Big Brother 24: A Weekly Big Brother Season Retrospective

[00:00:14] Hello everyone and welcome back to the Big Brother Retrospective Podcast. We are here this week to talk about Season 24. We're really, really getting up there. Only a couple left here. I'm your host, Taran Armstrong. With me to talk about Big Brother 24 is Mari. How you doing Mari?

[00:00:40] I am so excited. It's been literal months since the last time we talked, which is fine when I came on for BB2. And now I get to talk about what I realized was objectively my favorite Big Brother season and my favorite Big Brother winner. I did the math and I was like, it's just this is it. Like it this is this season and Taylor Hale as the winner. It just works.

[00:01:10] That's it. Well, unfortunately, I do not have the poster from last season ready to go quite yet. We'll see if we end up getting it later in the podcast. Otherwise, we can show it next week. But we will be talking about who from Season 24 will be on the Season 24 poster with one pretty obvious spot.

[00:01:39] And we're going to jump right in to Season 24. One year after Season 23. The cookout claims its victory. Xavier is the reigning champ. We head into Season 24. And right away, things got a little messy.

[00:02:03] But I think there's some context we have to sort of add to that, right? Because in the preseason, there were some rumors being thrown around. Mm-hmm. That, hey, here are some of the people that might be on the cast. There is a person on the cast that is a pageant girl. Yep.

[00:02:23] That is a rumor being thrown around in the preseason. People on the cast, like the rumors from Season 23, when Frenchie thought that I was going to be on it, they were hearing these rumors. Mm-hmm. And sort of preparing accordingly. Many of them came in with these preconceived notions about a theoretical pageant girl.

[00:02:51] And then, of course, they ended up seeing Taylor Hale and going, oh, she's the pageant girl. And that contributed, I would say, to some of the initial happenings here on Big Brother 24. Mm-hmm. Here's our cast. Mm-hmm.

[00:03:11] Can I just say, I know you guys probably commented on it, but from Big Brother 22 onward, until unfortunately last year when they stopped. But having the first night of feeds, the very second they walk in, the feeds being turned on, basically, was so pivotal to this season.

[00:03:37] It cannot be understated. Like, we've said it on so many podcasts during that season. We've probably said it on so many podcasts after that season. But being able to see specifically Taylor's journey, because this season is the way it is, is because it is her journey. Like, I'm going to try and focus on other people, but honestly, let's be real, it's Taylor season.

[00:03:58] But I remember literally sitting up that night, watching those feeds all night, and just being like, yeah, oh my God, yes, go Taylor, go girl. Oh, look at everybody. They're so fun. Everybody's talking. And then being like, oh no, wait, why do y'all, oh no, they hate her. Whoa, what's happening? Like, it was nuts bananas.

[00:04:23] Like, to see that unfold live, and the whole rumors of the pageant girl, and the making fun of her wave, like, immediately, I was shook. Like, having those initial feeds really set the tone for the season. And if we did not have them, when we would have come in, what, a week and a half in, Taryn, we would have been very confused.

[00:04:50] I mean, yeah, it cannot be overstated how important it was that we saw all of this. Because by the time the feeds usually kick in, people were already so anti-Taylor, and talking all kinds of nonsense about her. And the kinds of, like, crimes that she committed in their minds.

[00:05:15] You know, it would have been the case of, like, well, apparently, she called Jasmine fat. And apparently, she didn't. And apparently, she, like, you know, like, threw pineapple. Threw pineapples are full of. You know, like, those things would have existed with no way to verify that they either happened or didn't happen. But with everyone in the house all kind of collectively agreeing that they probably happened.

[00:05:43] The consensus, we've seen this years and years and years over the course of the season, the show's existence. People are just going to believe it. People are just going to be like, well, she must have done something to get them all so riled up. And here's the evidence that they have. Oh, it didn't make the show? Well, it still must have happened, right? Mm-hmm.

[00:06:05] And so, getting to see from night one all of these things and exactly what the people are referencing and knowing that each and every one of their claims is just completely wild nonsense was, I think, so important to not only show the proper story of this season, but to also, I think, like, show just how easily information can be manipulated

[00:06:30] and, like, how easily somebody is able to be piled on and how many times in the past that I think we've likely seen stuff like this happen where we come in and somebody is a house pariah and you're like, wow, this person's just really terrible at the game, huh? And, you know, maybe not. You know, maybe sometimes this just happens. And there's very little that you can do about it.

[00:06:56] And so, it was very, very depressing, but also fascinating and interesting and, I think, important to see all of this happen from the very beginning. Yes. So, this is our cast of Big Brother 24. Taylor was a top candidate for a lot of people coming in. They really liked what they saw in the preseason from her, which is, I would say, relatively unique in that she was a recruit.

[00:07:26] Mm-hmm. And, of course, we learned after the fact that despite being a recruit, she did do her homework, including watching some previous seasons, listening to podcasts. Oh, yes. Deep dive. Yep. Yep. Some deep dives. And so, she kind of, like, knew what she was doing coming in. And people were excited to see her play.

[00:07:53] We had Kyle there on the back left, who, can I just say, way more jacked than I remember in this photo. Oh, my God. Yeah. Yeah. Before they start eating, just eating in the house, you know? Maybe. Everybody's always so ripped. And then, I don't blame them. I'm just saying, that would be me. Yeah. By week seven. He's got some triceps popping there.

[00:08:19] But he was a big TikToker coming in. People were like, oh, I know this guy from TikTok. We had Daniel, the Elvis impersonator. We had Booch, who was just begging to be the next Brent Champagne. All right. Well, speaking of pictures, I did just get the season 23 poster. Okay.

[00:08:45] So, Mari, I'd like for you to guess, who do you think were the top three people that made it onto the poster for Big Brother 23, according to the RGP audience? Okay. Top three. All right. If it's not the whole cookout, I'm going to be mad at the RGP audience. But I'm pretty sure it would be Tiffany, Xavier, and Derek X. You nailed it. Because I do. That's what I do.

[00:09:14] And I know this audience way too well. I think Claire had a respectable number of votes in there as well, but was beat out by Derek. And then Kylan and Hannah also both had respectable showings. Yeah, of course. That season, honestly, again, season 23 is also one of my favorite seasons, of course.

[00:09:42] And the amount of characters in BB23 is understated. Like, such a good cast. Well, back to season 24. Of course, there are a couple of twists this season. The first of which is the backstage boss twist, which is completely derailed by Paloma.

[00:10:07] It's only relevance now is as a sort of counterpoint to an argument against Taylor in that you might say that she could have been the first person voted out if not for Paloma's exit. However, the counter argument is she was actually not going to be the first person eliminated from the game based on the twist, based on what we know from the twist. So you might still say that if not for a twist, Taylor might have been the first person out.

[00:10:36] But, you know, it just gets a little messy and complicated. But the thing to know about the backstage boss is that despite having very little relevance, basically the idea was, I think, theoretically, that one of the people that were selected to be backstage would have to compete against the person who was evicted in week or voted out in week one. To stay in the game.

[00:11:04] And if they were beat out by the person that was voted out, then they would have been out instead. And they likely would have competed in the portion of the HOH competition that we saw the players compete in that Taylor did very, very well in. And so we have reason to believe that she would have crushed basically anybody that she faced, including, but not limited to, Alyssa, Brittany, or Loma.

[00:11:31] And Loma and Alyssa were the two remaining people at that point. The backstage boss was basically AI Arena if AI Arena took place after the vote. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I just love when Big Brother twists blow up in their faces. And it truly was phenomenal to see that happen. All right.

[00:11:58] Well, let's talk about a couple of the key characters here for week one. The first of which is the week one HOH, Daniel Durston, who became the first HOH and immediately set his sights on Michael, who I'm sure we'll talk plenty about as the season continues.

[00:12:22] He saw Michael as a threat because Michael was not one of like the big guys. Who he saw he wasn't going to team up with. A big guy. Very Frenchy of Daniel. Yeah. And was like a big fan of the show and he didn't click with Michael. So he's looking to target Michael. He nominates Michael and Terrence. However, Michael wins the veto.

[00:12:49] And this causes a plan to be put in place to backdoor Taylor. We'll get more into that later. Later, it's important just to know about Daniel that he links up with with Nicole. They call themselves the rogue rats. He's a fan of the show himself. And but he is otherwise not doing a very good job as the first HOH.

[00:13:14] He is not included in the big majority alliances that are being formed and and and is basically just doing the bidding of the house by the end of the week. Despite actually at first being somebody that likes Taylor and was kind of like, I don't agree with the the sentiment around Taylor. All right. So we talked about Daniel. The other major person to talk about this week is Paloma, who.

[00:13:43] Is really like the person calling the shots in the first week is really like just the center of everything. She is at the center of the majority alliance that does get built after she leaves. The alliance is literally named after her.

[00:14:01] She becomes the central figure in villainizing Taylor, the person that a lot of future Taylor abuse is done in the name of and and is really just like running the strategy. Daniel is obsessed with her as the first HOH and she's able to basically control his HOH via that. And there's just there's a lot going on with Paloma. Of course, by the end of the week, she ends up leaving the game.

[00:14:31] It being overwhelming for her. She eventually released a statement, which I'll I'll pull up and we can we can read some of it. But Paloma, quite, quite the the character here. I will give her one thing in the week, half a week, week and a half, almost almost a full week that she was there. She definitely like ran that house.

[00:15:01] She was definitely a rabid gamer squirrel. Just in everybody's here. She had the girls alliance. She had the majority alliance. What do they call themselves? Mamba. But then they had to change. They were originally Mamba. Then they had to change the name. They reformatted the alliance and they eventually called it Pose Pack. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

[00:15:20] And so she I think you even said in one of your in one of the updates that she basically to herself was like she had the game one in like the first week. And, you know, she had we're all going to get down to the end. We're going to get these people out. We're going to get to the end. And then I think she was going to say, I'll share the money with you. Like seeing her just throughout the week, just get more like frantic was very like interesting.

[00:15:50] It really was to the point where then the feeds go down and then we're hearing all these rumors about she was pulled. And it was just it was interesting to say the least. I honestly hated the crusade that she formed against Taylor while also then trying to be nice to Taylor's face, you know, and like, I don't know why these people are upset with you, Taylor. Like she didn't do it.

[00:16:14] But she definitely I felt like kicked the season into high gear from the jump. And it needed that, you know. Yes. So basically from night one, Taylor was a problem for Paloma. She did not like Taylor.

