We officially have our Big Brother Over The Top final 3! Either Jason, Kryssie or Morgan will soon become the first winner of BBOTT.
For some, this might not be the most ideal or deserving final 3, but like any season of Big Brother, if you make it to the end, you’ve done something right along the way. So it’s time once again to take a look at the finalists and see who should actually win this thing. We’ll be looking at competition wins, strategy and moves — all the usual Big Brother stuff it takes to capture that prize money at the end. And please keep in mind, we’ll only be looking at game play and fan influence. We will not be considering who talked the most shit or who wiped boogers on whose belongings.
Since Jason was the first person in the final 3, we’ll go ahead and start with him.
Jason Roy
As you all know, Jason was voted into the BBOTT house by America. He’s the superfan-turned-vet who first played in Season 17. He came into the game with a huge target on his back and was officially the house’s first target. But after a veto win and some maneuvering, Jason got the target off his back for awhile. During those idle weeks, Jason developed his core alliance all while keeping himself tied to the other side by way of Scott and Alex.
Everyone knew it was a huge risk to keep Jason around, but they did it anyway. And every time Jason was sure to go home, he stepped up and saved himself or America reached out a helping hand. And that brings me to my next point. Did America help Jason get to the end? Sort of. But Jason got no more help than anyone else in the game. The America’s Vote outcomes were pretty divided among both sides of the house. Alex, Shelby and Morgan got as much help as Jason, Kryssie and Justin did. So there’s little to fault Jason with there.
I think Jason has played a pretty solid game. He may have crossed the line a few times when it comes to good sportsmanship, but this is the world we live in now. Look around on social media and you’ll, see that our world isn’t the kindest at the moment. I’m not going to fault Jason for wiping a booger on someone’s belongings. Should he have done that? No way. Should that mean he loses BBOTT? Absolutely not.
Jason’s Competition wins: 3 vetoes, 1 HOH (plus America’s co-HOH)
Kryssie Ridolfi
It’s hard to think about anything other than the veto competition that Kryssie gave up on. That’s all most people can think of when they ask themselves if Kryssie deserves to be in the final 3, much less win. I get that. It wasn’t what most of us look for in a BB player. And then there’s the whole insisting on getting Jason to the end thing.
Loyalty is awesome, but surely she knows she can’t beat Jason, right? Part of me thinks she knows he’d end up in the end anyway and she just didn’t want to come off as a disloyal person. Of course that’s neither here nor there, though, because she had no say and Jason ended up taking her to the end.
The best talking points for Kryssie would be the early target she shook off and aligning with the right people at the right times. Kryssie was definitely an early target as Scott wanted her out badly. But she managed to shrink that target and look where she is now. Another strong point in her game is how she worked people when she needed to. She actually had Morgan and Shelby pretty convinced she was going to work with them over her season-long allies. I’m not sure that really helped Kryssie much, but it was at least some pretty solid game play.
Kryssie’s Competition wins: 1 HOH
Morgan Willett
I definitely never thought I’d be writing about Morgan at this point in the game, but here we are. And if we’re being completely honest here, Morgan is the last one from her alliance, not because she has been that good at the game, but because she was the weakest of her alliance. Alex, Shelby, and even Whitney, outplayed her all season and she just happened to be the one left over.
That being said, Morgan won a couple of times when she had to. Her latest win was what got her in the final 3, but she was up against an asthmatic Justin who never paid attention to anything that happened in the game all season, so there was no way he was winning that competition — not to slight her win or anything, because she earned her spot in the finale. And that is more than you can say about Kryssie who was hand-picked by Jason for her spot.
It gets a little murky here when I try to compare Morgan and Kryssie. Both were kind of the same player in their respective alliances. Both won an HOH and both won a Care Package ONLY to help out a better-liked alliance member. Morgan saved herself from the block while Kryssie had slightly better strategy. So Morgan and Kryssie sort of tie in this analysis.
Morgan’s Competition wins: 1 HOH, 1 veto, 1 final 3 comp (plus America’s CP veto)
Overall Analysis
First of all, let me explain the scorecards since that seems to be what readers always get hung up on (and by hung up on I mean angry). This season I ditched the “control” portion since America had more control than anyone. I replaced it with Fan Help, which is America’s help.
This season’s social games sucked. But these guys didn’t really have to worry about it as much as there is no jury and no jury vote at the end. Almost no one branched out from their alliances this season. And while that made for a fantastically divided house, it wasn’t exactly smart. Jason edges out the other two here as he was the only one from an alliance smart enough to work alliances on the other side earlier in the game. Justin had Whitney, but that was barely an alliance. And we know Kryssie never spoke to the other side until the end of the game, and the same can be said for Morgan.
