Warning! The following contains spoilers from the Big Brother Season 23 live feeds as of Sunday, September 5th. Read at your own risk!
Tiffany Mitchell got her second Head of Household win of the season and, despite some rumblings from those inside her alliance, this is ultimately good for The Cookout. Tiffany's win meant the plan was still in motion for the majority alliance to reach their Final 6 goal, one way or another.
By some miracle, The Cookout is still a secret to Alyssa Lopez and Claire Rehfuss. They believe the house is still divided into duos, which was backed up by the fact that Tiffany nominated both Alyssa and Xavier Prather for eviction. Alyssa needed a veto win to save her game, and put Tiffany in a tight spot, but did she do that? Let's jump into it and break it all down.
Alyssa Lopez Won The Veto In Week 9
Alyssa Lopez has won her second veto competition of Big Brother Season 23 and has only further proven that her game wasn't reliant on the success of her showmance partner, Christian Birkenberger. Alyssa may not even be aware of just how vital her victory was, especially when every competitor she was up against was in The Cookout. Had she not won this competition, there's a good chance she could've gone home.
Will Alyssa Use The Power Of Veto?
There is no reason to believe Alyssa Lopez won't use the Power of Veto. Even if the Big Brother Houseguests cooked up this elaborate idea to convince Alyssa not to use the veto, there's little chance she'd be convinced enough not to use it to guarantee her safety ahead of Thursday's eviction. In fact, even if there was a chance she won't, I'm sure Xavier Prather would tell her to, as he'd much rather keep Alyssa in the game over Claire Rehfuss.
Will Tiffany Betray The Cookout To Protect Claire?
Alyssa Lopez's veto win was the exact reason many in The Cookout warned Tiffany Mitchell not to win the Head of Household. Now, she's in a position where she'll either have to nominate her fake Final 2 partner, Claire Rehfuss, or betray The Cookout in order to protect Claire. Ultimately, The Cookout deal will only hold for one more elimination, so there was fear by some within The Cookout that Tiffany would flip on the deal to protect Claire and her own game.
Truthfully, there seems to be little reason for The Cookout to worry. As of Sunday, Tiffany isn't really happy about having to betray Claire but absolutely recognizes it's the best possible move she can make for her game. Claire obviously is going to be blindsided by the eviction, but ultimately, Tiffany can choose to explain The Cookout ahead of her eviction or even in her goodbye messages. Even if that didn't happen, the jury house has already latched onto the idea of The Cookout alliance and really just needs confirmation that it exists to fully accept it.
With all that being said, Xavier Prather and Derek Frazier did some scheming ahead of the veto ceremony that could sway Tiffany's thinking. There was a plan discussed among many in the house to use the veto to save Alyssa Lopez and then force Tiffany to evict Claire anyway as a means of hurting her game. If Tiffany learned about this ahead of her renominations, she could see this as a sign of betrayal and pit two Cookout members against each other. I doubt this will happen because it would hurt Tiffany's votes with The Cookout, but I would say there's a chance of this happening.
Big Brother airs on CBS Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. ET. If you're a fan, you'll want to stick with us for more events happening in the house and for our exclusive interviews with evicted houseguests like Sarah Beth, who recently shared her thoughts on the game with us.
