Mike visits Erika in the HoH room, and she has to go over and get her smooches, which is so icky. She wants to know what's going on with Janelle, and then she says, "Will's going up." Mike visibly blanches. "You won't put Danielle up?" he asks. "Don't we want to send Will to the jury?" she asks. And she asks it like they've talked about this a lot, so I return to my theory that Mike's greatest dream in this game is to be the one who takes out Will, because he has spent five years living in the shadow of Dr. Awesome, and his aspiration is to be Will's executioner and then be all, "Just a game, buddy!" Mike says, "Not now!" And then he says, "If you're doing that, you're committing in one direction." "Well, we have to talk. Let's talk," she answers. She keeps being so close to being smarter, and then she gets stupid again. Mike tells her that she has to treat Will as an individual, and says that he'll be upset with her. "You and I have talked about sending Will to the jury," she says. He agrees, but he tells her that it's too soon. She asks the big question by inquiring as to whether Mike's main allegiance is to her or to Will, because hers is to Mike. He refuses to tell her the answer, really, but says that he'd be happy to send Will to the jury -- another time. Mike tries to tell Erika that Danielle is "aggravating" in that she runs to wherever the power is. He DRs that his "allegiance is to Will," but that he needs Erika to think he might take her to the finals. And then the two of them are snuggled in the HoH bed, and she says, "If I find out you're playing me after this, I'll fucking kick your ass." Over her shoulder, he grins, self-satisfied.

You know, this is where you have to just put your faith in karma and hope for the best. Far be it from me to become sentimental about reality-show contestants, but I tend to hold to the same philosophy that made me think Lex was so ridiculous. You don't get pissed off when people vote you off or lie to you about the game, because it's just like bluffing in poker. It's just a game for a lot of money. But on the other hand...it's just a game for a lot of money. There should be things you don't do, and one of those things is to take a woman who's just out of a bad relationship, whom you know to be raw and isolated from her friends at a time when she's not really prepared for it, and to convince her that you care for her when you don't. I wouldn't approve of it in poker, either. I wouldn't approve of you romancing someone you knew was broken because you thought it would make her easier to bluff. It's just like bluffing in poker, and you do what you do, and flirting isn't a problem, and it's all supposed to be in fun. But when this show goes in this direction, it takes me to this dark, horrible, I'm-not-sure-what's-a-joke, "The Ballad Of Bitter Honey" place, where all the tradeoffs are kind of too distasteful to be entertaining.