Your Weekly Big Brother Power Rankings - Way Behind on Week 11

Last Week’s HOH: Vanessa, and then Liz for the double eviction

Last Week’s Original Nominees: James and Meg

Veto Winner: James

Did he use the veto?: Of course he did, and Julia was put up in his place

Votes for Eviction: Everyone voted to evict Meg except James iin one of the most infuriating moves in the history of the game. Then, in the double eviction, Liz put up James next to John and he was booted unanimously.

New Head of Household: After the double eviction was complete, Steve won HOH for the next week.  Suck it, Austwins.

Any new twists?: After Meg’s eviction, the houseguests immediately played their first HOH comp of the night, where Liz won.  She put up James and John, and then Julia won veto.  Ultimately she chose not to use it, and James was evicted.  Annoyingly, it was a good night for Austwins.

This week - Steve is HOH, and Austin and Liz are currently on the block (which took place in Sunday’s episode).

OUR THOUGHTS:

JAIME: So that might have been one of the most infuriating weeks of the entire season, let alone the entire game.  Double evictions are supposed to be exciting, and hopefully are when the houseguests make the big moves and get out the players that normally would be difficult to evict.  So instead they evicted Meg.

GARRETT: Steve was apparently up all night trying to figure out what to do. But he decided that he couldn’t risk upsetting Vanessa and left the Austwins in the game intact. It was super dumb, and I really hope he looks back on it after the season is over and realizes as much.

JAIME: Thankfully for everyone, once he won HOH for the week, he made up for his mistake (well, at least for now.  I don’t know if fans will ever be able to forgive him for letting a solid three-person alliance make it to the final six).  

GARRETT: John is also at fault, but he gets a bit more of a pass because he was definitely willing to flip the vote if that’s what Steve decided to do.

JAIME: Definitely.  The problem was Steve was well aware that evicting Julia would be a better move.  He fully saw the benefits of that move, and didn’t do it.  I couldn’t even talk during the episode.  For a while there, it looked like the season had been handed right over to Austwins.

GARRETT: Instead, now, it’s been handed right over to Vanessa. She’s definitely the favorite to win at this point, which is crazy, because I feel like in a season with more awareness from the other players, she would have been evicted much earlier. I don’t think she’s very good - it’s just that she’s better than the people who are left.

JAIME: As always, when it came time for Steve to start figuring out his nominations, Vanessa was right in his ear.  The obvious targets have to be Austwins, but Vanessa helped Steve figure out the best way to set up the nominations, so they’re not potentially put in a situation where, after the veto, Steve would be forced to put him a member of his own alliance.  But as always, Johnny’s cautious of Vanessa, so while going after the twins is the reasonable move, and Steve’s intention, Johnny points out that it wouldn’t be a bad thing to target Austin, either, because it cuts off the possibility of Vanessa turning on them and teaming up again with Austin, since she’s worked with him for most of the game so far.

GARRETT: As it stands episode-wise, Steve took both John and Vanessa’s advice and nominated Austin and Liz. Liz freaked out at the nomination ceremony and bolted from the table, crying. It was ridiculous. In live-feed world, we know who won Veto, but we’ll leave that out of this post so that Wednesday’s episode can be enjoyed without spoilers.

JAIME: Though, I’m sure it’ll be covered in depth on Wednesday’s episode, but I don’t think it’s spoilery to announce to everyone that finally, our long national nightmare is over.  That’s right, folks: Austin and Liz have broken up.  I won’t get into the reasons why, but they’re over.  Suddenly this season seems enjoyable again.

Wait - in a twist worthy of Julie Chen herself, I have been informed that since their break-up on Saturday, Austin and Liz have been spotted making out on the feeds.  Apparently they worked things out.  This is terrible.  Never mind, I hate everything again.

GARRETT: Sorry to break the news like that. Regardless, Wednesday’s episode should be fun. I think CBS is pretty aware of our hate towards that relationship, and they’ve been showing it pretty snidely the past few weeks. Once the attractive, All-American couple Clelli was broken up, CBS must have given a long groan that Liztin is now who they’re stuck with.

JAIME: His beard, though.  I don’t even want to think about it.  Anyway, back to the events of this week.  With James and Meg out of the house, and with the final six formed, the house is split evenly, at least to us viewers: there’s Vanessa/Steve/John on one side, and Austwins on the other.  Steve’s nominations drew some pretty serious lines in the sand, and effectively ended the Scamper Squad before it really even got off the ground.

This week, our post is going to work a little differently.  Since we’re getting close to the end of the season, we wanted to take some time to evaluate how the season’s gone, and potentially how the next few weeks might play out, given who’s left and how they’ve played the game so far.  But first, let’s get to this week’s rankings:

6/5. Liztin

4. Steve

3. Julia

2. John

1.Vanessa

JAIME: So rather than go individually through each player this week, we’re going to look at everyone overall as we try to figure out where the rest of the season could go, and where we’d like it to go.

So first, obviously, Austwins has to go.  Numbers-wise, the rest of the house would have had a better advantage if they’d managed to get at least one of Austwins out last week, either Julia during the first eviction or someone during the second eviction.  That didn’t happen, which means that now it’s going to be war.  For some reason, Liz is really, really hurt that someone would choose to work with Vanessa and John over her, her boyfriend, and her sister.  It’s such a short-sighted move, and I genuinely don’t think Austwins has ever talked about what their alliance would do if they got to the final four or five.  It doesn’t seem like they’ve ever thought that far ahead, because if they had, then it would be understandable why they have to be targets this week.  They should have been targets a long time ago, actually, but what do I know, I’m not in the house.