[00:16:39] She had an interaction with Taylor where she like dropped some pineapple and Taylor went, oh, no, not the pineapple. Yeah. She was like, how dare you? How dare you call out my pineapple dropping and and came in with this preconceived notion of the pageant girl and the waving. She's going to have conversations night one about Taylor being a pageant girl, not being a girl's girl, being a guy's girl.

[00:17:09] And basically by day two, they have already created the girls, girls, a girls girl alliance that is an alliance of women built specifically to exclude a woman. Yeah, because that makes all the sense in the world. This is the reason why we no longer as BB fans want to hear the term girls girl.

[00:17:36] Like I could not I was like sitting up like you've got to be kidding me, like the first all girl alliance. And it's everybody it's every girl in the house except for Taylor, except for one girl. I was I was upset. I was upset. So I so already the this girls girls alliance was basically built to exclude Taylor.

[00:18:01] It also did not have, I believe, Nicole in this. It's part of it, although controversially. So Nicole, who I think was kind of busy with with Daniel. But Taylor is the person that they were like deliberately trying to exclude. Also remember, Nicole and Daniel, not really part of this initial Taylor. Hey, we're initially some of her defenders, at least at first.

[00:18:31] And so the the girls girls alliance is already trying to sort of throw Taylor under the bus as an early target, as somebody that could take the heat for them. They felt like she was hanging out with the guys and was doing stuff with the guys and was going to be a guy's girl.

[00:18:52] And over time, this preconceived perception of Taylor led to more things being assumed of her. As I already mentioned, we don't need to get into like the play by play laundry list of Taylor's crimes. But, you know, including but not limited to the Jasmine comment, the finale dress situation where she was prompted to wear her finale dress.

[00:19:20] And then after wearing the finale dress, people were like, how could she do that? What arrogance? The pool table with the bikini incident where she was, again, prompted to to take a certain kind of shot. She did it once. It's edited to show like 15 times. And I and the shower incident, Paloma in the shower, making the funny faces. Yep. Yeah.

[00:19:48] It basically every little like the smallest thing, the smallest thing, every little thing scrutinized and interpreted in the worst possible way. The Jasmine comment was Taylor talking about how, you know, the the the idiocy, the the the bad parts of the modeling industry being so weight focused and size focused, which was then, you know, cruelly interpreted to to imply that she was saying something about Jasmine's weight.

[00:20:18] And and and eventually this leads to like the biggest blow up of the week, which was actually before we even get there. Another person this week who theoretically had some influence, but really not that much.

[00:20:36] Pooch is going to also be looking to target Taylor this week, talking about how he feels like a backdoor would be a good option because she would then not have much time to blow up on them. And and yeah. And so he's already making that case. Everyone's talking about Taylor. And then Taylor has a conversation with another main character season Monty.

[00:21:07] Monty is up in the have not room with some of the guys and they have kind of talked about working together. But but by now, Monty's actually been pulled into this Mamba Alliance. So the girls girls thing is happening, but they don't really trust Britney. And there's all kinds of like stuff happening there. It's not really a real alliance. It was basically just created to shit on Taylor.

[00:21:30] Uh, and, um, the real alliance, the one that they actually want to do, uh, includes some guys for muscle. Um, and those guys became Monty, uh, and, um, and, and very funnily Michael, uh, which, which was hilarious. Uh, and Kyle, uh, Michael of course was invited to this alliance was like, hell no, but I guess I'll say yes.

[00:21:55] Uh, and, um, and so the Mamba Alliance, uh, initially here consists of, um, of Paloma and Alyssa as sort of like the two core. They were tight. Um, then Amira as the third from the girls girls alliance, they kind of pull away from the girls girls alliance and focus on finding some guys to work with. They want three girls, three guys. Um, and so, uh, they pull in Kyle, Michael and Monty as their three picks.

[00:22:23] Uh, I think at that point, Michael had won the veto. No, he actually hadn't won the veto by that point. Oh, right. He, he didn't know he was about to be on the block or something. He wasn't even on the block yet. Yeah. Um, and so, uh, so he gets nominated and then the alliance is like, don't worry, we got you. Uh, and, um, which again, just goes to show just how out of touch Daniel was as the first. HOH that he accidentally ends up nominating Michael, who was just invited into the majority lines instead of him.

[00:22:51] He should have been invited as the first HOH and as somebody who was close to Paloma, but, uh, she, uh, kind of already had him on the hook and didn't need to include him in any alliances. So this alliance now, right now called Mamba, uh, is kind of running the show.

[00:23:08] Um, and, um, and on the other side, you have, uh, pooch and, uh, and his, uh, Oasis Alliance, which is a guy's alliance, um, is, is trying to get Taylor nominated on the other side of the house. And then through all of that, Taylor has a conversation with Monty and, uh, and she's been talking to the women because turns out Taylor actually wants to work with the women. She really wanted to have like a women's alliance.

[00:23:36] Um, they believe, they believe that she is intentionally trying to trap them. Like she's like an undercover cop, uh, to like, be like, Hey, Hey, you want a women's alliance? So that she, when they say yes, would run to the guys and rat them out. Um, so, uh, that's of course not happening, but what's, what's, what ends up happening is that they're all turning her down. They're all shutting her out.

[00:24:04] Um, and so she's like, well, I'm trying to talk game. She talks to Monty. She says, Hey, I've heard some rumblings that like people are concerned about the have not group. Like just to give you a heads up. I don't think it's a big deal. She's trying to like give him warning, like, Hey, you know, just make it seem like it's not a thing. She's just trying to get an in with, um, Monty. She's trying to tell him to smooth it over with the girls. Yeah.

[00:24:32] Monty interprets this as, uh, like, Oh, the women are saying this. Paloma is saying this. Like I'm in an alliance with Paloma. So either this is a lie or, uh, Paloma's, uh, you know, uh, double deal. And so he goes to Paloma. He's like, Hey, you know, I've heard. And Paloma was saying that for the record. These were things that were being said. Um, but he goes to Paloma. Paloma, of course, denies. She says, Taylor's making this up.

[00:24:59] Um, and cries and villainizes it. Like, I can't believe she would do this. I knew she would do. I knew she wasn't a girl's girl. I knew she was trying to trap us. I can't believe she ratted us out. Um, and of course this is not Taylor's intention in any real way. Uh, she's been shut out. She's just trying to have any conversation with Monty. She has no loyalty to anybody at this point. Um, but, uh, but now there is like an actual concrete reason to hate Taylor in the game.

[00:25:27] Um, and, uh, and, and Paloma is gathering all of this sympathy and they're all railing against Taylor. And, uh, the same night she ends up, uh, crying alone in the bathroom just because she can feel it in the air. Yeah. Yeah. As soon as she walks into a room, people either get silent or leave. Um, you could tell it's very isolating for her. Like people just scatter like roaches whenever she, she moves anywhere.

[00:25:55] And, um, it was very sad to see. And I remember again, that first week, everybody is like, everybody was going back and forth between we want Taylor to stay. And, and like, you know, she deserves to stay in there to, oh my God, get her out of the house because they are treating her so horrendously. You know, I re I remember that being the response online. Um, it was just, it was a tough watch. It was, it was tough.

[00:26:25] Uh, and of course it culminates with the veto, uh, ceremony where Daniel does in fact, at this point, agree to the house's desire, uh, and to, protect Paloma, uh, he is going to nominate Taylor, uh, saying that she has rubbed people the wrong way. Uh, she's upset by this. She's, uh, very sort of reflective and, um, it does not respond in the way that many people anticipated in the house.

[00:26:53] Uh, because she basically is like asking people like, Hey, I hate that I've rubbed people the wrong way. I'd love to know what I, what I did wrong and what I can do to fix it. Um, and so on and so forth. She kind of, I think relatively quickly discovers nothing. You really got nothing wrong. There's nothing that anybody can point to. Cause every time she talks to somebody, they're like, well, it's not, it's not me that had a problem with you, but it's just, it's just other people.

[00:27:22] Uh, said some things, a couple of the examples get brought up and she's able to quickly dispel them like the, uh, like the Jasmine thing. Um, and, uh, and so, um, you know, she, at that point kind of gets to advocating for herself, um, and, uh, and trying to, to make some, some progress in that way.

[00:27:45] Uh, is unfortunately not really able to get very far because, uh, as, uh, sort of as Pooch had planned, uh, there wasn't much time, uh, after the ceremony for her to do much. Um, however, in this time, Paloma has continued to spiral out of control.

[00:28:01] Um, and as you mentioned, Mari, she is, uh, like starting to have like these long monologues, uh, of sort of, um, strange gibberish kind of, uh, language. Um, she's starting to talk to people about, uh, sharing the prize money and eventually the feeds go out and, uh, they stay out until the eviction.

[00:28:27] Um, where, uh, we learned that Paloma has left the game afterwards. She says, uh, I left because of an ongoing mental health battle I faced, which began once inside the walls of an idealistic utopia of a reality set. Um, and, uh, FOMO consumed my every move. Uh, I would get two to four hours of sleep a night. No normal human could function off of, uh, I did not see the sun for five days. So I began to lose touch with reality. She said.

[00:28:56] Hmm. Yeah. It sounds like it. I mean, we saw it. It, yeah, it's, it, it, it, it's not for the weak, you know, um, you know, big brother is just could be seen as fancy prison to be quite honest. They can't go nowhere. They get told when they can go outside, when they can't go outside. So, you know, it's not surprising that it can affect some people that way.

[00:29:53] Mm-hmm. Nobody to be saved from eviction in some capacity. Um, it's, it doesn't quite work logistically in terms of like somebody was still supposed to leave. But, uh, again, because of this twist, uh, perhaps, or just because it is the way that schedule panned out. Um, Taylor is not voted out. The eviction is canceled. Paloma counts as the first person evicted.

[00:30:19] And, uh, we jump straight into the following HOH competition. Yeah. Yeah. Um, which is a good call. And I honestly, I think this should be the call like going forward. Um, it's not, but like if somebody, if somebody goes home in that first week, you know, what is the harm in just canceling the eviction instead of, you know, having what a zombie week in the middle of a season?

[00:30:47] And it's, I mean, I think you should just, you should, you should just cancel the eviction because big brother is on a tight schedule. Um, you know, so, so don't give that other person a chance, you know? Yeah. So now, yeah. Yes.

[00:31:06] Notably, Paloma's exit, uh, is, you might think like, oh, well, with Paloma gone, maybe that gives Taylor a chance to like reintegrate with a Paloma on her neck constantly. Uh, however, the impact actually seemed to be the opposite. That, uh, Paloma's exit only kind of reinvigorated the hate that people had for Taylor.

