After the first double eviction, the endgame is beginning to take shape on Big Brother 17. And somehow, defying all logic, Austin and the twins are at the center of everything, making deals and running the game. Everybody wants a piece of the twins, especially Austin.

There’s also a lot of Steve pretending to be sad so he can keep playing the middle even after picking a clear side.

Double Eviction Aftermath

After Shelli and Jackie were evicted in the double eviction, people are looking for answers about Steve’s decision. Steve is extremely upset with himself for winning because he wanted to throw the HoH and thinks he should’ve taken out Becky instead. He wishes he didn’t have to pick a side and the blame falls on Vanessa for telling him that Jackie was going to backdoor him when she was HoH.

Austin gloats about how there’s “finally a shift in power” back to the Sixth Sense. Um, that alliance had power for four weeks and the underdogs only had two weeks in charge, during which Austin and the twins never touched the block.

Steve cries a lot about how he hated doing that to someone. The twins and Vanessa suck up to him for keeping them safe while Meg, James and Becky have no sympathy for him. But when he’s alone, Steve tells us that it was 50 percent acting. Nicely done, sir. Way to emotionally manipulate those airhead twins.

Basically, Steve’s decision definitively split the house with Vanessa, Austin and the twins on one side and James, Meg, Becky and Johnny Mac on the other. Both sides want to be nice to Steve to get him on their team. Steve likes that the Becky side is blaming Vanessa for his HoH.

The HoH Competition

The competition puts the eight HGs into a bracket with head-to-head matches. They must look at a screen with a bunch of emojis and answer a question.

James vs. Meg: Meg wins.
John vs. Austin: John wins.
Vanessa vs. Julia: Julia wins.
Becky vs. Liz: Liz wins.

Meg vs. John: John wins.
Julia vs. Liz:  Julia is wrong, so Liz wins.

It all comes down to a war between the two sides of the house, the dentist vs. the twin.

John vs. Liz: Liz wins.

Liz is the new HoH!

[Sad Face Emoji. Angry Face Emoji.] Why hast thou forsaken us, Jocasta Emoji?

Liz and Julia do a lot of happy dancing while Austin is fine with being Liz’s male companion. Vanessa and Steve also know they’re safe. Meanwhile, Meg, James, Becky and Johnny Mac know they’re screwed. Becky goes on a rant about how Vanessa is completely controlling everything, every HoH and every vote and now Vaenssa will get in Liz’s ear. Indeed, Vanessa IMMEDIATELY explains why Liz’s target needs to be Becky, which is unnecessary because Liz already hates Becky.

New Alliances

The twins, Austin and Vanessa meet to discuss nominations. Liz wants to put up Meg and John to backdoor Becky, but Vanessa suggests John and Becky instead so John can beat her in the PoV. My skin crawls every time Vanessa says “This is what you NEED to do and let me explain why.” She’s literally controlling these people, but Austin and the twins are too stupid to realize it. The remainder of the Sixth Sense renames themselves Austin’s Angels.

Austin’s Angels decide to also make a five-person alliance with Steve. They act like this is a new idea, but the truth is that they’ve been working together for about five weeks now as Freaks and Geeks, but since that’s a TV show they were never allowed to use that alliance name. Now they’re the Scamper Squad.

Becky meets with Austin and the twins and explains how involved Vanessa was with the Dark Moon plan to backdoor Austin, including the fact that James was supposed to throw the Battle of the Block and Vanessa orchestrated it.

Vanessa vs. Johnny Mac

Vanessa claims that she genuinely want to work with Johnny Mac (even though she’s already talking about making the Final 4 with Austin and the twins and she has a Final 2 deal with Steve). She’s way too aggressive by promising to help him in the game, but he’s clearly not that into it and says she was kind of bullying him during the Clay fight. It’s a weird conversation because Vanessa seems to combine personal and strategic, thinking that John not wanting to work with her means he doesn’t like her as a person.

Vanessa then goes upstairs to rant about Johnny Mac to Austin and the twins, but it kind of backfires because it makes her look crazy. The truth is that John has a perfect read on Vanessa. He knows he can’t trust her, she manipulates people and her offer to work with him is phony because she’s not “solo dolo” like she claims. And she’s offended because he won’t let himself be controlled by her.

The best part is that John goes to the HoH room and even points out to Vanessa’s face that it looks fishy that they just talked and now she’s upstairs, probably telling Austin and the twins everything she just talked to him about. That’s EXACTLY what she was doing. All hail Johnny Mac for standing up to Vanessa’s insanity.

The Nominations

After all of that, Liz nominates Becky and John, just like Vanessa told her to do. She tells us that her decision is based on who she has previous loyalties to and who’s the biggest threat to her and Julia’s game. Liz can’t even make it through her speech without cracking, which is just about how they’re both strong competitors. Even Liz isn’t sure which one is her pawn and which one is her target.

Who Won the 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.