Day 24: Fight Night

A juvenile prank by Rex turned into something a lot more serious when Dennis spat in Mohamed’s face. Dennis was removed from the house, and several more housemates were warned. Few housemates had no part to play in the drama, but whilst some were criticised for not attempting to defuse the situation, others were condemned for getting involved. It was a frightening and horrific night for housemates, and not that much better for the viewers. Even Big Brother was clearly rattled by events. Having called Dennis into the Diary Room, he appeared on the point of sending Darnell and Mohamed to the same location, but, after a long pause, sent them to the other bedroom instead.

It all began when Rex decided to smudge Jennifer’s picture of Stuart. It was an incredibly stupid and immature thing to do, but surely nothing in comparison with what happened later. Jennifer dramatically declared herself upset, but Rex admitted it was a silly thing to do, and the pair sorted things out. However, after Jennifer’s knights in shining armour, Dale and Stuart got to hear about it, Jennifer turned on the tears again (not that I saw any actual tears) and her boyfriends tried to show their macho sides – ordering Rex into the bedroom one minute, and telling him to piss off the next.

Mohamed became involved after hearing something smashing: Dale was taking his aggression out on the crockery again, and Mohamed not unnaturally wondered what was going on. He went into the bedroom and saw Jennifer, Dale, Stuart, Dennis, Rebecca and Sylvia ganging up on Rex. Mohamed spoke up quietly and politely in support of his friend, only to have Rebecca turn on him, which was probably bad enough for Mohamed, but he was then accused of turning on Rebecca. This was when Dennis spat in his face.

When Darnell discovered one housemate had spat in another’s face, he was furious. He was shocked to discover Dennis’ friends apparently considered this acceptable behaviour. He attempted to make his point calmly, but he had to shout in order to be heard over the baying mob. He was so disgusted and upset anyway, he ended up losing his temper. Dale, despite being one of those who had made him angry, was the one who calmed him down. Dennis had been called to the Diary Room, but he stood outside the door, laughing and taunted Mohamed, who was crying and hyperventilating as Mario tried to help him into the other bedroom. Dennis’ friends, meanwhile, agreed that Darnell and Mohamed ought to be ejected for aggressive behaviour.

It is easy to blame Rex for what happened, as he certainly started it by damaging Jennifer’s painting. It was very stupid and unkind, and extremely immature. But his was far from the most violent and destructive act of the evening. It’s unlikely it was Rex’s act alone that caused the problem. The fact that the problem escalated so much and so quickly suggests that the fight was more about an ongoing divide between Rex and Jennifer. Smudgegate happened to be the catalyst, but it could easily have been something else.

There was no need for Jennifer to make quite as much fuss as she did. It wasn’t unreasonable for her to be upset, but her behaviour appeared manipulative because she seemed to become much more upset as soon as her protectors, Dale and Stuart, started asking her what was wrong. If she was upset enough to cry for hours, which does seem a bit excessive, it’s a bit surprising she was able to talk about the incident in such detail.

I can understand why Dale and Stuart wanted to protect Jennifer. It’s not clear whether they actually like her or whether they just want to get into her knickers, but it was probably natural for them to feel unhappy that their friend was crying over someone else’s behaviour. However, they went too far. Dale not only bullied Rex (although it didn’t look like it, as Rex remained calm whereas Dale looked pathetic), he also threatened Mohamed with violence – not for the first time. Damaging people is definitely worse than damaging their property. (Besides, Dale has damaged property too by breaking cups. There is no reason why people shouldn’t drink out of the cup Mikey uses to wash himself – although I can understand why people would rather not do this – but they definitely can’t drink out of cups broken by Dale.) Dale did do the right thing in calming Darnell down, but it was partly his fault Darnell got so upset.

It really is unfortunate that Darnell got so angry about the spitting incident – although several viewers (not me) have said they would have punched someone if they were in Darnell’s position, and it’s probably going to feel worse for Darnell, inside the house, than everyone else outside it. Darnell’s disgust and anger was reasonable, but he did look close to hurting someone, and, even though he was acting in Mohamed’s defence, Big Brother would have had no alternative but to eject him if he had hurt someone. (It’s not as though Darnell was physically defending Mohamed. That would have been different.) But major respect to Darnell for speaking up like that – he had the best of intentions.

It is annoying to have to be grateful to Dale, but I am very glad he was able and willing to restrain Darnell. Jennifer seemed to be hoping Darnell would be thrown out, so it was quite brave of her wussy little slave Dale to protect Darnell. He wasn’t even telling him to leave Jennifer alone – he was just telling him to calm down, which suggests he was actually worried about Darnell. But that was only one good moment for Dale. He had many bad moments too. The fact that Dale allegedly made a further attack on Mohamed yesterday seems to suggest it wasn’t a belated pang of conscience that made Dale intervene.

