Melody Morris: The comp flop of BB28. For two months, Melody has faced the brunt of the jokes this season. Every day, some creative Twitter user would post a new joke about Melody having zero comp wins. Even her own stan accounts joined in on the joke, with one making a graphic of Melody’s cast photo and the text “Zero Comp Wins” under it.
Now, those jokes can be laid to rest, as Melody won not one, but two competitions during double eviction week. With those two wins, she has drastically changed the trajectory of the endgame, but maybe not how she intended.
The Week’s Strategy
With Dee and Devens both somehow surviving Barrett’s revenge tour, coming out of it with more allies than they had before, all three members of F.A.P are in serious trouble. Drew or Melody need to win the next HOH competition or it is almost guaranteed that F.A.P will lose another member. Yash is also gunning for the HOH, wanting to burn the deal he made with Dee and thinking this would be the best opportunity to do so. He has F.A.P as three easy nominees and has ample opportunity to target the icons afterward. In a time-based HOH competition, Yash sets the time to beat with a time of 11:21 minutes. After Melody quite literally wipes out and Drew does abysmally at the competition, Yash becomes the new HOH.
As soon as Yash won HOH, it was already set in his mind that he would nominate Barrett, Drew, and Melody. Because of Dee’s bribe preventing him from nominating Dee and Devens, his only other option would have been Taylor, his closest ally. Despite the icons exposing the extent of the bribe during week 9, Yash decides to still lie about it. He tells Barrett that he can’t nominate Dee because of the bribe, but that he’s not nominating Devens because of a handshake. Barrett does not believe this one bit, now regretting being so loyal to Yash during his HOH reign. None of F.A.P. is surprised when they see all three of their faces on the memory wall.
It is a must win veto for Drew, who is Yash’s primary target and will go home if he’s still on the block on Thursday night. It is time for the famous Pressure Cooker! Or at least, a variation of it that production is for some reason rebranding the Pressure Cooker as. Dee and Devens get picked to play in the veto alongside Yash and the three nominees. It is set to be a long endurance challenge. Dee is the first to drop after 4 hours, followed by Melody about an hour later! When Devens drops after nearly 10 hours, it is down to Yash, Drew, and Barrett. The HOH, his primary target, and his secondary target. Barrett looks incredibly uncomfortable, having to hunch his back due to his height. Drew is falling asleep out of boredom. And Yash is sick as he’s competing! It is going to be a grueling showdown. Barrett drops next, narrowing the veto down to the two biggest enemies in the game. Drew is desperately trying to distract Yash by yelling, but he is not budging. It is nearly 3 A.M. when Drew and Yash work out a deal. Drew promises to Yash that he will vote out whoever he wants and never target or vote out Yash if he lets him win the veto. To a tired, sick Yash, this deal is enticing. After a lot of consideration, Yash accepts the deal and drops, meaning Drew has won the POV! However, unlike Dee, Drew has very little reason to actually follow through on his deal with Yash…
Melody tries convincing Drew to use the veto on her, but he never even considers it for a second. Drew saves himself from the block, and Taylor goes up in his place as the only viable nominee. Barrett and Melody are now in a lot of danger with Drew off the block. Barrett jumps up to primary target, while Melody is the secondary target, going home if Barrett wins the blockbuster. Yash and Taylor float keeping Barrett over Melody, but know that Dee and Devens would never agree to that. Instead, they just hope that Barrett wins the blockbuster so Dee and Devens will be forced to vote Melody out.
When the final blockbuster of the season turns out to be a skill-based table maze, it’s looking like lights out for Melody. Taylor has not proven to be effective in those kinds of comps and Barrett’s HOH win involved balls, just like the table maze. While Taylor does fail to get a single ball in, both Barrett and Melody get the hang of it. At first, they are neck and neck, but Melody clutches and is able to run away with it, securing her safety. Unfortunately, she knows it’s the end for Barrett, her closest ally at this point in the game. Barrett knows it too and wants to go for fastest exit in BB history. After he is evicted in a 3-1 vote, he makes a good attempt, but falls short of the record.
Barrett Pfeiffer: The Unexpected Icon Slayer
In the first weeks of Big Brother 28, if you had told me that Barrett would be less loyal to the icons than Drew, I would not have believed you. He just seemed to be so close to Dee in those first weeks and it seemed like he would have done anything for her. But then, after Mallory’s backdoor, it was like a lightbulb went off in his head. He actively began planning how to undermine the icons, but he kept on getting screwed over by the blockbuster results. When he won HOH, he made the big swing everyone had been waiting for, nominating all three of the icons. Unfortunately, Angela, the least dangerous icon, ended up going home due to brilliant gameplay from Dee. And his big move ultimately backfired on him this week, Dee and Devens set to get revenge on him. It was a bold play though and much respect to him for going through with it.
The Double Eviction: Fall of a Frontrunner
As has been precedent, it’s time for double eviction night! The final six will become final five over the course of one hour. It’s kind of a shame, since the final six round is such a fascinating week. It’s the start of the endgame. The true frontrunners become clear by this point. However, it’s been blitzed over for most of the new era. Luckily, this double eviction is one of the more exhilarating ones of recent years, with the three biggest front runners all having to fight for their life.
It’s the classic “What the Bleep” comp to decide the double eviction HOH. In yet another clutch win, Melody wins the competition and becomes the new HOH! In one night, she’s gone from laughing stock to x2 comp winner! Melody is not going to let her chance at making a big move slip. Barrett may not have been able to get one of the former Survivor players out, but she fully intends to. Melody nominates Dee and Devens for eviction, putting them in yet another life or death situation.
The veto competition is a simple puzzle. Devens blitzes through the veto comp, winning in under a minute and saving himself from eviction for the third week in a row! Unfortunately, he may have just sealed the fate of his partner in crime, Dee.
Melody now needs to scramble for a replacement nominee. Taylor and Yash scramble to make sure that Drew is that replacement. They tell Melody that she needs to nominate Drew because if she doesn’t, he’ll vote with Devens to keep Dee. However, Melody is very hesitant to nominate Drew, as, despite everything he’s done, he is still her closest ally and friend left. She breaks the news to Taylor and Yash that she’s going to nominate Yash. They are now freaking out, while Dee and Devens corner Drew and desperately try to make sure Drew will vote with them. Julie is frustrated as she has to yell at Dee, Devens, and Drew to come to the living room in order to stay on schedule. Devens uses the veto on himself and Melody names Yash as the replacement.
Dee and Yash are now the final nominees, arguably the two biggest threats to win it all. Dee has her #1 Devens voting to keep her, and Yash has his #1 Taylor voting to keep him. It all comes down to Drew. Will he finally prove that he is not the icons’ lapdog?
The vote is 1-1, Drew is the last houseguest to vote. He hesitates (or pretends to) about his vote, before finally casting his vote to evict Yash and giving an evil smile to the camera. By a vote of 2-1, Yash is evicted in 6th place and the two Survivors are still in the fight for $750,000.
Winner Watch: Dee Survives the Double
There have now been two opportunities to vote out Dee, a Survivor winner, and the houseguests have kept her both times. It is amazing that she was yet again put in so much danger during the double eviction. Just last week, she had told everyone that she was coming after Drew, yet, he was somehow the deciding vote to keep her during the double. The hold that Dee has over the game is undeniable and with Yash gone, I think this is her game to lose. Her only threat is her closest ally, Devens. I’m willing to bet she’ll be able to outplay him though.
Player of the Week: Melody Morris
This is mainly based off of Melody winning two competitions after not winning anything all season. I take back everything I said about her last week. Her ultimate move to send Yash home and failing to get either of the Survivors out this week is controversial, but I’m going to defend her. Yash was such a big threat to win the whole game. He’s amazing in competitions and unfortunately for Melody, she was not in his endgame plans. If she couldn’t get a Survivor out, getting Yash out is the next best thing. Given what we know now, Dee wants to keep Melody and maybe even take her to the final 2. Her still being in the game over Yash is good for Melody. I feel like a lot of people are too blinded by their love for Yash to look at this move objectively.
Flop of the Week: Drew Campbell
It is hard to fathom how Drew kept Dee in the game. She literally told everyone that she was coming after Drew and his F.A.P. allies. Yet, he seems content with playing for second and just hoping that Dee or Devens drag him to the end. Even after Drew saved Dee’s BB life, she still talked about needing him gone next not even an hour after the double was over. Whether or not Yash being evicted is good for Drew’s game is up for debate. But the bottom line is that he is not playing to win $750,000, he’s playing to win $75,000.
Yash Patel: Skullet Master
What a wild journey it’s been with Yash. I was not his biggest fan when the preseason interviews came out. I had little hope that he would have any ability for the game. I assumed he would be all about the comps, but completely disregard strategy and sociability. He proved me wrong though. After a rough start, being nominated week 1, Yash laid low for a while. Then, he won HOH in week 6 and his game started. His HOH ended poorly, with his main man Kamu being evicted due to the DPOV, but that was arguably not his fault. He still established himself as a strong player and gained Lala and Taylor as close allies. He saved himself by taking Dee’s bribe during her HOH reign, even if that wasn’t a good deal for him. It allowed him to make it another week. He then risked his entire game to make sure Haley went home in the year 1000 twist. It takes a lot of guts to do what he did. He steamrolls the veto during Drew’s HOH to stay safe, but loses Lala. Then, his two mistakes come. First, not evicting Dee was a massive blunder. She was his biggest threat to take the crown from him and he kept her. His second mistake was that deal with Drew, which Drew clearly never intended to follow through on. I get that he was sick, but he should have made sure that Drew was still sitting on the block come Thursday night. Still a great game from Yash though. I have yet to come around to the skullet, but I have come around to the most chill, laid back guy on BB28.
“In the words of Mallory Aurichio, f*ck the icons.”- Barrett Pfeiffer
“The winner of the BB Blockbuster is… Drew!” “The winner of the BB Blockbuster is… Devens!” For two weeks, Barrett’s plans to show his cards and get revenge on the icons have fallen short. Then, a strike of luck comes from a St. Patrick’s day inspired HOH competition. He becomes the new HOH. He is not going to let this opportunity go to waste, and nominates all three icons. Then, Yash wins the iconic BB Comics competition and the Power of Veto. When he decides not to use it, it is guaranteed that an icon is finally going home! As long as Angela doesn’t go home, Barrett’s revenge plan will have worked to perfection. Unfortunately though: “By a vote of 3-2, Angela, you are evicted from the Big Brother House.”
The Week’s Strategy
Barrett’s nominations are straight forward. He’s nominating the three icons to both avenge Mallory and make a big move that will help him win in the end. The icons try to make sure that at least one of them isn’t nominated by exposing Yash’s deal with Dee to Barrett. Unluckily for them, this only makes Barrett want to nominate all of them more, given how well insulated they are with that deal. His main targets are Devens and Dee, with Angela being nominated due to guilt by association.
With his nominations, Barrett officially kills the Crossovers. The longest-surviving alliance of the season has dissolved. Although Drew still wants to work with the icons for some reason, they are done with both him and Barrett. Before the veto draw, Barrett and Drew talk about using the veto on Angela for the fun of it and nominating Yash. Barrett tells Drew he would pick him for the veto, despite telling Yash he would pick him for the veto. Barrett hopes that he just won’t have to pick someone, but his veto chip seems to have magical powers, as he draws it and has to choose someone. He picks Yash, not wanting nominations to change after all. Drew is pissed at Barrett, claiming if he didn’t want Drew to use the veto, he could have just told him. I personally believe he would have used the veto on an icon no matter what, though.
Yash wins the veto and it is a clear-cut decision that he is not going to use it. With nominations locked in, the voting scenarios look clear. Devens will be evicted unless he wins the Blockbuster. If he does win, then Dee will go home instead. Angela would be way easier to beat later down the road than the two Survivors, so there’s no reason to get rid of her right now. Right? Well, that would be the case if Dee wasn’t a master at these social-strategy games…
All week long, Dee has made it clear to everyone in the house that if she survives, she will go after Barrett and Drew. She wants nothing more than for their games to burn. It starts to have an effect on Yash and Taylor, a duo in the middle of two trios. Dee is one of the better competitors in the house, so if she is truly going after Barrett and Drew no matter what, why get rid of her? That’s Taylor and Yash’s logic at least. Dee really sells the deal, pitching a final four alliance between Dee, Devens, Taylor, and Yash. It works! At least, it works in saving Dee. Taylor and Yash still want Devens gone if he’s on the block. Fortunately for Devens, he wins the Blockbuster. Dee calls out all of F.A.P in her final pleas to seal the deal. Devens, Taylor, and Yash all vote to evict Angela.
The BB Comics Ranked
We’ve got 17 new BB comics to take a look at, so let’s quickly rank them all. I’ll give my quick thoughts on each comic as I go down the list.
17. Barrett: The Austin Gangler
They did Barrett so dirty with this comic. All of the body hair, all of his bones visible. What is Production’s problem with Barrett?
16. Melody: The Lady of the Latrine
This one is just lazy. They copy & pasted her time capsule punishment (which she wasn’t even the first to wear!) and called it a day. Nothing about her screaming? Or anything even slightly more interesting?
15. Lala: The Tongue Thrasher
Lala won two competitions. One is the iconic wall comp, which she won in even more iconic fashion. The other is a bizarre fitness competition involving tongues. You really chose the latter for her BB comic?
14. Kamu: The Mixed Martial Artist
Kamu is just a normal guy in this comic? This may be the most normal BB comic of all time. It’s completely inoffensive, but also really boring.
13. Angela: The Eggsecutioner
Just like Melody’s comic, Angela’s is based off her time capsule punishment (once again, she wasn’t the first to wear that!). Unlike Melody’s, though, this one has way more personality, which gives it a small boost.
12. Chuk: Chuk Wagon
Given how boring Chuk was in his time in the Big Brother house, there was very little that the producers had to work with. They went with the boring Cowboy comic, but the “Welcome to Dull City” is an amazing touch.
11. Lyric: The One Hit Wonder
It’s a joke about her dad being a one-hit wonder. Could have been higher with a cool design, but the design is as basic that retro can get.
10. Devens: Diamond Devens
Devens’ entire body is made of diamond and he looks badass soaring next to fighter jets. There’s not much else to say, it simply looks pretty cool.
9. Haley: The Flanimal
Haley was always wearing that red flannel every chance she got. What really carries her comic though is the “She’s having a plaid week!” tagline. Love production giving a nod at one of the funniest ongoing jokes this summer.
8. Rome: The Rome-ancer
Love the Lyric cameo on Rome’s comic. Rome’s comic feels like a fever dream. He defends his ship from pirates with pickleballs somehow and has Lyric right behind him. I don’t know if I’m missing anything, but it’s perfect either way.
7. Drew: Rebel Without a Comb
Love that production made a joke about him losing his beloved comb. Also love that they had to show the segment from two weeks ago of Taylor taking his comb in order for casuals to understand the comic! Production, as usual, always plans ahead.
6. Dee: The Dee-stroyer
It is a fitting comic, given Dee has flipped votes at the last minute and betrayed allies for no reason just for the fun of it! The “Dee’s nuts” joke wouldn’t be as funny if Dee seemingly didn’t understand it until the others explained it to her.
5. Ashley: Burger Kong
Given Ashley’s short stay in the house, there wasn’t much they could do for her comic. They had to make it about the fact she hadn’t ever eaten a burger until she was in the BB house. It shouldn’t work, but for some reason this one just clicks with me.
