Eric's Questions

[Eric Ouellete]

Hello again, and congrats to you both. You are both two people I talked to from the very begining, and I considered myself fairly close to you ladies. Leaving the game I thought I knew who I wanted to/thought would win, but the more I think about it, the less impressed I am with each of your individual games.

Michele, it's clear that you took the more deceptive path to get here. From what I saw you were pretty much the ultimate scrambler, and told everyone differet stories. You had deals with people left and right, but hey you were actually pretty loyal to me, so I can't hate on ya too much. However, I realized that I have no idea what your real strategy was, so I'd like you to explain it to me. Underneath all the lies and BS, what moves did you actually have planned? What long term moves did you make, and what goals did you plan/accomplish? Also tell me about your involvement in the key events of the season. Basically, I'd like you to prove to me that you didn't just luck out.

Rachel, I give you a lot of credit for a strong social game, but I am overall unimpressed with your game. A big part of being a strong, effective social player is being able to manage conflict and pick sides, while still keeping your hands clean. When Lane was evicted, both nominees were expecting your support. Pretty suprising when there were only 3 votes cast that week, since myself, Nick, you, and Michele should hae all voted. Then when you became HOH, you just stopped taking to me, because you were going to nominate me. Absolutly no responses from you until late F3. So I want you to prove me wrong, at what points in the game did you actually show up on the radar? When did you say, " This is MY strategy, not the HOHs, and what's best for me."?


Best of luck to you both

[Rachel Reilly]

Hey Eric! I will start by answering your question!

I find it very interesting that most of the jury members find my strategy to be “Do what the HOH says”. I know more than one of you guys have mentioned this, but since this is my first response I will go into detail of the game I played week by week to better explain my strategy.

I think everyone can agree that the game really started the round that Mike won HOH. In the three weeks before his win, I began working my game. I think everyone can agree that I was one of the more social players from the very beginning. In those first few rounds I formed crucial relationships with Britney, Jase, Karen, Janelle, Nick, Michele, and yourself. As noticed the names not mentioned in that list are Lane and Mike. Up until that point they were the players I knew least about because I did not catch them online during the first rounds of competition.

At the Final 10 Live HOH, it was between Mike and me at the very end of the game. One of us would become the new HOH. I knew that winning HOH at this point would only further expose my relationships and would prove to be more harmful then helpful. Knowing this, I knew that I was going to throw the challenge. When that last question was asked, I purposely submitted the wrong answer. This proved to be unimportant though because Mike submitted the correct answer first. Doing this was a HUGE risk for me because I did not know where I stood with Mike in the game. Aside from a few PMs, I did not know him at all. The night he won HOH was the first night that I really got to know Mike as a person. We chatted that first time for at least a good three to four hours. Although we talked nothing of game play, I knew that from our talk alone I would be safe from the block. It is true that I told Mike I would vote the way he wanted me to because I had to make sure that I was in his good graces and off his radar. That round the vote was between Britney and Janelle. The house was really divided at that point, which is what Mike hoped to accomplish. As mentioned in my opening statement, this was the round the alliance between Nick-Janelle-Rachel was formed. It was in my BEST interest to keep Janelle that round, and it was only icing on the cake that it was what Mike wanted. Had Mike wanted Janelle out, my vote would not have changed because I could have cared less at that point what the HOH’s Best Wishes were. Janelle staying was more beneficial to me that Britney staying.

Karen became the HOH during the following round. As everyone knows, Karen was my secret partner for the season. She was also aware of the alliances formed, and I gave my input as to who should be nominated that round. I agreed with her original nominations of Lane and Jase, and her post POV nominations of Mike and Jase 100%. Those nominations benefited my game, and knowing that Michele and Jase were extremely close, evicting Jase was a no brainer. Again it was what Karen wanted, but it benefited my game to see him go.

The following round, Lane became the new HOH. I figured that I would be guaranteed to go on the block, alongside Karen. Once I caught Lane online, I again played the same strategy I did with Mike except our conversations stayed game related. I told him that I would have no problem voting out my partner, and had I won HOH he would have been safe. Both of those statements were lies, but I was able to find myself free from the block that round. The vote ended up between Nick and Karen. With Janelle not willing to use her Coup yet, I made a decision to vote to evict Karen. It made more sense to remove my partner, and with it the HUGE target that the partners were getting at that stage of the game. Nick was also in my core alliance. Was it what Lane wanted…yes, but it was in my benefit to see Karen go more-so than Nick.

The next round Janelle won HOH, and as her main alliance partner I also had a large amount of input with the nominations she made. The nominations of Michele and Mike and the post POV nominations of Lane and Mike were 100% what I wanted. Janelle, Nick, Eric and I discussed how the votes should go, and it made more sense to take out Lane because he was closer to Michele than Mike was. It is true that both nominees were counting on my vote to stay, but in the end that was the only round where I failed to vote. Those of you, who got to know me personally, know about my employment at the retail store Aeropostale. This round took place four days before Christmas, our busiest time of the year. I remember getting dressed for work the day the votes were due, and I was in such a rush that I left my house without submitting my vote. After my shift I remembered about the voting, and I was relieved to see that my failure to vote did not change the original plan agreed upon by my alliance. Lane still went home 2-1. I would have voted for Lane to go home because I saw him as more of a threat than Mike at that point.

