It’s the most important competition of the season on Big Brother 18. After Victor was evicted (again), he returned to the house with Paulie, Bridgette, Zakiyah and Da’Vonne to compete for the chance to come back into the game. They began a battle of endurance not just for a second (or third) chance, but also for HoH, competing against Nicole, Corey, Paul and James. The last juror standing is back in the game and the winner (juror or HG) will be the new HoH.

SPOILER WARNING: This article contains Big Brother 18 spoilers.

BB18 Recap: A Juror Returns to the Game>>

It’s the Wall and the competition is simple: Be the last one standing as the wall tilts down. They also get sprayed with water.

This is my live blog for the week 10 HoH competition. As always, all times are Big Brother 18 local time, aka PT.

6:52pm: The competition begins.

6:57pm: Everyone is still standing at the end of the live episode and the Loch Ness Monster is spraying water at them.

7:04pm: The live feeds are back and we get to watch a competition on them. It’s a miracle!

7:05pm: The HGs are filling in the jurors on the Zings and Michelle’s Co-HoH.

7:06pm: James is already crouching, his winning strategy from last year.

7:07pm: Bridgette is already struggling, singing about papayas to distract herself.

7:09pm: Da’Vonne and Zakiyah are OUT! They both jumped while holding hands, seemingly giving up because they didn’t think they’d win. Everyone is confused.

7:12pm: Natalie and Michelle are mind-boggled on the sidelines about Day and Z quitting like that, especially Day.

7:13pm: Paulie tells Victor about how the three girls in the jury house destroyed him for the first few days.

7:16pm: Paul questions the “Friendship Suicide” that happened with Da’Vonne and Zakiyah. The jurors say it wasn’t planned and they think the jury house must be sweet.

7:17pm: Corey is OUT
!

7:21pm: James and Nicole are discussing the best strategy for holding on.

7:22pm: Half an hour in and we’ve already lost three people, two jurors and one HG.

7:23pm: James tells Nicole that this competition benefits smaller people like them, not strong muscly guys like Paulie and Victor.

7:25pm: Paulie’s legs are shaking. James is joking around and acting like he’s gonna fall.

7:25pm: Bridgette is OUT! Paulie almost falls too, but saves himself.

7:30pm: Paulie is shaking, Nicole is complaining. Paul and James are having fun while Victor is stone faced.

7:40pm: Paulie is OUT!

7:40pm: Victor is BACK IN THE GAME…again!

7:41pm: Victor is OUT! He was obviously just hanging in long enough to come back. On the sidelines, Natalie and Michelle sing Victor’s praises.

7:42pm: After 50 minutes, it’s down to Paul, Nicole and James. Odds are two of them will just nominate Paul and Victor again. And we know the Care Package won’t change anything.

7:48pm: They speculate that next week will be a double eviction because of the buyback. They are wrong.

7:51pm: They talk about how, if Corey was evicted, he would be gone and Paulie would be back.

8:01pm: Paul seems to be really struggling.

8:11pm: Nicole adopts James’ crouching style.

8:22pm: After an hour and a half, Paul, Nicole and James are still in.

8:27pm: Paul is OUT! He held out as long as he could.

8:28pm: After he falls, Nicole and James try to make deals. Neither wants to drop, they both want HoH. She wants the letter, he doesn’t want to be on slop.

8:30pm: Nicole has resorted to the Natalie strategy of begging because she wants a letter from home. James wants the glory of winning four wall comps. She promises him and Natalie safety and says he can pick her nominees.

8:38ppm: It’s still a battle of wanting a letter from mom vs. wanting to be the Wall King. Nicole then talks about the Care Package being an HoH Takeover.

8:45pm: Nicole is still trying to beg James and he insists that it’s just about winning another wall comp.

8:51pm: Victor shares with everyone that the girls in jury hated Paulie and Zakiyah didn’t talk to him for four days. They all laugh, but Nicole insists that Paulie never did anything bad.

8:52pm: Two hours in and it’s down to Nicole vs. James.

8:55pm: James is OUT
! He dropped on purpose so she could win.

Nicole is the new HoH!

She immediately questions whether she earned it since James’ quit. She promised James and Natalie safety and I fully expect her to follow through on that. Odds are she’ll end up nominating Paul and Victor, so it’s the same thing as last week. Maybe she’ll go after Michelle out of spite, but I doubt it.

Afterwards, Paul immediately started pledging loyalty to Nicorey, as he’s been staying close to them all week. He also promises that Victor is good, trying to shift the target to James, Natalie and Michelle as a trio.

UPDATE: As of an hour after the competition ended, Nicole seems to actually be willing to work with Paul, telling Corey she won’t nominate him. She wants Michelle or Victor gone. She also said she doesn’t fully trust James. It seems Paul and Victor’s plan, though it didn’t work on James, DID work on Nicole and now she trusts Paul.

FUN FACTS

-Nicole is the fourth woman to win two HoHs on each of two different seasons. The others are Janelle Pierzina, Rachel Reilly and Daniele Donato.

-This guarantees that Nicole will survive at least 11 eviction votes without ever being nominated. Season 17’s Derrick Levasseur and season 18’s Austin Matelson are the only other people to do this.

(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.