Sim Brother has passed its half way point on day 25. By now there are less than three weeks to go for our housemates. The five that are now left. One has had to leave the house, again. But before we look forward, we look back at another week of Sim Brother - through a different lens. A week with officers, inmates, a trusty and a governor. This is number five of
When we left the house last week, Sim Brother was holding it's own little and short version of the Stanford Prison Experiment, where a group of volunteers was split up into officers and inmates too. That experiment got a little out of hand when the officers got sadistic, and the inmates showed signs of heavy stress and depression. The experiment was blown off before the end - it lasted only six instead of fourteen days. However, Sim Brother did it much smaller, and only for less than three days. Nevertheless, "Mad Martha" did seem to like her role as officer. She was in control. Even without the orange jumpsuit.
Those clothes were for the imprisoned housemates. Not everybody seemed to like the task. Especially Condoleezza started protesting, but under the pressure of her fellow inmates she did put her clothes back on. It was officer Stewart who eventually took her in for some corrective therapy. Her protests also got rid of the chance of her becoming the trusty. The officers decided not to choose rebellious Rice as trusty. Instead inmate Cleese was given the special privileges - and a green suit. The 10 hours that his privileges lasted, he didn't get much extra. He trimmed the hedges and exercised with the inmates, and the only big advantage he got was that, along with the two officers, he was not nominated for eviction this week.
On Monday night, reaching the half way point of the series was celebrated with a seventies/eighties party. All housemates got dressed in style, all in bright colours and a good mood. However, the night ended with disappointed housemates, after a message from Sim Brother. They had failed the weekly task - painting - and they got to know who was nominated due to the penitentiary task. Something rebel Condoleezza didn't appreciate all too well.
This week there was no real weekly task, merely a competition between two teams. The Nominees, and the Pythons. When picking the team - Martha being picked last - it was quite clear Alyssa picked Steve. When Steve said the prize money should go to charity, she was also the first to agree. Their romance would continue after the game, with a kiss on an outside bench. That same romance was analysed by Mr. Phil on Wednesday, but it would soon not be a romance anymore. After the captain's match of pool, where the Nominees settled their victory with a score of 6-0, the romance was at its peak. A day later the pair had a talk, where Steve finally remembered he had a wife and two children. The break-up was a smash in the face of Alyssa, who came almost crying to Sim Brother in the diary room. Without helping much, Sim Brother gave her the advice to stop crying, and instead smile.
The events described here, the nomination and the great advice from Sim Brother, show that Sim Brother is not Sim Daddy. This week is the first after which the housemates are given some time to think of the loss after an eviction, whereas before they got a new challenge at them almost right after the evictions. When the series - and any series basically - starts, the housemates should prepare for a fairly rough time. After all, they're stuck with up to 7 other people in a house for several weeks. Failing a challenge results into a week of eating nothing but mush. No marmalade for Martha.
That it's a stressful challenge was shown a week ago, with Condi seeing bunnies that others didn't. This week she was evicted with over two third of the votes. Perhaps for the best, as Condoleezza's prison protest also showed that she was quite fed up with being locked up and being told what to do. "Being in here isn't making any sense to me anymore." So far the rest of the housemates seems to be coping quite well, as a group. But the break up of Steve and Alyssa might cause some friction between the two. It also seems Martha got the hang of being in charge during the Penitentiary task. It's not showing very well yet, but she might easily get back into her role and become the bossy housemate for as long as she's in the house. "I did not have a choice of changing roles, but when I was in the role, I didn't want to" That she was picked last for the poll tournament shows that she isn't liked too much by the rest, and she might be up for eviction soon too.
Alyssa has started to depend on Steve a lot, as she felt very attracted to him. He didn't have to go, though it wouldn't be unlikely that if he had to, she would be off on her own too. She hated the thought of having to be without Steve. "I'm afraid we'll be split up. Once we're on the outside, things will be different. You'll be back with Terri and we won't have ... well ... you know..." Nevertheless the split up happened, and she ended up being fairly depressed. Any big consequences are yet to show though. Steve on the other hand is glad the relationship has gone down to just friendship. He might also be too afraid to lock himself out of the group, which can be a tactical move. After all, by joining the rest of the club less, he could become less popular and those be nominated more easily. Hence he tries to get the group together a bit. "Let's toast our recently departed sister before Sim Brother jumps us with something else."
Tiger has been in the role of officer last week, but didn't seem to be too comfortable in it. He is in the game to win, but he's not being very confident. He also tried to be fairly friendly to the inmates to prevent being nominated by them this week. Under his skin he seems to be showing some stress though, and he is getting slightly fed up with Sim Brother being so tough. Especially the food isn't exactly to his taste. He isn't a fan of Martha's marmalade, and just mush didn't go well at all. " I think I found some peas in mine. They're all mushed up."
Finally, as Phil already noticed as well this week, John has gone quiet. And he's become quieter after Condoleezza was told to leave. The two got on very well, and he will now have to miss his buddy in the house. Of the five that are left, he and Martha are the oldest. The other three are quite young and it doesn't seem John can relate to them very well. He realised that if he'd gone in with Condoleezza's protest, he could've prevented her nomination and eviction. The game has really started for him, and he fears he's not playing it too well yet. "If I could make the final night, that would be success for me."
As before, Cat's Eyes held another poll last week. Last week you were the one who ended up deciding whether the housemates passed the task or not. With Arnold and Steve receiving just one vote, and Alyssa getting 18, the percentages of all 66 votes differed more than 25%. This was reason for Sim Brother to say the task had failed. Alyssa was the best painter of the bunch, followed by John (10), Tiger and Martha (4) and Condoleezza (3). 25 votes were for the "Right... Sim Brother... Okay..." answer.
This week we're going back to the Penitentiary task. Let us know whether you prefer being an officer, inmate, trusty, Governor, or if you prefer chocolate bars over steel ones. Make sure you vote, on the right side of the site.
Week 5 has started for Sim Brother 4, and this week the Governor will give the housemates another task. They've had some time to recover from their loss, but it's fairly unpredictable when SB will throw the new task at the five remaining housemates. One thing that can easily be predicted is that there will be another edition of Cat's Eyes next week. For the rest of the week, enjoy Sim Brother, and make sure you tune in again next week.
