Big Brother Season 26 - Episode 26 - Power of Veto

[Fuskie]

Previously, on Big Brother, the House reacted to Joseph as the last Houseguest evicted before the jury phase. Those who voted to evict Kimo (Angela, Cam, and Leah) found themselves outnumbered by the four who voted to evict Joseph (Chelsie, Makensy, Rubina, and T’kor). 

Later in the Backyard, Chelsie won the "Before or After" HoH competition, marking her second victory of the summer. Her target this week was Angela, but she also put Kimo on the block as a pawn.

Chelsie explained her reasoning for targeting Angela: she saw Angela as playing in the middle of two sides of the House. Removing Angela would leave Chelsie in good standing with everyone. Chelsie identified a trio of Kimo, T’kor, and Rubina on the other side, which explained Kimo's placement on the block, though it didn’t fully explain why she didn’t target the trio entirely. 

After the nomination ceremony, Kimo accepted his role as a pawn but acknowledged the potential danger of voters seeing this as an opportunity to break up the trio.

After talking with Angela, Makensy reported to the HoH room, where Cam, Chelsie, and Quinn discussed the fear that Leah might win the Veto and take Angela down again. Chelsie’s perspective caused Quinn to suspect she might consider Leah as a replacement nominee. When Quinn relayed this to Leah, she reassured him that she wouldn’t use the Veto on Angela, explaining that she only saved Angela last week to secure her Jury vote.

Makensy and Quinn discussed their desire to play for the Veto, believing that Angela might be a player they should keep. They toyed with the idea of removing her from the block, forcing Chelsie to nominate someone else. Later, Makensy candidly portrayed this strategy with Chelsie as Quinn's idea. Chelsie was surprised but acknowledged that removing Kimo was also a valid move, as both Kimo and Angela needed to go eventually.

It was time to select players for the Veto competition. Chelsie, Kimo, and Angela picked Quinn, Makensy, and Rubina, respectively. These six would compete in the iconic “OTEV” competition for the chance to win Veto. The backyard had been turned into a swamp pit of foam with trash tiles of the names of evicted Houseguests buried. 

The "OTEV" competition unfolded with players taking orders from a trash-talking panda (easily confused with a similarly trash talking raccoon from the MCU) who asked them to bring back names of evicted Houseguests in response to certain riddles. The last Houseguest to bring back the correct answer, or any Houseguest bringing back an incorrect answer, would be eliminated.

The first riddle: I need trash from the evicted Houseguest who did not get to play in the "New Rule" HoH comp.

Angela was the first to return with Tucker’s name, reasoning that Tucker and Makensy were not selected to be on one of the 3 teams the Houseguests formed in that first HoH competition and therefore did not compete. Since Makensy was still in the House, the answer had to be Tucker. Angela impressively walked right up the water-soaked ramp and watch the rest of the round play out.

Angela was followed by Makensy, Rubina, and Quinn. After Chelsie and Kimo struggled to find the right chip, Kimo eventually found Tucker’s chip and raced up the ramp faster than Chelsie. 

As the last player with an answer, Chelsie was eliminated, but confident that none of the other Houseguests would use the Veto on Angela. However, the trash-talking panda revealed that Cedric, not Tucker was the right answer and that everyone but Makensy, having returned with the correct name, had been eliminated.

Makensy became the first Houseguest to win an OTEV PoV competition in the first round.

Since Cedric and Chelsie had been Downgraded by AINSLI on Premier Night, neither had been able to compete in the first HoH competition, meaning they were not eligible to not be picked in the round one social competition to play in the round two skill competition. And since Chelsie was still in the game, that meant Cedric was the correct answer!

Got it?

The Houseguests realized they had been idiots and "dumb-asses" and complimented Makensy for being the only one who got the riddle right. But in the hot California heat, they had fun playing in the water.

Angela couldn’t sleep the night after the Veto competition and noticed Houseguests were missing from the bedrooms. She tiptoed around the House and heard talking from the backyard. She opened the sliding door and the backyard went quiet. To her, that meant Quinn, T’kor, Rubina, Leah, and Kimo may have formed a new alliance. She reported her suspicions to Chelsie the next morning.

Chelsie, though aware of Angela’s tendency to misinterpret things, considered that there could be some truth to her concerns. She and Makensy discussed Quinn’s potential for flipping alliances and considered the possibility of making a bold move and putting up a bigger target than Angela. 

At first, they talked about using the Veto to save Kimo, but then settled on Angela because they did not want Kimo to have an eviction vote. Though they talked about naming Leah as the replacement nominee, they swung to Quinn as their best option.

On the morning of the Veto meeting, Makensy hinted to Quinn in the Wash Area that she planned to use the Veto on Angela, reassuring him that Angela wasn’t a threat. She informed him that both he and Leah were considered as replacement nominees and urged him to talk to Chelsie.

Makensy's goal was to try and blame the backdoor on Chelsie so she could take the heat off herself when Quinn went to the Jury House.

Quinn rushed to Chelsie’s HoH room to understand why he was being considered as a nominee. Even if it meant putting Leah in danger, he needed to protect his game. He assured Chelsie of his loyalty to their group and promised not to flip. 

When Makensy joined their conversation, Quinn tried to convince them to leave Angela on the block and take down Kimo instead. Makensy and Chelsie made a last-minute decision regarding the Veto and Quinn's potential renomination.

However, the decision to use or not use the Veto was left to be revealed on Thursday’s live eviction episode. Plus, a new twist from AINSLI will be revealed!