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Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Big Brother Season 17 Season Finale!

Well, folks, this is it. 98 days (that's the number, right?) of insanity, idiocy, busted alliances, and some pretty hardcore game play. It's been a season full of frustration, but also more entertainment than I ever expected. Outside of a couple of people (hello Meg), everybody at least made an attempt at a big move.

So we are down to a final three of Steve, Vanessa, and Liz. Do they deserve to be the finalists? It's pretty easy to argue against a couple of them, but the fact is they did whatever was necessary to get themselves to this point. I can't hold it against them.

Who is the favorite to win? It's really anybody's game, especially given the makeup of the jury. I'd argue that Vanessa is the most deserving, but Steve also did his share of "scampering". Even Liz had her moments, and the fact that her sister (Julia) and "boyfriend" (Austin) are in the jury could lead to an upset.

But there's a long way to go until we get to that point, and quite frankly I'm not sure how they're going to squeeze it all in to a ninety-minute episode. Think about it. There are the first two competitions to show, jury deliberations with Dr. Will, interview segments with not only the jury but pre-jury members, the final competition and eviction, jury questions, voting, and the announcement of the winner and America's Player! Plus, a bit of house footage. Wow! Maybe instead of the rehashed material this past Sunday, some of this could have been aired then.

Oh well. That is the format CBS has used for quite some time, so let's get down to business. After an intro from Julie Chen, and an over-lengthy review of the season from the Biiiiig Brother voice, the show kicks off with the first HOH competition that started at the end of Sunday's "memory wall" episode. It's an endurance comp that sees the three dipped into red goo and then slammed into a wall. This was actually a great competition that earned the title of "endurance" as it lasted close to four hours.

Of course, it's edited in a way that makes it a bit more exciting than it really was, but all three did a great job. In fact, they had to move from the "disc" to the actual apple in order to move things on. At this point, Steve then dropped after losing his shoe. Vanessa says she only has an hour left in her, so she begins to work on Liz. She tells her that she's going to last all night long, and also promises Liz that she's going to take her to the end. Finally, Liz drops and Vanessa wins part one! Sadly, the four hour competition was edited down to less than six minutes.

After the first (of many) sets of commercials, we go to the second part of the final HOH competiitions. It's a combination endurance/knowledge. They have to climb up a wall that includes a crossword puzzle, and the clues are things that happened during the season. The winner is the person who completes it with the fastest time. Steve goes first, and there's no need for a real play by play here. The questions include former HOH's, zingbot, competition names, and other things like that. Steve has a couple of problems, but gets through it pretty easily. Liz is up next, and I have to say that 98 days of being in the game has not helped her do diary room commentary. I won't miss that voice at all.

Steve's final time ended up being 28:27, while Liz was 31:11. Steve has won the second part of the final HOH competition. He'll be facing Vanessa in the final competition. Vanessa believes that Steve will take her to the finals, but plans on taking Liz. Steve has similar thoughts, and thinks the jury will respect him for eliminating Vanessa. We'll see how this plays out in a few minutes!

It's now time for Dr. Will to talk to the jury. Austin says that he so wants Vanessa to join them in jur that he's willing to "cut my pony tail beard off tonight". Becky does NOT want to see John or Steve show up. The latest evictee is then revealed, and it's John. "Why is it that I always find myself surrounded by a bunch of losers?" That's why he's my choice as AFP! Julia is happy, though. John explains how Vanessa brainwashed Liz, and Austin doesn't understand. "I can't believe that Liz is at all trusting anything Vanessa is saying right now, and it's pissing me off." Austin also claimed that he was pretending to like Vanessa the whole time. Sure you were, buddy. Will asks if he'd take Liz to the finals, and he says he was going to step back to let the others make that move.

Will then asks how many are in jury because of Van's influence, and they pretty much all raise their hands. Jackie says she's "back and forth" about Vans' game play, while Shelli says she's impressed with all of her work. James adds that Van treated Big Brother like it was work, and says he respects that. Meg then talks, but I don't hear what she says. Becky does point out that Van does a lot of unnecessary things, though, such as swearing on her mother or the gay community. "Those are things you don't have to do." Austin agrees.

The talke moves to Steve, and James babbles something incoherent. Shelli, though, mentions that when a competition is important, Steve immediately throws it until he needs it to save himself. 'He also did connect with every single of us personally, so he was pretending to be awkwardly social when instead he was actually being brilliantly social." John adds that "Steve is a rat. I didn't like Steve's game at all. He had protection from the twins. He had protection from me for awhile. Everyone kind of open-armed him for awhile. Vanessa had to play for herself, and Vanessa can think on her own. He kind of came to me for a lot of decisions that he made." Julia then brings up how cowardly he was after evicting Jackie.

