I can only imagine how being crammed in the world's plushest jail cell with more than a dozen other people for weeks on end would eventually start screwing around with your mind.
Hours and hours of mind-numbing boredom and the inevitable paranoia of knowing the only people you have to talk to all want to see you fail has got to take a toll on your logical thought process. You start to overthink everything because it is literally all you have to do.
Throw in spending more than three hours sitting on plastic plate while gripping a rope that's crammed between your legs and being repeatedly slammed into a wall and doused with cold water, and perhaps you do take total leave of your senses.
That's the only explanation I can come up with as to why current-HOH-and-future-jury-member Dan would make such a stupid deal with Ollie during the endurance challenge.
After hours of torture, the Catholic schoolteacher and football coach, who somehow had the foresight to wear a raincoat and gloves to this jungle stunt, gave away most of the power of being Head of Household to his last rival: the cold, shivering and about-to-drop Ollie.
Apparently an education from Michigan State, a fine Big 10 school, did not teach Dan anything about bargaining from a strength position.
Danny Boy agreed to not nominate or backdoor Ollie or Michelle, let Ollie choose one of the nominees for eviction and let Ollie choose the replacement nominee if the Power of Veto is used. He did not bargain that Ollie protect him next week if Ollie or Michelle wins HOH when Dan won't be eligible to compete.
It should also be noted that Dan encouraged Ollie to choose another person to be protected this week. Ollie was originally only looking out for Ollie.
Dan explains in the diary room that he did this so he could win the HOH, but continue to look like a weak player to the other housemates.
Apparently he confuses weak with idiotic.
To put it in football terms, it was like pulling his defense from the field in the fourth quarter when they have the lead because he doesn't want anyone to know they can actually play the game until the playoffs.
And Ollie's choice for nomination: Memphis, Dan's "renegade alliance" buddy.
Don't get me wrong. It's not that I have any sentimental attachment to Memphis, who ended up on the worst end of this crazy deal. It's just that the rather obvious choice of bargains to strike was the promise to protect Ollie in return for his help to evict Jerry.
Absolutely no one, probably not even Jerry, would have questioned that strategy. And Dan still could have looked like the powerless player he says he is only pretending to be. He could have sailed through this week with virtually no blood on his hands and maintained the image of the doofus who just wanted to see a picture of his girlfriend.
I am prepared to eat as much crow as I can and stay within my WeightWatcher's POINTS if this works out for Dan, but I think this strategy will come around to bite him. After all, he is not aware this is a double-eviction week.
What do you think? Was this bargain boneheaded or brilliant?
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