The next round, Michele won HOH. Again I thought I was a sure thing to be nominated alongside Janelle. Michele knew that she had no allies left in the game, and came to me with a deal. She asked me if I would vote to evict Janelle, I said yes (Janelle was aware of this because it was the only way to guarantee we would not be on the block together). The deal Michele offered me seemed fishy. She told me that she won a game changing power at the POV challenge, but told me I would have to wait and see what it was until after the evictions took place. The deal would only be valid, if I voted for Janelle to go home. I told her I was with her 100%. The nominations ended up being Mike against Janelle. Despite my agreement to Michele, I had no intentions of keeping my word to her. I thought it was a no brainer that round, but things soon proved to be different. Eric and Nick seemed wishy-washy as to whether to vote out Mike or Janelle. These were the people who I trusted, and Janelle was always part of our final four plans, not Mike. It was at that point where I made the biggest decision of the game. I jumped off the sinking ship and voted out Janelle. My assumptions proved right because it was a unanimous decision.

The next round, due to work, I missed the live HOH challenge. Seeing Jase in the game, and as the new HOH, was shocking. I immediately figured that the power Michele was talking about was to bring back a player from the jury back into the game. That night after chatting with both Michele and Jase, we cemented our final three alliance. Jase’s nominations of Nick and Mike were agreed upon by both Michele and I. This was the only round where I did NOT follow the HOH’s wishes. Jase clearly wanted Nick gone, but I was the one who was really pushing for Mike to be evicted. Jase had no say in the matter once Michele and I came to the agreement that we were voting to evict Mike. Despite Nick and Eric being partners, I wanted to make sure that Jase would remain loyal to me and Michele so by evicting his partner I got what I wanted. I also saw Mike as a bigger challenge threat than Nick was.

The next round was my first challenge win. I knew I had to win that round to keep my new alliance safe. Up until that point, Nick and Eric still assumed that I was with them. Both players attempted to contact me (Nick on IM and Eric on PM) to ensure their safety. I knew what I had to do, and Eric and Nick were nominated on the block. It was during this point that I started to distance myself from both Eric and Nick. I did it because I did not want to expose my new formed alliance with Michele and Jase, and at that point there was nothing left to say because the lines were drawn and the new sides of the house were formed. My original target that round was Eric because I had him pegged as the winner of this game from Day 1. When he won veto, I settled for Nick going. Then came the DPOV, which shocked/ angered a lot of people, myself included. Once Jase was evicted, I knew the only chance I had to win this game was by winning the last challenges left to guarantee myself a spot at the final two. I fought to win the Final Four Veto to evict Nick, and the Final HOH challenge to evict Eric. I did not let anyone carry me to get to this point, I took my life in the game in my own hands and it payed off because here I am at the final two.

So to sum it all up, I think I was an effective social player. I was able to manage this game with multiple alliances and friendships while still keeping my hands clean. Even when people who were clearly not in my alliance won HOH, I was able to talk my way out of a spot on the nomination chair. I absolutely played under the radar until the Final Six, and despite what people may think, in Big Brother that is the best kind of strategy to use. Despite being UTR, I was not a floater or carried to this point. Once I showed up on the radar, it was all business. I never had the opportunity to get evicted because I won three of the most important challenges in the game (Final HOH and Final Four Veto). So I hope you all got to see how my strategy worked during this game. It was not a “What Ever the HOH wants” kind of game because each move that was made played a part in getting me here.

So with that, thank you Eric for your question! *giggles*

[Michele Noonan]

Hey Eric!

My plan started from Day 1.

My goal coming in to the game was to be as social as possible and get to know as many people as I could in a short amount of time. I began forming relationships with players as soon as we were given AIM names. I wanted to stay off the chopping block early in the game.

One of my biggest social moves was in the power competition when I had all of the other players basically playing the game for me. They were eliminating people I wanted out, they were helping me win, and I hardly had to eliminate anyone, which early on in the game, kept my hands clean.

During the veto auction, I won a power that allowed me to bring someone back in the game if I made it to final 5. I knew I wanted to bring Jase back if he was eliminated. I wanted to do this for two reasons: #1. I trusted him. #2. This would bring another partner back in the game for Mike, who I knew I wanted out of the game as soon as possible. With Jase back, it put a target on his back.

Also at this point, I knew I needed an alliance partner....with the addition of Jase back into the game, there were now two sets of partners (Mike-Jase, and Eric-Nick). This basically left Rachel with no choice but to come with me. It also made the two sets of partners easy targets. Mike and Jase would want Eric or Nick out, Nick and Eric would want Mike or Jase out, which left the target completely off of my back and Rachel's back, my newly formed ally.

When I won HOH, I wanted to target the Mike-Jase alliance because I wanted to assure that Jase was with me and Rachel. With Mike gone, this pretty much gave him no choice. I knew everyone was thinking we were crazy for keeping Eric and Nick in for so long, but I knew that I wouldn't have their total support no matter what, but since I brought Jase back into the game, I wanted to further cement my alliance with him by eliminating his partner.

The rest was easy......Rachel had my back the rest of the game. I made her trust me. She had no choice really. When Nick kept winning, we both knew that he was going to be a huge threat in the endgame, so I knew she wouldn't want to sit next to him. I also knew she wouldn't want to sit next to Eric because as soon as Nick was gone, Eric's popularity with the jury would go way up.

During the final HOH challenge, I was not worried about being out in third place. I knew that Rachel would keep me, and I was confident after talks with Eric, that he would keep me. I threw part 1, and didn't try too hard in part 2. I wasn't worried at all.

So there you have it....I did have plans, I did play hard, and I did calculate all of my moves in the game.

Thanks, Eric. This was a great game, and I am glad we got to play together.