Just one day after I wrote of Vanessa’s commitment to targeting her ally Austin we’re now seeing a shift in the game fueled by paranoia that could change this week’s plan in a big way.
Thanks to Shelli’s worries and speculations Austin may have just found himself a reprieve from eviction, but when things change this fast it’s hard to tell where they’ll end up before the next Veto ceremony.
Quick background: Vanessa and Jackie, the new HoHs, agreed to target Austin. Vanessa learned that Austin was running side missions and lying to her about his votes. With her confidence in him eroding this felt like a good plan to Vanessa even if there was the obvious issue of losing a number.
Jump ahead to Saturday afternoon following the Power of Veto competition. Clay and Becky were on the Block with an eight-person agreement to save either one of them and renom Austin. Clay won the Veto so he’d be coming down leaving an opening for Austin to go up.
Vanessa had been freaking out since pre-comp that Liz would be mad at her for targeting her showmance. (Vanessa had been pushing this “showmancing hard” idea to everyone and she may have even been believing it.) Now that Veto was over she decided it was time to tell Liz so she asked her to come upstairs for a very important talk.
Liz must not have been too interested because she took 70 minutes to get back upstairs. That gave enough time for Shelli and Vanessa to start freaking out there there was a six-person alliance targeting Clay this week. (No, there wasn’t.) Shelli says HGs weren’t thrilled enough that Clay won Veto. She’s just aghast that no one was doing backflips over his first competition win this season.
Shelli and Vanessa realize they’re about to send home a number while the other house is gunning for them. No, the other side isn’t because they’re too dense to see the obvious danger of this powerful alliance. Doesn’t matter though because that’s the fear.
Liz finally arrives, Flashback to 5:45PM BBT to watch. First up, Liz explains how much she doesn’t like Austin. This takes up a lot of the discussion before they finally get to the issue at hand. Their conversation last 48 minutes and it’s well worth watching if you missed it.
Vanessa and Shelli tell Liz everything that’s been going on with Austin and how he’s sinking their game by running his mouth. An important moment comes when Liz tells Vanessa that Austin had just asked her to lie to her to cover up his lie about how he voted in an earlier talk. This shows where Liz’s true allegiance lies. She’s using Austin while trusting Vanessa more.
Just when it looks like Austin is done and gone we hear the conversation start to shift. Shelli suggests maybe they should keep Austin anyway and send Becky home. Shelli doesn’t like how Becky didn’t trust them and that’s their excuse to send her home this week. Yeah, that’ll show her!
Vanessa suggests if they can get Meg, Jason, and James on board to keep Austin and evict Becky then they can just make him a target later down the road instead. Shelli again pushing for Becky to be the one to go this week. Vanessa isn’t sure Becky is the answer, but she’s now leaning away from Austin and looking for a renom option. Cue Austin’s arrival to talk with Vanessa.
Flashback to 6:35PM BBT 7/26 for Austin’s talk with Vanessa. Just an hour ago he had been up there lying to Vanessa and she knew it. Vanessa wants him to admit to everything and do it right now. Austin starts freaking out and Vanessa is getting angry.
Austin’s panic erupts. He had no idea he had done such a huge thing by confirming the twins to Jason and voting to keep Audrey. Austin promises he was trying to help their side (but never told any of those allies about the moves…).
Begging and pleading continues as Austin tells Vanessa he is in love with Liz and must get to Jury with her at all costs. He says this love has rejuvenated his life and means everything to him. Oh Austin. Vanessa does not mention that Liz detailed how she wasn’t interested in him and was just using him.
Their conversation runs for a long, long time. At 7:30PM BBT they’re still going as Austin continues to plead. He says he’ll do anything to stay even if it means he goes next. Austin offers to start fights to make himself a target. He says he’ll go downstairs right now and start yelling at Jason. Austin is later discouraged from doing that.
Vanessa tells Austin he needs to go campaign to Shelli and Clay for support. He needs to get them on board to help rally support around the house and keep him but that she still hasn’t decided. I think she wants to keep him but is messing with him to keep him feeling low ranked and indebted to him for as long as possible.
Through the night Vanessa continues to talk with Shelli, Clay, and Liz for what to do. Vanessa doesn’t want to betray the 8-person promise she made about targeting Austin. Shelli thinks it’s great to send Becky home or even Backdoor Jackie. Clay says to stick with renom’ing Austin and then they’ll campaign to save him and see what happens. He isn’t too worried about losing Austin.
The Jackie plan floats around high on the list and may be their final decision, but Vanessa knows that once she goes back on the plan then no one on the other side will fully trust her again. My take? If she wants to maintain that trust then she needs to renom Austin, let the vote be out of her hands, and then work behind the scenes to keep her ally safe. Maybe next time Vanessa shouldn’t go targeting her close allies even though that seems to be one of her favorite pastimes.
What do you think Vanessa should do? Clay will definitely use the Veto so he’ll have to make a renom choice but this won’t be an easy one to walk away clean. Who do you think should go up on the Block? Veto Ceremony will be held on Monday afternoon so we have more time to watch them squirm.