TV Review: Big Brother Canada 4 (Round #8 & 9)

There’s an expression that comes to mind during these last few weeks of Big Brother Canada: “With great power comes great responsibility.” Anything can happen over the course of the game and when someone wins a challenge that’s worth a great deal of power, tough decisions must be made. Sometimes they create good favor while other times they can blow up in their faces. The game can flip on a dime and these last two weeks saw everything change.

Two alliances that once controlled the game have been left to crumble. Each has seen their fair share of betrayals and evictions (Dallas! Loveita! Kelsey!), but now each is a shell of their former selves. Big Brother is not a race, it’s a marathon. And unfortunately, the game can turn on once powerful players!

Here’s a look of what went down in the Big Brother Canada 4 house during rounds eight and nine:

Round 8

• Picking up after Mitch’s eviction and devastating last speech, Kelsey and Jared are worried. Mitch called them out in front of everyone and made them bigger targets than they already were. They’re desperate to win Head of Household (HOH) and gain safety for the week.
• Continuing from the last HOH competition, “Before or After,” the contestants are asked questions based on moments during the Big Brother season. They get stuck on a question about the jackpot alarm, but Maddy is the only one to answer the question correctly. She wins HOH!
• Maddy goes to Jared and Raul to tell them not to worry this week; Kelsey and Cassandra, on the other hand, are worried that Maddy is coming after them. Maddy says she’s going to have an even week and not worry about past drama, she’s going to look at everyone evenly.
• Cassandra, Joel and Tim are secretly working in an alliance together. Cassandra is worried about the week but Tim has a bit more confidence. He’s spent time working with Maddy to create a relationship; Maddy sees Tim as her “mentor.”
• Big Brother calls down the houseguests one at a time to the living room. They each have a bucket of slop and they must pour it into marked canisters with houseguests’ names on them. The players with the most slop in their canister will be a Have-Not. The Third Wheel Alliance and Nikki move ahead with getting the most debate between the houseguests.
• The Have-Nots are Nikki, Raul and Kelsey. Nikki starts to have a breakdown after finding out she’s a Have-Not; she’s fine with sleeping on the chair but not with eating the slop.
• Maddy nominates Kelsey and Jared for eviction, which angers Jared. He calls Maddy a liar since she said he was good; Kelsey knows that Maddy nominated her because of catty drama. Ramsey reassures Jared that he’s still good with him and that it was Maddy’s choice, not his. He confronts Maddy but she has no real explanation to tell him except that he isn’t her target.
• Maddy, Kelsey, Jared, Nikki, Cassandra and Raul will compete in the Power of Veto (POV) competition, “Six Blind Mice.” The houseguests must crawl through a maze to collect the four special emblems and hit the buzzer in the middle.
• Early into the competition, Kelsey and Raul try to help Jared win the POV. The Third Wheel Alliance move into an early lead. Raul calls out to Jared but everyone is surprised at Raul’s stupidity – Tim is positive that Raul will be going up on the block as a replacement if Jared wins. Jared reaches the buzzer first and wins POV!
• After the challenge, Cassandra tells Kelsey that her only chance to stay is if she’s up against her friend Raul. Cassandra wants to work with Kelsey and keep her around; she goes to Maddy to plant the seed about nominating Raul.
• Big Brother challenges the players to clean the house in exchange for a pizza party. They accomplish their mission and win the prize. They dance and play Spin The Bottle, but after Kelsey kisses Maddy and Nick, Jared gets mad and walks out. He’s jealous; she tries to reassure him in the hot tub but he’s still frustrated.
• Maddy and Ramsey are debating whether to nominate Raul or go with a pawn like Joel as the replacement nominee. Raul asks Maddy to not nominate him and offers working with her as an agreement. The deal doesn’t work as Maddy nominates Raul instead.
• Raul makes his case to Phil to keep safe, but Jared sees them leaving the storage room. He confronts him about his campaigning/turning against him.
• Big Brother reveals a few memes of the houseguests that the fans have created. Each houseguest will have to create their own meme and the favourite one will win $1,000. Tim created one about the brothers and the house voted him as the winner.
• During an HOH discussion, Raul brings up secret plans he had with his former allies. He tries to make a deal to protect himself and work with the underdogs in the house. The others are unsure if they can trust Raul after Mitch’s eviction.
• Raul is evicted by a vote of 6-1.
• There will be no HOH competition this week. Canada voted for their favorites for the chance to win HOH in a game of chance – Nikki and Nick/Phil were chosen by Canada. Each houseguest (not including Nikki and Nick/Phil) will head into the High Roller Room and roll a ball on a roulette wheel. The ball will roll onto a face of the potential HOHs and the first person to get four points wins.
• Nick/Phil win the HOH competition by 4-1 points

