Big Brother 27-Tuesday Recap for Sept. 9th

Good morning BB Junkies, its ‘who can win a block buster’ Wednesday! (Doesn’t have the same ring to it, does it?) The convos will continue today about whether or not to keep Ashley or Will but that’s about it. I think it’s a given Keanu will leave if he doesn’t win the block buster but no one’s expecting him to lose it.

A Tuesday episode is unusual and I realized about an hour before it started, my brothers Mud Madness show on Discovery at 7 pm Central (Sorry, had to plug it a little) would be airing at the same time as BB. We’ve been doing small watch parties on Tuesday’s at my mother’s house. She’s out of town and we weren’t planning on doing it this week so that’s why I forgot.

Anyway, I realized I was going to have to make a choice, watch one when it airs and the other today. Since I’m about to talk about Rachel’s elimination, I guess you know which one I chose. (Sorry brother) In my defense, his show is on its 2nd season. I have decades invested in this shit! (I did put his show on in another room to help with the ratings tho, so I’m not a total asshole)

I’ll start off by saying, I would’ve loved this episode if it hadn’t ended with someone leaving. I’ve already said I like the concept of the safety chain. (I know this isn’t exactly the same but it’s similar) If this comp had determined the hoh and the nominees with all of them getting to compete, it would’ve been fantastic. Great concept, terrible execution.

With another cast, the social strategy of this comp would’ve been amazing too. That part of it was out the window when Ava asked for volunteers. They did the same thing with one of the other hoh comps this season. Ironically, it’s the one Ava ended up winning. I think it was Zach who went first and asked for volunteers. (Say you’re not strategic without telling us you’re not strategic)

Volunteers? At the final 9? Crazy! Julie had just announced they’d made it to jury. Wouldn’t just a bit of strategy been a good idea when you’ll be sending someone to jury??? Here’s the arm grab heard around the world:

It pretty much looks like this one with Michael, Alyssa and Taylor in BB24 and EVERY OTHER double eviction episode when time is limited:

After finally seeing how it played out, none of my opinions have changed. I’ll even go a step further and say, even if Ava had chosen strategically, it doesn’t matter. The first person who did the hamster wheel could’ve screwed it up. If Rachel had gone first, she could’ve still had the same problem she had doing it with over 3 minutes. It’s like the Kaitlyn puzzle on BB20. Sometimes you just freeze or it’s just not your comp to comprehend. The difference is, Kaitlyn was nominated and voted out by her fellow hg’s before she had to do her puzzle.

The point is, the order didn’t matter because someone was going to leave based on whether or not they could navigate a maze in a hamster wheel. This was just a dumbed down version of The Challenge. They may as well keep the block buster till the final 5 at this point. Hell, maybe they should just have them make fire at the final 4 this season.

Say what you want about Rachel but she’s a professional. After being taken out that way, I don’t know if I could’ve done those diary room sessions AFTER I’d been “eliminated” and after working my ass off for 2 months.

Tyler was there for a hug which was nice. Seeing another returning player on the episode made me think of something else last night too. I don’t like returning players in the game but I know production likes it….alot. With the backlash they’ve gotten from this twist, (and from a lot of past players) good luck getting any of them to return the next time you want to bring one back.

I also enjoyed the scared looks from Lauren and Ava when Rachel said they were gonna have to get their hands dirty to win the game.

As for the feeds, the house feels like it does when there’s only three or four people left in it. When I said this twist grinded everything to a halt, I wasn’t being dramatic. Obviously, if everything is determined by comps at this point, there isn’t much need to strategize but that’s not the only reason. Watching the episode last night made me realize, Rachel’s the other reason the feeds have dried up. No, this isn’t some homage to Rachel, I’m coming from a more practical angle.

Most of the storylines we’ve been following included Rachel, at least in part. There’s the obvious frenemy thing with Keanu. We were waiting to see if they would work together long-term or target each other and if so, who would take out the other one first? Something similar was brewing with Vince all season between Rachel and himself. Kelly’s entire story ALL season has been about hating Rachel. The focus on these stories just ended Thursday night.

Aside from that, she was in a final 3 with Will and Ashley. In spite of having a fake final 2 with Rachel, Ava’s had this sort of love hate relationship with her. Lauren’s main goal for weeks has been to get someone to take out Rachel. She was also heavily involved in the house gossip over whatever is going on between Morgan and Vince. Since Rachel was the most heavily involved in any strategy this season, it’s not surprising the strategizing also stopped when she left. We don’t get to see how most of these storylines end and I think that’s the other reason it feels like everything just stopped.

Like I did one other time this season, I think I can give you the recap through the rundown of each of the players today. They all suck at the game in some way so combining it should give me more to say about them at least. We’ve seen players like Paul in BB18 and Joseph in BB24 learn the game as they go and improve throughout the season. This seasons players haven’t done that and most of them are just as bad as they were when the game started.

