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“Big Brother” recap (17.24-26): Week Eight

This week on Big Brother: After Steve shocks the house and sends Jackie packing for Jury, he breaks down in tears and Vanessa, Liz and Julia console him. After the girls leave, he turns to the cameras and says under his breath: “Fifty percent acting.” Meg, James and Becky go through their daily Vanessa chatter-they imagine someone had to be in Steve’s ear prior to this eviction about Jackie. At that moment, Steve interrupts their talk and they basically ask him why he chose to get rid of Jackie. He says someone told him that she was gunning for him, and that she wanted to backdoor him. The group emphatically denies this, and they ask him who told him that. Steve gives them a sly reply: “If you had to guess, you’d probably be right.” The camera cuts to Vanessa inside, blissfully ignorant to the ongoing target practice the house is taking aim on outside.

SUNDAY: HOH and Nominations

Steve frets that he’s lost the entire Big Brother show. He paces back and forth. In the HOH competition, Liz wins and celebrates privately afterward with Austin, Julia and Vanessa. They decide to rename the Sixth Sense to Austin’s Angels. The three blondes strike a pose a la fierce gun-holding hand motions in around Austin, who’s probably thinking about going downstairs and whipping up some scrambled eggs, or locating the blind spot in the BB house so he and Liz can get their groove on. Admit it: You’ve wondered if such a place exists within their confines. Liz talks to her angels about backdooring Becky. Vanessa is relieved and says later in the diary room that she feels pretty solid about Liz’s decision, considering no blood gets on Vanessa’s hands for getting out her sworn enemy and Liz brought up Becky’s name on her own, so there’s no way Vanessa will get caught up in a house fight again, right?

Becky goes upstairs to talk with Liz, Julia and Austin, and promptly campaigns against Vanessa with a few eye-opening factoids, like the fact that she was 100 percent on board to go through with backdooring Austin. He asks if Vanessa knew about it and wanted him gone. Becky nods yes and he freaks out, as if he didn’t already know that. Fact: Julia also knew about the plan to backdoor Austin because right before they played in the POV competition, before Jason was put up as the replacement nominee, Vanessa, Shelli and Clay (who also knew about sending Austin potentially packing) had to talk with Julia to let her in on the secret, but they all agreed they couldn’t risk telling Liz until after everyone played in POV in case she tried to mess with the competition and protect Austin. It was after Austin and Vanessa had their heart-to-heart that Vanessa not only ended up saving him, but decided to give him a heaping second chance as someone who lied to her face. Either way, the trio is so taken by Becky’s insight that they begin to reevaluate their allegiances to Vanessa.

A little while later, Johnny Mac asks Vanessa if he’s going up on the block. Vanessa segues into some questions for Johnny about how he feels toward her. She says she’s under the impression that there’s some unspoken beef between them. Vanessa wants to work with Johnny Mac, but he says he felt bullied the last time they had a bad interaction, right before Clay left. Vanessa tells him that’s unfair to say-because even if Johnny Mac was tossed in the middle of that weird situation between Vanessa and Clay, there’s also the fact that Vanessa was, too. Her biggest mistake was assuming Johnny Mac had someone in his ear, telling him not to trust Vanessa. Unfortunately: Johnny Mac just plain and simply doesn’t trust Vanessa. “I don’t like when you cry and yell at people,” he finally lets out to Vanessa. She says she doesn’t get what his deal is, because she’s literally trying to pull him into an alliance and he isn’t budging, he isn’t interested, and he’s making it totally clear that he’s against her.

She goes upstairs to hash this out with Austin, Liz and Julia, and when she gets upstairs, she begins the story: That Johnny Mac asked her if he’s going up (true), and that when she said she wasn’t sure, that he got an attitude with her (not totally true), and that as the conversation went on and she tried to reason with him, he was just acting super weird (that much is true, but it’s Johnny Mac). Suddenly they spot on the HOH cameras that Johnny Mac is headed upstairs. He walks in the HOH room and asks if he and Vanessa are cool. She looks a little floored, that he followed her upstairs like this. “Yeah, why?” He says: “I don’t know, because we just talked and you walked right up here. It looks really fishy.” Vanessa brushes him off and explains everything is totally fine, so he walks out and leaves them alone. He’s no dummy though, he knows Vanessa is telling them about their conversation. How will they take it?

