Player of the Week Results — EP 4

Hey y’all,

For those who follow along on reddit, this bitch was away in Europe (including Croatia) and therefore was not able to do a write-up for the PotW results for episode 1 OR do the surveys for eps 2 and 3. Mea culpa.

Shout-outs to people like Michele and Corey for winning an elimination and very nearly a mission (the cave swimming one) during their short stay on Spies Lies + Allies. Same for Ed, who won an elim and a mission. Devin has now been picked as a partner thrice, and Tori twice. Emy, Berna, and Hughie have been victors in the Lair and brought the heat with drama, entertainment, and storylines. AmBer made it into the game because of Lauren Coogan’s Dee-Q and Dee-letion from the edit, and has already shined and created more waves than throughout all of Double Agents. And then there’s the vets, who have a stranglehold on the game. Been a great season so far!

Now, what did y’all think?

Player of the Week

1. AmBer — 83
2. Hughie — 32
3. Josh — 14
4. Esther & Fessy — 5 each

I am personally not a fan of AmBer… Until this episode! Not only did she and Josh kill their heat during the Undercover Comms mission — eliminating four other teams — but she also had a smooch with Jeremiah at the club, survived a blindside, and showcased more personality than ever before!

Let’s unpack that a bit. Neither she nor her partner are known for prowess at the missions. Josh won zero throughout Double Agents and the only one Amber did — trivia — was 100% thanks to Darrell. So it’s definitely not expected for them to have a strong second place finish among 26 opponents! Kudos to them.

As for the Lair, Esther & Fessy threw in Hughie with Amber in order to handicap her and get her out of the game — thereby having Michele & CorEy come back to the house, becoming loyal allies for Festher. However, Hughie outperformed everyone’s expectations and pulled off a big upset, with Amber as his partner. She now is 3–0 in eliminations 😮 Not bad!

Hughie had a hilarious episode all around, with his workout segment, meltdown during the mission, arguing with Ashley during and after voting, killing an elimination, AND for getting into it with CorEy after sending his ass packing. When I saw the cast and starting pairs, I had zero hope for Ash & Hugh — but they have been a DELIGHT! Looking forward to seeing more of him in the future 😍

Josh performed very well in the mission and cursed Fessy out. That’s why he got votes, I’m sure. But he also traded up partners, from one-time champ but still green Amber to two-time champ with stronger allies Ashley.

Then Esther & Fessy won the mission, their second in only four episodes. She has a 50% win rate right now. You go, girl.

Then Devin & Kyle got some votes too, not sure why. The focus on them this episode was far too much. That fight was faker than Hughie’s ass. Over it.

Best Political Game

1. Devin — 52
2. Josh — 32
3. CorEy — 14
4. CT — 10
5. Esther & Kaycee — 8 each

This is my first write-up this szn, so I am not sure if it was a good idea to separate political and social games. What do you all think? I know they are separate, but one helps the other and I’m assuming a lot of people cannot differentiate between them, in 60 minutes of footage split between 28 competitors. Lemme know your thots.

Devin, best political game? When his #1 ally betrayed him in the mission? And when he only got picked by the elimination winner because Josh suggested it? LOL k. I’m obvi missing something — what is it?

Josh made a great point, for his ally Amber to pick Devin as her partner, which would create the Gabo-Emy rookie-rookie team, the next lamb to the slaughter. Not a spoiler, just what I expect to happen.

However, can we award him best political game when his own #1 ally betrayed him? Divina del Campo voice: “I don’t think.”

CorEy, however, does deserve votes here. He cut a deal with Fessy to get his choice of opponent in elimination, and Fess obliged. Hughie does not stand out as a fearsome competitor, thanks to his freakouts before this mission and last week’s, so it makes sense why CorEy requested him. Obvi, hindsight is 20/20 and CorEy ate some humble pie, but the move he made makes total sense. I wish there were more queer solidarity (also not seen in Aneesa throwing him CorEy in the first ep) but… Alas.

CT chimed in and agreed with Josh, urging Amber to pick Devin, so I guess that’s his 10 votes? Or is it just more CT stanning? I don’t get Esther’s votes either. It seems she had no input into the decision that Fessy made, since she wasn’t in the convo at the club between him and CorEy and nor does she have any skin in the game when it comes to AmBer. She went along with her partner’s decision, but he got 0 votes, so why did she?

Kaycee did well this ep, however, as usual. She buried the hatchet with Amber, who left the conversation feeling great — even if Kaycee was pulling the wool over her eyes. And it seems she’s on the right side of the Big Brother alliance, with Amber and Josh, as opposed to Fessy, who is gonna find himself on an island very soon. So kudos to KC.

Best Social Game

1. Nany — 37
2. Devin — 35
3. Josh — 13
4. CT — 9
5. Ed — 8

Nany has top-tier social game, just like her gal pal Kaycee. I’m not surprised here. Devin seems to get along with everybody as well, always the life of the party and making people laugh. He is buddy-buddy with power players as well: CT, Kyle, Amanda, Ashley, Nelson, Cory. Totally get this too.