I usually do this starting with the HOH, the nominees, the veto winner and on down the line. Today, I think I’ll do them in the order I can stomach them winning the game. (Don’t hold me to this because it could change daily at this point) Besides, if some of you don’t agree with me, it makes our conversations more interesting. I think it’s down to us to keep this season going. (For all the Rachel haters, no, it’s not because Rachel’s gone. It’s because not a damn thing’s happening inside that house)

Will

He’s injured, won’t be able to compete, pobably wasn’t going to win anyway and definitely won’t now. He’s played the game but not as hard as others and on any other season, I wouldn’t be rooting for him to win. He’s my favorite person in the house but that never matters to me for a winner. Will does do quiet work in the background and has most of the season. He’s really missing.Rachel and mentions her often. How could he not? She was the closest person to his age and he’s was able to have real conversations with her.

He also knows he’s not winning this game now that everything comes down to comps. He hasn’t given up but sees the writing on the wall. Will told Ashley to do whatever she needed to do this week and not to feel guilty about it. With Rachel leaving and knowing for sure Vince doesn’t care about the Judge’s alliance, he knows neither of them have much of a shot. He’s continued to talk about Morgan and Vince and their weird friendship. Yesterday, he even encouraged Morgan’s irritation a little bit. He usually thinks it’s crazy when Morgan complains about Vince spending time with Lauren. Yesterday, he was agreeing with her that its a problem. (Haha) Morgan told him she didn’t think Vince would get it unless Ashley or Will talk to him about it. Will said that was probably true but he has no intention of talking to Vince about it.

Will’s the one who proposed the final 3 with Rachel and Ashley. It was his idea to form the Judge’s alliance, which helped saved Rachel the week Vince was hoh. He lied well enough to keep Mickey on their side, even though he was basically done with her in the game. He lied to both Ashley and Ava in order to bring them together recently too. He was also an ear for most of these women to vent to all season. I think being able to unload their frustrations to Will is what helped keep most of them working together. Will is still a bad player because he wasn’t ever active enough. He often held a lot of info and only occasionally used it to push things in the direction he wanted them to go.

Ashley

Part of me wants to put Morgan above Ashley but I can’t because of Morgans Vince obsession. Ashley started talking to Keanu this week about keeping her over Will. She did a good job using the ‘Rachel wanted us to work together’ and saying she’d target Lauren. She also said taking Will out isn’t a big move for Lauren’s resume and why help her build a resume? Keanu’s wanted Ashley out for a while and he thinks he has a good relationship with Will so this was good work from Ashley this week. (Will said he’d vote for anyone to win over Keanu)

Ashley may leave on Thursday but if she doesn’t, she’s gonna have a hard time making it to the end. Even if she makes it to the end, she’ll have a hard time convincing people she didn’t play Rachel’s game. Keanu and Kelley constantly say Ashley can’t win anything and I think they’ve forgotten, she won the first veto of the season. She didn’t just win it, she won it when she was on the block and the target. It doesn’t matter because the perception is she’s been carried by Rachel.

I don’t think Ashley gets enough credit for her game. At different times in the game, she’s had Rachel, Will, Morgan, Mickey and even Ava going to bat for her. Ava, who initially wanted to target Ashley during her hoh, ended up working with her afterwards. After the second week, Ashley’s had the best read of everyone’s games all season. She’s known who was aligned with who, what moves they were planning on making and why they were making them. For most of the season, she would tell her alliance something she was worried would happen, they would ignore her, and it would happen.

She’s also gone against Rachel during a couple of weeks this season to better her own game. When Rachel was hoh, Ashley knew targeting Mickey would be good for Rachel’s game. It wasn’t good for Ashley’s game though so she convinced Rachel that Mickey was good with her again. She’s still a bad player because she talks too much. She’s also done things all season to annoy people and lacks a bit of self awareness.

Morgan

Hear me out on this one before you come for me in the comments. Morgan is a frantic player who doesn’t know how to turn off game talk but she’s also been heavily involved in most decisions this season. She spent two days talking to Vince non stop during his last hoh and played a huge role in keeping Rachel off the block. She also practically forced him into the Judge’s alliance. Although Lauren didn’t know it, Morgan was the main reason Vince didn’t cause a tie during Lauren’s hoh to keep Adrian. Not only was keeping Adrian better for Lauren’s game, it would have been better for Vince’s game too.

Last week when Keanu was hoh, she was his target. Even before she won the veto, she spent hours with Keanu trying to win him over. By the end of the week, Keanu was willing to work with her and wasn’t even targeting her anymore. She started working on her relationship with Kelley, while maintaining her Judges alliance on the other side. She’s the only person on the cast who may have played the game harder than Rachel. If she could make it to a final 2, she might be able to win.