Liz is then discussed. Jackie says that the twin twist was even harder than her Amazing Race twist. "She's been HOH. She's gotten big targets out...she's gotten blood on her hands". James even says she should win. John disagrees. "She rode someone else to the end." "Literally?", adds Austin. "Her nominations weren't best for her game", says John. "She wins her first HOH and who does she put on the block? Two people who were going after Vanessa. I just never understood that." Meg doesn't agree, though, as she was always protecting her alliance.

Will then asks what happens if either Liz or Steve evicts Vanessa. They almost all shake their heads yes. "That's a tiger pelt up on the wall", says John. Austin even claims he'd consider voting for Steve over Liz if that was the case. Interesting. That doesn't please Julia. She has to vote for Liz. With that, the jury chatter is done with a plea from Will to vote for whomever deserves to win.

After more commercials, it's time for that final HOH competition. As always, it's a series of "A" or "B" answers from the jury. The person with the most correct wins the final HOH, and gets to choose who goes with them to the final two.

The first question is Shelli's favorite moment - winning HOH or meeting Clay. Steve picks winning HOH, while Vanessa picks meeting Clay. What? Steve was right! How the fuck? The second question is from Jackie about what annoyed her the most - the mess or paranoia. They both picked the mess, and they're both wrong. Question three is from Becky, and it's about the biggest lie - everything out of Audrey's mouth or her "hit by the train" story. They both picked the Audrey line, and they were both correct.

Question four is Meg's opinion on who needs a reality check the most - Clay for giving up his place in the game for Shelli or Austin's lame Judas act. They both pick the Clay line, and they're again both correct. Steve is now winning 3-2.

The fifth question is about who James felt was the strongest competitior - him or John. They both pick James, and they're both wrong. Next up is Julia, and the person whose gameplay she respected the most - Austin or Shelli. They boht pick Austin, and they're both spot on.

Question six is about Austin's most embarassing moment, and it's between the Zingbot line about his ex-girlfriend or Zingbot saying he stunk. Steve picked the ex-girlfriend line, while Vanessa picked the body odor. OMG, Steve is wrong. It's a tie!

John is obviously the final juror here, and his question is about the best thing about being in the house - not having to drill people's teeth or "getting ripped". Vanessa picks the getting ripped line, while Steve picks the dentist line. Holy fuck, Steve is right and is the final HOH!!!!

There's more commercials before the final eviction of the season. Vanessa looks worried, while Liz is nothing but smiles. Julie asks if he's ready, and he says no. He then stands and he nervously tells Vanessa that he believes she's the strongest female player in the history of the game. She's perfect at everything she's done, and he's such an admirer. He knows she "can talk your way into that jury", but he can't justify taking the stronger player with him. He's sorry, but he has to evict her.

Vanessa gets up and hugs then both, and then heads out the house. "OMG, Steve", cries Liz. "Thank you so much. I need this so much. OMG. OMG."

Julie then talks to a clearly upset Vanessa, who admits that it "wasn't outside the realm of possibility. I saw the move coming a little bit. I never fully trusted Steve in the game. He stabbed me in the back quite a few times." She also doesn't know if it was the correct move for him, but also admits that she was not going to take him if she had won. Julie then asks to see her hands, as they are all over every single eviction. With that, it's already over.

 A few more commercials later, the jury is brought onto the stage. Julie Chen asks Julia who she thinks the ninth member of the jury is, and Julia wants to know why she's being asked. Austin finally guesses that it was Vanessa, and she is then brought out. Austin is pleased that the boy (Steve) became a man. John jokes that he's "really glad to see my best friend again". Chen then infroms the jury of what just happened.

It's now time for the questions to the finalists. John's question is to Steve, and about how he relied on him or Vanessa on game decisions. As Steve starts to babble, it's discovered there's an audio issue. He then babbles about his various friendships...but the audio is still not fixed. After counting to three, he gets a third try to attempt to claim that he's made his own moves the entire game. I'm not sure that anybody is buying any of it.

Becky gets the next question, and she asks Liz if all of her strategy was actually Austin's. "Nice question", responds Liz, before talking about the twin twist. "I definitely think I held my own. I would do my own campaigining...and yeah,. Austin did help a lot, but I held my own."

Now it's James' turn, and he asks about how he floated throughout the game. "I think you're completely off the mark", says James. He then goes on about the various alliances that he created that protected himself. "I by no means was floating through the game."

Julia then asks Liz about her biggest move besides winning competitions. Liz says it was by "aligning with strong competitors", including Vanessa and Austin. She's really not good at this. Jackie then asks Steve about how he never talked strategy with them, and was nothing but a vote to his alliance members. He talks about his relationship with Austin, and I lose him after that.

Austin then tells Liz that she's beautiful, and asks why she deserves to win. "Oh my gosh. I deserve to win this money because I came in here with a huge disadvantage having a twin. It was a blessing and a curse. I did a lot to stay in this house, and seem like less than a threat." She's happy, kids, for making it this far.

