Things are moving along and divisions are starting to form in the Big Brother house as we enter Week 3. It all started innocently enough with Paulie winning the Head of Household challenge and the 8 Pack ready to back him up. After the collective of Paul, Bronte, Victor, Natalie and Bridgette found themselves on the wrong side of the house with the eviction of Jozea, the lines were pretty clearly drawn.
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Paulie and Frank talked it out a bit, with Paulie deciding the Victor would be his target. But with Victor being a strong competitor in competitions, Paulie debated the idea of a back door eviction, something that is much harder to pull off this year with the BB Road Kill competition factored in. To no one’s surprise, even the pair that got put up, Paul and Bronte found themselves on the block.
It was a tough week for Paul, who realized the bridges burned in aligning with the wrong side of the house, but he game played his way into safety by the end of the week. Paulie confided in Paul his plan, and Paul, while doing his best to clue Victor in to his fate without outright saying it, eventually rewarded Paulie’s confidence by playing as he was asked. Sadly, Victor was as delusional as Jozea on how things would play out and Paul was in the unenviable position of having to choose between his friend and his game.
As for the BB Road Kill, that caused plenty of drama this week. Victor actually won, which initially seemed like the worst case scenario. But feeling safe in his confidences, he immediately told Frank and Paulie, the two people organizing his ouster, who in turn were able to strategize with the rest of the house. Victor chose to put up Tiffany, and as we’ve seen so far this season, she’s just as paranoid if not more than her sister Vanessa from last season. Though safely in the 8 Pack, Tiffany started to theorize that she was a target and she nearly messed up the plan to get out Victor by winning the Veto competition. This did not go unnoticed by Da’Vonne, who caught her counting letters during the spelling competition when she should’ve been throwing it. Luckily, Paulie won, rewarded Paul for honoring his confidence and took him off the block to be replaced by Victor.
But while the 8 Pack (nine if you count Paulie, who wasn’t initially added due to his previous week pawn status) seems to be running the house, there are cracks starting to form. At the center of this are two of the vets — Frank and Da’Vonne. Frank has quietly made side deals with just about everyone in the house, something that has not escaped Da’Vonne, who has gone to work on messing with the game of one of the stronger players. Frank has been paranoid of the over emotional Tiffany and Da’Vonne has started feeding that. In the process, the 8 Pack has started to fracture. There is the Fatal Five, an all female union of Da’Vonne, Zakiyah, Nicole, Michelle and Tiffany, that have sussed out that all guys have been evicted so far and a female union would have an advantage moving forward. But Tiffany’s overly dramatic state when on the block has everyone jittery about including her moving forward, thus a sub Fatal Four has been discussed. There is also another fivesome of Nicole, Corey, Paulie, Zakiyah and Da’Vonne that seem to be a possibility, but fearing being involved in a fivesome with two showmances – Da’Vonne is reconsidering all the things she’s set in motion.
It will be worth monitoring over the next week if Da’Vonne’s puppet master ways will result in the ouster of supposed alliance member Frank or if all her moves will be blown out of the water once people start talking.
By the time the dust settled Thursday night, Victor became the third house guest evicted this season, but as we know, he’ll be eligible for the Battle Back competition to return to the house at a later date. As for the new HoH competition, this one involved getting balls into slotted number amounts. Bridgette won the competition, making her Category 4 team with Frank, Paulie and Michelle safe for the week. So, with Week 3 in the books, where do we stand in the rankings? Let’s check it out.
- Paulie – He’s got a strong social game and has proved himself capable of winning competitions. He won points with the vets for agreeing to be a pawn during the opening week and has walked a fine line of being friendly and earning the trust of most members of the side of the house that attempted to vote him out in Week 1. He’s still tight with Frank though well aware of Da’Vonne and some of his alliance’s plan to get Frank out. The only target he truly has on his back at this point is from Da’Vonne, who has shown concern over his continued closeness with Zakiyah. But if Da’Vonne’s plan blows up, he’s the person in the best position to recover from any blowback.
- Nicole – For all the bad juju hoisted at Nicole in Week 1, this vet has recovered quite nicely. Jozea and Victor, the two people stirring the pack the most to get Nicole out, are gone. Meanwhile, Bronte has been neutralized and Paul has almost turned completely. Natalie appears to have shifted as well in a floater position, and Nicole is well aware of Bridgette’s duplicity toward her while being in a position to do something about it whenever the time calls for it. She’s also managed to steer clear of the Frank/Da’Vonne maneuvering enough not to suffer blow back whichever way it plays out. She appears to see the pieces on the game board and has done a solid job of letting others take the early lead in game moves, thus keeping the spotlight off herself.
- Corey – The big lug seems wrapped around Nicole’s finger, but is well liked by the guys and the gals and has not done anything to really put a target on his back. He seems to be content doing whatever Nicole asks of him and because she’s on the right side of the house, he’s sitting pretty at the moment. Even if the other side were to somehow come to power, our guess is that Corey would be far down in the pecking order of targets. You have to wonder if his gameplay so far is strategic in letting other take the lead and not being a big threat in competitions, or if he’s just a nice guy not cut out to make any big moves and just there to float along.
- James – He’s been so busy flirting it up with the girls, he’s not really gotten too much into the game play. He’s typically the last to find out about any game moves going on with his alliances, partly because his alliances are not sure exactly how much of his play is flirting and how much is potentially aligning with those outside of his alliance. Still, he appears to have generated some amount of trust with fellow vets Nicole, Da’Vonne and Frank and appears to have turned his teammate Natalie into an ally. He still annoys Paul and Bronte and to some extent Bridgette, but they have for the most part been neutralized in the game.
