Big Brother Season 18 Episode 9 Recap: Who's HOH Again?

By Mark Drum
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Showmances are in the air! Some of them are pretty obvious while another is quite surprising. But first, Bridgette just won the HOH competition and that means for the second week in a row Category 4 was safe for another week. Meanwhile lines were starting to be drawn between Frank and some other members of the house. The BB Roadkill competition this week involves memory and the nominations this week went a very clear way. Here's my recap of last night's episode!

Game play Friendship

Spunky Spy, Bridgette of the Spy Girls alliance is in power this week, making Bronte and Natalie feel safe with Bridgette in power. The slowly defunct 8 Pack alliance was split in their safety in the game with Bridgette in power. Frank tries to get a sense of where Bridgette's head is at with nominations and her response was shrugging her shoulders. With the previous week when Frank was trying to strengthen his ties with his teammate Bridgette seems to be in his favor to helping possibly sway the nominations to help his game. Bridgette had also asked the advice of James and he told her to do what's best for her game as well as not to be influenced by other people's agenda. By the time nominations rolled around, Paul and Tiffany were up on the block. Which made Frank very happy that he thinks he made a big impact on the nominations, but Bridgette tries to defend during a conversations with Bronte that her decision was her own for nominating Paul and Tiffany. For those keeping score, Paul has been nominated every week so far putting him at three nominations, saving himself once and being saved once. This week however he's assuming he's the pawn and should lie low, but a very popular Big Brother phrase, "pawns go home," should be on Paul's radar. For Tiffany, winning the BB Roadkill competition could mean putting up a bigger target next her and Paul on the block.

Keeping the peace

A segment of the episode featured Frank being himself with the houseguests. However some of the houseguests, Frank's jokes, words and actions were starting to rub the other houseguests the wrong way. Many of the clips featured Frank picking on the women, which why wasn't there any clips of Frank pranking or making fun of the other guys in the house? Some of the actions that Frank did reached Da'Vonne's breaking point putting her to tears. Da'Vonne however was trying to not ruffle any feathers because it's still is a game and she's trying to save herself from being evicted. Especially when Frank has been having a very heavy hand in nominations, the fear of getting on his bad side was very apparent. But for Da'Vonne raising a daughter, felt the need to stand up for herself and not tolerate some of Frank's actions. Through Da'Vonne's tears, Frank saw how much of an impact his actions were and apologized. For Da'Vonne she accepted the apology but during her DR confessional let's us know next week, she'll be fighting to win HOH to make sure to send Frank out the door. Da'Vonne and the rest of the houseguests have to survive this week to try and get Frank out next week.

A Flirtmance & Showmance

Before the BB RV competition, this episode featured heavily some clips of some of the showmances or flirtmances happening in the Big Brother house. The first showmance that seems to be blossoming is between Nicole and Corey. Surprisingly we only hear Nicole's DR confessional of her infatuation with Corey, while there are no DR confessionals of Corey confessing his infatuations of Nicole. Nicole isn't new to the whole showmance as she also had one during her first season with another blonde haired guy. Will this be a more than a showmance between Nicole and Corey? Or can Nicole keep it strictly professional by playing the game and using her showmance with Corey to her advantage.

The "flirtmance," between James and Natalie seems to be developing into more. We finally get to see the telephone in the HOH room and the downstairs rooms being used to communicate. Hearing both James and Natalie's infatuation with each other was charming. Natalie even went on to saying that outside of the Big Brother house; James would be someone she would actually want to date. But being in the Big Brother house she doesn't want to get hurt nor does she want to hurt James. So this "flirtmance," will be great to see unfold. Also I really hope we get to hear from James and Natalie's love ones on what they think of this budding relationship between the two.

Honk for the BB RV

As what's looking to be the norm, the BB RV returned for the BB Roadkill competition. This competition named, "Horn Stars," consisted of five different steering wheels with a horn and each horn having a unique sound. To win this competition the houseguests had to memorize an eight-horn sequence to win the BB Roadkill competition. Before each houseguest started, they were given the opportunity to hear each horn and how they sound before starting. If the houseguest incorrectly guesses wrong during the sequence they would have to start over while their clock was still running. The fastest person to correctly match the sequences would win the BB Roadkill competition and be able to nominate the third houseguest for eviction. A few people stood out really wanting to win this competition, Da'Vonne to ensure her safety, Tiffany as well as Paul to get a bigger target up on the block, Frank to control the third nominations and Paulie to have the opportunity to nominate the third houseguest for eviction who he thinks should be nominated that helps his game more than Frank's. James admitted to having a poor memory, while Natalie admitted to being a slow driver and I almost forgot that Michelle was still in the game due to her lack of position in this game. As each houseguest opened their tackle box to revel if they were the winner, it was Frank winning his second BB Roadkill competition that won with his time being under a minute. His third and final nomination for this week was Bronte, Bridgette's ally in the Spy Girl Alliance being put up on the block. This didn't sit well with Bridgette as she said in her DR confession that if she finds out who won the BB Roadkill, she'll make sure to target them. Unfortunately for Bridgette it's someone from her own team that nominated Bronte.

Predict for POV

With a repeat of this week's nomination to last week, the target this time isn't Victor but Tiffany. Tiffany is well aware she's the target and Paul as well as Bronte knows this too. The only way to guarantee one's safety it'll be important to win the POV. With two other houseguests selected at random draw it will be anyone's game. However I predict that Paul will pull off the win and use it to save himself. If the POV is used to save any of the nominees, I think Bridgette would replace them with either Nicole or Corey making them the bigger target than Tiffany Frank would put up another pawn like Michelle to ensure Tiffany goes home this week. Tune in on Wednesday at 8 p.m. on CBS Detroit to see who win's the POV, if it'll be used on Bronte, Paul or Tiffany and if there will be a replacement nominee!

Mark Drum is a Farmington Hills, MI native and Big Brother fan since 2000. Mark is a graduate from the University of Northern Colorado with a degree in Theatre Arts.