4. Jason: Heavy Kettle
Nobody loves tea more than Jason! I love the concept and think that it was executed very well. It could be higher if something didn’t feel off about Jason’s face.
3. Mallory: Pipe Queen
It was just a given. Mallory’s BB Comic had to be the Pipe Queen. Nothing else would have felt right. She looks menacing on her throne of pipes in her Eve & Eve costume.
2. Yash: The Skullet
Just like his Zing, Yash’s comic also had to be about his “unique” hairstyle. I’ve got to admit, it’s growing on me! Him putting people in a trance as he gives them his signature Skullet is amazing.
1. Taylor: Pod Almighty
I’ve got to admit, I don’t know how I feel about Taylor being the first person production calls out for bed rotting. She is nowhere near the first to do it in the BB house. Ignoring that, though, the artist did a great job and she looks badass in her comic. No matter how bad production tries to make her look, she’s always amazing.
Winner Watch + Player of the Week: Dee’s Comeback
I’m gonna combine both of these segments because, let’s face it, Dee was far and away the best player this week. Everyone else was either in danger or made a potentially detrimental mistake for their game. Dee, however, was able to come out of this week in an amazing position. She lost her best friend, Angela, but she now has a solid and united four person alliance! I didn’t even mention the Ceasefire alliance between the newbies in my strategy recap because it fell apart before it even started. Sure, she lost Angela, but Devens is a bigger target than her and he’s still in the game! After giving up hope for a bit, I am once again seeing a reality where Dee wins BB28.
Flop of the Week: Melody Morris
I’ve been a Melody fan for most of the season, but I feel like I’m losing hope in her. She showed promise early on, but every time I see an update from her, it’s her complaining to Barrett and Drew. She’s isolating herself. Even worse, she’s isolating and attaching herself to a sinking ship! I can no longer see a world where she wins the game. She might not even win a competition!
Angela Murray: The Woman Who Saved Big Brother
I’m sorry, I will never stop loving Angela. BB25 felt like a low point for the series. That season dragging on for so long and having the worst possible outcome happen almost every week was so demoralizing. The competitions were so unbalanced, hugely favoring young athletic guys. When BB26 was about to start, I entered hesitantly. I prepared myself for the worst possible outcome to happen every single week again. Then, a miracle happened. Angela, a 50-something year old woman, won the first HOH competition and gave us one of the most iconic BB moments of all time: Crazy Eyes! Just like that, I fell back in love with the show and the pain BB25 caused me washed away.
I was so excited to see Angela return this season, and she may have disappointed a lot of people, but not me! I still loved watching her play her heart out. Although she did not have a moment more iconic than Crazy Eyes (that was once in a lifetime!), her winning the Blockbuster in week 6 is one of my season highlights, for sure. I’d love to watch Angela play on every Big Brother season!
The Crossovers have somehow stuck together the entire season against all odds. Despite Dee and Angela being eager at multiple points throughout the season to send Drew packing (Dee even nominated him!). Despite Dee sending Mallory packing during her second HOH. Despite Drew having every possible reason to turn on the Crossovers. They have made it to the final 10 together and Drew is more loyal than ever. But what about Barrett?
Week 8 of Big Brother 28 is such an odd week. On paper, there is so much happening. The year 1000 twist, the start of the jury stage, Devens almost getting himself evicted. Yet, it’s a mostly mundane and boring week. Barrett’s fully turned on the Crossovers, but we don’t get to see the payoff for that because of another horrible Blockbuster result. It’s yet another disappointing week.
The Year 1000 Twist
For the second year in a row, a redhead has been eliminated by a competition instead of a normal eviction vote. Unlike the White Locust though, the lowest point of Big Brother 27, the Year 1000 twist was just kind of… boring? Of course, Rachel was the main character of BB27 when she got eliminated by the White Locust, while Haley wasn’t that important to the house dynamics. So, while not as atrocious as the White Lotus, much like the White Locust, it still harms the integrity of the game and sets a bad precedent for the future.
The final 10 time travel to the medieval times thinking that they are about to play in the next HOH competition. Instead, when they arrive, they are greeted by Britney Haynes, who tells them that they accidentally killed the King’s favorite hog and now the king wants one of them to pay the price. They will compete in a series of competitions to determine who will be sacrificed. The first is a skill-based stacking comp in which the houseguest who wins will not only earn their own safety, but also a stone of safety and two stones of sacrifice. The stone of safety can be used by anyone to ensure that they survive the night. The stones of sacrifice will force whoever is chosen to compete in a different competition, where one will earn safety and the other will need to continue fighting for their life. Britney explains all of this in the most monotone voice possible, just as sick of production’s antics as most fans.
Dee wins the first competition, which was oddly controversial. People claimed that the producers picked the stacking comp because it was similar to a comp she did on Survivor. However, the Survivor comp was a puzzle and not only that, Dee sucked at that competition! It just seems like people are looking for any opportunity to discredit Dee because they don’t like her. Anyways, despite Angela pleading with Dee that she needs the stone of safety and doesn’t think she’ll do well in the other competitions, Dee gives the stone of safety to Devens to properly thank him for using the diamond veto on her. She also cracks the strategy for the stones of sacrifice. She realizes she should give the stones to her allies so that they’ll have as many chances as possible to save themselves. She gives the two stones to Haley and Drew, since they’re both capable in competitions and would probably give the stone of safety to Angela. Barrett is not pleased the Dee did not pick him despite their connection. With the stones given out, Britney tells everyone except Drew and Haley to head back into the Big Brother house to await the competition winner.
Once back in the house, Lala, Taylor, and Yash realize that they are at a massive disadvantage since neither Drew nor Haley would save them and are clearly working with the icons. Lala especially has a hard time with this. Fortunately, Taylor comforts her and is able to get her head back in the game. Now, to start the second competition, Drew and Haley must complete a different puzzle, in which they must assemble a giant cube out of differently shaped pieces. This competition is hosted by BB23 AFP Tiffany Mitchell. Drew is able to beat out Haley and earn both one stone of safety and one stone of sacrifice. He has to go back to the house and announce to everyone who he will be giving stones to.
Drew comes back with a big decision to make. By voting to evict Mallory, he drew the line in the sand, betraying F.A.P to stick by the icons. Now, Melody and even Barrett are pissed at him while the icons trust him, for now at least. Despite Melody trying to hide her anger at Drew in order to stay safe, Drew decides to dig his own grave further and give Angela the stone of safety. He also gives the stone of sacrifice to Barrett, hoping he’ll be able to survive and all of the Crossovers will be safe.
Barrett goes out to face a sweaty Haley in a balance beam competition. Carry “grapes” from one end of a balance beam to the other using a plastic tube. Cody Calafiore is hosting this challenge, giving his best possible impression of a British voice. Despite having a rough fall at one point, Barrett is able to beat Haley to survive the night. He will be given two stones of sacrifice to give to anyone who hasn’t been chosen yet. Those two people will compete against Haley in one final competition, in which the winner will choose which of their opponents they want to send packing.
Barrett comes back into the house and is being courted by both the icons and the Lala, Taylor, Yash trio. The icons want him to send in Lala and Taylor so that Haley will have the best chance at survival. Yash however, wants to be sent in because he thinks he has the best chance at beating Haley. Barrett has a tough decision to make. Well, not that tough, because he is still hurt that Dee sent his best friend, Mallory, home. It seems that decision is what finally causes Barrett to fully flip sides and become loyal to the other newbies. He picks Yash and Lala to face off against Haley, much to the dismay of his former alliance.
Haley, Lala, and Yash face off in the final competition of the night, hosted by BB27 AFP Keanu Soto! The three houseguests must successfully stack 30 differently shaped pieces to make the king a crown. It is a close showdown between Haley and Yash, but Yash is able to beat Haley and then promptly chooses to send her packing. Unfortunately for Haley, she doesn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to her fellow houseguests.
Haley Thogmartin: Outgoing, Bubbly, and Fun
Haley made it way further than I thought she would, coming just short of the jury stage. I think she would have had longevity if she survived the twist, but I guess we’ll never know. Even if she did make it further, though, I cannot envision her ever winning. Most of the house never really vibed with her, much like I predicted, so I don’t think she could have gotten the votes to win. Nevertheless, I found myself not hating Haley by the end of it. She had a lot of frustrating moments, especially at the beginning, but she was also unintentionally funny. Her always complaining about having a hard week, her face during the Lyric blindside, her describing herself as outgoing, bubbly, and fun. She provided a lot of entertainment throughout the season even if she wasn’t always likeable. The Thog will be missed.
Strategy Throughout the Rest of the Week
Zingbot comes to visit the houseguest, slightly earlier than expected. After roasting all of them, he uses the Time Machine Table to change the past, leading to the HOH competition. The houseguests are competing in a booth competition, answering true/false questions about Zingbot’s adventures in the past. It comes down to a tiebreaker between Drew, Melody, and Yash. Yash throws the tiebreaker because of his deal with Dee, meaning Drew and Melody are the only two trying to win. Drew is unfortunately able to beat out Melody, making him the new HOH.
Drew’s game plan is simple. He wants to stay loyal to the Crossovers at all costs. He also wants to prove to Melody that she can actually trust him. That leaves an easy three nominations of Lala, Taylor, and Yash. There is a lot of talk about the potential renom, though. The icons all want Drew to nominate Melody, but they know that Drew might be hesitant to do that. So, Devens reluctantly volunteers to be a renom, hoping that it won’t actually happen. Dee correctly calls this a stupid move, but he seems confident that Barrett and Drew will stay loyal.
Yash wins his second veto of the summer, ensuring his safety and messing up Drew’s original plans. Now that it’s looking more likely that Devens will be on the block, the icons try convincing Drew to nominate Melody instead. However, he knows that if he does that, they’ll probably end up flipping the vote on Melody. He tells Melody he’s going to keep her safe no matter what. She still doesn’t trust him though, telling him that if he nominates her, she’s going to ruin his life outside of the game. She also goes up to Drew’s HOH room every night for wine, admitting in the DR that she’s trying to work her magic on him. It seemingly works, as the closest Drew is to nominating someone besides Devens is when he briefly considers nominating Dee for being selfish during her HOH reign. He quickly backs down the second she pushes back on that, though. Once Yash uses the veto, Devens is nominated in his place.
Despite feeling safe, Barrett is ready to flip on the Crossovers and send Devens packing if he loses the blockbuster. Even Dee and Angela contemplate turning on Devens. Angela especially is paranoid that Devens is closer with Barrett and Drew than with her or Dee. That means Devens is in a must win situation in order to stay in the game. As for Taylor and Lala…
Both Taylor and Lala know that they’re safe as long as Devens loses the blockbuster. They are campaigning that much, especially against each other. As a result, the week is mostly boring. In the event that Devens wins the Blockbuster, most of the house would vote out Lala because she is better at competitions than Taylor. At one point, Yash contemplates turning on Taylor if Devens wins the blockbuster, but he never fully goes through with it.
The worst possible outcome happens yet again, and Devens wins the Blockbuster, narrowly beating Taylor. Two weeks now that a blindside has been spoiled by a bad Blockbuster result. It is really disappointing, but I am still not ready to turn against the idea of the Blockbuster. It has led to so many more great moments than moments ruined and makes live evictions way more exciting than they usually are. Two bad results doesn’t change that.
With Devens safe, Lala is evicted in a 4-2 vote, with only Angela and Melody voting to keep her.
How Well did Zingbot do This Season?
On BB27, Zingbot was the best that he had been in years. It felt like the writing crew actually put effort into all of the houseguests’ Zings and there were nearly no misses. On BB28 though, we’re back to mediocrity. None of the Zings besides Drew’s lullaby and Yash’s bad haircut Zing were memorable and it felt like production took a step back. Both Devens and Lala were predictably Zinged about their age, which is both boring and unfunny. Barrett’s Zing about his chest hair and Taylor’s Zing about being boring both felt so uninspired. Maybe BB27 was a once in a lifetime season.
Player of the Week: Barrett Pfeiffer
It is impressive that Barrett has been able to make so many moves to undermine the icons while still having their complete trust. He was able to flip the votes against Drew during Dee’s HOH reign, choose Yash instead of Taylor to battle against Haley, and flip the votes against Devens this week as well. It’s a shame we have not gotten to see the payoff to Barrett’s disloyalty yet, because it’s going to be glorious. Drew even figured out that Barrett would have evicted him over both Mallory AND Taylor and he wasn’t even upset. His social game is great.
Flop of the Week: Rick Devens
It is just an undeniably bad move to volunteer yourself as a pawn, especially if you are a x2 Survivor player with a big reputation. Devens would have gone home if he lost the Blockbuster and he has absolutely no idea. His trust in the Crossovers will be his downfall.
Winner Watch: Dee Loses Her Barrett
For the first half of BB28, it looked like Barrett was by far the most loyal newbie to Dee out of anyone else in the house. Then, she made one fatal mistake. She took Barrett’s loyalty for granted and targeted Mallory while barely even consulting him. That hurt Barrett and made him rethink everything he had been doing up until that point. She clearly doesn’t value his interests, so why should he value hers? He aligns himself with what’s left of Rome’s fallen empire, not even telling Drew. Now, the guy who comforted Dee whenever she needed could be her downfall.
Oh yeah, also, Angela is fun TV, but her paranoia is spreading to Dee and causing her to mistrust even Rick Devens. She definitely should not turn on him unless absolutely necessary.
LaTrice Verrett: Lowkey Competition Beast
Lala did not disappoint at all with her run in the Big Brother house. At first, everyone wrote her off. She did not perform well in most of the early challenges and even her own fellow houseguests wrote her off as an easy player to drag to the end. Then, everything changed when she won the Wall Comp and became the oldest player to ever win it. After that, everyone was forced to take her seriously. She found herself in a new alliance with Kamu, Lala, and Yash, her HOH reign ending with her secondary target, Chuk, going home. Then, Kamu leaves and Dee wins HOH. She’s on the bottom yet again. But, she pulls out another competition win, this time winning a fitness focused veto competition. During the year 1000 twist, all hope is lost when Dee wins the first competition, but she is able to survive despite the odds being stacked so heavily against her. At the final 9, she is heartbreakingly sent packing after a bad Blockbuster result. It was nonetheless an incredible journey and she will do amazing as the mayor of the jury.
People have claimed Big Brother 28 is ruined pretty much every single week, but this time, it may actually be true. Week 7 showed a lot of promise. Dee losing trust in Drew and nominating him for eviction, then regretting it immediately after. Lala winning the veto and shocking the audience once again. Barrett flipping against the Crossovers when he heard Mallory was the replacement nomination. The game actually seeming to shake up, with even Melody agreeing to evict Drew. Then, Drew wins the Blockbuster and it’s all over. To make matters worse, the producers celebrate the 1000th episode by shutting the feeds off for 3 days in order to do another elimination twist that no one asked for. It’s never been more over.
The Week’s Strategy
Dee becomes the first double HOH of the season. Despite being quick on the balance beam, both Barrett and Mallory had opportunities to surpass her score, but threw them away. Decisions they may still regret to this day. The nominations initially seem easy. Nominate Lala, Taylor, and Yash, all of whom were aligned with Kamu and left out of the vote until the last minute. However, Dee still has her bribe ready to be used. She failed to bribe Yash last week, but now, she has all of the leverage. She can just threaten to nominate him unless he takes her bribe.