GARRETT: The move to evict Meg was a decision in a long line of them this summer that should have gone another way. It’s funny - because Meg was often at the forefront of a lot of those choices. Off the top of my head, there was failing to see the Jason blindside coming, the eviction of Shelli over Vanessa, betraying Becky’s trust, and then finally, getting bit by the Austwins in the double eviction. Meg was truly one of the worst players that’s ever played the game, and that’s really saying something. It was awful to take her out over Julia, but at least now, maybe, MAYBE, Steve and John can beat the pretty large odds and get to the end.

JAIME: John and Steve are in a slightly precarious position for now because they’re obviously much bigger targets to Austwins than Vanessa.  John winning HOH this week would pretty much solidify a final three of himself, Steve, and Vanessa, but otherwise, one of them would absolutely go home.  Steve might be a bigger target coming out of this week, but John is harder to beat at comps, and with so few people left, that’s huge.  Neither of them are playing the games they need to be playing.  Sure, Steve finally made a big move and split up the house, but he could have done that last week, which would have left him in a much more comfortable position this week.  He’s not calling the shots so much as he’s taking advantage of the only option he has.  John at least is a bit more strategic, but he’s been able to hide behind Vanessa and now Steve for so long that he’s not in control of anything.  He’s a strong person to have in an alliance, but he’s never been the one to lead an alliance, and I don’t see that changing, especially if they’re able to get out a second member of Austwins next week and John just becomes even more comfortable.

GARRETT: I wouldn’t count on anyone winning anything at this point in the game. I think the only obvious thing is Vanessa sitting right in the middle - and while she’s on John and Steve’s side, she’s still had endgame deals with Austin and Julia for weeks. A Liz eviction only puts her closer to the end. It’s another reason why failing to knock out the Austwins earlier was a horrible decision - Vanessa wins the game over all of the people left in the house, no matter what. By the time Austwins are eliminated (assuming that’s the way it goes), Vanessa is left in the final three. It’s just so baffling how somebody so erratic, overemotional, and high strung can have herself in the best position to win.

JAIME: Ultimately Vanessa is undoubtedly in the best position right now.  She’s close with Steve and John, she’s close with Austwins, and once Austwins’ numbers start dwindling, I don’t know if she wouldn’t turn on Steve and John.  She’s going to do whatever she has to do to win, and the only reason she couldn’t stick with Austwins throughout the entire game was because they outnumbered her.  But now that they’ll be down to two members?  There’s no way to predict what Vanessa will do.  I doubt even Vanessa knows what she’ll do.

She’s in a position similar to Julia: Steve/John will be targeting the bigger threats of Austin and Liz.  Austwins will be targeting Steve and John, since Vanessa is working with them.  There isn’t as much attention on Vanessa and Julia, and unless Steve and John finally figure out that Vanessa will probably turn on them if she’s able to and evict her, I think Vanessa and Julia might skate through to the final three.  Definitely final four.

GARRETT: I think it’s just been a common symptom of these players this year. All of them have had “final five” in their heads for so long instead of trying to position themselves for a win. The perception levels have been painfully low this season - even from Vanessa, who we’ve seen come up with audacious theory after audacious theory throughout this entire game. She’s got herself in the best spot, but it’s still pretty funny that she thought Johnny Mac and Clay were gay lovers. I mean, come on.

JAIME: Let’s not forget that her first thought was that they were cousins.  And if not cousins, then they were in a relationship.  Because clearly it was one of those two options.

GARRETT: And Da’Vonne “as clear as day” never had that stupid phone call power. Whatever. At least the Big Brother takeover nonsense was taken out of the equation early.

JAIME: I do wonder how the game would have gone if there had been more takeovers.  Since clearly the vast majority of the houseguests were incapable of saving their own game or even creating a strategy based on their own merit.

GARRETT: I’m glad they didn’t happen for the sake of the integrity of the game, but these houseguests have really been frustrating. The #BB17 hashtag during the double eviction episode was a warzone. And I was thinking about quitting the season, to be honest.

JAIME: After that double eviction, I was waiting to see how the second HOH comp went, but I was close, too.  I could not watch them hand the entire season to Austwins.  Obviously you can’t control this game, and you can’t control who makes it to the end.  But this season had so many strong and/or interesting players evicted early, and to have a final six made up of three people who have never had to fight even a little bit to stay in the game...I couldn’t imagine the thought of one of them winning.  It took until day 80 for Austin to even get nominated the first time.  John’s been nominated something like five or six times and Austin didn’t get nominated until day 80.  What kind of gameplay is happening in this house?

GARRETT: It would have been awesome to see Audrey cool her jets and make it further than she did. She was wildly entertaining and her game was built for late stage Big Brother. It just sucks that she stepped on the gas before the light turned green. She was aggravating and that hibernation in the diary room was a bit scary, but she was great entertainment. I hope they bring her back for All-Stars and she starts the game off a little better.

