Drew evicted Dee, kept Rick, and sent Taylor, Drew, and Rick to the final three. yay or boo, whichever you prefer. Read more →
episode spoilers for Big Brother 28 through the final-four eviction on Thursday, September 24.
Taylor won the HOH that guaranteed her a chair at the end. Drew won the veto that turned the other two chairs into his personal seating chart. then he evicted Dee, kept Rick, and gave us a final three that can be greeted with either “yay” or “boo” without changing the punctuation.
The entire final-four round happened inside Thursday’s two-hour episode. Taylor beat Dee and Drew for HOH, then nominated both of them. Drew won the veto, used it on himself, and forced Rick Devens onto the block beside Dee.
That made Drew the only voter. He chose to evict Dee, ending the Icons pair and sending Taylor, Drew, and Rick to the final three. Big Brother Network’s final-four results confirm the whole sequence, which is useful because the episode compressed an HOH, nominations, veto, veto meeting, eviction, and several years of emotional aging into two hours.
Drew Campbell. Photo: Evan Mulling/CBS, via Parade.
Drew finally made the move
Drew spent weeks close enough to the Icons that every decision became a referendum on whether he was playing with them or merely decorating their alliance. He voted out Yash over Dee. He absorbed the jury’s suspicion. He kept insisting there was a point at which loyalty would become timing.
This was that point, because it could not be any later. Dee could not retaliate, nominate him, or win one more competition. Drew gets to walk into finale night saying that when one vote could finally remove the season’s most established strategic pair, he cast it.
The complication is that he kept Rick. Cutting Dee breaks the pair, but it does not remove the veteran story from the final three. Rick has survived being visible, targeted, nominated, twist-afflicted, and occasionally dressed like a Morpheus vampire. that is not a small résumé to sit beside at the end.
Rick Devens. Photo: Robert Voets/CBS, via Parade.
Taylor won exactly enough power to lose control
Taylor’s HOH was enormous because it guaranteed safety at final four. It was also structurally rude: after she nominated Dee and Drew, the veto winner controlled everything else. Drew won, saved himself, selected the replacement nominee by default, and cast the only eviction vote.
So Taylor got the thing she needed most—a final-three seat—and then had to watch someone else decide who would occupy the other two. crying with Taylor was not an overreaction. it was the correct amount of crying for winning power in a format designed to immediately explain the limits of your power.
This final three has three usable stories. Taylor fought her way into the room after losing allies and being treated like a convenient pawn. Drew waited until the last possible vote to prove that waiting was strategy rather than fear. Rick arrived as the obvious returning-player threat and is somehow still inside the building.
It also has three obvious objections. Taylor may need the final HOH more than either man. Drew may have waited so long that the jury remembers the hesitation better than the move. Rick may be the person everyone spent the season identifying as dangerous and then repeatedly declining to remove.
The final HOH will decide which two of them face the jury at the 90-minute finale on Thursday, October 1, at 8/7c. Until then: yay. boo. both remain valid and, frankly, rotational.
Photo attribution: official CBS promotional portraits, used editorially via Parade.
after roughly twelve to fourteen hours, Yash handed Drew the #BB28 veto in exchange for safety promises. this should age calmly and… Read more →
live-feed spoilers for Big Brother 28 through Sunday morning, September 13.
Yash and Drew stayed attached to a movie-promo lie detector until approximately the end of time, and then Yash traded the veto away for two promises. this is the kind of decision that looks either visionary or deeply embarrassing depending on which thirty seconds of Thursday you freeze-frame.
no deal made in a pressure cooker-like comp has Ever backfired, lol #bb28
Yash’s Week 10 nominations were Barrett, Drew, and Melody. Dee and Devens joined them in the final veto draw, and the competition turned into an endurance marathon that ran somewhere in the neighborhood of twelve to fourteen hours.
Hamsterwatch’s September 12 live-feed recap has the drop order as Dee, Melody, Devens, and Barrett, leaving Drew and Yash. At roughly 2:48 a.m. Pacific, Yash accepted Drew’s pitch and dropped, making Drew the veto winner.
Yash Patel and Drew Campbell with fellow houseguests. Photo: CBS, via AOL.
In exchange, Drew promised:
not to vote Taylor out if she is on the block Thursday
not to nominate Yash during Drew’s next HOH, either initially or as a replacement nominee, even if keeping that promise means sacrificing Melody
the deal is stranger than it first sounds
Yash is already HOH, so the veto did not offer him personal safety. It offered control. Because Dee’s BB Bribe protects Dee and Devens from a Yash nomination this week, Drew using the veto on himself appears to leave Taylor as the only available replacement nominee.
