By: Cristina Deguara – GlobalTV.com

“The road to the finale begins tonight, right now on Celebrity Big Brother!”

We pick up on double eviction night after Brandi and James have just been voted out of the house. Before the vote Omarosa realizes that once James goes she’ll be the next big target and decides to put the spotlight on Ross and Marissa (smart thinking!). Say what you may about this disruptor, she knows her way around the Big Brother House. You may not like her game but you have to respect it.

Now at some point Ross and Marissa are going to realize that going up against each other as the final two isn’t good for either of them. Ross kind of pieces this together and makes a final two deal with Mark. Because Omarosa can’t compete in the next HOH she needs to make sure that someone on the other side has her back and she reaches out to Ari in the hopes that she might become the next head of household. I see two sides here and Marissa isn’t in either.

When the celebs go back into the kitchen, there’s champagne and chocolate covered strawberries and all kinds of goodies for them. The rest of the episode plays out as a series of flashbacks of scenes we haven’t seen before but do a great job of giving us some context as to what the relationships have been like inside the house.

First we flashback to day 16 where we find out Ross was fired from a job at a plus-sized women’s clothing store for shoplifting! “Honey, did you leave 50 pounds in the dressing room because you look A-mazing!” Just take my money! We also find out Marissa used to work at strip joint in New York – as a bathroom attendant (and apparently this pays surprisingly well).

We flashback to day 10 and Brandi has just accused Lady O of having a secret convo with Chuck (which she did but still vehemently denies). Omarosa strikes back full force with: “Don’t try to play me. I’m not Nintendo” to which Brandi replies “Girl, I play Xbox”. This is comedy gold, people! Someone give them a job on Kevin Can Wait!

We are treated to an impromptu tango between Ross and Ari in the bathroom and a sexy fake photo shoot in the bedroom. In a Bachelor-esque routine in the yard, Ross offers up Ari a rose. This may be as close as we come to a showmance this season and I love it. They’re two people we never see closely interacting and this makes us realize how much we’ve missed.

Next we flash back to day 10 where Omarosa is confronting Shannon for backdooring her on their final two deal. We see Omarosa put her through the third degree and really watch her play and manipulate Shannon to get what she wants. Could this be CBS’s way of prepping us for an Omarosa win this season?

We now cut to diary room flubs. There are requests for ramen noodles, alcohol, an electric shaver, sweet potatoes and even Metamucil (sorry Mark). It’s like watching outtakes from your favourite comedy. We then cut to a montage of the special days when Big Brother would give the guests alcohol and somehow Brandi was always first to the bottle. The best part of Brandi’s drunken stupors is watching Ross “put her to bed.” Jokes aside, she is a pretty funny drunk – better than an angry drunk anyway.

In another flashback we see Ross and Metta bonding over basketball and spice girls in the bathroom. Based on this tidbit of information, I can absolutely see Metta voting for Ross to win in the finale. Even though the series was condensed over two a half weeks, there’s so much that we never get to see.

We also get a great montage of Marissa’s like conversations like when she like says like like every other like word! With her silly ear head-bands I can’t help but feel like I’m watching an 11 year-old in the house – cute and good-hearted but only tolerable in small doses.

On Day 14 Shannon asks Omarosa about game hunting, specifically a law which could make bringing trophies back home to the US legal. According to Omarosa, Donald’s strategy is to distract the nation with something wild and random so that these kinds of things can pass under the radar. Not surprising. I think we all suspected this all along. Also, didn’t I see a photo of one of his sons with a dead leopard a few weeks ago? This isn’t surprising at all.

When asked why she left, Omarosa reveals to her that she was the only African-American woman in the senior staff and that she was trying to fight for her own political life. She reveals some of her own battles in the white including being purposely left out of important meetings because she wasn’t taken seriously. This conversation seems genuine and not just for the cameras. I buy it.

We’re back in real time now and head out to the yard for the HOH competition. For this event the yard is decked out like a ski hill. Marissa, Mark, Ari and Ross need to stay balanced on a pair of skis the longest to win. I’ve seen Mark work an elliptical pretty regularly in this house so I’m banking on him to win this one. The “skis” lift and the celebs are rocked back and forth so we can get a taste of how difficult this challenge is going to be.

Tomorrow night we find out who the new HOH will be, and of course who the winner will be on the two-hour finale of Celebrity Big Brother. This is going to be one you want to watch live, folks!