While Yash is in her HOH room, Dee asks him to keep all of the icons safe the next time he wins HOH for 5k or else she would consider nominating him. Knowing he is in danger and knowing how poorly things turned out last week when he didn’t take the bribe, he accepts. He also has interesting information to report about Drew. It all comes back to the group that was upstairs during Lala’s HOH reign when they talked about targeting the icons (Lala, Barrett, Drew, Melody, Mallory, Taylor, Yash). Yash tells Dee that Drew was one of the people talking about targeting the icons and that he was okay with her being nominated. This just reconfirms Dee’s misplaced mistrust in Drew and is a brilliant play from Yash. When Dee calls Drew and Yash up to the HOH room to defend themselves, Drew largely tries pinning it on Kamu, who is not there to defend himself, while Yash successfully throws Drew under the bus. So, despite Drew’s allegiance being with the icons, he is nominated alongside Lala and Taylor.
Drew is quickly able to get back into the good graces of the icons by fighting with Taylor and Lala at the nomination ceremony. It seems like he is once again safe, with the Moshpit all there to protect him. Then, Lala wins the veto, meaning Dee needs to nominate someone else for eviction. If she wants to stick with the Moshpit, Haley and Yash are the only options. However, she’s trying to rebuild a relationship with Haley and has the bribe with Yash, so she decides it’s time to turn on the Moshpit. Dee could nominate Yash while still having him being forced to uphold his end of the deal, but it seems she wants to have some kind of working relationship with him.
Mallory and Melody have not been spending much time with Dee, or any of the icons, for that matter. The icons have begun to take note and no longer trust them. Also, F.A.P would be a dangerous four-person faction in the jury stage, so Dee decides now is the time to strike. I think that it is the correct move to target Mallory, since she had talked about coming after Dee and Devens. However, Dee does not manage the situation well. She tells Mallory that she’s nominating her because she’s already nominated her before, which pisses Mallory off. She rants in the DR about how Dee is a coward and that she knew she shouldn’t have trusted her. That doesn’t change her fate though, and she is nominated alongside Drew and Taylor.
Barrett has seemingly been the most loyal person to the icons the entire game. However, them nominating Mallory and Drew does not sit right with him. Why even create the Moshpit if this was going to happen only a week later? He does not want Mallory to be evicted, so he changes gears. Drew doesn’t though, scared that any wrong move could have the icons coming after him again. Barrett is frustrated that Drew is so willing to send Mallory home, so instead of Drew being targeted by the icons, he’s about to be targeted by everyone else. Barrett teams up with Yash to make Drew the target again. He tells Mallory and Melody that himself and Drew have been in an alliance with the icons the entire game. He tells them that Drew will always choose the icons over them. It works, and Drew is now going home if he doesn’t win the Blockbuster.
Unfortunately, he wins the Blockbuster. With everyone else looking at Mallory as a bigger competition threat than Taylor, Barrett and Melody are the only two to vote to keep her. Mallory is evicted in a 6-2 vote.
Another Crazy Nomination Ceremony
Drew is desperate to prove to the icons that he is with them. At the nomination ceremony, after Taylor denies ever saying to nominate Dee, Drew calls it a lie and also says Lala said to nominate Devens. At this point, voices are raised and Taylor yells that she was in the shower during that conversation, so how could she have said that? Melody clarifies who was in the room in the DR and also says that everyone was talking about generally targeting the icons while Taylor was showering. Lala claims that she was mainly targeting Devens, but Drew and Melody both claim that she said all of the icons. The conversation is a complete disaster and no one comes out of it looking particularly better. However it does provide for good drama and seemed to signal a promising week. Of course, it’s a shame things turned out as poorly as they did by the end.
Also, Taylor steals Drew’s precious hairbrush and he seemingly never finds it. It is a fun side plot for the week and leads to some fun drama when Taylor thinks Drew touched her stuff.
Player of the Week: Yash Patel
What a quick turnaround. While it initially seems like Yash is theoretically in a bad spot after having taken the BB Bribe, he manages to reverse course. He has the icons now feeling more secure around him while still pushing anti-icon sentiment to the rest of the house. He does great work in orchestrating the failed Drew blindside and now has damning information about Barrett if he ever needs to save himself. If Drew had actually been evicted, he would be in the best spot in the house. Even though the plan failed, he still showed great strategic ability this week.
Flop of the Week: Drew Campbell
This was a rough week for Drew. There should be no reason why the icons are so distrustful of him. yet they constantly are. He gets nominated by one of his closest allies as the target, then takes the target off his back, only to have it back on him by the end. The target coming back onto him is purely because he is so loyal to the icons and scared to make a move against them even though there is plenty of backing to do so. He loses the trust of Mallory, Melody, and even Barrett. It is such a poor showing considering the strong start. Not to mention his other controversies throughout the week, which I do not feel comfortable discussing hear. Worst of all, he got the Never-Not pass from the Time Capsule!
Winner Watch: Dee Valladares
What a weird week from Dee with so many ups and downs. It starts off strong with her winning the HOH and having easy nominations. Then, the deal with Yash is brilliant and probably the best part of her game so far. Everything goes downhill after that though. She targets Drew due to paranoia, then regrets it. The bribe has made Yash a blind spot for her, as she does not suspect all of the work he has put against her this week. In addition, Barrett, who up until this point seemed like her lapdog, turns against her in an attempt to save Mallory. As far as we know, she still doesn’t know that he’s flipped against her. I really don’t know where Dee’s game is going to go from here.
Mallory Aurichio: Pipe Queen
Oh Mallory, my favorite houseguest of the season up until this point. She is gone too soon. I want to focus on the positives, though. She exceeded my expectations, as I did not expect her to have as many relationships as she did. Everyone loved her, but that’s what made her so dangerous. This one hurts, I don’t know how I can watch the rest of the season without her.
Although I said I would focus on the positives, one downside to her game is that she managed her relationship with Dee poorly. She almost never talked to her, even during Dee’s HOH reign. It all stems back to week 1 when Dee nominated her, as it seems Mallory never got over that. It sucks that she got out because of a poor blockbuster result, but unfortunately, she is largely at fault for being nominated in the first place.
Thank you to Morty’s TV for the Live Feed Archives that made this retrospective possible!
The season antagonist, Frank, has been defeated! After a weeks-long struggle to take him down, the remaining houseguests are fragmented. Three separate showmances threaten to dominate the game, Bridgette is now a free agent, Da’Vonne is the next house target, Paulie becomes the new season antagonist and Paul and Victor become challenge powerhouses. While all of this happens, a little snake slowly takes control the game…
Week 6: A Reluctant Backdoor
Paul wins his first HOH of the season. By all accounts, it is a successful HOH reign, with his alliance’s plan to backdoor Da’Vonne working out perfectly. Despite that, Paul’s fatal flaw in the game of Big Brother is exposed here. Along with that, Paulie’s ugly side comes out this week while Victor starts making a name for himself… for the wrong reasons.
Paul initially wants to target Bridgette both due to his personal dislike of her and her physical strength. However, Paulie pushes him to target Da’vonne instead, which he eventually agrees to. At this point in the season, their relationship is at the strongest, having the PP alliance (great name), and pretty much having all of the power in the game. They spend a lot of the week planning for the future and thinking they already have this whole game in the bag, setting them up for a downfall down the road…
Before the nominations, we learn who won America’s first Care Package. It turns out to be Natalie, who wins the Never-Not Pass. Everyone else are being Bitter Betties about this, with Paulie, Paul, and Victor agreeing that Natalie doesn’t deserve it and that she’s just a “floater” (coaster). Victor in particular really hates Natalie, pissed at her goodbye message to him in week 2, where she told him to respect women more. He clearly didn’t learn anything from that, though, as he told Corey that he had a wet dream about Nicole (really uncomfortable instance of foreshadowing), something Corey was mad about for the rest of the week, and told Michelle that it was her choice to gain weight after a bad breakup. Thankfully, he does become more likable in future weeks, but his second week back in the house is rough. Even Paul and Paulie had talked about backdooring him at one point. He only gets saved by winning HOH and then Paulie self-imploding.
Don’t even get me started on Paulie though, because the way he treats Zakiyah this week is absolutely disgusting. He spends all week complaining about Zakiyah to anyone who will listen. He tells Nicole and Corey that she’s “drama central.” He creates a plan with Paul and Victor to nominate Zakiyah with Michelle if one of them win HOH. He tells Paul that he is done with Zakiyah and that she treats him like a lost puppy dog. All the while, he continues cuddling with her and leading her on throughout the week. One day, Zakiyah breaks down to Nicole about feeling stupid because Paulie always has indirect conversations with her despite her being so loyal. Nicole brings this to Paulie’s attention, and he responds by telling her that Zakiyah is playing everyone and throws her under the bus to Nicole. He keeps going on and on about how he caught her in two lies, which are never really properly explained. One is seemingly that she told him she was in a room with only Michelle, but James was also in there napping. It doesn’t even make sense to be mad about that, though, because she very well could have just left him out because he was asleep. At worst, it was just miscommunication. He confronts her about these two ‘lies,’ but she’s just confused at what he’s even talking about. The conversation ends with him leaving her crying alone while he tells everyone else about his point of view. An uncomfortable situation, especially since the two are back to cuddling together just a day later. Despite calling almost every woman in the house emotional and mean, Paulie is the true gaslighter and bully.
Paul nominates Bridgette and Paulie for eviction, with Paulie as the pawn to prevent Bridgette from winning the veto. Paulie wins the veto, setting the stage for a Da’Vonne backdoor. Before the veto meeting, Paul tries convincing Da’Vonne to volunteer herself as a pawn. She gets upset, as she feels that Natalie or Nicole, who volunteered earlier in the week, would be much better pawns. She doesn’t have much of a choice, though, and Paul successfully backdoors her.
Da’Vonne’s campaigning does not go anywhere, unfortunately. The only two people in her corner are Zakiyah and Michelle, who both see Bridgette as the much bigger threat. Although Michelle is still targeting Bridgette, I do want to commend her for admitting she was jealous of Bridgette in a conversation with Da’Vonne. It takes a lot of strength and maturity to admit that. Also, one of the most underrated and funny moments of the season happens this week, when Michelle throws an apple at Paul and then cries thinking she hurt his kidney immediately after. Back to Da’Vonne, the two other vets have abandoned her, and she knows it. James does not give her his word that he will keep her while Nicole had already fully gone against Da’Vonne weeks ago. The two do have a conversation near the end of the week where they seemingly hash things out, though. This conversation left the two with a mutual understanding of where their relationship went wrong and may have helped Nicole earn Da’Vonne’s crucial jury vote. As for Paul, he continually lies to Da’Vonne that she’s just a pawn and he still wants Bridgette gone. Even when she’s already out the door, he still won’t admit it for her. This is a reoccuring problem for Paul that has contributed to his two narrow jury losses. Da’Vonne is evicted in a 6-2 vote, becoming the first member of the jury.
Da’Vonne Rogers: Queen of Confessionals
Da’Vonne was a polarizing personality on BB18. Her treatment of both Tiffany and Bridgette was disappointing to see and I would understand if people don’t like her because of that. But she will always be one of my favorite houseguests and I am so grateful we’ve gotten to see her compete three times. This second appearance provided us with plenty of entertaining moments from her. Her getting her comeuppance on Frank was satisfying and her hilarious confessionals were always a joy to watch. Her relationship with Zakiyah was really heartwarming as well, a shame it went so poorly in the jury house. Speaking of the jury house, the best is yet to come from Da’Vonne, as she both continues to be hilarious and serves justice to Paulie in the jury house.
Week 7: How To Squander a Guaranteed Victory
Paulie had everything he could possibly want in the Big Brother house. Everyone in the house trusted him, he was at the core of the Executives, he had a showmance partner who was extremely loyal to him, and everyone who had targeted him was evicted. Beyond that, he had been given tips by his brother Cody and BB16 winner Derrick Levasseur on how to dominate the game. He had the help and allies necessary to cruise his way to the end. And he ruined it all by simply being a jerk.
Week 7 is such a fascinating week to watch unfold from the endurance comp to start out the week to the close 3-2 vote to send Zakiyah out. Yet, it’s also frustrating to watch Paulie’s behavior continue to get worse throughout the week Let’s start from the beginning, as the final 10 must stand on swinging discs for as long as possible to become the next HOH. After a grueling hour, the last four remaining are Natalie, Paulie, Victor, and Zakiyah. Once Zakiyah falls, Paulie follows almost immediately after. He reveals in the DR that he threw the challenge, as he felt that he would be safe under either a Natalie or Victor HOH. In doing this, he does not consider the feelings of his supposed showmance Zakiyah, who starts crying behind the competition set while Paulie lies emotionless. The perfect showmance. From here, it will only become better.
The showdown between Victor and Natalie is intense. Both of them want to win so badly. Natalie begs and pleads with Victor to strike some kind of deal, but he tells her that she has to earn it. Eventually, once she realizes she’s about to fall, Natalie asks Victor if he’ll nominate her, and he responds “absolutely not.” Once Natalie falls, instead of immediately celebrating his win, Victor consoles Natalie and protects her from the trolls hitting her with foam clubs. Despite the two’s complicated history, in this moment, Victor displays kindness. Paulie could have learned something from him, as he couldn’t even display kindness to his own SHOWMANCE.
Anyways, Victor is the new Head of Household! With Michelle and Zakiyah as the only two not in on the Da’vonne eviction, they are the next two targets. In his HOH room, Victor hypes up his nomination speech to Paul and Paulie and claims it will go down as one of the best ever. As for the two targets, Big Meech is bawling her eyes out and knows that she is the next target. This is also the point where Michelle loses her trust in Nicole, since she was left out of the vote by her supposed ally Meanwhile, Zakiyah has already been pulled back in by Paulie.
Before the nomination ceremony, America’s second care package falls into the backyard. This time, it is addressed to James. His care package ends up becoming the most important care package of the season, as it is an advantage to cancel two people’s votes at the next eviction. It seems like a fairly tame advantage that fell into the hands of James, a boring houseguest in terms of strategy. By the end, though, this advantage leads to one of the most interesting and satisfying moves of the season. For now, though, it’s time for the nomination ceremony! As expected, Michelle and Zakiyah are nominated for eviction. As for Victor’s “all-time” nomination speech though… It is rather bizarre. He starts off by rehashing his 9-1 eviction in week 2, as if everyone else wasn’t also involved in that plan. He tells a crying Michelle that it was the wrong day to piss people off and tells Zakiyah that she never gives him much attention and Paulie is the only person that gets her affection (weird?). To end off this “all-time” nomination speech, he passes both of them some random bead necklaces. This is definitely Victor’s best week so far, but this speech is, in my opinion, kind of odd; especially the comment about Zakiyah.
Michelle seems resigned to the fact that she’s going home, while Paulie is pretending to Zakiyah that he had no idea she would be nominated (he was the main one pushing for Zakiyah to be nominated). The executives are split on who to actually vote out though. Paulie now wants Michelle to go home, as does Corey, while Paul and Victor want Zakiyah out. For now, this is just a small disagreement between the Executives, but soon enough, the rest of the house will join in and topple Paulie’s power structure.
Paulie wins Hide and Go Veto. He tells his allies that he’s not going to use the veto, as expected. He jokes around about Zakiyah being pissed that he’s not going to use the veto on her and flip flops thoughout the day on who he wants to be evicted. At first, he wants Zakiyah out, then, he wants Michelle out, and finally, he claims that he actually doesn’t care at all. The night before the veto meeting, Natalie starts piecing together that Paulie is running the house and is the leader of an all-guys alliance, which she explains to James. He agrees and tells her that he wants to keep Michelle. After the veto ceremony, in which Paulie expectedly didn’t use the veto, Paulie is now trying to convince Paul that they should keep Zakiyah because she’ll just do whatever he says, despite throwing the HOH competition immediately after she fell because he didn’t trust her! Both Nicole and Corey also want Michelle out by this point, much to the dismay of Paul and Victor. Corey has also been doing work with Bridgette, making sure she’s on his side. He’s mainly using Bridgette and Michelle’s previous rivalry to convince her. To make things worse, it seems as though Michelle has given up. It now seems very likely that Michelle is headed out the door.