So Yash effectively allowed the sequence that puts Taylor on the block, then bought a promise from Drew not to evict her. very normal. structurally elegant. no loose wires visible anywhere.
But the deal makes more sense if Yash believed Drew was going to outlast him anyway. Dropping without a deal gives Drew the veto and Yash nothing. Dropping with a deal gives Yash one vote protecting Taylor and possible safety during a future Drew HOH. The question is not whether the deal was perfect. The question is whether Yash sold something he was already about to lose.
Drew Campbell. Photo: CBS, via Parade.
Drew got the cleaner end of it
Drew gets immediate safety, the power to force a replacement nominee, and a deal that asks him to protect Yash only during his next HOH. The Taylor promise matters this week, but it is still just one vote in a week where the final nominees are not settled until the Block Buster is over.
The most interesting clause is Melody. Drew reportedly agreed that Yash’s safety would hold even if Melody had to go up instead. That is a future loyalty test Yash may never need to collect, but Drew agreed to it while exhausted and inches from winning the veto outright. contracts signed inside endurance competitions should probably come with a three-business-day rescission period.
if Yahs felt he could have stayed in it much longer, he wouldn’t have taken the deal—or at least that Better be what a DR says on Wednesday #bb28
For now, Drew has the veto, Yash has two promises, and Taylor has the privilege of possibly touching the block as part of someone else’s protection plan. My final-seven rankings already needed revision; they have now filed the paperwork themselves.
Photo attribution: CBS promotional and episode imagery, used editorially via AOL and Parade.
After tonight’s #BB28 eviction, there are seven left, and my rankings are now Barrett, Taylor, Melody, Drew, Devens, Yash, and Dee. this… Read more →
after tonight’s eviction, we are officially down to seven, which means i can no longer pretend these rankings are provisional in any meaningful way. they are still emotional, reactive, occasionally petty, and almost certainly going to age badly, but at least there are fewer people to be wrong about now.
as always, this is not a power ranking. this is a deeply scientific measurement of who is currently contributing the most to my enjoyment of #BB28.
1
Barrett
somewhere between “i Might like him” and now, this apparently became a full investment. not necessarily the cleanest path through the game, but consistently one of the people i actually want to watch do things.
2
Taylor
an absolutely wild climb from my early-season “she’s fine, probably?” position. she has somehow become one of the people i most trust to make the room she’s in more interesting.
3
Melody
from “still not clear on who this is” to third place is, frankly, the kind of character arc i appreciate. she has had one of the better late-season rises for me.
4
Drew
still irritatingly likable. i have spent basically the entire season waiting for that to stop being true, and here we are at seven.
5
Devens
still good vibes, still solid television, still occupying a strange lane where i enjoy him without ever becoming fully Devens-pilled.
6
Yash
i have, against all odds, moved beyond the haircut note. character development for both of us.
7
Dee
the funniest possible endpoint after starting the season at number one. i do not dislike her, exactly. i have simply reached the point where everyone else left is currently giving me more.
so that’s the seven. Barrett at the top, Dee at the bottom, and a truly irresponsible amount of room for this to change before i have even finished emotionally processing tonight’s episode.
spoilers for Big Brother 28, obviously. Haley “Thog” Thogmartin’s exit press arrived this morning, several days after the feeds spoiled her medieval-twist… Read more →
spoilers for Big Brother 28, obviously.
Haley “Thog” Thogmartin’s exit press arrived this morning, several days after the feeds spoiled her medieval-twist elimination and one night after CBS finally allowed the television audience to catch up. this is an extremely normal way to evict somebody from a social-strategy game: make her spend roughly seven hours outside in a heavy dress, lose four competitions in a row, disappear without a vote, and then wait half a week before asking how she feels about it.
Thog’s answer was mostly: fair enough. this is to her credit, although “did not blame a foam castle after losing four competitions” is not quite the redemption arc her exit press occasionally seems eager to assemble.