Josh is hot-headed and not as easy-going as the others just mentioned, but we need to recognize that he does have friends in the house (especially Kaycee, Nany, Fessy, Amanda, and now Josh) and is a loyal person. AND a supportive partner, too. I’m glad people are recognizing this.

And then Ed is brand new to the game, knew nobody before entering it (unlike people like Michele-Tommy-Michaela and Emy-Emanuel), AND came in late. Those are all reasons he would be a sacrificial lamb to throw into elimination, à la Jay on Total Madness or Adam Kuhn on Exes II. However, he is such a fun, lovable guy that he has integrated himself into the house well. Stellar social game. So excited about him!

Best Edit

1. AmBer — 61
2. Hughie — 32
3. Josh — 17
4. Devin — 14
5. Esther — 8

For someone who was not put on the final cast initially despite winning last season, Amber has something to prove. Like I’ve already discussed, she was all over this ep — the convo with Kaycee, winning her heat during the mission, a showmance with Jeremiah, fighting in the Lair, winning the elim, and popping off after. She is bringing that messy second season energy, just like Fessy on Double Agents, and I am HERE for it.

Hughie as well, like aforementioned. Lots of focus all episode and smashing people’s expectations of him and making me giggle the entire way. Love him.

Josh is a power player this time around, and I love to see it. Always strong politically and makes it deep every season. We hear his perspectives of the game and all about the alliance that he and Kaycee are the central members of. And apparently he got a beej in the bathroom! You go Glen Coco.

Similar to Devin, actually. He and Josh get along with people but are not taken seriously as competitors. Same with Big T and Nany. But this season seems different for Devin. A strong-ass vet alliance that he is squarely in the middle of, protected on various sides of the house (Kyle-CT but also Amanda-Ashley-Cory-Nelson and also Josh), and without any enemies. Let’s hope he trained hard and shows out this season, because we haven’t seen any competitive prowess (yet).

Esther killed the mission, more so than Fessy did — since she was the one running and remembering the codes and unlocking the bombs — but I feel that’s all we saw of her this episode? No insight into her allies or politics or anything. Not a strong edit this ep. Her partner had one, however…

Biggest Misplay

1. Fessy — 134
2. Kyle — 7
3. CorEy — 5
4. Josh — 4
5. Hughie & Esther — 2

Fessy took a big shot and missed. Egg on your face. He was the first one to break the veteran truce and seems to have alienated his closest allies, Josh + Kaycee. Doesn’t bode well for the future, but he and Esther have already proved themselves to be more than capable. And keep in mind this is all when Fessy is fasting for Ramadan!! 😲 Imagine how dominant #Festher could be once the holiday ends and he’s at full power? Hopefully we get to see that later this season. The fans were clowning on him during Double Agents because, after winning the first two missions back-to-back, he went on a drought and flopped in the final (again). Well, 2 wins out of 4 missions with a complete newbie and while fasting should shut everyone up. He’s an amazing competitor, regardless of how reviled he is by the fanbase, and I’m glad he’s on his third straight season 🔥

Kyle eliminated his bestie Devin during the mission and went against this master plan all the vets had. And that’s all I’m going to say about it. The Dyle beef is done and it was so clearly exaggerated. Next.

CorEy underestimated Hughie in a big way, which caused his downfall. He also let him get under his skin and shoved Hughie away, leading to some TJ disappointment. Which I roll my eyes at. TJ, you are not the arbiter of good behaviour. Hughie and CorEy showed a lot of passion and fire during the elimination, which is what we WANT. Stop expecting everyone to be meek lil bunnies — it is NOT good TV.

Not sure why Josh got biggest misplay here. He performed well all episode and was blindsided by his closest ally, but through no fault of his own. We saw Josh working all episode long to convince Fessy not to throw in Amber. It wasn’t successful, but Josh did all he could.

Hughie freaked out during the mission and showcased his hot head in the Lair. However, he completed both and sent home a strong competitor. He burned votes on his own team, which pissed Ashley off but is not a bad idea. And then he chose Nany as his partner, which might seem laughable but was actual a great strategy, as we hear him explain in confesh. He didn’t deserve votes here either. Nor did Esther, who killed the mission and supported her partner in voting. She and Amber aren’t allies, so no betrayal happened there.

Tell me how wrong I am.

Back or Buh-Bye?

I didn’t include this question because I wasn’t able to watch live. I had my volleyball playoffs, and we won 6–0, becoming the champs of the second highest division 💪🏼💪🏼 Laurel WYA??

But from comments on reddit, I think virtually everyone wants Michele back on 38, and most want CorEy L back. I personally can’t wait to see more of them, or Michaela, or Kelz. Renan is so beautiful that I wouldn’t mind him either, but only for 👀🍬 purposes. Tracy, Lauren, Nam, and Tacha can stay gone. Tommy, meh, he did better than I expected, but he has publicly said he’s retired from reality TV so… No use hoping for that.

And that’s that, y’all! Did you miss these? I did.

Oh, and I have put the data into a Google Spreadsheet, but the formatting got f*cked and I don’t have K0d4 to fix it for me, so… I MAY clean it up and share later. Stay tuned.

Now, off to read everyone’s thoughts on PotW and then Rake’s edgic post ! 😎

luv from Nova