In Case You Missed It:

Alison saved her butt yet again.

The retail saleswoman from the Pittsburgh area won the final Power of Veto competition by being the first person to correctly guess the eight pairs of houseguests nominated for eviction. She captured the newly created "Diamond Power of Veto", and what we know about it so far is she can, if she so chooses, take herself off the block, and place Erika on it.

The houseguests also got a chance to receive a phone call on a specially prepared T-Mobile cellular phone. When the phone rang, it was Robert's daughter, Elena. In one of the show's tender moments, Robert told his daughter that he'd be home soon.

Two houseguests also had the chance to win a blimp ride on the famous Goodyear blimp. Jun and Alison went thru a specially prepared obstacle course, complete with a prisoner's stripes and a ball and chain on one leg. They got to tour all of metropolitan Los Angeles, and at one point, saw Erika and Robert.

But tonight, four houseguest becomes three, and one houseguest will have to make the tough choice of who to evict amongst two of their comrades they have spent the past 68 days in.

Who will it be? Time to find out the final three!

IT'S ALL ABOUT ALLISON

Julie Chen welcomes us to Day 68, the ninth eviction night of Big Brother. Tonight, we get a lot closer to the climax with a pivotal vote. Four houseguests will become three, and the race to the "Ultimate HOH" will begin in earnest.

Very little new information came in the opening segment. When Julie grilled Alison in the usual early show grilling about being the center of attention, Ali, of course, said yes.

In the next segment, Robert, who talked last week of the possibility of going crazy with three women in the house, is profiled for the second week in a row. While he finds Erika tolerable, he can't stand Alison's shrill voice and Jun's constant talk of her sexual cravings. Julie Chen, in the customary HOH interview, called him out on his chauvinistic comments about the women to Jee a couple of weeks prior. Robert doesn't deny he said those things, but it should be tempered with the fact that he was letting his anger speak.

After the next round of commercials and the customary plug for CBS.com with Erika flexing her muscles, Julie profiles the three non-jurors, David Lane, Amanda Craig, and Michelle Maradie. The clip mainly focuses on Amanda and Dave's sexual tryst in the HOH room the night prior to Amanda leaving. Amanda and Dave both say they are pals with each other, while Michelle, who has gone back to college football powerhouse Florida State University, wasn't too thrilled about David lying about it. She also has feelings of strangling Alison whenever she sees her on TV.

The Jury House is looked at, with Dana and the three boys going fishing. Nathan and Jack each catch fish, but Nathan catches and plays up the fact that he caught a much bigger fish. Jee arrived, and it didn't take long for him to be initiated, much like Jack was, with a water balloon barrage. The barrage was so hard it knocked Jee off the raft he was lying on in the pool!

Time for the live veto meeting, and Alison would do us all a favor and keep it short and sweet. She opted to activate her veto powers, making her the first houseguest to be saved three times, besting her own record by one. Erika now goes on the block for her 3rd time, joining Jun.

For the first time, CBS runs a commercial looking for contestants for Big Brother 5, now just 9 short months away.

After a commercial, Jun and Erika both make their pleas. It was then time for Alison to vote, and tearfully, she chooses to evict ERIKA.

Erika quickly leaves, and the houseguests get ready for their upcoming HOH competition.

The usual interview with Julie was rather uneventful, as it focused mainly on her relationship with Robert. Erika did say she felt somewhat betrayed by Ali, but she knew Ali was a tough player and did what she had to do. Farewell messages from Robert, Ali, and Jun got Erika crying.

On to the very last HOH competition, divided in three parts. The first part occurs tonight, and the losers of the first part do battle in the second part for the last ticket into part three. The winner of part three chooses who he or she plays against in the finals. Tonight's contest, much like last year's, will test the houseguests endurance. All three get on miniature houses with a V-shaped roof, insert their keys into a tray. After that, they must hold on to their tray as long as possible, and that's all. No sitting, no kneeling, no eating, no sleeping.

America's Choice this week: who should get to take part in an Internet chat?

In the final segment, Julie reminds us there is no show Friday, so tune in 6 days from tonight.

And then, Julie tells us...Christmas has come early. Big Brother has decided to let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Maybe I should have said hail? The snow comes down hard on the houseguests, and all of them get pelted! They all are heard yelling "OW!!!" Shortly after, the snow subsides, all three still in the game.

Analysis:

The game now gets very simple.

If Jun wins HOH, she wins the game. If Robert wins HOH, he wins the game. If Allison wins, I have no ungodly idea what she does!

Alison has been a one-woman wrecking crew in the game, and has played it harder than anyone. However, to string Erika and Robert on like she did during the week (for anyone who caught the feeds) had to disappoint her strongest supporters. She is pretty much proven herself unworthy of the big 500K prize in my mind, and loses to either Rob or Jun. I hope what she's done was worth sacrificing one of those zeros.

Let me take a moment and send best wishes out to Big Brother 2's Monica Bailey on a sad anniversary for her tomorrow. As many of you probably remember, it was September 11th, 2001 when the world changed, and 4 plane crashes occurred in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania in a two hour span. Two of the planes hit the World Trade Center, where her cousin Tabitha worked. Sadly, Tabitha was among the over 2,700 causalities in New York, and among the over 3,000 in all crash sites. It's my hope that such a foolish act of terrorism is never repeated on American soil.

Four episodes left to go, and Big Brother 4 becomes history.