have not, want not

So this week did start off as another same stuff, different day re-run. Liz put up Jackie and James for reasons I couldn't possibly explain, and Shelli put up Jason as a target, and perma-pawn John. This time around Clay and Shelli graciously offered to let Johnny Mac not have to throw the BOB. For all the flack he's gotten, John has actually only thrown one BOB. He won the first one, and James lost the third one all on his own (to be fair, JMac was planning to throw it, but he didn't actually have to). But anyway, as BB goes, despite actually trying to win, John and Jason fell short. This also resulted in them being "punished" into forming a new boyband w/Liz (who was actually Julia by this point), The WhackStreet Boys.

Then, just to make this week more of the same hell, Vanessa won the POV. She started on a whole new round of the Vanessa Monologues, searching for a reason to save Jason and put up, er, I mean let Shelli put up Audrey. In the midst of all their plotting, Shelli got to assign HNs and picked John, Becky, Jackie and Audrey. They got Grunge Cakes (sponge cakes and gravy) as their "90s themed" have-not supplement.

Things really popped off on Sunday, when Audrey got into a confrontation with Clay that basically boiled down to them arguing over who loved Shelli more. Clay kept telling her she was paranoid, which, of course, only made her more paranoid. Clay ran up to HOH to tell on Audrey, but she was close on his heels. Mommy Shelli heard them both out, and didn't really say much, but it was pretty clear she was taking Clay's side. Vanessa joined in, things got more heated, and by the end Audrey was pretty clear she was in trouble.

Audrey sulked/plotted in HOH for a bit then went downstairs and pulled James aside and tried to stir up some drama through the novel move of telling the complete truth. She told him about the alliance of herself, Clay/Shelli, Vanessa and Austin, and talked about John's famous BOB throwing talent. She then spun a plan where James would go to Shelli and "throw Jason under the bus" to keep Vanessa from vetoing him. Then they'd form an alliance of James/Audrey/Jackie/Meg/Jason, save Jason and vote out John. (Audrey was two votes shy of success there, but it was something.)

James was relatively on-board, but then he came out of the room and decided to tell everyone what Audrey had offered. He started with Meg, who was having none of it, and then of all people, Clay. Pretty soon he had forgotten the minor detail of saving Jason, and had everyone asking him how this alliance was going to work, since Jason would clearly be evicted.

Next up, everything got spilled to Shelli and Vanessa, and they hit the roof. They strongly protested the existence of this alleged alliance (they'd seen this coming and were banking on exactly what they got - Audrey's spun so many lies in the house no one believes her even when she's telling the truth.) The plan was to pull small groups up to HOH and make deals with each of them to vote out Audrey. But things took a comedic turn when Shelli's secretary couldn't seem to get the committee meetings scheduled right, and everyone but Audrey ended up in HOH. They formed An Alliance Against Audrey (my name, but someone did say "we are all an alliance") and agreed that she would go.

Monday came around with a plan in place, Vanessa was called to the DR, and everyone was anticipating a veto meeting shortly. Then Audrey went to the DR.

She came out 5 hours later.

After that, they finally went off behind the fishies for the POV meeting. When feeds returned we learned that Audrey had declined to attend the meeting, but had been repl-nom'ed in absentia.

Before going into the DR Audrey had made a couple of comments about it being "something chemical" and told Vanessa she had ringing in her ears, hallucinations, etc. Before long we learned that she's been released from HN food restriction and is being allowed to sleep on blankets on the floor in the HN room, rather than dentist chair.

Of course, livefeeders are all in a flutter about this. It's not the first time someone's gotten slightly special treatment with HN sleeping arrangements (Elissa, Frankie). There've been food slip ups that have been overlooked, but no one has ever been blatantly allowed to just not be on restriction anymore. There are all sorts of theories, she was going to quit and this was the compromise, production told her it was her choice but she'd get a penalty vote (like BB8 Jen), she's just batcrap crazy and they're letting her get away with it, etc., etc. Most recently, the HGs have been saying that it's just a 24-36 hour reprieve due to some medication she was given.

I'm half expecting Audrey to emerge from this latest "marooning" and offer to host her own BB funeral. I kind of can't imagine BB letting her get away with not even trying to campaign, but who knows. Regardless I don't see her flipping enough votes to stay over Johnny Mac.

This turned into way more of a recap than I intended, but I guess that's what I get for not posting much this season. I'm not real fond of the idea of BB letting someone off of HN restrictions, but I get that they can't run the risk of something going wrong if there is an actual health issue. That being said, I find it awfully convenient that Audrey fell ill the moment she realized she was going on the block, and against someone she most likely has no shot at beating. If this is strategy, it's a terrible one. She's not winning any votes by hiding under Phantom of the Opera cloak (credit to @BBSuperfan45 for id'ing that). But like everything else Audrey has done this season, it's got us talking.