The final Veto holder of the season determines who gets evicted and who makes Final 3 — plus, Cirie hits jury house with strong opinions and Season 24 winner Taylor returns to weigh in on Final 4.
Felicia wasn’t out of moves just yet heading into this final Veto competition of the season on Big Brother. Nominations were basically irrelevant after Bowie jane’s Head of Household win because whoever wins the Veto is the one not on the Block — and the sole vote to evict!
As we saw last week, a win wasn’t the only way that Mama Fe could punch her ticket to Finale Night. There were already cracks forming within The Minutemen. Matt and Jag have both previously discussed turning on one another.
They seemed to know that their best chance of winning was to not sit next to one another. But would either of them take that shot if given the opportunity? Of course, Felicia’s best option would be to secure her spot because the one of them would have to be evicted.
Honestly, we weren’t even sure who she’d pick, if given the chance. Jag is an obvious competition beast, but Matt has played an incredible social game and has a pretty good comp resume, as well. As for Bowie, the barrister had better be preparing one hell of a final argument.
Tonight’s episode also featured a check-in with the jury as Cirie joined them and dropped incredible shade on Jag’s impressive tally of competition wins, noting that he’s “playing against two senior citizens, one airhead, and one idiot.”
Victory for any of these final four is not assured. In fact, Mama Fe might have the strongest chance at a win at this point. If she can overcome hitting the Block that many times and make it to the end — well, we all saw what Taylor Hale did last season.
Speaking of Taylor, she dropped by this week too with some thoughts on the Final 4, an update on her relationship with Joseph, and talked about her burgeoning television journalism career with Entertainment Tonight.
Nomination Shadiness
We’ve seen some shady things before, but Jag and Bowie orchestrated one of the shadiest yet with their decision about who she should nominate this week for eviction. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter, but she still wanted to honor the Final 2 she and Jag recently made.
As such, Jag — who has been borderline diabolic evil in this game lately — came up with a fake pick-a-number game. They pre-gamed the solution and then waited.
When The Mafia came together to talk about who should go up on the Block out of Matt and Jag, Jag “innocently” threw out the idea of the boys picking a number and whoever was closer to Bowie’s number would be safe.
Of course, as they’d already planned this in advance. Matt had no chance of winning. And so, through deceit from his closest ally in the game, Matt’s perfect streak of never going on the block was shattered. Bowie, meanwhile, retains hers simply because Matt and Jag were afraid of upsetting her by nominating her several weeks running.
It’s hard to imagine them feeling true loyalty to her at this point, but we may also be beyond loyalty. The $750,000 is looming closer and closer, so loyalty may not matter at all. It’s all about who you can beat at the end. It’s definitely not super obvious this season.
Final Veto, Final Decision, Final 3
This was the main competition that mattered this week, after Bowie secured her spot with that HOH win. If she won, she could decide to either honor The Mafia or pull Mama Felicia down and give Mama Fe say as to which of the boys went home.
If Matt won, he’d take himself down, but would he vote Mama Fe out or his boy, Jag? He seemed in Diary Room sessions to be down to keep Jag, but in the moment, what would he do? And what would Jag do if he won? He was ready to cut Matt, and it would guarantee him a stronger chance of winning his way to the end with Mama Fe in the house.
But first, the competition itself. It was a brutal variation of the usual counting days comp that sees Houseguests having to remember key events in the house and not only put them in chronological order, but assign the correct days to them, as well.
At least they had number tiles so those possibilities weren’t endless. But there were a lot of moments, and it was more than just the competitions everyone studies for. It was also innocuous moments like when Cory wore Blue’s clothes and Red’s birthday.
We saw different strategies to start, but we’ll never know if anyone else was close. In the end, Jag pulled off his record-seeing seventh Veto win, taking sole ownership of that title, and tied Janelle Pierzina for most competition wins at all.
Now, it was down to what he would do. He owes his life in the game after Matt’s Power of Invincibility saved him from a unanimous eviction long ago. He and Bowie have done as much as Matt since then in keeping The Minutemen safe, so does that loyalty hold?
They had a Final 2 as well, but Matt would be tough to beat in the end. Felicia did her best to implore Jag to see that his safer path to victory would be to get Matt out. After all, doesn’t he think Fe and Bowie would both be easier to beat?
We’re not so sure, but Jag was definitely torn. Ultimately, he stayed loyal to The Minutemen and The Mafia by keeping Matt in the game. It was, on one hand, a dangerous move. On the other hand, it’s going to be easer to defend his social game to the jury if he doesn’t betray everyone. By staying loyal to Matt, who saved him, that might allow the jury to overlook his betrayals of all of them.
Houseguest Report Cards
Jag Bains (25, truck company owner) surprised us tonight because we really thought he’d choose the easier path to the end over loyalty. Now, if he’s being loyal as strategy to convince the jury he can be loyal, then it makes more sense. His game has been ruthlessly calculated for weeks, so it would be shocking if sentiment derailed it. If so, it could derail his whole season. As it stands, though, he’s probably in the best position because it does seem as if Bowie and Matt would take him to the end, even if he were to lose. [Grade: A]
Matthew Klotz (27, deaflympics gold medalist) is back in the mix, as he and Jag are basically inseparable at this point. If they don’t take each other out, it could be a toss-up and come down to who argues their story better. Jag has been the stronger orator to this point, but Matt has made zero enemies in the house and was seen as extremely trustworthy and honest. He needs to argue his independent game and strategy to overcome Jag’s game, unless the jury is angry in which case he wins. [Grade: B]
Bowie Jane Ball (46, barrister/DJ) is more loyal to Jag than she is to Matt. We don’t think she would cut him at this point, as that would be a big part of her argument at the end. As such, Matt has at least one person who’ll definitely take him out, and another in Jag who would seriously consider it. And both have a solid chance of winning a competition to take that shot. Still, even if she makes the Final 2, we don’t see Bowie being able to argue her way to a win unless the jury is extremely bitter (and that’s mixed right now). [Grade: C+]
Felicia Cannon (63, real estate agent) going home tonight was actually a bit of a shock — especially after Jag won. We really thought she was a shoe-in-for the Final 3 because she would be considered easier to beat in the final HOH competition. Now, all three remaining Houseguests are strong competitors. Felicia would have stood a strong chance of winning this game if she could have made it to the end with a story like hers. [Grade: B-]