She also gets tunnel vision and doesn’t see how much she’s hurt her game. People like Will, Ashley and Ava have lost respect for her as a player. They see how obsessed with Vince she is all the time. She’s basically spent the past two days pouting and making up with Vince every time he spends time with Lauren. I could even respect that part of her game if I thought it was purely strategy. I get why she wants to take Lauren out because she wants to be Vince’s #1. It’s as if she has real strategic reasons for wanting Vince’s attention but it doesn’t come across that way. Because of all the hugging and time spent together, it just comes off as a personal thing.

Morgan’s had alot of control over who left on most weeks this season. Although she and Vince are working together, they’ve had different interest most weeks too. Until this week when Vince wanted to save Lauren in the maze, Morgan’s came out the winner every time over Vince. This is the first time she wasn’t able to talk him into doing what was worse for his game and better for hers. They’re in a battle now over Ashley vs Will. Morgan wants to keep Ashley and Vince wants to keep Will. We may find out today with more conversations who will win this one.

She’s also a bad player but at least had potential. Even with little strategy at this point, she still broke out the M&M’s to show Vince why Ashley should stay. Unfortunately, she doesn’t understand why telling everyone “Vince is my #1” is a bad idea. She doesn’t see the game thru anyones lens but her own. Why would people like Will and Ashley be loyal to her when she’s made it clear, Vince would come before them? She’s played badly half the time, but played hard all the time and that’s why I put her so high.

Keanu

After two months, Keanu still doesn’t understand what he’s doing wrong. If he wasn’t a stubborn know it all, he might not be a bad player. Unlike people further down my list, he at least understands there’s a strategy to the game. Unfortunately he doesn’t understand how it works. For example, when he thought he was working with both Vince and Rachel and was trying to get them to work together, he went about it all wrong. He would run to Vince and tell him every negative thing Rachel was saying about Vince. That’s not the way to get two allies to work together. Like most of this cast, he can’t keep anything to himself.

Once he thinks he knows something, he ignores all evidence showing him he’s wrong. Vince has repeatedly burned him in the game and yet he’s continued to think he’s working with him. Ashley’s been trying to tell him he can’t trust Kellly. Keanu told Kelley if he won hoh, he’d put up Morgan, Vince and Lauren. Obviously, he told her not to tell anyone. Kelley told Vince and Vince ask Keanu about it. Keanu lied and said Kelley just lies all the time but this should have shown him he can’t trust her. He asked Kelley about it, she denied it, and he still probably thinks they’re working together. Ashley tried telling Keanu she thinks Kelley, Ava, and Lauren, have a final 3 but he’s sure they don’t. (they do)

For keanu to win the game, he’ll just have to keep winning all the comps. That’s not a winner I want and that’s why I almost put Vince above him. Even if he’s wrong in his opinions, he’s at least thinking about the jury. He’s thinking about what moves he or someone else can make to make them look better. Don’t get me wrong, he’s still almost as bad of a player as he was the first week. He doesn’t really understand the game and he never has but he thinks he does and that makes it worse.

Vince

Okay, this is the one where I’m guessing I’m gonna lose some of you. Vince is a mess, his entire game’s been a mess and I can’t imagine this game has been any fun for him. He’s a walking ball of anxiety all the time. (With all the closeness with Morgan, he may also have lost his girlfriend of 7 years) He and Morgan had a long convo about how they’re just friends, anyone can see they’re just friends and so on. I could be wrong, but it felt like two people who know they’ve been inappropriate and are trying to gaslight everyone into thinking they haven’t been. I felt like Vince has been stringing Morgan along solely for his game. I could give him credit for doing it except, as I mentioned above, he usually comes out the loser between the two.

VInce doesn’t play a game that’s fun to watch because he’s a whining, crying, sniveling little weasel. However, he’s the most self interested player in the house, and I can appreciate that. He knew he was going to get backlash when he chose Lauren for the maze but he didn’t care because it was better for him. Unlike a lot of people this season, he at least understands the game. His execution ia terrible tho.

We’ve watched him week after week talk too much and over promise people things. He’s continued to have to dig himself out of holes that he dug himself. He’s at least stood up to Morgan a little bit this week. When she’s complained about the time he spends with Lauren, he’s told her he needs to for his game.

Vince gets the strategies of big brother, but he’s too scared to use them. Sure, it’s great if you can go all season and not have anyone mad at you but that’s not realistic. In his attempt to keep everyone happy with him, he’s come off as a player with no spine. Vince, at one point, could’ve been the front runner in a final 2. Now, he just looks like someone who can’t own anything he does or worse, looks like he was manipulated into doing things.

