She's definitely the winner who got the most assistance from production. They should keep half for themselves - they deserve it.

Yes.

(short discussion)

Yep, she is the worst player to ever win. But Adam is the worst player to ever go into the BB house.

I don't think Rachel is the worst overall player among the winners. To use the PMS ratings we occasionally pull out for Survivor (and yes, I know about the initials, thanks), the 1-10 scale puts her around a 7-8 on Physical aspects and probably gives her an average Mental rating of 5-6 -- given that Mental rates the ability to understand the game, skill in puzzle-based challenges, and other aspects that don't involve interacting with other people. Look at the total slate of series victors and you'll find lower scores in those two areas all over the place -- in particular, have fun placing Jun. For the challenge portions which she seriously overvalues, Rachel can be a force.

But for Social -- the ability to build solid alliances, influence people, getting rid of other players without offending them, and generally charming the keys out of people -- she's a horror show. Mental measures the talent for understanding how other people might be thinking, but Social lets you use it against them. Rachel knows who her enemies are, but can't do a thing to make them stop. Which is admittedly next to impossible in most cases -- but she can't stay at a steady level of being loathed either. Her natural tendency is to spot the one thing that would make the situation worse and run directly for it, headfirst. As Brendon himself said, when it comes to subtle workings, she's the stereotypical bull in the china shop. On her best day in the cage, her Social rating might be around a 5, she spends a lot of time at 3, and any time she's advising the acquisition of life vests, the bottom of the barrel comes into view.

For a while now, I've seen Rachel as a former clique outcast who decided she was going to spend her post-school years being popular. But she gave herself a body makeover without touching her personality. Rachel doesn't know how to interact with people on an extended basis. There are days when I'm surprised she can connect well enough across five minutes to sell a drink. And worst of all, there are moments when her brain kicks in and she knows she's alienating people -- but doesn't have any idea how to stop.

Socially, Rachel spends her life as a fawn struggling to its feet thirty seconds after birth: an idea of what this is supposed to look like and only raw instinct to execute it with. The difference is that eventually, the fawn gets up.

And in the strong inner thigh muscle category, she's at least a 9. Amazing that that could win two challenges and contribute to a third for her.

Just goes to show, ladies, when going on BB, work'em out like crazy.

But doesn't part of mental include strategy? Rachel had none. Like I said, she plays like a bowling ball and was simply lucky that production kept her away from the gutter.

That's part of why she's in the average range. In breakdown:

1. On the feeds, Rachel was frequently capable of figuring out what might be going on around her (including calling off twist dates in advance) -- she just went with the wrong possibility a lot of the time. If you can acknowledge it without centering in...

2. To be fair, it's Big Brother and strategy is generally the punchline to a producer-twisted joke. Yes, this season, Rachel ultimately got to be the one laughing -- but for most players, it ultimately comes down to Vince's Law: So Much For That Plan. What BB players need more than anything else is the ability to twist in the wind.

I'm not saying Rachel had that. Just that it would have helped.

3. As far as it goes -- which generally isn't very -- 'win out' is a strategy. HoH every other week, Veto every time you're in the competition, and hope for either good draws or people who don't know how to backdoor.

4. Her performance in the mental challenges was frequently decent (for the few she got to play) and she did have flashes of insight.

Add it all up, take out the detriments and for me, it leaves her in that average range. Which still puts her ahead of a few previous winners.

Let's face it: when it comes to brains, Drug King Adam was the bowling ball.

I forgot about Adam the Drug King! I don't think he was a social genius either. Rachel could probably compete with him in the social department as well.

Come play my new game: Big Brother: What If? at the following link: http://community.realitytvworld.com/boards/DCForumID7/1612.shtml

I don't buy any of that. Rachel makes herself a target from the start which is the dumbest thing you can do. A social game is the strategy and she simply doesn't see that. And I'd consider winning out a strategy only if the rats didn't help.

Well, that's part of why I've got her mentally average and socially just above RussHell.

Definitely the worst ever -- socially. Mentally, she's not bad and physically, she's very good. But socially? Clearly the worst! With the possible exceptions of Dicque and Jun from Season 4(even though I liked Jun), the other winners could run rings around Rachel socially.