Big Brother rarely manages to surprise the houseguests with a Double Eviction anymore, but this week seemed to be the exception, as there wasn't much talk of a chance that tonight's live episode might send two Houseguests packing. From the conversation we saw between Vanessa and Austin on the feeds earlier today, it seemed like they assumed it would be next week. Well, surprise! It's this week. CBS had football airing in some regions, but the results of the episode can't be contained. That said, if you haven't seen the episode yet, major spoilers ahead!
Points to Steve for contemplating the option of sending Julia out this week. If not for that, it would've been a certainty that Meg would go home. And that was, after all, Vanessa's plan. Had it been Liz on the block, I'm thinking Meg would've had a slightly better chance of staying. Liz is the glue of Austwins, as she's showmancing Austin and sisters with Julia. Take Liz out, and there's a chance someone could drive a wedge between Julia and Austin. They're not that close anyway. Alas, it was Julia on the block, and though they considered a flip, Steve and Johnny Mac stuck with the plan to evict Meg. Here's how the rest of the events of the Double Eviction went down...
1st Eviction
Meg
Head of Household
Liz
Nominated
James
John
Won the Veto
Julia
Veto Used?
No
Evicted
James
The house made a clean job of it, sending James out the door to follow Meg to the jury house. Austin seemed to be cultivating a tentative friendship with James, which could have yielded better results for one of the more entertaining houseguests of the season tonight. Had Austin pushed for James to stay, he would've likely had Julia's vote, and if it went to a tie, Liz would've broken it. So it wasn't a safe bet that James would go. But in this case, it seems like Austin saw his chance to get out a competitor, and he took it.
It's disappointing, as James was not only an entertaining houseguest, but also a strong player who wasn't afraid to make game moves. If he had a downfall, it was getting sucked into the Meg vortex. Meg may have been likable as a houseguest, but she wasn't much of a gamer, and tended to spend too much time tucked away in bed or the Have Not room. I was hoping with her gone, we'd get to see James step up his game. Unfortunately, he didn't get the chance to do that.
This leaves an interesting set of Houseguests remaining. We have Austwins (Liz, Austin, Julia), Vanessa, Johnny Mac and Steve. All of them were kind of working together, particularly this past week as they sought to send Meg out. So now what? It's obviously going to come down to who wins Head of Household. Liz can't play, which leaves Austin and Julia to fight for Austwins' safety. Vanessa can play, but if I'm guessing, I'd say she might be better off throwing it. I don't think she's anyone's #1 target right now. Both of her original targets went home tonight. If she wins HoH, she has to make a big decision in choosing between Austwins and her secret J-Mac/Steve alliance. Why not throw it, focus a minimal amount of energy on staying supportive and neutral (not really her best strength, but give it a shot) and let Austwins target J-Mac/Steve, or J-Mac/Steve target Austwins. Then again, maybe someone will surprise us this week and target Vanessa anyway. We'll have to wait and see.
Head of Household will presumably take place sometime tonight or tomorrow. And we have Sunday's Big Brother episode to look forward to, as that often offers a bit of behind-the-scenes Double Eviction chaos from the live show.
