Is a pinky swear legally binding? Does it carry the same weight as, say, a written contract, or even a handshake? After all, a handshake involves four more digits per person, plus the palm, so that seems more valid.

These are the questions hanging over the "Big Brother 5" house in Saturday's (Aug. 21) episode, which picks up after Will's eviction and Nakomis' second win in the Head of Household competition.

Nakomis is peeved, describing Adria's tie-breaking vote to boot Will as "100 gallons of oil on my already raging fire." She has a way with words, that one. The always quotable Marvin calls himself "the black David Copperfield" after his latest escape, which was especially surprising for him since he thought Will was a decoy nomination.

Fence-sitter Diane has, for now, cast her lot with Nakomis and Karen, causing a small rift between her and cuddle-buddy Drew (how yawn-worthy is this relationship, by the way? It almost makes you miss Jase and Holly. Almost). But 10 minutes later we get a make-out montage -- neither one thinks the other's a good kisser -- so that thread goes nowhere.

Adria, meanwhile, is trying to figure out what Will meant with his karma comment as he left the house. She's not sure what the word means -- "Did he mean Karma [sic] Electra?" she asks her sister. We wait for her to bust up laughing at her joke, but she never does, and not, apparently, because she's being deadpan.

The gang gets all excited at the start of the food competition, which is a speed-eating contest made up of each player's favorite meal. Blended into smoothie form. Blech. For each person that finishes his or her drink, the house gets to eat real food for one day in the next week.

Marvin, whose meal is fried lobster and shrimp and steamed oysters, is the only one who can't gulp his down, partly because the blender doesn't do so well on the various shellfish parts. For my money, Drew's downing of a filet mignon-baked potato-broccoli-apple pie-beer smoothie is the most impressive feat.

The show spins its wheels for a while -- Marvin has smelly feet! Michael looks goofy doing aerobics! --leading up to the nomination ceremony, where the only suspense is whether Nakomis will put both twins up for eviction or pick someone else to go alongside Adria. Natalie and Adria plead their cases separately. Nakomis listens politely but pretty much discards everything they say.

"This week it's an eye for an eye, a pinky for a pinky," she says. There's a certain symmetry to all this talk of chopping off fingers, since it was Nakomis who launched the "six-finger" plan to get rid of Jase two weeks ago. The hand is on the other foot now, to paraphrase Lt. Frank Drebin.

Nomination time finally comes, and Nakomis does indeed choose both Adria and Natalie, leaving the twins to fight for the veto. Blood is thicker than water and all that, but we'll have to wait and see see if it transcends the little gold-plated "No" symbol as well.