JAIME: I think that’s one of the biggest problems I have with the season overall.  They were all so gung ho about pointing out strong players at first, but most of the time, they were labeling people strong players before they’d even really done anything.  Remember early on when everyone kept talking about being intimidated by Steve because of how smart he was?  Because he knows the word “trombonists”?  They were playing the game based on unfounded fear, before they really felt out any of the other houseguests, and in doing so, they let Austwins and Meg make it way too far.  They were all eager and willing to get out the “huge threats” like Jason, and were so focused on it that they lost perspective and any long-term view of the game.  In a way, that might all be Vanessa’s fault - she orchestrated almost every single eviction, and has a knack for getting people to come around to her way of thinking.  I’m going to make a bold statement and say that all of the upsetting, boring, or frustrating parts of the season were Vanessa’s fault.

GARRETT: You’re not wrong, especially when a lot of the frustration occurred because the other houseguests have been so hogtied by Vanessa’s opinion. She’s ruthlessly intimidating, and it’s hard for a socially awkward kid like Steve to stand up to someone like that. It sucks that the only people that really saw through it - Becky and Audrey - were quickly sent right on their way.

JAIME: It’s really frustrating as a fan of the game to see how Vanessa has managed to work everyone in the house.  We’ve talked about her game and all its flaws a lot, so I won’t get into all of that again, but it’s really annoying to see that the best game in the house has so many issues.  It’s easy to see how she’s made it this far in the game, and she does deserve to win and is probably best positioned for a win, but it’s frustrating.  You can’t root for her in the same way you could root for Evel Dick or Janelle because there’s no self-awareness.  Even in the DR, she doesn’t admit that she’s doing what she can to stay afloat each week, or that she knows certain players respond well when she’s emotional.  To the viewers, it just looks like a mess.  But because she’s so good at getting people to agree with her, she’s gotten out anyone who ever stood up to her, and in doing so, got rid of people who potentially could have played a game worthy of winning half a million dollars.

GARRETT: Let’s at least hope that now that the target is on Austwins, we’ll get a bit more drama. Wednesday’s episode should be a good one.

But First Fridays: Your Weekly Big Brother Power Rankings - Week 10

SPOILER ALERT: As has been the case for the last few weeks, this week’s HOH competition/juror buyback ran past the live show, so keep away if you want to wait until Sunday’s episode to find out the outcome.

Last Week’s HOH: Austin (gag)

Last Week’s Original Nominees: Steve and our boy Johnny

Veto Winner: Vanessa

Did she use the veto?: No, after giving a spectacularly petty speech meant to embarrass Steve

Votes for Eviction: 5-0 to evict John

New Head of Household: Vanessa.  God help us all.

Any new twists?: John won the buyback competition, meaning that he was able to reenter the house after being evicted for about twenty minutes.  And next week is another double eviction, so this could potentially be an incredibly interesting week or a painfully boring one.

OUR THOUGHTS:

JAIME: Oh, what a week.  Well, just like I predicted last week, Austin and Liz spending all their time in the HOH room meant we once again had to see some gross things on the feeds.  So, needless to say, I didn’t watch the feeds all that much this week.

GARRETT: Nor did I. The fact that those two think they’re loved by America would be mindboggling if it wasn’t so painfully obvious how pompous and conceited they are.

JAIME: Austin started off his week in a pretty terrible position.  He had made deals with just about everyone in the house, and now that the pool of potential nominees is so much smaller, he had no idea who to put up.  He was set on John, the only person he hadn’t made any kind of deal with, but he’d promised James and Meg that neither of them would go up, which meant his options were Steve or Vanessa.  Lots of back and forth ensued, lots of Austin feeling bad for himself for being in this position, lots of me not caring.  Ultimately, while he was fine with either John or Vanessa going home, he knew that Vanessa staying in the house would be better for his game - but he’d already promised Steve that he wouldn’t go up.  But once again Vanessa managed to sway Austin, and he wound up putting Steve and John on the block.

After an appearance by Zingbot (where Liz was zinged because Austin has a girlfriend, and Austin was just called smelly, because, you know, that’s fair), it was time for the veto competition, where one-by-one, players were shown a picture with three houseguests’ features mixed up, and the player had to correctly identify who was shown.  The fastest time won the veto.  Julia, in her first veto competition, was the time to beat for most of the game, until Vanessa came in and finished in two fewer minutes than Julia.  

With Vanessa winning the veto, Johnny decided to tell her about the five-person alliance they’d formed last week, in the hopes that it would help make Vanessa loyal to him and turn on Austwins, and eventually use the veto on him.  And it kind of almost worked: Vanessa confirmed the existence of the alliance with Liz, who wrote it off as just an idea of Steve’s that she, Austin, and Julia went along with.  With the blame for the alliance all on Steve, Vanessa flipped out, and had a few very mature conversations with him where she calmly listened to his explanation and ultimately understood that it was something he did to improve his standing in the house.  No, I’m totally messing with you, that didn’t happen at all.  It’s Vanessa, come on.  She cried and screamed at Steve and mocked him.

Despite her anger at Steve, and despite her incredibly petty and immature veto speech in which she yelled at Steve for hurting her feelings (by, you know, playing the game), Vanessa decided not to use the veto.  

GARRETT: The TV editing made it seem like Vanessa was either going to use the veto on John or flip on the Austwins and evict Steve, but, as with everybody else left in this game, she refused to vote against Liz and Julia.

JAIME: And on Thursday night, John was evicted by a unanimous vote - until, of course, the buyback competition, which brought Shelli, Jackie, and Becky back to compete alongside John for the right to reenter the house.  The competition, which was combined with the HOH competition, had all the players holding onto a rope that swung around in a circle, occasionally hitting obstacles along the way that would quickly spin them.  The last juror remaining would win the buyback, and potentially could win the HOH as well.

