Just when it looked like Big Brother 17 was heading down a predictable and boring path, week 6 comes along to change everything. The Sixth Sense has been in power for the past four weeks, taking out big personalities like Da’Vonne, Jeff, Audrey and Jason. But now the Battle of the Block is over, the underdogs have power and they’re not afraid to use it. If you love big moves, this episode has the biggest and boldest one of the season.

The HoH Competition

The battle of endurance continues with the 11 HGs standing on a wall and getting pelted with water and birds. James, Jackie and Meg know they need to win and the Sixth Sense knows that would be deadly for them. Liz promised to kiss Austin if he won.

Steve and Austin are the first to go, followed by Julia and Meg. Liz is a lucky lady to avoid that nasty kiss. After an hour and a half, Jackie and Liz fall. At this point, James knows he needs to win and Vanessa knows anyone but James would be fine.

James crouches down and starts acting like he’s in pain to play mind games with Clay. Then Becky and Clay fall too, leaving it down to James, Shelli and Johnny Mac. It’s Underdog vs. Sixth Sense vs. Wild Card Floater.

Shelli isn’t sure if she wants to win a third HoH, so she makes a deal with James and Johnny Mac that she and Clay won’t get nominated at all. James also promises Johnny Mac safety. John jumps off and Shelli does too. James is the new HoH! And he lets us know that, as Boogie said, he has no problem bouncing checks in this house.

Vanessa is sketchy about Shelli making a deal for Clay and not her. Shelli trusts the deal, but Austin and the twins are worried because they don’t have any relationship with James. Meg and Jackie are happy that the underdogs can get vengeance for Jason.

The Twins in the House

Julia and Liz are in the house together now so they catch up on what happened last week. Julia is still mad at Austin for exposing her name to Jason. Austin tries to defend himself and Liz is on his side, but Julia tells us that she does not like Austin at all and will never forget what he did.

The twins want to make a deal with James for safety, but in the other half of the Sixth Sense, Clay and Shelli are plotting to throw the twins and Austin under the bus to protect Vanessa this week. It’s so funny that, a few short hours after losing their first HoH, the Sixth Sense is falling apart.

Clelli Becomes a Target

In the HoH room, James, Meg and Jackie know that Clelli is running the house, turned on them last week and they need to get taken out. They’re positively giddy about the idea of stabbing them in the back just like Clay and Shelli did to Jason. They want Shelli out first, because Clay will be weaker without her. But Becky is in the room too and she’s not so sure about it. They think about putting up Liz and Vanessa to backdoor Shelli, but they’ll tell everyone that Steve is the backdoor target.

Becky gives Clelli credit for saving her last week (because she’s an idiot). She tells Clay and Shelli all about the plan to backdoor them, but suggests they act happy, win the PoV and leave the nominations the same. Wow, that’s the dumbest plan ever, relying not only on getting picked to play, but also winning it. Becky is absurdly bad at this game.

Shelli is furious and wants to talk to Vanessa so they can turn the target to Austin and the twins, but Clay doesn’t completely trust that Vanessa would do that. He’s right because Vanessa runs to James and when she learns he’s targeting Clelli, she says she’s totally fine with it because she needs to look out for herself.

Vanessa offers James a deal that she will protect him and someone else until the Top 7 if she isn’t nominated. He accepts it and, for some reason, believes that she always honors her deals. Did he forget that she agreed to backdoor Austin?

The Nominations

Clelli talks to James and throw Austin under the bus as the main reason Jason went home, but he doesn’t buy it at all. In the middle of the night, James decides that if he’s getting blood on his hands and pissing off Clelli, he might as well go for the jugular and just throw both of them on the block instead of messing around with pawns.

I admire James. With Vanessa we’ve seen a player who is terrified of getting more blood on her hands. But with James, we have someone who absolutely loves the blood. It’s refreshing to have someone playing without fear.

James goes through with the plan and nominates Clay and Shelli. He admits to breaking his deal in his speech. Shelli interrupts to make it clear to everyone that James isn’t good for his word. She adds that she and Clay had NOTHING to do with Jason getting backdoored and they’ll tell anyone the real story if they want to hear it. Vanessa’s eyes are like, “Bitch, are you kidding me? Did you just threaten to expose our alliance? Cuz if so, I will destroy you!”

In the aftermath, Clay is offended that James broke his deal and won’t play the game honorably like him and Shelli (HA!). Sorry, but I have no sympathy for these hypocrites since they did the same ditty, shady stuff to James and company last week and still try to act like they had nothing to do with Jason going home.

Who Won the Week 6 Power of Veto?>>

(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.