I'm seeing some folks around the BBosphere raising the spectre of Season 6 when referring to the dynamic that appears to be developing in the house, with Libra and April in particular appearing to believe that any sort of acknowledgement of those on "the other side" is a great betrayal. HamsterDame had her take here.

To a great extent, this reflects the hold that Season 6 still has on everyone's imagination. Recall that last summer, there were all sorts of "nerd herd" comparisons that sprang up when one side got a little power and started slamming their antagonists. This sort of thing has gone on in literally every season of Big Brother, but there's a segment of fans who believe that it all started with Season 6 and now liken all divisions in the house to what we saw that season.

I think there are a few similarities between the current situation and Season 6, the main one being the whole "guilt by association" thing. Recall that in Season 6 the original target of what would eventually become the Friendship was Michael, and it was his partner (Kaysar) and house girlfriend (Janelle) who were collateral damage. The current campaign being waged against Angie seems to be based on similar personal grounds, since in the end Angie didn't even vote to keep Brian in the house. OK, she briefly tried to keep him in the house, but that's usually not considered grounds for ostracizing.

But Michael in Season 6 got in trouble for personal reasons--possibly overblown, but no one went after him because he was a game threat. That's a difference from the situation with Brian, who no one seemed to dislike personally but got in trouble because he was perceived as trying to run the game. And while the division in Season 6 forced virtually the entire house to choose sides very quickly, the current situation doesn't really compare. It's mostly Libra and April who feel this way, and while Libra may be a power player, she has nothing like Eric Littmann's ability to set an entire tone for the house. Jessie was upset at Angie, but he feels that way on his own and not because Libra is ordering him to. I don't think we're going to see the wholesale mutual social ostracism we saw in Season 6. Fortunately.

This doesn't mean there aren't some ominous signs out there; losing one of the more active gamers after just 3 days is unprecedented, and the house already seems a bit less fun with Brian out of there. But it's early yet. Fullscale freakouts--and the return of slop will help--are sure to keep us entertained, and the HoH tenure of Jessie promises a lot of unintentional comedy.

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