This was an incredibly quick competition, and by that I mean in the time it took me to come upstairs the moment the episode finished airing, open my computer, and turn on the feeds, it was pretty much over.  Apparently Jackie, Shelli, and Becky (possibly along with some of the houseguests) were disqualified for crouching too low on the rope, which seems like a fault on the producers for not explaining it well enough, but what do I know.  Ultimately Vanessa won the HOH, with John coming in second place and winning the buyback comp.

GARRETT: I was so mad during the episode (for those of you that follow me on Twitter, sorry for the outbursts, but such is the life) that I didn’t even watch the feeds for the rest of the night. John is back in, but only after telling Julie Chen that he wants Meg evicted over the twins. I’m more jaded with this show right than I’ve ever been, honestly. I really don’t like anybody.

JAIME: It was a really long week in the house, and unfortunately, I don’t think anyone really made any big moves.  But let’s get to this week’s power rankings:

8. Meg

GARRETT: We should really have a running tally of the poor decisions Meg has made so far. I feel like we detail it every week in these posts, but every go round, she always finds a way to make a decision that, from the outside of the house, looks just so clearly incorrect. This week, it happened on Wednesday night, as John was making his final push to stay in the house and flip the game on the Austwins. There was a prime chance to do it, but Meg, in classic fashion, ran to Austin and tattled on the idea, making him confirm his final five with the twins and James. Now, this week, Vanessa inexplicably is refusing to target the twins, and Meg is in the crosshairs. But I’m not happy, because a Meg nomination means an eviction of whoever is sitting next to her. It may just be James this week, which would add yet another of Meg’s “peeps” to the jury.

JAIME: Oh, Meg.  For some inexplicable reason, Meg thinks she has a lot of control in the house.  She doesn’t seem to realize that there are only eight people left, and when she’s only strong with one other person, that means she could very easily go at any time.  She’s still done absolutely nothing, and oh my god when is anyone going to realize that Austin, Liz, and Julia are three votes who absolutely are not going to turn on each other.  Every week that goes by, the worse Meg looks.  She hasn’t won a single competition, and adds no value to the house whatsoever other than adding a number.  And the worst part is I don’t think she’s going anywhere - John might be targeting her, but that’s it.  Everyone knows they can always beat her in a comp and that she can go whenever they want her to go, so they’re free to keep her as long as they want.  She’s done absolutely nothing to earn her place in the game and I am so, so tired of seeing her joking about how useless she is at comps.

7. John

JAIME: As sad that I was that John was evicted, I don’t know if him winning the buyback comp was the best possible outcome.  I’m glad there’s still someone in the house that I actually care about, but there’s a huge chance that this week will just be a repeat of last week.  I don’t know if I see John surviving the double eviction, and I think that another juror (especially Jackie or Becky) would have had a greater chance of actually shaking things up in the house.  I don’t know.  I’m torn, because Johnny is hands down my favorite houseguest, but game-wise, he’s got to step it up and realize that all the people he’s chosen to work with are absolutely out to get him.

GARRETT: John had chance after chance to play this game, and as funny as he is, it really pissed me off to see him say that he wanted Meg evicted over Austwins. I want to root for him, but part of me knows there’s no chance of him winning the big prize anyway after having been evicted already. I just think bringing back a houseguest that was fairly eliminated from the competition is cheap and tacky, and interrupts the flow of the game. I loved when Kaysar came back into the game way back in Season 6, but looking back on it, just because I loved him doesn’t mean it was right, and I’m glad he got a second comeuppance that same week. So now, rooting for John to win anything other than America’s Favorite Player just feels dirty. As for his game, it looks like he may be aligning with his once-enemy Vanessa, and should be alright for the first eviction. But if power flips back to the twins, he’s a goner. And if it happens, I won’t be that upset.

6. Steve

JAIME: Considering that Vanessa blew up at him last week, I think it’s safe to say that he’s probably going to be her biggest target.  He’s in a slightly better spot than John because I think Vanessa is really the only one with a huge vendetta against him; still, I don’t know how likely it is that he’ll survive the double eviction.  We’ve been saying for weeks that these players need to break up the Austwins block, but if James and Meg still insist on playing nice with them, Steve and John are the first to go.  So hopefully they step it up so I can continue supporting them.

GARRETT: I would probably like Steve, but he lets people get in his head so much that he physically can’t speak when he’s confronted about something (like Vanessa yelling at him in Wednesday’s episode). You can be a huge fan and know exactly what the right move to make is, but when you get so intimidated to the point of hyperventilation, your presence is pointless. Steve lost this game when he evicted Jackie in the first double eviction. He had the big move in front of him and didn’t take it.

5. James

GARRETT: As has been the case throughout the entire game, James is putting his fate in serious jeopardy through his alliance with Meg. Meg refuses to use any logic, and gets James questioning himself whenever it seems like he might be about to make the right decision. This week, both of them tried to volunteer to go up as a pawn. It’s baffling. $500,000 on the line and the man wants to risk himself for eviction. As with John, another truly likable guy, but he’s got a hollow head when it comes to playing big Brother. Unless the course of action is so obvious it’s punching him in the face (like putting Clay and Shelli on the block), you just can’t count on him to actually make a big move - something he incorrectly says he’s capable of.

