Radio Times

Darnell, Darnell, Darnell. What were you thinking? You were my favourite housemate for a long time. And then, after you started flying off the handle at every little thing, you were still one of my favourite housemates. And then, even when you went power mad as head of house, I found ways to defend you. But now…well, now you've really blown it, dude.

You've blown any chance you had of winning that 100 grand you've become so obsessed with, but most of all you've lost the chance for the thing you really, really crave - respect.

Darnell, man! Your theme tune should be Just by Radiohead, not Dem Girls, because you do it to yourself, you do… You're a self-destructive, self-fulfilling prophecy. Because at least by wrecking your own chances, rather than letting other people do it, you can get a handle on why things haven't worked out for you. It gives you that precious feeling of having control over events, even if the results aren't what you really want.

They say you always hurt the ones you love, and with his shocking treatment of Sara on Tuesday night, Darnell showed just how infatuated he is.

In case you didn't see it, he was in her face all night, abusing her with a persistence that made Relentless Rex look like a pathetic quitter. To give you a flavour, "slut" and "ugly bitch" were just two of the choice insults with which Darnell finally reduced a very resilient Sara to tears.

Darnell's behaviour was completely unacceptable of course, but it was also a bit sad. Darnell is treating Sara like this because he's in love with her, in that adolescent way that makes you begin to hate the object of your desire for not reciprocating.

Rex often behaves in a similar way towards Sara. But where Rex is pulling her pigtails like a naughty schoolboy, Darnell was battering her round the head with a baseball bat.

The thing is, despite his inexcusable behaviour, part of me still likes Darnell. I know he's one of the more intelligent, sensitive people in the house, in the past I've credited him with a strong moral sense, and of course he's right about the injustices of the world and the falseness of many of the people in it. But it's not just him that has to deal with that stuff, is it? So why does Darnell act like such a martyr all the time? And if he really has such a well-developed sense of right and wrong then how could he sit by and watch Rex bully people the way he has been, let alone treat Sara like this himself?

It's a shame Sara doesn't fancy Darnell because the love of a good woman could be the key to a happy Darnell (he certainly believes that), and I think a happy Darnell could be a real force for good. Then again, Darnell is so used to playing the underdog, the loser, that I wonder if he could handle it. I wonder if the kind of girl who would accept Darnell for who he is would be good enough for him? Would self-loathing Darnell ever want to belong to a club that would have him as a member..?

Anyway, out of the therapist's room and back to the house. And after the surprise face-to-face nominations, Lisa and Sara are up for the final round of evictions on Friday. I quite like them both but I can't see Lisa being voted out. I think she's popular and I also reckon there'll be a certain group, probably mostly girls, who secretly agree with Darnell that Sara is a tease.

At least after the Prisoner's Dilemma task, Sara will have £25,000 in her pocket when she leaves. Which is more than Darnell will be able to say.

The Diary Room stuff is heavily-edited. I got the impression from Darnell's reaction that the session with BB had been a LOT longer than the 60-seconds we'd seen in the show. On a related note; why do nominations take so damn long on BB? How long does it take to say TWO peoples' names and give quick reasons? But the narrator always says nominations have been going on for three HOURS of more? Are people in there for 30-minutes each, or do BB stretch the process out across the whole day? It's always confused me.

I was very perturbed at Big Brother's response to Darnell's and Rex's abominable behaviour towards Sara this week.Is there a hidden agenda somewhere? It occurs to me that perhaps they were only called to the diary room at all because of the massive number of complaints from the public.Darnell and Rex should have been thrown out of the house immediately and perhaps then they would have realised the full impact of their behaviour and have had to face the consequences of their shameful conduct. As it was,they barely got a reprimand from Big Brother. Darnell at least showed a hint of remorse but only,I feel,because Big Brother brought the matter to his attention,but I have still yet to hear an apology from him to Sara.Rex,on the other hand,was permitted to say in the diary room that he "would not bully anyone" with not even a contradiction from Big Brother!! Rex seems to think that as long as he assures his victims that he's "only joking" he can say and do whatever he likes!

