This week, Helen is Head of Household and she is kicking butt and taking names, making crucial decisions for her and her alliance members. Sunday’s episode immediately picks up following Helen’s nominations, in which she nominated Aaryn and Kaitlyn for eviction. Post-nominations, Helen tells us that she knows Aaryn is undoubtedly the most hated person in the house. But Helen acknowledges she may be able to use the HG’s hatred of Aaryn to her advantage. If Aaryn is around, she will always be a target, and that takes the target off of Helen and her fellow alliance members.
Moreover, Helen claims she has bigger fish to fry this week. Aaryn is merely a ‘pawn’ in these nominations, while Jeremy, the self-described “Cherokee beast” is the houseguest that Helen truly has her eyes set on.
However, since Jeremy is skilled in challenges, Helen knows that it may not be beneficial to nominate Jeremy this week, even for the third MVP nomination. They want to keep him from participating in the veto competition at all costs. So who will be the MVP’s third nominee?
It appears as though houseguests left and right are trying to win Helen’s trust—they see she values honesty in this game, and every HG is trying to clear the air with her (especially those apart of The Moving Company).
Jeremy is the first to spill about The Moving Company. He outs each alliance member to Helen and tells her how the alliance all began. It is obvious Jeremy is gripping at straws at this point, desperate to stay in the game, but his honesty does a lot of damage to two other houseguests who were apart of The Moving Company and have yet to come clean: Spencer and Howard.
Spencer and Howard, who were supposed to be in Helen’s alliance while they were secretly in TMC, have yet to confess at this point. Later on, Howard makes his way up to HOH, and eventually confesses that he voted to evict Elissa last week. But when asked if he was apart of an all guy’s alliance, Howard still denies, denies, denies! Helen immediately becomes weary of Howard, and it disappoints her that Howard has continually lied to her thus far in the game.
Spencer, on the other hand, spills the truth to Helen about The Moving Company when he makes his visit to the HOH room. In return, Helen thanks him for telling the truth, and lets him know that Howard has lied to her about TMC. Spencer and Howard immediately realize they now have their backs against the wall: they are quickly becoming lower and lower on the BB totem pole this week. And when Howard eventually confesses, it appears to be too little, too late.
Perhaps that is why many of the houseguests want Howard to go up for the third MVP nomination. When Elissa (unsurprisingly) wins the MVP, Amanda and McCrae really try to strong-arm her into putting up Howard. Howard, they claim, is a physical threat, and if Jeremy is picked to play in the veto competition, Howard could easily beat Jeremy. On the other hand, Spencer, their other option for the MVP nomination, is less athletic and has less of a chance to win the POV.
However, Elissa clearly does not like being strong-armed in this game—she reminds America that she is going to make her own decisions and play her own game, and she will not blindly listen to the commands of Amanda and McCrae. And that is exactly what she does: she follows her instinct, and puts up Spencer for eviction.
Eventually it is time for the three nominees to compete in the veto competition: Aaryn, Kaitlyn, and Spencer. Helen, the Head of Household, will also compete in the competition. In addition, she will pick two players by random draw: she picks Candice and GinaMarie. The houseguests’ prayers have been answered: Jeremy has not been picked to play in the veto competition.
The houseguests walk outside one by one to find a trampoline and a mish-mosh of famous pictures with the houseguests’ faces on each. They have to memorize the pictures on the opposing side of the yard while jumping on a trampoline, and then hang up the pictures according to memory on their side of the wall. Everyone seems to succeed in the competition, but some are clearly more physically savvy than others. It appears to be a little more of a struggle for Spencer, for instance, to jump on that trampoline than it does for some of the other younger, fitter houseguests.
Eventually the times are revealed: it comes down to Kaitlyn and Helen. Helen’s time, however, is 8:55, while Kaitlyn’s is 7:09. With almost a two-minute lead, Kaitlyn has won the Power of Veto!
Now Kaitlyn has a crucial decision to make: will she take herself off the block when her boyfriend, Jeremy, is clearly the obvious choice for a replacement nominee? Kaitlyn acknowledges that it may be smarter to take her chances and not the use the veto. Will they really evict her if she doesn’t use it, or are Aaryn and Spencer the bigger targets? After all is said and done, Kaitlyn decides she is not going to risk it—she uses the Power of Veto to remove herself from the block. To nobody’s surprise, Jeremy is nominated in her place.
But it is obvious Jeremy will not back down so easily. As he keeps reminding America, he is a winner, and he always wins. Will he end up talking his way out of leaving? His final remarks make it apparent that he is at least going to try: “This Cherokee Chief does not go out without a fight, and until he walks out the door, he's going out swinging.”
Let’s see what Jeremy can do on Thursday’s live eviction episode, when another houseguest is evicted, and the fourth HOH of the season is named!