In a Big Brother twist that even the most devoted fans wouldn’t have seen coming, something truly unexpected happened to Season 24 earlier this week: It got good.
Until a few days ago, the latest cycle of CBS’ summer staple had been anywhere from boring to utterly painful to watch, thanks in large part to the house’s exhausting, endless obsession with evicting Taylor for no discernible reason. But during Turner’s Head of Household reign this week, the Leftovers alliance — comprised of Turner, Monte, Kyle, Joseph, Brittany, Taylor and Michael — emerged, with an eye on reclaiming power in the house and booting some real threats. (On the live feeds, The Leftovers’ commitment to blindsiding Ameerah with her potential eviction has been, fittingly, delicious. The lies! The seeds of doubt! The acting!)
To that end, Thursday’s episode had a lot of ground to cover, including the veto ceremony. Let’s dive in:
THE VETO MEETING | As expected, Michael and Brittany take themselves off the block… but what’s not expected, to most people in the Po’s Pack and Girls’ Girls alliances, is that Turner replaces them with Ameerah and Terrance, not Taylor and Nicole. In his speech, Turner chalks up that choice to his lack of game discussion with Ameerah and Terrance — but he also seizes the opportunity to call out his housemates’ relentless targeting/bullying of Taylor, which leaves Taylor in appreciative tears. (Aw!)
Several of Ameerah’s allies, like Nicole and Jasmine, are genuinely shocked to see Ameerah go up, and they start to wonder who Turner could possibly be aligned with that would endorse nominating Ameerah. But hilariously, even when the answer is right in front of them, they can’t figure it out: At one point, Ameerah goes out to the backyard to find a whole gaggle of The Leftovers hanging out by the hammock together, but even then, she reports back to Nicole and Daniel that she thinks they were all just chilling and not talking game. “I can’t imagine any of them talking game,” Daniel suggests, to which Ameerah replies, “Everyone’s just chilling. Like, that’s who’s leftover.” Gah! You couldn’t write a better script, folks!
THE EVICTION | The Leftovers are then tasked with pretending like they don’t know Ameerah is the true target, which is a delightful display of acting from all seven of them. In fact, Nicole is so certain Terrance is leaving that she even tells him he doesn’t have the votes to stay, then confesses to him — as some sort of weird parting gift? — that she previously worked as a cop.
But hoo boy, Eviction Night does not pan out the way Nicole thinks it’s going to. When it comes time to vote, everyone in the Leftovers alliance who can cast a vote this week — that is, everyone except Turner — votes out Ameerah. But so does Daniel, who thinks he’s throwing Terrance a sympathy vote that ultimately won’t change the eviction outcome, but actually makes the margin against Ameerah even greater; she’s ousted in a 7-4 vote, and Nicole’s reaction (pictured) effectively sums up the vibe in the house after Julie announces the results. (Ameerah, to her credit, tells her housemates, “It’s OK. You got me!” and admits in her post-game interview that the houseguests were right to perceive her as a threat.)
THE HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD COMPETITION | Ahead of the HOH competition, the newly un-Bestied Terrance gets to pick an existing Besties duo that he’d like to make a trio — with the same Bestie rules applying for the week ahead — and he opts to partner up with Monte and Joseph.
Unfortunately, we don’t get to see the entire Head of Household challenge play out on the air. It’s another competition that happens in phases, and only Phase One — which requires players to find red party invitations in a sea of envelopes raining down from the sky, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone-style — is underway by the time credits roll. The first eight houseguests to find a red invitation will advance to the next phase, and at the end of the episode, only Jasmine, Terrance and Brittany have done so.
With that, I hand it over to you. How satisfying was that Ameerah blindside? And who do you want to see win Head of Household? Tell us below!