I realize that a week ago I blogged about how Shelli was playing the best game in the house and while I continue to acknowledge that Shelli is a quite powerful presence who managed to get her allies to do what she personally wanted while situating herself in the ideal "middle position" only days ago, her pushing Vanessa away from an Austin backdoor was a real poor idea in hindsight. This week has also shown that Shelli is not as strong strategically when her back is up against the wall - because she has "morals" and can't come to throw anyone under the bus.
Had Austin been backdoored last week, Clay & Shelli would have maintained their ride in the middle because the ADC fully trusted them, and had Jason or James still won HOH this week, Steve would have been the target. But Shelli completely exposed her game by talking Vanessa out of the Austin backdoor, and she didn't do herself any favours afterwards by putting on an act that she was one of the last people to find out about the Jason backdoor, because Vanessa was quick to debunk those myths and turn Jason's allies against her.
This week Shelli was in a position to expose the Sixth Sense and potentially buy herself and Clay time on Jury together, but she couldn't bring herself to do it after spending all night teasing Meg and James with the information she had in her back pocket. Because that doesn't look suspicious whatsoever? Telling Meg that you have vital information about Austin from last week but being unable to spill the exact details totally isn't suspicious. James, Jackie and Meg totally pieced the Sixth Sense together without Shelli even having to spill anything because she was being so damn wishy washy. They figured that Shelli had a larger hand in saving Austin than she put on because of the fact that she was openly "disappointed" in Austin for not sticking up for her after everything she did for him last week.
I would have loved a Vanessa backdoor but Clay and Shelli did this to themselves and at this point they deserve to be sitting on the block.