JAIME: This is why I was hoping Jackie would win the buyback comp.  With Jackie by his side, James had a chance of actually getting some control back, and more importantly, gaining some perspective.  He absolutely does not have the numbers to win this game, or really control anything.  Whatever game moves he makes, even if they’re smart, are absolutely pointless as long as he doesn’t see the dangers of keeping Austwins.

4. Julia

JAIME: Julia is kind of pointless.  She’s sort of the Meg of Austwins: she hasn’t won anything, and she’s not really more than just a number.  But unlike Meg, Julia has strong people behind her, and given her connections to Liz and Austin, she’s not going anywhere.  As long as everyone keeps falling all over themselves to work with Austwins, they’re going to stay in control of the house, and Julia is going to walk right to the final three.  How thrilling.

GARRETT: She also just made a final two with Vanessa (in the event that Liz gets evicted), so that’s another eye roll from me. Julia is a huge disappointment that we should have seen coming. I like her better than Liz, but if you’re in a competition over who’s hated less, nobody is a winner. It means something that we write less on Julia every week than anybody else.

3. Liz

GARRETT: I just really don’t like Liz. I think she’s annoying and petty and a truly mean human being. She sits back and talks more trash than anybody this side of Maggie from Season 6. She takes everything personally while accusing everybody else of taking things personally. She’s rude and has a horrible attitude and only got on the show because her and Julia met Porsche from S13 on a yacht. I usually love to hate people in Big Brother. Austin, I hate, but I love to hate him because he’s so ridiculous and I know that the long wait will be worth it when he’s finally evicted. But Liz just makes me irrationally angry. There’s nothing about her I enjoy and she makes the show worse. I have nothing to say about her gameplay, other than the fact that again, after two months of this, I still don’t understand how people won’t target her.

JAIME: I cannot for the life of me figure out why no one has ever targeted her.  She’s the center of a three-person alliance, and we’re at the point in the game where three votes are the majority in an eviction.  How does nobody see that?  How is no one threatened by that?  Like Julia, she gets to just sit back and watch as she advances further and further in the game.  I could understand if they were actively working to protect their alliance and make themselves be seen as helpful rather than harmful, but seriously?  They’re not doing anything to make themselves seem like less of a threat, and yet nobody is threatened by them.  It’s not even fun anymore to watch these houseguests misread this situation.  It started getting sad a long time ago.  Austwins don’t deserve to win the game, but right now, none of the other houseguests do either if they can’t even acknowledge the largest threat in the game, and won’t lift a finger to do something about the huge obstacle between them and $500,000.  Austwins are going to be the final three and everyone else is going to be evicted and be surprised at how they managed to get fooled so badly, and they won’t have anyone to blame but themselves.

2. Austin

JAIME: First of all, it anyone hasn’t read Austin’s HOH blog, please do yourself a favor and read it.  A true intellectual, Austin is clearly leaps and bounds above the other players, and it’s no wonder that he’s playing a vastly superior game.  No, that’s not true at all.  Austin sucks.  He spent his week as HOH making deals with both sides of the house, and burying himself in deals and promises that he refused to even think about breaking.  But he’s absolutely untouchable right now: he’s got Liz and Julia behind him, and usually Vanessa.  I think it’s incredibly likely that he and/or Liz will win another HOH this season, and at this point, if someone from their alliance doesn’t go home during the double eviction, then they won’t be going home at all.  Austin, Liz, and Julia are in total control of the votes now, and for everyone’s eagerness to join up with them, no one realizes that they have no chance of beating them.  Once we get down to five or six people, there is absolutely no way to evict one of Austwins, unless the HOH isn’t one of them and puts up two of them against each other.  The worst thing about Austin, really, is how obvious his power in the house is, and how everybody refuses to act on it.  Austin’s continued presence is making me hate everyone else and hate this season.  Please do better, houseguests.

GARRETT: I want the professor that accepted Austin’s graduate thesis fired. The HOH blog and that absurd nominations speech only further show just how far Austin’s head is up his own ass. He’s a petulant child who whines when he doesn’t get his way - but he gets his way a lot more than not. I’ll give him credit for his only good game move (and maybe this season’s best, which is so unbelievably sad) in avoiding the block all the way back in week 4. And as I said above, I still love to hate Austin, just because he’s so cartoonishly ridiculous. But that will change when it really becomes apparent that he’s in no danger of going home.

1.Vanessa

JAIME: It’s been ten weeks, and I am officially annoyed by absolutely everything about Vanessa’s gameplay.  She lies to everyone but cries and gets personally offended when anyone lies to her; she controls everything but then can’t understand why anyone might ever potentially consider the possibility of evicting her.  She thinks she’s the only person who understands how to play this game, and yet she jumps down everyone’s throats the second they do anything even remotely connected to playing out a strategy.  So no, I’m not a Vanessa fan.  But unfortunately, she’s playing the best game in the house.  How sad is that?  With Austwins by her side, right now, she’s pretty much untouchable.  They’re going to continue to dominate and picking everyone else off, and there’s nothing we can do about it.  Joy.  I’m sure she’s going to cry a lot more, too, so everyone get pumped.

