Warning! The following contains spoilers from the Big Brother live feeds as of Sunday, August 8th. Read at your own risk!
Derek Xiao's Head of Household reign looked as though it could be pretty cut and dry, but there's been a bunch of chatter over the past couple of days that could complicate that immensely. In fact, it's looking like Big Brother Season 23 may be having one of its biggest moments of the season, as lines are drawn and alliances are divided over who to send out of the house in the coming days.
Prior to the veto ceremony, Derek X nominated Sarah Beth Steagall and Britini D'Angelo with the full intention for the veto to be won so that he could backdoor Christian Birkenberger. That plan just got a lot more complicated but, before I break that down, let's get into the veto.
Britini D'Angelo Won The Power Of Veto
Britini D'Angelo finally won her first Power of Veto in Big Brother and, as fans may expect, she's pretty excited. For the first time in her three nominations, she'll have the opportunity to take herself off the block and be fully in control of her own fate.
Will Britini Use The Power Of Veto?
Britini will definitely use the Power of Veto to take herself off the block. Derek Xiao may try to convince her to do otherwise but, honestly, it's not even worth getting into that because Britini is not trusting enough to give up her veto and remain on the block, nor should she be. The only thing worse than not having safety and leaving Big Brother is having it and being tricked by someone else not to use it. Britini is going to use the Power of Veto and, so far, no one has convinced her not to.
Why This Veto May Drastically Change The Game
In a perfect world, Derek Xiao wanted someone to win the veto and remove Sarah Beth Steagall from the block. With Sarah Beth down, he could nominate Christian Birkenberger, and the house would vote him out by an overwhelming majority against Britini D'Angelo.
Now with Britini coming off the block, the optics of getting Christian out become a lot trickier. Derek X is aware that his Final 2 partner, Hannah Chaddha, is not a huge fan of Sarah Beth, and he likely knows either from her or Kyland Young (who is Sarah Beth's Final 2 partner) that Tiffany Mitchell is no fan of Sarah Beth, either. Hannah and Tiffany dislike Sarah Beth so much that they'd sooner see her gone before Christian and have already secretly discussed flipping the vote with Claire Rehfuss, if Christian is nominated.
For those three, the upside is that all of them are on relatively good terms with Christian and that saving him could take the heat off themselves and set up a rivalry between Christian and Derek X. There's also a downside, as flipping the vote, especially without informing Kyland or Derek X that they intend to do so, could lose Hannah and Tiffany their largest allies in the game, which could ultimately hurt them more than keeping Sarah Beth.
Beyond this, though, the fact of the matter is it would be relatively easy to flip the vote and save Christian Birkenberger over Sarah Beth Steagall this week. Alyssa Lopez and Xavier Prather are 2 of the 5 votes he'd need to stay. Big Brother fans no doubt know Britini D'Angelo would vote to support Christian, and Derek Frazier has discussed voting her out as well. If Alyssa and Xavier are able to get those two in their ranks, then they'd only need one within the group of Claire Rehfuss, Tiffany Mitchell, or Hannah Chaddha to save Christian.
Essentially, a line could be drawn this week in Big Brother that will undoubtedly expose, as well as destroy, many alliances in the house. I also believe that if anyone begins to sense how crazy this fallout could be, you'll see some Houseguests weigh options on whether this is the battle for them to fight. I could see Derek X cutting his losses and doing a safe renomination and sparing Christian Birkenberger from nomination entirely. Yet I could also see Tiffany Mitchell and others getting cold feet about voting out Sarah Beth Steagall if Christian is put up, due to fear that they're missing a golden opportunity to eliminate a huge target.
About 100 scenarios could go down between now and Thursday, which could make for some entertaining live feeds. Of course, if there is an unexpected vote flip, I would expect some major fallout from many Houseguests but, for now, let's just wait and see how this week unfolds.
Big Brother airs on CBS Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. ET. This week is set to be a wild one, so be sure to check in for more updates on the game, as well as our recent interview with Whitney Williams after she was evicted.
