The compressed nomination-veto-eviction schedule piled into Saturday's (Sept. 4) "Big Brother 5" may have made for tension within the house, but since the episode is tape-delayed more than the Olympics were, those of us not paying for the live Internet feed or reading message-board spoilers are playing catch-up.

On the plus(?) side, though, two evictions this week means two chances for Julie Chen to bear her Shoulders of Righteousness to the viewing public, tonight in a black top missing a few large cutout sections. She informs us that a regular week of game play will be smooshed into this episode, and I have to say, the hour does go by a little faster than normal.

If only CBS could adopt this approach for the entire run of the show. Sigh.

The post-boot recap of Adria's departure features some choice words between her and Marvin as she leaves, with our man calling the twin out for calling people liars when her entire presence in the game was built on a falsehood. We're gonna miss that guy when he leaves (hint, hint). Karen also admits that she threw the Head of Household game, giving Drew the power.

For his trouble, Drew gets a nice letter from his folks and twin brother, Ben. Marvin says he's bummed because "his letter was twice as good as mine."

We see some footage of Drew and Diane blowing up their relationship a little more, apparently over the fact that Marvin kissed Diane (pretty innocently, to my eyes) the other night. It's pretty clear Marvin did that just to get a rise out of Drew, but Diane feels the brunt of it, sending her on yet another crying jag.

Drew's head games continue at the nomination ceremony, where he puts his house-girlfriend up for eviction with Marvin. He mumbles something about trust to explain Diane's nomination, further confusing the blonde-streaked Kentuckian.

Diane then repeatedly asks him "You don't trust me, yes or no?," which might as well be "Do these jeans make me look fat?" Drew can't win with either answer, and wisely opts not to respond. He does reveal, however, that he has auteur tendencies, saying he didn't tell Diane he was nominating her ahead of time because he wanted to get a natural reaction from her. Given Diane's utter inability to self-edit, it almost seems like a good idea.

Prior to the veto competition, a skeeball/pop-a-shot sort of game, Diane tells Cowboy, Karen and Nakomis to "bleed" for the veto, and promises that she won't use it if she wins. "I don't want anyone up beside [Marvin] but me," she says.

That's put to test when she wins the competition, prompting this fantastic Marvin line: "Your boy ain't as dead as fried chicken yet, but the grease is gettin' real hot, and my ass is gettin' close to it."

At the veto ceremony, Diane swiftly breaks her word and saves herself, casting "a shadow of doubt" about her integrity with Karen and Nakomis. Drew puts Nakomis up for eviction in Diane's place, but Marvin sees the end coming for him.

"For me to stay in the game, it's going to take and act of God and an act of Congress," Marvin says. Alas, God is busy watching over Brandon and Nicole on "The Amazing Race," and Congress is on its Labor Day recess.

Prior to the eviction vote, Marvin tells his housemates that he's hoping to get a sitcom deal from CBS out of his time on the show, something we'd favor (hey, it couldn't be worse than "Baby Bob"). Predictably -- even for those of us who didn't check the message boards -- he's booted by a 3-0 vote.

He actually seems a little relieved to be out of the house -- who wouldn't be? -- but that sitcom deal probably goes out the window when he flirts with Julie. Her boyfriend, CBS boss Les Moonves, probably won't like that.

We end our action-packed (by this show's standard, anyway) hour with another Head of Household game, the annual "guess what's gone from the house" challenge. For a while, it looks like Cowboy might finally win a competition, but his half-sister Nakomis edges him out on the final question and wins the position for a third time.

We can't help but believe that Marvin would have something entertaining to say about the game's outcome, but he's gone, and the "Big Brother" house will be all the more boring for it in these last couple weeks.