[00:31:28] Uh, in particular, uh, that of, you know, somebody like Daniel who blamed Taylor for Paloma's mental health decline in the house. Uh, because Paloma had been crying about Taylor's abuse and then had to leave the show, uh, on his HOH. Uh, and he felt like Taylor was responsible for that. Uh, and, and just like fully held her accountable for it for the rest of their time in the house. And, uh, potentially to this day, uh, as far as I'm aware.

[00:31:59] Daniel is such a little follower. He's one of those kids that on the, on the playground, he's one of those kids that he sees all the other kids playing with something. And he didn't realize that that was a thing or, or other kids saying this thing is popular. And then he goes home and he, he gets all excited into the thing just to come back to the school. Be like, look, I'm the biggest fan of whatever this was. Look, let me prove it to you. Like I'm, I'm hip. I'm cool. I'm with you guys. Like, get out of here. Daniel. Ugh. Ugh.

[00:32:29] Yes. Well, uh, it is during this week to HOH that, uh, Jasmine ends up, uh, it was, it was, she sprained her ankle. Yes. She completely sprained her ankle in the first part of the HOH comp. Right. And we all think, oh, well, she's out. Nope. They let her participate in the second and she wins.

[00:32:57] And for all of us Taylor fans, we were like, oh no. Jasmine was not a Taylor fan. Uh, and her initial instinct was in fact to target Taylor. Um, in fact, that was such a house consensus after her being saved from the, uh, eviction previously. And from, with many of them blaming her for Paloma's exit, that, uh, that people were falling over themselves to, to make this plan happen. Pooch.

[00:33:26] Uh, the aforementioned Pooch is volunteering to sit next to Taylor on the block. Uh, as if it's sort of a thing that everyone has to do at least once. He feels like this is a good opportunity to sit on the block because it's the safest time you're ever going to be able to do it. Um, I don't know where he came up with that thought process. It's terrible.

[00:33:50] Uh, but, uh, him volunteering for the block, uh, means that he will be nominated next to Taylor. But didn't he, he, he didn't even nominate, uh, he didn't even offer to be put on the block next to Taylor. He, he, he offered to be put on the block as a pawn to back door Taylor. Like, yeah, like he was, he thought he was going to be put. And I think he requested them to put Brittany up so that he could play in the veto because he thought that he was going to win the veto. He wanted to win the veto really badly.

[00:34:20] And so he thought he was going to be a pawn to back door Taylor. So when, when they were like, oh, we're just going to put Taylor up. He was like, that's not what I wanted. It was so funny. Yes. Now there are a couple of things happening here this week that lead to Pooch's pooching. Um, which is, uh, number one, the girls, girls Alliance is still technically a thing.

[00:34:48] Uh, but more importantly, uh, the Mamba Alliance, which originally consisted of, uh, as we mentioned, um, uh, uh, Paloma, Alyssa, Amira, Kyle, Michael, Monty has now been changed into pose pack. And Paloma has been replaced. And this happened while the feeds were down with Nicole, uh, of Daniel and Nicole.

[00:35:16] Nicole, of course, is going to fairly quickly expose this Alliance to Daniel. Um, but he doesn't really mind because he feels like he can just work with them. Um, so pose pack eventually at this point kind of becomes, uh, Alyssa, Amira, Kyle, Michael, Monty, Nicole, plus Daniel. Um, with Michael, they kind of have Brittany, but Michael's not actually that loyal.

[00:35:45] Um, and then with the women, Alyssa, Amira, uh, in particular, they do have their connection via the girls, girls Alliance to Indian Jasmine and Indian Jasmine are very much part of this power structure. This is a very dominant power structure at this point in the game. However, Alyssa and Amira in particular, uh, with in part, uh, Nicole, they are concerned still about this have not situation.

[00:36:14] The guys, Monty, Kyle, um, and like Joseph and Pooch, uh, they feel like, uh, and Turner, there's a guy's thing going on. Uh, and we know this is true. This Oasis was, uh, was a thing. Oasis has been exposed to the, uh, pose pack Alliance because Monty, um, and Kyle are more loyal to pose pack.

[00:36:41] And Monty, I believe it was Monty first, uh, like let them know, um, uh, or actually it might've been, uh, Kyle, uh, first. Um, but, but like the, the women of pose pack knew about Oasis. They knew Pooch was working with the guys and felt like, you know what? For as much as we hate Taylor and let, let us, we know we hate Taylor. We'll talk about it.

[00:37:07] We kind of have bigger targets, bigger threats because we should be weakening the guys right now with Pooch just sitting there ripe for eviction. We should take that shot. We can, the guys, Taylor thinks we want to work with her as women right now. So we'll keep her in that mindset. Uh, we'll deal with her later. Um, and so they start to look at Pooch.

[00:37:32] Um, this is frustrating for Monty and Kyle who kind of realized, well, wait a minute. Pooch is a number for us. Why are we getting rid of Pooch and not Taylor? Don't we all hate Taylor? Um, and so, uh, so they start to get annoyed and tensions rise within pose pack. Yes.

[00:37:53] And this is one of the parts where I was like, okay, at least they could put aside their hatred to actually play the game and make, you know, a smart move. I was like, okay, I'll give you all that. But also I think it was the addition of Nicole that really forms this riff because once Nicole is let into pose pack, she is like, she is like hammering it with like her and Amira, um, are really like, we got to get rid of Pooch. We got to do this.

[00:38:22] And, and it's that, that, that force that kind of drives, um, Kyle and Monty away. And very importantly, the reason they feel like Taylor's not a threat to them anymore is that Taylor has recognized that in order to make these women comfortable, she needs to basically spend all of her time with them. And so that's what she's been doing.

[00:38:42] She's been spending all of her time talking to the women, talking about working with the women, talking about targeting the men, talking specifically about targeting Monty, uh, for being the cause of her being targeted the previous week. Uh, for ratting her out when she had that conversation with him and the women believe her now, like she has done enough work to convince them that she is a number four women. And, you know, worst case scenario, she wins and targets Monty.

[00:39:11] That's not a problem for us. We're not Monty. Um, and so, uh, so that's why they feel comfortable. So now Monty and Kyle are like, what the hell you're keeping Taylor. And I know Taylor's coming for me, uh, because I've heard her say it, like she's been saying it to everyone. You've been telling me, she's saying, she's saying she wants to target me. And you also want to keep her in the same breath. Like what's happening here. Um, so Monty and Kyle start to fight back.

[00:39:39] Uh, and they want to flip this vote on Taylor. Taylor then also goes and talks to Monty and they have this great conversation. Uh, we do see some of it in the, uh, the episode, um, about like, uh, representation and colorism and how she, how and why she feels like she was, uh, unfairly judged.

[00:40:02] Um, and, uh, sort of importantly, Monty kind of interprets this conversation as like, uh, well, the reason you didn't open up was because of these reasons. And now you're opening up more and therefore I'm like able to sort of accept you a bit more. Most importantly, the, the, the, the bottom line is she kind of wins Monty over. Um, and he actually feels like, you know what? They think they're getting one over on us by keeping Taylor.

[00:40:32] But I actually think Taylor's kind of on my side. Uh, like this is actually not that bad. And Kyle starts talking to Taylor and he's like, I actually really like Taylor. Um, and so now him and Monty, they're getting along with Taylor. Taylor and Michael has always gotten along with Taylor. Uh, in fact, Michael tried to throw the veto to Taylor, uh, this week was unable to ends up winning, not using it. Um, but wanted to keep Taylor around if possible.

[00:41:02] So he's also in their ear vouching for Taylor. And, uh, and by the end of the week, the guys are now pro Taylor. The women are also pro Taylor. They all think that Taylor is somebody that they can pull to their side. And while still having the rift happen between the two sides, because every time Kyle talks to Taylor, he gets pulled aside by Amira or Alyssa. Like, what are you doing? Why are you talking to Taylor? What are you saying to Taylor? And he's like, why are they policing my every move?

[00:41:31] I'm just trying to talk to the girl. Um, and by the end of this week, Pooch is going to be blindsided. Taylor is safe. And the men of Pose Pack are looking to, to completely split with the rest of, uh, of the Alliance and start their own thing. There's all kinds of potential in the air. Uh, and it all kind of stems from Taylor.

[00:41:55] Um, and it was, it was really interesting stuff, uh, until another twist happened, which was the Festy Besty twist. Because why? Big Brother is like, yep, the cookout, what they did, let's do it again. Let's, let's do Festy Besty. And I, oh, oh, Taryn, you talked about it. You talked about it. Ugh. Yeah.

[00:42:21] So the Festy Besty twist saw each of the, uh, cast members, um, paired up into, uh, duos. And they got to choose who they paired up with, uh, very quickly. They recognized that if they are going to be nominated as duos and face eviction as duos, then a majority can basically force a cookout like structure.

[00:42:48] Where you not only will be nominated next to your person that will be voted out over you because you have the numbers. You can force the situation. You can literally make it impossible to sit on the block against anybody else. So people like Nicole are like, give me Taylor. Uh, I'll stay over Taylor for sure. Um, and people are choosing people outside of the post post pack structure.

[00:43:12] And the way that this gets set up temporarily convinces, uh, players like Michael, uh, or sorry, players like Kyle and Monty that we have a good thing going. Like we maybe put the brakes on the revolution because, uh, you know, not only do we have a good thing going, it'd be hard to flip at this point. Like it's, it's actually difficult to, to, to, to revolt against this structure.

[00:43:41] Um, and so they start feeling like maybe they don't want to, uh, to turn on the Alliance and everyone focuses in on Taylor once again, uh, as the default, like, uh, we can't really betray the, even the women are like, we're not going to take out any more guys because we can't really do that. The structure forces us to turn on like the most social pariah people in the game.

[00:44:05] And that of course means that Taylor is the number one target with Turner as the HOH. Um, and that is the initial idea. Turner is going to, uh, initially nominate, uh, Brittany and Michael as a duo, um, with the intention of backdooring, uh, Taylor via nominating her and Nicole. Yeah. Things are not looking good. But this got on my nerves so, so much because I was like, oh, okay. Turner wins.

[00:44:34] Turner Turner's best friend pooch just went out. Um, Taylor was next to pooch on the block. She obviously could not. Well, part of the problem was by the end of the week, because she had originally been saying she was targeting Monty when she has the conversation with Monty and he's like, well, who are you targeting? Then she goes Turner. Turner. Because she's on the block next to pooch and Turner's kind of alone. He's like the easiest person to say.

[00:45:04] So then by the time, then Turner wins HOH the following week. And they're like, well, guess who? Taylor said she was targeting Turner. Um, and so, you know, not that they needed that, but like, uh, it was. Oh, I was, I was like, can we not rest?

