should be fun.

So where does the house stand?

Not only does Nick jump from #3 to #1 in our Power Rankings, he does so being the brains of the Moving Company, effectively controlling McCrae throughout the week as well as much of the house itself. He made a strong showing in the HoH competition, but his team with Judd came very close (but not close enough). He's not in great with Aaryn, but that might not matter - he controls an alliance and isn't a target.

While our pizza boy McCrae drops from #1 to #2, he does so while getting a major target for his alliance out of the House, nominating the biggest target in the House in a renomination, and winning the Veto Competition on top of his HoH. He's doing everything right so far, although there are concerns about his showmance with Amanda.

While Spencer is quickly running the danger of looking like a floater early on, thus facilitating his drop to #3 from #2, he's playing the House very well currently, and has the Moving Company behind him to boot.

Aaryn, all outside stuff aside, is playing an interesting game right now. Yes, her showmance was eliminated, but she won HoH immediately afterwards, and her main target is also the House's target. She has a good opportunity to use her power in a way to continue to keep the House on her side, and it's always been interesting when showmances get broken up by votes - the scorned party doesn't seem to calm down right away. Aaryn stays at #4 for now.

Howard is a feared competitor, respected by all sides of the house, and is part of The Moving Company. I'd like to see him actually stand out and do more, but for now, he's in a good position to make a move if he can pull it off. He jumps up to #5 from #9 this week.

Amanda may be the sixth wheel in the Moving Alliance due to her showmance with McCrae, and while the amount of time she apparently spent with him in HoH last week might be rubbing people the wrong way, it does ensure that she won't be a target of The Moving Company, and takes a target off her back between the girls in the short term. She jumps from #13 to #6.

Judd, with David gone, might be the worst intellectual competitor left in the House, but he's done respectably well in competitions so far and is respected by many in the House. He's doing enough to stay in place for the time being, moving up one from #8 to #7.

Jeremy is genuinely terrible, but he's also part of the Moving Company and helped win the most recent HoH competition. His Evel Dick strategy of irritating everyone in the House is taking a lot of the heat from the rest of his crew, but that can backfire quite quickly, not to mention the huge target on his back as the Never Have Not. Logically speaking, he should be ranked higher. I can't bring myself to do it yet, though, so he jumps from #16 to #9.

Andy is in well with the girls and isn't an immediate target of the guys. To move beyond #10 (dropping from #7), he'll actually have to accomplish something besides being friendly.

Helen definitely seems like the smartest woman in the field so far, and she seems to be navigating the social game well even if she's a target of Aaryn currently. I think she's safe for now, but she hasn't impressed me as much as I thought/hoped she would have, so she drops from #4 to #11.

Jessie was put up as a pawn of sorts to get either Candace, Elissa, or David out, and received no votes for eviction this week. She also did absolutely nothing to help her case, nor has she done anything to set herself apart from the rest of the cast. She stays at #12 just because so many people were worse.

GinaMarie, with other circumstances put aside, appears to be annoying everyone, is getting very little screentime, and doesn't seem to be well liked by the guys in the House. While I don't think she'll be a target for Aaryn this week, if one of the guys wins MVP and they need a girl to put up against Elissa, GinaMarie is a logical choice. I also thought she'd do better, but her complete lack of...anything so far drops her from #6 to #13.

Candace was on the block, was removed by the HoH that nominated her initially, didn't do great in the veto competition, and, oh, yeah, a bunch of houseguests have shown significant prejudice toward minorities? Sorry Candace, you stay at #14 until you actually accomplish something.

Elissa is an interesting case study in how hostile this group can be toward CBS production, toward the twists, and toward past houseguests. By virtue of her hedging around the idea of being Rachel's sister, she probably made it worse. That she's almost a guarantee to be MVP until she's ousted from the House means she's got a huge target on her back. That Aaryn hates her and is almost certainly going to nominate her up front (and maybe outright declare her the target) means she's the frontrunner for going home. The fact that she decided "potroasts" was a single word in the veto competition does not give us hope that she'll be able to stop it. Enjoy staying at #15.




There we have it. We'll see you next Friday with updates and results!