David: David is a weird one. Now, he is one of the two biggest characters of the season that contributed the most to the storylines and was also one of the most complex and well-developed figures of the cast. I have always been a fan and have argued he should have won the series. I now retract that statement entirely and it is actually David who I associate my lack of memory the most with for this season. I do not remember his arc leading him to such a negative demise. In the beginning, he is very likeable with his coming out scene (which I strongly believe is what kept him alive for 99 days) and was edited with such positivity. However, in the first month or so you can see how out of place he feels in the cast and is nominated a decent amount for being quiet and is said to avoid conversation. It is lucky for him that he came out on the show as it carried him through nominations very easily. Come the entrance of the intruders in the second month and David starts to appear happier to have someone to relate to and it allowed him to feel more comfortable in the house to shine through. Although this is also the point where his friendship with Camilla begins its decline and once Rob is replaced by Darren as David’s friend, he starts to really show his ugly side. Firstly, his crush on David was super creepy to me and I think befriending Darren did worse than any good for him, as it perpetuated his self-inflicted isolation within the group. His argument with Perry and then with the females unleashed a very condescending, sensitive and irrational side to him that I did not like. I don’t like watching someone talk down to younger people and proclaiming their morals to be of superior value and that everyone should do as he does and think as he does and respect that he has been through more than they have.
He was very clearly hung up about his sexuality and fair enough, it’s just he let it define him for a lot of the series and almost seemed to use it as a way to declare himself to be worthy of sympathy from the others. Now it would have been extremely hard to come out at his age compared to myself who was 13. He had a lot he wanted to express and talk about with others that he had bottled up for a while and that I get, but the man never let other people also be victims and needed to remind them all how young and inexperienced at life they are, which I found to be incredibly dismissive. I don’t want to generalize those who live in the country or regional towns, but he seemed to be so out of touch with society and general youth which caused a lot of social barriers for him. He wasn’t able to correctly deal with conflicting opinions that went against his own beliefs or morals and was such an overly sensitive person who thought too highly of himself which caused arguments to get overly nasty. Something as small as an argument about hygiene had him being incredibly condescending so unnecessarily just because he had a different opinion. I really hate condescending behaviour and when people have this holier than thou attitude. It made it really difficult for me to like him in the latter half because of his behaviour. I think he was struggling with having bottled up his sexuality for a long time, as well as not being used to these sorts of social situations and throwing in the general psychological torture that is Big Brother and that is what caused him to act the way he did
I think Bree said it right on Friday Night Live in regards to his reigning popularity despite his sooky-la-la-ness, and that is due to the sympathy of his coming out. From that moment to his eviction, he was consistently one of if not the most popular housemates with the audience and regardless of how he acted he was always going to be protected. In any other series had any other housemate behaved like him they would have been evicted, but he lucked out with sympathy which essentially guaranteed him a top 3 spot. I’m happy he didn’t win, in a way I am also glad he didn’t make the finale. I don’t think he deserved to win despite his contribution to the show. Although, Is he a notable housemate and possible legendary housemate? It’s arguable, yes. I at least appreciate that he is not stereotypically “gay” and that an LGBT representative on the show was someone who people was deemed “straight-acting” which would show people that not all of us are what we’re made out to be like in the media. His reunion with Sharif was cute and did make me cry a little, maybe I’m being too harsh on him and his experience with sexuality really did cause him a lot of mental anguish. I am unphased about him being on BB2022, I feel like unless he has done some growing in the last 16 years, I don’t think he’ll be able to adapt to the strategy side of the show and would be too stuck to his morality. I guess we will find out soon.
Camilla: And now to talk about the rightful winner of BBAU 2006. For most of my rewatch, my opinions have been somewhat the same if not slightly changed, but Camilla is the first person who has completely warped my brain. She is an entirely different character from what I remembered and I can’t believe I have spent so long dismissing her as a great runner-up and great all-time housemate. She used to irritate me greatly and I was one of those who claimed her survival to be achieved through sympathy from the turkey slap. How wrong I was. She starts off very argumentative, abrupt, straight to the point and it’s all very in your face and a bit much. It looked like she was someone who always had to get her way, didn’t like other’s opinions, spoke at people rather than with them, had to turn everything into an argument was just plain and simply a difficult person to warm to. Had I not known the eviction order beforehand I would have bet my last dollar she would have been evicted when Anna went. I would even argue she was dangerously close to being evicted in the first week had the revenge room twist not happened. Looking back, the twist managed to prevent Anna and Camilla from being the first two to be evicted so that is a positive I suppose.
I cannot pinpoint when it is exactly, I started to like her or what it is that made me like her, but I just recall thinking about a month or so in, wow, this girl is so young and yet she is so level headed when she makes her point clear and whatever she says to people she says to their face. In a very bitchy house, especially in the early weeks, she was one of the few who would speak her mind directly to someone as well as behind their back rather than just the latter. She was the catalyst for many storylines and arguments, and funnily enough, she handled them all the best. She brought such a huge amount of entertainment to the show and I have learnt to really appreciate her. The turkey slap did seem to offer her some sympathy but not really anything permanent. She was wildly popular in the popularity polls before the incident had occurred and her save graphs were getting higher and higher (I’m guessing) as the weeks went on. I feel sorry for her that she is remembered for such a horrible reason and I hate that that’s how her experience is cemented as in BBAU lure. Given how often the turkey slap appears again in media she probably faces remembering this quite often still to this day. But as a character I think turkey slap or not, she would have made the finale regardless. It was time for a woman to win again and the fact she didn’t really does suck.
The fact that the woman was nominated 11 of 13 times and faced 11 public votes is pretty insane. 64 nomination points is an insane amount yet she coped extremely well and was self-aware enough to acknowledge she was hard to live and was able to carry on. I think that’s the main reason why I like her, how real and self-aware she was and how she didn’t regret things she said and instead owned them. She was highly complex about her insecurities and I appreciate the raw moments of weakness she offered but was able to climb up again and kept fighting. I am shocked with the complete turnaround in opinion I have of her from this rewatch, this just goes on to show that with age opinions can change and there is still so much I am yet to watch with an older mindset. The series would not have been the same without her and had an all-stars been done around this point I would have loved to have seen her return.