Cracking Up

Tonight, Sree goes. Will he be shocked, will they be shocked?

On Tuesday Sree said he was 200% confident of staying. By Wednesday he was backtracking saying that Freddie was a "strong" candidate. He'd have to be even more stupid than I think he is to think otherwise. Freddie's survived three evictions. Sree hasn't survived any. How confident would you be in that situation?

It was interesting that even Marcus thought Sree would stay. Now if Marcus thinks that Sree could be popular, I think we can assume the Lisa Crew think the same.

They must, at least, think something.

Yesterday I wrote that it was only Charlie of the Lisa crew for whom the penny had actually dropped. Well, 24 hours is a long time in BB, and I think now, that the penny hasn't so much dropped as come falling from the sky and smashed into the pavement. The Lisa Crew are panicking.

It's not easy to tell exactly, without the LIVE FEED, but there are certain conclusions we can make nonetheless. Firstly, the similar way the Lisa Crew nominate. Similar phrases and similar arguments are deployed in the battle against Fred: 'he eats in a funny way', 'he's so patronising', and so on. These aren't arguments. They're mantras, repeated like religious chants. These are the lines that the Lisa Crew have said to each other again and again to bolster each other's egos and to bond the group.

Our second piece of evidence is the line that Freddie is playing the victim. This was used on last night's highlights, first by Kris, then by Lisa, and then by Karly and Sophie. That Fred is deliberately putting himself in these positions to look good, and to make the others look like they're bullying him.

So, they have watched the show before. They know how the bullying line gets.... bullied about. Every year people are accused of it, and every year the aggressor claims the victim is playing the victim. And sometimes he is. Last year, when Dennis got called to the diary room after spitting at Mo, he immediately claimed that Mo had cleverly provoked him into spitting at him.

It's happening all over again. Kris, Lisa, they're all at it. Clearly, we can assume, the Lisa Crew have sat around their cauldron saying how Freddie is playing the victim. Lisa keeps telling him he's getting paranoid.

Aha! Lisa's getting worried. Lisa's getting paranoid. Maybe the public don't like the happy loving food-fighting funsters after all.

Sure, Fred's provoking him. Sure, he's got a gameplan. But either he ignores them and lets them keep nominating him. Or he takes them on, and tries to undermine them. It seems to be working. This is a gameshow. He does want to win. What's wrong with having a gameplan, precisely?

It will all kick off when Sree goes tonight. If Marcus doesn't expect it, neither will Noirin. They might well think that we find all that puppyish silliness was cute. It worked for Brian Belo, maybe it could work for Sree. But Brian pretended he was ignorant, he didn't pretend he was stupid, and there's a big difference. And Brian didn't do it to amuse the other housemates. He was more concerned about us than them.

Sree's biggest problem in the whole series, as Freddie himself noticed, is that he doesn't actually like his fellow housemates all that much. Likewise, the Lisa Crew don't really like each other all that much. What, apart from their hatred of Freddie, do they have in common?

Karly, Kris and Lisa clearly don't like him. But Charlie and Sophie? They don't even know why. That's pretty skin deep. Tonight when Sree goes, the balance of power will shift. Noirin, Marcus, Siavash, Rodrigo and Freddie himself will for the first time know that they hold it.

The last thing this show needs right now is new housemates.

And so the interview? Will Sree calm down? Will he say anything interesting and honest at all? If Davina spends all of it asking how much he fancies Noirin and begging to come to the wedding I will seriously try and climb through the television and I will scream.