[00:45:25] Um, so with Turner's HOH and Taylor as the target, uh, things continued to get a little strange because, uh, as we said, Daniel has been aware of post pack. He kind of feels like he's part of it, but he's not.

[00:45:44] Um, and so eventually, uh, some of the sort of satellite members of the post pack structure come together to exclude Michael, Monty and Kyle. Um, and they, they basically replace Monty, Michael and Kyle with Daniel, Jasmine and Terrence. Um, and they do this, they call themselves old school because they're some of the older people in the house.

[00:46:10] Uh, and, um, it's, it's kind of a side Alliance. It's kind of like a new core structure. Um, but the weakness in this is that Alyssa is included and she wasn't even older. So she shouldn't have even been there in the first place. She was mad too, I believe. Alyssa ends up telling, uh, Kyle about this Alliance.

[00:46:39] And, uh, this is the, uh, the final straw. I'm, I'm going to desperately search for, uh, there she is. Oh, there we go. Desperately search. Uh, Kyle, this is kind of the final straw for, for Kyle and Monty. They talk about old school. Um, and they're like, turns out they are still going after us. We, we, we do have to, uh, escape this structure. And that means we have to, uh, create something new.

[00:47:06] So what they do is they go to Turner and they, uh, they still have a good relationship with Joseph who's been excluded from all the structures so far. Um, and they create a new, a revitalization of Oasis that they call the pound. Mm-hmm. Yep. Uh, and Joseph turns 26.

[00:47:35] Um, so the pound initially thinks, well, let's maybe take a strike at this previous structure that we were a part of. Um, and in order to do that, we might need more numbers. And so between Joseph and Kyle, they start brainstorming some ideas and, uh, they start including, well, of course they're going to pull in Michael. And with Michael comes Brittany and, uh, and then that makes it a six person alliance.

[00:48:03] The final person left to bring in, of course, is Taylor. Uh, why not pull in Taylor? She, they hate her. Um, now that part hasn't happened yet. This week is very eventful. Um, but the important thing to know is that, uh, the pound has formed at this point. Um, and so heading into the veto competition, uh, the rest of post pack is unaware that the

[00:48:28] plan has shifted, that, uh, that there might be a new target and Nicole and Taylor have been picked to play in the veto. Um, now, uh, this is important because Nicole is supposed to go up on the block next to Taylor. So if they win the veto together as a duo, they will be unable to be renominated. So Nicole feels like I'm going to have to throw this veto so that Taylor can't win it.

[00:48:55] Um, she goes into the diary room, comes out and is upset theoretically in part about having to throw this competition, maybe looking like the bad guy, uh, in the situation. She's going to sort of talk with, uh, with Daniel about it in the bedroom, uh, the back bedroom for, for quite a while. Um, and in this time it's been noticed that, uh, it was noticed that, that she looked quite upset coming out of the diary room.

[00:49:24] And, uh, she's been talking about, uh, her mom and, uh, how she's dealt with some illnesses. And so people are concerned. What if, what if she got bad news from home? Um, and Taylor's really, uh, concerned about this. She has no idea, uh, that Nicole wants to take her out. She's just genuinely concerned about the situation. She organizes a prayer circle for Nicole. Uh, like let's give her some space if she wants to, uh, to, you know, tell us what happened.

[00:49:53] She can do so. Um, and meanwhile, Nicole is in the bedroom being like, she sucks. I hate her so much. Um, and, uh, and so. Uh, so this is all happening. Then, uh, eventually like they, they start talking and, uh, it, it, they realized, oh, it was not, that was not the situation. But Taylor is still concerned. Like, oh, something might've happened. Taylor says to Nicole, like, Hey, like, I know we both want to win this veto, but if

[00:50:22] you need to like bow out of the competition, like, don't worry about it. Uh, like, I'm not going to hold it against you. I would love to win the veto, but like, you know, I want to put you first. Nicole interprets this again, interpretation so important in this season as, uh, as basically Taylor trying to bully her into quitting the game in the same way that she did to Paloma. Um, and, uh, and so this of course sets off Daniel.

[00:50:50] He goes to Taylor and he says, how dare you? Don't talk to me. Uh, quit it. And she goes with the legs. With the legs. She doesn't even realize he's being serious. First blow up. Uh, it's wild. And, and this is sort of the inciting incident for the pound to go, let's include some more people. Let's include Taylor. They hate her. She has no reason to work with them.

[00:51:18] Um, like we can really make something powerful here. And so after the veto, when Michael and Brittany, when, uh, Mike winning again, uh, they are able to get together. They finally are able to pull Taylor in. They give her a whole big speech about, uh, bringing old Taylor back. Um, and they form the leftovers. Yeah. The leftovers. Put your hands in. Woo.

[00:51:45] Like just, uh, an amazing week. Like a comedy of errors week. I truly remember the prayer circle in the living room. Cut to camera in the bedroom. Just that was ridiculous. Tara. And that, that is the, a level of misunderstanding that you would hate in a book, a TV show turned into a book. Like it was ridiculous. And Daniel showed his whole ass that week.

[00:52:14] I hate that man so much. I'm sorry. But like, that was so ridiculous. The, the two of them going off on her for no reason, just to basically earn cool points with the rest of the house was so disgusting to watch. And yeah, again, it's one of the reasons why this season, um, plays out so well. It's like, if we didn't get the results that we get, it just would not be a good season. Yes.

[00:52:44] So at the veto ceremony, the post pack Alliance are blindsided when Turner, uh, stands up to make a replacement nomination. And he talks about the mistreatment of Taylor in the house and how as the youngest person on the cast, it shouldn't be him that has to say anything about it, but here he is. And, uh, he will, instead of nominating Taylor and Nicole, he will be nominating Amira and Terrence.

[00:53:13] Um, and, uh, this is because Amira was seen as the strongest member of the post pack Alliance, the most sort of dominating personality, uh, in the group, which I think is a pretty fair, uh, sort of, uh, assumption here. Um, she really was the center of it all with her gone. They crumble. Um, so this was a good shot to take.

[00:53:37] Uh, it does ignore the issue of Nicole and Daniel, but, uh, obviously they didn't want to nominate Taylor with Nicole. Uh, and they just felt like Amira was a bigger threat, which, which she was Nicole, uh, Nicole did not have as many connections as Amira did. Yeah. Amira really was like when, when Paloma leaves, she is kind of the, the driving force that kind of, again, when I talked about the girls, girls move of like, like targeting Poot.

[00:54:03] She really was there to like, be like, yes, we don't like Taylor, but we need to like stay game focused. That is one thing about Amira's game that I did like in the three weeks that she was there. She was really, really good at being a strategic player and being able to make other people do her dirty work. And it was just, if it, I remember when she got nominated, I was like, yes, but also dang it. Cause I really liked watching her play.

[00:54:31] I really did like watching her play again. All of this is Taylor stuff aside. I did think she was the mastermind. So to lose her so early, um, you know, it's what propels the leftovers forward. Mm. So, uh, they're blindsided. It's a whole thing. Um, they're, they're all, they're like reeling. They're like, who's who bullied Taylor? It wasn't me. If anything, I was defending Taylor.

[00:55:02] Um, Indy takes the fall for it for a while. Um, but, uh, but the idea from the leftovers primarily is to deny, deny, deny, and pretend like everything is normal. And so pretty quickly the house gets back to hating Taylor. Uh, and yes.

[00:55:21] Um, and they end up evicting Amira, um, which leads to the week four HOH where Monty wins, uh, this HOH. And, uh, this is the start of the leftovers rain. Uh, but it is also the start of the tension that will eventually destroy the leftovers.

[00:55:46] Uh, because, um, Alyssa is on the other side of the house, but she has been, uh, getting closer and closer to Kyle. Um, which is that guy. Um, yeah. Kyle has been a huge driver of strategy, him and Monty, uh, with Kyle being sort of, uh, generally the more active one between the two of them so far.

[00:56:16] Um, he's the one that got the information from Alyssa. Him and Joseph helped spearhead the creation of the leftovers. Um, and, uh, and now he is in a situation where he has this big seven person alliance, but it does not include his new romantic partner in Alyssa. Um, and that is a problem because in the same, with the same thing that happened to post-pack, people are kind of looking to, uh, to take out, uh, Alyssa.

[00:56:46] Um, they're, uh, they're like, she's kind of an issue for us. She, you know, by taking her out, we eliminate the distraction from Kyle. Uh, you know, it, it just makes a lot of sense. Um, and also like she's, you know, with, uh, Indy. So it's like a good, easy nomination situation. Um, and so, uh, they would certainly love to take out somebody like Nicole or Daniel, but that would require nominating one of them.

[00:57:13] And, and, and, and with, in Nicole's case, it would require nominating Taylor again. And Taylor really would prefer not to be nominated again. So, um, so there's all this back and forth going on. Um, Daniel ends up winning the veto with Kyle. So Daniel is off the table. Uh, Alyssa and Indy are nominated initially by Monty. Um, and the plan is, okay, well, let's then backdoor Taylor.

[00:57:40] We'll convince, uh, Daniel via Kyle to use the veto on Alyssa and Indy thinking he's going to be able to, uh, to, to take out Taylor. But when then we'll blind send them at the vote and we'll vote out Nicole. However, there's some pushback to this. Taylor doesn't want to be nominated. Well, it doesn't want to be nominated. And there's an argument for Alyssa to leave instead. Um, and so the, the plan shifts.

[00:58:07] Taylor convinces them to go in a different direction in part. Uh, and they decide instead, let's not use the veto. We'll keep Alyssa and Indy on the block. We'll vote at Alyssa. Kyle doesn't like this. Kyle wants Alyssa to stay. And so at the last minute, Kyle goes rogue and tries to convince Daniel to use the veto, uh, against the wishes of the leftovers. Um, and Daniel is like, oh, I guess I should use the veto.

[00:58:36] We are going to do this plan. Daniel goes and talks to Monty. Monty says, don't use the veto. And Daniel says that just makes me want to use the veto even more. You're trying to protect Taylor. So inadvertently, Daniel is then convinced to use the veto with Kyle on Alyssa and Indy in order to nominate his only ally left in the game. Nicole alongside Taylor.

[00:59:04] Unbeknownst to him, he has just sealed Nicole's fates. Oh my God. Like you, you cannot make this up again. That whole back and forth. I think even Monty tells him at one point, like if Taylor and Nicole go up, you can't guarantee that Nicole will stay. And he doesn't believe it. He can't believe the world where the house votes to keep Taylor. Uh, it was amazing to watch that blow up in his face.

