Disappointed Matthew left. I think a few things conspired against him this week to help him out of the house. There are obviously people who don't like him and would have voted him out on that basis, but then there were other factors that came into play, IMO.
- Ash pulled his head in and also got a good edit by being the main murderer in the assassin task.
- Helen also got a good edit with the clown task, albeit at the end of the voting cycle, so that would have reduced the 'guilt by association' vote a little bit. Plus there would be some sympathy for her being excluded from the girls' nomination planning meetings, as well as Ashleigh lying about the final-decision discussion.
- Ashleigh conspired to get Ash out so some people wanted to keep him in to thwart her plans. This will be Ash fans, but also people who are sick of all the bad behaviour in the house and were therefore not impressed by seeing more of it, this time from Ashleigh (Ashleigh would have won more fans responding to Helen and Ash's cattiness with grace and dignity rather than lies and backstabbing, particularly when at the same time Helen was showing more maturity and vulnerability than we've seen from her before).
- All that said, if you wanted to save Ash this week, the only logical think to do was to vote for Matthew as Mark and Winston weren't going anywhere.
None of these things had anything to do with Matthew but I reckon they all played a part.
I hate to admit it but a very small part of me is glad Ash didn't go. I am not a fan of Ash, he has been a bit mean with flippant comments to HMs, but my main reason for not liking him much is how he spoke to Helen about making sure he got saved. It was almost threatening, and I think he has a scary streak in him. He seems to think he is entitled to whatever he wants, and can be quite nasty about getting it. That said, I think Helen still needs his support for a little while longer. Helen is a gobsmackingly horrible person at times, but she is damaged and damaged people often sabotage themselves, so I feel sorry for her. She needs some help. My heart broke for her a fortnight or so ago when she spoke to Ash about the Rooney scandal (without mentioning names) and she said Ash's friends will tell him to steer clear of her. The poor girl feels so diminished in people's eyes and she is full of shame and self-loathing, and lashes out. She needs some love and respect, but makes it almost impossible to get that with the way she behaves. So I was thinking that Ash would help her feel comfortable, after all, he knows she was a 'working girl' but hasn't distanced himself from her. Although long term I think Helen would be better off with a more decent friend ... but baby steps.