In the nominations ceremony, Liz nominates Becky and Johnny Mac. Vanessa is made to think the ball is still in her court, but, is Vanessa safe?

WEDNESDAY: Power of Veto

The big thing plaguing Vanessa’s mind is Johnny Mac. She goes back to him to try to smooth things over after their debacle. In the diary room, Johnny Mac confesses: “Vanessa is my sworn enemy.” So, we basically know that this meeting is going to go to shit. You know how in real life relationships, when you and your partner get into a loaded fight and one of you decide you’re too chill to handle this blow out, so you duck under the covers, or sitting/laying wherever you are, you suddenly close your eyes and sigh a bunch, and act like you have a very important nap to take, but you’re actually awake and just don’t want to deal with this heavy topic? That’s the shade Johnny Mac throws Vanessa when she walks into the Have-Not room and tries to smooth things over with him. He just wants to nap, you guys. Let him nap. To nap in the BB house is to avoid le shit.

Steve tells Johnny Mac that he wants to help him. Does this mean that Steve is not so tight with Vanessa now? Austin and the twins feel Johnny Mac is being way too mopey and angry, and it’s annoying. Vanessa tells them she’s tried repeatedly to bring him into the fold and every time he shuts her down. To get down to the bottom of all of this, Liz and Austin have a chat with Johnny Mac, who tells them what she talked to him about. They’re stunned because it doesn’t quite match the explanations she gave them when she ran up to HOH. “Whoever gets Vanessa’s eviction is, like *fist pumps in the air* a God,” says Johnny Mac. Liz says in the diary room that so many people keep mentioning Vanessa’s shady ways, so now she’s thoroughly confused about what to do. Austin calls Vanessa a “word spinster” and openly says in front of Johnny Mac, “I know people think we’re close but that’s changed.”

Vanessa isn’t picked to play in the POV competition, which is bad for her game if anyone else wins and wants to take either Becky or Johnny Mac off the block-which essentially will only be up to Becky, Johnny Mac, or Liz if she’s after Vanessa now. Johnny Mac says he’ll throw it to Austin, which is CRAZY. Reminder: Dude’s on the block, so the fact that he’s willing to throw his only chance of saving himself from possible eviction-for the initiatory gain of forming trust between himself and Austin/the twins is utterly wild. If you’ve been confused about what’s happening, to really simplify this down: Basically Vanessa is being kicked out of her alliance on the sly, while simultaneously trying her best to smooth rough edges with players she wants in her alliance with her, and instead of that actually happening, that player she wants to work with is joining her alliance, but leaving her in the dust. OMG is Johnny Mac the new Vanessa? It’s literally the best sounding plot line for a high school teen drama about a popular clique. I’m half-expecting Johnny Mac and Becky to douse Vanessa in pig’s blood at prom. (There is no BB prom, sorry.)

It’s our favorite BB legend, Otev! He’s a funny singing character who shows up for POV at this point in every season. (Get it? His name is Veto spelled backwards.) He looks like a real life emoji. One season he was a sad beaver, and it was adorable. The point of the competition is to listen to him sing about evicted houseguests, identify who it must be, and then bring him back the correct name on a stick of butter. In the end, Liz wins POV. Vanessa has a nervous talk with Austin about what Liz may possible do. He goes and tells Liz about their talk, assuming Vanessa’s freaked because in a way, she still doesn’t trust Austin and knows he’s in Liz’s ear. “She’ll do whatever it takes,” he points out.

Liz is pretty pissed about this insinuation because Liz rules the house, right? Everyone is cabin fever high at this point-the energy is depleting like a punctured balloon. Vanessa and Steve talk. She says, “Steve: I’m sad.” He asks her what’s up and she admits that she is totally lonely and doesn’t feel she has anyone on her side anymore. “I’m so lonely, I feel like I’m on the block,” she lets out. Liz walks out and asks her, “Aww, why are you crying?” Vanessa begins to explain it to her. But we cut to Liz’s diary room confession later, in which she says, “Vanessa says she feels like the fourth wheel. She’s always playing the victim. I’ve seen the tears before. C’mon, enough of the show!”

