while you were sleeping

It seemed like Zach was toast, but then on Wednesday afternoon Derrick lay down on his bed for a long time clearly deep in thought. Feeds went off for a couple hours for the halfway party, and when they came back, Derrick was soon telling Cody they needed to reconsider kicking Zach. Or rather, Derrick was trying to tell Cody, but Frankie kept popping in and talk-blocking them.

Next, Caleb, of all people, pointed out the complete flaw in the logic of booting someone that was clearly on their side and giving a numbers advantage to the other side of the house. Frankie was still all about booting Zach. Then Frankie got called to DR. While he was away, Derrick and Cody chatted, decided that Hayden/Nicole/Donny were manipulating them into gutting their own alliance, and they needed to keep Zach.

Cody grabbed Christine told her Nic/Hay/Don were pitting the pairs of Frankie/Christine and Derrick/Cody against each other and tricking them into kicking Zach. Christine, who was really a big force behind the KillZach plan wasn't happy at first, but came around when Cody spilled that Nicole had been planning to b-d Frankie all week. Then Frankie came in, fresh from the DR, was told they'd flipped and was right on board.

It was one of the fastest flips I've ever seen. It smelled highly of production manipulation, and I sort of call it a double-secret TA mission. It wasn't really about saving Zach, but rather, protecting Frankie. If Zach had gone it would have been Frankie/Christine/Caleb against the world. But with Zach in the house, he's a big shield, and the numbers are on the side that allows CBS to keep their Grande.

So Zach was saved, and the funniest part was that he literally slept through the whole thing. They did tell him later about his almost-eviction, but he had been lined up for one of the biggest blindsides ever. Instead those honors went to Nicole, Hayden and Donny. And, of course, Jocasta.

Then it was time for the double part of the double eviction. The HOH comp was "math based"...or really number guessing. Everyone but Caleb, Christine and Zach went out on the first question. Zach, to my mind, threw it on the second question, feeling secure if Christine or Caleb won. Caleb pulled it out, and popped Donny and Hayden up on the block.

Then it was quick-like-a-bunny out to play Jeff's Infamous Clownshoe POV, this time with duckies. I figured Hayden had a good shot, but Donny pulled it out. He looked like the comp nearly killed him, but he still secured even more his spot as veto king of BB16. He vetoed himself, naturally, and Caleb popped Nicole up in his spot. No one had told Cody whom to vote for, so he cast one against Nicole. Donny did the same, but everyone else booted Hayden.

Feeds returned to the first actual eviction fallout of the season. Nicole was ranting at Frankie and Christine, and they were both scrambling. Frankie was doing an odd kind of offensive-defense with Zach, basically telling him he couldn't be mad that they almost kicked him because he runs his mouth to everyone. Zach got accusations thrown at him left and right for playing all sides. Some of it was stuff he's done, some of it was made up, and some of it was just confusion.

There were lots of make-ups and break-ups and it's hard to say at this point who's really still together. It continues to be the season of way too many alliances, most of which are as fake as they come. And BB's just contributing to the problem by making an option for the TA nonsense of the week to be a fake alliance from each TA member. I actually hope that mission wins, because I'd like to know who each TA'er selects as the person he trusts the least. Presumably they can't pick each other.

In other news, the BOB twist went and came back. It was out of play for the DE, and I think everyone was hoping it would stay that way, but Julie let us know it was coming back. It's getting ridiculous--nearly half the house has to go on the block each week now, and potentially just as many are safe by the end of the week (remaining HOH, 2 BOB winners and POV winner). It was also confirmed that it's a 9 person jury, but Julie alluded to a return. There's been speculation there could be 2 returnees this year, to make it even twistier. I say it all depends on if/when Frankie gets kicked.

Oh, and Victoria is still there.