Big Brother 9: How True Is Allison's Aim?

Posted by I.A.

Typically in Big Brother, the first eviction comes during the feeling out process, and it's in subsequent weeks that various substances start hitting the fan (think about how Season 6 developed). But I thought today was pretty sedate, much more sedate than the typical nomination day--and especially surprising since there was so little campaigning last night, with both James and Chelsia comatose well before midnight.

The first food competition came and went, and then the pairs of (apparent pawns) Matt/Natalie and (true targets) Amanda/Alex got nominated with a minimum of fanfare. Alex has had several days to absorb the fact that he was going up as soon as he was out of that HoH room, and even Amanda seems to be accepting the situation, although that doesn't mean she's going to go quietly--we saw her deep in conversation with Sharon last night, and she only has to persuade two teams in order to stick around.

The nominees are still part of the main social scene in the house, not quite the equivalent of last year's Late Night Crew but definitely the people who keep things hopping and loud into the night. Joshuah and Sharon are usually off to the sides having quiet conversations with each other or with anyone who wants to talk game. Away from Jen, Ryan is showing signs of wanting to hang around more with Adam, Alex, and Matt.

And then there's Allison. The first night of the feeds, Allison was dead drunk, leading us to wonder if she was going to be some sort of Amy Crews-like house lush. But that proved to be a one-night-only event, and since then she's been almost entirely away from large groups, preferring to go to bed early and hole up in conversation with Sheila, or even tonight with "soulmate" Ryan. She had the brief flirtation with Matt, but spends very little time hanging out in groups with the men or flirting with anyone else. She's older than the men (other than Adam), but I'm surprised that given the emphasis this season on casting single people and the eternal BB emphasis on casting people who are outgoing, we don't see her hot tubbing or even holding forth in groups the way her good friend Sheila will do.

I'm not sure if she's playing the smartest social game; we've seen players in the past hurt by their decision to keep different hours than the house majority. Allison is the rare BBer whose bedtime in the house is probably not much different than the one she has in her everyday life. She seems levelheaded and normal most of the time, and is certainly easy on the eyes, but definitely has a high opinion of herself, especially when it comes to the subject of her suitability for Ryan as compared with Jen (I don't think she's really into Ryan, but she sure doesn't seem to want to see him stick with the old girlfriend). The other night, when she and Sheila went on and on about Parker rating them a "6", Allison went on at such length about how insulting that was to her as a former homecoming queen that I wanted to smack her through my monitor.

And then, there was the "lesbian alliance" that Allison and Sheila claimed for themselves, and seemed to have people buying until they admitted that the whole thing was a hoax. While I can sort of understand how telling lies just to amuse yourself might have some appeal in the house (for all I know they decided to spread the lie as a way of explaining why they spent so much time together), I'm not sure what this was supposed to accomplish especially considering the controversy that had enveloped her soulmate Ryan, which happened to be the reason she was nominated last week in the first place.

Compared with someone like Sharon, who is playing a really interesting under-the-radar game (she seems to be in on most game talk and driving a lot of it without the others even seeming to realize it), I think Allison could find herself at a disadvantage.

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