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Thursday, August 13, 2015

Big Brother Season 17, Episode 23 Recap

If you're a CBS-only viewer, you're going to be a bit surprised as to what happens tonight, especially as last night's broadcast indicated that a grand plan was all set to take place. If  you're a feeds-watcher, though, you know better. A different decision was reached within 24 hours of that POV meeting, and despite a moment or two where it appeared it may swing back to the original plan, there's no secret who will be out the door tonight.

Unfortunately, you won't see too much of how or why this change of mindset went down, as it is double eviction night! Yep, there are basically two episodes squeezed into one tonight, and it's usually the most exciting broadcast of the year. Remember silly Jeff and his clown shoes? Or Elissa being outmsarted by Andy and a few others? This could be a juicy night, especially the way these fools have been acting recently.

So sit back and enjoy as we kick off with the dramatic nomination of Vanessa to replace the POV victor, Steve. Vanessa storms off at the end of the meeting, and whines in the diary room how she's up against one of her best friends. She crawls into bed and pulls her beanie over her head. Shelli walks into the room after saying she plans to lay low since she's been promised safety. Becky is told that she had a good speech by James, and she explains how she has the votes.

Vanessa gets out of bed and says she's "hurt and confused by the things Becky said when she put me up". There's a flashback to the big deal they all made last week, and Vanessa heads out to "get answers". She tells Becky that those were "harsh words", and demands an explanation. The talk goes back to that big meeting, and Becky says that her word was "forced". Becky then gets up and walks away. "I don't feel like explaining", she says, leaving Vanessa in (fake) tears.

It's a little later, and Vanessa is now wearing sunglasses in bed. Steve walks in, and she asks if she has his vote. He's torn because he has to "choose the ally who is staying in the house this week", i.e. John. He sort of explains this to Vanessa, but not really. Vanessa is now pissed at him, too, and calls it a "personal betrayal".

We don't have time for much actual game stuff, but we do have time for James to crawl into Julia's bed to scare her. Seriously, CBS?

It's the next morning, and Vanessa is working on her eyes as James walks in. This is her "fighting chance" to stay in the game, and she complains that it's "super unfair" that she's up. She tells him that Becky was going to target James in her earlier HOH, and that "every conversation that you guys had up there, she was coming down to tell Shelli and Clay".

James now says he "knew there was a rat" in the house, and he asks Meg and Jackie who is more likely to win the next HOH. "Shelli needs to go", he says. "She's coming after us for sure." His dumb pals agree with him.

Note, they're leaving out a big piece of this puzzle. In the hours after the POV meeting, Shelli suddenly got pissy about a hoodie that Clay had left in the house. James was now wearing it, and Shelli and the twins went into the have-not room to steal it. James finding out about this really set the stage for the vote change. Oh well.

It's now time for Julie to announce the double eviction, and we head into the final pleas. Shelli goes first, and she wishes happy birthday to Jason. "The house has been pretty boring without you". She gives shout outs to her family and Clay before babbling about "brass tacks". She loves "all of y'all", and hopes to return to the game. Yep, she knows she's out.

Vanessa then stands. "Ten years ago, when I was in law school grappling with what I want to do with the rest of my life, I was writing in my journal. I wrote the following words that have guided me ever since - 'I find my calm not at the finish line looking back at the distance I've travelled but in the moment, on the run, out of breath, looking forward'. I don't know where I'm going, and I hope to God I never get there as I'm happy as I am chasing something eternal and ethereal. The destination has never been, is not, and will never be what it's about for me. That's just the way I like it." She then gives a shout out to her girlfriend and family. "Please vote to keep me." (Now I'm exhausted.)

Voting then begins with Austin, who votes to evict Shelli (as Judas), as does Steve, James, Meg, Jackie, Julia, John, and Liz. Yep, it's unanimous. Shelli has been evicted. Julie announces the verdict, and Shelli hugs everybody before walking out. "Shelli, we love you so much", says Becky.

As expected, Chen's insipid interview with Shelli is way too Clay-centric. There's no need to really repeat any of this stuff.

After commercials, it's time for the HOH competition, and it's based on some videos they watched last night. We get a little montage of them viewing this footage, and they're now all in the backyard. It's called "Getting Loopy", and they have to answer true or false to questions asked about these videos.