GARRETT: They had her chance to get rid of her and blew it. You don’t get many chances to take out a player like Vanessa - who, as insane as she can be, is incredibly intimidating and smart with her words. I don’t think there’s a player in history quite like Vanessa, who acts so volatile and won’t admit to her own lies in the diary room. I just don’t get how she doesn’t see how off her rocker she is. I just want one quote from her admitting to it. Just one. And all will be forgiven. But she’ll get no respect from me until she does that, even if she does walk away with the grand prize. She’s number one this week because of her HOH and puppeteering of the people she intimidates, but in a season filled with so many bad players, it’s really not that much of an accomplishment.

But First Fridays: Your Weekly Big Brother Power Rankings - Week 7

SPOILER ALERT: Like last week, the HOH competition didn’t end with Thursday’s episode. But we know who won, and are including this knowledge in this week’s rankings.

Last Week’s HOH: James

Last Week’s Nominees: Shelli and Clay (BLESS)

Last Week’s Veto Winner: James

Did he use the veto?: No, thankfully, and Clelli remained on the block together.

Votes for Eviction: 8-0 to evict Clay.  Thank GOD.

New Head of Household: In the world’s biggest plot twist, Becky

Any new twists?: Absolutely none.  Does anyone but us remember that we were promised a takeover a week?  Come on, Julie Chen, don’t lie to us. There’s a double eviction on Thursday, but it’s been expected for a while, so we aren’t counting it as a twist.

Our thoughts:

JAIME: This was one of the most exciting weeks we’ve had so far this season.  Finally someone who wasn’t Vanessa or controlled by Vanessa was running the house.  James’ HOH win gave us the potential for drama in the house, and he absolutely delivered.  Sunday’s episode showed us the end of last week’s HOH endurance competition - it got down to James, Shelli, and Johnny Mac, and after two hours of enduring a perpetually tilting wall, bird attacks, and artificial rain, Shelli’d had enough.  She made a deal with James to keep herself and Clay safe, and then she jumped, giving him the power for the week.

Once the competition was over, James met up with his alliance to figure out their plan for the week.  His target?  Clelli.  He didn’t care about the promise he’d made her because, after all, she and Vanessa had made him a promise the week before that they didn’t keep.  Unable to figure out who to put up as a pawn, he decided to bypass the idea of backdooring one of them entirely and just put them both up on the block right away.  It was a bold move, and I’m so glad he did it.  Having Battle of the Block sort of requires the HOH to backdoor their target, and once Julie announced that particular part of the game was over, I was excited to see how the houseguests would adjust their games.  And, thankfully, James adjusted quickly.

Of course, not everyone in the house was as excited to see Clay and Shelli up on the block as I was.  The Sixth Sense sort of...fell apart as soon as James took control of the house.  Shelli whined to anyone who would listen about how she and Clay were targets.  Vanessa was scrambling to try and figure out what James was thinking.  And Austin was busy kissing Liz again (I don’t want to talk about it).  After a fantasy-themed veto competition, complete with a Game of Thrones pun, James won the power of veto, and chose to keep his nominations the same.  That meant a member of the Sixth Sense was definitely going home - and naturally, Clay petitioned the house to vote to evict him rather than Shelli.  Because, like, true love or something.  The house went back and forth for a bit, and at one point there was almost a unanimous decision to evict Shelli instead.  But they swayed back and ultimately, Clay was evicted.

GARRETT: The decision to evict Clay was up in the air for quite some time, and it looked like the house was headed for a 5-4 decision until about three hours before the live eviction. At that point, a (low volume) fight erupted, the result of which was the house deciding on Clay unanimously as the one to evict. I won’t give too much information, because the fight is sure to be shown on Sunday’s episode, but the fight’s consequences will be reflected in the rankings.

Before we get to it, though, I’d like to talk a little about Clay. Clay was an attractive guy who got asked to appear on the show because he met the casting director at a Lakers game. I get that recruits are a part of the casting process, but it was clear from very early on that Clay was not in the house to win Big Brother. He was there to enjoy himself and to enjoy his showmance, and once he was out of power, he gave up entirely. It made a mockery of the game and I’m glad to see him gone. I would tell him not to let the door hit him on the way out of the Big Brother house, but thankfully, he’s gone and we can move on from his stupidity once and for all.

All in all, it was a pretty great week in the Big Brother house.  And Clelli has finally been separated!  So let’s get to this week’s power rankings:

11. Vanessa

JAIME: Vanessa’s been controlling the house since week 2, and while she’s definitely capable of coming up with big plans to keep her alliance’s hold on the house, she’s also paranoid and prone to overthinking every move she makes.  And of course, the second she lost power, she spiraled.  She tried to get eight people to band together and give their word that they wouldn’t put each other up in the double eviction, and, most importantly, she picked a huge fight that got the entire house’s attention.  People have finally started to see where Vanessa stands in the house, and she’s losing people’s trust.  Right now she’s the main target for the week, and even if she somehow manages to escape the first eviction this week, I can’t see her surviving the second.

GARRETT: People who talk too much always get figured out sooner or later, and it’s usually by the people who stay relatively silent, waiting for their opportunity to strike. This fight was one too many for Vanessa, whose paranoid antics seem to be sealing her fate. She’s smart enough to possibly steal a Veto this week and maybe an HOH during double eviction, but as Jaime said, I wouldn’t count on her slithering her way through the game much longer.

