Opening statement

Rough draft...

Coming into the game, I wasn't sure what type of game I was going to play and didn't really anticipate making it this far. However, I fought extremely hard and managed to perservere and here I am! Now that I got the cliche out of the way, let me summarize the game I played.

I think I played a well rounded game. I gave it 110% in the competitions and manage to win 7 of them: 3 HoHs and 4 vetos (ok, I can really only claim credit for 2 HoHs because the answers were given to me by my team the first time I won, but I was also a reward challenge winner so there! ) Winning these competitions not only ensured my safety, but helped make it possible for my alliance and I to vanquish our targets in the game.

Socially, I tried to reach out to everyone. There were a few like George who I never got to talk to but he never seemed to be around much (no offense George). I was also extremely loyal. If I bonded with someone in this game, I did my best to make sure they made it through each eviction along with myself. I never backstabbed or broke my word to anyone, but then again I managed to make it this far without having to rely on my word. In that regard I think my actions spoke for themselves and people knew they could put their faith in me and I would deliver. Usually when someone makes it to the end of a game without backstabbing anyone, it's because they rode coattails, but I definitely do not feel that is the case with me.

I was never a final nominee for eviction and as a result of that I cast more eviction votes in this game than anyone. All but one of my votes were successful in getting the person out, and most of the votes seemed to come down to a 1 vote difference so I'd have to say I was pretty instrumental.

Hopefully the jury will see me as worthy of victory and I can't wait to answer all your questions. Good luck, Jackie!

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Q1: Give me a paragraph outlining the factors that led to your arrival at this juncture. How much of it was luck? How much of it was of your own doing?

I certainly have no problem admitting that a fair amount of luck was involved in getting me here. The first thing that comes to mind is when Elvis saved us both with the coup d'etat. I didn't even know he had it. If he didn't have it, or if he had something even slightly less powerful like a diamond veto, I would have remained on the block and could have very well been evicted. I also got lucky in Part 3 of the final head of household. I still think I managed to get here primarily on my own merit though, such as by winning all those challenges or forming a bond with the right person to use the veto on me/not nominate me.

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Q2: Fairness is often a theme in adventure tales such as this. Give me some brief thoughts on the following: a. How fair is it that some people were given such impressive powers which saved them from uncertain death, while other players of equal worth and effort received nothing simply because of an absence from one specific reward challenge? With no powers in the game, what do you think the outcome would have been, if you had to hypothesize?

I personally don't think it's any less fair than when someone has to miss any other type of challenge (HoH, veto, immunity in Survivor, etc.) We all sign up for games with the realization that there are going to be times when we have to miss challenges due to real-life engagements, and it's inevitable that some of these challenges will be more important than others. Frankly, it's impossible to hypothesize what the outcome would have been without them because changing one little thing offsets everything that comes after.

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Q3: Tell me the biggest mistake made by each juror, which led to their ultimate demise. Some are easier than others, so please take some time to really think about it.

Eleanor - Her only mistake in the case of her eviction was being nominated against one of the most popular/charasmatic people from the Axis of Good side. Elvis had a really good social game and made it clear where his loyalties were which enabled him to survive eviction even when he wasn't able to send or receive PMs. I think anyone nominated next to Elvis in this eviction would have went home. It just happened to be Eleanor. Her "mistake" was failing to win veto or otherwise not forming quite strong enough bonds to get people to keep her.

George - I would have to say his mistake was not being active enough. However, even if he was active I think he still would have gone on the block as Fred's replacement and went home this round. It was still a Good vs. Evil mindset at that point, and the other nominee was Marie. Even though she was a bigger threat, people liked Marie (myself included) so George left.

William - Without a doubt it was when you saved Fred with the veto. Those of us from the Axis of Good couldn't trust you after that. I'll touch more on this in your other question.

Elvis - I guess you could say Elvis showed too much determination (in terms of both his effort in winning comps and in trying to achieve his social/strategic goals). It was admirable, but it drew a lot of attention to himself and made him a target. The players seized the opportunity to get him out.

