The Summer of Love

Remember Freddie's opening words on launch night?

"Enjoy the show everyone, this is the summer of love 2009".

Well, it's the summer all right, but where is the love? You can't say he doesn't try. He still smiles, and gets involved, and talks to people. But as Jermaine Jackson once wisely observed, "you can't reason with unreason".

Take the Three Tenors task. Karly may - surprise surprise - have a better voice than Freddie, but she was wrong and he was right. They had five minutes left with the mp3 players, and a half hour warning before the actual performance. So, listen to the players, then practise together. You know it makes sense. But Karly had to have a go.

Strangely, though, of the Lisa Crew, Karly is the only one behaving reasonably. She may nominate him every week, but she does keep emphasising that she finds him interesting sometimes, when they're having a conversation. She's the only one who gives concrete reasons. Because he says "hi" isn't good enough.

The most impressionable of the lot is Charlie, who nominated him this week because he irritates others, not himself. That sums Charlie up. He doesn't have strong feelings about much, does our Charlie, but just goes along with the gang. This could, however, prove his salvation. Charlie worries a lot about what people think of him, which makes him the first to think what the viewers might be thinking. The rest are so complacent the penny hasn't yet dropped.

Lisa finds him irritating, because of... what? Class? Because he's so rich? And articulate? Because he sings, because he wants to be a Tory MP? Saying "I just find him irritating" isn't enough.

As for Kris, I almost warmed to him when he told Freddie he found him annoying. At last, the dullard spoke! But then he backed away, refusing to tell him why. When Fred persisted by saying "I want to have this conversation" Kris just walked away and let off steam in the bedroom. Pitiful. They've been in the house for four weeks, Kris has spent hours blasting away at him. Then here he comes asking why, and he refuses to talk.

And so we come to Sophie, perhaps the most vacuous cog in the whole wheel. In the first few days, before she hooked up with Kris, she actually spent quite a bit of time with Freddie. We didn't hear any rubbish then about her not understanding what Fred was talking about. It's only since she joined the gang that she adopted this line. With the right crowd, she'd be fine. She actually can come alive when she's outside the group, chatting to Rodrigo or even Marcus. But when she's back in the bosom of her arranged marriage she's a sheep.

It all started on launch night. The moment Lisa picked up the phone and was given the option of choosing someone to go in with her as a real housemate, and she picked Kris. The bond was formed, and once Saffia had left, Kris made a full-on play for Sophie. Lisa, looking for someone to scapegoat, picked Freddie.

The long-term strategising has been woeful, though. Lisa keeps arguing that Freddie has a gameplan, but what is it? To make himself unpopular with them, keep getting nominated, and then be seen by the public as a victim? If she really believes it, then why go along with it?

Freddie clearly nominate Kris and Lisa next week. He'll still be up, but against who is not yet clear. For the sheep, Marcus will be the obvious safe choice. But who will Freddie zero in on? At the moment, I'd say it would be Lisa. The question is, can he get Marcus, Noirin, Rodrigo and Siavash on side?

Sree meanwhile, thinks he will survive 200%. I don't think so, Sonny Jim.