[00:59:34] That was great. Um, so of course they do in fact vote out Nicole over Taylor, uh, which, um, you know, Daniel is not super pleased about. Oh God. Just in the season already. And Michael wins the next HOH.

[01:00:01] Um, probably a good time to talk about Michael. As you've probably noted, he's won three of the first three vetoes. Uh, he skipped a week in terms of winning something, but then in the following week, this week, he wins HOH and veto again. Um, he's dominating competitions. This is frustrating for a player like Monty, who believes that he should be winning all of these competitions, uh, that are, you know, many of them are physical.

[01:00:29] Um, but, uh, but Michael is the one winning them. And, uh, this is probably the most egregious HOH win in terms of, or competition win in general for Michael that people will point to as like, you didn't really need this one. Did you Michael? Which competition? Uh, which competition? I don't remember which competition it was. Oh, okay. Okay. Um, but, but in terms of just like positioning, he was not in any danger, uh, and didn't really need.

[01:00:58] The power this week. Um, he's going to consider turning on Monty. Uh, Monty is going to consider turning on him. Uh, this is going to continue for about five more weeks or so. Um, but, uh, but basically the plan is fairly straightforward this week. Uh, they're going to take down Daniel. Um, and there's some back and forth about it.

[01:01:25] Uh, there are some other options available, including of course, Alyssa again, but, uh, but, you know, fairly straightforwardly this time. Uh, it's gotta be Daniel. He made a, he blew up massively after Nicole left. None of them feel like they can work with him. He's a threat to all of them. Uh, get him out of the cast before he goes to jury. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:01:47] And again, like you said, he didn't have to win the HOH, but at least he, when he does, there was a, basically a house consensus target in Daniel. So it didn't really feel like getting too much blood on his hands. Yes. So, uh, like I said, relatively straightforward, I think in the scheme of things. Um, and Daniel is going to leave a prejury, which is of course vital for Taylor's future success.

[01:02:14] Um, Taylor goes on to win the following HOH. Uh oh. This is where things get messy. Um, Taylor is going to nominate, uh, Indy and Terrence. I believe the, uh, the, uh, the, the duos, the bestie besties have ended. Um, so she is, is free to nominate whoever she wants her.

[01:02:43] All of her major ops are gone at this point. Uh, there are still people like Indy and Terrence and Jasmine who, uh, certainly had bad feelings for her. Uh, there is a little bit of an issue with Alyssa because, uh, at least from Kyle's perspective, he feels like Alyssa doesn't like it when he talks to Taylor. And that means that Alyssa has an issue with Taylor and so on and so forth. Um, but it never really manifests itself too badly. Uh, however, she is looking to potentially take Alyssa out.

[01:03:12] She feels like Alyssa is a problem. She's, she's heard from Kyle that Alyssa doesn't like it when he talks to her. Um, and so it just makes a lot of sense to, uh, to potentially backdoor Alyssa this week. Um, however, and she also did not enjoy the fact that Kyle went rogue and convinced Daniel to use the veto, forcing her on the block just a couple of weeks before. Exactly. So she would like this situation to be removed.

[01:03:40] If we're all left over strong, then you should be fine taking out Alyssa. And I'm not going to just let you continue to build your own power base outside of the Alliance, which is what he was doing. Um, however, he goes on to win the veto. And of course, with Kyle having won the veto, he can choose to not use it and prevent Alyssa from being nominated, saving her once again. This causes even more tension. He wasn't supposed to do that. He wasn't supposed to be saving Alyssa. Why won't you use the veto and let us take out Alyssa?

[01:04:10] I said, well, now that I've won the veto, I can't be the one that sends Alyssa home. That would be wild. I was like, well, then why did you win the veto? Um, and on top of that, there's some drama about the prizes given out, uh, in, in the thing. Uh, I think Alyssa took, uh, a prize from Taylor. Uh, Taylor ends up with the punishment.

[01:04:29] Um, and, uh, and, and Taylor, uh, I think feeling a little powerful, feeling a little like you dare take my prize when I, the HOH hold your fate in my hands. Uh, Not too much on my girl. Not too much.

[01:04:51] I mean, here's the thing about Taylor that I think like is, is so important to recognize that like Taylor in the game was forced into a situation where she had to play the way that she did. Right.

[01:05:05] She came into the game wanting to play like Daniel Reyes, wanting to play like Dan Gieselin, like coming in and being like a big strategic player who's making fun and entertaining moves and being power hungry and cutting throats. Um, and instead she was forced to go in a different direction. Um, and so when she finally actually feels safe for the first time in the game, she's like, she indulges.

[01:05:32] She's absolutely like diving into like, finally, I can kind of play the way I wanted to. And so, uh, yeah, I think the power gets to her head a bit here. Um, and there are quite a few wild ideas thrown around primarily from Joseph, uh, about like, why don't you nominate me? Um, and, uh, and, and all kinds of wild stuff.

[01:05:57] But the bottom line is that, uh, that Kyle is going to not use this veto to protect Alyssa. And the issue with that is that, uh, now the two sides feel very much at odds. Um, and, uh, you know, in middle are people like, uh, like Michael and Brittany who are trying to act like they are on both sides. Uh, the reality is that they are, uh, on more so on, uh, on Taylor's side.

[01:06:25] Um, but, uh, but Kyle feels like they're solid allies for him. Um, at this point, Kyle has started to feel like there is, uh, my side of the Alliance and there is a colorful side of the Alliance. Karen! Which is not really the case. No.

[01:06:51] Um, but, uh, because, because quite frankly, Monty has always felt closer to Kyle than he has with Taylor. Um, but Kyle lets his fears of there being another cookout like Alliance, uh, get in the way of his actual strategic play. Um, and, uh, and, and it causes him to not trust Monty when there are players like Taylor for Monty to work with essentially.

[01:07:20] Um, and instead Kyle goes to people like Michael and Brittany, uh, who he feels like are less likely to work with a player like Taylor. Um, and I think pretty obviously this is a decision informed by some biases that are not in, that are not giving him the correct conclusion. Because the reality is that Michael and Brittany have been working with Taylor since basically day one.

[01:07:47] Um, and Monty has been fairly anti-Taylor with some exceptions, uh, and eventually coming around on Taylor, but has been so much closer to Kyle since basically day one. Um, and so Kyle trying to like unnaturally divide the Alliance in the way that he is, um, causes a, a, quite a, a large backfire eventually. Um, but even without that backfire is not playing the game optimally.

[01:08:13] Um, so at this point he feels like I've got Michael and Brittany and Turner and, you know, they've got, you know, Taylor and Joseph and Monty and Indy and Jasmine, uh, potentially. Right. It's what he threw an Indy, Jasmine and Terrence. And that's when you're like, sir, sir, Taylor, Indy, Jasmine and Terrence. Have you been paying attention? Like, yeah, it comes back. It comes back on him.

[01:08:43] It very much does. Uh, so at this point in the game, Kyle is kind of prepping for a revolution again. Um, and this time it, it, again, it, like I said, it includes Turner, Michael and Brittany. He's been voicing some of these thoughts to Michael and Brittany who, uh, at this point are saying, we don't really think it's that way. We don't really see it that way. Um, but are otherwise not really commenting.

[01:09:07] They, I do believe, I think at one point warn him, like, I think the way that you're talking is not the way that you should be talking. Um, but they are very much trying to play both sides still. Uh, when they talk to Kyle, they're like, no, you should totally protect Alyssa. And when they talk to like Joseph and Taylor, they're like, I can't believe he's protecting Alyssa. Uh, and then when they are all in the same room together, they're very quiet. Um, which gets noticed, but what can you do about it? There's still another side.

[01:09:34] So, uh, you know, you kind of just have to hope that the silence, uh, eventually sides with you. Um, so, uh, so all of this is happening, uh, because Kyle doesn't use the veto, um, Indy becomes the first member of the jury sitting on the block next to Terrence, who is just such a non-threat that it's not really worth taking him out at this point. Has his picture even been on this? Have we flashed his picture at all yet? It's okay.

[01:10:04] Uh, I think I accidentally did it. Um, Indy didn't make like a huge impact on the strategy of the season. Um, she, uh, had that funny quote where she said that, uh, when, when the vote was flipping away from Taylor at one point, she was like, I'm telling you she's the reason I'm going to be evicted.

[01:10:31] And then of course, uh, Taylor ends up being the HOH when she gets evicted, which is very funny. Um, importantly, very important. Despite Taylor being the HOH that sends Indy home, Taylor has many conversations with Indy before she leaves, uh, talking about the events of the first few weeks and how she felt about them and the reasons why she's making the decisions.

[01:10:53] Um, additionally, there's a whole side plot going on where, uh, Monty and Michael and Joseph and, uh, and, and all of them, they're still, and Kyle, uh, they're all pretending. Um, actually I think it's, uh, who is it? It's going to, it's, it's Joseph and Kyle, um, are going to pretend like they're still not working with the leftovers.

[01:11:18] And they make this like alliance with, uh, Alyssa and Indy and Jasmine called the five swatters. Um, it's, it's a whole thing. It doesn't really matter at all. Basically, uh, you know, Indy and Jasmine are looking and Alyssa are looking to Joseph and Kyle for support and they never really give it. Um, which is frustrating to them.

[01:11:42] Um, they do still really like Joseph, uh, but, uh, you know, that's, that's playing into this as well. So, okay. All of this goes down. Indy leaves. That's when we have our third and final major twist of the season. The split house, the, uh, dire fest. Oh, yeah. Yes.

[01:12:06] Dire fest week, which it's so funny because I forgot that the other side was called big bro. Chela until I was refreshing on the two because we didn't care. We were all focused on dire fest. It was, uh, this twist. Yeah. Um, so, uh, this is when, uh, we can finally show some Terrence because, uh, it's going to be Michael who wins the competition. And Terrence who comes in second place.

[01:12:34] And because of that, they become the next, the two HOHs this week. Um, Michael is going to lead, uh, his crew inside the house. And Terrence is going to be in charge of the crew outside the house. They do kind of a schoolyard pick for who's going to be in which, uh, side of the house.

[01:12:54] And, uh, Michael is going to bring over Brittany and Taylor and Monty and Jasmine, basically choosing Jasmine to be his sacrifice. Um, and that leaves Kyle, Alyssa, Terrence, um, Turner and Joseph on the, uh, in dire fest. Um, and this is when things get real now on in the inside. It's pretty simple.