Everyone is so preoccupied about people lying to them in the lying game, go talk to people instead #bb28
i posted this last week because the entire house was becoming personally offended that people had lied to them in the lying game. Thog’s interviews are interesting because she has now reached basically the same conclusion, only after being physically removed from the lying game by a man dressed like he was guarding a Renaissance fair parking lot.
the twist was miserable, but she does not blame the twist
in both Mike Bloom’s Parade interview and Dalton Ross’s Entertainment Weekly interview, Haley said she would have preferred a traditional eviction. she wanted the opportunity to campaign, say goodbye, make jury, and, yes, continue trying to win $750,000. all very reasonable complaints about being deleted from the house by Big Brother: Dark Ages Edition.
still, she did not call the result unfair, and she does not regret asking Dee to send her into the first safety competition. with Dee and Devens already safe, and Angela next in their plan, Haley correctly assumed nobody was likely to save her for her. going in first gave her the maximum number of chances to protect herself. the strategy was sound. the competitions simply said absolutely not.
Haley Thogmartin on Big Brother 28. Photo: CBS, via Parade; used for commentary.
the EW interview adds the bleak production detail that the whole sequence took about seven hours. she was given water and allowed to sit, but she did not go back inside between rounds. by the end, she was hot, sweaty, exhausted, and wearing a thick medieval dress. “expect the unexpected” is one thing. “expect to become a damp tapestry” feels like a separate waiver.
her feelings were real; her monopoly on victimhood was not
Bloom opens by asking how rough her week has been, and Haley answers, “My week’s been perfect!” honestly, good start. no notes.
then he presses her on one of the season’s stranger recurring claims: Haley repeatedly described her first several weeks as extraordinarily difficult even though she was protected by Red Corner and Toolshed, never touched the block, and won an HOH. Melody and Mallory, who spent that period repeatedly fighting for their lives, understandably did not enjoy hearing about it.
Haley’s answer is revealing because she can now separate her emotional experience from her strategic position. game-wise, she admits she was safe and set up well. personally, she felt overwhelmed almost immediately, took comments and conflicts very personally, and was less mentally prepared for the house than she expected. that is useful context. it is not a defense.
the problem was never that Haley had feelings. the problem was that she treated her feelings as objective evidence, then expected people with far less protection to manage them for her. “i have had seven rough weeks” remained absurd when delivered to people who had been nominated four times before lunch. worse, ordinary resistance from Taylor, Lala, and others repeatedly became proof that Haley had been attacked, while her own coded dismissiveness, tone-policing, and microaggressive behavior got filed under stress. she was playing from inside the feeling, and only her feelings were granted full citizenship.
the apology is better than denial. the bar remains underground
both interviewers asked Haley directly about her behavior toward Taylor and her accusation that Lala had bullied her. good. those were not stray comments floating loose from an otherwise lovely summer. they were part of the ugliest pattern in Haley’s game: she could be dismissive and cruel, especially when someone outside her comfort circle asserted herself, then quickly reframe the resulting conflict as something being done to Haley.
on Taylor, Haley said she had seen some of the online reaction, regretted what she said, understood that it was hurtful, and wanted to apologize directly. she also acknowledged that she inserted herself into the argument after overhearing her name, then refused the difficult conversation Taylor tried to have the next day because Haley did not want another heavy exchange. Taylor was expected to absorb Haley’s interruption, Haley’s assumptions, and Haley’s refusal on Haley’s preferred schedule. this was the pattern in miniature.
Haley says this is an explanation, not an excuse, but the explanation still occupies most of the available real estate: pressure, exhaustion, overstimulation, and what she was personally experiencing. meanwhile, Taylor experienced the actual comments. owning harm after seeing the online reaction is better than denying it, but it is also the first item on the checklist. the microphones did not misunderstand her, the audience did not invent a tone, and a stressful house did not distribute the same behavior evenly among everyone inside it.
on Lala, Haley retracts the bully label, as she should. she still returns to exchanges that hurt her feelings and an apology that did not feel sincere enough in the moment. this is the recurring asymmetry: Haley’s interior life arrives with footnotes, weather reports, and an appeals process; everyone else’s arrives as a threat assessment. calling a Black woman a bully for confronting you is not made harmless because the house was tense. the tension is part of why checking that reflex mattered.
Haley Thogmartin during post-eviction press. Image via Parade; used for commentary.
exit press is not absolution, and viewers are not obligated to convert one morning of consequence-assisted reflection into retroactive affection. Haley named specific people and admitted specific behavior, which makes this sturdier than the passive-voice mist reality contestants usually release when they discover the feeds had sound. it does not make it especially brave. she was terrible to people in that house, the pattern was visible long before eviction night, and “i own it” is the beginning of accountability, not its deluxe finale package.
