Last night Vanessa continued her preparation for the next round of nominations and eviction with her goal to target the Austwins and finally have them split up. After a long talk with John about the twins she’s moved to working on Steve.
They don’t know the Double Eviction is going to be here on Thursday, but they are making plans and getting ready for next steps which they’ll be able to shift up if the mindset is there and Houseguests are willing.
Flashback to 8:47 PM BBT 9/1 as Vanessa and Steve sit down in the HoH room to run through scenarios. Steve propositions if he wins F7 HoH then he’d nominate James and Julia, though we’ve heard him mention Austin and Liz in private camera talks. Vanessa doesn’t resist Steve’s suggestion about targeting James as they move on to what they’d do in the F6.
Vanessa says there will then be a Double Eviction at F6 (we know it’ll be at F7) and she says that if she wins HoH then she’s fine with “doing what needs to be done.” That being targeting and splitting up the Austwins. If Vanessa is willing to do it then I’m sure she does hope it happens at the DE so she doesn’t have to deal with three days of an angry twin and her waffling showmance. “I think I can get a lot more people’s blessing on this move than people would initially think,” Vanessa tells Steve.
Looking at a F6 scenario with the Austwins targeted and James out next, if Vanessa puts Austin and Liz up, or some combination, then there would be three votes from John, Steve, and Julia. John and Steve could take their pick and Julia’s single vote couldn’t stop them. That would be quite the craziness and if it does come to that then I’m glad Vanessa can’t do it in a DE so we can enjoy those three days. Hmm, would Vanessa balk at the idea if she can’t pull it off quick like a band-aid?
Steve knows this is a big topic of betrayal that they’re discussing and reminds Vanessa that this will stay between them. Flashback to 8:49 PM BBT. Vanessa acts offended and says of course because she has never repeated to anyone else anything that he’s told her “ever.” Heh. Okay. At this point Steve once again references telling Vanessa something personal and private that he has hinted at on the Feeds but apparently only discussed during the downtime when Feeds were off. Vanessa promises she’ll never use that, whatever that is, against him.
Moving back to the Austwins discussion, Vanessa points out that Austin will have to throw F6 HoH or else he’ll be trapped in to targeting the twins himself. Of course we know he’d never make those noms, Liz & Julia, so yes, either he throws it that round or they’re back in a bad spot and stuck with the Nolans even longer. Vanessa says that if Austin wins at F6 he’d have to target John and “that’s not in his best interest.” That’s a particularly well favored line from Vanessa and we’ve come to learn that really means “it’s not in her best interests.” John going isn’t bad for Austin, it’s bad for Vanessa!
Vanessa hopes they’d see John win HoH at F6 as their best option with her winning as a backup. This situation assumes Steve is the outgoing HoH. Should Liz win HoH instead, because as Vanessa points out, Julia doesn’t win things, then they’ll have to say goodbye to John. With Liz outgoing, Julia seemingly incapable of winning, and Austin agreeing to throw it then Steve or Vanessa could win though Vanessa would also probably throw it so Steve has to do the twins nominations.
Now Steve and Vanessa switch gears and go through things from perspective of John winning HoH. Vanessa feels pretty good that John would target the twins instead of Austin, but Steve says he’s only confident that it’d be “one of the three.” Here something funny happens.
Flashback to 8:54 PM BBT. Vanessa and Steve are debating which of the Austwins would go. “I don’t know which of the three, but preferably…” when Big Brother announces “Julia” with a call to the DR. It’s a perfectly timed overlap. Steve says it wouldn’t be Julia though since either Austin or Liz would be a bigger and better target against her.
Okay, so following along that now gets them down to a F5 with James, John, Vanessa, Steve, Austwin #1, & Austwin #2. Vanessa feels good that if an Austwin wins HoH he/she will go after John for revenge with James as the pawn. Should anyone but James or an Austwin get it then we can assume they’d go after James first. Nearly any way you slice it Vanessa will be sitting pretty at that point if James goes leaving her with a F2 with EVERY. SINGLE. Houseguest.
Vanessa and Steve break up the talk at 8:58 PM BBT to head downstairs for dinner. It’s at this point that Vanessa asks Steve to promise not to repeat anything she’s told him. Remember nine minutes earlier when Steve made the same suggestion and Vanessa acted offended at the idea? “Just do as I say, don’t do as I do.”
Couple of takeaways from this for me. Steve has proposed he’d go after James before one of the twins. Vanessa expressed concerns to John that Steve might be too timid to pull the trigger on an Austwins target. Now whether he is or just doesn’t want to let her in on his premeditation is unclear to me.
Secondly Vanessa didn’t argue about Steve’s comments on targeting James or putting Julia up against him. When speaking with John, Vanessa said it’d be better to put up Liz and James since James is good at Vetoes and would in effect reduce Liz’s chances at escaping the Block. There’s no mention of that strategy in this talk, but did you notice that Vanessa continues to use James in her scenarios of F6 and beyond despite Steve indicating he’d be gone under his plan?
Vanessa has things very, very well planned out to this point but she’s miscalculating the arrival of the next Double Eviction. I’m not so sure it’ll really be an issue, but if she can get through that with Liz or James leaving she’ll be one more player away from a stroll to the finish line. Once James is out, I don’t think anyone in that house is even considering making her a target. Now she just needs to hope no one starts comparing notes on F2 deals, huh?