[01:13:24] Uh, Michael is the HOH. He nominates Jasmine and Monty. Um, the plan is to evict Jasmine. Uh, Michael forgoes winning a veto competition, despite the fact that he very much could based on what we were able to see, uh, by throwing to Brittany, but, but just preventing Jasmine from winning. And they are going to vote out Jasmine over Monty. Now there is heavy consideration once again from Michael. Should we take out Monty? The answer? Yeah, probably should have.

[01:13:53] Um, but it is primarily Taylor who prevents him from doing so. Um, yeah, because, uh, you know, obviously it did not benefit Taylor at this point to take out Monty. She kind of needed Monty to take out Michael. And she knew that at this point, um, and was kind of planning for it.

[01:14:10] Um, in addition to that, uh, again, Taylor spends a lot of time, even more time this week talking with Jasmine a lot about the events of the first few weeks of the game, the way that Taylor sees them, the way that Taylor feels that she was treated. Uh, never does so in an accusing way. It doesn't make Jasmine feel like she's done something wrong necessarily, but it helps Jasmine understand who she is and where she is and where she's going in the game.

[01:14:37] Um, so that by the time that Jasmine is heading to the jury, she has a much higher opinion of Taylor. Um, a lot of people very, uh, incorrectly, uh, look at the exit interviews and say, oh, she was changing her mind in the exit interviews. Uh, but it's very, very clear. If you watch the feeds that she had already changed her mind prior to even leaving the house.

[01:15:00] Um, and when she was asked questions in exit interviews, she was giving already very pro Taylor, uh, talking points. Yeah. Um, so that's what happened inside. Straightforward. Outside, uh, things were a little trickier. Um, Terrence was the HOH and he nominated Joseph and Turner.

[01:15:28] Um, and basically, uh, they were trying to convince, uh, you know, theoretically Joseph, Turner and Kyle should all be on the same page to convince Terrence to take out Alyssa. Um, and that's what Joseph thought was going to happen. Um, however, Kyle decided now's the time to make my move.

[01:15:50] Um, and he went to Terrence and he basically exposed, uh, a lot of the stuff that was happening with the alliances, um, and, uh, and said, Hey, Joseph is the bigger threat. Let's work together. Let's make a new group. Um, they eventually are going to call themselves the after party. Um, that is, uh, Kyle, Terrence, Turner and Alyssa. Kyle's been working on Turner for a while.

[01:16:16] They're expecting and hoping that when they go into the house, they will be able to reunite with Michael and Brittany and have a majority. Um, because that's, that's where Kyle feels like his numbers are. Uh, and so this works. Um, it's very frustrating to watch because, uh, for many reasons, but primarily for me, because it was just like actually physically difficult.

[01:16:41] You can't watch or listen to, um, all of these questions happen in whispery tones while planes are flying overhead. The feeds are constantly getting cut because people are trying to yell into the backyard. Um, and, uh, it's a whole big mess. Um, Terrence also wins the veto out there. Uh, I think there was a little bit of controversy here that, uh, it was largely wind based. And he had a good spot for it. Mm-hmm.

[01:17:07] Um, but either way, he is going to, uh, to use the veto on, uh, on Turner, uh, and throw, uh, throw Kyle up on the block. Um, but, uh, that is not going to change the ultimate decision, which is, uh, people thought maybe that the, the wall yelling worked and that he actually turned on Kyle. That was not the case. Uh, there was another thing going on, but again, feeds were cutting all that over the place.

[01:17:30] So, um, the ultimate result is that Joseph is going to be evicted, uh, outside in Dyerfest. No. And the collective fan base just weeped for weeks on end. Mm. Uh, it was tough for him out there. Um, and, uh, and he, he really wasn't able to gain much traction.

[01:17:53] Um, you know, I think at the end of the day, uh, the thing about Joseph was that, um, he was so sort of team oriented that, uh, it just didn't like, he wasn't prepared for somebody to play individually within the Alliance. He was really blindsided by, uh, like, despite the fact that like you could interpret him trying to evict Alyssa as, uh, provoking Kyle. Um, he didn't see it that way. He saw it as we're a team.

[01:18:23] So this is what we're supposed to do. Um, and then when Kyle, when Kyle retaliated, he was like, but we're a team. Just, just like, it's, it's rare that I, that I'd say this. Cause I think a lot of people try to say this. Joseph, I think just kind of too good of a guy, uh, to operate in the way that he did in the house. Um, and so, uh, so he pays the price for it here in Dyerfest.

[01:18:48] And then the house reunites, um, and you have after party versus the remnants now of the leftovers. Uh, and it's basically like four V four at this point. Um, and, uh, Turner pulls out a clutch HOH win. And this is obviously terrible.

[01:19:14] Uh, now again, Michael, uh, Kyle was really hoping that Michael would be on board, but he did start to realize with some separation from Michael and Brittany that what if they're playing us? What if they've, what if they're not really on our side? Um, and so he goes in knowing that he might be really desperate for like a comp one here.

[01:19:36] So, uh, the idea is for Turner to, uh, to, you know, potentially take a shot at Michael or Monty. Um, once they get inside, it becomes even more clear that Michael has in fact chosen a side. And that side is, uh, the Taylor Monty side. Um, and so, uh, Michael and Monty are two of the like sort of bigger targets on the table for them in this week with Turner as the HOH. Turner fully under Kyle's spell at this point.

[01:20:06] Um, Turner, of course, uh, a fairly central figure in terms of being involved in a lot of the events of season 24, but, uh, never really seems to have a huge will of his own. Um, he's always going to be guided by somebody else. Somebody else, yeah. Not much agency. Yes. Uh, and once Kyle leaves, it will be Monty.

[01:20:28] Um, but, uh, him as the HOH here led by Kyle looking to potentially take down, take down Monty. Michael wins the veto, uh, with Brittany and Taylor on the block. And, uh, and, and Michael is, is frustrated. Uh, and, and, you know, Brittany is frustrated and they, you know, cause, cause Kyle kind of turned on them in the Alliance.

[01:20:57] And, uh, he kind of did it all because he assumed some things about some of the other players. And, uh, this is of course where things got very controversial in terms of all really all around. Uh, but this is when they decided to drop bomb about what, about basically the reasons why, like with Kyle coming in with this new Alliance, the reasons why this kind of happened and why Monty is excluded from it. And, uh, and, and why things are the way they are.

[01:21:26] And so they go and they talk to, uh, to Monty about it. They talk to Turner about it. Um, eventually everyone finds out a lot of this is cut from the feeds. Um, because big brother doesn't understand what to do in these situations basically.

[01:21:44] Um, and, uh, ultimately with this exposed that, that Kyle was worried about another cookout, um, Monty's very hurt by it because it was just a wrong reason. Eventually convinced to, uh, to take, to turn on his, uh, former now ally and put him up on the block and send him home. And this is the demise of Kyle in the game. Yeah.

[01:22:13] And again, it took, it took them having to get Turner to do it because Turner didn't want to put him up. And then if Turner was like, well, if you put him up, can we still get rid of Taylor? And then he, he goes up and even Terrence then starts to, uh, campaign to keep Kyle as well.

[01:22:30] So, I mean, the introduction of, you know, how race affected this season, um, was very frustrating because we didn't get the full story. You know what I'm saying? Like we didn't get to see the full telling of it to, uh, Monty and Taylor. We didn't get to see their, like most of their conversation with Kyle.

[01:22:57] We, even more egregiously, we didn't get to see the house meeting, um, where they confront him or like, you know, most of it. So it, it, it was very, it was very frustrating and big brother will never learn a lesson. Like the more you try and hide it, the worse it'll be. And, you know, like you, like you said, like, uh, social, social media that week was, you know, when they say stop protecting Kyle, I think he was trending. I believe all week or something like that. It was just, it was nuts.

[01:23:25] It was such a nuts week, um, in the show. And I just want to remind people that even if Michael and Brittany hadn't, um, of exposed what Kyle was doing with his all white alliance, Monty would have went home this week. Not Taylor. So just, just want to throw that out there for the people who, again, still keep saying that Taylor won because of this and or that. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:23:51] In fact, like very notably, it was Brittany that was pulled off the block that week to send, to put Kyle up next to her. Um, you know, despite everything. Uh, and, uh, and then it was, and she mentions this in her final speech that like, she's the one that had to sit there and face the campaign from Kyle and Terrence, uh, and Turner even to some degree. Yeah. Of like, well, we don't actually have to vote him out, do we?

[01:24:18] Um, and, uh, and so, um. After being the wronged party. Right. Uh, and obviously from the show's perspective, the way that they decided to edit this is, uh, at least from my perspective, extremely anti-Michael and Brittany, uh, as much as possible. Uh, and very much pro kind of rehabilitation for Kyle eventually.

[01:24:42] Um, which felt like a very strange message, which is not to say that there's no culpability at all for Michael or Brittany, but that, uh, if you are more upset with the people who exposed this than you are with the person who did it in the first place, that seems to sort of like indicate where your priorities seem to lie. Right. Exactly. Makes absolutely no sense. Just trash. Yeah. Um, so, uh, Kyle leaves.

[01:25:12] And, um, obviously Kyle's story is one of, uh, of, of bias. Um, but strategically, I think it is also one of, um, you know, bias informing a paranoia that destroyed his game. He was, uh, a very, uh, I think talented player in that he was able to read situations and know when he was, um, in a position where he needed to take action, flip the script.

[01:25:39] Uh, and that is a pretty rare, uh, thing for a player to have. And it's a very valuable thing for a player to have. Um, ultimately it's, um, you know, his instinct to flip on the leftovers was correct in the sense that he should be looking to protect Alyssa, but the people he chose to exclude and the people he chose to try to include in the group that he used to rebel against that group. Were the reasons why it failed. If he had gone to Monty. And worked with Monty instead of Michael and Brittany.

[01:26:09] Yeah. And I absolutely believe there's a world, maybe even a very likely world where Kyle is the winner of big brother 24. Um, however, he let the bias and, uh, inform his paranoia, which got to his head. And he chose a route that didn't make as much sense and, uh, and allowed him to be in a position to, uh, to take the fall for it. Um, and, uh, and ultimately that is kind of the story of, of Kyle on the season. Racism doesn't pay.

[01:26:42] Uh, at least, at least in big brother 24. Um, so with Kyle gone, uh, Michael wins the next HOH and, uh, relatively straightforwardly, they are going to take out, uh, Terrence. Um, once again, there's consideration for making a bigger play. Terrence is not much of a threat.

