So Natalie pulls Ryan into the HoH room to make sure he's on board with booting Joshuah. Natalie wants to blindside Joshuah and James, and the best thing Ryan can come up with in defense of his secret ally is "Sharon just worries me, man." Natalie passes that along to Sharon, so Sharon assures Ryan that everyone knows she's trustworthy, and if she leaves, James and Joshuah will take them out. Seeing Adam coming, Ryan and Sharon duck into a bedroom to finish forming their alliance.

Meanwhile, Natalie is making the same case to Adam in the HoH room, and he seems to be on board. Ryan joins them and they cement the plan, agreeing to keep it secret so Joshuah doesn't see it coming. Sounds good to me.

Out by the hot tub, James marvels to Joshuah over Natalie agreeing to keep him. But how is Joshuah dealing with the guilt he must be feeling as a result of screwing over the partner who's done nothing but look out for him throughout this game? "Sharon needs to go," Joshuah says. "I'm tired of babysitting her." My jaw hits the floor. Not only that, he says he's looking forward to Wednesday, for no other reason as far as I can tell than sheer filthy meanness.

Before throwing us to ads, Julie promises to introduce us to Joshuah's mom, who's got some 'splainin' to do. But first! DR comments. Sheila wants Sharon in the house and on her side, since Sharon is loyal and trustworthy. Ryan says the same. Sheila wants Joshuah to leave, since the way she sees it, Sharon's been carrying him all along and now he's screwing her over. She doesn't mention the fact that she was the one who had to sit with Sharon in the toilet stall trying to get her to stop crying about Joshuah's likely departure.

Back from the ads, Julie greets the houseguests via viewscreen and starts with Sheila, asking how she feels about James after the emotional roller coaster they've been on together this week. She just says that he's smart and playing a smart game, and it was good advice he gave her in his PoV speech. James, in turn, says he wanted to return the favor Sheila did him in pumping him up, even if she was full of shit. Of Adam, she asks how he's stayed so calm with all the emotions running so high. Adam cops to having some emotional moments himself, but just wants people to be happy. Way to tease out those fascinating nuggets, Julie. Her next question is to Joshuah, asking how he feels about Sharon now that he's on the block with her. He bullshits about how hard it is to campaign against her. "I don't want to stoop that low." He'd do it to others, he says with a straight face, but not to Sharon. Instead of calling him out, Sharon just says that she's loved Joshuah since coming back, and they'll always be best friends. My wife Trash has never watched this season, but even she has spotted parallels between Sharon and the totally overinvested blonde friend of that guy on Boy Meets Boy a few years ago.