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LOS ANGELES (CBS) ― The previews for this episode boast that it's one of the more harrowing Big Brother shows we've ever seen. Let's see if it lives up to that press!

Once again, the show starts out being all about Amanda. She's the reason that she and Alex are nominated for eviction. When they find out, he immediately leaves the room.
Alex: "Don't jump around near me." He says to her.

And later, Alex pouts outside. Amanda comes to try to talk to him again. "Give me time so I don't lash out at you in front of these people. I have a positive attitude towards this game, I just have a negative attitude towards you at the moment." No amount of 'bueno!' is going to cheer this guy up.

But despite the fact that James stated that he is gunning to evict Alex and Amanda, that doesn't mean that Matt isn't still extremely pissed that James put him and Natalie up, even as pawns.

Matt: "James is a double crosser. The kid with the pink hair must go!"

Tough to tell whether it's the nomination or James' hair color that offends Matt more.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Sheila starts saying that she and Allison are no longer friends. She starts complaining to other people about how Allison has played her. Weren't they sharing an intimate, albeit fake, lesbian relationship like 5 minutes ago?

She decides to confront Allison.
Sheila: "Now that you're off the block, you don't want to be my friend."

Allison: "Now that Jen's gone, I have to get to know Ryan."

Interesting how there are bad break-ups, even in pretend relationships.

Time for the POV competition. Both Alex and Matt stress how much they have to win it. They talk privately about how much they cant stand James and Chesia.

James walks in. "What's up, losers?"

For the competition, Sharon and Joshuah are picked to play as well. This game is related to the hit, fan-driven CBS show, 'Jericho.' The teams have to find cables in their barrels of peanuts, and connect the cables to electrical poles to win. They will also win some information from the outside world.

It's a close race, but eventually Sharon and Joshuah win, leaving Alex and Matt more sulky and brooding than ever. (But hot. Very hot. Do we really care what kind of facial expressions these two make? Not really.)

The house-guests finally get some information about what's going on away from their slop-centric, orgy-filled world. Such as the fact that John McCain is still the Republican front runner. Amanda is overjoyed!

James: "I didn't think Amanda would be a republican, but then again, I didn't think she'd be much of anything." Zing!

The house-guests also find out that "the hudson river virus is threatening those cut off from the outside world." HUH? What does that mean?

James, always one for a theory, realizes that the colors of the cables used in the POV competition are the same colors as those belonging to the tricky pet hamsters inside. Very curious. (The information about the virus is actually related to the show 'Jericho,' Incidentally, in case you haven't heard, this show is so good that the fans successfully lobbied to have it renewed by sending peanuts to the production offices of CBS. So maybe add it to your DVR!)

Anyway, apparently, that talk between Sheila and Allison didn't make Sheila feel better about Allison's behavior towards her. She starts really getting MAD.

Sheila: "That bitch, she's going down in flames...you don't trust her. she's a phony."

But everyone else seems to think that Sheila is crazy/paranoid/delusional.
Natalie: "She needs to learn to keep things in and wait to say anything."

Matt: "She's acting like a mental case, she flips out about something every day."

Eventually, Sharon overhears Sheila's ranting and raving, and goes and tells Allison all about it.

Ryan: "What's wrong with that lady?"

I should think Ryan would be used to nuttiness, with his current girlfriend. Then again, he's always struck me as a bit of an easy mark.

But Allison is tough and decides to tell Sheila that enough is enough. These two really start getting into it.

Sheila: "Just because you have a formal education, you think you're better than everyone else in this house!"

Everyone is confused by this reasoning behind Sheila's flippage. Ryan comes to Allison's defense. (Ahhah! Bonding...)

Ryan: "You're screwing yourself," he says to crazy, raving Sheila.

Partner Adam is none too thrilled with this meltdown either. "You're screwing both of us, Sheila."

But two people used to being the center of fighting that ends up with both of them getting screwed, Alex and Amanda, celebrate not being in the spotlight. Finally, Amanda isn't the cause of a household meltdown! Bueno! (Yes, it needs to be retired.)

Later on, Allison is running laps around the yard, talking to Sharon about how Sheila has lost it. All of a sudden, Allison runs inside to the diary room, complaining that her throat is closing up and that her tongue is swollen. What happened?? She's in the diary room, but we can hear her talking to a nurse and begging for the Epi-pen. This is very serious.

That same moment, outside the diary room, Natalie and Amanda are walking to bed. Amanda says that she's not feeling too well, and then faints. Natalie runs to get everyone, and Amanda starts having seizures. The nurse, who was helping Allison, who has evidently swollen up more so, comes out to help Amanda.

James, the house-guest who showed the most calm-under-crisis presence of mind, holds up Amanda's head to keep her from choking, while the rest try to find juice, water or something for her to drink. Matt exclaims, "We don't have any glasses!," a chilling reminder of what Big Brother took away in the last HOH competition.

Eventually, both Amanda and Allison are taken away to the hospital, and the house-guests, for the first time in over two weeks, get a reality(tv)-check that while they may be locked up in the house, they are still in the real world where actual problems exist.

Joshuah: "When I saw Amanda leave on the stretcher, my heart started hurting.."

Alex: "When something like that happens, it makes you put everything aside and I just want to make sure she's okay."

Matt: "James really did step up to the plate. He looks like the crazy kid with the pink hair, doesn't look like he'd step up. but I'm very proud of my friend James."

Sheila: "I felt horrible, if something happened to Allison, I'd never forgive myself."

Later, when Amanda and Allison come back, everyone is visibly shaken and relieved.

James: "That's what people should do for each other, help each other out." Does anyone else kind of love this guy now? See, I told you he was perhaps the smartest guy in the house.

Amanda and Allison share a tearful hug and talk about how when they left, they realized they were different and deceitful inside the house. It's time for all of them to start treating each other differently, playing differently.

Sheila agrees. "We are not robots, we are people!"

It's pretty difficult to mock the house-guests during this time that was, perhaps, the only authentic moment to ever occur in the house. And especially so far in this season.

But we are brought back to the game when Joshuah and Sharon decide not to use the power of veto to change the nominations.

And so we wrap what was the most interesting episode of the season with the house-guests feeling closer to each other than ever, despite Alex/Amanda and Matt/Natalie up for eviction. Will the sobering experience of a health-scare cause a shift in game-play? Who deserves to go home on Wednesday? Was CBS right to show the footage of Amanda and Allison's emergencies? Let me know!

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