In Case You Missed It:

With only three houseguests left, it was time for a Big Brother tradition: a three part HOH competition. The winner of part one gets an express ticket to the climax in part three, while the two vanquished foes move on to a last chance competition in part two.

A confident Alison won the opening competition in short order after Jun had let her key slip from her grasp. After welcome distractions such as a luxury competition to see "Runaway Jury", a movie that hasn't even been released yet, and the appearance of a mime, it was down to business. Jun would win the second part, making Robert an automatic nominee.

And so tonight, either Jun or Alison will become HOH a second time, and the loser will be the second nominee. Will the girls focus their efforts on eliminating the egotistical Robert? Or, will Jun or Alison surprise us all with one last trick up their sleeves.

Who will be bringing home the big money as the two Big Brother 4 finalists? Find out now!

FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Julie Chen welcomes us to Day 75. After tonight, just seven days remain in the summer long power struggle. Three houseguests become two, but more importantly, those two lock up some big money. The runner up takes home a whopping $50,000, while the winner takes home an additional zero, $500,000.

As the clips of the most recent days are shown, one thing stands out. Robert makes a threat to both Alison and Jun, both similar in nature. Take me to the finals, he says, or guarantee yourself a 2nd place finish.

After a rather uneventful interview segment of the remaining three, the stress each houseguest goes thru is looked at. Robert really misses the emotional bond he has with daughter Elena, while Jun has packed on the pounds. Alison complains that her skin is breaking out, and that she might be better off in the house and not having to go back out and face boyfriend Donny.

In another segment, Robert's parents, Alison's parents, and Jun's friend all make strong cases for their respective parties. Robert's dad, Roberto, wondered where he got all the demeaning terms he used to describe the women in the house. Meanwhile, Alison's parents, Melinda and James, say that Ali got good at being a manipulator because of her background in beauty pageants.

Huh?

It was then time for the finale of the three part HOH competition. The girls are asked how will their exes, Jee for Jun, and Justin for Alison, will react to eight different yes or no questions.

Rumor had it on the Internet feeds that Jun would throw the competition in Ali's favor, but in the beginning, Jun had the early lead. After seven questions, Jun led with 4 correct to Ali's 3. On the eighth question, Ali would get her answer correct, while Jun would not. This led to a 4-4 tie and yet another tiebreaking round. The tiebreaker question was the number of days each relationship lasted, with the closest answer without going over winning.

Jun answered 1,000,000.

Ali, looking like she could see Jun's answer, answered 0. Ali was correct, and becomes the final HOH.

In the fourth segment, the jury got there sixth member, Erika. As soon as she entered the jury house, Erika points to her back, as if she had been stabbed there. Dana let out a big "I knew it!" as a reaction. But, all six seemed determined to make their votes count in one week on the grand finale.

Alison was quickly interviewed in the HOH room. She admitted that perhaps Jun did indeed throw that last part of HOH, and is prepared to cast her ninth vote in the Big Brother house, this time as the HOH.

After the commercial break, Alison Irwin, for the third time in four weeks, was about to be the deciding factor.

Before she did, she leveled with Robert on something. She knew that not only was she threatened with finishing 2nd, but that Robert did the same thing with Jun. And with that, Ali had no other choice but to evict Robert.

Robert quickly left, after getting hugs from the girls. But once the door closed, the sorrow of Jun and Alison turned to total glee. They seemed very happy to get rid of him!

After a very quick interview with Julie Chen, he gets rather tongue in cheek farewell messages from Alison and Jun. Julie then asks Robert about her daughter Elena, and of course, this led to Elena coming down the doorway and embracing her father in a surprise ending. Both are crying as Julie leads the show to a commercial.

As Julie wraps up, the house is looked into one final time. Alison and Jun are on the floor, already thinking of how the jury will react and vote.

Analysis:

A reminder, there will be another Big Brother 4 episode on Friday, not next Tuesday as I had originally thought.

Looking into the record books, no one on BB4 was on the block more than three times, which is the fewest someone has visited nomination land to be leading the way. The tradition of a Round 3 or Round 4 survivor continuing on to win the game will also be carried on this year. Alison was saved by Nathan in Round 3, Jun survived when Dana was evicted in Round 4.

Did Robert deserve his third place finish? Probably so. I think it was a huge tactical error to admit to Ali and Jun that he was demeaning the girls. In the end, would it have mattered? Probably not. I think Ali and Jun were committed to the end regardless of what Robert had done.

So this begs the question of whether or not the producers or Julie Chen have now influenced the game by pointing out Robert's statements, but not those Alison or Jun have made in the game. I can't take the idea of show rigging too seriously anymore. If this show were rigged, these three people wouldn't have been the final three, so I think we can put that to rest.