Big Brother: Jordan Lloyd is no pushover

Bless her heart.

Our girl Jordan showed she may be sweet and she may be country, but she's got that Magnolia steel when she needs it.

Last night, she defended herself against a wave of crazy. And she plotted and schemed with the best of them.

But first...

We're live with a studio audience and mom-to-be Julie Chen is in a pleated red frock belted Obama-style, which is to say just under the breasts.

Nerd Ronnie proclaims himself the biggest schemer. After all, he made some obvious moves and still didn't get called for elimination. "It's gravy, baby, gravy," he says.

Russell is pleased with his moves too. He considers Braden the head of the snake and that head needed to be cut off. Russell uses a lot of violent metaphors.

Lydia, who we now know hides a bit of evil under that kewpie doll facade and tattoos, hugs Russell for a loooong time. Braden, a surfer, but no dummy, notices and figures out that it was she who did him in. Jeff who knows Russell doesn't like him, thinks the attack on Braden is really an attack on Jeff.

Our girl Jordan weeps at Braden's plight. The world has gone mad, she says, everybody is going against everyone. They've gone after the leader of the popular group. "Without Braden, me and Laura are a hot mess," she says.

Ronnie, ever maneuvering, offers anything, anything at all to Jordan and Braden. Jordan suggests Braden start schmoozing folk.

Chima, meanwhile, cleans the fridge. She feels secure. Her alliance assures her she's fine.

Lydia sees our girl Jordan cry and pouts. Jordan is supposed to be her friend and she didn't cry when Lydia was up for elimination. Maybe they really aren't friends. And maybe, this really is high school.

Russell questions Braden; Braden zeros in on Lydia, noting that she probably won't be able to sleep at night because of her evil deeds. Russell goads him to approach Lydia about his suspicions in hopes that Braden will do something to alienate himself from the rest of the houseguests and lose some votes.

Braden joins Lydia and Kevin and tells Lydia that he's on to her. Lydia categorically denies she back-stabbed him, so CBS shows footage of her throwing Braden under the bus. Braden tells her that Russell told him that his suspicions of her are true and then tells her to tattoo on her leg that she will be the next one to go next week.

She keeps denying and telling him to not talk to Kevin and feigning innocence and things escalate and then Braden calls her a bee-otch, which is very disappointing. This stirs Kevin because, he says, he doesn't like it when people attack other people. Jeff tells Braden that what he said was wrong. Braden then tells Lydia to go back to Burbank, which if you were from L.A. you would recognize as a bit of a diss. She tells Braden to kiss her Latin ass, which is disappointing. Why the need to racialize her ass?

Russell's plot is working.

The commercials end and Julie comes back. She's carrying low. It's a boy!

She tells us the house is about to explode. And so it does.

Lydia storms into the house and attacks Jordan. "That's who you're aligned with!"

An understandably confused Jordan listens as Lydia questions why she didn't cry when Lydia got nominated. The world has gone mad for Lydia. "Everything I thought was cool isn't!" She tells Jordan she'll see what Lydia means when she's betrayed by someone she thought was cool. Lydia storms away.

Jordan absorbs what has happened for a minute and then, with a head of steam, runs after Lydia. No one is going to push her around. She starts yelling at Jordan about how she has done nothing to her. Suddenly Lydia is calm. She looks at Jordan like she's crazy for having this reaction. "I'm keeping it calm now." Jordan rightly replies, "Are you serious?"

Kevin tells Jordan she can't be friends with Braden and Kevin, because if she talks to Braden that means she agrees with what Braden said to Lydia.

Then Kevin and Lydia turn their insanity toward Jeff. Lydia asks Jeff if he would allow Braden to call Jordan a skank, a bee-otch and a slut. Jeff says he wouldn't. Lydia demands equal treatment. Jeff wonders if he's taking crazy pills. He calls Lydia out, noting that this all happened because she didn't trust them to save her, and "sold herself to the devil." AKA Russell.