The first video is about Audrey's hat in the conga line, and everybody picks false. Question two concerns Clay's bowl in the fly attack video, and James, Liz, Meg, and Jackie are eliminated. In the third question, it's whether a person was in the hammock. They all get this one correct. Question four is about bulbs in the powder puff video, and Julia and Vanessa are eliminated. The fifth question is about a fire extinguisher in the trash video, and they're again all correct. Question number six is about Jason's shirt, and Steve is the new HOH!!! Wow, what a shocker. I was hoping it was going to be JohnnyMac.

We get a bit of house video as they all walk into the house, but instead of game talk they're congratulating Austin for doing well. Wow, we're used to mad scrambling in the bedroom, but this year they're all way too self-absorbed to plead with Steve for safety.

It's then commercial time, and Julie calls for everybody to head into the living room. Steve then announces that he is putting up Meg and Jackie. "It's nothing personal", he says. Then it's already time for more commercials!!!

Finally, we get the POV competition, and those three (Steve, Meg, Jackie) will be joined by John, James, and Vanessa. It's a ski slope type contraption that they hold and move around, and they have to get a ball into each of three holes. Sinking them out of order automatically eliminates them, and there's a 3 12 minute time limit to the game. JohnnyMac wins pretty easily! Why couldn't it have been the other way around - John wins HOH and Steve wins veto! They all head inside, and Steve confers with John for a bit.

Guess what? It's time for more commercials!

When we FINALLY return, Meg and Jackie plead their cases to be removed. Meg has so much fun she just has to stay, and Jackie basically says the same thing. They've both played "honest' games. Ultimately, JohnnyMac says that even though he doesn't want to see either of them out there, he's not going to change the nominations. (Note: there's some weirdness there as we head to commercials. Jackie wanted a reason for the nominations. Steve walks out of the room upset at something.)

AND MORE COMMERCIALS!!!

It's now time for the second eviction. Meg is crying as Julie calls them back to the living room. Meg gives the first final plea, and she doesn't know what she's going to do separated from Jackie. "Please keep me in this house. I have so much more game to play." She babbles more about honesty and having a "good time". Jackie then says she loves everybody else, and she has "no bad blood" with anybody.

The voting then begins with Vanessa, who votes to evict Jackie. Becky votes to evict Meg, but John votes against Jackie, as does Austin, James, Liz, and Julia. Becky is the second house guest to be evicted tonight! Julie announces the verdict, and she hugs everybody before exiting.

Julie does get some answers from Jackie as to what happened a few minutes earlier. Apparently, Steve was told that Jackie planned to backdoor him when she was HOH, even though her plan was to do that to Austin. "Austin knows that. Everyone in the house knows that. I don't know who planted that on him." Then Julie moves to asking about how Jeff's departure helped her game, and she admits she took a backseat when Jeff was around.

That's it! Later tonight will be another HOH competition, which will be shown on Sunday's show. To get an early spoiler, either fire up the feeds or listen to the Big Brother Gossip Show on Saturday at 10 pm ET! Otherwise, what did you think of tonight's episode?


6 comments:

  1. Great recap Scott! i totally agree on how it was a weird shock that you didn't see the typical scrambling during a Double Eviction Episode. Some of these players have no game awareness and like you said self absorbed. I wonder what their going to show sunday when they show the scrambling and meetings during the commercial breaks. thats always a big filler of the follow up to a DE episode.

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  2. It was so weird! Usually they're all begging for a few secs of the HOH/POV winner's time. None of them did that. The stupid twins congratulated Austin for "almost" winning, and worried that their stripper outfits were coming undone.

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  3. Tonight's show seriously brought out my inner.... WTF????

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  4. Honestly, I don't understand people's reactions to the Steve/John HOH/POV. It's kind of frustrating how everybody projects their own personal viewpoints on everybody in the house. Of course Steve nominated Meg and Jackie. They've never been friendly to him. He has a final two deal with Vanessa (that exists only in his mind TBH), and he believes he's bros with Austin. John didn't use the POV because he knows how much Steve hates Becky, and he doesn't want her up. Yet everybody in my twitter feed were so full of hate because he didn't go after Vanessa, Austin, or the twins. It should have been obvious to EVERYBODY that wasn't going to happen.

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    1. Your explanation as to why john didn't use the veto makes so much sense. People on the feeds chat rooms were so angry, calling Vanessa horrible names bc they thought she should have been gone. I don't think some ppl understand that it's a game. Who knows what each of us would do if we were in that house. I'd never last, I know that!

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    2. Yeah, people need to relax. Twitter just went nuts over this, but there was ZERO chance that Steve would replace either of them with Vanessa. He still believes he has a final two with her (DJ alliance).

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