Ava

The same way Ashley & Morgan and Keanu & Vince may be interchangeable in my order, I feel the same way about the next two. Ava ia a terrible player but she’s also no one’s target so that’s the ONLY reason I put her above Lauren. She usually doesn’t make terrible decisions because she rarely makes any decisions. I think choosing Vince to start the comp chain was a stupid decision but not because of Rachel. She realized last week Rachel would always put Ashley before her but she can’t see the big picture.

Ava is petty and one little thing can cause her to screw someone over, even if she hurts herself in the process. If she wants to get to the end with Lauren, Kelley and maybe Will, how does she think she’s going to do it? She has no connection with Vince but she gave him the greatest chance at safety in the hamster wheel. She also gave him a chance to be the hoh. It was between Vince, Morgan and Lauren and if anyone besides Lauren had won, she’d be on the block. Her game would depend on winning the block buster tomorrow. Keeping Keanu, Vince and Rachel targeting each other would’ve been good for her game. If she wants to get to the end, she needs Keanu and Vince gone.

She’s continued to talk shit about Rachel and what’s the point? She’s gone. She had a sleep over in the hoh with Lauren last night. She’s moved on a little to shit talking Keanu now that he’s targeting Lauren. She’s also become a lot less self aware in the house. She got mad at Ashley because Ashley said Lauren was boring. At the same time, she thinks all the nasty things Kelley says about Rachel are funny, so go figure. Ava’s an all round bad player. All her decisions will be based on her personal feelings about someone. She doesn’t understand any strategic ways to move herself forward in the game. She’s recently let us know she was hoping for AFP and is bummed that Rachel may get it.

Lauren

She knows the game and she understands the game so that’s good. However, what does it matter if you’re too scared to play the game. Her last hoh was a disaster so at least she made the correct noms for this one. Similar to Vince, she can make a good move but ruin it by the way she goes about doing it.

Trying to convince Keanu he was a pawn was just stupid. He liked her and kept her safe last week. He told her himself, he’d at least respect her owning the move. She didn’t so now he’s targeting her if he stays. Honestly, the most interesting thing about Lauren this week has been the witchcraft spells she did with Kelley so thats not saying much.

If Ashley stays this week, it will probably be Lauren’s fault and it would be better for her if Ashley left. Will would nom Lauren too but he’s injured. Kelley and Ava will vote to keep Will. Keanu and Morgan will vote to keep Ashley. It will come down to Vince and he’s trying to keep both Morgan and Lauren happy. First, Lauren said she wanted Ashley to go. Now she’s telling Vince, “I don’t know” and “I don’t care.” Unless Vince feels strongly about taking Ashley out, Lauren’s given him a way to keep both of them happy. I almost want her in the final 2 out of pure curiosity. What does her speech look like and how does she answer jury questions? Yes, shes a bad player too.

Kelley

I can’t decide between Kelley being the worst possible winner of all time or it being exactly what this season deserves. When I think about it that way and depending on my mood, she’s either at the bottom or I could move her straight to the top of my list. She’s easily one of the most ridiculous casting choices they’ve ever made. She doesn’t know the game, doesn’t care to know the game and is the only person more clueless this season than Keanu.

She’s been riding high since Rachel left and somehow, even think she made it happen. (Sorry girl, I’ve already said, you didn’t take Rachel out, production did) She wants to take out Keanu but she doesn’t want to do it this week, even if he loses the block buster. She wants to hurt Rachel by taking out Ashley and targeting Keanu next week. Great strategy, right? Keep the guy who wins all the comps in the game, even if you have a shot at getting rid of him at the F8.

I don’t even have another screenshot of Kelley to use today so here’s one of Brendon and Rachels, trash bag wedding during BB12:

Kelley somehow continues to make her game about Rachel even with her no longer in the house. Her other contributions to the game have been her witchcraft spells she got Lauren to do with her and dead bugs. She’s told everyone that she’s been hiding dead bugs all around the house. She’s playing a game within a game at this point. She’s offered both Ava and Lauren $1000 if they can find 5 of her dead bugs. (I’d lose my shit if someone was leaving dead bugs throughout the house I had to live in!) She also asked Vince what a jury round table was too. Kelley is easily the worst player this season and that’s saying alot. If anyone in this cast is smart, which they’re not, she should have the best chance to make it to the F2. For any of them, she’s the best person to be sitting beside at the end.

With as slow as the feeds are, I have no idea how I’ve managed to write this much today. I think I just started rambling and didn’t stop. (Shocker, I know) Don’t take my winner pick list too seriously. I’ve already said I could care less who wins this season because they’re all so bad. I also think I’ve demonstrated how most of them are interchangeable in the order I’ve put them in, at least for me.

I’m curious though, so lets make up our own game. Which of these people winning will make you throw up in your mouth the least? That’s basically how I made my list. Have a great Wednesday.

Mel