Exhausted by her manipulations and lies, Lydia proclaims herself closed for the day and goes to her room.

Jordan's wheels start turning. She starts to think that maybe she'll be up for elimination next week. So she decides to plot her own plan; she'll work on getting the votes to derail the athletes and break their stranglehold on the house by eliminating Chima. She recruits Laura first, who readily decides to betray her alliance with the athletes.

They next go to Ronnie and he agrees to take Chima, his clique mate, out too. He tells the girls that he can completely control Michele and get her to vote Chima out too.

Jordan's plan is going well. Now, they need Casey. Casey knows he's the swing vote. He'll do what's best for him.

We go to the living room and Julie talks to the athletes. She asks Russell about the friction between he and Jeff. Russell says he has no regrets and just says that people who don't like him should get in the back of the line. Jeff says his mother told him if he can't say anything nice... Julie asks him if that held true during the argument with Russell when he said not-nice things. And some people think Julie has sold out her journalistic chops by being on this show!

Our girl Jordan and Lydia talk about their fight. They're fine now, Jordan says.

Julie has a private talk with HOH Jessie. Julie asks him who is the brains of the athletes clique. Jessie notes Russell's prowess, but adds that he won't sell himself short.

Back to the living room where Braden and Chima must make their don't-throw-me-out-the-house pleas.

Braden calls everyone incredible, notes that he said some bad things and apologized for them and he hopes they respect those apologies. He says they are all awesome.

Chima stands and says that she is amazed by the room's short attention spans. (Honey, short attention spans are what make this show bearable.) What she says next is apparently not FCC approved because there's a whole lot of silence, but we soon learn that it's racist and misogynistic because she calls Braden a racist and a misogynist. (That expansive freelance journalist language kicked in.) Julie calls the speech the most memorable ever.

The voting begins.

Russell votes out Braden.
Natalie votes out Braden.
Jeff votes out Chima.
Jordan votes out Chima.
Kevin votes out Braden.
Laura votes out Chima.
Lydia votes out Braden.
Michele votes out Chima.
Casey votes out Chima's 'melodramatic behind.'
Ronnie says he is going to hell and votes out Braden.

It's a tie.

So HOH Jessie has the final vote. Braden goes.

On the way out, he kisses Jordan first.

After he leaves, Lydia goes straight to Russell.

Chatting with Julie, Braden calls the house crazy and a roller coaster. He says he's not surprised to be sitting there because the show's motto is to expect the unexpected. Julie asks him who he thinks sold him out; he names Ronnie, Michele or Casey. Julie tells him it was Ronnie. Braden says he's not surprised because behind those glasses and the smirk Ronnie seems sinister. He calls Ronnie a great liar. His one word to describe his feelings: discombobulated.

She shows him pre-taped goodbye messages. Jordan tells him she loves him, he's awesome and she tried hard to keep him in the game. Lydia says he lives in la la land and that's what pretty much sent him home. We don't hear from all the housemates because Julie is saying that for the Early Show. I guess asking Braden if he said the things Chima said he did is for the Early Show too. Sorry Julie, that's still not enough to make me watch the Early Show.

It's time for the new HOH competition. It's a game show format called "Most Likely To"; basically it's Family Feud. The housemates have to answer questions based on Big Brother fan polls and answer how they think the majority of those polled answered. Get it right and you can eliminate someone; get it wrong and you are eliminated.

The game begins. Laura eliminates Chima. Jeff eliminates Kevin. Laura eliminates Russell. Casey eliminates Natalie. Laura gets a wrong answer and is eliminated. Casey eliminates Jeff. Lydia eliminates Jordan. The athletes and the popular cliques are out.

Ronnie eliminates Casey. Michele eliminates Lydia. It's Michele vs. Ronnie for HOH.

Ronnie wins and gets the HOH key.

Just before the show fades to the commercial, Lydia is sucking up to Ronnie.