Episode 35 (August 17)

Brittany, her hair now a shade of electric chartreuse and her skin unnaturally tan, looks like one of those troll dolls kids play with.

She incessantly says she feels ridiculous, and indeed she looks ridiculous. But this feeling competes inside with her naked desire to become the house's alpha female, particularly with the departure of Jordan, the manipulative stripper, and Karen, the bipolar mom.

The trouble is that these two residents each had a personality that, however rebarbative, was built out of something more than hair dye and a detachable nose ring.

This makes for some amusing developments.

Brittany fancies herself possessed of a Jordan-level knack for confrontation. So, just as Jordan did, she decides to ambush Josh about his being two-faced. We already know Josh is two-faced, and we've already seen Jordan's spectacular ambush from two weeks ago, which displayed a Napoleonic deviousness and efficiency.

Under Brittany's generalship this move is undertaken somewhat more clumsily and produces less satisfactory results.

She and Jamie lure Josh away from the pool. Brittany, with Jamie by her side, lays into Josh for telling Karen that he was more interested in Jamie, even as he crawled into the love bed with Brittany.

Her basic point is that he's still cuddling with her while he really has the hots for Jamie. But of course we know that if Josh didbring something up about Jamie Brittany would crucify him for that as well.

Josh isn't really crushed. He isn't afraid of Brittany, as he was of Jordan. Also, Brittany cries through most of the proceedings.

Also, she keeps saying things like, "Imagine how it feels to be me!"

Let's not go there, Brittany.

The only mildly interesting side effect is that Josh, who admits that he has been reduced to spending most of his time outside so he won't get into trouble, is so relentlessly under the gun, and has to repeat his rather reasonable explanations to Brittany so many times, that he actually manages to elicit our sympathy.

"I just feel like a sucker," says a weeping Brittany. Suckers always set themselves up.

Jamie, meanwhile, wants to make sure that everyone knows she voted for Karen's banishment because Karen in effect asked her to -- not because Jamie didn't like Karen.

Ms. Perfect is playing some pretty catty cheerleader politics, however covertly. Karen was sure her third banishment vote came from Curtis, when in fact it came from Jamie. Jamie kept her mouth shut through the ensuing drama. But Karen busted her in front of the other residents Wednesday night, right after she was banished.