'Paradise Hotel 2': Finally, a shakeup

The folks behind Paradise Hotel 2 apparently realized that just plying pretty people with liver-pickling amounts of alcohol isn't enough to make compelling TV -- hell, it hardly made a compelling sophomore year of college. Perhaps a quick change of rules and shuffle of roommates will do the trick?

The word "spoiler" never came out of my mouth.

It's time for another elimination, and one of the women will be facing the boot, so it's time to get our strategy on! In this case, "delicate political machinations" looks less like diplomacy and more like 12-year-olds whispering about each other in the playground.

Stephanie seems to be the eye or the rumor hurricane -- after all, she's the one woman guaranteed not to go home. Charté  and TD, who last week accused Krista of sucking up to Stephanie, do their own up-sucking, spending quite some time painting a picture of Raheim as a loose cannon who could break into violence at any moment. It's transparent enough that even Stephanie can see what they're doing. Besides, Raheim spends an equal amount of time reminding Stephanie that she jumped his bones her first night there -- something she claimed to have forgotten.

Everyone else watches TD and Charté  with alarm. Krista is convinced they're talking about her, and James and Mike are indignant just on general principle, apparently. James decides to advise Stephanie about who the real bad guys are, which leads to TD telling James that Charté  heard him tell Stephanie something about them, and dear god, it's like a game of telephone. James yells at Charté , and Charté  vows to destroy him.

She's not alone. When James gets drunk, he puts the moves on Lauren, even though he knows Raheim likes her. I fail to see the problem --- if Raheim likes her, he can put his own damn moves on Lauren, He can't just pee on her leg and expect everyone else to stay away. Except apparently, he does. Sigh. Cue more vows to destroy James, and empty boasts about how Raheim can control the entire course of the game. Whatever, Raheim.

All of that is forgotten later on when James, Raheim and Mike ask Stephanie to pick Johnny as a way of getting rid of Charté . Stephanie makes no promises...

And it turns out, she doesn't need to, because the producers throw a monkey wrench in the game. See,  all the players have gotten pretty comfortable with their roommates. Left to their own devices, everyone would pair up with their existing roomie over and over again. The only tension would come from figuring out who the new person picks each week, because that person's partner would go home.

Not anymore: Right before the roomie ceremony, Amanda tells the women they could choose anyone they wanted -- except their current roomie. With that safety net gone, things had the potential to get interesting.

Unfortunately, it was pretty damn obvious who would be going home. The whole group had labeled Charté the big bad Instigator of Drama, someone who stirred up trouble wherever she went. That's probably true, but I don't know if she sowed any more dissension than, say, Raheim.

Charté  liked to talk a big game -- I've got strategies! I've thought five steps ahead of everyone else! -- but her plans didn't work so well. She'd spend some time buttering up Ryan as a backup roomie, but even he wasn't so out of it that he didn't realize Charté  was a problem, and if he picked her, he'd be next. Bye bye, Charté .

Other stuff

• In the Pandora's Box session, Mike was forced to admit that he found Stephanie and Her Amazing Rack attractive. Tanya looked like she wanted to disembowel him.
• The Pandora's Box session also revealed that Johnny had a crush on Lauren. She's nice and all, but I'm not quite sure how she became the femme fatale of Paradise Hotel.
• Did you catch the eye-rolling on Raheim's part when TD went to Johnny for a roommate? What was that about? It's not like TD was betraying Raheim -- she took the last single guy -- and she couldn't partner with him. Shut up, Raheim.
• Stephanie and Raheim. Well, it could be interesting...

i missed it on monday!!! who is rooming with who now??? please fill me in!

Stephanie just wants Raheim in the sack. nothing more nothing less she needs BBC