This week on Big Brother saw a bit of sadness from Natalie and James, while the remaining houseguests were sitting pretty. When we last left the Big Brother houseguests, Michelle was busy trying to blow up Nicole, Paul and Victor‘s games on the way out the door and a new Head of Household challenge requiring the moving of eggs through chicken wire had begun. As had become commonplace when he’s been in the game, Victor has continued his run of the house every other week.
Having formed a final four alliance last week with Nicole and Corey, Victor and Paul decided to stay true to the previous week with plans to target the other remaining couple, James and Natalie. On camera, the “showmance” has been portrayed rather syrupy sweet, but with the couple now on the block against each other, further cracks in their relationship began to show this week. We had already begun to see James question the validity of their showmance in recent weeks, and this week there was a bit more of that going on.
Once on the block, James started to campaign for himself to go home and early in the week it appeared as that was going to happen. He even urged Natalie to go campaign for herself and she did, but in the process kind of threw James under the bus. That ended up being a big red flag, as Paul and Victor saw her confession of receiving bad advice as a bad move considering she attached herself to James all season. Not long after, Paul and Victor let James know what had been said, which led to some friction between James and Natalie.
As the remaining houseguests started to decide strategy moving forward, they decided that they would rather use the distracted James as the swing vote in the final battles and were all suspicious of Natalie. This led to a week of James and Natalie being at odds and confrontational at times, while falling back into the status quo of their relationship at other times.
When it came time for the Veto, Corey won and kept the nominations the same, which came as a surprise to no one. But Corey’s decision also furthered an agenda for the couple, as Nicole wanted to try to scoop up James and go after Victor and Paul for the following week. Meanwhile, Paul and Victor seemed to make peace with James as well, feeling that he might partner with them. At that point, the writing was on the wall for Natalie, who eventually came to accept her exit as she started to plot with James his plans moving forward. There was talk that he would be closer to turning either Vic or Paul to keep him than Nicole and Corey, so it’s not a slam dunk what he would do. Either way, it looks like the remaining pairs will try to scoop up James to make moves on the other rather than honoring their final four deals.
When the final votes came in, it was Natalie who was unanimously sent to the jury house, and yet another endurance competition was set up for the remaining houseguests. But before the HoH was named in the annual “slip and slide” competition, the show ended. So who holds the power this week and potentially moving forward? Check out our rankings below.
1. Victor – He continues to win HoH competitions when eligible and right now most think of him as a lesser opponent than Paul should they make it to the finals. It’s true that the two evictions should work against him, but his dominance when in the game may also start to sway some of those on the jury to vote in his favor. Though he will have no shot at HoH this week, we still like Victor’s chances moving forward.
2. James – He has both sides of the house fighting for his support and depending on how things play out moving forward, he can side with whichever side has the power. It appears that both side of the Final Four alliance are ready to turn on each other rather than going through a drama free week voting James out. So while losing Natalie puts him at a disadvantage numbers wise, it may actually clear his head without having to worry about his allegiance to her and could end in a Final Two spot if he plays his cards right.
3. Corey – Well look at that Paulie … the Executives minus you could be in the Final Four. If it does end up James siding with Paul and Victor, surely they would be weary of those James-Nicole veterans alliance Final Two, meaning Nicole would be viewed as the bigger threat. And it would likely be a very uneasy alliance of James and Corey having to hopefully take down either Paul or Victor to have a shot at winning it all. On the flip side, if Nicole and Corey’s side wins HoH, Corey is the more well liked in the jury house than Nicole, who has been called out by Big Meech and others.
4. Paul – Of the remaining guests, you could say he’s playing the best game, being able to read the tide of the room ahead of things happening. You’d be hard pressed to bet against him in the Final Two. But the other houseguests know this, and therefore there is a bit of a target on his back no matter how much #friendship he has with others. This will be a tricky week for Paul depending on which side James sides with.
5. Nicole – Essentially, all of her eggs are in winning the HoH or successfully wooing James to her side as a vote this week. If neither of those things happen, she should be fearful of what comes next. Despite her closeness with Corey and flirtations with Victor and Paul, there’s only so many people who can go, and it’s her bond with James that freaks out all of the remaining guys. Plus, all of the shade thrown Nicole’s way by Michelle and Natalie the last few weeks may have landed its impact finally.