Rebecca was very drunk, but the way she spoke to Mohamed was nasty and vicious. She’s no longer my favourite person in the house. I think part of her problem is that she’s insecure, and wants to be in the cool group, and the drink didn’t help, but the fact that she could behave like that under any circumstances when Mohamed wasn’t even talking to her is disgusting.

Mohamed has been criticised for getting involved with the argument. I don’t think Dennis would have dared spit at anyone else – but that’s not Mohamed’s fault. I wish Mohamed had stayed out of things, and I’m sure he wishes the same – it was horrible watching him get so upset. But I can’t really blame him. He heard something smashing, and was curious to know what it was. That’s natural – if something smashed in your house, you’d want to know what was happening. Once he realised there was a big argument going on, he could hardly walk away, particularly as it was his friend Rex getting attacked. So he tried to calm things down. He didn’t do a very good job of it, but who could? Perhaps the best person for calming down such a situation would be someone neutral – but no-one’s neutral in that house.

There was so much going on, it was difficult to know what some of the other housemates were doing. I think Kat and Mikey were upset by all the shouting, but I can’t blame them for being too scared to get involved. It was a horrible situation anyway, and it might have been particularly difficult for Mikey, who couldn’t see what was happening, and Kat, whose English might not have been good enough for her to understand everything that was said. Rachel made some attempt to calm things down, but she couldn’t do much on her own. I didn’t notice Luke. He seems to save most of his confrontational moments for the Diary Room. Sylvia made surprisingly little impression too – she comforted Jennifer, but, for once, didn’t seem to get that involved with the bitching. I think Lisa was doing some comforting too, but I'm not sure.

Mario was wonderful. He can be annoying, and his opinion of himself does seem a little bit high, but he is calm in a crisis, and so good at looking after people. Mohamed’s panic attack was quite frightening to watch, and I have seen (and had) a lot of panic attacks. Mohamed clearly needed someone to look after him. Rex and Darnell weren’t getting through to him (Darnell was quite angry and upset himself, and Rex, who is naturally calm and unemotional, has trouble dealing with the emotions of others). Mario hugged Mohamed and spoke to him gently, and was both calm and sympathetic – and it clearly helped. Maybe he could have done more to control the other housemates, but he knew Mohamed needed him more than anyone else.

Some people have commented that Rachel, Dale and Dennis are training to be teachers, and feel they would be fairly useless at dealing with a similar problem in a school. They do have a point. But situations in the Big Brother house are probably, at least some of the time, a lot more emotional than a similar situation in real life. The housemates are constantly under stress. Problems seem magnified because their housemates are with them all the time. Teachers can go home at the end of the day.

Also, in effect, the housemates are not in a position of responsibility inside the house. Teachers are responsible for the children in the school, but Rachel, Dale and Dennis are here only responsible for their own behaviour, so they are approaching problems with a different mentality. Teachers are (or should be) working together in a team. Rachel lacks authority inside the house, but she might be stronger with a team to back her up. Dale, in effect, is following Jennifer’s lead, and he might follow a head teacher’s lead with the same conscientiousness – he is very much a follower – so he might be okay if he was set a good example. But the cup-smashing is a problem.

Dennis probably is quite a good dance teacher, as he did well helping the others in the treadmill dance task. But he spat in someone’s face. Mohamed wasn’t even being aggressive towards him – although it wouldn’t have been acceptable if he’d spat at someone who was being aggressive. I don’t think the spitting was a calculated move – more one done in the heat of the moment. But the fact that Dennis spat in the face of arguably the least aggressive person and no-one else does suggest that he did have some awareness and control. At the very least, he had got himself into a mindset where there were boundaries in how he could behave towards certain housemates, but much looser limits on what he could do to Mohamed.

Dennis will be missed as a housemate because his stirring is interesting to watch. But watching people spitting in other housemates’ faces is horrible. It is not fair on the other housemates to expect them to live with someone who has proved themselves capable of assault (spitting is legally classified as such) under any circumstances, but particularly so in an environment with the potential to become that inflamed; an environment from which they are not in a position to escape (even if Mohamed had tried to walk to get away from Dennis, he’d probably have had to wait the usual 24 hours). Dennis had to be removed from the house.

In other news. Sylvia was evicted with 90% of the vote. But that doesn’t seem to matter much. The important thing is that Mohamed survived.