Bridgette isn’t going to be at the mercy of another player anymore though. She did that last week because she was defenseless on the block and had to trust what people told her. But she’s here to play her own game. In a conversation with her fellow spy girl, Natalie, Bridgette agrees with Natalie that Michelle should stay and that Paulie is running the house. Michelle also has her head back in the game, telling Victor all of the reasons why he shouldn’t trust Paulie, to which he responds that she’ll have to convince other people since he can’t vote. She does exactly that, strategizing with Bridgette, her ex- mortal enemy. The two talk about Nicole being a snake, Paulie running the house, and James playing all sides. Bridgette tells Michelle about a rumor that she’ll target James, which she vehemently denies. Michelle then goes up to James and Natalie and repeats that Paulie is playing like Derrick. She also tells them about the stories Paulie is telling about Natalie’s personal life and her exes. Natalie becomes upset at how personal Paulie is making things and vents to James. After Michelle leaves, Bridgette comes in and the three of them strategize on how to evict Zakiyah without pissing off or alerting Paulie, Nicole, and Corey. The key is James’ advantage, as with it, Michelle would only need three votes to stay. Unfortunately, the one thing that might stop the move from happening is James himself. James is someone who wants to play it safe at every opportunity, which does not bode well for a coup like the one Bridgette and Natalie are planning. So much hinges on the most risk-adverse player in the house…
During a PP meeting, Paulie does not budge on keeping Zakiyah and tells Paul that Victor needs to go soon, which he disagrees with. Paul feels disregarded by his own final two partner! He’s done being pushed around by his supposed #1 ally, so in a meeting with Bridgette, Natalie, and Michelle, he compares notes and realizes Paulie has played him. Everyone in that room had received a different version of an endgame from Paulie. During the meeting, the four of them agree to act as if everything is still the same. But the coup is now in full motion.
Here is where things get ugly. Paulie has been constantly hitting on Natalie, even as he is in a showmance with Zakiyah and she is in an almost-showmance with James. It is something Natalie is uncomfortable with and that Paul and Victor have noticed as well. Natalie has decided that Zakiyah doesn’t deserve to be played like this, so she exposes Paulie to Zakiyah about everything that he has said and then. Zakiyah does not know how to take this; as it is obviously a lot for anyone to take in. James tells Zakiyah after her conversation with Natalie that Paulie will just try to blame everything on Natalie, a prediction he nailed. After Zakiyah explains everything to Nicole, she just questions how honest Natalie is being and spends a lot of the conversation defending Paulie. It is one of the more icky moments from her this season, so focused on defending someone like Paulie instead of consoling a supposed friend. Just like James said, once Zakiyah confronts Paulie, he just denies, denies, denies. He blames everything on Natalie and spends half of the conversation rambling about how much he hates Jersey girls. He does everything except console Zakiyah as she continues crying. Paulie tries explaining to Victor that Natalie is a liar, but it falls on deaf ears by this point. To make things worse for himself, he tells Natalie that she’ll be out the door after her friend Michelle and makes the infamous gross comment about her breasts. He continues accusing her and saying she doesn’t actually care about James, definitely projection on his part. In the diary room, Paul questions Paulie’s character and loyalty after his major blow up. Before the eviction, James ruins the blindside by telling Paulie that he’s going to evict Zakiyah, a disappointing but expected move by him. Paulie repeats how Natalie doesn’t actually care about him in response. Once again, projection on his part. At the eviction, James cancels Corey and Paul’s votes, all part of the plan. Bridgette, James, and Natalie all vote to evict Zakiyah, sending her out in a 3-2 vote.
Zakiyah Everette: Victim Blamed
Zakiyah’s BB18 game is such a difficult one to assess because of how much it revolves around Paulie. She was the recipient of a lot of his toxic behaviors on the season. It was very uncomfortable to watch how he treated her in the house, and their showmance is definitely one of the most toxic that Big Brother has ever had. The worst part is that we aren’t even done with it after Zakiyah’s eviction. Zakiyah deserved better. She deserved to not have to be dragged down by a man as hot-and-cold as Paulie. During BB18, a lot of the viewers victim-blamed Zakiyah for sticking by Paulie in both the BB house and the jury house, which was not fair to her. Being in the BB house is a very difficult experience that only those who have played can understand. For months, he was one of the few people she could actually talk to, so it’s understandable why she fell back into a showmance with him. There’s an amazing essay posted on Medium that came out during the season about this that dives into it way deeper than I’m able to: https://medium.com/@mo_zpp/the-curious-criticism-of-big-brothers-zakiyah-everette-f035d4cefd5d
Double Eviction: Salvaging The Executives
Zakiyah’s eviction is not the end of the night. It is time for BB18’s only Double Eviction! With Paulie, Nicole, and Corey left out of the Zakiyah vote, one of them will need to win the HOH competition in order for them to all survive the night. Bridgette, Michelle, and Natalie are firmly on the other side of the house and looking to finish the job on Paulie. Then, James, Paul, and Victor are in the middle, all leaning toward the women’s side but willing and ready to switch back if power lands in the wrong hands. When watching the season, I already roughly knew how the season went. So I knew that the side I was rooting for (Bridgette, Michelle, Natalie), would lose the double eviction fight for power. Double evictions are vicious in that way. They always leave me on the edge of my seat and either immensely satisfied by the end or absolutely devastated and jaded for the rest of the season. There is almost never an in-between. If I had watched this season in real time, I would have been jaded for the rest of the season because of this double eviction. Luckily, watching this season years after it aired, I knew that Paulie would get his comeuppance, just not during the double eviction. It left me excited for what would come after this mostly disappointing double eviction.
Corey wins the double eviction HOH after everyone else answers the second question of the booth comp incorrectly. His first HOH win and it couldn’t have come at a worse time, halting the momentum of the flip against Paulie. Corey is desperate to have the Executives stick together so, even with his initial plan thrown off, he decides to target Bridgette, as was originally planned. James, Paul, and Victor all just go along with Corey, wanting to stay where the power is. With that, Bridgette and Michelle are nominated for eviction. Then, Corey wins his third competition of the summer and his second POV competition. He obviously decides not to use the veto, tragically leaving Bridgette and Michelle up for eviction. Come time for eviction speeches, Michelle gives an all-time eviction speech. She tells everyone she thought she would be going home instead of Zakiyah and now, still thinks she’s going home. She tells everyone she’s proud to have blown up Paulie’s game. She also tells everyone that Nicole is a snake and that Jozea was right. She tells them that she is the fourth person to say this; after Tiffany, Frank, and Da’vonne. Michelle is promptly blindsided when she stays and Bridgette is evicted in a 5-1 vote. A sad end to a great week.
Bridgette Dunning: The Feminist
It is so tragic the Bridgette got evicted the week it finally felt like she was coming into her own in the game and stirring stuff up. She was so integral to the flip against Paulie and was an even stronger defender of Natalie against Paulie than James. Even though Michelle had wronged her so much in the past, she still worked with her because that was best for her game. She was braver than all of the men in the house in the way she stood up against Paulie for Natalie. She also just had such a rough go during the pre-jury. She was constantly picked on by the other women and only had Frank as an ally. Despite all that, if she had gotten almost any other HOH outcome, she could have become a serious power player and even won.
Week 8: The Worst Week of Paulie’s Life
In the aftermath of the double eviction, Paulie, Nicole, and Corey are all reeling from the flip at the final 10. However, Corey was able to evict Bridgette, one of the main architects behind the flip during the double eviction. With the pendulum swinging back in his direction, Paulie’s ego is once again at a high. Still feeling confident in the Executives, he throws the HOH competition, allowing Victor to have a second week in power. Before Victor even gets his HOH room, Paulie is spewing all of his nonsense to him, how Natalie is just using James but James was somehow also the mastermind behind the flip. Victor placates Paulie, telling him he’ll nominate two women and backdoor James. All the while, Paul is telling Victor that they need to target Paulie and Corey this week. The two of them also assure James, Michelle, and Natalie that they are going to take the shot at Paulie. It is looking like Paulie is in for a rough ride.
Who gets America’s care package this week? Well, it apparently would’ve been Bridgette since it seems Reddit set up a whole campaign to give her the care package when she was still in the house. Unfortunately though, Bridgette’s gone, so the person with the second most votes, Nicole, wins the Safety Suit instead! She is safe for the week but must wear the Super Safety Suit all week as well! Ultimately, even though Nicole’s closest allies are both targeted this week, it seems like Victor wouldn’t have targeted her even without the suit. He told her a day before the eviction that she was never going to be nominated because there were bigger targets that her. People rag on Nicole for never truly working with the women but it works out perfectly this season. The game was flipped against her yet she wasn’t seen as a target, at least for the next couple weeks, because her allies were these strong men. It gives her enough time to recover from the bottom and eventually win the whole game.
Paulie and Corey are nominated for eviction in a complete blindside to both of them and Nicole. After the nomination ceremony, Paulie unravels. He interrogates Victor to the point Victor asks to be left alone. He then tells Michelle about the all guys alliance and how if the other guys had just told him they wanted Zakiyah out he would have listened. To put the cherry on top, he tells Corey that if he wins the veto, he’ll use it on him instead of himself. The most absurd claim of all is when he says that James’ betrayal hurt him because he was the most loyal to him. This is all before the veto competition, by the way.
The new house majority wants to prevent Paulie from winning the veto at all costs. Paul tells James, Michelle, and Natalie about his plan to rattle Paulie before the veto competition by staging a fight. Earlier in the week, Paulie had questioned Paul’s loyalty. The reality is that Paul was actually loyal to Paulie until he found out about Paulie’s lies. At the kitchen table, Paul tells Paulie that he had his back the whole time but he never trusted him back. Michelle then joins in to tell Paulie he has no one to blame but himself. Paulie calls her a liar and manipulator and tells Paul he thought that this was going to be like the detonators with Cody and Derrick. Michelle puts the cherry on top by telling him that he’s never going to be Cody or Derrick. In that moment, Paulie’s heart shatters into a million pieces.
Also, Zingbot makes his yearly appearance! As usual, most of his Zings were boring, predictable, or weird. Two stick out though. First, Zingbot calls Paulie an inferior version of Cody. Paulie wanted to attach Tiffany to Vanessa, now it’s his turn. Zingbot’s Zing to Nicole, on the other hand, is memorable because of how wrong it is. Zingbot basically tells Nicole that she threw her game away for a showmance twice and has no chance to win. Zingbot is also running for president, given it is 2016. That is the Veto competition. It’s the classic Yankee Swap, in which each houseguest must sling a beanbag onto a map of the United States of Zing. Each state has a different number of electoral votes. Whoever lands on the lowest amount of electoral votes each round is eliminated, until only one person remains. The eliminated player of each round must grab a prize, one of which is the power of veto. After someone is eliminated, they can swap their prize with another houseguest, and the last one standing can choose from any of the prizes. Corey is eliminated third, directly followed by Paulie. Once Paulie is eliminated, he steals the veto from Corey even though he claimed he wanted Corey to be saved. It doesn’t matter, though, as Victor gets 1st and steals the veto from Paulie, sealing his fate. To make matters worse, Paulie is stuck with a punishment. For the rest of the summer, he must back an apple pie every time he hears the National Anthem. This is a punishment that he will take in good spirits…
After the veto competition, Paulie tries to convince Victor to use the veto on Corey and put up one of Michelle or Natalie because he can’t campaign against his best friend Corey. It falls on deaf ears, though. When he’s not having pointless campaign sessions or baking pies, he’s having pity parties with Nicole and Corey. He complains to them about all of the horrible things people will tell him in his goodbye messages, how Michelle weaseled her way into the majority, and how he is absolutely dreading to go to the jury house. He even tells them if he goes there, he’ll just forfeit the stipend money and go back to New Jersey. It gets to the point that Nicole and Corey agree that they need to distance themselves from him for the sake off their games.
After Victor keeps nominations the same, Paulie becomes desperate. He grovels to everyone, telling them how he just wants one more week and he’ll go after Victor for them. He whines about not wanting to be in jury with Da’vonne and Zakiyah and that he’s claustrophobic. He looks absolutely miserable whenever he has to bake an apple pie and even refuses to bake them at one point. Late in the week, he tells everyone about his “perfect girl.” It is a very specific description of all of these absurd, at points, contradictory needs (“a good girl who dresses bad”) that the others laugh about. He mends fences with Natalie and Michelle while continuing to talk about them behind their back. It is a pathetic end to his game after he was controlling everything for weeks.
Everyone else starts preparing for life in the Big Brother house after Paulie. Paulie tells Nicole and Corey to target Victor if they win HOH and work with the other showmance, James and Natalie. The two agree in private that they need to target Paul and Victor. Nicole and James talk about the showmance alliance, but it is not solidified yet. Paul and Victor also want to form an alliance with Jatalie, but it is unclear how real this alliance would be. In fact, they talk about targeting Jatalie at multiple points. As for Jatalie themselves, Natalie wants to target Corey next while James is more conflicted, but still not really speaking up about anything. Michelle is trying to attach herself to Paul and Victor because they’ll be shields for her. After Paulie’s 5-0 eviction, the game is still wide open, even if Nicole and Corey seem dead to rights.
Paulie Calafiore: Cody’s Brother
Obviously, BB18 happened ten years ago. Everyone has moved on from this season and are mostly acquaintances nowadays. Paulie himself has gone on to become a Challenge staple and create his own, brand new rivalries on that show. However, that certainly doesn’t change any of the things Paulie did on BB18 or excuse them. Before I continue, I want to give him grace in that he talked on feeds about breaking off an engagement shortly before the season. That is a rough situation for anyone and may help explain, but not excuse, his behavior across BB18. One frustrating thing I’ve noticed about him though is that he always hides behind the game as an excuse for his actions. In the jury house, he tells the other jurors that he wants to put the game behind him and everything is forgiven. He also does this for The Challenge, saying he doesn’t want to take anything that happened on the show into the real world. It seems like a reasonable mindset, but then you realize that it’s really convenient for him specifically to say that. He can excuse anything he did as being due to the game and never take any accountability due to that mindset. He’s also not one to shy away from calling out other reality TV alumni online, which just seems hypocritical. He’s a great fit for The Challenge, though, where people can get away with almost anything, so he’s found his home. Get that bag!
Week 9: A Post-Paulie House
After all of the talk from Paulie about how horrible Natalie is in competitions, it’s ironic that immediately after he leaves, Natalie wins her first competition of the summer. That’s right, Natalie is the new HOH and has full control over the week. It came at a great time too, since things were looking dire for Natalie with her and James being looked at as big targets. Will she actually play this HOH correctly though?
Natalie is ready to make a big move. She is now on board with James’ showmance alliance with Nicorey and is ready to take a shot at Paul. This is because of a conversation Paulie had with Nicole and Paul before he left where he told them to target Victor and James. Paul did not push back on that idea, so Nicole smartly tells Jatalie that Paul was on board with Paulie’s plan. In the day before the nomination ceremony, Michelle reassures Victor that Natalie won’t nominate him and she’ll stick to targeting Nicorey. She’s wrong, but it may not matter, as a wrench is thrown into Natalie’s plans…
Michelle wins the care package for the week, and it’s the most powerful yet. Michelle will become the Co-HOH, meaning she will be able to make one nomination for the week and potentially save Paul and Victor. That does not happen though. James and Natalie inform Michelle of the plan and she goes along with it because she does not want to intrude on Natalie’s HOH, even though she really likes Victor. With that, Natalie nominates Victor for eviction while Michelle nominates Paul.