Round 9

• After the brothers win HOH, Jared is worried about what they’ll do for the week. Phil notices that Jared and Kelsey are visibly upset about them winning. The brothers go to Tim and Nikki to talk game about who to nominate as they’re stuck between Jared/Kelsey or Maddy/Ramsey.
• Big Brother challenges the houseguests to the “Great Canadian Quiz.” The houseguests must teach Nikki and Tim a bunch of Canadian facts where they will be quizzed. If Nikki and Tim can answer seven facts, they’ll win a prize for the house. Nikki and Tim end up completing the task and treating the house to a basket of beer and poutine.
• “Stay In Change” is the Have-Not Competition. The houseguests must balance themselves on a hoverboard and if they touch the ground, their generator starts losing power. If they lose all power, they’re out. The last standing player also wins a “Never-Not” pass, which means they can never be a Have-Not again this season.
• The green team quickly starts dropping one after the other. Tim holds out for as long as he can but ends up dropping; this means that Kelsey, Cassandra, Joel and Tim are the Have-Nots. Jared wins the slop pass.
• The decision is still split down the middle for nominations and Nick/Phil hear from both sides about who to nominate. In the end, Maddy and Ramsey are nominated for eviction, with the brothers deciding to side with Kelsey and Jared instead.
• Ramsey gets a call from his mother telling him that his father had a heart attack. He survived the attack but will be having a serious surgery. Ramsey is debating whether to stay in the game or leave to be with his family.
• “Spun Out” is the POV challenge, with Nick/Phil, Ramsey, Maddy, Tim, Kelsey and Nikki competing. The challenge features pictures of houseguests in stained clothing; the after picture will showcase the houseguests with clean clothes. They must spot the different clothing items and throw it into a basket to complete seven rounds. The houseguest with the fastest time will win the POV and $5,000.
• The houseguests have trouble throwing the clothing items into the basket – Nikki is having the hardest time. In the end, Ramsey wins the POV and scores the prize. However, it’s a short lived victory…
• Ramsey decides to leave the game and head back home to be with his family. He understands that the surgery may turn out well but he doesn’t want to risk not being with his dad. Now that Ramsey has left, the brothers need to name a replacement nominee as Ramsey was going to use the POV on himself. Tim offers to be a pawn and the brothers honor his request.
• Big Brother gives Nick/Phil a secret task to convince the others that they’re having a fight and hating each other. They have to say “I wish you weren’t my brother,” pour water over each other’s heads and throw one of them out of the HOH room. They successfully complete the task and win a training session from UFC fighter Elias Theodorou.
• Jared and Phil start to think about maybe targeting Tim. They don’t fully trust him and think he could be dangerous. Maddy, meanwhile, is trying to make her case about staying in the house since she’s alone and has no one to help her. She pulls the house together to make her case and she’s making a strong one.
• Unfortunately, her campaigning isn’t successful – she’s evicted by a vote of 5-0.
• “Rock And A Hard Place” is the next HOH competition. The loved ones of the houseguests will be competing instead and they will have to hit a buzzer when they believe a thousand rocks have fallen from the sky. The winner will be revealed during the next episode.

Raul and Maddy experienced a big dose of karma these last two weeks. They held the highest power in the house (HOH) and were part of alliances that, at certain points, had controlled the game. Their decisions and the moves they made came back to haunt them in the end. Raul evicted his ally (Mitch) instead of going after a more powerful threat that would never have worked with him. Maddy experienced a similar situation – she turned so much on her allies that she had no one left in the house who would fight for her.

The Big Brother game can change in an instant. Someone can be sitting pretty in power one week and then find themselves walking out the door the following. It’s the curse of HOH! Many have fallen due to this problem and while some have overcome this, it can be a devastating strike.

Future players and aspiring reality contestants should look at these last two weeks as a rule of thumb: Look at the game like a game of chess. Don’t only focus on the current week ahead but the players and potential of what COULD BE in the future. Raul was quick to cut Mitch and it hurt him the following week. Maddy turned against Dallas and Loveita (who was on her side) to leave her enemies in the game instead. The combination of the floaters and freelance players still in the game caught up to them and they both got the axe.

What do you think will happen next in Big Brother? Share your thoughts below.

Episode Ratings:

ROUND #8

HOH/Nominations – 6/10
Power of Veto– 7/10
Eviction – 9/10

ROUND #9

HOH/Nominations – 7/10
Power of Veto– 9/10
Eviction – 8/10