There is no stopping the Johnny Mac Campaign Train as he pressed on this morning as soon as the Houseguests were out of bed, but just when I thought it was impossible, well, we might have something happening here. Might.
Kicking off the morning John did just as he promised Vanessa he’d do. John went to Meg and James with a new pitch and he lit a fire under their feet and soon sent them to Vanessa for a possible Vote Flip.
Flashback to 9:51 AM BBT 8/27 as John sits down with Meg in the Have-Not room. “Since I have nothing to lose, I’m pretty much going to tell you everything,” John says to Meg. He’s tells Meg that Steve is the Austwins’ lapdog and keeping Steve enables a powerful alliance. He explains to her the F5 deal he, Steve, and the Austwins made. This would conflict with the F5/6 deal Meg and James made with them as well (Brass Tacks).
John says the Austwins made a huge mistake in putting their lapdog in a vulnerable position on the Block and this is her opportunity. If they let Steve stay then it could be James going next week. Meg wants to talk with Vanessa and John holds back that he’s already been talking with Vanessa himself.
Jump forward to 9:59 AM BBT as James is now huddled with JMac. John is repeating the same pitch including how he and Steve had a F2 deal and subset of a F5 deal with the Austwins. John explains how the Austwins pitched John a deal to target the Goblins if they decided to keep him this week. James seems persuaded but caveats this admitting that without Vanessa nothing can happen.
James returns to Meg and they continue to discuss. Flashback 10:05 AM BBT. Neither are outright rejecting this and actually seem motivated to explore it further. James believes John and says he suspected they (James and Meg) were being targeted. He says he believes John’s information to be accurate.
Austin then shows up and Meg doesn’t hold back that she’s nervous about keeping Steve. Meg doesn’t know when to sit quietly on something. Austin starts to get nervous and the Goblins notice. When Austin leaves they agree that he was too heavily defending Steve.
Vanessa walks by and James says they want to talk to her ASAP. Meg says things are up in the air and want to make sure they’re making the right eviction choice. Vanessa says she’s open to talk and will be right back. Flashback to 10:23 AM BBT as she returns.
Vanessa asks James and Meg to tell her if there was a movement to exclude her from the Brass Tacks. There was, but Meg and James hesitate to confirm. Vanessa says if they tell her that then she’ll do whatever they want. It’s an opening big enough to drive a JMac truck through, but the Goblins stall.
Vanessa sounds very open to making a shift, or at least to making it sound like she is. Unfortunately for this very interesting talk Liz arrives. Steve also had just passed through the room so we know they were sent by Austin. Julia shows up too and the talk ends. Vanessa scatters.
James wants to know more and gets John alone in the Storage room. John explains again the deal offered to him was to target James and Meg along with the returning Juror if they kept him. James asks if the twins named names when making that offer, but John says they only implied it. Well that wasn’t a slam dunk for James. Perhaps John should have exaggerated that one.
Upstairs there’s a panic at the disco. Flashback to 10:39 AM BBT as Austin instructs his twin minions (Twinions?) to go to the Goblins and lie that John was making a “save me” pitch to them today. They’re sounding desperate but they’ve gotta play the game.
About ten minutes later while James is again talking to John we find Vanessa heading upstairs to prep for the lockdown. She tells Steve that James and Meg are very nervous that he hasn’t campaigned to them, but to wait on going to talk. Vanessa then tells Austin she’s collecting info and will share it back to them. She reminds him that this is part of her building trust promise.
Feeds cut for the live show prep, but should be back in a few hours. There won’t be much time to talk with everyone locked in a room together, but we can wait and see what happens next.
Now with what was going on there with Vanessa at the end, it’s interesting. It seemed like she was working all week to flip the vote against Steve, but this would be much different than her previous attempts to flip the twins. If she makes this move then it’d put her at odds with the Austwins, but doesn’t she already suspect that’s happening with or without her?
If Vanessa doesn’t make a move soon she’ll be marching to the end with an unbreakable pair of twins and a showmance that’s far more likely to turn on her before each other. Vanessa might play messy, but she isn’t stupid. This could all depend on if she thinks this is the time to make that move.
What do you think will happen? I know a majority likely hope Vanessa will flip, but do we really think that’s what Vanessa will do? I’m thrilled to see things remain up in the air even in the final hours before eviction. What a great season of Big Brother!
Update: Feeds returned from lockdown and Meg decided she needed to go talk with Austin. James thinks they should wait and talk to Vanessa, but Meg presses on. Flashback to 1:18 PM BBT as Meg pulls Austin aside. She wants to know about the 5-HG deal that John claimed. What exactly did Meg possibly think was going to be said here? What a doofus.
Austin tells Meg that John is lying and there was no other deal. He says they want to work with her and James. Meg is excited and big smiles. Austin promises that he’ll fight to protect them if Steve wins HoH tonight. And just who does Meg think will go up if that happens? Again, what a doofus.
Vanessa later stopped by and talked with James. James told her he didn’t know what to do, but she says it’s too risky to flip. That’s the end of that.