Andy DehnartThe first-ever unanimous vote in Big Brother history gave high school teacher Dan Gheesling the win and $500,000. It’s also the first season in many years that a terrible human being did not win. Memphis Garrett won the $50,000 consolation prize even though he received zero votes.
Jerry may be a crazy bastard, but he pretty much summed up why Dan and Memphis made it to the final two. “Both of ’em together was a force we couldn’t reckon with. We could have handled them one at a time; two of them, we couldn’t handle,” he said. Speaking of Jerry, when he joined the jury, he and Renny got into a screaming match, and Renny called him a “chauvanist pig.” Little do they know what a great pair they make.
After a “very close vote between the top two” jurors, Keesha won the fan favorite prize, perhaps as a reward for her stunning performance. Jerry actually came in second. What? Not Renny? What’s wrong with the people who watch this show?
The jury Q&A was full of the usual self-delusion on everyone’s part. “I hope you respected me because I respected you, Dan,” Jerry said, forgetting, apparently, the whole Judas thing. And Dan tried to argue that he pissed off people like April and Ollie so Memphis would think Dan had enemies in the jury house. That sounds like another one of Dan’s after-the-fact rationalizations, but hey, it worked.
I’m thrilled that a bigoted ass of some kind didn’t win this season, and that there seemed to be very little producer manipulation (unlike last summer, when they basically orchestrated Dick and Daniele’s victory)–even if some members of the over-enthusiastic studio audience were waving fake fan signs that the producers created and distributed.
This season was also far more entertaining than the boring spring season, but although it had its high moments–of comedy, strategy, and villainy–none of those were continuous, and thus it sort of lacked something, and not just a major twist (in fact, the lack of a twist was refreshing, as was the cast of actual strangers). Perhaps that’s just because I’m so used to hating nearly every person and aspect of the show, so I’m not quite sure what to do with a season that was both entertaining and low-key, at least when it’s compared to past seasons.