After the nomination ceremony, Paul is #pissed, particularly at Michelle due to something not shown in the episodes. During her nomination speech, Michelle named Paul being an atheist as one of her reasons for nominating him. His anger builds up until right before the live eviction. He also confronts Jatalie, claiming to have never lied to them about anything and that he would have been loyal. He tells them to not trust Nicorey and that they still have a chance to backdoor Corey and make it right. Natalie feels bad afterward and considers backdooring Corey.
Michelle is not the only person who Paul is #pissed at. He also thinks that Nicole told Jatalie lies about him to turn them against him. The result: he blows up on a completely unsuspecting Nicole in the middle of the night. He interrogates Nicole about why she called him a liar and manipulator, which she never said. Nicole denies, denies, denies during the entire confrontation. In a moment of perfect timing, Corey exits the DR in the middle of their argument and strips off his Patriotard punishment, initially unaware of the confrontation but then trying to deescalate the situation. Even after confronting Nicole, Paul continues antagonizing her as she’s trying to talk to Michelle and Natalie. In that conversation, Nicole was telling Natalie and Michelle how she may have gotten Paul nominated, but that he was attacking her character and it really hurt her. Before the veto competition even happens, Paul has made himself the house pariah.
Luckily for Paul, he wins the power of veto. Unluckily, this basically ends his best friend Victor’s chance at surviving this week. With Paul still in the game, the two showmances solidify their alliance, with everyone except Natalie feeling good about each other. Natalie tells James that he needs to win the next HOH, but he tells her that Nicorey needs it more. He goes back and forth on if he actually wants to win the next HOH, so guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Although Michelle strongly considers nominating Nicole for personal reasons, she nominates Corey once the time comes. Despite James pretending to be open to evicting Corey whenever Natalie or Michelle mention it, it becomes clear he never actually planned on doing that. Paul has caught on to Jatalie’s game by this point, correctly guessing they made a deal with Nicorey. He bashes them a ton for this, even though, to be fair, he himself was planning on targeting Jatalie if he win the HOH competition. Nevertheless, Paul tries his best to save Victor, creating a plan for the two of them to hang out with both “sides” of the house. Paul will hang out with Nicorey, making sure that Jatalie see every time he does this. Victor will pretend to be hurt that Paul is not hanging out with him in what could be his last week in the game. The plan almost works, as Jatalie believe Victor’s acting and Natalie even tells Michelle on Eviction Eve that she’s going to tell James to keep Victor. However, James shuts the plan down, as he has become loyal to Nicorey by this point and correctly assumes Victor would work with Paul no matter what. It’s a weird situation though, as the Co-HOH power is what actually stops Victor from staying. As the Co-HOH, Michelle could not vote, making James the deciding vote. If she could vote, she would have evicted Corey and Natalie would cast the tie-breaking vote to send Corey home.
Paul has one final blowup right before the eviction, claiming to Jatalie and Michelle that they disrespected them and were upset when they won the veto. It doesn’t change anything, as Victor is still evicted in a 2-1 vote. Fortunately, with another Battle Back kicking off alongside the classic Wall Comp, Victor’s game is far from over.
Week 10: “Nicole’s a Snake”
On Big Brother 16, Nicole gained popularity for being a scrappy underdog in a season dominated by strong men. Due to her underdog position, she never had much agency on BB16 and was never truly able to play the game. By the end, she was evicted in 7th as the most competent non-Detonator. Despite her underwhelming gameplay, Jozea was for some reason convinced Nicole was this conniving snake. He spent a large portion of his only week in the house trying to put this snake label on her, despite there being no basis for it…
Now, Jozea’s claims have become a self-fulfilling prophecy, Nicole makes it to the final 7 once again. This time, she’s in a much better position. She has her showmance alliance and Corey as her shield. She also built a relationship with Paul over the past week, channeling his anger toward Jatalie and Michelle. She wants this win more than anything, so she’ll do whatever it takes to get there.
The Wall Comp is underway. Alongside the remaining houseguests, the first five jurors will also be hanging onto the wall for a chance to get back into the game. Da’vonne, Zakiyah, Corey, and Bridgette all suffer early falls. It’s down to Paulie and Victor to get back into the game and James, Nicole, and Paul to win HOH. Paulie is the next to fall, meaning Victor is back in the game for the second time! With Victor’s return, Natalie’s HOH was largely a waste and she is in a worse position because of it. Victor falls shortly after confirming his return, followed by Paul. James and Nicole are the final two, both desperate for the HOH win. Both try convincing the other to throw the competition, seeing as they are supposed to be working together. At the end, James throws the competition to Nicole. meaning she has won her second HOH competition of the season!
By throwing the HOH to Nicole, James has effectively given Nicole the keys to the game. They have an alliance, but Nicole has no obligation to stay loyal to it. Especially not after what she heard from Corey. James, in his quest to become the Blindside Ruiner, admitted to Paul AND Corey that he was on the fence about who to evict between Corey and Victor. He also stupidly said that Natalie wanted Corey out. When Corey obviously reports this back to Nicole, she loses a lot of trust in Jatalie She doesn’t need Jatalie to know that though.
Paul and Victor completely hitch their wagons to Nicorey at this point. After all, the other three did conspire against them last week. Paul and Victor spend the night after the Wall Comp in Nicole’s HOH room throwing Jatalie under the bus and promising to be loyal to Nicorey. Nicole is now part of a 2nd final four alliance. There’s only one person she’s not aligned with…. Michelle.
Nicole plays her HOH reign flawlessly. She has a clear target in Michelle, who has been publicly against her for the past few weeks. As for the pawn, she has Paul and Victor desperate to do anything to prove their loyalty to Nicorey. After initially considering nominating James alongside Michelle, Nicole asks Paul to be a pawn against Michelle. Paul happily accepts. He is the perfect pawn choice. By nominating Paul, Nicole is able to hide the fact that Michelle is her actual target from Jatalie. The two of them will naturally think that Paul is the target, because, why would you get rid of Michelle? Getting rid of Michelle is something that only benefits Nicole’s game. She will still have both of her alliances intact for the next week and her arch rival evicted. And even if Natalie wins the HOH next week, she would be much more inclined to target Paul and Victor than Nicole. She is completely covered after this week and sets the path for her victory.
Corey wins the final care package: the BB Bribe! Give $5,000 to any person of your choosing in exchange for a game related favor. The advantage causes a surprising amount of turmoil despite it not amounting to much by the end.
To put the cherry on top of an amazing week for Nicole, she wins the Power of Veto. She has all of the power this week, meaning she can ensure that her target is evicted and she is sitting pretty next week. Despite Corey’s odd and consistent hatred for Natalie throughout the week and concerns about Paul and Victor comping out, Nicole does not budge on targeting Michelle.
There’s trouble in paradise, as Corey is a bit of a playboy. He does not commit to a closed relationship with Nicole after the show and talks about hitting on other girls, really upsetting her. They also disagree about how Corey should use his bribe. Both of them are really concerned that the bribe could end up blowing up in their faces. Nicole eventually suggests using it to ensure Victor votes to evict Michelle, something he was already going to do. Using the bribe for this would make Victor even more loyal to Nicorey than he already is. After a lot of convincing, Corey agrees to use it to secure Victor’s loyalty. Interestingly, on the episode, the bribe reason is that Nicorey were worried that Victor was strategizing with Michelle. Victor is immensely thankful when he receives the bribe from Corey and happily accepts it. It is safe to say that Victor finally feels like he has found his people… Sweet summer child.
What are Jatalie and Michelle doing this week? Nothing much. Michelle spends most of the week either moping or complaining about how Nicole is playing an “emotional” game. Meanwhile, Natalie does not trust Nicole at all and continues telling James to check in with her on who the target actually is. He tells her that he’ll talk to her, but never actually does. Even though the three of them are well aware that Paul and Victor are spending a lot of time with Nicorey, they never suspect that they’re working together. Well, Michelle does, correctly guessing that they have a final four deal and predicts that Nicole will get to the final two.
On eviction night, the votes are tied. Nicole breaks the tie to send Michelle home, her plan executed to perfection. On her way out, Michelle drags Nicole one final time, telling everyone that Nicole is floating her way to the final two.
Michelle Meyer: Big Meech
Michelle is my personal favorite houseguest this season. She is one of the few actual fans of the show on this season and made a big impression. She was known for her emotional outbursts, but was also not afraid to call people out and get into fights. Every time she faced eviction, she put on a show and called who she perceived to be the biggest threats out. Even despite her large abrasive personality, Michelle showed a lot of maturity through her relationship with Bridgette. While at first she hated and was jealous of Bridgette’s relationship with Frank, she was able to recognize her jealousy. She apologized to Bridgette for her behavior and admitted her jealousy, even working with Bridgette during her final week. Everything about her run on BB18 suggests she is immature. But she shows more maturity than almost everyone by admitting her faults to Bridgette and apologizing.
Week 11: The Fall of Jatalie
Of the big three showmances this season, Jatalie was by far the fan favorite. This was despite their showmance being the most difficult to read, a kind of “will they, won’t they” situation. Their moments together are sweet and clearly won the hearts of the audience, seeing as they were both in the top 3 for AFP. With their backs against the wall in week 11 though, Jatalie turns sour.
On paper, this endgame configuration should be interesting. There are three clear duos, two hate each other’s guts and the other is in the middle. Despite a supposedly interesting configuration, week 11 turns out to be the worst and most frustrating week of the season.
Victor wins HOH, narrowly beating out Natalie to get another week in power. Victor has now won 3 of the last 4 HOH competitions he’s competed in. He is unstoppable! Unfortunately, this is the worst of his three HOH reigns. With Victor as HOH, Nicorey pledge their loyalty to Paul and Victor, for this week at least… Paul and Victor completely buy their act, not suspecting anything at all. That means James and Natalie are the two nominees by default. Victor is itching to target James, seeking revenge for James’ vote that evicted him. That’s not in the best interest of Nicorey though. Nicole already has a pregame friendship with James, meanwhile she knows Natalie doesn’t trust her and is pissed that she sent home her friend Michelle. As for Corey, he just has a hate boner for Natalie. For now, though, they’ll play along with Victor’s plan.
James and Natalie know they are in trouble. James tries exposing the final four deal he had with Nicorey, but Paul and Victor do not care at all and Nicole just denies it when confronted. Natalie tells Paul and Victor that she’s sorry for backstabbing them and that she trusted the wrong people. Paul and Victor completely misconstrue this as her throwing James under the bus, which they use against her later. After nominations, James and Natalie are both very sweet toward each other. They tell each other that they’ll fall on the sword for the other. Everything changes after the veto competition though, which Corey wins and Natalie heartbreakingly gets second in for the second time in the week. Since Nicorey has the veto in their hands, they decide it is now the time to convince Paul and Victor to switch the target to Natalie. Paul and Victor agree to evict Natalie with little pressure. It’s not like either of them particularly like her, especially Paul, who is still pissed about her HOH reign.
With the fate of Jatalie decided, isolation kicks in. James and Natalie spend most of their time together, while the other four mostly hang out with each other, only making small talk with Jatalie. Anger takes over Natalie. She is mad at Nicorey for completely backstabbing her and James. By extension, she is also mad at James for making her work with them. She also knows that despite James being Victor’s target, there is no way Nicorey, who control the votes, will actually evict him over her. She knows her fate is sealed and there is nothing she can do. She spends the week complaining about how everyone has talked trash about her and how much she hates the other four houseguests, which understandably takes a toll on James.
With Natalie as the new target, Paul and Victor get to work on getting James on their side. They tell James about Natalie’s earlier campaign to them, claiming that she threw him under the bus. James gets really upset at this and ends up blowing up on Natalie. He tells her about how she threw him under the bus and how he was her third choice for a showmance after Victor and Paulie. Natalie denies doing any of this and is sad that he thinks she’s using him. The rest of the house takes James’ side, with Paul and Corey especially crapping on Natalie’s character. They’re really kicking someone while they’re down. It’s ugly to watch and leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Nevertheless, James and Natalie seemingly make up by eviction night, on which Natalie is sent home in a 3-0 vote.
Natalie Negrotti: The Flirt
Natalie, the last surviving member of the Spy Girls and one of the more polarizing houseguests of the season. I personally liked her throughout the season and she became one of my favorite houseguests by the end. I found her to be a surprisingly great player, given she was a recruit with little knowledge about the show. She had a set strategy coming in to play up her flirtatiousness and downplay her intelligence and it almost got her the win. Of course, it did also land her in hot water, but she was able to overcome it. Her getting the upper hand over Paulie was by far the most satisfying moment of the season. Her reads were also great, as she knew trusting Nicorey wasn’t a good idea and suspected that she was going home in her final week. I also do think she got unlucky that Michelle was the Co-HOH and that there was a second Battle Back, as those made her HOH reign backfire way more than it should have. It’s nevertheless an amazing run for a recruit! It is funny to see her tell James he was the only person in the final six she still wanted to be friends with, only to now absolutely hate his guts and surprisingly be great friends with Paul. I love that friendship though.
Week 12: Natalie was Right?!
Corey wins the Slip n’ Slide comp to become the new HOH. Thanks to the two battle-backs, week 12 will be a shortened week, while the final four round will only last two days. With his HOH power, Corey agrees with Nicole that they need to take a shot at Victor. To make sure this move won’t backfire, they pull in James, who reassures them that he would never use the veto on Paul or Victor. With James on his side, Corey nominates Paul and Victor for eviction, blindsiding them one final time.
Paul and Victor are not at all pleased with being backstabbed yet again, but they decide to act sad instead of angry this week. The two of them claim that they would not have done the same thing that Nicorey did, which is debatable. The two of them talked about targeting Jatalie if Paul won the first final 7 HOH comp only to be bitter when Natalie took a shot at them. During week 11, the two of them also talked about needing to blindside Corey if Paul won HOH. They had talked about backstabbing both duos but now are mad that they were blindsided instead. I understand being upset to be nominated again, but it is kind of hypocritical
Nicole wins BB Comics to seal one of Paul or Victor’s fates. They know that one of them is going home no matter what, so they focus on making sure the one that survives is in a good spot. They bond with James through a nice Natalie bashing section and he agrees to work with whoever survives to get revenge on Nicorey. Nicole doesn’t use the veto and then Nicorey agree Victor is a bigger jury threat than Paul, so he is sent home in a 2-0 vote during a surprise eviction night.
Victor Arroyo: Battle Back Champ
Everyone loves a good underdog, and for BB18, Victor filled that role perfectly. His great story this season of being the only houseguest in history to come back into the house twice is undeniable. He was so close to the end and would have had an easy winning story. Unfortunately for him, he made the same mistake everyone else in the final 7 made: trusting Nicorey. It all worked out for him though, given he won AFP and is now happily married to the season’s winner, Nicole. It is fun to watch and read about their interactions during this season and search for clues or foreshadowing for their relationship.
As for what I think of Victor himself, he is one of my favorite houseguests this season and his week 8 HOH reign is hands down the best week of the season. I am glad he got the chance to win two battle backs and go from slightly unlikable week 2 boot to extremely likable fifth placer.