As, for strategy, Jason clearly wins on that one. He never stopped playing this season. He always had a plan for what was happening in the moment and for later down the road. He knew which of his alliance members were detrimental to his game and which would help him at the end. Kryssie didn’t have much going on strategically and sort of followed Jason and Danielle’s leads. The same can be said for Morgan, as she followed Alex and Shelby’s leads.
Now we look at Fan Help. This is where you’d want to have a lower score on your BB resume. But since this was a huge part of the BBOTT format, we can’t really fault the HGs too much here. Sure, someone getting to the end with no help from America would be a huge point to make. But that doesn’t really apply here. From the start, Jason had an unfair advantage with his built-in fanbase, but it didn’t take long for Alex and Shelby to pass him up in popularity.
In the end, America’s involvement was pretty even (though leaned a little more toward Shelby), but Jason did benefit slightly more than the other two in the final 3. Kryssie’s Care Package kept him safe, as did his Co-HOH. Morgan got the veto handed to her by America, which was basically to save Shelby, but she benefited from it as well. Kryssie seemingly benefited the least from fan help.
So now that I’ve established that the Fan Help portion doesn’t really mean much, let’s tie this up.
It’s clear based on the scorecards and the above breakdowns that Jason is the clear winner here. He played the best game, he won the most competitions and he made the smartest moves thorough the game. And he did all of that with a HUGE target on his back. America might have stepped in and gave him a hand a couple of times, but you did the same for Morgan’s side of the house. And there was a point in the game where Jason was no longer the fan-favorite (Alex and Shelby took the reigns) and America wasn’t going to save him. And that’s when the others missed their opportunity.
So in the end, I’d give the win to Jason. And even though there should be no actual reason why Jason wouldn’t win, I guess Morgan would be my next choice. But just barely.
I agree totally with everything said above. Jason for the win!
Branden,
Thank you for the great recaps of this inaugural season of BBOTT. I admire your professionalism and appreciate your insight into the game.
Please keep up the good work.
LMAO.How does Morgan have a worse social game than Jason and Kryssie. This is pure bias. If you can’t make an unbiased article than don’t even try.
I don’t see anything about Kryssie having a better social game than Morgan. In fact it says they all three had terrible social games with Jason having slightly better than the other two since he worked on alliances with the other side earlier in the game.
I think Pavlos is referring to the comment “It gets a little murky here when I try to compare Morgan and Kryssie. Both were kind of the same player in their respective alliances.” and “And if we’re being completely honest here, Morgan is the last one from her alliance, not because she has been that good at the game, but because she was the weakest of her alliance.”
I totally disagree with these statements and I can see why pavlos would consider you biased.
Kryssie did absolutely nothing. She was dragged to the end like Victoria. Morgan was strategising all the way. Do you remember when Alex attempted to get Morgan to use the Veto on Scott? She was playing.
Whitney was floating and then realised after Scott’s comments that she was at the bottom of the alliance. So what does she do but jump to a larger alliance where she is still at the end. So who is the weakest in that alliance of BS? That would be Whitney. She should have rode with the alliance she had until she needed to backstab to move up. So to say Morgan is the weakest is not correct in my opinion.
Very well said.
I agree. Morgan tried several times to talk to them in the backyard. And as soon as she would walk away they would start all their trash talk. She also didn’t enjoy their disgusting conversations so that’s why they stayed away a lot. Jason and Krissie never made an attempt to try and talk with them.
There is much to be said for Jason’s game moves – BUT he also made the worst game move I remember ever seeing. When he knew his side was going to outnumber the other 5 to 2 with their strongest players gone, he got cocky and burned some bridges he didn’t think he would need anymore with that fake Final 5. It came close to sending him home. He’s not a rookie, he’s a vet and should have known better. I think you sold Morgan short on her social game, she spent time with Justin and anyone else who would talk to her, and was involved in the strategy sessions with her team. All things considered, and based on game, I’m voting for Morgan.
I saw it as Justin spent time with the Smashers instead of Morgan spending time with Justin. She did work with him at the very end on their Terrible Twosome, but wasn’t that at the F5/6 stage?
There really wasn’t a lot of opportunity this season to work with “the other side”, but I saw the BS as being more open to it. She did try to keep Whitney from defecting (without success, but she tried). And if Justin was spending time with her, didn’t she kind of have to be spending time with him? Splitting hairs I think.
I mean the Justin spending time thing as he would go to their group rather than Morgan seeking him out. Wasn’t trying to play semantics but rather noting how Justin spent time with Morgan/Alex/Shelby/Whitney rather than it being Morgan & Justin or Morgan & the LNJ group.
OK I see that. With the strong divide this year, the few times I saw a BS approach LNJ they were mostly quiet then roasted them the second they left. They didn’t treat Justin like that.
Yeah, the divide was nuts. Definitely prohibitive for most to try crossing that line.
