I'm So Fired Up About Big Brother's Latest Eviction, And Judging By Social Media, I'm Not The Only One

Guys, last night's episode of Big Brother was everything. Really, live episodes like the one we got this week, where we're dealing with an edge-of-your-seat vote situation following an edge-of-your-seat Blockbuster competition, are one of the reasons I've never been able to quit this show. And part of my enjoyment of it in this modern age of Big Brother is seeing other fans lose their minds alongside me.

Before I get into reactions to Thursday night's live eviction, wherein Rylie Jeffries was evicted from the house by a vote of 5 to 4, know that I will not be getting into live feed spoilers from the Head of Household competition that took place last night. If you want to know who won and read some speculation on what the new HoH will do for nominations, check out Mick's Big Brother spoiler update.

Back to last night, because I'm still reeling.

There Was Only One Way For This To Happen

Those of us who've been trying to keep a close eye on the live feeds over the last few days (either via Pluto or a Paramount+ subscription) knew that nothing was completely set in stone for this week's vote. It all came down to who won Blockbuster and then a few specific votes.

While Mickey was on the outs with a lot of houseguests, there are others who felt certain that Rylie should be evicted sooner rather than later. And Morgan's safety was nowhere near guaranteed. There were different outcomes and vote scenarios depending on who won the Blockbuster competition. And it was looking like the absolute only way Rylie could be evicted was if Mickey won the Blockbuster, and then Ava and Vince both voted to evict Rylie (the other votes were pretty much set one way or the other).

Last Minute Decisions On The Vote

While Ava appeared to be torn about her vote going into tonight's episode, from what I saw, Vince had assured his vote to both Morgan and Rylie under any circumstance. Which meant in this one specific scenario of Mickey winning Blockbuster, and Rylie and Morgan still on the block, Vince was going to have to break his word to someone, and Ava was going to have to make a last-minute decision over who she evicted. There was some concern among fans that Mickey might vote to evict Morgan over Rylie, but that didn't happen. Still, it was another variable on the table.

I feel like even if you didn't go into last night's episode with that information, you would've seen how undecided things were the moment it was revealed that Mickey had won. We saw Vince and Ava convene immediately, as they'd planned to do, to figure out which way they were voting. We saw Rachel approach them and make a plea for them to send Rylie out. And we saw Vince whisper something to Keanu, that Keanu tried to shut down.

And Then, The Vote

The suspense for some of these votes was insane. When it was his turn to vote, Vince hesitated, but his "I'm sorry, man," before he cast his vote was a quick clue as to who he was about to evict. During her turn to vote, Ava made a little joke about wanting to evict Mickey, followed by what felt like an eternity of a pause as she made her choice to evict Rylie. I swear, for a second, I thought she was going to say Morgan. The tension! While there were a couple of votes left to go, Ava's vote was the fifth for Rylie, which locked in his eviction.

The episode also included one of Julie's rare "______, you are safe. ______ you've been evicted..." fake-outs. I hope we get to see more reactions to that during Sunday's episode, including Morgan's. Rylie just seemed stunned as the camera zoomed in on him, though I have to wonder if he had an inkling that he was in trouble before Julie's announcement.

Fans Are Reacting

I went into tonight's episode both in awe of how Rachel Reilly navigated her Head of Household week, and also trying not to get my hopes up that the fruits of all of her efforts would be Rylie leaving the house. There was basically one perfect set of circumstances that would allow it to happen; it came down to the wire, and it actually happened.

And I'm not alone in being fired up about everything. Rob Has a Podcast podcaster Taran Armstrong was streaming his reaction to the episode live on Twitch last night, and he did not hold back the moment Ava finally said her vote and the five votes were locked in for Rylie to go (audio on, if you're ok with loud, NSFW language!).

Taran was all of us watching that vote play out (or any of us who wanted this outcome). You can check out more of his reaction on his full Twitch stream for the episode (if you want to jump to the vote, it's around the 45:00 mark). Here are some other reactions that I saw on X after the episode:

• @BigBrother_Tay - Split vote, half the house blindsided, Julie with the fakeout, Rylie not in jury: Best eviction of the season by far
• @Corner2016 - Rachel took a risk! A BIG SWING! AND DID NOT MISS!!! Thats an old school player for you!!
• @effexorfan420 - generational hoh week 💪 rachel reilly is a top 5 bb player im not hearing that “she’s overrated” “bb13 was rigged” bullshit anymore
• @Ethanimale - I feel like we just went through one of those evictions that we’re gonna remember for a long time 

I couldn't agree with @Ethanimale more on that sentiment. Longtime fans of the series know that eviction episodes that are this unpredictable and this intense don't happen every week (or even every season). That's especially true when the major events play out the way many people hope they will. We won't soon forget this one.

The Blockbuster competition has certainly helped to keep different scenarios on the table going into Thursday's episode, and that's a very new-school Big Brother competition. But there was undoubtedly an old school Big Brother element in play here, with Rachel Reilly as Head of Household. She's been holding her own as the sole vet in a house full of newbies, but as we saw with her moves throughout the week, and the work she put in to try to make this eviction happen, there's a reason she has the reputation she does for her passion for the game and how she plays it.

What did you think of last night's episode? Vote in the poll or sound off in the comments below!