The Final Four: It’s Time for Revenge
Paul and James both lost their closest allies thanks to Nicorey. With the end in sight, they want to not only avenge their fallen lovers, but also take out the clear biggest threats and only remaining duo. Paul won the live HOH competition after Victor’s eviction, so now all that they need to execute the plan is to win the final power of veto.
Paul nominates Nicorey for eviction, this being the first time all season that Nicole is on the block. Going into the final veto competition, everyone knows that winning this veto is key to getting them into the final two seats. It comes down to Corey and Paul, but Paul ultimately bests him in an ironically baseball themed competition. With the veto out of their hands, Nicorey know that it’s one of them going home. They talk to James about who to evict, but he tells them it’s all up to Paul since he kept him safe. Paul pretends to James that they are now close allies, but secretly, he thinks James doesn’t deserve to win even the $50K prize. He knows that the correct move is to evict Corey, so that’s what he tells James to do. But then, Paul has a meeting with Nicole where she tells him it would be stupid to not take her to the final two because everyone in the jury hates her. They agree that they can both beat James in a final 2 but that they would much rather sit next to each other because they were both “in the woods” this season. Nicole feels bad that Corey is going home, but he reassures her that he’s okay with it and that she needs to win the whole game. At the live eviction, Paul doesn’t use the veto and James evicts Corey in 4th place.
Corey Brooks: The Weirdest Normal Guy You Could Meet
On paper, Corey is as interesting as white bread. He’s your average straight white guy. He even gets into a showmance almost right away! But then, you slowly learn things about him as the season progresses. And you start to question a lot of things, like, is he even straight? He apparently asked Jozea about being gay and then continually repeated that he wasn’t gay before the feeds came on. Then you learn that he rides hard for Taylor Swift (real). He’s so boring in conversations most of the time, but then, there’s little glimpses of whimsy like him repeating “Harry Potter” in his sleep. He seems to take his showmance with Nicole way less seriously than she does, talking about how he’s going to mingle with other women immediately after the show. How real was Nicorey? He expectedly gets in a showmance and aligns with the men of the house, he’s almost like a stereotype. But the more you learn about his ‘stereotypical’ actions, you learn that he’s slightly more interesting than white bread.
The Craziest Jury House Ever
Big Brother 18 easily has the craziest jury house in Big Brother history. When they showed jury house footage during the final 4 eviction episode, it was way more interesting than anything else in the episode. What makes the BB18 Jury House so great? It’s that everyone in the jury house really, really hates each other.
Da’Vonne is the first to arrive at the jury house, respecting the move to get her out. She’s just vibing in the jury house until Zakiyah arrives with a new hatred for Paulie. Although Zakiyah never got her chance to shine in the BB house, in the jury house, she becomes a main character. She is pissed that Paulie didn’t use the veto on her and when Da’Vonne finds out about this, she is super confused. This is where her iconic “wait a damn minute” line comes from. Then, because of the double eviction, Bridgette arrives right after Zakiyah. She is bummed to be out, but happy that she was at least able to blow up Paulie’s game before she left. Thee three women are vibing despite Da’Vonne and Zakiyah hating Bridgette (and vice versa) in the house. They all hope Paulie is the next juror, which does happen. They are ecstatic to see him out of the game and Zakiyah even says she wants to give him a piece of her mind. The women joke about him being out of the game while he repeatedly says that he holds no anamosity toward anyone. As Paulie misunderstands what a feminist is, calls Da’Vonne classless, and tells Zakiyah that she always plays the victim, he tells the women that they are actually the bitter ones for refusing to vote for him to win. However, after the Battle-back competition, Paulie and Zakiyah are back on good terms. According to Da’Vonne, the two act as if her and Bridgette don’t even exist anymore. Michelle and Natalie are the next to arrive to the jury house, only stoking the flames for what’s to come.
The only times Paulie and Zakiyah interact with the other jurors are seemingly when they need to watch a recap of the previous week. When Natalie is explaining how she would have used the veto on James, Michelle makes a comment about Paulie not using the veto on Zakiyah, which causes him to blow up and talk about how he’s had Zakiyah’s back in the jury house while two “passive agressive girls” try to make her feel a certain way. He feels that Da’Vonne and Bridgette have shunned Zakiyah, When Da’Vonne bites back, he calls her classless again and then she responds that Paulie has only ever talked down to women, never a man, at which point they get in each others faces and Paulie makes a comment about her daughter. Da’Vonne yells at him even more and they have to be separated by the production crew. As Da’Vonne is being pulled away by the crew, she and Zakiyah start yelling at each other as well. Their friendship is over.
Something I always enjoyed about the Jury House blow up was Bridgette clapping and encouraging Da’vonne during the fight. She seemed so happy up until it got serious. The jury house is relatively tame after the blow up, with all of them coming together to praise Victor and tell him he would have won the game. Calm after the storm.
The Final Week: A Loud Mouth, a Coaster, and a Snake
It’s the final three of Big Brother. At least two of the remaining houseguests have played their heart out to get to this point. Unfortunately, only one person can win. Will it be Paul, whose been loud and abrasive the entire season, both pissing off and endearing people toward him at the same time? Nicole, the veteran who managed to betray every person in the final 7 and has been called a snake since week 1? Or James, the other veteran who spent most of his time pranking people and ruining blindsides? If you’re reading this extensive retrospective, you probably already know the answer.
Paul wins part 1 of the final HOH competition, a weird cat-style play on the typical endurance competitions we see for part 1. James lost on his home turf, the type of competition he’s supposed to thrive in. Now he needs to win a mental comp just to have a chance at becoming the final HOH. We know he does not fare too well in those… Despite this, James thinks he is in a perfect position. He made a pact with Paul to evict Corey and Nicole during Victor’s final eviction week and has a pregame connection with Nicole. They should both take him to the final 2 no matter what. With some reassurances from Paul that their pact is still in tact, James relaxes in the final week and spends most of it sleeping or pranking. Meanwhile, Paul and Nicole have intensive conversations about their games.
As established earlier, Paul and Nicole agree that they could easily beat James if they took him to the final two. But they don’t want to do that because they don’t think he deserves even second place. Paul even says at multiple points that he would rather lose to Nicole than win against James. As long as he brings something home for his family, that’s all that matters. They agree to make James feel he is in the middle of the two of them to make him feel safe. Ironically, during one of his conversations with Nicole, he says he doesn’t care about the jury votes because it’s out of his control. Then, Nicole wins part 2 of the final HOH competition, demolishing James for a spot in part 3.
Despite being closer to each other than to James, what would Nicole and Paul actually do if they became the final HOH? Well, Nicole said in the DR that her head tells her to pick James but her heart tells her to pick Paul. Based off of Nicole wanting to take Cody to the final 2 of BB22, I’m inclined to think she would have picked Paul. We will never know though, since Paul won Part 3 of the final HOH comp and became the final HOH. Who would Paul choose though? Well, he claimed to be playing both sides, just telling James and Nicole what they wanted to hear. One key distinction between the two helped him make his decision. Nicole had been telling Paul in the final week about everything James was telling her, including being open to backstabbing Paul. James never relayed any information from Nicole back to Paul though. James went behind his back but Nicole didn’t. Add in the fact that James cast a vote to evict Paul while Nicole cast the tie-breaking vote to save him and Paul comes to a conclusion. On finale night, Paul stands in front of the two of them and casts his vote to evict James.
James Huling: The Blindside Ruiner
James, America’s Favorite Player on BB17, an impressive feat considering how likable that cast was as a whole. On BB18, it felt like he spent more time trying to win AFP for the second year in a row than actually playing the game. Let’s take a look at what James was doing when he wasn’t pulling off pranks.
James spent a lot of the season chasing after Natalie, which had ramifications on his game and decision-making. It was a relationship that helped both him and Natalie be fan favorites on this season. It is hard to look at James’ game without acknowledging Jatalie. But let’s try
The problem with James is that he plays everything way too safe and passively. You can see this in the fact that his HOH reign was just him doing what the house wanted, something he repeats in the DR throughout week 5. Where it is most evident and annoying, though, is in his tendency to ruin blindsides. He tells everyone that Bronte is going home hours before the live show, meaning viewers don’t even get to see the houseguests’ reaction in real time. Then, he tells Paulie that he is evicting Zakiyah right before the live show. It’s so annoying because those were two electric last-minute vote flips that we don’t get to see a blindside reaction of during the live eviction. They’re rare enough as it is but James just has to spoil the two that we get. Also, his choice to give the HOH to Nicole at the second final 7 round is what leads to her winning the game and his closest allies, Michelle and Natalie, going home. He is just such a frustrating player to watch.
Paul vs Nicole: Was it Really a Bitter Jury?
As we all know, Paul lost in a narrow 5-4 vote against Nicole in one of the more controversial jury votes of the modern era. A lot of people blame a bitter jury for Paul’s loss, but, when taking a deeper look at it, was it that bitter?
Paul is the main character of BB18. From day 1 he stood out for his iconic beard and abrasive, loud personality. He found his main guy in Victor straight away but also made a lot of enemies, mainly the vets. He was nominated every single week for the first three weeks. After those first three weeks, he caught a little break and was able to reunite with his bro Victor. Then, he won HOH and found himself in a majority alliance for the first time. He finally felt like he was in a good spot. Then, it comes out that Paulie, his apparent final 2 partner, was scheming behind his back and never planned on going to the end with him. Friendship over. He joined in on the flip to send Zakiyah home and then, his new best friend Victor won HOH for the second time. He convinced Victor to make the biggest move of the season and send Paulie out the door. He thinks he’s in a good spot with Jatalie and Michelle against Nicorey, only to become the main target when Natalie becomes the new HOH. He has to win the veto just to survive, but loses Victor. Luckily, Victor comes back and together, they form a final four with Nicorey. Everything is going well, maybe it’s finally coming together. Then, Corey nominates him and Victor at the final five. Backstabbed yet again. He gets revenge though, comping his way to the end and taking Nicole, a vet, to the end due to their friendship. That is something you could never imagine happens just based off the first week. It is such an up and down underdog story that is fascinating to watch, yet, he falls short from the crown by 1 vote.
Nicole, on the other hand, is much less of a main character. After playing her week 1 HOH decently well, getting out her biggest enemy, she largely lays low. She comes back into the spotlight after Frank reveals to Da’Vonne that she told him that Da’Vonne was after him. She recovers well though. She makes subtle moves, such as helping pin a target on Da’Vonne and pitting Jatalie and Paul and Victor against each other. She wins some competitions, but is nowhere near as big of a beast as Paul. She convinces Paul to take her to the end rather than the much easier opponent in James. It’s a good game, but not anywhere near as out in front as Paul’s. Yet, she squeaks out the victory. Why?
Let us take a look at the jury, specifically Da’Vonne. Although her biggest moment in the jury is her feud with Paulie, she has a side plot. Da’Vonne left the game on bad terms with Nicole. She was a large reason why Da’Vonne’s position fell and was key to her going home. In the jury house, she hopes Nicole would follow her soon after. But Nicole never comes to the jury house. As more and more jurors came in, Da’vonne slowly begins to respect Nicole’s game. Once Michelle comes in, Da’vonne realizes that Nicole is running the house. She realizes that Michelle’s eviction is something that only benefits Nicole’s game, yet she was able to get the other houseguests to do it. The final jury house segment includes her saying that she just knows she’s about to end up giving Nicole the money. A perfect moment of foreshadowing.
At the jury roundtable, Da’Vonne, alongside Bridgette and Natalie, talk about the distinction between Paul the person and Paul the player. Paul may be a great strategic player, but his personality can be off putting and arrogant. He’s said some nasty things about many of the people in the jury house. Why should they give him the money when he didn’t give them respect? This could be taken as bitterness, but then, Da’Vonne props up Nicole’s game. She admits to everyone that she’s been hoping for Nicole’s eviction but it never happened. She tells everyone that Nicole used the men as both her sword and shield. She had a plan, even if it upset the women in the jury. Ironically, the most bitter juror is one of the four that vote for Paul: Michelle. She claims Nicole never made a single move in the house and that evicting her was purely an emotional move. After Corey and Victor explain how the move was strategic, Michelle cries and says to change the subject. It is as hilarious as it is frustrating.
After jury questioning is over on finale night, Paul and Nicole both give killer final pleas. Paul tells the jury he came in as a rookie and that his only real ally throughout the entire game was Victor. He had to win a ton of competitions and make a bunch of big moves to get to this point. Nicole tells everyone that she was put in a life of death situation on the first day with the day 1 eviction. After surviving and winning HOH, she had to deal with people calling her a snake and then had to convince Natalie to turn on Paul and Victor when her back was completely against the wall. She won the competitions she needed and made an alliance with the two strongest guys left to survive and betrayed them once she got the chance. The votes come in. James votes for Paul. Corey votes for Nicole. Victor votes for Paul. Natalie votes for Nicole. Michelle votes for Paul. Paulie votes for Nicole. Bridgette votes for Paul. Zakiyah votes for Nicole. Da’vonne casts the winning vote for Nicole.
Of the jurors, one was bitter toward Nicole. Who was bitter toward Paul though? Not James or Bridgette, both of which would have had reasons to be bitter. They ended up voting for him. You can argue Natalie because of the horrible stuff Paul said about her. But, she was very bitter toward Nicole in her final week too. You could say Paulie had an out of game relationship with Nicole that helped her get his vote. That one is up for debate. But Nicole straight up had a better relationship with Zakiyah that helped her get her vote. And Da’Vonne, who had many reasons to be bitter toward Nicole, ended up being the deciding vote to give her the money. There were people bitter toward both finalists. It is not fair to say Nicole only won because of a bitter jury
Paul Abrahamian: Friendship King
Paul is a one of a kind personality and now, a legend of Big Brother. He is the only two time losing finalist, losing both of those finales controversially. In both, his fatal flaw was his lack of jury management. It becomes much more apparent on his second appearance, but is also prevalent on this season. Despite that, he did excellently for someone who barely even knew of the show beforehand. He was able to recover from a rough start and claw his way into the final two. Much like Natalie, he is one of the more impressive recruits cast on the show. Although I do think people overrate his BB18 game, it is still good for what it is and his competition prowess is a great strength. If he is a good player on BB18 though, he is the puppet master of BB19. That’s a story for next year though.
Nicole Franzel: Underestimated
Nicole is without a doubt the most polarizing houseguest in Big Brother history. For every fan she has, she had a hater. For the longest time, I was a Nicole hater. It wasn’t until Big Brother Reindeer Games that I began reassessing my opinion of her. But even now, I can’t lie and say that I would have rooted for Nicole if I watched this season live. It is part of her strategy to align with the men as swords and shields for her. It’s a good strategy for her, but watching her support the strong men as they take out mainly women is not something I like watching. Also, her tendency to act as the good girl in situations, even those where she is clearly being villainous with her gameplay can get annoying. A lot of people say it, but I’ll repeat it. If she owned her villainous moves and didn’t act sweet and innocent all the time, she would be much more well liked. She’s thriving in life though and this is all in the distant past, so does it really matter anymore? No. She played a good game that got her the win, so who cares if she upset people.
Conclusion
Some Big Brother seasons have a lovable cast, but they lack drama. Others have great strategy, but they lack personality. Others others have tons of drama but no rooting interest. Big Brother 18 on the other hand has a little bit of everything. Electric vote flips and fascinating strategic moves. People to both love and despise. For every ugly moment, there’s satisfying retribution. Compelling stories despite a controversial ending. Every houseguest on this season brings something to the table, which is rare, especially in modern BB. I obviously did not watch BB18 live, so I have no idea how that experience would have affected my enjoyment of the season. It certainly is an up and down season and one of the longer ones, lasting 99 days! What I do know is that 10 years after its release, it holds up and it is about time that fans stop sleeping on this chaotic, dramatic, and iconic season of reality television.