With that, we go to more commercials before it's time for the final pleas from Liz and Steve. Liz goes first, and we hear about how she didn't come in as a superfan like Steve. Again we hear about how she has a twin, and she talks about her various wins. Steve then talks about his various moves, and how Liz only had to play half the game for the first few weeks. He also talks about his HOH wins, and his moves when he was HOH. "I made my own moves. I didn't follow anyone else, and I won more competitions." He then thanks everybody for making his dreams come true.

Voting then begins with Shelli, who says she's voting with her heart. Jackie congratulates them both, and says she's voting for the person "who dreamed of this their entire life". Becky babbles about their roundtable, while Meg says they look hot. James says they both did a great job, and Steve's haircut looks great. "I'm just going to let Jesus take the wheel on this one, like Carrie Underwood." Julia says her "vote is really obvious, but I do love you both". Austin also says that he loves Liz, but he's proud of his "boy". He then quotes Selena Gomez that "the heart wants what it wants". John complains that he has to choose between "the worst alliance member ever or the twin...I couldn't come up with a good insult for you". Vanessa is last, and she congratulates them both and says there is no hard feelings. She says her vote is going to "the person who will best represent everything that this season stands for because I think you both played great games".

Of course, this means there's another commercial break before we get to bring on the pre-jury members. This is usually a nothing segment, as there just isn't any time for real questions. Julie asks Day what she felt was the most surprising thing she saw, and she says it was Austin's Judas silliness. "You said he was going to take over the season. Where's he at?" YES!!! Austin is speechless, but claims it was just going to be something cool. He then goes on too long about it. "You were just like Austin in a hat", responds Day.

Julie then throws it to Vanessa for her big reveal. She claims that "90%" of what she said was true (um, no), but she also reveals that she's a professional poker player who has won $4.5 million. "I had to wear a poker face for 98 days", she says.

Jason is then asked what surprised him, and he says it was how Vanessa "maneuvered" the game. She "Dr. Will'd it", but she "never owned the game...you sort of just cried and said 'I don't know how to do this'. I wanted to see you say I want to bathe in theri blood." Audrey is then asked about the revelation of telling the world about her transgender status, and she starts crying as she talks about the positive things that has happened in her life. "I didn't win Big Brother, but I feel like a frickin' winner because I've changed lives."

Now it's the moment of truth, as Julie begins pulling the keys. Vanessa voted for Liz. John voted for Steve. Austin voted for Liz, as did Julia. James voted for Steve, as did Meg, Becky, and Jackie. Steve has won this season of Big Brother!!! They run into the studio to hugs from the entire cast.

The show's not over, though, as we must hear who won America's Favorite Player. Julie announces that the top three were John, James, and Jason....and the winner is James! He wasn't my choice, but good for him! Steve is asked what he's going to do with the money, and he says he has no idea!

So that's it for this season. I must say that I've honestly enjoyed the season, and had no clue up to the very end who was going to win. I was no big Steve fan, but the kid came through when he needed to, and I always appreciate upsets. Thanks to everybody who read this stuff, and/or listened to the Big Brother Gossip Show! See you next year!

6 comments:

  1. He wins on riding on other bb players coat tails. VERY disappointing! Steve and Liz didn't deserve shit! The only intelligent thing Super fan said all season was in his last statement to Vanessa that she was the smartest player in bb history! I CONCUR. James wins the 25k? That flamer Jason was a runner up? WHO WAS DOING THE Voting, 3 yr olds?

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  2. Good season. Better than I expected. Looking forward to next year and please.........NO FUCKING ALL STARS

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  3. Steve was literally the last person in the entire house that I wanted to win. Sooo fake, a creeper, the sneakiest, in a punk way. Not a fan of the guy nor the way he would say "hi Julie" before eviction, fake. Big Brother obviously pulled for him to win, with the puzzle against Liz. I hope I'm not offending anyone, but enough with the nerdy types, they creep me out. How about more than one black person, maybe a few Latin people, more Asians. People like James, Devon and Jason don't even have a chance because no one is like them in the house and in the end that is what it always comes down to. Dang kinda wish I passed on this season, it left a bad feeling, the white guy always wins, just the way they want it.

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  4. I think they should have a Big Brother for old farts. People who have done more in life than bagging groceries and bartending.

    Lighten up on Steve. He's a frigging trombone player and they're all weird. He beat Vanessa! Tell it! Who saw that coming. Good job Steve, in spite of being white and nerdy.

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  5. I'm OK with Steve winning even though I feel Van played the best game.

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  6. vanessa was a phenomenal player, but in the end a very poor sport. When you spend all season saying you have integrity,but then lose poorly, you need to reevaluate yourself.

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