Why I Hate Derrick's Big Brother Game, Part Two

Thirty-year-old Central Falls, Rhode Island, police sergeant and former undercover cop Derrick Levasseur is only days away from clinching a $550,000+ payday in Big Brother 16. He is nearly unanimously considered to have played a masterful game full of the kind of lies and manipulations to make former winners including Dan Gheesling and Evel Dick Donato take notice.  He has maneuvered his way through numerous alliances never having his integrity or honesty challenged.  He is the good guy, the husband and father, who loves the game and is playing to better the life of his family.

At least, that's the Derrick he has been in the Big Brother house. That Derrick - a mild mannered Parks and Rec coordinator - does not lie, misrepresent, bear false witness, hedge, slander, malign, break trust, or otherwise play a dirty game.  He is such a nice guy - defending the abused, speaking up for the little guy, so soft spoken and calm.  His only job in the house is to keep the peace, be your friend, and help you win the game. Frankie may be playing for kids in Africa, but Derrick is the real giver. You could not ask for a better partner. 

Just ask the remaining houseguests.  They are all so excited that the alliance they created with Derrick week one is still going strong.  Derrick has Cody Calafiore's back.  They have a final two deal to the end.  He has Frankie Grande's back.  They have a Team America/final two deal.  He has Victoria Rafaeli's back.  They have a final two deal.  Caleb Reyolds and Derrick, they'll be sitting side by side at the end.  Final two! Now, I haven't taken math for some time, but four separate final two deals would appear hard to pull off.  But not for "Dad-bot" - everyone's favorite dad.

Derrick is the perfect person to take to the end.  He hasn't won many challenges, he hasn't made any moves and he's loyal as hell. Just ask him.  He'll tell you what a poor game he's played and how he doesn't stand a chance against you in the final two.  But that's okay with Derrick. He's happy with the $50,000 second place prize money.  That'll put enough food in his daughter's mouth.  What do you mean and the $5,000 that he won in the HOH endurance comp?  Oh that.  Well the other houseguests are so much bigger and stronger and better than him, he'd say, he didn't stand a chance of winning that snowman challenge.  He had no choice but to take the money to put food in his daughter's mouth.  Now, Victoria didn't stand a chance of winning that HOH either, and she could have gone for the money.  But she wouldn't think of depriving Derrick of the prize money so he could put food in his daughter's mouth.  That wouldn't be fair.  I'm sure if she could have, she would have scooped her water into his container to help him win.

No, Derrick has played a flawless game.  He's everywhere orchestrating everything that happens in the house.  Make sure to point out how unpredictable Zach is.  Make sure to keep Cody and Victoria from checking notes.  Make sure Caleb is not alone with Frankie.  Make sure Nicole doesn't talk to anyone.  Isolate Donny, play up Hayden's threat, pull Cody away from Christine.  He is thinking 24/7 of who stands in his way and how to get them out.  It has been amazing to watch. 

So why am I now devoting another post to why Derrick's game makes me want to hurl?  Amid all the accolades and benedictions that will rain down on him after his coronation, there should be a fact checker. Someone (besides this guy's tweets) to point out that this greatest game of all time is actually the dirtiest ever played on Big Brother and to question whether winning as ugly as Derrick is about to is really worth the money.  

Derrick didn't just lie about his alliances and his final 8-7-6-5-4-3-2 deals (aka normal BB lies) he lied to us about his motivations, his strategy, his feelings.  In the Diary Room, with a straight face, he would tell us that he wants to save Donny or he wants to carry out a Team America challenge, when live feeders know both are flat out lies.  Why lie to the viewers, how does that help you win the game?  His lies go beyond the game to lies about his fellow houseguests.  Some of these lies were personal - not game - in nature, some might be considered slanderous outside of a game setting.  He also played with the emotions of some young, vulnerable people who, unlike him, are not trained and skilled in adopting a new identity, lying, infiltrating, and manipulating. He used his expertise in undercover work with surgical precision to break down houseguest after houseguest until they were not just evicted but emotionally eviscerated.  

Case in point: how Derrick helped hurt recent college grad Zach Rance's reputation in the house.  Zach had a very tight alliance with Frankie, one of the few alpha males in the house who posed a serious threat to Derrick's game plan.  A close alliance between two strong and intelligent players - one of whom he was with in Team America - could undermine Derrick's plan.  Zach also was close with houseguests outside of Derrick's main alliance (Donny Thompson, Hayden Voss, and Nicole Franzel) who he viewed as a threat.  He needed Frankie (and the rest of the larger former Bomb Squad now Detanator alliance) to turn on Zach.  Frankie and Zach were in the midst of an epic bro-showmance and could not have been closer.  How could he drive a wedge?

