Big Brother All-Stars

Episode 19 Recap – The Ultimate Pawn

Who was evicted?

Photo: CBS

Well, the most exciting week thus far of Big Brother All-Stars has come to a close, and we finally have some players pushing back against the Committee’s status quo. If only some of the houseguests that are actually a part of the Committee would do the same because that’s where change is truly needed.

Against the wishes of HOH Dani, Da’Vonne uses the Veto on Kevin, much to his relief. Despite what Dani might think about Da’Vonne’s choice, she wasn’t willing to sacrifice two allies back to back. Now that the nominees are sealed, Kevin hopes that they can finally begin to break the majority. Unbeknownst to him, Ian isn’t in the majority like he thinks he is. And Tyler, who is in the majority, is fairly certain that the Committee will come through to keep him safe. 

When Dani put up Ian as the replacement nominee, she called him “the ultimate pawn.” Ian isn’t entirely sure that this is true, since he is a former winner. He’s right to think that, but he’s wrong in placing his trust in Dani, who has every intention of making sure he is voted out this week. She tells him multiple times that she and Nicole are campaigning hard to keep him in the game when she’s really doing nothing of the sort. 

On the other hand, Nicole is visibly upset at the prospect of voting out Ian, who she says is her best friend in the house (but not a better friend than her five other alliance members, apparently). She feels like she’s being forced to vote out Ian because of the Committee, who all seem content with keeping Tyler. She doesn’t want to go against her alliance, so instead, she decides the best thing to do is convince them that now is the time to take a shot at Tyler. 

Ian
Photo: CBS

There is a small glimmer of hope for Nicole by way of the players she is not aligned with. Dani has pretty much given up on the idea of going against Tyler and agrees to a truce between them. This makes Tyler more confident in his safety, which sets off alarms to Kevin and Da’Vonne. If Dani was so set on targetting Tyler, why isn’t he doing any campaigning? He hasn’t said anything to them, which means he knows he has the votes without them. They’re able to piece some of the details together and begin to realize just how much of outsiders they really are. 

Ian is still doing plenty of campaigning, despite Dani telling him that Tyler is guaranteed to go home. Nicole still hasn’t told him about the big alliance either, so he remains in the dark about his chances. Ironically enough, the only person that is honest about considering voting him out is Memphis, who admits that as a winner, he’s a bigger threat than Tyler. 

This sets some alarms off to Ian, who tells Nicole that Dani might have made a mistake in thinking he was a safe bet to nominate. He thinks he needs four votes to stay, but he’s strategizing with all the wrong people. Again, rather than tell Ian the truth, she tries to see if she can change people’s minds about keeping Tyler. She pitches the idea to Dani, who shuts her down immediately because the Committee will never go for it. 

Then she goes to Cody, who isn’t willing to stick his neck out for Ian when Tyler is a good ally for him. Cody’s response makes Nicole frustrated because she doesn’t think it’s fair that she has to lose an ally over Cody. Since Dani decided to nominate Ian over Enzo (or even stick with evicting Tyler), she believes Dani is prioritizing Cody’s game over hers. 

This right here is exactly where the problem lies with Nicole’s game (for this week, at least). She decides to complain to the Committee members about how Ian getting evicted is unfair to her but is still unwilling to fight too hard for what she wants. Da’Vonne, Kevin, and David could help her tie the vote, but she doesn’t want to go against the alliance whose only strategy is to maintain a groupthink mentality. She isn’t upset with losing her “best friend” nearly as much as she is with her game being weakened by his departure.

Nicole F
Photo: CBS

After a lot of back and forth, we finally get to the eviction ceremony. Ian gives his speech first and says that Big Brother gave him a lot, and he still has a lot to give to the game right now. Meanwhile, Tyler gives a shoutout to his jewelry business and Angela’s cookbook, then reaffirms his commitment to the game to the other players.

The votes are finally cast, and it’s the closest one that we’ve had all season (seriously, the amount of unanimous or near-unanimous votes is embarrassing). By a vote of 5-3, Ian is evicted from the Big Brother house. Da’Vonne, David, and Kevin all voted to evict Tyler, while Nicole tearfully voted with the Committee (one more side note, she practiced the crying hours before the vote). 

In his first-ever eviction interview with Julie, Ian tells her that he doesn’t feel betrayed, and he wouldn’t change anything about how he played the game. It might have been a blunder, or maybe it was a ploy that he didn’t know about. Now that the jury phase has begun, Julie won’t spill anything regarding other players’ games or alliances. As it turns out, she doesn’t have to this time, because Tyler and Nicole tell him about the Committee in their goodbye messages. Well, Nicole just says she was in a big alliance, but Tyler names everyone that was in it. Oddly enough, it seems like Ian feels better knowing that his eviction was not, in fact, a blunder. 

Lastly, it comes time for the HOH competition, and it’s a relatively simple one. Houseguests have to construct a 3D puzzle that is shaped like a fire hydrant. The first player to finish it will win Head of Household. Dani decided to not use her power to compete in the HOH competition again, so we’ll see if she decides to use it on someone else before it expires. The episode ends before anyone finishes, so we’ll have to wait for Sunday’s recap to see if we can keep the momentum for change going.

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Written by

Gia Worthy

Gia Worthy is a Massachusetts native and a lifelong fan of Survivor. When she's not helping to run the Survivor Diversity Campaign Twitter page, you can find her on her own Twitter, letting everyone know that Survivor: Marquesas and Fiji are criminally underrated.


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