A new episode of Big Brother 17 airs tonight on CBS. Read a live recap here.
Becky was evicted and the remaining HouseGuests were left competing for HoH. The broadcast ended before the competition was over, so tonight we will find out who won HoH and the two people he or she nominated for eviction. Which group of allies will be in control this week? Let’s find out.
Meg was the first person eliminated from the HoH competition before last Thursday’s episode ended. We pick off where it left off with the remaining six HouseGuests competing. We hear from John, Austin, and James in the diary room, and they all admit Vanessa is their target. After a false start, Julia is the second person eliminated from the competition. Vanessa is eliminated third due to a false start too. After Round 4, there are no false starts and the four remaining players race toward their buzzers. John is the last to hit his buzzer and is eliminated. After Round 5, Steve is eliminated due to a false start. It’s down to Austin and James in the final round. They race toward their buzzers and Austin is the first to hit his buzzer. Austin wins HoH. Vanessa is feeling good about Austin being in power, but little does she know that he and Liz contemplated targeting her last week. John also feels good about Austin being HoH, but he is worried that Austin will realize targeting Vanessa isn’t necessarily the best move for Austin’s game.
Liz, Julia, and Austin celebrate Austin’s HoH win. However, Liz considers it bittersweet since now her alliance will have to get more blood on their hands. Austin is also concerned since he has deals with everybody in the house: Austin’s Angels (Austin, Liz, Julia, and Vanessa), Scamper Squad (Austin, Liz, Julia, Vanessa, and Steve), Brass Tacks (Austin, Liz, Julia, Meg, and James), and an unnamed alliance (Austin, Liz, Julia, John, and Steve). Everybody in the house is feeling safe since they have deals with Austin. However, Austin admits in the diary room that the only alliance he is certain he will stay true to is Brass Tacks. Therefore, his target will be Vanessa, John, or Steve.
Vanessa talks to Austin, Liz, and Julia about nominations. She tells him that it would be safer to target John and Steve. She also reveals that Clay and Shelli told her that John and Steve have a final 2 deal. This information doesn’t concern Austin, but he does wonder why Vanessa withheld this information from him for so long.
Austin, Liz, and Julia talk game with Meg and James in the HoH room. Austin tells them that he wants to nominate John and Steve, but Meg is pushing hard for Vanessa to be the target. Austin tells them that he knows Vanessa is not targeting him and it might not be in his best interest to take her out. However, he is still willing to target her if he believes he has reason to.
The Scamper Squad meets in the HoH room and Austin tells Vanessa that he will not be nominating James or Meg. Therefore, someone in the Scamper Squad alliance will have to sit next to John on the block. Vanessa realizes that it will be either her or Steve since Austin would never nominate Liz or Julia. Vanessa pushes hard for Steve to be the nominee, and she explains that it would be better for Steve to be nominated since she doesn’t want Steve to have to vote against his friend John. Steve then asks to speak to Austin privately. He tells them that he does not want to be the pawn. He also tells Austin he does not have a final 2 deal with John. He is working with John in the game, but he never agreed to go to the end with him. Vanessa and the twins reenter the HoH room. Austin tells her that Steve does not want to be the pawn, but Vanessa is still fighting against her being the pawn. Austin also asks about the week when he was supposed to be backdoored. He asks her if James threw that Battle of the Block competition with Liz so Clay and Becky would have won and dethroned Vanessa, allowing Jackie to be the one to backdoor Austin. Vanessa lies and says she doesn’t know if James threw that competition or not. Vanessa then asks to speak to Austin privately, but he refuses and says he’s done talking game for the night. Vanessa leaves the room and Austin, Liz, Julia, and Steve all react strongly to the lie Vanessa just told them. They are all very wary of Vanessa and how hypocritical she can be. Vanessa claims to be a straight-shooter and told Austin she considered backdooring him weeks ago because he lied to her, but here she is lying to their faces.
Next we see a scene of Austin and Liz spending time together in the hammock. Although Liz was not attracted to Austin at first, she admits that now she does like him. Afterwards, we see Austin and Steve talking in the HoH room. Austin is undecided between nominating Steve or Vanessa. He is too scared to nominate James or Meg, so Steve and Vanessa are the only options. Steve finds this very suspicious and tells them that if he is nominated next to John, then that means Austin must be closer to James and Meg than he is with him. Austin and the twins deny this. Steve says he will only agree to be a pawn if he’s sitting next to Vanessa. He simply asks to not be on the block with John. Liz then goes downstairs and tells Vanessa everything. Right afterwards, Vanessa goes upstairs to the HoH room. She is frustrated with Steve and now wants him gone over John since John has proven to be a loyal person. She also says if she and John were the nominees and the Veto wasn’t used, Steve has just proven that he would vote to keep John over her. Therefore, she would go home instead of John since James and Meg are more likely to vote her out than John. She tells them this would be a bad move for Austin, Liz, and Julia since she is completely loyal to them. Austin then speaks with Vanessa privately, and she finally admits that she knew James was supposed to throw that Battle of the Block competition weeks ago. She continues to fight hard against the idea of being the pawn, but leaves the room telling Austin to do what is best for his game.
At the nomination ceremony, Austin nominated John and Steve for eviction. Austin gives a very perplexing speech about life, but he basically reveals to them that he knows he was the target in week 5. He says he will look out for Liz, and Steve and John are just two innocent bystanders in this situation. After the ceremony, Steve says in the diary room that he is in awe of Vanessa’s game play since she managed to avoid going on the block. John is disappointed once again that he’s on the block with an ally, and he knows either he or Steve will need to win the Power of Veto so they both can stay.
And that wraps up another episode of Big Brother 17. Thanks for reading and come back Wednesday for another live recap.