[01:27:09] Uh, but, um, but there are a few things going on here. There is a, uh, a sort of pseudo alliance. Um, once again, the gentleman sort of, uh, I think it's the gentleman's agreement. Gentleman's agreement. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:27:25] Um, where the Turner, Monty, Turner and Monty basically who have, now that Turner has turned on Kyle, uh, after looking to evict Monty, he has sort of flipped to now following Monty's marching orders to some degree. And so they have become a bit of a duo. Monty has been looking at Michael for a long time because he keeps winning competitions and Monty keeps coming in second place. And Monty wants to win the competitions. And to be fair to Monty, he's correct. As soon as they take on Michael, he wins all the competitions.

[01:27:54] Um, but, uh, but he's been looking in that direction, but, but Michael wins this HOH and Monty starts to give up hope. Monty starts to feel like, I think we can't beat him. We might as well join him. And so they make this gentleman's agreement thing. Um, there's some more stuff happening too, which informs some of this, which is that the women start to try to make their own little alliance. And this gets back to Monty and he starts to feel like he can't trust the women. And so he needs to work with the men.

[01:28:20] Um, and so, uh, so he decides to make a deal with Michael and he, he decides he wants to honor it. Um, and, uh, and Michael decides that, uh, that, you know, taking out Terrence here is the right call for him. Um, meanwhile, it's actually Taylor who, uh, is talking to Monty and Monty's like, yeah, so we're actually thinking we're not going to go after Michael. Uh, after he's been talking to Turner about it. Um, and, and Taylor's kind of like, Hmm.

[01:28:50] What? You're not going to have to Mike. He's like, uh, she has to work on, uh, Monty for a, like, uh, a couple of days really, uh, to get him fully back on board to targeting Michael. She also has to talk to Turner. Monty has to talk to Turner.

[01:29:06] Um, by the time the eviction goes through, they have been talked out of capitulating to Michael and in the double eviction, Turner wins the HOH, uh, Monty wins the veto, and they are finally able to evict Michael. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And again, the foresight of Taylor to put in that work beforehand, because if she hadn't, I don't think it gets done during the double eviction. You know what I'm saying?

[01:29:35] Like, I don't know if she could have convinced them that quickly to get rid of Michael during the double eviction. If they're going into the double eviction, still thinking they have the gentleman's agreement. So, yeah. I mean, this is another one of those things that, that because it wasn't a major part of the episodes, a lot of people don't really seem to believe that it was like really vital.

[01:29:56] But if you were watching the feeds at the time, you know how, like, convinced Monty and Turner were when they talked alone to themselves about working with Michael. You know how difficult it was for Taylor to talk them out of that. Which isn't to say that there's no world in which, in the moment, they decide to turn. Like, sure, that could have happened. But they were not planning to.

[01:30:26] Taylor convinced them to plan to. They then started to plan to. And then they did the plan when they had the opportunity. You know, if this was like anybody other than Taylor, I think a lot of people would say, yeah, obviously she did that. But but at this point, people, again, don't expect sort of strategic things from Taylor because she's pigeonholed into a certain role in people's minds. Yeah, exactly.

[01:31:22] That's a great way to go for Michael. His level of competition dominance was unseen since Janelle. He ends up tying her record in terms of like competition wins and also percentage of competition wins to competitions played. And that's without even necessarily accounting for competitions that we know he threw and could have won. Yeah.

[01:31:51] Now, just a season later, none of that will feel super relevant anymore. However, him and Janelle do still hold the record for percentage of competition wins to competitions played, which I think is probably the most relevant thing, even if it's not the flashiest one. Because some people get a lot more opportunities to win competitions than others. Exactly.

[01:32:19] But it was amazing watching him play like just somebody who is just like was strategically like really dominant. And and he would cam talk and we used to love listening to his cam talks. So then also just being a cop beast. We were nobody was expecting him to be a cop beast going in, you know. So it was is amazing watching him him play.

[01:32:44] I mean, basically, he's he's exactly the right combo of attributes for this modern era of Big Brother where like he had studied the competitions, had watched like Peridium's comp breaking videos. And and and so like came in always knowing the optimal strategy, having a great mind for it. He worked on escape rooms.

[01:33:09] And then also on top of that, had the physicality needed to keep up with, you know, the strongest and fastest people like maybe a player like Monty would be able to like out strength him in something. But he'd still have like there are very few competitions that are pure strength.

[01:33:29] Usually when we talk about physical competitions, it's more so about like just a baseline level of this person is going to go twice as fast as this person and therefore have, you know, twice as many opportunities or whatever. Michael is able to keep up in range of more physical players, which allows him to then outcompete them in every other aspect where you could not say the same of like a Siree. Right.

[01:34:00] So, so, so, yes, this is it for Michael. He has a memorable exit where he. Everybody. I just have one thing to say. And walks out. And then walks out. Again, like the people were like upset about that as if I guess they just hate good TV. Exactly.

[01:34:27] So following that, uh, Monty wins the next HOH. As I said, Monty basically wins, uh, at least he wins three of the next five competitions. Um, and he's only eligible for four of them. So he wins three out of the four competitions he competes in. Um, after Michael leaves, um, it's Monty's HOH that is going to see the eviction of Alyssa. Uh, and it really shouldn't have been the eviction of Alyssa.

[01:34:55] Uh, considering that, uh, Turner was theoretically like in charge of where this vote went. Um, but, uh, and Turner was. Yeah. I mean, he was, he was in the original alliance with Alyssa, uh, or not the original, but the, uh, the after party. He was close to Alyssa. He'd been close to Alyssa for a while. Um, and Monty's just like, nah, Alyssa should go. I remember watching that week.

[01:35:23] Like you, like bizarro world, like Turner is voting out Alyssa and Brittany is contemplating voting out Taylor. What did we all take crazy pills? What is happening right now? Yeah. Brittany kind of goes wild here. We haven't talked much about Brittany. Um, but Brittany has been a strong ally of Michael's all season long. Um, she's therefore also been a fairly good ally to Taylor for most of the season.

[01:35:51] Um, that she was originally part of that girls girls group, but they started to exclude her fairly quickly because they felt like she was a wild card loose, uh, loose cannon. Right. And, um, then was eventually reintegrated into a majority alliance with the leftovers, uh, continued to play both sides with Michael, um, had a whole thing where she was like, am I going to just give up my game to Michael? And the answer was kind of yes for a lot of it.

[01:36:17] Um, but ultimately he gets taken out and once he's gone, you would think it's kind of Brittany and Taylor, you know, Turner and Alyssa and then Monty playing the middle. Right. But the reality was very different. Um, Brittany got it in her head that Taylor was like her biggest threat for the end. And now to some degree, she was right where like Monty was wrong in that Taylor was certainly not somebody you wanted to sit next to in the final two.

[01:36:47] Um, but Taylor was also like the only ally that Brittany had in the game at the final five. Uh, and sort of actively want her out to keep Alyssa in where Alyssa would be working with Turner and Turner was working with Monty and she's the odd one out. Um, and like she never really properly, I think articulated the logic in a way that made a lot of sense.

[01:37:10] Um, she was also in, uh, there was, I think part of this also stemmed from that whole women's thing that happened the week before, uh, that she was a part of and got caught up in. Um, and, uh, and so there was a part of this too, I believe if I'm remembering correctly, where she like, um, uh, incorrectly believed that Taylor had snaked her in some way based on the events of like information getting shared in the previous week. Um, because she had gotten caught doing a couple of things.

[01:37:40] And I think that also contributed to some of this, but basically she makes a push for Taylor to be evicted here over Alyssa. Um, which theoretically should have been a surprise. Oh wow. Taylor gets sniped out here for no reason. For no reason. For the fact, uh, that Monty is able to convince Turner to turn on his own closest ally at this point, other than Monty Alyssa.

[01:38:01] Um, and the reason Monty wants Alyssa gone and not Taylor gone is because he knows that Alyssa is closer to Turner and, uh, Taylor is closer to him because at this point he has the HOH room and, uh, and things are, uh, they're getting a little.

[01:38:19] Uh, of course, this is not the only reason. This is more so I would say a side effect of the fact that the two of them have gotten closer strategically as well as sort of emotionally and I guess physically at this point in the game.

[01:38:43] Um, there are some people in future seasons that will, uh, make some wild claims about, uh, uh, this situation and Taylor, um, that, uh, we won't repeat. But the bottom line is that Taylor has convinced Monty that she will be a loyal to him and be lose to him. And those two things are incredibly important to how the rest of this season plays out.

[01:39:10] Um, and, uh, and those are the reasons why Monty convinces Turner to keep Taylor over Alyssa. Um, and then eventually will be the reasons that Monty decides to take Taylor to the final two over Turner. Mm-hmm. A girl has needs. Yes.

[01:39:30] Um, so, uh, with Alyssa gone, um, Taylor actually manages to win the final four HOH competition. Um, which means that, uh, it is going to be entirely up to whoever wins the veto that week. Of course, Monty, uh, manages to win the veto. Now Taylor wanted to evict Monty here. Um, she wanted to get rid of Monty.

[01:39:57] Uh, she knew that he was going to continue to win competitions if he was, uh, if he was capable of it, which she seemed very, very capable of it. Um, she, at this point, very, I think realistically expected that if Monty made it to the end, he would win. That's what's been happening for the last like 10 years of the show. Um, and she wanted that moment.

[01:40:19] She still wanted to be a player that made a big move and that cut some throats that was able to be like, yeah, I suckered Monty in and then slid his throat and got here and to the end. And I took out the best player left, uh, vote for me to win. That's how she wanted to win. That's how she wanted to play. Um, unfortunately for her, Monty wins this veto and she is unable to do so.

[01:40:42] She can't even really have much influence over what he's going to do because why would he keep Brittany around over Turner when he knows Turner is going to take him to the final two and Brittany's not. Um, so, uh, powerless, uh, Monty is going to evict, uh, powerless to do anything about it. Monty is going to evict Brittany here, um, and head to the final three with Taylor and Turner. Yeah. Yeah. It's the curse of, uh, the, the final four HOH. It's like the true power is just the safety unless you have the veto.

[01:41:11] Like that's what it is. But can I just say when she won this, the, this HOH, I cried because I said, she's going to win the game that I literally said, she's going to win the game. Cause I knew this would be that last little hurdle. And if she could get to, to final three, I was like, she's going to get the final two and she's going to win. And I, I, I called it that night. I'm like, she's going to win this game.

[01:41:38] Well, at this point she felt like she needed to win this final HOH cut Monty and take Turner. And that felt like the way for her to win the game because nobody's voting for Turner in the final two. And she had made enough progress that we were able to see both inside the house and in accident reviews and in the jury segments that she would have a great chance, uh, a fairly guaranteed chance against Turner. Anybody would.