Dee played Big Brother; Haley kept checking the rules of real life
the funniest strategic revelation is that Dee’s role in flipping the vote from Melody to Lyric went completely over Haley’s head. once told the full story, she immediately gives Dee credit. in EW, she says “it went right over my head,” then explains that she kept judging moves by what someone would do to a friend in real life. she now understands that this was, apparently, not the game.
apparently!
this is the entire Haley Thogmartin experience in one answer. she had enough social structure to dominate the opening month, enough competition ability to win power, and enough loyalty to be useful. what she did not have was the ability to treat information as information once it touched an emotion. every lie became a betrayal, every tense exchange became a moral event, and every person who challenged her risked becoming mean, unsafe, or a bully. that was bad strategy, but it was also simply bad behavior. the distinction matters because the people on the receiving end were not game pieces in Haley’s personal-growth montage.
even after learning that the icons engineered the flip that destroyed her position, Haley says she would have remained loyal to them if she survived. there is logic there: they had become her only viable path, and resentment is not a strategy. there is also the lingering sense that “loyalty” was the one tool she trusted after the rest of the toolbox caught fire.
her winner pick may have a very short shelf life
Haley names Dee as the person playing the best hidden strategic game. she also praises Devens, says “his social game is immaculate,” and picks him as the person she wants to win.
this is especially funny timing because Devens is currently on the block after volunteering to be Drew’s replacement nominee, a sentence constructed entirely from decisions i would not personally make. Haley believes his connections to Barrett and Drew give him room to survive even as the icons come under attack. we will know tonight whether her first postgame read is sharper than her in-house ones. no pressure.
watch the full Parade interview
the rapid-fire ending supplies one final tiny character study. Haley calls Angela nurturing, Barrett slick, Dee strong, Devens safe, and Lala fierce. asked about Taylor, she pauses, then calls her beautiful, says she has a beautiful heart, and describes her as an overall great person. it reads partly as a peace offering, partly as somebody choosing every word with oven mitts, and partly as the clearest indication that she knows exactly which conversation waits outside the studio.
the verdict
Haley’s exit press does not rewrite her season. she was unnecessarily cruel, repeatedly microaggressive, remarkably self-focused, and strategically unable to separate hurt feelings from useful facts. she helped create an ugly house dynamic, then narrated herself as one of its primary victims. a competent apology cannot make that footage unaired.
the exit interviews improve my opinion of her from “incapable of self-reflection” to “capable of it once the consequences and press questions arrive.” that is movement. it is not redemption. she left understanding the twist that evicted her, the mistake that blinded her to Dee, and at least some of the harm she caused Taylor and Lala. the postgame download installed successfully. the operating system remains deeply suspicious.
Featured image: Haley Thogmartin cast portrait, CBS/Paramount; used for commentary.
Big Brother Battle Royale marked 1,000 episodes with Janelle Pierzina, returning alumni, broken feeds, bitter drama, and $10,000 for PCRF. Read more →
if you told me ten years ago that Big Brother would celebrate its 1,000-episode milestone by cramming over twenty former houseguests into a three-hour livestream speedrun hosted by janelle pierzina on chatbcc and YouTube, i would have asked which corner of reality tv purgatory you escaped from.
and yet, on august 28, the #BBBR (Big Brother Battle Royale) happened. it was chaotic, technically compromised, wildly overbooked, and completely unfiltered—which is to say, it was the exact kind of messy spectacle that makes this franchise so endlessly entertaining when production isn’t micromanaging every diary room confessional to death.
between pre-game roster drops, bitter post-season rivalries spilling into side-streams, and audio that sounded like it was being beamed from a tin can at the bottom of the mariana trench, it was pure comfort food for the feed-deprived.
Between forgotten RSVPs, last-minute cast overbooking, and split-screen watch parties, the drama started long before the opening comp.
pre-game musical chairs and the livestreamed grudge match
the comedy started well before the opening buzzer. chatbcc apparently booked the event like an airline overselling a holiday weekend flight. to fix the numbers, joseph abdin, kelley jorgensen, leah peters, and tommy bracco volunteered to step aside pre-game (with chatbcc kicking $1,000 to each of their charities as a thank-you, which is actually a classy move). then christie murphy dropped for family matters, while morgan pope and holly allen got trimmed from the final sheet.
meanwhile, BB27 winner ashley hollis admitted on social media that she just forgot to rsvp until the last minute, before getting added back alongside a late-arrival wave featuring porsche briggs, ovi kabir, kyland young, and derek frazier.
naturally, the ashley vs. morgan feud didn’t take the night off. while morgan wasn’t in the game, she fired up a reaction watch stream to give running commentary on the carnage. and karma moved at lightning speed: ashley got targeted immediately in round 1, became the first boot of the night, and traded parting shots with cory wurtenberger on her way out the door while twitter and reddit collectively lost their minds. you truly cannot script reality tv alumni pettiness.