10. Shelli

GARRETT: Shelli has gotten an absolutely brutal edit on CBS, and is not looked upon favorably by many people watching the show. I think a lot of that had to do with her relationship with Clay. When a power couple holds dominion over the house for as long as they did, they’re bound to become targets at some point. CBS’s edit showed her kicking and screaming all the way to Clay’s eviction, and made it look like she was a selfish person unable to see that she had simply gotten outdueled by James in the HOH competition. But I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt now that she’s in a really rough spot. Hopefully, without Mr. Prissypants by her side, she can restructure her game moving forward.

JAIME: I had a lot of problems with how Shelli handled herself this week.  She kind of acted like no one had ever been put on the block before.  Actually, maybe more like eviction wasn’t even a usual part of the game.  Compare her to Vanessa, who can at least acknowledge when something is a game move and thus doesn’t take things personally.  Shelli took her and Clay’s nominations incredibly personally, and acted as if James was the first person in the history of the show to ever go back on his word (which just proved how little she understands the show, but I digress).  This week revealed to her that she’s a huge target in the house, and in return she revealed to the house that she cannot handle losing control.  That’s something every Big Brother player has to go through.  The thing about being the game, and being a strong player, is how you climb back up.  Shelli could not handle losing her spot and her precious Clay, and the way she handled herself this week really gave the houseguests zero incentive to want to keep her around.

9. Steve

JAIME: I still want to love Steve.  I think in real life I’d be friends with him, and probably baking him his favorite cookies every week.  At face value, Steve’s at a pretty okay spot in the game: he’s got alliances with Vanessa and John, so two people with a lot of sway on both sides of the house have got his back.  And even though we know he’s not Becky’s target this week, he’s not exactly in a good position, since the HOH hates him and he hates her right back (also, can we talk about how Steve and Becky randomly loathe each other and how hilarious it is?).  He’s also still afraid to really step up and find out for himself what’s going on in the house.  I think he spent a lot of time being pushed aside and being told to trust other people to make plans, and now he’s accepted that as his role in the house.  He needs to get his head in the game because right now, he’s still the easiest target in the house.  He’d be the first one to go if an HOH didn’t want to get blood on their hands.  If he can prove himself to be valuable to more people in the house, he’d be in a much better spot.

GARRETT: Steve is also extremely slow on the comeup, and doesn’t understand a lot of the reasons why certain people should and should not be trusted. He talks to the camera a lot trying to figure things out for himself, but even with worlds of information, often comes up short way too often. Steve needs a competition win, and badly, as we said last week. His situation won’t change until he wins one and sees who starts running to him for deals and alliances. Being on the offering end of those deals hasn’t put him in a fantastic spot. And with Vanessa sitting squarely in the bullseye, his main confidant won’t be able to drag him much farther.

8. Meg

GARRETT: Meg is fortunate that James won HOH last week and Becky took it this week, because she gets to have a say in the nominations. I think she’s a lot better socially than she’s given credit for, and seems to have a solid relationship with a lot of people in the house. And sometimes people advance really far in the game because others know they can’t win competitions. But that’s not the honorable way of getting to the end in my mind. I know Meg will be in the final four, but of everybody left in the house, she’s the one with the smallest chance of getting jury votes based on her own individual efforts.

JAIME: Oh, Meg.  I think I have said every single week that I’m waiting for her to do something.  Anything.  And no, getting drunk and grinding on Clay doesn’t count, though that is the kind of content I like to see.  I can acknowledge that she needs to stay in the game for now - her side of the house needs her as a number, so while she doesn’t really take up much of a role in the house, she’s not going to be a target any time soon.  And because she’s not a target, she wouldn’t be the first person the other side of the house targets, meaning she could stick around for quite a while.  Please, Meg, for me, use your position in the house and actually do something.  Win a veto comp, I don’t care.  Just do something because right now, she’s the only person in the house who hasn’t done anything.

7. Liz

GARRETT: We have Liz ranked below Austin and Julia because she’s the glue that ties the three of them together. The other houseguests know this, so she’ll always be option number one to put on the block from anybody trying to break up the three-headed monster. But she’s been off the radar for a couple weeks now. I’d watch out if I were her during double eviction, however. That’s usually the opportune time to take out a power couple. With Clay gone, her and Julia are the last one left.

JAIME: Liz still has the disadvantage of being so closely associated with Austin and Vanessa.  She was never quite as social as Julia, and spends a lot of her time either with Austin or with Julia.  Like Garrett said, she’d be the first person to target from her group with Austin and Julia, and she hasn’t really given anyone a reason not to target her.  So far she’s kind of content with coasting, but I just can’t see that working for her for too much longer.

6. Austin

GARRETT: Austin is still solidly in the middle of the pack after his miracle save a couple weeks ago. He’s calmed down quite a bit and seems to be thinking a lot more with his brain than he used to be. His ally Vanessa is still the major target, but he’ll readily sacrifice her for the sake of the twins. Surely, the target will land on his back soon, but for now, he’s doing just fine.

JAIME: I swear to god if I have to see him kiss Liz one more time, or talk about kissing Liz, I might shoot myself.  He’s still a definite target because of his role in Jason’s eviction, but with Vanessa and Shelli being more vocal about their feelings on everyone else’s gameplay, Austin’s managed to shrink his target with no real effort.  He and the twins will always be a threat to everyone, but I think they can manage to get by for a few more weeks pretty easily.

5. Julia

GARRETT: Julia is just about as middle-of-the-road as I think you can get as of now. She’s not the target, but isn’t totally safe because of her association with Liz and Austin. This week she’s fine, but, as we said for Liz, she could be a target for double eviction night. I feel bad writing pretty much exactly the same thing for her as I did for Liz, and while there’s humor in that, I really can’t come up with much else to say about her this week.

