Warning! The following contains spoilers from the Big Brother Season 26 live feeds as of Friday, August 16. Stream the feeds with a Paramount+ subscription or on Pluto TV, and read at your own risk!
I'm 2-2 on predicting who will likely get evicted after Week 4's surprise blindside of Cedric Hodges in Big Brother Season 26, and I couldn't be happier about it. This has been a wild season thanks to the added element of the A.I. Arena, and suddenly, the Pentagon alliance is on life support thanks to a big move by T'Kor Clottey and Kimo Apaka. Suffice it to say, the house was tense leading up to the Week 5 Head of Household competition, which meant it was the perfect time for the famous wall challenge.
Those streaming Big Brother's live feeds as they continue to air on the 2024 TV schedule got to watch the competition unfold in real-time, and it seemed like everyone considered this one a must-win competition. Of course, only one could win, and CinemaBlend was watching to report on all the details and the surprising target this week, which I think is an incredibly smart play by the HOH.
Tucker Won The Week 5 HOH
In what feels like a scripted outcome at this point, Tucker Des Lauriers has once again come through with a clutch win just when it was most needed. What's more, he won out in the famous wall competition, and of course, it ultimately came down to him and his rival Quinn Martin at the very end.
The feeds cut for the final minutes, so we didn't hear what all went down. However, Tucker mentioned on the feeds later that night that he offered Quinn a deal that the latter rejected not long before falling. We'll have to wait until Sunday's Big Brother episode to learn what was said in that conversation.
Tucker Is Pretending To Target Quinn, But Brooklyn Is His Real Target
Tucker is one of my top picks to win Big Brother Season 26, but I recognize he has about the toughest road ahead out of any Houseguest at this point. Those who want to win the game typically don't try to start winning out competitions beginning in Week 2, but Tucker has found a saving grace with this Week 5 victory. He's taking over in the midst of trying to shift the power dynamic of the house, and his allies more or less need him to continue winning if they don't want to be picked off by the Pentagon alliance.
What's better is that Tucker is smartening up and using the action the Pentagon believes he'll make as a smokescreen to make a better move I agree he should be making. Tucker told his allies that his ultimate goal is to nominate Quinn, Cam Sullivan-Brown, and Brooklyn Rivera. He'll proceed as though Quinn is his target, but when the veto is won, he intends to do the unthinkable and take him off the block and nominate Week 2 Head of Household Chelsie Baham.
His real goal, though, is to send Brooklyn home. He considers her the brains of the Pentagon operation, and he thinks taking her out will cause enough disruption to make picking off the rest of the alliance easy. I agree with this strategy, and I think with Brooklyn gone, we'll see the remaining members of the alliance scatter and try to form side deals elsewhere to ensure their safety.
It's a great move for Tucker, who is not only taking out a target who wants him out of the game but giving his current allies ample reason to keep him around longer. If he plays it right, this will likely ensure him enough security to make it at least a couple more weeks and well into the jury phase.
By that point, winning every competition becomes a lot more viable, though he'll still need some luck to make it to the Final 2. The problem with this strategy is that as soon as you lose in the late game, you're gone. However, I think we can consider him safe for a few weeks, assuming this week goes well for him.
We're in for another exciting week, so be sure to catch Big Brother on CBS on Sunday at 9:00 p.m. ET and on Wednesday and Thursday at 8:00 p.m. ET. I'd love to say I know how this week is going to play out, but out of every season we've seen in recent memory, this is one where the motto "expect the unexpected" is really accurate.
