Well, what a week it’s been in the Big Brother household. When we last left the houseguests, Da’Vonne had planted the seeds for a Frank vs. Tiffany face-off and the fracture of the 8 Pack had begun. But with Bridgette winning the Head of Household, Da’Vonne’s plan to send Frank packing would have to wait. In fact, Bridgette, who is on Frank’s team but has been on the minority side of the house, didn’t really take to her new task as Head of Household too well and ended up letting Frank pull her strings.
Paul, who should win this year’s Johnny Mac Pawn of the Year honor, was an easy mark for one nominee, and Frank convinced Bridgette to put up Tiffany as the other nominee on the block. While not as dramatic this week, Tiffany still had a bit of paranoia, and with good reason as for a majority of the week she was all but set to go home.
But Frank’s inappropriate behavior toward some of the women in the house began to sway the vote a little bit. Frank’s slapping of the women’s behinds and comments to some of female players were not greeted kindly, eventually leading Da’Vonne to a bit of a breakdown, explaining in the confessional that while she had let some things go for gameplay purposes, she did not want her child thinking Frank’s behavior was appropriate. Eventually Frank caught on that Da’Vonne was upset and apologized, but little did he know that Da’Vonne had started planning his downfall prior and this incident just pushed her into high gear.
But Frank’s gameplay saved him again as he won the BB Road Kill Challenge, putting up fellow pawn Bronte alongside Paul and Tiffany. So essentially even though it was Bridgette’s HoH, Frank made all the big decisions, but it was the final decision of the week that was the biggest shock.
As some of the houseguests gathered and realized the game was still being played in teams and certain sub alliances could be affected, a vote flip began to take place. And rather letting Frank continue running the house as a puppet master to others, the house flipped on him and sent Bronte packing instead of Tiffany, given the Bronte had no major loyalties in the house where Tiffany had allegiances to certain alliances.
The vote flip inevitably took Frank by surprise and sent certain members of the house into a tizzy not really sure who was instigating the power move. That made the new Head of Household competition more important than ever as previous alliances were now questioned. The competition was a memory challenge, and while a majority of the house was ready to get Frank out at first opportunity, Paulie won the competition keeping his team, including Frank, safe for another week. So who has the power leading into the week and who should be on high alert. Let’s look at the power rankings.
1. Paulie – He’s fully aware of the plan to boot Frank, yet has not given away this fact to Frank as of yet. He won the Head of Household competition, which will keep him safe for another week. He’s aligned himself with Zakiyah, has a pretty good relationship with Bridgette, has turned onetime foe Paul and about the only person we haven’t seen Paulie interact much with is Natalie, who has kind of floated by and has even less power with her Spy Girls sister Bronte just voted out. Simply put, Paulie is liked by just about everyone, including a few house guests who are on his radar to evict.
2. James – The likable flirt has managed to stay out of the maneuvering by the vets even though he’s aligned with them. Most of the power moves made have not been revealed to James until after the decisions have been made. Even this week’s vote flip had James finding out just shortly before it happened, which put him in an unenviable spot with his showmance Natalie given that she’ll be upset that Bronte was booted. Frank will likely have questions as well, but the fact that he wasn’t made aware until late can work to his favor.
3. Zakiyah – She’s cozied up to Paulie, but has not out and out started a showmance. She’s aligned with Da’Vonne but let her make the power moves. She part of several alliances, but is not leading any of them. And she’s done a good job of being involved in a lot of things while still keeping a low profile. Her only real target comes in her clearly drawn allegiances to Da’Vonne and Paulie, which will eventually be on other’s radar, but not until much deeper into the game. Zakiyah appears to be perfectly positioned in the house to make a deep run.
4. Corey – Like Zakiyah, Corey has been brought into alliances by a more prominent player — Nicole. He’s not shown much ability in competitions though looking extremely athletic, which could be him playing it slow and understated early. However, unlike Zakiyah and Paul, the Corey and Nicole pairing has raised some suspicion and put them on the radar to be split up at some point. For now, Corey is playing a solidly understated game, really only discussing gameplay with Nicole and making nice with most of the other houseguests. He should stay off the radar for a while.