Marie - I really don't know what mistakes Marie made. By the time she was evicted it seemed like she had kind of...checked out. A thousand apologies if I'm wrong about that, but I didn't get the impression she fought very hard to stay. I'm really not sure though because we didn't talk at all the round she left, but she may simply have not approached me because she didn't anticipate I would be breaking a tie.

Fred - Fred came out guns blazing the very first week when he won HoH and nominated two of our most active members. I can't exactly say I blame him since getting out threats is what you're supposed to do, but he did draw the ire of the Axis of Good and it caused us to target him. He then kept winning comps which made him an even bigger threat to us. He still managed to go far despite the huge target he had all game.

Mary - I think her not being around much early on definitely hurt her in the game when it came to forming relationships. Like Jackie said, around F8 there was a secret room that included every Axis of Good member except Mary because none of us had really bonded with her.

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Q4: Explain to me what your role was in my demise including if you wanted me to go that round, and who you would have nominated if you had been HOH that round.

Honestly, I would have nominated you and Fred just like Elvis did. Elvis even PMed me after he won HoH and asked me if I thought he should nominate you guys and I agreed and told him I had been planning to do the same had I won. You would have stayed if Fred hadn't come off the block, but since Fred used the diamond POV and was able to nominate Jackie as the replacement, voting you out was the only logical thing for me to do. I was closer with Jackie and she had been loyal to the AofG up to that point.

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Q5: When I left, my parting thoughts were rather melancholy. I held the impression that I am not a skilled BB player and do not understand how to play very well. I should have just sat back and not helped Fred and put a target on myself. I felt I had not made an impression in the game except for winning one Veto and saving Elvis (and in effect Jackie too), so I would take a chance and help Fred out. Do you agree with my self-assessment. Please give me some honest advice on how I played and why I might feel that BB is not the game for me.

This is a hard question because I don't know who you are so I can't compare your playing style across multiple games or anything like that. I think it would come down to why you saved Fred. If you really just saved him to be nice and because you thought he deserved to be there, then at worst I'd have to say that's not very good game logic. I mean, Fred didn't seem concerned about deservingness when he nominated two of our most active members right off the bat when he won the first HoH, so why give him such merciful treatment? On the other hand, if you did it because you had a secret alliance with Fred (which I suspected after he nominated Mary instead of you the week Eleanor used her veto) then that had the potential to pay off big time because it would have allowed you to jump back and forth between alliances for the rest of the game. Ultimately, I think you got unlucky that Fred had the diamond veto. Otherwise you may have been able to recover from that move and go far.

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Q6: Who do you think I am on IMDb? Guess my identity. Only two guesses maximum.

I don't know why, but I'm going to guess that you are tom_delong_ava or DanaShelbyChancey. But based on what you said in the question, I'm now inclined to think you're a newer player.

Marie Antoinette wrote:

1 . For both of you : why should you win over the other person.

Since the question specifically asks why I should win over my opponent, I'll juxtapose my game against hers.  

• I won 7 challenges, Jackie only won 1 challenge
  
• I was never a final nominee; Jackie was a final nominee 6 times (and was actually evicted once)
  
• I cast 11 eviction votes and got/helped get 10 people out of this game; Jackie only cast 2.
  
• I was in the game the entire time; she was evicted in week 2 and spent a good portion of the game in the "pre-jury house".
  
• I was solely responsible for saving Jackie the last 3 rounds since I cast the F5 tie-breaker and had the sole vote at F4 and F3. She was nominated each time and was at my mercy for the whole home stretch.
  

I think just comparing the statistics, I am the better candidate.

Marie Antoinette wrote:

2 . Guess everyone on the casts identity and explain why.

I'll be honest, for most of them I have NO frickin idea lol. But alright, here it goes...

Jackie - Well she mentioned having class in the morning once so I have to assume she's someone currently in college. DanielB maybe?