August 2025: Rylie is loved by everyone in the Big Brother 27 house and it’s looking like he has an easy path to the end. It takes so many extraordinary circumstances to send him home in the only situation in which he was vulnerable. Lauren wins OTEV and is for once resolute in a decision: save Vince from the block. Ashley correctly suspects that Morgan is one of the few people in the entire house Rylie could actually be evicted over and tells this to Rachel. Rachel is Rachel and makes a big move to get revenge on Lauren for messing with her nominations. Then, when all hope seems lost in terms of votes and it looks like Rylie is safe no matter what, Mickey wins the blockbuster and both Ava AND Vince decide to evict Rylie. It was such a thrilling roller coaster that ended perfectly and it felt like nothing could top it.
August 2026: Yash wins the knock out comp to become the new HOH. It’s looking like he’s gearing up to take the first shot at the icons and they have no idea. His plan is foolproof, but he has one blind spot… Rick Devens.
The Week’s Strategy
It was a weird knockout comp. Dee and Devens felt that they were in a way better spot than they actually were, with Dee picking Devens to compete early on. Then, F.A.P fumbled a 3 to 1 lead, allowing Yash to become the new HOH. Dee and Devens initially celebrate, thinking they have the Wolfpack alliance with Yash and Kamu to keep them safe. Unfortunately for them, Yash has one goal for his HOH reign: get a woman out. Specifically one of the icon women. Although he is initially hesitant to nominate Dee, Kamu eventually convinces him to. That is because Kamu is now Yash’s right hand man, spending every second possible with Yash to control his HOH reign. The two solidify a final two deal and agree to nominate, Angela, Dee, and Haley. Haley is an easy pawn, given she was the target for most of week 5 and no one is that close with her. They want to reel Haley in though… somehow, eventually.
Yash wants to bro down, so, alongside Kamu, Drew and Devens are his next closest allies. He tells them both about his plan, not at all suspecting Devens’ close relationship with Dee. Devens warns Dee to use her BB Bribe to try to stay off the block. Dee tries and fails, at first wanting to protect herself and Angela but then only herself. It would have been a great move for Yash. If it wasn’t for Devens’ Diamond POV.
After the nomination ceremony, Yash quickly settles on Dee as his target, since she was the most pissed about being nominated while Angela was surprisingly calm. Alongside his bros, Yash also hangs out with Taylor and Lala, who are both on board with the anti-vet agenda.
Yash wins OTEV, securing his first POV win and, if it was a normal week, earning himself complete control over the week. After briefly considering using the veto on both Angela and Haley, he decides not to use the POV and him and Kamu celebrate an easy week. Unfortunately, Devens is not going to let his closest ally stay on the block. He decides that he’ll save Dee with the DPOV and after a lot of convincing from Dee, also decides to take a shot at Kamu. The two agree that they need numbers to back them up for this move. They have the Crossovers as a strong foundation, and both Barrett and Drew are close with Mallory and Melody, so why not form an alliance of seven? The night before the veto ceremony, they form the Mosh Pit, and their plan is in motion. Yash doesn’t use the veto as expected, then Devens makes the big move, saving Dee and nominating Kamu. Kamu goes from being in the best position in the house to needing to win the blockbuster to survive. Or atleast, it should be that way.
Melody and Mallory create headaches for thousands of BB fans by waffling on what seems like an obvious vote. They are rightfully distrustful of the Icons’ true intentions and even begin distrusting Barrett and Drew. They also want to work with Lala, Taylor, and Yash in the long run instead of the icons. All solid lines of thinking. Their solution to this, though, is that they need to keep Kamu so that he’ll go after the icons. However, that would also mean the icons would go scorched earth against the two of them if they managed to win power. Drew has to convince them multiple times that Kamu needs to go if he’s on the block and they eventually agree. Then, when Angela shockingly wins the blockbuster, Kamu is evicted in an 8-1 vote against Haley. Only Lala and Yash were left out of the vote.
Twist Screwed?
Kamu was undoubtedly twist screwed. Yash would have nominated literally everyone else in the house before he nominated Kamu. He is unfortunate that Devens had the DPOV and had that outside of the game friendship with Dee. Even if I don’t particularly like him, I have to admit he was playing one of, probably the best games up until that point. It only takes pissing off one person to potentially ruin your entire game. I can’t say I feel too bad for him though. After so many years of horrible twists screwing over fan favorites and kind people, its about time someone less likable gets twist screwed. Good riddance.
Player of the Week: Rick Devens
Devens is now two for two on successfully targeting big threats. Rome and Kamu were two of the biggest players in the game and he was able to land a shot on both of them. The problem now is that he is defenseless without his DPOV to protect him. He now has to rely on personal connections and favorable comp outcomes to keep him afloat. But, you cannot deny the impressive resume he has built up so far and he is the biggest threat to win.
Flop of the Week: Yash Patel
This feels cruel, now that we’re at the point where I actually like everyone that’s left. I need to keep doing this segment though, so Yash is the unfortunate victim. That’s a rough HOH reign. If he wasn’t so blinded by his illusion of a bros alliance, he could have suspected that the two Survivors who played on the same season a year ago were working together. He could have straight up put the three icons on the block and greatly increased the likelihood that an icon would go home. At the very least, he could have pulled Haley off the block if he was serious about working with her. Then, put up Barrett or Devens to greatly weaken the numbers of the other side. So many missed opportunities but it’s hard to blame him at the same time.
Winner Watch: Dee Escapes Danger
Dee played with fire this week and she almost paid the price for it. If it weren’t for Devens’ DPOV, there is a very high chance she would have gone home. Mallory and Melody would have little incentive to keep her and even if the vote does flip onto Haley, it is still a dangerous predicament. M&M could still waver on if they should trust the icons or take a shot like they did in the real scenario. Luckily, she was given a lifeline and I think she is now wide awake in the game. She’s not going to joke around in comps like she did in the knockout anymore. She’s instead going to win as many comps as possible and has clear targets laid out for her. Hopefully she’ll have an upward trajectory.
Kamu Kirk: We Are
He stood unshaken, a voice in the storm A man of conviction, a heart reborn He spoke the truth when the cost was high He lived for Jesus, unafraid to die
We are Kamu Kirk, we carry the flame We’ll fight for the Gospel, we’ll honor his name We are Kamu Kirk, his courage our own Together unbroken, we’ll make Heaven known
A husband, a father, his family held near A home built on Scripture, on faith without fear The world tried to silence, but his voice remains In us it echoes, in Christ it sustains
We are Kamu Kirk, we carry the flame We’ll fight for the Gospel, we’ll honor his name We are Kamu Kirk, his courage our own Together unbroken, we’ll make Heaven known
The battle is raging, the darkness will fall We rise with his spirit, we answer the call The truth is eternal, the Cross is our guide With God as our Captain, we march side by side
We are Kamu Kirk, we carry the flame We’ll fight for the Gospel, we’ll honor his name We are Kamu Kirk, his courage our own Together unbroken, we’ll make Heaven known
We are Kamu Kirk Forever alive We are Kamu Kirk With God we will rise
Lyric and the Red Corner have just been blindsided by the entire rest of the house due to a last minute vote flip. The Red Corner are dazed and confused by the eviction. They start blaming and turning on each other due to the vote, while the icons plant seeds of distrust. This is all before the iconic Wall Comp.
In a result that nobody saw coming, Lala became the new HOH, outlasting Kamu and becoming and oldest player to ever win the wall comp. Lala’s HOH reign leads to the best week of the season yet, as the alliances and lines are completely redrawn…
The Week’s Strategy
Lala is a complete wildcard. She was part of Rome’s fallen empire, but the only person she was comfortably aligned with was Taylor. Nobody has any idea what she’s about to do. This is her chance to make a mark on the game and solidify a solid alliance. While she does do both of those things, it’s questionable whether or not she actually improves her position.
Lala and Taylor both agree that they want to target Haley this week. However, they initially want to backdoor her to prevent her from competing in the veto competition. They also want to nominate Drew, Barrett, and Kamu as pawns to backdoor Haley. For a while, it looks like these nominations are going to go through, with Lala telling all three of them that she’s going to nominate them as pawns. At the last minute, though, Kamu goes back to Lala’s HOH room and throws his former Red Corner allies, Haley and Chuk, as far under the bus as he can. It works, as Lala decides she wants to team up with Kamu now and switches her nominations to be Chuk, Haley, and Barrett. Funnily. Lala never tells Drew she no longer plans on nominating him, so he dresses up for the nomination ceremony and is blindsided when he isn’t nominated.
New alliances form with the destruction of the Toolshed. Lala and Taylor have a new alliance with Kamu, but Yash is also included in that since he was already close to them previously. Then, there’s the alliance with the best name: F.A.P. It consists of Barrett, Drew, Mallory, and Melody. Although they don’t have much explicit power, the fact they could be a large voting block makes them pretty large targets. The icons are still working together, and it’s up in the air whether the Crossovers is still a thing. One thing that is for sure is that F.A.P and the icons made a pact not to go against each other.
Chuk picks Kamu to play in the veto expecting him to use it if he wins it. When Kamu does win the veto, however, he has different plans. He knows that most of the house sees him as being in a trio with Chuk and Haley. Not using the veto could be a way to change that perception. So, he does not use the veto to the dismay of Chuk and Haley, one of whom will 100% go home now.
Haley is still the clear target for most of the house. Nobody really likes her and she just got into a heated confrontation with Angela. However, Haley could be a way more useful weapon and shield than Chuk, so yet again, the icons flip the votes at the last minute. Chuk is now in a must win situation to stay in the game. When he absolutely flops in the blockbuster, his fate is sealed and he is evicted 9-1. It is a shame that we never actually got to see a vote flip because of Haley’s blockbuster win though.
Haley vs Angela
The guilt of the Lyric blindside is eating Angela up. She lied to Haley, who she considers a friend, for some reason. Without consulting the other icons, she admits to Haley that she voted out Lyric, to her shock. It is such a bad game move, as Haley totally believed everything that Angela was selling to her. After this, though, a meeting between Chuk, Dee, Haley, Kamu, and Yash happens in the gym. They discuss the Lyric vote and who was in on it. Kamu calls Angela to the gym to intentionally start drama. Once Angela arrives, Haley confronts her about the blindside, lying that Angela said Dee was also in on it. At this point, Angela completely blows up on Haley, swearing at her and having to be escorted out by Lala. It was kind of unprovoked, as I personally don’t think a lie like that warranted a huge blow up. But Angela was already on her last straw and Haley’s lie was the straw that broke the camel’s back. With that, the Haley and Angela friendship fortunately comes to an end. I almost felt bad for Haley here, seeing as someone she thought was a close friend completely blew up on her, but everything that happens after made me rescind that. It was a great Tv moment though, no doubt about it.
Player of the Week: Taylor Brown
Taylor played a large hand in controlling Lala’s HOH and found herself in a new power alliance after being in a tough spot last week. Lala ran all of her plans through Taylor and it’s looking more and more like they’ll be ride or dies. I should also mention that Lala took a lot of heat, specifically for how she treated Haley, so we’ll have to see how that plays out. It’s a great recovery and the other houseguests have taken note of her influence. The Icons, specifically Dee, are looking at her as a big threat. It looks like we could see the two of them face off in the future. Although there could be some danger for her in the future, I think she shined bright this week. If I was completely unbiased, I would pick Kamu, but I’m biased so that’s not happening.
Flop of the Week: Barrett Pfieffer
Being completely honest, I like Barrett. He seems like a nice guy and so far seems to be well connected. Unfortunately, there aren’t any good options since I can’t pick Chuk for a second week in a row. Barrett’s tendency to give up information to the icons, specifically Dee, can get annoying though, even if it often is beneficial for his game. Also, seeing him get second in both the veto and blockbuster was frustrating, especially the blockbuster as it stopped another blindside from happening. Overall still willing to give him a chance though.
Winner Watch: Dee’s Power Crumbles
Of course, the week after I pick Dee as my new winner pick, her position starts to lower. This was not a particularly good week for Dee, even if her preferred target left. A lot of people are looking at Dee and the icons as big threats and she is not aware of it. She is correctly targeting Taylor, but her blind spot is Kamu. He is not loyal to her and is a huge threat to win, yet she still wants to take him far. I’m hoping she is able to eventually see how big of a threat he is, because it’s starting to look bleak.
Chuk Anyanwu: Flop Cowboy
Chuk is easily the biggest casting fail of this season and maybe even the biggest in the modern era. He knew so little about the game yet thought he knew everything. Even when Taylor tried to help him survive, all of the tips went straight over his head. He was so clueless the entire week, even thinking he’d somehow stay over Barrett. To top it off, he is extremely boring in every aspect. One has to wonder if there’s a problem with casting when a flop like Chuk can be casted straight away while Taylor and even Yash can be alternates. Chuk being gone will have absolutely zero effect on the season.
Haley has had a tough first three weeks in the Big Brother House, per her own accord. As the week 4 HOH, she should finally have a good week. Instead, she’s had possibly her hardest week yet, as the one person she didn’t want to be evicted is blindsided and the Red Corner drops to the bottom of the power structure.
Strategy of the Week
Kamu protected Taylor during his HOH reign, a move that upset Haley. Now that she has the power, Haley is determined to evict Taylor. She’s putting Taylor on the block and will make up whatever excuse she needs to in order to justify it. She lies about Taylor making a comment when she won the HOH competition and Taylor laughing when Jason banged the tea kettle right in Haley’s ears. She just has it out for Taylor.
Melody straight up doesn’t like Haley and she is not good at hiding it. Haley has caught on to this but thinks that Melody is the only person who doesn’t like her. In fact, she thinks that everyone else hates Melody, which is pretty far from reality. Due to her blatant dislike of Haley though, Melody is an easy second nomination.
As for the third nomination… Haley does not want to nominate all women. She needs a man on the block as well. Instead of Yash, the only man not in the Toolshed, Haley decides to nominate Drew. Angela and Dee are eager to hear this and eventually, Drew becomes the target, something he never becomes aware off. Nonetheless, he is not at all pleased to be nominated. A line has been drawn in the sand, and Drew is not down to be used as a pawn by his supposed ally. The Toolshed is done, a line has been drawn in the sand!
After nominations, Drew is the target and Taylor is the backup target. Everything changes once Taylor wins the veto competition, hosted by Morgan Pope. Haley has no idea who to nominate, as she had repeatedly said throughout the week that she wished for her nominations to stay the same. She doesn’t want to nominate anyone else in the Toolshed and promised Lyric and Yash safety during the HOH competition. She also really wants to keep Mallory safe. It takes Kamu pushing hard for Lyric to stay for Haley to make her decision. She’s going to nominate Lyric. She does not like how close Kamu is to her, so she’s breaking her promise. In addition, Haley is not a fan of how quick Lyric was to throw Mallory under the bus in her effort to stay safe. Lyric is nominated once Taylor takes herself off the block.
