I don't know if she had a choice but to vote out Candice and Jessie, unfortunately she could not garner enough votes to keep them. She is only one player and not a Miracle Worker. She can only do so much to protect others. But when she first had the chance to vote out Amanda instead of Howard, she should have quickly jumped at that chance. Remember she did seriously consider it, but concluded that it was too early to get rid of Amanda. She had rounded up the votes to get rid of Amanda, but told her camp that they had to wait until Amanda was put on the block a second time by the MVP. She made this decision even though she acknowledged that Amanda going on the block a second time might not happen, especially if Howard was the MVP like she suspected. This bad decision started her downfall. Because when Amanda went on the block the second time, Helen was unable to get the votes needed to evict her. So she had to go along with the "house" in evicting Candice, Judd and Jessie. But she didn't panic because she thought she would be comfortable in her alliance until the Final 5. Little did she know that Andy was reporting her every action to McManda and, unlike Helen, they would waste little time in getting her nominated for eviction.