Mary - I'm gonna say Cindy aka imsexyniknowit. I don't know, something about her reminded me of Cindy.

Fred - Fred gives me Arik vibes. He was also good at challenges like Arik.

Marie - I was going to guess Cherry if for no other reason than Cherry's name is Marie and picking a character with the same first name as herself seems like something Cherry would do, haha. But you didn't really give me Cherry vibes. I'm going to guess you are Alaina because you had a calm and pleasant personality like she does.

Elvis - Kathy. He reminded me of her during our talks and I was further convinced after his eviction when he said something about risking his own game to see friends/allies do well. I've seen Kathy say similar things.

William - Like I said in my answer to his question, I just have a hunch he might be Tom or Dana. I'll go with Dana since I don't think she has played many BB games and William's question implied he hadn't played many.

George - RTF. RTF likes comedians and George Carlin seems like someone he would pick, haha.

Eleanor - Alexa. She was pretty chill and straight-forward like Alexa.

Walt - John. His posts and sense of humor reminded me of John's.

Cleopatra - Jessica aka punrockprincess. I think Cleopatra showed a lot of promise early on and could have been a great player like Jess.

Al - Jimmy or Justin. I'll go with Jimmy. Al seemed like a bro.

Joan - I honestly couldn't fathom who Joan might be. I talked to Joan early on and she never said anything that raised any flags about who she might be. I'm going to guess she was Tara aka XCindyLennoxFanAlways. Both aren't exactly the chattiest in the bunch but they are very nice and agreeable when you do talk to them.

Kim - Matty. I know Matty likes history and I think he'd have fun with the whole communist aspect of Kim Jong-Il and getting into character.

I really hope no one is offended by who I guessed! Like I said, I really have no idea for most of them so these are mostly blind guesses. Please don't hold it against me if I guessed someone you're not too fond of, haha.

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1. I know myself and a couple others had sort of just looked at you as "second in command" to Elvis prior to his eviction.

This was sort of an eye-opener when William first mentioned it in his parting words. I can't invalidate your perceptions if that's how it seemed to you guys. I suppose it was a logical perception because Elvis was more vocal and that caused him to take on what I guess you'd call a leadership role. As a result it could have looked like I was just going along with whatever he wanted and enabling him, but I never took any instructions from Elvis and never thought of myself as attached to him at the hip or anything. I'm not sure what I would have had to do to stand apart from him in the eyes of my peers other than make a move against him, but there was never a reason to because we had mutual goals and I knew I could depend on him to keep me safe.

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Did Elvis leaving when he did benefit you to some degree? I personally believe it allowed you to shine more as an individual competitor... I'd like to know if you agree / disagree.

Elvis leaving was a double-edged sword. On one hand, I lost someone I could depend on to keep me safe, and the other, it forced me to work even harder to get where I am. So in a sense, yes, it did allow me to shine more as an individual. As a matter of fact I would say I made my best strategic move of the game during the Final 5 after Elvis was evicted...

After you won the veto, I had to choose between nominating Jackie or Mary. Jackie was my closest ally left at that point, but she had become close to you and I didn't trust her to vote out Marie like I wanted, especially since she had been talking about wanting Mary out. I was also starting to wonder if you were closer to Jackie than Marie and if I would need to cut Jackie loose if that was the case.

I decided to make Mary swear to me that she would vote for whoever I wanted in exchange for keeping her safe that week, and once she agreed, I decided to put Jackie on the block. The next step was to have Mary find out who you wanted to evict, because that would mean that you were closer to the other nominee. I would then have Mary vote opposite of you and then break the tie to send that person home. Once it was confirmed you wanted Jackie out, I told Mary to vote for Marie, she obliged, and I evicted Marie in the tie-breaker vote. This set me up in a good position for the F4 round because you trying to get Jackie evicted caused her to revert back to wanting you out, and I had also made Mary promise to keep me safe at F4 when I didn't nominate her.

For some reason I found all that really difficult to explain so I hope it made sense lol.

