Wednesday’s episode of Big Brother picks up after the nomination ceremony. As many expected, HOH Andy played it safe and nominated the two ‘outsiders’ in the house, Jessie and Spencer. Jessie has now been on the block for the fourth time, and Spencer’s in a similar situation. He tells us “It sucks to be on the block again, but I’m getting used to this position.”
Immediately, Amanda is shown in the diary room, once again telling us that she chose these nominations and that Jessie needs to leave because Jessie is targeting her. As many audience members have picked up on, this season of Big Brother is starting to look more and more like The Amanda Show. Every HOH seems to do exactly what Amanda wants, and Andy’s HOH reign seems like it will be no different. Although, this time, he has Helen in his ear listing all the reasons why Amanda should go home.
It becomes evident, however, that Andy’s true allegiance lies with Amanda and McCrae, as he confesses to them that Helen is urging him to making a ‘big move’ this week. When McCranda hears this news, Amanda comes up with a new idea: McCrae needs to make a fake alliance with Helen so that she will not nominate Amanda and McCrae together if she happens to win HOH. McCrae pulls Helen in the storage room, falsely confessing to her that he needs to get rid of Amanda because he cannot beat her in the end. McCrae finally proposes the fake alliance and insists that Andy, Helen, and McCrae work together until the end. Helen buys the fake deal hook, link, and sinker.
Is this the first time Helen is getting duped in the Big Brother house? All along Helen has controlled the game, and now it seems like her hold on the house is slowly but surely slipping.
Before long, it is time for the veto competition. Since there are a few super fans in the house this year, they predict that the upcoming competition will be the counting one where houseguests either have to ‘fold’ or ‘stay’ with their answers.
Amanda deducts a new plan: this one is entitled “Operation Don’t Let Jessie Win Veto.” All the houseguests will fold except Helen, which will eventually eliminate Jessie from the competition. However, Spencer’s Big Brother life is on the line, too, and he decides he will not go with the house plan. He needs to win this competition for himself. His decision to ‘stay’ forces Helen out of the competition, much to everyone’s dismay. Everyone else is forced to start from scratch, and the end, it is Andy who wins the Power of Veto. Andy now completely controls the nominations this week.
Unsurprisingly, after little to no deliberation, Andy does not use the veto. He tells us this is the first time the veto has not been used this summer. Spencer and Jessie are still on the block, and it is not looking good for Jessie this week.
Moving onto Thursday’s show, we have another exciting live eviction and HOH competition. Thursday’s episode begins with Jessie telling us she is safe because all season long the theme has been to ‘honor the HOH’, and this one should be no different because Andy is on her side. Little does Jessie know that Andy has wanted her to leave from the day he neglected to put her key in the nomination box.
As time goes on, Jessie, however, is becoming more and more nervous. She seeks confirmation from Amanda and McCrae and they tell her she is undoubtedly safe. But she is not as confident in Helen and Elissa—she realizes they have been avoiding her, and she claims that Helen ‘cannot look her in the eye.’ Then, to make matters worse, Helen insinuates to the group that Jessie was scheming to get Amanda out last week. Jessie confronts Helen, reminding her that she was on board with the plan to evict Amanda, too. Jessie knows something is wrong at this point, and she listens at the door while the group is speaking. She hears Aaryn say that Jessie now knows everyone has been lying to her.
Now, Jessie is furious with everyone in the house. She realizes she has been a goner since her nomination, and if she’s going to leave, she’s going to go out with a bang. A new operation has been formed: this one is entitled “Operation Bring the House Down.” Jessie will, in a “ladylike manner,” blow them all out of the water. She tells Spencer and GM to sit back and enjoy the show.
First, she tells Andy she knows everything, which throws Andy into a state of paranoia. Then, she tells GinaMarie that Aaryn constantly talks badly about her. This prompts a late-night fight between Aaryn and GM, which ends in a screaming match between the two, with Jessie laughing in the background.
After all the turmoil, it is no surprise that Jessie is eliminated by a unanimous vote of 6-0. When Julie Chen asks her about “Operaton Bring the House Down,” Jessie has no regrets—she knew she was leaving, and she wanted to make some kind of impression. She was trying for three weeks to do something about the unanimous house, and she wanted to “mix things up a bit.” (Kudos to Jessie, because she is the only one in the house who seems to want to mix anything up this season.)
Moving onto the HOH competition, we see that it is a ‘knock-out’ game. Two houseguests will hear a short song that describes a past competition. The houseguest who wins will have to correctly identify the competition as HOH, Have/Have Not, or Power of Veto before the other HG buzzes in first. The winner will then pick the next two to face off.
In the end, it comes down to Amanda and Aaryn. After a long moment of hesitation, Aaryn rings in first, correctly identifying “Veto” as the competition being described. Aaryn is now the new Head of Household—her fourth HOH of the season!
Finally, just when you think the episode is over, Julie Chen dishes out another surprise: for the first time ever in BB history, a member of the jury will be coming back into the game. After a houseguest is evicted next week, all four of the jurors (including Candice, Judd, Jessie, and the most recently evicted HG) will compete to re-enter the game. As always, it should be an exciting live eviction next week. But before that, do not forget to tune in to see Aaryn’s nominations on Sunday 8/7c, and the Power of Veto Competition on Wednesday 8/7c! This may be the first week that the stronger players in the game begin to turn on each other, and it will be interesting to see who comes out on top!