- Zakiyah – For a newbie, Zakiyah has adapted pretty quickly. Remember early on when she was with Jozea and Paul in getting out the old guard? She quickly sussed out that Jozea and Paul were overplaying their supposed dominance of the house and flipped to join Da’Vonne in the Jozea blindside. She’s cozied up to Paulie, but for the most part heeded the warning of Da’Vonne about showmances. She’s parlayed her supposed loyalty with Da’Vonne into inclusion in the 8 Pack, the Fatal Five and the Fatal Four, but you sense that she’s content letting Da’Vonne make the moves that could backfire and has quietly aligned herself with assistance from others should Da’Vonne get caught in the crossfire.
- Michelle – Hey, remember Michelle? She’s part of the 8 Pack, the Fatal Five and the Fatal Four, but still she feels like somewhat of an outsider. Her inclusion in the alliances seem more like being in the right place at the right time than any true loyalties being formed. You get the feeling that if her alliances got down to the desired number, she’d be the first to go. As little air time as Michelle has gotten, it’s hard to suss out her true friends in the house and her allegiance has been called into question a few times so far. But right now she appears to be the true definition of a floater. The fact that Category 4 is safe this week also keeps her near the top of the rankings.
- Natalie – Of the “Spy Girls,” she appears to be the most likely to flip. Her early season potential showmance with Victor being shut down, she appears to be cozying up to James of late. And while her fellow Spy Girls have been more vocal about their targets, Natalie has taken more of a “follow” approach to her game. That being said, she appears to have been the first of her crew to realize she was on the wrong side of the house and immediately started building bridges on the other side. At this point, she’s viewed as the person not in the 8 Pack to have the best shelf life.
- Bridgette – She’s here just because there are bigger targets and she appears to have been neutralized for the time being. It’s not lost on a good portion of the house that she was sent to spy on them during the Jozea eviction week and Nicole fully has her pegged. She was the only member of Frank’s “team” not to be included in the 8 Pack, but Frank still has started building some trust there at arm’s length without revealing all his true allegiances (but do we know what his allegiances are at this point?). As the new Head of Household, here’s Bridgette’s chance to start building sustaining relationships while getting out a foe. If she is indeed aligned with Frank, Tiffany should be nervous.
- Frank – In the early weeks of the season, Frank was the puppet master, orchestrating moves through other players without getting any blood on his hands. He even managed to keep his BB Road Kill victory mostly a secret. He’s played a smart social game and we know from past seasons he can be a competition beast. His frequent partner in scheming the first few weeks — Da’Vonne — has already figured out how dangerous Frank can be moving forward and has spent a good portion of the week quietly picking apart some of his gameplay with the other house guests. After his “team” won HoH, it will be interesting if Frank susses out some of the building motivation to oust him in the house.
- Da’Vonne – She had a solid veterans alliance. She’s also involved in a trio of other alliances, mostly formed out of her instigation. But after starting to pit Frank and Tiffany against each other and planting seeds about both in the minds of fellow house guests, can she execute her plan to get rid of either without her secrets being uncovered? She’s playing hard and fast, something that typically results in early exits. She won’t be able to get Frank out this week, but if Tiffany goes before spilling any secrets, it’s a victory for Mama Day.
- Paul – Even though he improved his status in the game after playing along with Paulie this past week, Paul is still an easy target because of his late turnaround to the other side. Paul could go up and no one would really bat an eye. But we still see the bearded one being a lesser target than Bronte, unless the all female alliance comes to fruition. What will be interesting moving forward is if Paul is able to form any sort of bond with Paulie and Frank that proves legit. If so, he could stay longer than most initially suspected.
- Bronte – She’s loud, she talks trash and she’s been reluctant to move on from her Week One alliances. She was smart to lay low last week and would be wise to do so again this week, but at some point she’ll need to find an ally in the crew she initially went “Mean Girl” against early on. Odds are she’ll never be able to overcome that early stumble. And like Paul, she’s an easy person to put on the block at this point, whether she’s the target or not. With Bridgette winning, she could be safe from the block this week, unless Bridgette wises up and starts strategizing a way to distance herself from the minority side of the house.
- Tiffany – Just like her sister, Tiffany is an emotional mess when it comes to game play. The moment she’s on the block, all rationality goes out the window and it’s completely unpredictable how it will all play out or if she’ll be an easy flip. It’s made all of her alliance members extremely uneasy. And by her causing so much drama in weeks where there was no threat of her being evicted, she’s now put a target on her back. For those starting to play the game that are aligned with Tiffany, she threatens to blow up their strategy at any moment and that’s just something that is good for nobody. Just because of her unpredictable nature, she may be a backdoor option for her alliance members or she could be used as a pawn by her non-alliance members to see who she would flip on.
So what does a Bridgette Head of Household week look like anyway? As one of the least featured house guests, it’s a bit of a mystery. Will she keep her friends safe or will she use this opportunity to forge some much needed bonds on the majority side of the house? Will a Bridgette HoH unify the seemingly crumbling 8 Pack alliance or chip away at it? Knowing her friends in the house, I’d be looking for Team Freakazoid’s members to all be in danger this week. There’s no close ties to Nicole or Corey and she’s already outed Tiffany’s game play to Frank. Who do you think will be on the block? Weigh in in the Comments section below and come back next Thursday for our next Big Brother update.
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