Five-person nomination blocks, clutch vetoes, and houseguests campaigning on the virtue of their charities made the in-game rounds delightfully chaotic.
the chateau of chaos: five-way blocks and charity pitch warfare
once the games actually kicked off, the pacing was pure adrenaline. kyland young took the opening head of chateau (hoc) and immediately chose violence by nominating four former winners—taylor hale, rachel reilly, josh martinez, and ashley hollis—plus derek frazier for good measure. no easing in, just straight-up alumni hunting.
the absolute peak comedy of the night came during the final 5. rachel reilly, doing what rachel reilly does best, gave an impassioned, high-octane campaign speech to hoc taylor hale explaining in meticulous detail why her charity was so important and needed to stay. the catch? everyone in the final five was playing for a charity. the sheer absurdity of trying to out-virtue the rest of the block for survival had chat rolling.
Taylor told Rachel "I'm not taking a duo to final 5." #BBBR
add in elissa slater pulling out vintage clutch comp energy with a key veto win, plus cliff hogg casually wandering into frame throughout the stream serving drinks to alumni like an unbothered cruise director, and the game itself delivered everything you want from an exhibition format.
Despite digital feed hiccups and echoing mics, Jimmy sealed the jury vote to send $10,000 to the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.
scuffed feeds, holy water, and a ten-grand check
was the production technically polished? absolutely not. reddit had a field day breaking down the echoing audio, digitized mic feedback, desynced camera feeds, and random stream lag. but honestly, in a franchise that often suffers from over-sanitized, over-rehearsed television edits, there is something deeply charming about watching twenty reality vets scramble through a slightly scuffed indie stream. it felt raw, live, and genuinely spontaneous.
when the dust settled, jimmy heagerty (BB27) navigated the final gauntlet and locked down the jury vote against a stacked finale group featuring felicia cannon, jason de puy, taylor hale, and tiffany mitchell.
there is a very specific, tragicomic pathology that infects reality competition frontrunners the second their position becomes too comfortable: boredom. a look… Read more →
there is a very specific, tragicomic pathology that infects reality competition frontrunners the second their position becomes too comfortable: boredom.
When power and sensory deprivation collide, frontrunners often invent complex moves that engineer their own downfall.
in a game like big brother, logic dictates that when you hold all the cards, have the numbers locked, and your target is dead in the water by monday afternoon, you should simply sit down, eat your slop, and shut your mouth until thursday night. but human beings—especially isolated, paranoid, reality-competition humans trapped in a soundstage with no phones, no clocks, no books, and zero outside stimulation—are fundamentally incapable of sitting on their hands when they have power.
instead, they start pacing the hoh room at 3:00 am, staring into the fish tank, and inventing 4d chess moves until they successfully orchestrate their own execution.
Dee gets so bored that I think she’s gonna somehow figure out how to blindside herself this week #bb28
the sensory deprivation trap: when stillness feels like danger
the root of almost every catastrophic overplay isn’t arrogance; it’s sensory deprivation mixed with acute restlessness. when you strip away every normal distraction and force sixteen hyper-competitive people to live in an insulated pressure cooker, doing nothing feels unnatural—even dangerous.
if tuesday and wednesday pass with zero conflict, the power-holder’s brain inevitably short-circuits. “why is everyone so calm? are they plotting behind my back? is this straightforward 7–1 eviction too easy? what if i fake-nominate my closest ally to test their loyalty? what if i pull off a five-step blindside just to keep everyone on their toes?”
Without clocks, phones, or outside stimuli, even total game security begins to look like an impending ambush.
the hall of fame: when houseguests implode
this is how simple, textbook weeks turn into self-inflicted greek tragedies. a strategist gets so profoundly bored with their own dominance that they start manufacturing puzzles just to prove they can solve them.
audrey middleton: the 4 am blanket caucus
audrey in bb17 is the patron saint of superfans who enter the house playing at 100 mph while everyone else is still unpacking their swimsuits. by day four, she had formed a nine-person alliance, sneaked around the house counting random background objects for hypothetical comps, and held 4:00 am bedside interrogations like a paranoid mafia don.