Make up lies about Zach.  When Zach wanted to shake up the game the week Cody was HOH, Derrick decided that Zach's unpredictability was a liability.  He had to undermine him.  So he told Cody - then one of Zach's closest friends in the house - that Zach was the saboteur and that he was getting $50,000 to f*ck with the house. (7/20 11:55)  He said Zach mistreated women in the house, jumping on a lie he heard from former Zach ally Frankie and running with it.  He spread this story around until it became gospel and Zach's "I hate Victoria" became Zach is abusive towards women. He said Zach was the saboteur again after Team America carried out the mission to hide houseguest's personal items.  He preyed on Zach's Liberal heart, telling him that his actions were literally taking food out of Derrick's daughter's mouth (8/10 3:04 am).

Derrick claimed Zach was so abusive toward Victoria that if he said the same things outside of the house he would have knocked his f*cking teeth out.  What had Zach said? That she was demanding and yelling at people to do things for her, that he didn't think Victoria really ran her own photography company and that she wasn't smart.  For the record, Derrick was the first to say that Victoria was not intelligent and he and Frankie both agreed she was demanding (8/5 4:06am).

The entire conversation about Victoria is on Camera 3 from 4:01 - 4:21 am on 8/5 and if you watch it, you'll see how Zach actually knew more about Victoria, had talked to her and paid attention to her life story, compared with her "friend" Derrick.  You'll see that his issue with her was finding her dependent and privileged.  But Derrick managed later to twist this conversation into proof that Zach was a bad guy who he would have to beat up outside the house for what he said.  As soon as Zach left, Derrick told Cody that if Victoria was his daughter, he'd "break his f*cking jaw."  Yet, after Cody said to Derrick that Victoria she wasn't that dumb, DERRICK argued with Cody saying, "she's not that bright."  So, it was okay for Derrick to call her "not that bright" and to say that he only has to put up with her for a few more weeks, but not for Zach to.  How will Victoria feel when she hears that her biggest friend, closest ally said that? 

Derrick also told Nicole that Zach treats women horribly and has disrespected her.  What had Zach done?  Teased her about being a have not, being a jerk about being able to eat regular food when she couldn't.  Juvenile, immature, but disrespectful??  Derrick was the one behind the plan to isolate Nicole after her closest ally Hayden was eliminated from the game and make sure she never spent time alone with anyone with whom she might ally.  After Nicole came back into the game, only to again find herself on the block, she was finally figuring out the truth about Derrick and his alliance with Cody and his alliance with Victoria, among other things.  On the block, on slop, in tears, Derrick came over and spoke with the vulnerable Nicolle.  He told her she was wrong to question him and would realize how wrong she was after she saw the show and would owe him an apology.  (9/3 10:43)

Nicole:  I trusted you.  I feel like everything I tell you definitely gets back to Cody ... that is why I was upset yesterday and just slept.
Derrick :  Look at me real quick.. I’m going to tell you straight up and I haven't said this all season if that is what you feel you are going to look really dumb on camera.. look at me real quick.. you are going to look really dumb on camera if you that.  If you think 90% of what you just said is true..... I expect a text message apology…

Derrick told Victoria that he was disappointed in her for not coming to him after she heard from Zach about the Bomb Squad alliance (that Derrick had kept from her).  By the end of their talk, Victoria was apologizing to him for not trusting him (even though he was lying) and taking the word of "the biggest liar in the house" (Zach, who was telling the truth about the alliance). Victoria was crying and Derrick acted hurt and betrayed, breaking her down even more. (8/9 4-5pm) 

Again, I get that lying is part of Big Brother, a big part.  But there is something more insidious about a 30-year-old father, talking to a 22-year-old girl, telling her that everything she's put together based on the facts in front of her is not true, that thinking it's true makes her look dumb, and she's going to owe him an apology.  There is something worse about him telling another 22-year-old girl that she hurt his feelings and betrayed him by questioning his veracity, when he has been lying to her from day one.  If you don't see a subtle difference between clever gamesmanship and abusive, gaslighting-style manipulation, then maybe you love Derrick's game.  I don't. 

Derrick's "anything goes" attitude makes sense for him at work where the greater good is preventing a crime, catching a perpetrator, or saving his own life.  But that type of morally-bankrupt, unethical, win-at-all-costs approach has no place on what is in the end just a silly game show. Derrick is not owed the prize money and in a civilized society, even one that gets enjoyment from reality TV shows designed to show people at their most deceitful, we should at least question whether there are or should be any limits to how far someone will lower themselves just for a big payday.