5. Michelle – As stated in previous weeks, Michelle has benefitted from being in the right place at the right time and as a result she’s ended up in more than one alliance, and we’re starting to think this is no coincidence. She seems to have a good grasp of what’s going on with all of the power moves, but is only revealing her knowledge in strategic moments. Though not featured as much as some of the other housemates, Michelle appears to be taking it all in and sussing out her path to the end.
6. Nicole – While she’s well liked, Nicole’s indecisiveness is about to land her in trouble. She appears to be in good with James, but is caught in the middle of Da’Vonne and Frank and her flip-flopping on the situation will likely catch up to her this week. She’ll have to pick a side soon or she stands to get caught in the crossfire. And her pairing with Corey is definitely on Da’Vonne’s radar if Da’Vonne figures out that Nicole might still have some allegiance to Frank. Michelle has caught her in a flip, and while she has no power, Bridgette also has Nicole in her sights. This week should be interesting as some of her maneuvering is likely to be discovered between her fellow warring vets.
7. Frank – Despite the house lining up against him, he finds himself safe for another week. The fact that he didn’t figure out the plan to get him out may work well for him in the long run as there have been no hard feelings. He’s been under the assumption that his allies are true to him, but with the vote flip, Frank should now be on high alert of some maneuvering against him. It should be an interesting week to see who gets thrown under the bus, especially with Frank safe from eviction again. The interesting thing is that it wasn’t Da’Vonne, but rather some waffling members of the house, who eventually solidified the vote flip. But who will maintain their alliance with Frank and who will see a definite sever this week?
8. Paul – As stated earlier, he’s quickly becoming this year’s Johnny Mac. Though not as goofy and likable, Paul has managed to mend fences with some of the foes he made early on. At present, it’s still easy to put up Paul on the block and there have been bigger targets every week. But the biggest thing Paul can do at this point is to carve out some clear alliances instead of playing nice and hoping not to be the pawn again, because eventually the big targets will go home and those remaining will be easily able to vote him out one week.
9. Natalie – She’s cozied up to James, but with Bronte gone and Bridgette seeming like a weaker player, she really needs to get to work on winning over other members of the house. Much like Paul, she’s an outsider just going along with what the house wants in most cases. She’ll need more than James if she wants to stay.
10. Bridgette – Like Natalie, she’s an outsider. She did Frank’s bidding this past week, but is not one of his close allies. Her closest ally is Natalie, who has no real power, and by putting up Tiffany this past week, she took a possible “girls alliance” connection and blew it up thinking that Frank was her true ally. In truth, he was just using her and her lack of any real connections with other house members will likely see her either used as a pawn or heading home fairly soon. She’ll be safe this week thanks to Paulie’s HoH victory, but her game moving forward is suspect.
11. Da’Vonne – The big question this week will be whether or not Frank realizes how much Da’Vonne has stirred the pot against him and which of his alliance members have truly turned. If he catches on, she could be in trouble this week. However, Paulie is in power this week and his allegiance to Zakiyah could be Da’Vonne’s saving grace. But if Paulie saves Da’Vonne, then Frank may become suspicious. Either way, Da’Vonne’s hard playing the last few weeks could come back to haunt her this week.
12. Tiffany – She was almost out this week, and with Frank safe from eviction, the target will likely be on her back again. Frank will push Paulie for Tiffany to be on the block again, but if Paulie doesn’t comply, then you can look for the Frank divide to officially begin. Tiffany’s saving grace will be if she’s needed to align the house against Frank moving forward.
So there you have it. Another week in the books and what looks like a volatile, exciting week ahead. And let us not forget that one of the eliminated house guests will be returning to the game shortly. Come back next Thursday to see how things stand in the Big Brother household.
