Big Brother Season 19, Episode 11 Recap

Tonight is a Big Brother rarity - a night where we really don’t know what is going to happen. The only knowledge we have going into this show is that Dominique and Jessica are on the block. Will either of them be evicted? That’s where things get a bit dicey.

Yesterday, I speculated on what this year’s Battle of the Block show tomorrow may entail. Unfortunately, my first prediction was dead on arrival as the feeds went dark for the Den of Temptation proceedings that I figured would happen after tonight’s show.

When the feeds came back, all feed watchers desperately looked for signs of who won. At times, it looked like Alex may have nabbed the honor, especially when she called Jason to follow her upstairs. Nope, doesn’t look like it’s the case. We also noticed a sly grin on Jessica’s face. Could it be her? Dominique’s marathon monologue also gave some indication that maybe she won it. Yet none of them, nor anybody else, confirmed that to be the case.

So how will this work tonight? Let’s quit speculating and get right into the episode. Julie opens by talking about the Den of Temptation that “could stop tonight’s eviction cold”. We start with the aftermath of the POV ceremony, and Jessica and Dominique hug. In the storage room, Jason grabs Alex (literally) and says Dom sealed her fate by calling out Paul and Elena.

Dom heads into her bedroom, yelling out “very funny, Paul” at his stupid snake suit. He says she has made it easy for him to get her out, and Jessica agrees that she has made things easier. She’s going to work on repairing relationships in the house.

In the bedroom, Dom complains how she can’t put on a nice face when she’s stabbed in the back. “My entire team backstabbed me. They’re willing to go to any extreme to win $500k.” She stomps into the kitchen to grab some stuff, and on her way out tells Alex “I hope you protect yourself because if they did it to me they’ll do it to you”. Alex tells Raven, who loudly bitches about it. Dom hears it and tells her she can have a conversation with her about this. She also asks if anybody has tried to talk to her today. Paul says he did.

Elena walks outside and tells Jason about what just happened. She says Dom will go home and see on TV she did nothing wrong to her. Tearful Mark monotones that he feels in the middle of this silliness. “I have to side with Elena on this one.”

Jessica then talks to Elena and Raven in the apple room about staying in the game. That week with Cody “sucked”, and she wishes she could change things. Raven’s not quite buying into it, but they both tell her that Dom is going home. “Don’t engage in anything”, advises Elena.

Now we move outside to Mark and Josh playing pool. The loser has to drink pickle juice, and Josh says it’s all about having fun. Well, not really. Josh is really annoying throughout the game, and everything explodes when he double-hits an eight-ball shot. “Redo it”, he says over and over. Yeah, that’s not how pool works. “Eat the pickle juice, fool”, says Josh. He complains that Mark double-hits all the time. “He’s like a little kid”, says Mark. Josh keeps babbling and babbling before Mark finally throws a cup of pickle juice and hot sauce on Josh. “You can’t beat me when you scratch on the eight ball.” Josh storms into the house, but Elena says that wasn’t a good idea. Josh comes back out with ketchup and mayo and pours it all over Mark. Everything heats up more as Josh starts yelling that Mark “can’t take it”. WIth that short segment over, it’s commercial time, although Julie says that fight is far from over. Yeah, it was a slow week on the feeds.

After commercials, Dom comes out to find out what is going on with Josh. Mark also comes out and apologizes, and he whines it’s about disrespect. He then jumps on the topic of Mark going against his alliance with Cody. “Let’s talk about it...now it’s game on.” More people come out to hear what is going on, and Josh makes a comment about Paul. Paul then tells Dom that it’s not directly about him, and she asks why he’s talking to her. Josh then says he lost all respect for Mark, and he says fine. But Josh isn’t done, and he continues again about breaking his word and going after Christmas and Paul. “Now go grab your people and try to spin it your way.” Oh my, this is funny. “Anybody else got something to say? Cuz I got all day.”

Jessica then speaks up and asks if he never said anything about Christmas. “You lied to me, so now your word to me means nothing.” This gets him going, and Paul complains that this is not how you fly under the radar. Dom is watching, and she knows this could work in her favor. Josh continues on how her work with Cody flopped so she’s now kissing everybody’s ass. WIth that, the week of Big Brother feeds ends.

It’s now time for the Den of Temptation results. We go back to yesterday when the living room TV comes on to announce it’s time to return to the Den of Temptation. Alex reads the card that says they are all to enter to find out if they have won, and that this is the final temptation. If accepted, there will also be a curse. Jason is first to enter, and he didn’t win. Neither did a whole line of people. Dom then comes in, and she’s hoping that it’s her “saving grace” in this game. No, she did not win it! Jessica then comes into the room, and she did win it!!! Jessica won the temptation!!!

She gets to stop one of the next four evictions, and she is clearly pleased. The game has not gone well for her, so “it’s comforting that America has my back”. She accepts, and then opens the book of how she can stop the eviction, and it’s by saying “halting hex live eviction night dive”. The rest of the cast is then shown not winning the hex.

Everybody is again gathered on the couch, and it’s announced that the temptation has been accepted. That means a consequence of this will affect the entire house. “You will learn more in due time.”

But will she use it tonight? Time to find out. Julie addresses the house, and Jessica gives the first statement. She says hi to her mom and Cody, and says she’s not ready to leave. “I’ve got some game left in me.” Dominique then stands and talks about talks some rhyming silliness about false facts, dribbling back, and how she’s a woman of integrity. “I think most people know deep down in their hearts that I do not deserve to be evicted tonight.” She thanks God, and also asks for forgiveness if she is indeed wrong about anything she has said. So Jessica is not using her hex tonight!

Voting then begins with Josh, who votes to evict Dom, as does Kevin, Mark, Christmas, Jason, Raven (and her godawful voice and makeup), Matt, Elena, Paul, and Ramses. Yes, it’s unanimous. Dominique has been evicted.

Julie makes the announcement, and she hugs a few people before heading out the door. “God bless you all, and make sure you take care of yourself.” Paul apparently whispered, “philosophy, outside the house”. I didn’t catch that, though. I’m going to take a break during this segment, though, as it’s all about snakes, God, Paul, and the usual blather. She does get excited when Julie announces the twist that could let her return to the house.

After commercials, Dom is joined by the prior evictees (Cameron, Jilian, Cody). Cameron is asked who followed him, and he says it was Ramses. Nope, it was worthless Jilian. Cameron is surprised as he believed she was liked in the house. Jilian is asked the same question, and she says Jessica or Cody. He apologizes for putting her up, and he then says he hopes it’s anybody but Jess. Well, we know that’s Dom. She whispers a bit to Cody before Julie shuts them up. He even grabs her hand at one point as the others are answering Julie’s insipid questions. When asked, he says he’s shocked that Dom is sitting next to him. “I have no idea what happened. If that happened to Dom, who knows who is safe in the house.” Dom is asked how she’ll do against the other three in the battle back, and she gives a pageant, non-committal answer.

More questions are asked, but they’re all a bit silly. Julie then announces that this year’s Battle Back will be different than last year, and they’ll find out what that means “at the right time”. After commercials, Julie tells us that there will be three comps on tomorrow’s special show, but “will one of them return to the house?” The next HOH will then be shown on next Sunday’s episode, and on next Thursday we will see what Jessica’s consequence is. Oooh, it’s not the Battle Back!!! (As we leave the show, Paul is telling everybody how he thinks Jessica did indeed win the temptation.)

So that’s it. What did you think? Were you shocked that Jessica won the temptation? Or that Dom was evicted by a unanimous vote?