With just seven houseguests remaining in Season 19, the time for pawns and backdoor plans may be at an end in the Big Brother house. Two people went on the black on Friday night, and there's a very good chance one of them will be going home. Get the latest from the Big Brother live feed spoilers ahead!
(Turn back now if you'd rather wait until Sunday night to find out who won Head of Household and who they nominated!)
Ok, here we go...
Head of Household:
Christmas
Nominated:
Jason
Alex
Who won Veto?
Not played yet
As we previously reported, Christmas somehow managed to win the Head of Household competition, which took place off the feeds and won't air until Sunday night. It's a mark of the pure bizarreness of this season that a woman with a broken foot can win a racing competition against five other people, but I digress. Sounds like it was thrown to her, which was the plan.
Also part of the plan (for her and Josh anyway) was for Christmas to nominate Jason and Alex. I think Jason is the main target, though there's lots of talk about going after Kevin also. There usually is. We'll get to that.
Jason and Alex thought Alex would go up next to Kevin or Raven or anyone else, really. The fact that they got put up together really rattled Jason.
Not long after nominations, Jason started going around talking aggressively to Kevin, Josh and Paul. Kevin flat-out told Jason he thinks Jason and Alex are the targets, and that there isn't a pawn thing happening this week. Kevin also told Jason later that he was told to stay in his room and sit tight for three days. Which I think is more or less true. Christmas assured Kevin to trust her. Why he thinks it's in his best interest to go running his mouth to Jason right now, I don't know. We'll get to that too.
Jason goes to Josh freaking out about the nominations, wanting to know why Christmas is "dicking around." Josh feigns ignorance, saying he hasn't talked about nominations with Christmas, and Jason seems to believe it. Not long after, Paul tries to claim to Jason that he thinks Christmas might be trying to backdoor him (Paul). That lie didn't go down so easy for Jason, who talked about it with Kevin, and both agreed Paul knows what's going on.
It wasn't until Christmas, Alex and Jason were in a room together that Jason finally calmed down, thanks to Alex's assurance that Kevin was the target, and to not to listen to anything Kevin says. Jason's paranoia (or good instincts) seemed to dissolve the more Christmas and Alex talked to him, and by the end of the conversation, he appeared to be much happier, and much less fearful that he and Alex were the next targets. Which they are.
This whole situation really highlights just how disastrous Alex's gameplay is, despite how far she's gotten in the game. Or at the very least, what a massive blindspot Paul is in Alex's strategy, since she trusts him so much. And Jason trusts Alex so much, that any time his instincts rise to the surface, her complete obliviousness throws a blanket over them. To be fair though, Jason isn't entirely wise to the situation that's happening. At one point when he and Alex were talking alone last night, he actually said there's no way Josh, Christmas and Paul are working together. Seriously? Seriously?! Alex did correct him on that in saying they are working together... with them. But they really don't see Josh/Paul/Christmas as a separate trio.
That really is a reminder of how some things are so obvious to us, but these houseguests don't see what's really going on. Kevin may be the closest thing to anyone who's really on to what Paul, Josh and Christmas are doing, but his credibility is shot. He would've been better off keeping his mouth shut talking separately with Paul, Josh and Christmas, gathering as much information as he can, then using his morning walk with Jason to make a case for why he thinks Jason or Alex are the main target, and what they could do to fix the situation. There's always the chance Kevin wins the Veto, uses it to take Jason off, then Raven goes up. Of course, having the votes to actually get her out would be tricky. It would be 2:2 (Kevin/Jason evict Raven, Josh/Paul evict Alex, Christmas breaks the tie).
Alas, Kevin unloaded his accurate theory on a panicked Jason, who told everyone what he said, and now people (including Alex) are telling Jason to stop listening to anything Kevin says. And now the target on Kevin's back is that much bigger, and he could end up being a replacement nominee this week, depending on who wins Veto.
As for Raven, the closest she'll likely get to the block this week is the above-mentioned pawn scenario if Kevin wins Veto and uses it. No one is really eying her as a necessary target now that Matt is gone. The Veto competition should take place sometime today. If anyone besides Alex, Jason or Kevin manages to win the Veto, I think it'll either not get used, or it will get used on Alex, and Kevin will go up as a pawn/backup option. If Jason is still on the block on Thursday, the odds seem very high that he will be walking out the door.
There's been some talk between Paul and Christmas about her having to take the heat, either by not using the Veto (if she wins it) or by breaking a tie on eviction night. She seems prepared for that scenario if it comes to it. She was even prepared to take the heat if Alex and Jason flipped out over the nominations, but it seems like things are back to being ok, thanks to Alex and Jason's obliviousness and/or denial that Paul could possibly be loyal to anyone more than he is to them.
Tree of Temptation update: Once again, the tree lit up on Friday (before nominations). And once again, no one took an apple. I think this was the last week that tree was in play. Talk about a dud of a twist.
Since I've spent so much time this season monitoring and discussing Paul's game play, I finally got around to laying out some of the key things he's been doing all season to dominate this game. You can read all about that here.
For those curious about the Big Brother live feeds, they come included with CBS All Access, CBS's streaming service. More info on the free trial offer here.
