Now that Vanessa and Austin are controlling the power in the Big Brother house, anything is possible. Will they choose to finally backdoor Audrey like the house has so desperately wanted, ever since she lied? Or will there be another target that makes more sense for their game considering Audrey has been laying so low the past week? Vanessa says she discovered some incredibly useful and exciting info recently-yes, even though Da’Vonne (dearly departed) tried to out Liz as a twin before she left the BB house, nothing has come of the Twin Twist in the ways of anyone’s game. That’s all about to change with our girl Vanessa in charge.
SUNDAY: Nominations/Battle of the Block
It’s the middle of the night in the Big Brother house. If you watch this show religiously, you know that some of the best little gems are uncovered late at night when the houseguests are stirring. Vanessa and Liz are having a bedside talk when Vanessa brings up the rumor that Liz is a twin. After what takes little convincing to get Liz to talk, Liz says, “I’m Julia,” the other twin! Vanessa is freaking out. It’s a great moment because Liz is a fan favorite, and people also love Vanessa as a power player with expert poker face (yep, we totally see now why you’re the international poker queen!) So Vanessa does Liz-excuse me, Julia-a solid and gives her a few pointers on how to blend in with how Liz is in the house. “Straight up, you’re skinnier,” says Vanessa. Julia and Liz have that deep, raspy Miami voice, so she drones back, “I know!” Vanessa also tells her that Liz flirts way more and sleeps more. Hey, just goes to show that not even twins are exactly alike! Anyway, Vanessa has some midnight crawling to do now.
She goes up to the HOH room to visit with Shelli and Clay. They’re in on the Liz/Julia secret now, too. Shelli has a sorority freak-out on Julia the next morning. “I love y’all,” she coos, because Big Brother is so strategically staged around social game and we as humans love a relatable ally. Here, Shelli can liken Liz and Julia to her sorority sisters back home, because there’s some potential, universal trust that two sisters might have. But I call bullshit. Meanwhile, Vanessa goes and tells Austin about the twist. He’s totally dumbfounded. Vanessa’s reaction is hilarious-she’s rocking a red silk pajama set with a beanie as Austin runs his fingers through his wild mane, perhaps thinking of all the times he’s had flirty interaction with the girls. “Bro. Get in the game,” Vanessa says under uncontrollable laughter. Austin, you dog, you.
It’s finally the moment we’ve all been waiting for-it’s time to see Vanessa and Austin’s HOH room! Vanessa announces to the house: “You guys get to see my hot girlfriend!” Liz is behind her cheering her on saying, “Yay!” Upstairs, we see pictures of Vanessa and her girlfriend, Mel. Sup, Mel! Your girl is killing it. Everyone coos over their baby pics-Austin was an adorable little kid. Their loot baskets are filled and the other houseguests sit and listen while they read their tearful letters. They didn’t air Vanessa’s letter in real time, but if you watched After Dark or the livefeeds, you probably heard a super sweet letter from her family or her girlfriend! Send us details, please?
Notable anecdotes to keep in mind throughout the week: Jason says he’s never talked game with either Austin or Vanessa, so he’s nervous about where he stands. We know he was tight with Audrey from the beginning, but that fizzled fast after she broke his trust. Jeff acts deeply confused about who HOH is. He thought it was just Vanessa. James and Meg are sitting nearby for this moment, and they’re in utter embarrassment over Jeff’s fumble. Dude, there are two HOHs every single week. What game are you playing?
Now that Julia has outed herself to her alliance, Liz comes back into the house to reintroduce herself to Austin, Vanessa, Clay and Shelli. Once again, Shelli has a sorority freak-out. “We’re sorority sisters! What am I gonna do?” she squeals. Vanessa thinks Liz is Julia at first. It is hard to tell the difference. Liz says that Julia has a fake tooth. There’s also this whole mess about how Liz weighs a little bit more. Of course, like Vanessa says, it’s a crazy thing to be called out on (offensive in many ways), but Liz seems to take the criticism in kind. Austin says their alliance should be called the #SixthSense. The room goes wild. Kinda perfect. So now we’ve got Vanessa, Austin, Clay, Shelli, Liz and Julia.
Finally, it’s time for nominations. Austin nominates Jason and Meg. Vanessa nominates James and John. There’s already an agreement with John to throw the Battle of the Block-again. Vanessa hugs him and thanks him for being a good sport. But he’s also kind of a chump for continuously being this group’s biggest pawn. In the BOB comp “Gronk’s A-maze-ing Foam Party,” the players must go through a maze of foam to get to match fabric that corresponds with “partygoers” clothes-also known as the messiest foam party there ever was. In the end, Jason and Meg win and pull themselves off the block, dethroning Austin and leaving Vanessa as reigning HOH.