Later on in the luxury bedroom Rex was blatantly trying to make Sara feel guilty for the fact that he had been admonished by Big Brother!In the garden,Darnell was trying to justify his behaviour towards Sara to his "hangers-on" Rachel and Kathreya who did not even have the gumption to tell him he had no business treating Sara like that!How dare he use the constraints of his Albinism to defend himself!He appears to possess some intelligence,so has he not yet realised that bad things happen to everyone in one shape or form and that he cannot constantly rail against the world for his misfortune? Whilst Darnell has not been an overwhelmingly favourite housemate of mine,I did think that there was a possibility that he could win the show until the events of this week.Now he has scuppered his chances completely.

As for Rex,his conduct in the house has been obnoxious throughout the series and he has consistently been allowed to get away with it.The only one who seems to see Rex for the totally objectionable person that he is,is Mikey.Why the housemates have tolerated Rex's behaviour is an absolute mystery to me because I am sure that he would have been voted out of the house long ago if he had ever received enough nominations.I am aware that he has a "following" outside the house,heavens knows why.It shows that there is no accounting for taste.Even though he has somehow survived until the final week,I don't think that he has a cat's chance in hell of winning because I refuse to believe that the public would allow such a malignant excuse for a human being to receive the accolade.

I am so glad that Sara and Lisa won £25000 each.The sequence was very touching,an oasis of friendship and loyalty.It's a pity that one of them will have to leave this evening.I hope that either Sara or Lisa is the eventual winner.

Good self promotion Dan - just been on your website and it's brilliant! So many topics to choose from..!

Great post, I agree with everything you say. Silly, silly Darnell! As Mikey said; he's a psychologist's wet dream. Funny how Mikey's intellect increases tenfold in the Diary Room, isn't it? Also, I normally hate self-promotion on blog comments, but people like Ken might want to check out my own BB9 thoughts: danowen.blogspot.com

I always saw Darnell as one of the more thoughtful members of the BB house, but he was also always a little strange. I think he loves to grab any oppurtunity to go on about something deep and meaningful, but recently he seems to have been getting frustrated and just saying whatever he likes. This has led to many awkward situatins in the house, and it annoys me how he pretends to make a joke out of it to make himself seem less imposing. For example, when Rex attempted to form a silent protest, later that night Darnell told him it was 'unreal' and 'scary' how Rex had controlled the other housemates to such an extent, evey few seconds pausing to force out a chuckle.

I think he is secretly a little jealous of Rex- he has a lot of what Darnell wants: a girlfriend (even if she is Nicole); respect (or, at least, housemates fear him); Rex is rich (we know how driven Darnell has been to win and get that one hundred grand) and Rex can see properly.

Darnell feels hard done by, and rightly so. He looks, sounds and acts differently from most other people. No one appears to fancy him and he is incapable of saying aything that doesn;t have some strange underlying meaning. There is probably a side to him that is kind and gentle- I for one can picture him writing love poetry, but, unfortunately, he has chosen to let us see the mean, spiteful, zealous Darnell: the one who kidnapped the only burger and stuffed it in his face before anyone else could have a chance; the one who complains that people think he is only good at singing and nothing else; the one who bullied and hurt Sara until she was reduced to tears and confusion for what she has done wrong. It is so obvious I don't know why Darnell still maintains that he doesn't like Sara. If he had taken the time to talk to her and get to know her, then he might have got over his schoolboy crush. He really is a prime example of a man who feels he has missed out on life, but still casts aside any possible chance of his happiness. I can safely say that Darnell will not be the last to leave the Big Brother house, but perhaps unhappy, bullying albinos are popular this year... who knows...?

Thank heavens I've found an intelligent analysis of BB at last - and only a week to go! If only 1 of the broadsheets would cover BB issues. Thank you - and, yes, I tend to agree with everything you say.