Loyalty Cannot Excuse Poor Game Play: Big Brother 8’s Mike Gets Himself Evicted

Back in the last days of summer, 2002, the Reality TV Hall of Shame noted, “It takes a lot to be enshrined in the Reality TV Hall of Shame. It takes a lot to be enshrined within hours of your departure from a reality show.” But at the time, Marcellas Reynolds met all the criteria for both and was immediately inducted into the Hall of Shame following his decision not to use the golden veto to save himself on Big Brother 3, which led directly to his being evicted. (You can read all about it right here.)

Fast-forward almost five years, and we have another similar situation. Mike was evicted from Big Brother 8 for making a move so dumb from a game play viewpoint that it can only be called shameful.

There are, of course, significant differences between Marcellas and Mike. As noted in the Hall of Shame induction article, “Marcellas is a lying, two-faced, double-crossing bastard. Loyalty means nothing to him.” Mike, on the other hand, ended up in this position because loyalty did mean something to him. Too much, in fact. As Mike noted in my interview with him, the dumbest move to him would have been compromising his own character. While that is an admirable stance, it simply doesn’t make sense from a game standpoint.

You probably already know the story, but for posterity’s sake, let’s recap it. Mike was in an alliance with Kail (and Zach and Nick) from Day 1 of Big Brother 8. The alliance didn’t last very long, though, as Nick was never totally with them and then the others “forgot” to tell Kail that they had switched their votes and were targeting Joe instead of Dick a week ago. This after Kail spent the week lobbying the entire house (even his own daughter) to get Dick voted out. Whoops!

So when Dick won Head of Household, Kail was the obvious target. From the moment of his nomination speech, Dick made it clear that Kail was supposed to go home, and Jen was only nominated to teach her a lesson.

If Mike had just sat back and kept to himself, that’s the way things would have gone down. But he didn’t.

The veto competition consisted of each participant wearing a big “Mad Hatter” hat and having to stand on a post while balancing a glass on his or her head. Kail had been so rattled by Dick before the competition that she was the first one out. That should have sealed her fate right there.

But a twist was added – the non-participating houseguests were sent out in costume to harass the competitors, trying to make them laugh and thus drop the glass. It worked for several, leaving only Dick and Jen. Dick wanted his nominations to stand; Jen wanted off the block.

The vast majority of the houseguests took HOH Dick’s side, aiming to make Jen laugh and lose the competition. But there was a single holdout – Mike. He decided that out of loyalty to Kail, he had to attempt to make Dick lose.

His attempts were poor, but not due to lack of trying. Again and again he sought to cause Dick to laugh – pretending to be a baby, putting a coconut bikini top on, and spraying whipped cream on himself (see the picture at the top of this article). Instead, Dick just became angrier. Although he had said just moments prior that Mike is for another time and Kail needed to go now (contradicting Mike’s belief that he was going to be put up no matter what if Dick lost), Mike’s continued attempts grated on Dick. He told Mike exactly what would happen if Dick lost – Jen would take herself off the chopping block and replace her with Mike. Yet Mike continued.

Finally, Dick had had enough. He took the glass off his head and hopped off the post. He lost on purpose, handing the win to Jen. And then he followed through with what he said – Jen removed herself and Dick put up Mike.

With this new nominee, the tide turned fairly quickly. Suddenly, all those who were certain to vote against Kail were now saying they would vote against Mike. Why? Because as much as Kail had targeted Dick the previous week, she was coming apart at the seams. Mike was certainly a stronger player who could be a bigger threat in the coming weeks. Even “America’s Player” Eric couldn’t convince the others to vote out Kail instead (as were his orders), and I suspect if he had been voting for himself, he would have agreed with the majority.

Was Mike’s move the dumbest move ever, as some have said? Dick himself said it was even worse than Marcellas’ decision. It’s debatable. Marcellas was already in danger and chose not to take himself out of danger. Mike was not in danger and chose to put himself in danger. In that way, it could be said that Mike’s decision was indeed dumber. On the other hand, he seemed to truly think the whole house was anti-Kail, so he might not have thought it was as big a risk as it turned out to be. And, as noted, Mike did what he did for reasons of honor – a big contrast from Marcellas.

The problem is that as much as Mike talked about having to help Kail because of loyalty and showing what a good person he is, etc., the facts are quite different. Yes, it’s great to show loyalty. But sometimes you need to back it down a bit in order to fight another day. He could have shown loyalty simply by staying at Kail’s side and supporting her, thus not going out to join the others in attempting to get Jen out. This kind of quiet support would still have been noticed, but would also not have drawn unwanted attention to himself from the HOH.

What’s worse is that the very loyalty Mike was showing prevented him from really doing any lobbying to stay – meaning Kail would have been going. How could he stand up for her so obviously one day and then tell others they should vote her out the next? He would have looked like a hypocrite. So he had to simply rely on the others to keep him, which is never a good idea in Big Brother.

Mike seems to be a nice enough guy. This Hall of Shame induction has nothing to do with her personality. As mentioned above, that is one thing that sets him apart from Marcellas. But whether you think Mike’s move was worse or Marcellas’ move was worse, Mike certainly ranks in the top two dumbest moves in Big Brother history. Indeed, it may be the top two in any reality show!

Loyalty is generally a positive character trait in the real world. But in the reality TV world, that trait has to be tempered with strategy. Mike decided that while he knew Big Brother was a game, he felt he had to behave there the same way he would in the real world. Admirable behavior as a human, perhaps, but a dumb game move that has earned him a quick induction into the Reality TV Hall of Shame.

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If you want to read more about what happened with Mike, and what happened with Marcellas as well, check out the appropriate articles on RealityNewsOnline and Marcellas’ Hall of Shame induction:

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com.

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