Walt Disney wrote:

My first question is simple. Include me in all your previous questions to other jurors regarding jurors.

I think there was just the one and it was William's about the biggest mistake each juror made that lead to their downfall. In your case, I don't think it was a particular mistake you made. You just seemed to be the second most active Axis of Evil member after Fred, and since he was HOH, the Axis of Good nominating you was the most logical choice. I'm not sure what you could have done to prevent it besides lay low, but who can fault someone for being active? Not trying to suck up by saying you didn't make mistakes or anything, I just can't point to one specific moment of the game and say "this is where Walt went wrong." I hope this suffices.

Walt Disney wrote:

Second question is more personal I guess. Assign each player in the game (including the non-jury) to the heroes side and the villains side. I want there to be equal numbers, so no sucking up with everyone being a hero. Base this on gameplay or personality or both, your decision. Briefly explain why you chose this.

It will be hard for some of the earlier boots because they didn't stay in the game long enough to blossom into one or the other, but here's my version.

Heroes:

Harriet - I was loyal to my allies and fought really hard in competitions.

Elvis - He was also very loyal and went to great lengths to help his allies, such as when he took all the punishments to win veto even though he wasn't nominated.

Marie - When Marie won the HOH in week 3 she was very willing to hear out other's suggestions and was always very cordial when we spoke.

Eleanor - She never really did anything to upset anyone, that I know of. She was pretty nice and kept a positive spirit for the most part.

William - He's hard to classify based on the move to use the veto on Fred because it depends on your point of view. However, because his intentions were noble, and he was essentially martyred for it, he'd be a hero.

Joan - This is where it gets tricky, because one of the Axis of Good members voted Jackie in week 2 when she was evicted. Consensus among us was that it was Joan or Eleanor, and we seemed to settle on Joan as the culprit. I'm not sure if anyone ever fessed up to it, but Joan left the following week and the incident never came back up. Anyway, because I don't know for sure if it was Joan, I don't have any other reason to call her villainous. Sooo, she's a hero, lol.

Cleopatra - Cleopatra never really made a mark on the game, did she? By falling off the face of the earth and allowing herself to be expelled, she spared us one more house eviction. I guess you could say she "took one for the team!"

Villains:

Fred - I think Fred started out a true villain if there ever was one, though became more heroic as the game went on and he became the underdog. I'd still classify him as a villain based on his early game play and the fact that he made a great foil for the Axis of Good alliance.

Mary - I think even Mary would agree with this. As she put it, she played the game 100% for herself. That's what you're supposed to do, ultimately, but a lot of the jurors felt betrayed by Mary's actions in the game.

Jackie - Her game had many elements of a hero, but I think the defining moment for her was when she back-stabbed her closest ally.

George - I remember his early posts in the game being rather negative and argumentative, and for no apparent reason at that.

Walt - You were never mean or anything, but you just had a sassy sense of humor that some people could interpret as somewhat villainous. When you posted that pic calling me Tubby <3333

Al - Similar to you, not super villainous but he had a lot of sarcastic posts that could be classified that way.

Kim - He only lasted one round, but he was vaguely irritating, lol.

I'm not sure what else is left to say at this point. I hope I did a solid job of answering all your questions.

I played a very honest and straight forward game. You knew when you had my loyalty, and I was never shy about telling anyone that I was voting for them. I followed my instincts and acted in my own self-interest without having to resort to back-stabbing, so I would like to think we were on good social terms upon most if not all of your evictions.

I gave it my all in the competitions and won a my fair share of them. This is important because unlike in Survivor where winning immunity only benefits the immunity winner, winning competitions in Big Brother helps to advance your whole alliance. One thing I would like to clear up is that I did in fact have a target on my back in this game. I was nominated pre-veto 4 times, I just always managed to come off the block one way or another. I feel I was just as much of a long shot to make it here and had to fight just as hard if not harder than Jackie.

Thank you Henry and fellow cast members for great game. I had a blast!