UPDATE: No round-trip ticket return for Crybaby Calafiore. Thank heaven. Paulie was evicted 5-0, and he did not have the golden ticket. That ticket has now expired, but Julie Chen had the seven remaining houseguests open their envelopes to reveal who did have the ticket. It was ... Paul!

Back to Paulie: Live feeds watchers got to see the full picture of this guy, but -- unfortunately -- his TV edit didn't show the half of it, so many casual fans were left thinking he was a nice guy. And his claim that the tears and threats to quit were strategy -- that's pure BS. He sobbed in the DR. He cried and talked about quitting with Corey, who was on the block with him. That's not strategy.

Unfortunately, Julie said the first five evicted HGs would compete to return to the game. A five-person jury buyback. Paulie could definitely win his way back, against Da'Vonne, Zakiyah, Bridgette, and whoever is evicted this coming August 25 under the new HoH ... Natalie!

Original post:

Paulie Calafiore has lost it. It's "Big Brother 18," Week 8, and Paulie is going to be evicted on Thursday, August 18. He is on the block next to his BFF Corey Brooks, and he'll stay there. Head of Household Victor Arroyo also won the Power of Veto competition, which was revealed on the live feeds Saturday and will play out on Wednesday's show.

That was it for Paulie. Unless it's just the beginning? He has more chances than anyone to come right back into the house, whether with 1) the round-trip ticket, or 2) a jury buyback win.

In the meantime, Paulie can't stop crying more tears than Tiffany Rousso and Michelle Meyer combined, despite those ladies being deemed "emotional players." He has hit almost every stage of grief, including anger, depression, and bargaining. Maybe he'll reach acceptance just in time to return to the house.

He has been crying about his ex-girlfriend. Crying about not wanting to campaign against Corey. Upset with James Huling for betraying him. (He doesn't seem that mad at Paul Abrahamian for some reason, which may just be exceptional gameplay from "your boy.")

Because Paulie is a control freak who sets a different standard for himself than everyone else, he's threatening to quit if he doesn't have the return ticket or a chance at jury buyback. Because he gets "claustrophobic" and can't stand the idea of being locked up in the jury house. James mentioned that the jury house is bigger than the BB house, and there's more to do, but that wasn't enough for Paulie.

He doesn't think he'll last long in jury, leaving some fans to think he'll "pull a Chima" and quit/be pushed out by production. (Production seems to love Paulie, though, and keeps calling him to the DR, probably for therapy sessions so he can cool off.) But he's probably just being a melodramatic diva.

Even Corey has started to see the "selfish" side of his friend. Paulie took the POV from Corey during the comp -- which we'll see on Wednesday -- even though he kept telling everyone (including Corey) that he wanted Corey to stay. His threat to quit and not even sit in jury is also selfish, for many reasons, including that if he self-evicts this week, there would still have to be an in-house eviction, and Corey would go.

On top of everything, the POV comp was a reward/punishment situation, leaving several houseguests forced to wear costumes. Paulie has to wear this, bake pies, and wave a flag:

It's not exactly the end of the world, but you would seriously think this was the worst thing to ever happen to Paulie.

Corey finally had a talk with him, and asked him to pull himself together. Nicole Franzel noted that Paulie's brother Cody would want him to fight, not threaten to quit and basically give up. So Paulie said he would try, for Corey. His version of trying has been to approach Victor to ask Victor to use the POV and put up James as the replacement target. This is not going to happen, but in attempting to sway Vic, Paulie is playing the "aunt with cancer" card:

Most of "the house" had actually been feeling pretty sorry for him, with how hard he took the news of leaving, and how it just seemed to defeat him. They were willing to give him a gentle passing into jury, knowing that he had a decent shot of returning. So Paulie had been able to vent to a lot of sympathetic ears in the past few days. But the old Paulie seems to be creeping back, and the Paulie that might return to the house with the round-trip ticket or a jury buyback win would probably be Paulie 1.0, the arrogant comp beast the house targeted to begin with.

So get him gone and keep him gone, even if he returns. This pie-making devil doesn't deserve another chance.

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