Warning! The following contains spoilers for the Big Brother episode that aired on Thursday, July 14. Read at your own risk!
Big Brother Season 24 got off to a rocky start, and just when it seemed like there were enough problems regarding the Houseguests' treatment of played Taylor Hale, another issue sprang up. The live feeds went dark on Wednesday night amidst rumors that Paloma Aguilar left the game, and they were still down leading up to the live eviction. The episode opened, and Julie Chen Moonves confirmed the rumors were true. She also announced an effective reset to the game, which gives the show a real chance to do right by Taylor.
Paloma exited the game officially due to "personal reasons," and Big Brother showed clips highlighting that she suffered from a lack of sleep (but no mention of the alleged attempts to bribe others in the game). Her exit officially killed the production crew's plans for the Backstage Pass twist, so it seemed the easiest option left was to effectively cancel Taylor's probable eviction and restart the game as best they could. The only real caveat was that original HOH Daniel Durston couldn't compete for the Week 2 Head of Household, which put him at a slight but unavoidable disadvantage (Check out our full rundown of Week 1 here).
Daniel's ineligibility creates a power vacuum that might effectively flip the house on its head. While it could be very easy for the incoming Head of Household to simply renominate Taylor and Terrance Higgins for eviction in the name of fairness, I don't think that's happening. That's thanks in large part to Taylor holding her head up and making real connections with others all the way up to the night of her fated eviction. In that regard, we can thank the Backstage Pass for convincing Taylor that she'd still have a shot at staying even when facing certain eviction.
Paloma's unexpected exit is unfortunate, but as one of the biggest aggressors in the effort to remove Taylor from the game, it's possible that Taylor moves forward with the chance she never originally got at Big Brother Season 24's start. In fact, I'd almost think there are more than a few people incentivized to work with her now that they've gotten a sense of who people wanted to be nominated and what others' plans were going forward.
Taylor already has a friend in Brittany Hoopes, though admittedly, Taylor was kind of advocating for Brittany to replace her on the block the past week, so we'll see if that relationship stays sunny. Veto winner Michael Bruner seems like a potential ally, as he was someone who openly voiced his concern the initial rumors spread about Taylor weren't true. Nicole Layog also echoed that sentiment in her Diary Room sessions, so I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see them working together in the future.
Also, let's not forget that Paloma's exit puts the women officially at a numbers disadvantage versus the men. It's possible the "Girls Girls" alliance will attempt to pull in Taylor and Nicole (who were originally excluded intentionally) for a chance to ensure they don't lose another woman this week.
Who knows what will happen, ultimately? It's hard to deny that things are looking infinitely better for Taylor than they were just a day before. At least, if nothing else, she'll get a fair chance to play Big Brother and either win or leave the game on terms that feel fairer than they originally were. Unprecedented things like this don't happen often, so Paramount+ subscribers will want to keep an eye on those feeds for what's next.
Big Brother airs on CBS on Sundays and Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET and Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. ET. The game was just shaken up in a major way, so it'll be really interesting to see how all this impacts the rest of the season going forward.
