Renny and Jerry both had a high profile on tonight's show, as one of the highlights was Jerry's fight with Libra in the wake of the food competition (Libra appearing to blame him in part for being on the losing side again). This was certainly not the case in Week One, when Jerry was Head of Household and Renny was nominated. But both have fallen under the radar, not only not really being considered for nominations this time around, but not being privy to many game conversations at all. Neither appears to be aligned with anyone, except to the extent that their votes might be needed.

This is a critical part of the game for players who are social outcasts, because any HoH looking for the proverbial "free week" can always justify nominating them, thus pushing the hard decisions off on others. Someone like Libra, for example, who is already farther above the radar than she might have wished to be at this point, might decide to put up Jerry. No one in the house would complain. But if a player like this can survive that stage, he might be able to go a long way.

We've had just such a player in each of the last two seasons: Zach in Season 8 and Sheila earlier this season, both of whom finished third. Their paths in the game were slightly different. Zach pulled off a variation on the Will Kirby strategy by being the last survivor of an early alliance. Once the alliance had been reduced to just him, new threats presented themselves and suddenly Zach became useful to Dick and Daniele as a vote to help get things done. Sheila's position last season is more like Renny's this season--a woman far removed in age from anyone else in the house, and with a personality that at best took a little getting used to. But unlike Zach, Sheila was never really part of any early alliance other than her forced relationship with Adam. She fell into what became Team Christ, mostly because she had a wee bit more affinity with them than with the likes of Chelsia, James, and Joshuah. Theoretically she was vulnerable almost every week, but there was always someone else who seemed a bigger threat to deal with.

Zach and Sheila illustrate that it's possible to go far in BB without anyone really liking you much, although it helps if you can win a competition or two along the way. However, it's questionable if two players can pull it off in the same season. Two outcasts can come to seem almost like a de facto alliance, and this is especially the case in a situation where Jerry and Renny share the same reason for their outcast status, their ages (Jerry is of course not really close in age to Renny, but they're both "the old one" among their gender). We haven't seen these two act anything like an alliance yet or even share many pleasantries, but the longer both stay in the house the more likely an alliance between them might come to be seen as a good idea.

I think Renny has a little better chance of going farther into the game than Jerry, possibly even as far as Sheila did. No one is really upset with her right now, while Jerry's "Colonel" ways and the belief among some of the women that he's a little too familiar might lead him to get a nomination the first time a woman is HoH. But if one of them makes it as far as the jury, he or she might go well into September.

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