Well, we started the night with an underwhelming final five and ended with a just as underwhelming final four. Considering how time was allocated during the episode, I think that production may agree with me. This is probably the first time this season I’ve been happy to see either nominee go to jury, so at least that’s something to celebrate.
Nicole decides not to use the Veto, leaving Christmas and Memphis as the final nominees for the week. Despite their best efforts, she isn’t tempted by their idea to make Cody a replacement nominee. She doesn’t feel like it benefits her game to put up Cody or even Enzo, which I guess is a fair assessment from her point of view. Of course, Enzo is equally excited by Nicole’s decision and hopes to use the fact that he’s never gone on the block as part of his case to the jury.
Now that nominations are finalized, the players are weighing the pros and cons of Christmas and Memphis. Nicole wants Christmas to stay, and she wants her to stay unanimously. She doesn’t want to have any more blood on her hands by breaking a tie. I don’t know why this is such a big deal when there are five people left, and the likelihood of a tiebreaker leading to repercussions for her is minimal, but that’s her prerogative.
Either way, Nicole’s opinion doesn’t really matter unless there’s a tie, and Cody and Enzo are working together to make a final decision. After Memphis made two “Wise Guys” alliances, Cody has been set on sending Memphis packing. His opinion isn’t swayed by Memphis throwing Christmas under the bus about pushing Nicole to nominate Cody, because Cody already knows about it and is aware that Memphis was supportive of this plan. For him, it’s simple—Memphis has to go.
However, things are not so simple for Enzo, who believes that Memphis is better for his game than Christmas. He’s not sure if Nicole would win a second time if she made it to the end, but he does know that he and Memphis feel the same way about getting her out as soon as possible. He’s going back and forth between which one of the nominees is the bigger threat but is beginning to contemplate voting for Christmas just so Nicole has to break the tie. It’s not the cutthroat gameplay we’ve been hoping for, but hey, it’s something, right?
Enough about the Big Brother house, because this episode, we get a nice extensive segment on the Jury House. The jurors contemplate who will be next to go, and pretty much everyone agrees that they don’t want Tyler to be the next juror. So, of course, that’s exactly who the next juror is. After watching the recap of the week, they all agree that Cody is playing the best game. They’re more split on Enzo, who Dani says is playing a “lazy” game. Da’Vonne, on the other hand, believes that he could win if he makes it to the end. Nothing is really said about Nicole or Christmas, and I’m still not entirely certain whether that’s a good sign or a bad one.
With Tyler in the Jury house, Da’Vonne can finally address him about a pressing matter that’s been plaguing her (and us) for weeks. Back when he offered to go on the block in week 5, Tyler brought up the Black Lives Matter movement when he was explaining why he wanted to fall on his sword for Da’Vonne and Bayleigh. She wants to know if Tyler was genuine in his intentions or if it was all for show. Tyler insists that he was serious about the offer and regrets bringing BLM into the equation. He apologizes, and she forgives him, but I’m taking this whole moment with a grain of salt anyway.
After the commercial break, we’re still not done with the Jury House because we get to see a nice little piece where the jury gets to watch videos from home. Kevin gets a video from his husband, David’s is from his dad (and dog), Ian gets one from his girlfriend, Da’Vonne’s is from her daughter, Tyler’s is from Angela, and Dani’s is from Dom and her daughter (and another dog). It’s a very sweet moment, but it also highlights the lack of content we are getting from the Big Brother house. Don’t get me wrong, I’d much rather see the jury at this point, but it’s sad that this is where we’re at.
Finally, it’s time for the vote and the final pleas. Christmas gives a shoutout to her son again and tells the houseguests that she’s running out of speeches to give them. Memphis asks for the houseguests to keep him and warns them that their word is everything in this game. The ominous message is all for nothing because Cody and Enzo both vote to evict Memphis, meaning we don’t even get a tiebreaker to spice things up a little.
In his exit interview, Memphis tells Julie that he was blindsided by this vote (I’m not entirely sure that’s true), and he doesn’t think Cody and Enzo made the right choice. He was fully planning for them to be the final three, with himself and Enzo going to the end if he had any say in it. Julie brought up his many alliances throughout the season and gives Memphis credit where it’s due. He played a dynamic game this season and just fell short of reaching the end stages. I can’t say I’ll miss him, but I’m definitely interested to see where he fits into the Jury house.
We don’t get to see the results of the HOH competition, but we do get to see its host—Kaysar! He explains to the remaining four houseguests that they will be playing Knight Moves, which is the challenge that featured Kaysar’s famous “I sealed your partner’s fate” line. They are all clearly unhappy with Kaysar returning, which I and many like me are living for. We’ll see how this plays out on Sunday, but it’s safe to say this challenge is crucial to the end stages of this game.
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