[01:42:03] Um, so she needs to win this final HOH. Uh, that is the key to winning the game. Um, and she loses part one and she loses part two. And at this point it feels like it's kind of over because now like at this point, like the best hope now is like Turner wins cuts Monty takes her, but maybe in the process,

[01:42:33] of cutting Monty, he gets that credit that she wanted and does pick up a couple of surprise votes because he turned on Monty. And I was on your perception of Turner's completely changed. So that might not even be the case. Um, Monty at this point doesn't even look like he's taking Taylor. He's been talking so much smack about her lately. They've, uh, they've basically broken up. Um, they got into various fights because she's not opening up to him, uh, enough.

[01:42:58] Uh, and, uh, and now all of a sudden, like the rhetoric and language that is being used in the house that is reminiscent of the first few weeks of the game. And it's like, what is happening? How have we reverted to this? Um, and ironically, it is this mindset that wins Taylor the game. Exactly. Exactly. And that's, uh, yes.

[01:43:26] She's able, she's able to use it to convince Monty that she will lose to him. Um, that if she is so, you know, uh, unworthy of respect in the game, uh, she's able to, to sort of big up Turner, uh, who's played a similar game to Monty.

[01:43:48] Um, and, uh, and, and talk down herself and, and sort of like play into the perception that Monty has sort of forced upon her. Um, and, uh, and this is of course is going to be Monty's, uh, big mistake. Downfall. Yep, exactly. And, and then Monty and Turner were also like bigging up each other's game. So it was, I, I didn't know what Turner was going to do at that point, but I do remember you saying he was so bad at like his days.

[01:44:18] It was obvious he had no shot against Monty. Taylor was trying to help him because she too felt like Turner winning and taking her was her only hope at that point. Um, but she was still working on Monty. Just, you know, I might as well take a shot. You know, I got a good speech planned. Yeah. Great speech. Yeah. Uh, so Monty wins. Um, he evicts Turner and takes Taylor to the final two.

[01:44:46] And, uh, this is what brings us the greatest speech in the history of the show. Um, she gets up there. She says, I'm not a, uh, shield. I am a sword. She says, uh, I've, you know, gone through so much. Uh, I've shown resilience throughout the season. Um, she says, uh, let's change the course of big brother history. Let's not do the same thing we've done over and over. Let's do something new.

[01:45:16] Uh, I challenge you jury members. Um, and, uh, Oh God. Near unanimously. They hope for her to win. The reason it's not unanimous is that Turner. Turner. In an act of trying to do what other people are doing. Misreads the situation somehow thinks everyone's voting Monty. Just Turner's, uh, people pleasing ways come back to fight.

[01:45:45] Well, they don't fight Taylor, but she, he's the reason we, she's not unanimous. So, yes. I mean, here's the thing. You would assume that Turner was a vote for Monty regardless. Uh, his explanation after the fact was, I would have voted for Taylor. If I had realized everyone else was, I just thought they were voting months. Just no, no backbone. No, no decision-making of his own. It's fine. It's fine. Um, I, I, uh, I mean, I, I liked, I liked Turner.

[01:46:15] I think he's, uh, I think he's funny, but yeah. In the game, in the game that was, uh, he definitely needed more agency. He couldn't steal anybody's vote, you know, like the tweets, right? Like, so that's it. Taylor wins the season in what I think is easily the, the best story in the history of the game, um, of the show.

[01:46:45] Uh, I will say again that a lot of people do not understand or I think are unwilling to understand the kind of game that Taylor was forced to play. The way that she had to advocate for herself throughout the entire season, uh, was very sort of like sociological more so than, uh, like the kind of domineering strategy that you often see. Uh, she, no, didn't play like a Derek game.

[01:47:15] She was never in a position to never played a very different kind of game, a kind of game that nobody else in the history of the show has ever even come close to being capable. Exactly. Exactly. Uh, so, you know, I think that, uh, people, especially sort of like strategy heads can get very narrow minded about like, well, when she was HOH, she displayed some poor strategic decisions. Therefore she was a very bad strategic player.

[01:47:43] Um, I would, I would counter that on its face and say, she's, I don't think a bad strategic player. I think that she had some good strategic instincts actually, but more so than that, there is more to the game than just strategy. There's more to the game than just being popular or being in the majority. Uh, you know, there is a part of the game that is, uh, being able to advocate for yourself to win over jury votes, to convince people to bring you to the end.

[01:48:10] Um, you know, I think that again, it kind of goes all the way back to Dr. Will again, when it's like, Dr. Will did not play the way that most people play. And yet we are able to consider him to be a phenomenal player. Um, because, uh, he did some things in such a unique way. Um, but, uh, and, and he also has made some glaring strategic mistakes, but you don't say that he's a terrible strategic player.

[01:48:35] Um, but, uh, I think specifically the way that Taylor was, you know, uh, ostracized, um, and, uh, and bullied and, and all of those things, um, you know, again, change the way that you perceive her in general, um, on top of her own identity, uh, versus somebody like Dr. Will, who is also to some degree ostracized, but in a very different way and as a very different kind of, uh, player and is a very different, uh, a person with a very different identity.

[01:49:03] Um, and so, uh, please don't take this to me, the pairing Taylor to Dr. Will, but, uh, I think that, uh, it is very interesting to, um, to sort of see the way that people try to interpret her game and try to analyze her game. Uh, I think that, um, there is a portion of the community that has started to, I think, underrate her as an actual player of the game and the way that she was able to do things.

[01:49:30] Um, and I think that generally she will do well on a lot of seasons that she plays, um, and a lot of kinds of games that she plays. Uh, we saw her get to the end of reindeer games. Um, and, um, and I think that, uh, you know, she, and obviously at this point I'm fairly biased, uh, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna pretend I'm not.

[01:49:55] Um, but even before I had ever met her or spoken to her, I was saying these things on the podcast during the season at the end of the season. Um, I, I genuinely think that she, uh, played a very unique and very interesting and very impressive game of big brother. It's hard to compare to other winners, but, uh, but I do not think that means that she is like not a good winner or anything like that. I agree.

[01:50:21] Taylor comes into the game and everybody is like most of, most of the fandom thinks if I ever get into big brother, if I ever get into that big brother house, I'm going to play a mastermind game. I'm going to have everybody wrapped around my fingers. And it was just, that is just not the case. It is just not the case for everybody. And for Taylor to come into this season, be ostracized right away and have to play from

[01:50:46] a bottom position and literally claw for every inch, every like step she took. I remember we were all watching like, man, the minute that Taylor leaves, I'm out. You know what I'm saying? And just watching her just scrape and call and do what she needed to do to get to the end and making great social bonds, making strategic bonds, explaining her, her case

[01:51:10] to the jury in a way that is just breathtaking and is awe inspiring. But doing that work ahead of time by just having conversations with people before they left and not feeling disingenuous. You know what I'm saying? Like Taylor did so much within this game and that is why she deserves to be in that upper echelon of winners. And that's why I came in here saying like, no, she's my favorite winner because it's really

[01:51:39] hard to like say that with modern season sometimes. Cause you're like, is this, is this recency bias? People love the classics and nostalgia and they, they don't really think you can have like modern legends sometimes, or you feel like you have to have be so far removed from it. But honestly, she, she showed something that I always wondered. I always wondered, could somebody come into the big brother house and not have such a great

[01:52:06] starting setup, but pull it out. And she did like it was, and it was just amazing to watch. Yeah. All right. Well, Mari. Yeah. Who's on the poster? Okay. And just the RHA people, RHA audiences voting. So it's definitely, you can, you can campaign for whoever you want. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Oh yeah. Okay. I get to campaign. Okay. Me.

[01:52:36] All right. Can we just put Taylor on the poster? No. Listen, uh, I might have the soundbite somewhere. Uh, Taylor, Taylor, Taylor, Taylor. Taylor, Taylor. Taylor. Yep. Exactly. Oh yes. I, I, I will definitely put Taylor on, on the poster. I guess you, Oh, you got to put Michael on the poster. Um, yes.

[01:53:04] With his historic comp wins. And then, I mean, I, I don't put Joseph on my poster. I don't care. I don't care if he left halfway through it's Taylor, Michael and Joseph for me. That's all I gotta say. I think that's pretty fair. I think obviously there's an argument for Monty. Monty. Um, as, uh, as the second place finisher as the presumed winner for a good portion of the end game.

[01:53:28] Um, and, uh, you know, I think, yeah, aside from that, I, I don't think there are a lot of great options this season. Cause there's not a lot of people that came out very clean. Um, in terms of like the way that the fans perceive them. Uh, so like, you know, I think there's a reason why like Taylor is such a unanimous favorite. Uh, there are very few other, you know, anyone else can like feel like comfortable gravitating towards this season.

[01:53:59] So, uh, I do, I think, I think you're probably right. I think, uh, I think the audience will likely go in the direction of something like, uh, Taylor, Joseph, Michael, um, uh, we will see. All right. Yeah. We'll see. We talk about big brother 25. Uh, Oh, you'll laugh at that. An hour and a half on the first half of the season. And then 20 minutes on. Copy. Pace.

[01:54:30] That. Last week. Maybe two thirds, maybe two thirds and one third for 26. Uh, God. We'll see. We'll see how it goes. Uh, all right. In the meantime, make sure you are subscribed. Make sure you're following all of the things you can find me over on, uh, Twitch and YouTube. I've been doing some genius game reactions, which just finished. I've been doing some. Great coverage. Devil's plan reactions over on Patreon.

[01:54:56] If you want to see those, uh, all kinds of stuff going on there, check out the YouTube channel and check out. We know script TV. We're doing, uh, tastemakers talking about all the new scripted shows. Those happening and all of that stuff. Um, and, uh, just about a month from now, we'll be starting big brother 27 coverage. So make sure you stay tuned for that as well. Mari, what are you up to? Um, I am on blue sky first at Mari talks too much to like the number two.

[01:55:25] I'm not at the bad place anymore. Um, also over on recap, kickback, me and Chappelle talk about whatever we want to, uh, uh, this past week, we just talked about the Tyler Perry movie straw featuring, um, Tarih G.P. Henson. So that was fun. So you can go to recap, kickback.com in order to subscribe, or you can go to youtube.com slash at recap, kickback in order to watch us.

[01:55:50] And also me and Sarah Carradine, um, are still bringing you true crime, um, over on the crime scene podcast. You can go to crime scene pod.com that's crime S E E N pod.com in order to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts as well. Um, we're having some fantastic guests over there. So make sure you are subscribed. All right. Well, thank you all so much for joining us here this week.

[01:56:19] Make sure you head over to rob's website.com slash BB retrospective. If you want to vote for who's going to be on this poster for next week, and we'll see all of you next time.