All season long, I’ve been ragging on James for not being as crazy as he says. Tonight, he finally did something truly crazy, but not in that fun, spontaneous way. More in the dark, sad, angry, I-Have-Many-Demons sort of way. The background on this clip is that Sheila had apparently told James that she had his back, and when he found out that she was lying, he lost it. I mean he lost it. The rage seemed to be bigger than the game. Like somehow, Sheila’s actions really touched a deep, sensitive nerve — perhaps the source of all of James’s simmering anger. Hmmm… does somebody have some mommy abandonment issues?
This clip has very loud, vulgar language, so be warned.
Some spoilerish commentary after the jump.
So after James laid into Sheila, he went back into the house to vent, ultimately saying his piece to Natalie and Ryan. He complained/screamed/almost-cried about how he was on “an island” now, and everyone was out to get him, and he had no one to confide in blah blah blah. But the best part was that for every woe-is-me complaint he had, Natalie kept saying essentially, “Well, that happened to me too.” This was truly a temper tantrum of epic proportions.
Hey, no one wants to be hated by an entire household, but James had to realize that by going back on his word so flagrantly with the Matt nomination, he was bound to make some serious enemies. Besides, wasn’t he the one to say in week two that he truly hated everyone in the house? So why should he be surprised that they hate him back?
Nevertheless, James also screamed that not only was his partner in crime (and TROUBLE) evicted, but so was his support base. He had no one now. Of course, Natalie stated the obvious: what about Josh and Sharon? I can understand James’s frustration. I really can. But the kid’s way too much of a victim to be taken seriously.
As much as Natalie was calling James out on his bullshit, she was also striking a conciliatory tone, which was not the most sincere thing she’s ever done. I feared that it was giving James an unwarranted sense of justification for his pity party, but thankfully, Adam stormed into the conversation and laid it all out. Yes James, everyone wants you out of the house. Yes James, it sucks. Just shut up and deal with it.
Also, James started to cry later on — much in the same way Matt did. Of course, when Matt cried James called him pathetic. Huh.
Basically, tonight was the sort of drama we pay for with Big Brother After Dark.
Afterwards, Natalie and Sheila did the post-mortem on the situation, and I was relieved to see that Natalie had not fallen for any of James’s frantic ploys. If anyone, it was Sheila who was most affected. She told Natalie to put her on the block, saying that she simply did not want to deal with Crazy James being crazy for the next week. Natalie, however, talked some sense into her and reminded Sheila of all the hypocritical things James was just saying. It was like ME speaking. I loved it. Literally, I was clapping. And as an extra bonus, Sheila said “Yew know” like five times.
Sadly, all this drama happened in the last twenty five minutes of the telecast. I swear, there are some days when I think there should be an overrun. Can’t wait to see this all edited together on Sunday…
UPDATE:
Here is the conversation from earlier in the day between James and Sheilah. He thought she was pumping him up and therefore on his side, which is why he was so angry later on when he discovered that she was not in fact on his side. Unfortunately, for James, he completely misinterpreted Sheilah’s comments. When she told him that he was gonna win POV and that he’ll win the entire game, it wasn’t a pep talk. It was defeatist rambling. To James’s credit, it was very ambiguous language, but still, he should have been able to understand what she was trying to say — even if it is Sheila. Yew know wut? Yew don’t owe Sheila an apology, but ya kinda dew!