With Christmas having accidentally won the Head of Household competition at the end of Thursday’s episode, things were looking good for her and The Committee (her core alliance with Cody, Nicole, Tyler, Memphis, and Dani). “I get to… make some significant moves, and I really, really get to show my alliance what I’m capable of”, she said in the Diary Room. “It feels good to be queen!”
Cody lamented Kaysar’s explosive exit speech, noting how he and Nicole had been running the house so effectively and quietly for so long and how he would now have to do some major damage control. At the same time, Memphis drove the point home by reminding the audience that with the two obvious targets, Janelle and Kaysar, out the door, everyone would now be running around scared. “There’s nowhere to hide,” he said. Nicole felt the same way as Cody: “[Kaysar’s speech] is gonna put a lot of paranoia in a lot of people’s minds about me… uhhhggggh, it’s stressful! I’m so stressed!”
Meanwhile, in the mirror/picture room, Cody and Dani joined in the lambasting of the fan-favorite former houseguest. “Disrespectful and tasteless,” Dani repeated, proudly quoting back her voting confessional. “He’s wrong about everything… the love triangle thing, like, I can’t with.”
As a reminder, Kaysar’s exit speech stated:
1) “In terms of gameplay and strategy… you guys all suck.” (mostly true)
2) “Cody and Nicole have been running this house from day one.” (mostly true)
3) “[Cody and Nicole] have a secret alliance that’s gonna take them all the way to the end” (hopefully not true)
4) “The guys have an alliance with David and Tyler.” (half true)
5) “The last alliance… Dani and Nicole and Cody. Cody finds himself in this love triangle.” (mostly true, but leaves out Enzo from the Core 4)
Apparently, Dani was most offended by Kaysar’s word choice of “love triangle,” as she explained in the Diary Room. “Yeah, we do love each other, and guess who we don’t love? It’s you! And that’s why you’re home”, she bragged. This statement is doubly entertaining to the viewer on account of the audience having more or less the exact opposite feeling from Dani’s, but she can’t know that, can she?
In the bathroom, Da’Vonne and Bayleigh expressed their confusion to Tyler about the Slick Six’s apparent implosion, noting that, throughout the head to head HOH comp, members of the Slick Six were setting one another up to fail time and time again. Most notably, Cody and Dani put Da’Vonne and Bayleigh in jeopardy as frequently as possible, and Da’Vonne returned the favor.
“I’m supposed to be in this ‘Slick Six’ alliance… and it’s just like, we’re shooting at each other”, Da’Vonne mused in the diary room before declaring, “After this HOH competition, ain’t nobody Slick or Six no more.” Cody tried to cover by claiming that he was stressed out by having to participate in the HOH competition, but Da’Vonne wasn’t buying it. “They threw shots at me unnecessarily… so, yeah, it’s war, and I’m ready.”
There was a recap of several times that Dani and Nicole had cautioned Christmas about Bayleigh and Da’Vonne, and those prior warnings began to bear fruit. “I have no official working relationship with Da’Vonne and Bayleigh,” said Christmas in the Diary room. “If they’re coming after my alliance, they’re coming after me.” Enzo warned Christmas that Bayleigh and Da’Vonne were “emotional players,” as opposed to someone like Ian (also not part of the Committee).
These reasons, combined with Bayleigh’s having confided in Christmas that Da’Vonne was an “untouchable,” and despite a pitch to Christmas from Da’Vonne to work together and “weed out the BS,” the stage was set for Da’Vonne and Bayleigh to be in the jolly HOH’s sights. “This has the potential to really, really change things up and help my game,” Christmas said of continuing the Committee’s steamroll.
A new twist was then introduced: The BB Basement. This Dark Room challenge was touted to have three brand new powers hidden therein, and the houseguests suited up to go a-searching. “I don’t like dark comps,” David said as he prepared for the challenge, no doubt remembering his day-one elimination from BB21. “I lived in a basement,” touted Enzo in the DR, “I know the basement life.” We assume that Enzo had, you know, lights in his basement, but any experience is good experience.
