What a week it’s been in the Big Brother household! When we last left the houseguests, Victor had been voted out, but joined all of the jury members with the opportunity to fight for the chance to re-enter the game. The competition was an endurance one, with the last remaining jury member assured of returning to the game and the remaining houseguests also competing for the chance at being Head of Household.
Victor, a competition beast, held on as Da’Vonne, Zakiyah, Bridgette and Paulie all eventually dropped, thus nullifying the results of the past week and resetting the game. But HoH wasn’t in the cards for Victor, who eventually fell, leaving Nicole and James as the remaining two vying to run the house for the week. Eventually a deal was struck, but not without some hedging, before Nicole took over for the week.
In the game of musical chairs stabbing each other in the back, Nicole and Corey moved away from last week’s partnership with James and Natalie and paired up with Paul and Victor, making it clear that her target for the week was Michelle. You can question whether or not this was the best move in the long run, but for this week, Nicole has not gone back on her deal with James and has mended fences with Paul and Victor by putting up Michelle, who is not really a threat moving forward. The only real threat is Michelle continuing to call out Nicole for her game moves and putting a target on her back moving forward, and there really is no blood on her hands with the other house guests as Michelle wasn’t closely aligned with any of the remaining players.
After speaking with Corey, the pairing with Victor and Paul is afoot, with Paul even being a pawn to get Michelle out. To further ensure this would happen, Corey was given a money bribe to get one other houseguest to agree to a task for the week in return for the dough. Even though it likely wasn’t needed, Corey used the money to ensure that Victor would vote out Michelle, meaning at worst there was a 2-2 tie with Nicole being the deciding vote. With Nicole winning the Power of Veto, the nominations remained the same and Michelle’s days were numbered.
Was Nicole’s choice a smart one? Yes, she did not get any blood on her hands, but at this point, all that are left are people she does have an affinity for and she just made it an even run to the finals with three two-person alliances left to battle for power. The week prior, everyone had banded together to get a strong competitor out, so why not do that again? But with Victor returning and Paul not being the target, we may have seen the final chance for this pair to be split up before the finals.
As the week came to a close, the vote ended in a tie with Nicole having the final say to send Michelle home, but not without some fireworks and daggers thrown at Nicole before her exit and the blonde feeling justified after that reaction. As the night came to a close, the remaining six began what could be the most crucial HoH of the season. And with that, let’s see which houseguest has the best standing.
1. Paul – The bearded one talks a good game and has manipulated his way around many a situation. He’s even shown the ability to win a competition or two along the way. Should Paul be able to make it to the finals, he would have the best argument of any remaining competitor as to why he should win it all. His biggest threat would be James somehow being in the final against him.
2. Victor – Once again Paul and Victor are in the middle. And depending on how strong allegiances are, they might be in better shape if they don’t win HoH. But should Paul and Victor make it to the final two, you have to believe that Paul would win a jury vote, considering Victor was evicted twice and had to battle his way back both times. In fact, it might be hard for Victor to justify himself in just about any finals pairing.
3. Natalie – She has managed to not really alienate anyone, even though James is starting to suspect he’s been manipulated by her a bit. But if it ends up she and James put on the block together, he would likely be the choice to go home. You would have to think that Paul and Victor would rather keep her as she hasn’t really come to the forefront with her gameplay and they would likely be able to scoop her up for their side as opposed to her going with Corey and Nicole.
4. James – Unlike Nicole, James has not been afraid to make big game moves. In fact, he was almost forced into it a couple of times, and there are people in both alliances who have been burned a bit by his game moves. He may be well liked, but at this point, people don’t forget and being that he’s so beloved, he’s probably seen as a bigger threat with those already in jury. His best chance is if he or Natalie wins HoH this week.
5. Nicole – By not taking out a bigger player and not being able to play for HoH, Nicole and by proxy Corey are in a precarious position. Having flipped their allegiances can’t sit well with James and Natalie and sure have put them on the radar of Paul and Victor. So will the James/Natalie/Paul/Victor foursome reunite once again to take advantage of Corey and Nicole’s disadvantage, or have any of the bond’s formed in recent weeks taken? At this point, Nicole’s saving Grace is that Corey is likely viewed as the bigger target.
6. Corey – With Nicole unable to play for HoH, he’s already at a disadvantage, and the alliances between the three pairs seem to be shifting weekly. It doesn’t take a genius to see that the path of least resistance is to beat Corey for HoH and then put the couple up together. He would likely be the one to leave, whether it’s taking a bullet for Nicole, or just if it’s that he’s viewed as a bigger physical threat. Those in the house seem to like Corey, but at this point, he would appear to be a bigger threat than Nicole.
So who is in the driver’s seat moving forward? Do you agree with these rankings? Come back next week to see where things stand.