Lyric was never actually supposed to go home though. Haley’s main goal was to split up Drew and Melody, who have become closer throughout the game. Drew, still with no idea he’s being targeted, tells the icons how ready he is to turn on the Red Corner if he wins HOH next week. Melody is especially jaded and hateful toward the Red Corner. However, Lyric is getting closer and closer to them, with Kamu even mentioning adding her to the toolshed. That is dangerous for the icons. So, at the last minute, Dee and Devens agree that Lyric needs to go and Drew needs to stay no matter what. They are able to get Angela, Barrett, Taylor, and even Mallory on board with this plan right before the live eviction. Once Drew wins the Blockbuster, Lyric is evicted in the first split vote of the season and the Red Corner are all blindsided.
The Time Capsule Debacle
Who entered the BB Time Capsule? For two days, a lot of people thought that it was Drew. After a lengthy DR session, Drew came out and immediately told Devens about doing an HOH takeover. This, alongside no one else saying anything about having a power fueled speculation that Drew not only entered the Time Capsule but won the Coin of Destiny. Dee had even told Devens, her closest ally, that she didn’t win a power. Many were ecstatic to see Drew potentially overthrow Haley’s HOH. But it never happened. The excitement turned to anger, many furious that Drew didn’t use one of the most powerful advantages to save himself from eviction. People were saying all kinds of things about him and the Zach Cornell comparisons were abundant. Then, the Sunday episode aired. DEE entered the time capsule and won the BB Bribe from BB18. People were mad at Drew for not using a power he didn’t have. Now we all know what Angela was thinking.
Player of the Week: Dee Valladares
Dee has been a steady and consistent player the entire season. She had the best first HOH we’ve seen since BB22 and this week, she’s once again shown why she’s widely considered one of the best New Era Survivor players. She hid her Time Capsule power from not only the houseguests, but the viewers as well. Then, she flipped the vote onto Lyric with only hours left to go before the live eviction. She is just on another level and can easily run circles around the rest of the cast.
Flop of the Week: Chuk Anyanwu
The first double flop, Chuk continues to provide nothing entertainment wise. In addition, he was blindsided at the eviction and is now on the bottom of the game, with even one of his Red Corner allies not trusting him at this point. He may be dragged along for a while, but Chuck’s game is nonexistent. ‘
Winner Watch: Picking a New Winner Pick
With Lyric gone, I now need to choose someone else as my winner pick. I’m going to go with Dee, my winner pick, as she is in one of the best positions in the house and I don’t see anyone targeting her soon. If they do, Devens’ Diamond POV is still in play. Her plan for the Red Corner to be shields for the icons has been executed to perfection, now, it’s time to sit back and relax.
Lyric Medeiros: Singing Backstabber
Lyric may have been an early boot, but she is still someone who displayed a lot of game ability. After first watching her introduction video, my first thought was that she was Lauren with a killer instinct. I’d say that was accurate, as she was not afraid to use her looks to her advantage and throw anyone under the bus to save herself. Of course, the latter ended up backfiring on her by the end, but it nonetheless take a lot of guts to play a rat game. She was ready to hitch her wagon to whoever she thought would get her the farthest. I am not at all disappointed with what Lyric brought to the season and do not regret naming her as my first winner pick.
Everyone get ready! It’s time for Queen Kamu’s HOH Reign. It’s exactly what everyone’s ever wanted!
Strategy Throughout The Week
Queen Kamu wins the classic booth comp to become the new Head of Household. Of course, that means another week of Toolshed control. Queen Kamu only has one goal with his HOH reign: evict Jason. Initially, he wants to put Jason on the block straight away. However, with some convincing from Drew, who he has (or had) a final two deal with, Queen Kamu decides to backdoor Jason instead. Of course, to backdoor someone, you need to have pawns. And who better to be a pawn than people who have already been on the block? Queen Kamu tells Lyric that she’s going to be a pawn, but under no scenario will she actually go home. This is surprisingly completely truthful, as Lyric was never in danger of going home. She has these men under a spell! Mallory is another easy nominee and backup target, so she’s going on the block as well. As for the third nominee… Despite Haley’s obsession with wanting Taylor to go on the block, Queen Kamu refuses to nominate her for some reason. Instead, Lala is the final nominee, as there’s no way she could win a veto or blockbuster.
As if the Toolshed didn’t have enough power, Rick Devens enters the Time Capsule and wins the most powerful power there is, the Diamond Power of Veto! It’s looking like a great day to be rooting for the remains of Rome’s empire.
Everyone, including Jason, knows that Jason is the backdoor target. So, imagine everyone’s surprise when… Jason is picked to play in the veto by Lala. He has a chance to completely ruin Queen Kamu’s HOH reign! Unfortunately, we don’t get to see that as Lyric wins the veto and ensures that the backdoor plan goes through.
After ruining Mallory’s tea party to ruin Jason’s game (it was already dead in the water?), Queen Kamu backdoors Jason during the veto meeting. Jason does not roll over and die, banging a tea kettle to alert Queen Kamu whenever anyone was possibly talking strategy and making it clear who he would target. Maybe that, or something else, actually helps him, as there are rumblings from Rome’s fallen empire to save him if he doesn’t win the blockbuster. Surprisingly, Yash locks in and solidifies close alliances with Lyric and Taylor, all the while convincing the Toolshed they can trust him. To add on, Melody wants both Jason and Mallory to stay, and Lala to be evicted instead. If you don’t want to get steamrolled, you need as many competitors on your side. Unfortunately, Drew and Barrett, the supposed middle, shut down the plans, even as the Toolshed continue to lose more and more trust in them. That means Jason is once again in a must win scenario.
We all know how it ends. Jason falls heartbreakingly short in the blockbuster to Mallory and breaks down. He still tries to save himself, but it’s to no avail and he’s evicted unaminously.
The Tea Party
Mallory plans an elaborate tea party to lighten the mood in the house. Unbeknownst to her, Queen Kamu, inspired by Drew and Barrett’s retellings of Keesha’s Birthday, decides he’s going to blow up Jason’s game at her tea party. Why though? Jason is already at the bottom of the house and going home if he loses the blockbuster? Queen Kamu does not need to be doing all of this. He just wants to isolate Jason from the rest of the house in his final days.
At the Tea Party, Jason does not back down when Queen Kamu starts “exposing” his game. He does an excellent job at handling the poor situation, rebutting most of Queen Kamu’s arguments about him throwing everyone under the bus and being a messy player. By the end of it, Queen Kamu looks like a fool, as even his own ally, Dee, talks in the DR about how he’s just painting a giant target on his own back for no reason. Queen Kamu does not see it this way, of course, thinking he’s a genius and blew up Jason’s game. A completely inauthentic attempt to have a TV moment that backfired on Queen Kamu.
Winner Watch: The Flirt
In a post-Rome house, it seems like Lyric has fully implemented the flirt strategy. She is not afriad to throw Rome under the bus to earn trust with the Toolshed. She has Kamu and Chuk under her spell despite her true loyalties being to the Giggle Girls (Melody and Mallory). She also won her first competition, ironically a “Pickleball” inspired comp. Seemingly being good with the toolshed while still being firmly on the other side, Lyric has great longevity as it stands right now. Things are looking up for my winner pick!
Player of the Week: Rick Devens
After a chaotic HOH reign, Devens was able to effortlessly sink back into the background as his ally held complete control over the week. Despite Devens seeming like the biggest target on paper, the Red Corner trio are now larger targets than him. To add on, with his diamond POV, which only Dee knows about, ready for use anytime, he should not be going anywhere anytime soon.
Flop of the Week: Queen Kamu Kirk
Queen Kamu is a homophobic and racist bigot who showed his true colors this week. Enough said.
Jason De Puy: Gone Too Soon </3
Despite only lasting three weeks, Jason provided a ton of drama and entertaining moments during his time in the Big Brother House, He is a showman and knows how to put on a show. Whether you love him or love to hate him, he made a lasting impression despite a short stay. It sucks that people like Queen Kamu were so threatened by someone so proud to just be themselves. It’s still really early, but… Jason for BB All Stars 3?
You’ve heard about the fall of Rome in your history class. You’ve seen the fall of Rome on Survivor. Now, it’s time for the fall of Rome on Big Brother
Rick Devens makes the first big move of the season, exposing Rome’s power structure and successfully backdooring him. Also this week: the most explosive nomination ceremony in Big Brother history, a fake break up, and a new mega-alliance
Strategy Breakdown: The Toolshed
Rick Devens accidentally wins the HOH competition after initially agreeing to throw the competition to Haley. Not having planned to win the HOH, he wants to make a safe move in targeting Mallory, who people were already willing to evict week 1. However, his ally, Angela, has a different idea. She thinks that Devens needs to take a big swing at Rome’s side of the house this week.
At the beginning of the week, Rome is optimistic about Devens being the HOH and thinks he can sway him to his side. In a one-on-one with Devens, Rome gives him a list of who he wants to be safe: himself, LaLa, Lyric, Jason, and Melody. After Devens points out that that’s a lot of people to keep safe and asks Rome to narrow it down, Rome tells him that he wants to protect Lyric and Jason the most.
With Angela’s pushing and Rome’s boldness in who he wanted to protect, Devens is convinced to go all out and backdoor Rome. Late into the night, after Devens discusses his plans with individual members of both the Crossovers and the Red Corner, he and the other vets eventually decide to bring all of their allies from both alliances into the HOH room to discuss the backdoor plan. They agree to nominate Lyric, Jason, and Melody and backdoor Rome after the veto is used. Drew comes up with a name for this new mega-alliance: “The Toolshed.” Also, Rome is awoken and is denied entry to the HOH room, alerting him that something is afloat.
After the nomination ceremony, all plans for the rest of the week rely on the veto. Once Rome isn’t picked for the veto, though, the plan to backdoor him is set. Devens beats out Jason in a close finish to win the power of veto. While it does initially seem like Melody will have the veto used on her, as she has Drew vouching for her and puts in good work with Devens by promising to not nominate him for at least three weeks if he saves her. However, a combination of the vets being weary of Drew’s relationship with Melody and Lyric & Rome’s work in having the veto used on her mean the veto is ultimately used on Lyric instead. Lyric and Rome’s plan was to have a fake break-up to make people less scared of them. Unfortunately, nobody really believes that. What does save Lyric is her conversation with Devens where she promises to not nominate him in the future.
With Lyric off and Rome on the block, he needs the blockbuster to stay alive. If he does win the blockbuster, though, who would go home between Jason and Melody? On paper, it would be Jason given he’s already gotten in so much drama and been exposed for being a “messy b*tch.” However, a lot of paranoia from Angela and Dee about Drew’s loyalty to them causes some confusion. It seems people are starting to catch on to Drew’s floater game. I’m not sure it’s in Angela and Dee’s best interest to flip on him though, since he seems more loyal to them than Rome’s side of the house. After a solid first week, I’m starting to worry about both of their game abilities.
Taylor is also pushing hard for Rome and Jason to stay in the house. She is the most vocal advocate, also the only, for evicting Melody. She never really gains traction, though, as by the end of the week, Melody is safe in all scenarios. Come time for the Blockbuster, Jason easily wins the puzze challenge, saving himself from the block and proving himself to be a very capable and dangerous competitor. Rome is evicted in a 12-1 vote, outing to everyone that he and Lyric are still together on the way out. I’m sure that was shocking to everyone in the house.
Strategic Blunders
It obviously doesn’t end up mattering at all, but I have a gripe with the fact that Devens saved Lyric instead of Melody. Why would you give the showmance a lifeline? If Rome won the blockbuster, both him and Lyric would still be in the game and pose a serious threat to the Toolshed. Also, Devens seems to have completely burned Melody, as she is now eager to target Devens if she wins an HOH competition. Was it just because Angela and Dee were so paranoid of Drew and Melody’s connection? I struggle to understand the logic.
The Craziest Nomination Ceremony Ever
At the nomination ceremony, Devens exposes Rome for being okay with LaLa and Melody being nominated, causing the former to break down in front of everyone. That is not the end though, as Angela’s had her last straw with Jason and calls him out in front of everyone for using his emotions to manipulate her. Then, when it seems that both of them have made their points, Haley jumps in and accuses Jason of wanting to target the girls, which Jason says was just a lie. Then, Devens accuses him of the same thing and when Jason responds, “didn’t you fall for it,” Devens looks back at the nomination screen and says, “no.” Then, Angela jumps back in and tells everyone how messed up it is that Rome put Lala’s head on a silver platter. Rome is forced to defend himself, telling everyone that he gave Devens a list of who he wanted to be safe and then boiled down the list after Devens told him to. Devens confirms this story and the two act really respectfully toward each other even though they are now out to get each other in the game. After Devens says the ceremony is adjourned for what feels like the millionth time, Haley makes a comment that causes Rome to snap, calling her a “snarky b*tch.” He calls her unbearable, a common sentiment throughout most of the house.
What I love about this nomination ceremony is the unintentional comedy of Angela doing all of this in Vince’s Hard Boiled Eggtective costume. Also, her and Jason, probably the two most overdramatic people in the house, bring on the theatrics. They both know how to appeal to the cameras. It is still very early in the season, but I believe that this nomination ceremony will be remembered as one of the season’s best moments by the end.
Winner Watch: The End of Rolyric
This is another confusing week for me in terms of assessing Lyric’s game ability. Starting with the positives, it is really impressive that she was able to get the veto used on her instead of Melody. I think her being willing to separate herself from Rome is also a good sign. Even though her vote didn’t matter, her actually voting to evict Rome shows an ability to be cold-blooded. It seems that even Rome didn’t expect that. She was also willing to flirt with Chuk and Yash to sell the Rolyric breakup. There were still warning signs though in how attached she was to Rome and how attached she seems to her side of the house. She still hasn’t made inroads with the other side and could be used as a pawn or even targeted if the Toolshed continues to hold onto power. Overall, while I don’t think she’s in a strong position, week 2 still showed a lot of promise for Lyric’s game potential and that she’s not just a Love Island reject.
Player of the Week: Kamu Kirk
Unfortunately, I do have to admit that Kamu is playing a really solid game so far. While it seems like his Red Corner trio is not particularly well-liked in the house and being targeted by Rome’s side, Kamu is never the one actually being targeted. It is always Haley who is being targeted, while Kamu is never talked about, even as a backup target. To add on to that, basically everyone in the toolshed trusts Kamu, with it seeming that only Drew and Barrett are apprehensive. The icons’ paranoia and distrust of their own allies also makes me struggle to pick any of them as the player of the week. Shout out to Devens, though, who did not at all disappoint with his HOH reign.
Flop of the Week: Chuk Anyanwu
Where is Chuk? He’s a part of the Red Corner and Toolshed, but beyond that, where is he? It feels like we are barely hearing anything about Chuk’s game plans. While I don’t think anyone wants to target him, it’s not because of any stellar gameplay. He’s just such a non-entity who isn’t really doing much in the game and therefore isn’t on anyone’s radar.
The truth is, if I wasn’t refraining from picking anyone as FOTW twice in a row, I would have just picked Yash again. His refusal to work with women at all and creating an all-guys alliance that no one besides him is taking seriously are more than enough to secure him the title. Since I already chose him last week though, I’ll just have to go with someone who is barely even playing the game instead.
Rome Seymour: The Leader of the Betas and Submissives
Rome did exactly what he set out to do. He rallied together who he believed to be the betas and submissives of the house to his side and led them. Unfortunately, being so out-in-front made him an early target and ultimately the second boot of the season. To soften the blow though, he scored himself a showmance who he will most likely be with after the show. He brought a lot of entertainment to the season and his presence will be missed.
As for my prediction, I nailed it. Not only in terms of placement, but also in how he would go out. He was similar to Brian Hart, at first leading the house but instantly finding his position crumbled. He even had his moment of people pushing the HOH to backdoor him.
