SPOILERS ahead from the 2019 Big Brother 21 live feeds.
Who won Big Brother 21's Final HOH Part 2 competition between Nicole Anthony and Holly Allen -- and does that mean they have the best chance of winning the entire 2019 season? Well, when the live feeds returned at 1:30 a.m. ET on Saturday/Sunday, Jackson Michie was celebrating. That was our sign. Holly won Final HOH Part 2. So will she keep winning after Part 2 and go on to win Part 3 and/or the $500,000 grand prize?
Also, RIP Nicole? Big Brother fans stayed up stress eating through the down live feeds, waiting and hoping and manifesting a Nicole Part 2 win. Didn't work. Sigh.
Here's the recap of the Final HOH comps so far, and a look at what's probably ahead:
Who Won Final HOH Part 1? Jackson Michie won the comp held Thursday to be shown on TV Sunday, September 22.Who Won Final HOH Part 2? Holly Allen in a comp held Saturday evening to be shown on TV Wednesday, September 25, 2019. The houseguest who has won Part 2 has gone on to win the full $500,000 for the past seven seasons. Is that a good sign for Holly? Well, it certainly can't hurt.Who Will Host The Jury Roundtable? BB19's Jessica Graf? That's just a rumor at this point. Usually Big Brother 2 winner Dr. Will Kirby interviews the jury -- including the person just evicted before Final 3 -- to be shown on the Wednesday finale show. It gives us a preview of the jury's mindset. Houseguests bicker and debate and we get a better (but still heavily edited) picture of who is for or against who. Here's how last year's Big Brother 20 jury roundtable turned out.Who Will Win Final HOH Part 3? That will be held live on finale night, as usual. Lately, it has been the "Scales of Just Us" comp. Whoever wins the live Part 3 often does go on to win the whole season, although that was not the case for Paul vs. Nicole in Big Brother 18. The Part 3 winner will becoming the Final Head of Household of Big Brother 21.What Happens After Part 3? The Part 3 winner will quickly evict someone into third place. That person will head to the jury on stage. The Final 2 will face the jury, answer questions, make speeches, and probably ramble nervously. It happens live and it gets tense, especially if/when Julie Chen (Moonves) starts rushing everyone along. The jury members will ask scripted-sounding questions. Someone will probably say their vote is up for grabs even if they already know who they plan to vote for. They will turn their keys for the houseguest of their choice, then Julie will pull each one out to reveal who each HG voted to win. It looks like this.What Do The Final 2 Get? The winner gets $500,000. Runner-up gets $50,000. After Julie reveals the vote, the Final 2 will leave the Big Brother house, confetti will fall on the winner, and Julie will reveal who won America's Favorite Houseguest and the $25,000 prize that comes with that.
Holly was going to Final 2 no matter what, since Jackson and Nicole would both take her. Now it will be Jackson vs. Holly in Part 3, with both taking each other no matter what ... unless Holly does seriously consider dumping Jackson. I doubt it. Fans would LOVE a baller move like that, but Holly and Jackson's showmance is too tight. Call it co-dependent, whatever. They would both almost certainly take each other.
So we're in for a pretty boring Part 3. However, if Holly also wins Part 3, that would help her chances to win the $500K even more.
Jackson seemed to have the best odds to win going into Final 3. The fact that Cliff Hogg III was even willing to take Jackson to Final 3 if Cliff had won the Final 4 Veto speaks volumes -- not great things about Cliff, but about the bizarre power Jackson has had over houseguests. (And power over production when it comes to Have-Nots -- and the Final 4 Veto, if you ask several vocal fans.)
But then the odds shifted away from Jackson, in part because Jackson breaking his deal with Cliff may have cost Jackson some jury votes. Cliff got in Jackson's head about that before leaving. How much influence would Cliff have on the jury? They might have been rooting for Nicole anyway, without Cliff saying anything, but would enough be voting against Jackson to cost Jackson the $500,000 next to Holly?
I'm sure people will now say the game is rigged for Jackson/Holly, but Part 1 was a puzzle and Part 2 was at least partly days/strategy/mental in addition to physical, and those are usually strengths for Nicole. They all get notes from production during comps, not just Jackson. If they were going to "rig" this season for anyone (beyond that stupidity with Have-Nots), it would be for one of the most popular Big Brother players ever. That's Nicole Anthony.
Besides...
This. Is. Why. You. Don't. Let. A Showmance. Stay. This. Long.
I'm not even talking about the ill-fated Holly/Tommy vote. I'm talking Christie/Tommy at HOH Nicole and Veto winner Cliff's double eviction. Christie Murphy SUCKED at comps, and Tommy Bracco was OK but not as much of a threat as Jackson. There were so many chances for everyone in BB21 to break Holly and Jackson apart, but instead Cliff and Nicole made a deal with the devils. It worked for them for a while ... and then it didn't.
Still, I was rooting for Nicole too and now it looks like we're facing a depressing end to a toxic season. Some fans may just skip the finale, but we do have to see who wins AFP!
At the very least, Nicole should get $25,000 as America's Favorite Houseguest. She seems like a lock from both live feeders and casuals, but we'll see. Cliff will probably be in the top three, but we'll also have to wait and see on that. I bet he's banking on it, but fans of Tommy, Kemi Fakunle, Sam Smith, and Kathryn Dunn are also out there pushing. Julie Chen will reveal the AFP winner after the confetti Jackson is so obsessed with drops on our winner and everyone in the BB21 cast is standing outside the Big Brother 2019 house.
So now we wait to see who wins the live Final HOH Part 3, which does most often (but not always) give us a preview of the season winner. Will it be the usual Scales of Just Us or will The Powers That Be switch things up on us? You can't assume anything. Expect the unexpected.
Big Brother 2019 is down to its final two episodes. After this Sunday's 8:30 p.m. (note the time) recap/Final HOH Part 1 episode, we have the Big Brother 21 finale also at a weird time on Wednesday, September 25. It airs from 9:30-11 p.m. ET., after the Survivor premiere.
Who deserves to win Big Brother 21, in your opinion, and why?