JAIME: Julia’s been pretty mellow since she officially entered the house.  I think maybe it might have been smart for her to come in and continue with the connections she’d been building with people whenever she was pretending to be Liz, but instead she’s mostly just spending time with Liz and Austin.  Still, she’s probably the smallest target out of the three of them for now, which is why she’s above them in our rankings, but by staying so loyal to them, she’s not really giving the other houseguests a reason to want her to stay.  Hopefully she steps it up soon, because right now she’s not a real threat to anyone, and I’d hate to see her be evicted just because of her ties to Liz and Austin.

4. Jackie

GARRETT: Jackie definitely wins the Most Improved Player award, rising from our least favorite week 1 to one of our most cherished houseguests at the halfway mark. Jackie is quick to call out bullshit and won’t hesitate to make a big move. She hasn’t had power at any point in the game (besides holding co-HOH for eight hours), but has sat close to it in recent goings. She seems to be in every new deal and alliance, but isn’t a big target either. She’s definitely the dark horse to win the whole thing, and if people don’t start paying attention to her strong gameplay, she just might do so.

JAIME: I just love Jackie’s complete willingness to openly call people out.  It was something we didn’t get much early this season, with Vanessa controlling the house for four straight weeks and subtly creating situations in which someone gave her a valid reason to publicly react.  But Jackie is pretty open about her concerns, and isn’t afraid to shake things up.  She and James are the best chances their side of the house has to get rid of the remaining members of the Sixth Sense, and with their brazenness, it’s going to be so fun to watch.

3. Becky

GARRETT: Becky has played so many different roles this summer that it’s hard to predict where she’ll fall in the rankings each week. She’s up to third this week because of her HOH win, and seems to be rolling with the momentum and targeting the Sixth Sense. But it was just last week that Becky was ratting out James, Jackie and Meg to Clay and Shelli. John has protected her loyally, but she’s still attempting to play both sides of the house. Perhaps with this HOH she’ll be picking a side for good, but I wouldn’t count on it.

JAIME: First of all, can we just talk about how Becky got kale and a One Republic CD in her HOH basket?  Like, I’m glad she’s going after the biggest targets in the house, but oh my god Becky, could you be more basic?  Anyway.  I was worried when she won HOH this week because last week, she was telling Jackie that she was unwilling to make any big moves before the double eviction.  She definitely could have played it safe, but thankfully she decided to really play the game, and I like anyone who’s willing to play the game.  I think after last week, she’s officially on the good side - especially with Clay gone, that’s one less person willing to protect her (I mean, not that she was ever high on Clelli’s list of people to protect), but after working with the other side to get out their targets, I think she’ll be solid with James and all them from now on.  Also, please keep up the random hatred of Steve.  It might be my favorite thing about this season besides Johnny Mac’s diary room soundbites.

2. John

GARRETT: Johnny’s been our favorite since just about the start of the game. And while I give Jaime credit for turning me into a fan of his, I still had doubts about his gameplaying abilities. Jason called him out multiple times for never doing anything, and he was right about that. John basically let others play his game for him and avoided conflict. But finally, on Thursday, Johnny woke up and started playing. Vanessa confronted him in the way that she does, with the fast-talking, scream-crying thing that she’s perfected over 50 days, and he sat stone cold and let her put the target on her back. And then he brazenly began to pick apart her game to the other houseguests. John became aware that he’s Vanessa’s number one target, but with his close ally Becky in power, he might have gotten ahead of her, as so many players failed to do before they were sent out the door.

JAIME: I am just so happy about the week Johnny has had.  I’ve been waiting for him to step up as a gameplayer so that I can be justified in calling him my favorite, and finally he’s becoming the rock star dentist of our dreams.  With Clay gone and Vanessa finally revealing the cracks in her game, John’s free to stick with the people he genuinely trusts.  With Becky in control this week, he’s totally safe, and I could not be more thrilled.

1. James

GARRETT: James may just be the most brazen houseguest since Evel Dick. He’s worlds different from Season 8’s winner, but unlike anybody in recent history, has just been so unafraid of conflict when it comes to game moves. He was a bit slow to the step in figuring out the power alliance of the Sixth Sense, but grabbed his opportunity to make a major statement and ran with it. Shelli was his target last week, but he seemed content with breaking up the couple, and exited the week with more friends than foes. When you make such a big move in Big Brother, it’s difficult not to put the target on your own back. And when he was drawn into Thursday’s fight, he stirred up the animosity just enough before backing out and letting Vanessa take the target away from him. Major applause from us, and a well deserved spot at number one on the power rankings.

JAIME: I’m so thrilled with how James handled himself this week.  He was so unapologetic about breaking his word to Clay and Shelli, and so willing to stand up and make it clear that he was intent on tearing down the main alliance in the house.  And he got in two major fights this week, something that often can ruin a player’s game and make them an immediate target.  But he knew exactly how to handle himself, so after fighting with Clay and Vanessa, they were the ones who looked bad, not James.  He refused to back down, and stayed consistent to his plan, something that we haven’t seen much of this season.  He wasn’t on my radar much until a few weeks ago, but after what he accomplished this week, he’s absolutely one of my favorite houseguests, and definitely deserving of his spot in our rankings this week.