WEDNESDAY: Power of Veto
Vanessa assures Audrey that she’s safe. The goal this week, in Vanessa’s mind, is to get James out. She feels like she’ll be his target if he somehow stays in the house for putting him up on the block. It’s time to think about Power of Veto now. Vanessa hopes that Audrey’s name gets pulled, because then she can win and keep nominations the same. The goal is still to get James out, though no one would really know it. Secretly, Austin is vying for Jeff to get out. After all, he did go to Austin and say he was itching to get Shelli out, because Shelli is apparently bad for his bro Clay’s game. It could be so easy to backdoor him.
At the meeting for who will play in POV, the house pulls Shelli, Austin, Vanessa, James and John. Vanessa doesn’t want to win it, so she sort of throws her round. By the end of the game, Austin is paired off with John and just as Austin is about to win it, John pulls in and scores the POV. That throws a major wrench into their plans to get James out, because now Vanessa has to come up with a replacement nominee, and she can’t exactly put up Audrey. So, who?
In the HOH room, Vanessa rips Austin a new asshole. He tries to assure her that he didn’t throw the competition, but we heard him-as he was finishing the dice roll, he realized he shouldn’t beast-mode through this competition because it might get some blood on his hands. He doesn’t want James to go home, he does want Jeff to go home after all, so perhaps by not winning, he wouldn’t have to have that power on his hands and John could take himself down. It seemed perfect and sudden and Austin’s a man of his impulses. Vanessa smells right through the meat of it all, and she confronts Austin. He denies having any ill intention, but she isn’t convinced. After some emotional back and forth, Vanessa and Austin decide to move on and etch out a new plan. They’ll backdoor Jeff after all, but in order to carry out that new plan, Austin will have to stir up a little bit of heat himself-Vanessa instructs him to go downstairs and throw Jeff under the bus.
As part of the BB Takeover this week, the same Gronk dude who commissioned their Battle of the Block competition is also in charge of “parties.” The group has to “party” (dance and sway and fist pump) in various areas of the house: the pool, the shower, the living room, at any and all hours, as excited or as tired as they may be. Amid all of this, Jeff continues to run his mouth to everyone-including Austin. He keeps acting like Austin is his main bro, but Austin reminds the cameras that Jeff should be more careful with who he talks to, without knowing what people’s relationships are. Jeff even goes to Clay to tell him that he knows Austin and Vanessa are working together and they need to get them out, one by one. Clay of course takes all this info to Austin and Vanessa, which fuels both of them to publicly callout Jeff and “seal his fate.”
During the Power of Veto nominations meeting, as expected, John takes himself off the block and Vanessa puts up Jeff. Because let’s face it: Jeff’s floatie has a big gaping hole in it. Vanessa calls Jeff out for being a liar.
THURSDAY: Live Eviction
Jeff, knowing he’s likely leaving the BB house for good, must now campaign his little heart out to stay in the house. But it’ll be a tough one. He goes to everyone. He even cries to Shelli, and later tells Jackie that Shelli is an “emotional player” and he sometimes has to play to those heartstrings to pull the chords the right way. Strangely, I don’t see Shelli has an “emotional player,” even with her girly rants, her peppy spirit, and her showmance. To make matters the very worst, Jeff goes to Liz and the two cuddle in bed and share a possible kiss with Austin storms in asking what’s up. For one, Julia did tell Liz to stay away from Jeff. It’s unclear whether Julia is the twin who favors Austin more or not, but Liz is doing a number ignoring the wants and needs of her own alliance. Then again, Austin pretty much admits that he’s willing to fuck up his whole game for love. Talk about an awkward #lovetriangle situation.
Liz tries to convince Austin that her night moves where strictly strategic, and that Jeff was grilling her about the Twin Twist and she denied it. Still, on some emotional level (talk about an actual “emotional player”), Austin is pissed that Liz flirted her way through a manipulation with Jeff, because he doesn’t want Jeff to have the satisfaction. Oh, well! Now it’s eviction night and the house evicts Jeff with seven votes. The people who voted him to stay? Jackie, Steve, John….and Liz. If her alliance catches wind of this, that #SixthSense will suddenly be a #FourthSense. What Julia would think of this voting move?
After Jeff leaves the house, a brand spanking new HOH competition is gearing up in the backyard. This is one of those classic True or False memory games, involving a super funky ’90s hip hop dance routine that the group needs to pay close attention to. After a shortwhile, Liz and Shelli are the last two standing and win HOHs. Two girls are back up top, and it’s two girls in the #SixthSense! Who are you rooting for? Who do you hope the girls will nominate for eviction and send packing? What should the alliance do about the Twin Twist? Do you think they’ll turn on them now that Liz voted against them?
Tweet me @the_hoff and let me know! Use #TeamVanessa or #SixthSense to discuss. And tune in Sunday on CBS at 8/7 c for an all new episode of Big Brother.