when you sprint through an entire summer’s worth of strategic capital in 96 hours, there’s nowhere left to go except retreating under a blanket in the have-not room eating omelettes while the entire house unceremoniously backdoors you.
haleigh broucher: the bathtub spiral & the noble suicide
few moments in modern live feeds rival haleigh’s chaotic, red-wine-soaked hoh reign in bb20. after winning the hacker competition, instead of letting level six twist in the wind or allowing her secret power to do its job, haleigh spent an evening in the bathtub convincing herself that “honesty” was the optimal game move.
she called an emergency house meeting to publicly confess she was the hacker to clear bayleigh’s name—instantly painting a massive target on her back, detonating her own alliance’s cover, and handing tyler crispen the easiest defensive layup of his life.
dustin erikstrup: the pawn who volunteered into oblivion
if you want the undisputed gold standard of hubris meets boredom, look no further than dustin in big brother 8. sitting pretty in the dominant late night crew alliance, dustin got so smug about his untouchable social standing that he volunteered to sit on the block next to evel dick just to prove how beloved he was.
he was so convinced he held all the cards that he practically walked himself up to the gallows. when julie chen read the 4–2 vote and his jaw hit the floor, it gave us one of the most iconic blindside reaction faces in reality television history.
modern parallels: dee valladares and the bb28 itch
we are watching this exact phenomenon play out in real time right now in big brother 28. dee entered the summer in an enviable power position alongside devens and the early vet alliance. but as the weeks drag on, the itch to constantly orchestrate, pull strings, and micromanage every conversation has turned into pure paranoia.
from offering rejected bb bribes to yash (who hilariously told her to keep her pocket change) to over-calculating blockbuster scenarios on a wednesday afternoon, dee is actively building the very trapdoor she’s going to fall through. when you can’t tolerate a quiet house, you end up handing your rivals the exact blueprint to take you out.
narrative catharsis and the janelle principle
from a viewer’s perspective, there is no narrative payoff sweeter than watching a runaway power-holder dismantle their own game out of pure, fidgety restlessness.
From bathtub confessions to volunteering as a pawn, the bored frontrunner often builds the exact mechanism of their own eviction.
when a dominant alliance plays disciplined, feeds get dry, episodes turn into rote procedural slogs, and viewers start praying for a lightning strike. but when that frontrunner over-engineers a move and hands the opposition an opening? that’s pure television magic.
I just hope whoever wins HoH is pissed enough at Dee to quote Janelle #bb28
nothing revitalizes a season faster than an underdog taking power on the heels of a massive blunder, stepping up to the microphone, and channeling peak janelle pierzina energy (“bye bye, bitches!”) directly into the face of a bewildered former frontrunner.
the discipline of doing nothing
great gameplay is usually boring gameplay. the players who actually walk away with the $750,000 check are almost always the ones who master the discipline of doing absolutely nothing when doing nothing is the optimal move.
The most lucrative move in modern social strategy games is often the discipline to sit still and say nothing.
the tragedy—and the entertainment—of the “bored strategist” is that they’d rather be dramatically wrong than quietly safe. they want to be the mastermind authoring every chapter of the season, forgetting that the easiest way to get written out of the script is trying to write too much of it at once.
Catching up on Big Brother 28 after a theme CPU glitch: calling out the house micro-aggressions, Angela’s M&M dye art, Drew’s veto… Read more →
so, if you noticed the tumbleweeds rolling through here over the last month and change, no, i didn’t abandon ship—my theme decided to start chewing through cpu cycles like it had a personal vendetta against my server. but we are back online just in time for the absolute circus currently unfolding inside the Big Brother 28 house.
when i last posted on july 17th, we were in the golden era of absurdity: eggela had officially hatched, the tool shed was consolidating power with the smug certainty of people who think day 10 alliances last until finale night, and we were all just trying to figure out how many tools could fit in one metaphorical shed before the roof collapsed. fast forward six weeks, and the vibes in the house have shifted from goofy summer camp chaos to messy, uncomfortable, and deeply fractured warfare.
angela’s m&m dye art and the lingering tool shed hangover
first, we have to talk about the sheer unhinged brilliance of angela painting with water mixed with m&m dye using what appeared to be a makeup brush. total, unadulterated icon behavior. say what you want about her game, but the chaotic diy innovation is why we watch feeds. meanwhile, the lingering smugness from the early vet alliance—especially dee and devens acting like they held a monopoly on common sense—has steadily soured into pure paranoia. dee gets so bored in that house that i genuinely think she’s going to figure out a way to blindside herself before jury even hits. whoever wins the next hoh needs to be pissed enough at her to quote janelle verbatim.
