Five hundred episodes of Big Brother! I wish I could brag and tell you I've seen every one of them, but admittedly, I started watching around the second half of the first season. But I've been a fan ever since, having enjoyed the best seasons and trudged through some of the weaker ones. While I'll reserve full judgment on Season 15 until after the finale, all signs point toward this one not coming close to some of the better seasons of this reality series. But let's put the complaints aside and focus on tonight's double eviction!
The houseguests new it was coming. I don't think they knew for sure it was tonight, but they knew they'd be sending two of their own out the door at some point in the near future, in order to keep the numbers on track for the approaching finale. With Amanda and Spencer on the block, it was looking like Amanda would undoubtedly be evicted tonight. And then she managed to secure Elissa's vote. We can toss around conspiracy theories about Elissa getting a nudge by the producers to swallow over her distaste for Amanda and help her stay. Or we can argue that Elissa probably knew she was out of allies and in need of a deal. Whatever the reason, Elissa agreed to give Amanda her vote. (She also gave her her wedding ring to back up the promise.)
But first, Amanda called GinaMarie out for being jealous of Amanda and McCrae's relationship. We know GM misses Nick and wishes he was in the house, but I think the jealousy argument's a stretch. GinaMarie had no real relationship with Amanda, so she had more reason to try to get rid of the McCranda alliance than she did to try to save either member. In the meantime, she has the full support of the Exterminators, including Andy, which throws a major wrench into Amanda's efforts to stay.
Upon learning that Elissa was promising to keep Amanda, Andy promptly took that info to the Exterminators. And he complained in the diary room that this situation was going to out him. Of course, that would require people to be remotely aware of just how sneaky he's been in this house all season, and somehow they're really not. Not enough, anyway. Based on the feeds, all signs pointed toward him choosing the Exterminators and blindsiding McCranda, after which he'd try to pin the missed vote on Elissa.
Andy made his choice, and he chose the Exterminators. It seemed like Amanda knew it was Andy who betrayed her, but then she revealed to Julie that her "I thought I could trust you" comment on her way out the door was to help Andy's game by making him look loyal to the rest of the house.. Because she really thought it was Elissa who went back on her word. The goodbye messages cleared that up, as Andy admitted he voted her out for game purposes, and told her about the Exterminators. It's a risk to reveal that to her as he might lose her jury vote if he gets to the Final 2, but she may have found out on her own later, and that could be worse for him. Whether or not the admission comes back to haunt him remains to be seen.
Amanda's reception for her exit interview was about as mixed as Aaryn's and it seemed like some people were laughing at some of her comments, but she kept her head up when talking about her behavior in the house, trying to defend the "bully" reputation she earned for herself. It seems like she realizes she's not hugely popular among the viewers and that she didn't come off looking great when she went on her tirades. She also expressed regret over how she treated Elissa. And she's going to give the woman her wedding band back.
Back in the house, the houseguests were readying themselves for a fast cycle of competitions, which would send one more houseguest out the door. The HoH competition was the dig-through-the-mess competition that likely still haunts Jeff Schroeder (clown shoe!). McCrae won it, ensuring himself from following his showmance out the door. And we're left to wonder if he realizes Andy was the hinky vote or if he's going to punish Elissa for Amanda's eviction, doing the Exterminators a favor in the process and setting himself up as the next target.
And McCrae nominated GinaMarie and Elissa, which was not a good move for him if it turns out the Exterminators are sticking together. I think he's been talking to some of the guys in the house about working with them if Amanda went home tonight, so that may explain why he put the two girls up. But I have to believe if he knew Andy betrayed them, he would've nominated him instead of Elissa. As it stands now, if Elissa goes, he's the Exterminator's only target left and he doesn't even realize it.
The Veto was the maze-puzzle comp that Ian won last year, where the houseguests had to push something through a track to get it to the end. Judd won the Veto, which I'm sure thrilled him, considering he was backdoored wearing the same bear shirt during the last double eviction.
When we came back from commercial, the houseguests were arguing over something. Elissa's Veto plea involved her promising Judd she had nothing to do with Aaryn's decision to backdoor him during the last eviction. Not having seen the beginning of the argument, there's no way to know who brought that up. It's possible Judd did as a way to justify not using the Veto (even though he wasn't going to use it anyway). Or maybe someone else brought it up when Elissa tried to convince him to use it on her. We'll probably find out during Sunday night's flashback segment. In the meantime, Judd didn't use the Veto, which left Elissa in jeopardy. No one had any reason to keep her, so she went out the door by a unanimous vote.
I wasn't the biggest fan of Elissa's game for most of this season. I don't think she had a good social game, and she didn't have the physical game to compensate for that. With that said, I hated that she went tonight. She made a game move this week by trying to ally with McCrandy. Her mistake there was assuming McCranda had Andy's loyalty. That leaves GinaMarie as the lone female in the house, and the Exterminators in the majority. As effective as they are, I'm not a fan of this alliance. Individually, my opinion of the players varies, but as a unit, this group as the final four doesn't do it for me, and it's looking like that's what we're going to see, unless the alliance fractures this week or McCrae wins the Veto.
Elissa went out the door to cheers, and told Julie she thought McCrae voted to evict Amanda, which just goes to show us just how well Andy's doing at keeping his sneakiness under wraps. At this point, Andy may be playing the best game, as he's involved in just about everything. But the betrayals could burn him in the end, assuming he gets to the end.
