Hi Jen!
I’m still looking forward to that date...haha
. But in all honesty it was a ton of fun getting to know you and talking about random shit like my mom’s love of incense or your working on a podcast and meeting James in bars. I imagine that a night out with you in and around NYC would be unforgettable, in both good and wild/unexpected ways.
My biggest mistake is maybe not something people would expect, since it was behind the scenes and before most of my big loud moves. But I think my biggest mistake was telling Chelsia I was not going to vote her out when she was about to be voted out unanimously. Although I made that lie to try to just keep her calm and not blow up in the moment, she clearly took offense to it when she saw the votes were unanimous against her. I think that is why she called me out in her goodbye post and said I was the one who spilled everything. If Chelsia had gone out quietly, I probably could have maintained my relationships with Glyn and Amanda and not had to make such bold moves like the move against Richard so soon. (Although I still would have eventually lol.) But when Chelsia called me out as a rat on her way out it immediately raised my threat level way higher than I wanted it to be, it hurt Amanda, Glyn, and Adam’s trust in me (and maybe others’ too) and forced me to play a more aggressive game earlier. That being said, I think my growing bond with Adam, you, and Susie helped to limit some of the problems this caused. You all helped me get through the middle of the game even when I was a huge target. And as much as people think my bond with Adam was foolish, in my mind I was already aware I was a huge threat (voted most likely to be an all star and backstab), so I wanted to make sure I was visibly lined up next to an even bigger threat in Adam. So that if someone decided to take a shot at me and Adam, Adam would always be the bigger target.
For my greatest move:
I’ve discussed the Richard move a lot so I want to highlight another time where I felt I acted creatively and in a way to help my game at the most important moment. That is at final 5 with the Spiral vote out. Going into that week, Adam, Jennie, and you were out, and I needed to figure out how to get to final 3 without any allies left and hopefully to remove Spiral in the process. To start, I won the logic puzzle HOH (the same one Glyn admitted he practiced all day for….but I practiced too!). I think the obvious choice that round would have been to put up Spiral and Parker. It would have been easy since Spiral was seen as the biggest target. But of course, Spiral was also really good in competitions. I didn’t want him to win veto and come off the block and then be against me in the final competition when in my mind he was the only threat to beat me in that competition. So rather than putting him up, I stayed “flexible” (lol) and we made a deal that if I didn’t nominate him, he would take me to final 3 next week. This was perfect insurance against Spiral winning veto, since if he won I would be (potentially) safe the next round. But if he lost, I could still put him up as the replacement nominee and vote him out (since he was still the biggest threat). I think there is a good if not 100% chance Spiral would have kept his deal since he was generally honest, even though I had no intention of keeping Spiral if he lost veto.
For who I was aligned with 100%, the answer is nobody. And that was always my intention. Because if it came down to it, I was always going to be willing to sacrifice my ally to save myself. That is why I tried to work with people like Adam or Chelsia and even Sezer who I knew had worse relationships with the other houseguests than with me. The reason being I wanted to be the one who stayed safe if we were targeted. I don’t say that to sound cruel. It’s just reality that duos are likely to be nominated together. And it paid off when the only time I was on the block after veto, Adam was voted out unanimously and I got no votes. With other people like you and Jennie, I did try to work closely with you, but I preferred to keep those ties quieter because I was a bigger target than both of you.
Of the jury people I would say I was least aligned with Aisleyne and that is why I wanted her out when I won HOH. I know you tried to form something with us, but it never solidified or finalized. Everyone else I had some working strategic relationship with about strategy, like even Parker and I made a truce in the middle of the game. But I didn’t feel as though Aisleyene and I made any firm plans other than just saying “we want to work together” which to me is not an alliance.
Hope that answers everything, and I hope you've been feeling better since getting onto jury and out of the game.
James
aligned with through thick & thin?