Barrett was at a cross-roads this week.
the subtle micro-aggressions and uncomfortable house dynamics
as entertaining as the gameplay pivots can be, we also need to call out the darker undertones that have crept into the house dynamics over the past few weeks. it’s become exhausting watching the subtle micro-aggressions, coded dismissiveness, and casual othering that keep cropping up on the feeds. whenever someone outside the dominant clique tries to assert themselves or play the game, they’re met with immediate tone policing, exaggerated claims of feeling “threatened” or “uncomfortable,” and double standards that never apply to the majority alliance.
it’s that classic Big Brother social pathology where isolating someone socially gets justified as “pure game,” while the actual rhetoric used in private conversations crosses the line into micro-invalidations and passive-aggressive hostility. the lack of self-awareness from players who preach good vibes while actively marginalizing others is infuriating to watch on the live feeds. recognizing implicit bias and checking your own behavior shouldn’t stop at the front door of the studio lot.
drew blowing up the house, thog’s sudden galaxy brain, and the bbbb nightmare
on the game front, drew went and detonated everything at the veto ceremony, leaving us with a blockbuster nomination lineup that has everyone losing their minds. the fact that drew got distracted (classic) and ended up on the block next to mal and taylor is peak bb28. and watching mallory try to convince drew to throw the block buster was almost impressive in how overtly cruel it was—like, wouldn’t him throwing his own game prove he actually wants you to stay?? mal is stressing out on wednesday over thoughts meant for friday, spiraling into total green dinosaur screaming territory.
Dee stands behind Barrett menacingly in the BB28 pantry.
and then there’s thog (haley). i spent the first month convinced she could truly do no right in my eyes, but suddenly she’s out here exhibiting actual tactical perception? her read on barrett’s pitch—noticing that if they only approach her as the swing for one specific scenario, they already have the others locked down—was legitimately sharp. not thog having the best read in the room?!
gameplay philosophy: talk to people, clean the damn kitchen
as we head into the live eviction, the bbbb scenarios are pure chaos. if mal wins, fap has to publicly pick “not drew,” firming up the house lines. if taylor wins, fap picks mal, drew walks, and sides lock in. if drew wins, we get a messy vote where mal goes and yash is forced to pivot again (which he will). usually i root for the specific outcome that causes maximum drama, but this week every single path leads to a different brand of mess.
my only real gripes right now? first, production giving us zero hints about the incoming twist in the promo email (terrified of what nonsense they’re about to drop on us). second, everyone spending all day hyperventilating about being lied to in a game built entirely around lying—stop agonizing and go talk to people! and finally, the state of that house. people are doing dirty stuff on food prep surfaces again. forget physical comps; the next blockbuster should literally just be a timed dishwashing challenge.
me? i waited three hours for the feeds to come back and then fell asleep without plugging in my phone which led… Read more →
me? i waited three hours for the feeds to come back and then fell asleep without plugging in my phone which led to me waking up late this morning
the houseguests were busy all night, however
when feeds came back, Devens was HOH, and over the course of the night a new super-alliance and backdoor plot came to light
the alliance? The Tool Shed:
The Tool Shed: Dee, Devens, Angela, Drew, Barrett, Haley, Chuk, Kamu
The Crossovers and The Red Corner decided to merge(ish) and i hate it? as has been clear from my rankings i like Drew and Barrett the most out of this cast followed by the Survivors and Angela–my least favorites are Hayley/Thog
but the vets’ smugness about everything has really been souring them for me; Devens has gotten less of that from me, but that’s probably just because he’s quieter about it all so i’ve seen it less
big alliances are the fastest to crack, usually, so i’m not too broken up that most of my faves are working with my three least-liked houseguests (sorry to you, Chuk, it’s mostly your two friends keepin’ you down)
the problem is that my actual faves (Drew/Barrett) are doing a bit of a rat floater game (moreso Drew, but still) near the middle of the house and this ruins that position–assuming the rest of the house isn’t completely useless
also, people are doing dirty stuff on food prep areas again
my rankings (entertainment value) to start the week are less affected by The Tool Shed and more affected by my growing disaffections with Anngela and Dee; i just want them to be a little less cocky about it all
since he’s HOH and can’t just coast on chill uncle vibes, i fear this will start affecting my enjoyment of Devens this week as well–the first meeting of The Tool Shed already kinda cemented that…
The Rank
1
⯁ 0
Drew
i still enjoy watching him, mistakes and all, but don’t like where he’s positioned in the Tool Shed
2
⯁ 0
Barrett
cuddle slut; along with Drew, put his middle-of-the-house-based game in jeopardy by being so obvious w/ the Tool Shed
3
⯁ 0
Devens
HOH | forming a mega alliance upstair while everyone was still awake and in the kitchen was dumb but less dumb for him than Drew/Barrett
4
▲ 3
Rome
i need at least a semi-competitive season and it’s making me root for him a little 🤷♂️
5
▲ 3
LaTrice
she’s growing on me, even if i still have to run the volume down when she’s around
6
▼ 1
Angela
dropping lower as the stress builds and the pay-offs never appear
7
▼ 3
Dee
the smuggery of it all 🙁
8
▼ 2
Jason
almost got big ups but drops because i realized i’d be fine if he left this week (which is a real option on the table)
9
▲ 2
Mallory
sinking ships raise all tides or whatever
10
▲ 2
Melody
11
▼ 1
Lyric
12
▼ 3
Taylor
13
⯁ 0
Yash
impressive win in the BB Block Buster
14
⯁ 0
Chuk
he’s still there
15
▲ 1
Thog
ugh.
