Big Brother 17 Episode 18 Recap and Live Blog

A new episode of Big Brother 17 airs tonight on CBS. Read a live recap here.

After Jason was evicted, the HouseGuests welcomed Julia into the house before learning the Battle of the Black was over. They then went outside to compete in a tough endurance competition to become the sole Head of Household for the week. Which HouseGuest claimed the power this week? Let’s find out.

The episode continues where last Thursday left off. All the HouseGuests are hanging onto the wall in the endurance competition with everyone knowing where the battle lines are drawn. This is one competition no one will be throwing. Water rains down on the HouseGuests and stuffed bald eagles slam into them, but they are all hanging on. However, people start dropping eventually. Steve and Austin are the first to drop. Not too long afterwards, Julia and Meg also fall off. After an hour and a half pass by, Jackie is the fifth to fall down and Liz follows afterwards. After and hour and forty-three minutes, Becky and Clay are the next two gone. James, Shelli, and John are the the only ones left competing. Shelli is the last remaining Sixth Sense alliance member left. However, as long as James doesn’t win, her and her alliance should be okay. Nonetheless, Shelli is struggling and quickly strikes a deal with James. She makes James promise her that he won’t nominate her or Clay. He accepts, but James reveals in the diary room he is only telling her what she wants to hear. John and Shelli then fall off. James wins HoH.

The Sixth Sense are worried about their safety now that James is the HoH for the week. Meg, however, is beside herself with excitement. James is determined to take a shot at the people who have been running the game the past four weeks. Meanwhile, Julia is confused why Austin is still in the house. Last time she was in the house, she thought the plan to backdoor Austin was still in motion. She quickly catches up with Liz and learns what happened. Liz tells her everything, but Julia is still bitter about Austin revealing to Jason her name and selling her out to him. She’s not ready to trust Austin again like the rest of the Sixth Sense alliance did.

Shelli and Vanessa talk in the have-not room. Shelli tells Vanessa that she didn’t think it would’ve been smart for her game to win HoH three times in a row. Vanessa agrees with Shelli, but admits in the diary room she is disappointed that Shelli didn’t include her name in the deal she made with James. However, Shelli and Clay still want Vanessa to be safe.They want to try to get James to target Austin and the twins since they know he will be targeting their alliance.

Next we see a montage of Clay mumbling on numerous occasions and people having difficulty understanding what he’s saying. Next, we see James pull a scare prank on Steve when he exits the bathroom. Afterwards, James, Meg, Jackie, and Becky talk in the HoH room. James, Meg, and Jackie think Shelli and Clay have been running the game and want to target them, especially Shelli. They discuss whether to nominate them straight up or to put up pawns with the plan on backdooring Shelli. After this meeting, Becky runs downstairs and informs Shelli and Clay they are being targeted. They were a reason why she was still safe last week, so she feels like she owes it to them to help them out. She advises them to try to act happy and not look worried since James, Meg, and Jackie feel like that attitude is justification for nominating them. Clay and Shelli are now very worried.

Vanessa goes upstairs to talk to James. She says taking Jason out last week was the house’s decision and not a move she wanted to make. James hints to her that he’s targeting Shelli and Clay. Vanessa admits in the diary room she would try to steer James away from targeting them, but is only concerned about her own safety since she feels very vulnerable this week. Shelli and Clay then go upstairs to talk to James. Shelli asked James if their deal is still good. He lies and says that it is. He also says it was odd for Shelli to make a deal since they were supposed to be trusting each other anyway. Clay says he feels he and Shelli are being blamed for Jason leaving. They say it wasn’t their idea even if they didn’t fight against it. In the diary room, James says he does not trust them. He wants to blindside Shelli and Clay and nominate them for eviction.

At the nomination ceremony, James nominated Clay and Shelli for eviction. James tells them that they drew the line last week with the Jason blindside and he didn’t feel the deal he made with Shelli was authentic. Before the ceremony ends, Shelli and Clay both call out James for being untrustworthy for breaking his word, and they say they did not come up with the idea of backdooring Jason. They are both livid to be on the block, especially next to one another. Shelli stresses that she or Clay needs to win the Power of Veto in order for them both to have a chance to stay in the house.

And the wraps up tonight’s episode of Big Brother 17. Thanks for reading and come back Wednesday for another live recap.

About Steven Curtis 538 Articles
Steven is a graduate of the University of West Florida with a bachelor's degree in communication arts. He enjoys watching reality competition shows, such as American Idol, Survivor, Big Brother, and The Amazing Race.