The Big Brother 15 house was completely changed by this week’s massive HoH competition that saw the four members of the jury competing to get back into the game. So with a returning player and a new HoH, things are more unpredictable than ever before.

SPOILER WARNING: This article contains Big Brother 15 spoilers.

Judd came back into the game and Elissa is the new HoH. She nominated Aaryn and McCrae.

And just like that, 3 A.M. is in trouble. It seems like Aaryn is the real target, but there’s definitely the option to backdoor someone like Amanda, which is making her even more paranoid than usual.

The past 24 hours have been a flurry of excitement. Elissa was determined to nominate Aaryn and McCrae from the beginning, which led to lots of tears from Amanda as she tried everything she could to get Elissa to put up GinaMarie as the pawn. Little did she know that, before the HoH competition, GM and Elissa promised that they wouldn’t nominate each other if either won.

It was kind of great watching Amanda whine and complain about how unfair it is and how stupid Elissa is, simply because, unlike every previous HoH, she refused to do EXACTLY what Amanda wanted her to do. Which is crazy, because getting Elissa to target Aaryn is what Amanda wanted her to do (just without McCrae as the pawn).

I believe Elissa’s real target is Aaryn. Not only does she blame her for being the weapon McCranda used to get rid of Helen (Aaryn has even admitted that she was enabling them by serving as Amanda’s puppet), but Elissa just doesn’t like Aaryn.

Strategically, I suppose it makes a little sense because, without Aaryn, McCranda don’t have someone to do all of their dirty work. But I think Elissa is far more motivated by personal hatred, as she hasn’t stopped talking about Aaryn’s racist comments since week 2. She simply thinks Aaryn is mean and doesn’t deserve to be there. In that sense, I don’t really respect Elissa’s decision because she’s making the same mistake GM made, playing personally instead of strategically.

Of course Elissa is also staying firm on her vow not to nominate GM (because of the deal), Judd (because he’s one of the only “good” people in the house) and Spencer (because it would be a waste). That only leaves a handful of people, and if Aaryn or McCrae are saved, it leaves Andy and Amanda as the only potential replacements.

That’s a scenario Amanda is petrified of, and while Andy seems to be doing his best to prevent it, the others don’t really seem to care. At this point, Judd and Spencer are so safe that it doesn’t seem to matter too much if Aaryn or Amanda goes home.

UPDATE (Friday at 11pm): Well, it seems Elissa isn’t targeting Aaryn after all. Or at least she has told Judd and Aaryn that her plan is to backdoor Amanda, so she really hopes Aaryn wins the Power of Veto, and if not, Elissa says she hopes she wins it so she can save Aaryn, backdoor Amanda and prove herself. Odds are GinaMarie is on-board with this plan too since she and Elissa are now BFFs. So I assume if any of the four of them win the PoV, Aaryn is safe and McCranda will be nominated against each other.

Alliance Update

It’s impossible to track alliances anymore since everyone is making Final 2, 3 or 4 deals with everyone else, but here’s what I can tell about what people are trying to do.

McCrandy: The threesome of McCrae, Amanda and Andy seems as tight as ever. They’ve had separate Final 4 alliances with just about everyone, including Judd (Goof Troop), Aaryn (3 A.M.) and most recently Spencer. McCrae even offered Elissa a spot in the Final 4 with them, meaning GM is the only person who has never had a Final 4 offer with McCrandy. But at the core, it’s always been 2 A.M. and Andy is still running back to tell Amanda everything he hears in the house.

The Guys: There’s definitely talk of the guys sticking together, especially with Andy, Spencer and Judd. The funny part is that, just like with the Moving Company, they would probably prefer it if Amanda was gone because then they could work with McCrae and trust him more. It would be kind of funny if the season begins and ends with an all-guys alliance.

The BB Bunnies: Aaryn and GM are still pretty tight, especially now that they both seem to recognize that McCranda is bad for them. In previous weeks, they’ve made Final 3 deals with Andy and Spencer.

Team Elissa: In a highly unusual band of misfits, Elissa seems to want to get rid of Aaryn so that she could work with GM and Judd in some weird new hybrid alliance. They would also take in Spencer, so it’s all of the people not in 3 A.M. Maybe they’ll call it the Grasshoppers, since that was the phony alliance Judd, Spencer and GM had with Howard and Kaitlin that no one else believes existed (even though it did, and since coming back into the house, Spencer has told Judd not to tell anyone else about it).

McCrae’s First Nomination

It’s also worth noting that this is the first time all season that McCrae has been nominated. He survived the first nine evictions without ever being nominated, a feat only seven other people have ever accomplished. Season 5 winner Drew Daniel, season 14 winner Ian Terry, season 6’s Beau Beasley and April Lewis and season 3’s Danielle Reyes and Jason Guy all did the same thing.

As for the seventh person, that’s Andy this year, who is now the only HG of the season who has never been nominated. If he doesn’t go up as a replacement, he will have survived 10 evictions without being a nominee, something only April, Danielle and Jason did. And no one has made it past 10, so Andy could set the all-time record for going the longest without being nominated.

This week has only just begun on Big Brother 15, and several things are possible. If the nominations stay the same, the odds are good that Aaryn will be evicted. But if either Aaryn or McCrae come down and Amanda goes up, then it becomes a real race.

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(Image courtesy of CBS)

John Kubicek

Senior Writer, BuddyTV

John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire DiariesSupernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.