Liz tells Austin about Vanessa’s latest episode. “She’s the most annoying bitch, ever,” she blurts out. Damn! Everyone’s been comparing Vanessa to Audrey, who was known to put on theatrical tears, too. Liz says she’s looking out for Austin (more than her own twin Julia?) He asks why the team isn’t working-maybe he’s still torn up about how this Vanessa fallout became so real. Liz says it’s because Vanessa starting bugging out hard. “Go cry in Jury,” Liz adds. She’s convinced somehow that Vanessa is gunning for Austin. This is problematic because it’s the result of Becky being in her ear. If Vanessa were after Austin, she would have gotten rid of him instead of Jason weeks ago, but didn’t she know that others were onto Austin and that she didn’t want his blood on her hands? The same might be evident here: Even though Austin and the twins are over Vanessa, they may not put her up on the block and backdoor her because she’s such a huge target in this house, surely someone will get her out next week and it won’t have to be them. Anyway, it’s all weird and twisted inside out, because last time we checked, Vanessa wanted one person out and one person only: Becky.

Vanessa’s girlfriend Mel tweeted this week that Vanessa was supposed to surprise her with something-and eager Twitter fans were there to answer some questions Mel had when she missed snippets of the BB Livefeed. Apparently, one person said Vanessa was attempting to have production use money from her stipend to send Mel flowers. Despite all her loneliness in this game right now, it’s sweet to see Vanessa being so considerate of her relationship and we’re rooting for Mel to hang in there-despite Vanessa being the house’s latest pariah.

In the Veto meeting, Liz sticks to her original plan and chooses not to use the Veto on Becky or Johnny Mac. Becky later emotes that Liz is clearly afraid of Vanessa and played it safe for a reason. It’s hard to say where Johnny Mac stands, but Austin notices that his face is full of rage, and he keeps asking: “Why is Johnny Mac looking that way at me?” Something in me wants to believe that Austin still has a few tricks in his magic Judas hat. I want to believe that Austin is with the twins and Johnny Mac, but that Judas is a strategic motherfucker who still stands with Vanessa. A girl can dream of such magic.

THURSDAY: Live Eviction

Everyone is getting riled up leading up to eviction night. Johnny Mac and Steve are chatting more and decide to go up to HOH to talk with Austin, Liz and Julia and solidify their standing-that yes, they want to work with them-but only them. Liz says she doesn’t want to get Vanessa out this week, but knows that someone will. Johnny Mac says he’s wanted to be that person for weeks. Will he be motivated enough to win HOH and do the damn thing? So now, a new alliance is born. Did anyone catch their new name? At the time of inception, Steve was trying to use the first letters of their name, but SLAJJ isn’t going to work with me.

Becky gives her last-ditch effort speech up in HOH to try to convince Liz to keep her. But, when she was giving her speech prior to the Veto meeting on Wednesday, she said a few things that made Austin’s ears flap open. She acted like they owed her safety because if not, she would come after them. Not realizing her abrasive ultimatum came out more like a plain threat, she is bubbling with words she clearly didn’t plan out in her head (Becky’s organic, guys). She says she is true to her word, and that when she talks about taking out a target, she doesn’t stop until she gets what she wants. She says if they keep her, she’ll get Vanessa out for them. They give her a look, like: Cool story. Next?

Julie Chen asks each houseguest to go vote one by one after BB takes us to the hometown of Steve and we meet his adorable parents. Becky is unanimously voted out of the house and when she receives her going-away messages from each houseguest, Vanessa tells her that on a human level she thinks she’s great, but on a game-play level, they’ve been “pitted against each other” and she’s not sorry to see her go. Becky turns to the audience and says, “I mean, yeah, fair enough!” Julie asks her about her issues with Vanessa. Becky admits that Vanessa is a good player, and that her scheming is highly skilled-that she’s a very smart girl. But she’s pulling for Steve.

It’s time to start the next HOH competition. We won’t know who won until Sunday’s episode. One thing’s for sure though-Livefeeders will be relieved they don’t have to witness under-the-cover action anymore from Austin and Liz all week. Unless Austin wins…

Follow me @the_hoff on Twitter, and let me know what you thought of this week’s Big Brother! Tune in Sunday, 8/7 c on CBS to see who wins HOH.

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