16
▼ 1
Kamu
i just can’t with him
17
🪦
Ashley
RIP, 10 Days Old | good for her or sorry that happened, i guess
▲ – Raised Position
▼ – Lowered Position
(will update the post with any intra-day status change once it happens 💜)
oh, you know me, just over here chilling, waiting on the feeds to go down for dress rehearsal and not come back… Read more →
oh, you know me, just over here chilling, waiting on the feeds to go down for dress rehearsal and not come back until after the west coast airing is over; there’s an eviction, but the fun messy part seems to have gone down Yesterday with Ashley deciding to name names in her poorly executed campaigning
thanks to her mess, for sure the only way Ashley stays tonight is if she wins the BB Block Buster comp… the vets are ready to cut her to save their ‘middle of the house’ position
but forget all that, the most important thing is that the always amazing Dolfica is back to help us visualize all the alliances going on:
Welcome back, dweebs!Let's have a rad summer!#BB28 #BBsky#art#BB28alliancemap#DolfficaMaps
the one thing i don’t see is whatever the fuck is going on with jason and barrett
the vets’ smugness is making their entertainment value drop for me (hence the dip in their rankings today) unless Angela finally does blow up on someone; but, their allies are definitely making things messy enough to buoy The Crossovers as the alliance i’m all-in on at the moment
but, really, i’m just excited to see the balance of power shift after tonight’s episode :D, kinda rooting against The Crossovers for the fun of it all
The Rank
1
▲ 1
Drew
he got messy and i was her for every minute of it; thanks for the good feeds yesterday, Drew
2
▼ 1
Barrett
you know when a guy says he isn’t bisexual and you just cock your head to the side and say ‘you sure?’
3
▲ 2
Devens
he’s quieter, but the smugness is in him, too; but it plays better since he’s got that weird uncle thing going on
4
▼ 1
Dee
HoH | ok, i need to see her play without power so badly
5
▼ 1
Angela
the smugness and constantly edging uss live feeders for a breakdown is wearing on me
6
▲ 0
Jason
Week 1 Safety | haven’t seen someone cry this much this early since BB8 Amber
7
▲ 0
Rome
Week 1 Safety | shocked when i found out The Crossovers have him pegged as The Mastermind of “the other side of the house”
8
▲ 0
LaTrice
i like her more now, she’s just a little loud for me a little early in the day for me
9
▲ 1
Taylor
Nom | maybe becoming a piece of furniture was a winning strategy after all
10
▼ 1
Lyric
lovely gowns, beautiful gowns
11
▲ 0
Mallory
Holds Veto | Nom| like all that have come before her in her trope, the more she says the less i like her
12
▼ 2
Melody
she’s a houseguest? on this seasons? you sure?
13
▼ 1
Yash
Nom | if he manages to stay, i think some interesting dude dynamics could develop
14
▼ 1
Chuk
Week 1 Safety | really just not feeling The Red Corner crew
15
▲ 1
Kamu
still. nope.
16
▼ 1
Thog
it’s like they were aiming for a palatable Christmas and missed the mark
17
▼ 0
Ashley
Re-Nom | oh, you done fucked up, haven’t you?
▲ – Raised Position
▼ – Lowered Position
(will update the post with any intra-day status change once it happens 💜)
