As Julie Chen-Moonves promised, this week culminated in a Big Brother double-eviction episode like none other. Two contestants were sent to the jury, one from two different “festivals” that were held. The first was “Big Bro-chella,” where five players played out an entire week within the BB House. Then there was “Dyre Fest,” where the other five players had to spend the entire week in the BB Backyard, with limited food and amenities. While Big Bro-chella went completely to plan, Dyre Fest provided this week’s fireworks, and will prove to be a major turning point in the game one way or the other, regardless of where things go from here.
When we left off last week, the two teams hadn’t even been picked yet. But following Indy‘s eviction, a schoolyard pick ’em was held, with the two newly-crowned HOH’s – Michael and Terrance – getting the honors. Since Michael beat Terrance in that final HOH Competition Round, it was he who got to reign within the confines of the BB House as master of Big Bro-chella ceremonies. He strategically picked Jasmine, his target, along with bestie Brittany, and fellow Leftovers alliances members, Taylor and Monte. The week inside the house went almost perfectly for Michael, who continues to show legend-level mastery of the game, and who, should he go on to win, is well on his way as being thought of as one of the best that’s ever played. OK, I’ll slow down, he’s only reached final eight thus far. But come on, right? This guy is the real-deal and still finds himself in a great spot in this game.
Michael‘s HOH ended the way he wanted, with Jasmine getting voted out – becoming the second member of the jury – and also not having one clue as to what was going on. Oh but things went off the rails quite quickly outside at Dyre Fest.
It was an A+ week for HOH Terrance, who went from floater to player in the span of one week. When you win HOH and you’re on the bottom, as Terrance has been all season, you need to not only go after and target a big threat, but you have to gain valuable information along the way. Not only did Terrance do both of these, but he came out of the week with his first solid alliance, the “Afterparty” alliance (more on them later). But the big development for his game came from Kyle, who thus far had been straddling (no pun intended) both a show-mance with Alyssa and a loyalty to the Leftovers. Terrance got Kyle to come clean about the entire Leftovers alliance, much to the chagrin of both Turner and Joseph, fellow Leftovers at Dyre Fest, who were just freshly thrown under the bus.
Look, it might be hard to see from TV, but show-mances are almost always going to win out over any in-game alliance agreement. That’s why it is critical that show-mances get busted up early, but too often on Big Brother they are allowed to remain for far too long. Not splitting up Kyle and Alyssa during the BB pick ’em at the time seemed like a big blunder for Michael…that is, until he revealed that he’d actually be OK if some of the Leftover members wanted to start taking shots at each other…just less blood on his hands. I’m telling you, this guy is next-level good. Here we are worrying about the Leftovers while Michael is out there thinking way past that, wanting to win the entire game.
Kyle of course was going to protect Alyssa, and vice-versa, so it was bold and a bit of a surprise that Terrance decided to put up Turner and Joseph originally. There is always one player it seems, each season, that has more potential than where they actually end up finishing the game, who basically have their game flushed down the toilet by sheer bad luck or by an unforeseen twist in the game. This season that person is Joseph. He was a strong, well-liked, fan-favorite, and don’t forget that he was a last-minute alternate for the show. Joseph delivered in spades, and he was exactly the sort of player Terrance wanted to take out on his HOH.
Terrance then did something quite smart…without warning he used the POV that he won to take Turner off the block, and replaced him with Kyle. This not only fostered some loyalty with Turner, but it led to the dumping of a bit more information once Joseph and Kyle kicked into survival mode. Joseph may not have had a chance anyways, but his approach was a major mistake…look Joseph, there is no way in hell you are going to sway Alyssa to vote out her boyfriend, so why even spend that energy? And to basically ask to do it in a group setting not thinking your own lies and moves would be aired out for all to see? Joseph’s only approach should have been to sway Turner and Terrance…if he had their votes (Terrance’s in case of a tie), then it wouldn’t matter that Alyssa voted to save him. But doing it the way he did only solidified the others that much more.
So Jasmine out, Joseph out. The glory of this split-week is that the newly formed “Afterparty” alliance could be an incredibly dangerous power in this game, and if played correctly, could be the one thing that Michael doesn’t see coming. You see, what happens at Dyre Fest, stays at Dyre Fest. We know what happened out there this past week, but the inside of the house doesn’t. If Turner, Kyle, Alyssa and Terrance all stay on the same page and stay tight, they are in a massive position of power. Terrance could play out-of-the-loop, which would be fitting since he was for most of the game. But if he doesn’t reveal to anyone else that he knows about the Leftovers, then Kyle and Turner can continue infiltrating their old alliance as double-agents. Michael and Brittany showed interest in working with Kyle and Alyssa, so the show-mance might just have saved itself for another few weeks. Taylor and Monte will soon find themselves on the outs if other factions decide to strike first, and suddenly you have Terrance making it close to the end. Heck maybe someone breaks up the show-mance along the way, no problem for Terrance.
What I’m really saying is that Terrance rocked it out this week, and not just because he’s a DJ. I for one have newfound respect for him in this game, and if – let’s just say – he does somehow get in the way of Michael‘s waltz to victory this season? Well, that’s a mighty good story for a final jury to ponder, and he could point his success all the way back to his profound, game-changing Dyre Fest HOH. Terrance even said earlier this week, that the Leftovers may have won the first half of the game, but he’s winning the second half. Not possible? This is Big Brother, silly. Expect the unexpected!
BB SCOREBOARD:
Current HOH: TBD
Nominations: TBD
UPCOMING EPISODES:
Sunday, 8/28 – HOH and Noms
Wednesday, 8/31 – POV Comp and Ceremony
Thursday, 9/1 – Live-Eviction
TELL US – HOW DID YOU LIKE THE SPLIT-WEEK TWIST? WHO CAME OUT THE BEST AND WHO IS WORSE OFF? AND WHO ARE YOU ROOTING FOR TO WIN BB24?
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