In the pitch dark basement, the houseguests began rooting through boxes full of packing peanuts for three different totems, which they would then have to plug into three stands for three different powers. Dani tried to jam a large square puzzle piece into a stand designed for a small lightning bolt. Nicole headbutted a trash can. Kevin accidentally (?) punched Enzo in the face. Nicole took her pants off because they were stuck in the goo (???) and walked around yelling, “MY PANTS ARE OFF.” Hijinks continued unabated.
Bayleigh found the lightning bolt icon, tried to jam it into the wrong stand, and then simply abandoned it rather than looking for the other podiums. Shortly after that, David picked up the lightning bolt and plugged it into the correct “DISRUPTOR” podium. “A POWER HAS BEEN PLAYED,” an ostensibly spooky voice declaimed. David, overjoyed at finally having won something in the Big Brother house, celebrated by hurling packing peanuts into the air like confetti. Dani found the cycle icon and plugged it into the “REPLAY” podium. Finally, Christmas found the giant hand icon and plugged it into the “BLOCKER” podium.
After the houseguests extricated themselves from the sticky, Styrofoam-y darkness of the basement, Christmas wasted no time informing her Final 2, Tyler, that she’d won a power. Her power, “The Blocker,” could pre-emptively prevent a houseguest from being a replacement nominee during one of the next three Veto meetings. Nicole confronted Dani about winning a power, and though she tried to deny it for about two seconds, she immediately relented. Her power, “The Replay,” allows the current or one of the next two outgoing HOHs to play in the HOH competition. David’s power, “The Disruptor,” allows him to save a nominee and force a renom from the HOH any time over the next three nomination ceremonies.
Dani confronted Bayleigh, demanding to know why she and Da’Vonne hadn’t come to speak with her. Bayleigh admonished her, flashing us back to a conversation between Bayleigh and Tyler, wherein both mentioned how Dani was playing up the danger posed by Bayleigh and Da’Vonne and had been trying to get other HOHs to nominate them. “You took the first jab,” Bayleigh asked, “how were we supposed to react?”
With social grace and foresight akin to that of Dan Gheesling, Dani stared in stunned silence for about four seconds before saying, “I don’t know” and wildly denying everything. “Where do we go from here?” Bayleigh replied. “I don’t know,” Dani repeated. As Enzo entered the room to corroborate Bayleigh’s report, Dani continued to openly deny everything, and Bayleigh left to check with her other sources.
Dani, deeply upset about Bayleigh’s comments that she was trying to put Bayleigh and Da’Vonne on the block, immediately went to Christmas, apparently to try to get Christmas to put Bayleigh and Da’Vonne on the block. Bayleigh confronted Tyler and Enzo about this issue. Tyler made a comment to the effect of ‘you shouldn’t have blown up on Dani’, and Bayleigh found herself in tears. “I’ve been keeping my cool, but I’m blowing up?… This is what I mean. If I were to corner somebody, I would be the aggressive one. But she corners me, and I’m the one who blows up? I’m over it.”
Tyler, perceiving that his attempts at damage control were only making things worse, followed Bayleigh into the love room, where he attempted once more to patch things up with Bayleigh and Da’Vonne, professing to have their back in what Da’Vonne perceived to be a ‘war.’ “Who gave you the info?” he asked. “I already chose y’all… so, you don’t know where I stand? Well, who the **** told you the info in the first place?” Ultimately, no peaceful resolution was reached between the three, and Tyler found that his apparent goodwill and attempts to strengthen an alliance led instead to hurt feelings and a gradual crumbling of his game.
Finally, the nomination ceremony began, and Christmas turned her nomination keys to reveal the faces of, who else, Bayleigh and Da’Vonne. The extent of Christmas’ outward logic amounted to nominating Bayleigh and Da’Vonne because they were close to one another. “Gamewise there was no other option,” said the most powerful person in the game who could have nominated the two former winners or the very apparent power duo of Nicole and Cody. “You do these moves that have to be done for the purpose of the game,” the frequent voluntary pawn sobbed in the diary room, “but it really hurts,” concluded the person who has zero chance of going home this week.
We’re fairly sure that everyone, including the audience, is in more pain than Christmas this week. Perhaps David will be able to do something fun at the Veto ceremony, depending on who wins. But as it stands, it looks like all we have to look forward to this week is the choice between Bayleigh going home or Da’Vonne going home.
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