Ian Wins Big Brother 14!

Last night's finale of Big Brother 14 cleared up some things for me.  Let's review.  We were shown that prior to the first part of the HOH competition, Dan pulled Ian aside and asked him to throw the competition.  His reasoning was that he (Dan) could not beat Danielle in the second part of the competition, but Ian could.  Ian agreed to this.  Then, Dan went to Danielle and told her that he had convinced Ian to drop in the first part of the competition.  He told Danielle that when she saw Ian drop, she would know that he was being honest with her.  Well, sure enough, Ian dropped at the 17 minute mark.  Dan then convinces Danielle to drop telling her in essence the same thing he told Ian.  He (Dan) didn't think he could beat Ian in the second part of the competition.  This set up the second part of the competition...Ian versus Danielle.

This competition involves scurrying (yes I used the word scurrying!) up a wall, finding the house guest pictures and placing them in order of eviction.  The winner is the HG who finishes the quickest.  Ian beats Danielle with about a minute to spare.  Once again, Dan has engineered a plan.  He "accidentally" lets Danielle see him and Ian celebrating after Ian's win.  Ian is PO'd with Dan and Danielle pretends to go ballistic on the two of them.  She threatens Ian and tells him that she will taint the Jury against him.  I'm still confused as to how this is supposed to help Danielle.  What it does do is insure that Ian will pick Dan if he wins the final part of the HOH competition.

Now we are caught up and at the Live Show.  The third part of the competition between Dan and Ian is questions.  The questions involve deciding which answer an evicted HG gave when asked a particular question.  I didn't feel that Ian had an advantage in this part because the answers were not concrete.  Word on the street was that Dan planned to throw this part of the competition so Ian would have to choose to evict Danielle, thus keeping his hands (relatively) clean.  Yes, I am very aware that Dan's hands are far from clean, but anyway...Ian does win. 

Ian had to choose who to take to the Final Two and he picks Dan.  I think this shows that Ian has integrity.  There was definitely more of a chance for Ian to NOT win the money with Dan than with Danielle, but he stuck to his final two deal.  Danielle is finally evicted from the Big Brother house. 

The Jury is introduced on the Live Show and then Danielle is brought in.  Since the live show continues Danielle never has the opportunity to talk to the Jury before the vote (unless she did during the commercials).  Another interesting tidbit that I picked up during the Live Feed Backyard Interviews was that Shane never went to the Jury House.  He was put in a hotel and sequestered alone until the Finale.  That means he didn't have the opportunity to talk to the Jury prior to the Finale either.  Huh!  We do see the Jury discussing who should win the money.  I'm not sure when this scene was taped.

Next we have the questions from the Jury to the final two Big Brother contestants.  I replayed this part because I feel that this was the deciding factor of the Jury vote.  I read some comments that Ian was arrogant during the question and answer section.  I think at this point in the game, if you aren't arrogant you have a good chance of losing.  You have to put yourself out there and do your best to take home the money.  I think that when Dan said that he had stabbed practically every house guest in the back, he hurt his chances or maybe he hurt his chances when he stabbed every house guest in the back! 

The question that seemed to clinch this thing was when Danielle asked Ian if he was aware that she and Dan had a Final Two alliance.  Ian seemed really surprised at this and told everyone that Dan had given him his grandfather's gold cross as collateral for sealing <em>their</em> final two deal.  When Dan admits that he did plan to take Danielle to the final two, Ian is visibly shaken and keeps repeating to Dan, "Really?  Really?"  This was one of my favorite moments on the show last night!

To make a long story less long...the vote was 6 for Ian and 1 for Dan.  Danielle voted for Dan to win the $500,000 because she said that she wanted to do what she said she would do and support Dan all the way.  When she watches the show, I bet she's going to change her mind.  In fact, in the Backyard Interview, she is asked if she knew that when Shane was evicted, Dan whispered in his ear that Danielle was using him throughout the whole game. Danielle did her now famous jaw drop and asked the interviewer (Spicy), "did he really say that?"  When Spicy said yes, Danielle was fuming and asked her to change the subject. Spicy also asked her if she regretted throwing the first part of the HOH competition and she said yes. 

Also interesting during the Backyard Interviews was Shane.  When asked about his continuing the relationship with Danielle, he said he didn't think it would work because he lives in Vermont and she lives in Alabama.  He said that if one of them had won the money, they would be able to afford plane fares, but at this point it didn't look good for them.  He seemed really upset when he talked about returning to Vermont with no job and no money.  Spicy said that maybe something would come up and Big Brother will change his life, but he looked depressed and not convinced.  When Spicy asked Danielle the same question, poor delusional Danielle replied that they would definitely be continuing their relationship.  Me thinks its time for Shane to get an unlisted phone number!

I forgot to mention that America's Favorite Player was Frank.  The cutie played a good game and has a good personality so I think he was a good choice.  I did want to see Jodi win because she was shafted by BB, but maybe they will take pity on her and let her play in a future game.  Another aside is that CBS did announce last night that BB has been renewed for another season.  So we have something to keep us occupied next summer.  Yay!

By this time, it was after 1:00 a.m. on the East Coast and so I never did get to see the interview with Ian or Dan.  I was bummed, but I do have to be able to get up each morning! 

There will be one more blog for this season.  I have a few friends attending the Big Brother Wrap Party tonight in Hollywood.  They have agreed to "dish" a bit about it, so I will be back with those interviews late Friday or Saturday.  As you know, BBBlogger and I have joined forces to work on Survivor this season.  I'm really looking forward to only having to blog once or twice a week!  LOL  I'll be heading over to the Survivor blog to recap last night's show after signing off here.  You can follow me by clicking here:  <a href="http://www.survivor-blog.com">Survivor-Blog
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