Posted by I.A.

One of the truisms of Big Brother has been that men tend to run the house, at least in the early going. This dynamic is stronger in some seasons than in others (seasons 2, 3, 5, and 6 most prominently), but what I like to call the Big Early Alliance is typically put together by men and has a male majority. This is true even in seasons like BB3, where the first Head of Household was Lisa but the tone for her alliance was set by Josh, Eric, and Roddy. Big Brother 8 was a little different in that the "Mrs. Robinson" alliance had a male majority but was pretty much the idea of Kail, the first HoH. But that alliance was pathetic beyond words, and from the early days of the season it was clear that Dick was going to run that house.

Among the many things that makes this season of BB different so far is that a woman is coming closest to setting the tone for the house, both socially and in a game sense--Amanda. In part by virtue of her position as co-HoH but mostly due to her personality, she has been the dominant player of the first week. She appeared to form a good relationship with her partner before anyone else (it's hard to say for sure because it happened before the feeds went on), she was key to putting together her alliance, and the nomination strategy seems to have been mostly hers. What's more, she's the type of player that seems to be everywhere at once, forming relationships and not letting anything potentially important escape her gaze. This is a trait shared by most of the really good BB players of the past, Dick being the best recent example. Amanda and Alex are rare examples of first-week Heads of Household who aren't acting like it--they're not locking themselves away and obsessing of strategic minutiae.

I don't know that Amanda could have achieved this Alpha status in a regulation season of Big Brother. There's a very good reason that men aren't running the house this season--the pairs format prevents it. Any alliance will out of necessity include equal amounts of men and women, and Amanda just happens to be the natural string-puller in her group. Natalie isn't going to do it, I'm not sure either Jen or Ryan are familiar enough with BB to fill the bill, and neither Alex nor Matt seem as smart as Amanda, frankly.

I can't say I saw this coming from the information we gleaned about Amanda preseason--that she was a hopeless romantic who liked to send motivational quotes to her friends. I wasn't figuring her as being someone who would be a power player, or someone who would have nearly as much of her body on display as Jen did last season. This show can still surprise you.

Keep in mind, though, that just because I think Amanda has been powerful doesn't mean I approve of the game sense of much of what she's done. Her dislike of Allison, motivated by I'm not sure what, seems to have been instrumental in dividing the house at an early stage. While it's not a truly vicious Season 6-type divide yet, it is real--and Amanda seems to have maneuvered herself onto the wrong side of the numbers, because her alliance is made up of 3 couples in a 7-couple house. What's more, she and Alex nominated one of their own ally pairs, Jen and Parker, apparently not really realizing that while the Jen/Ryan situation is a major problem for most of the house (not just for Parker), Jen is less popular in there right now than her boyfriend (she's also less popular than Parker,who could be collateral damage). And as was proved as far back as the first vote of BB2, it can be irresistible to send the big alliance an early message. If Jen and Parker get voted out (and an awful lot can change between now and Wednesday, including use of the veto), there will be little to protect Amanda and Alex from a nomination next week.

One game-level mistake Amanda should try to rectify is that she needs to start hanging out with more of the women in the house. Her social game does have limits, as she's committing the error you usually don't see this early, which is acting as if her non-allies aren't as important. Amanda tried to co-opt Sharon when she re-entered the house, and seems to get along with her pretty well, but she has no relationship with Allison, and doesn't seem to have much to say to either Chelsia or Sheila. Amanda may be someone like Eric in BB6, a power player early on without the finesse to go very far. But as long as she's in there, she's going to be near the center of attention.

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