Morgan did try to get something going with Neeley but it never got any traction because of the Neeley/Scott eviction week. At least she tried a little bit.
Exactly
Yay
Who are you to say that Jason is the clear winner! The public America decides! in my opinion Jason was the worst player! The next worst player was Kryssie! All my votes are going for Morgan!
Pssst, Branden is part of the “public America” just as you and your opinion are.
Shhh! Some people like to live in their bubbles. ;)
Jason has lost a lot of his fans because of his behavior in the house. I think it’s going to be close. My votes are also going for Morgan. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Highly doubt he care about America. lets be real he came for one reason only and that was to win this game which he probably will. He seem to not care after his first appearance on the show when he seem to be expecting to have jobs lined up after the show but nothing actually came out of him being on the show. So he ended up where he started in his moms basement at the grocery store.
Where do we vote?
CBS
5 of 7 America’s nominees were Morgan’s allies including Morgan herself. Care packages were split, however the last 3 were by far the most important and 2 of those 3 went to Jason’s side. Have nots are less relevant, however those definitely went against Morgan who had to be a HN by herself twice including the week her sister was evicted. Strategy was mostly irrelevant this season due to America and as you stated, social game mostly sucked. Fan help was far more important than anything else this season and it clearly favored Jason.
Along with production. Lol
Not sure how you can say america’s involvement was pretty even when almost all of the americas nominees were from the Ball Smashers side… and that had far more to do with how the game went than the Care packages or any of the other twists… When one side wins HOH week after week and everyone leaving is from their own side, that is pretty clear that America favored Jason by a substantial margin.
You just took the words out of my mouth, man. :)
It doesn’t bother me that Jason will win over Morgan (because that’s incredibly likely). It also doesn’t bother me that many people believe Jason deserves the win over Morgan, as much as I disagree (and not because of boogers, but because he rarely had any idea what was happening in the house for someone who was so “strategic”).
What bothers me is that sentiments like this are so common and will continue to be so common after the season:
“It gets a little murky here when I try to compare Morgan and Kryssie.
Both were kind of the same player in their respective alliances.
…Kryssie had slightly better strategy.”
No one this season played a good game–no one was capable of playing a good game–but even if Morgan is less deserving than Jason (which, even if I think Jason is not-so-deserving game-wise, I’ll concede that it’s
very close), Morgan certainly deserves it far more than Kryssie.
If Morgan and Kryssie really had the same strategy to be taken to the end, Morgan should be given the credit for understanding that.
Morgan said over and over that she wanted people to continue to see her
as weak so she would be protected and people would want to take her to
the end–and she was consistently protected, including by the other
side, who–What do you know!–wanted to take her to the end. Kryssie had similar protection, but was shocked and depressed when she realized she had it and took nearly every opportunity to undermine it by bragging about her intellect, making excuses for comp wins, making excuses for her physique, and openly giving her game far more credit than it deserves. Her game only survived her own sabotage by how
obviously oblivious and useless Kryssie actually was.
Furthermore, over both other finalists, but surely over Kryssie, Morgan actually understood what was happening in the house. Like, Jason had laughably bad reads nearly every week, but Kryssie failed to understand or accept what was told to her fucking face.
Morgan certainly was not an active player, but week after week she showed that she had a good plan, she had a reasonable read on the house, and then she would follow through with her plan. If that’s not enough to put her above Jason, fine, but there’s no universe where her and Kryssie were comparable at all.
TL;DR
I always knew Jason would win and I always knew people would see him
as the strongest player this season, even if he didn’t deserve it, but it hurts my soul that we’re looking at a world where Morgan doesn’t get credit over fucking Kryssie.
Come on. lol
So true! Morgan & Kryssie have complete different games!
America favored way heavily to Jason/LNJ side more than BSers. America nom was the most powerful vote by America, and 5 out of 7 times it favored Jason’s side. AN could render HoH worthless, therefore I don’t understand how Morgan beats Jason in that regard.
As for strategy – Didn’t even touch points about Jason’s two blunders – making a fake final 5 deal that gained no benefit & not getting Mo out during DE that would have guaranteed a final 4 LNJ had they done that.
But overall strategy – the best player was America. The CP & AN made it impossible for that divided house to make side deals. No one beats anyone in that regard.
Leaving out Kryssie, both Morgan & Jason have cases. It’s all preference. I personally prefer Morgan for the win, because her side had the toughest road dealing with AN nonsense that required them to win do or die veto’s, where LNJ basically had America bailed them out for everytime a BSer would win HoH.
I’m not going to downplay Jason’s game, but its not as phenomenal compared to the other two. He had to win 2 veto’s in a do-die situation because he put himself in that vulnerable spot. Kudos to Jason winning the most comps, but as BB18 – Paul had the most, but doesn’t mean a thing if Nicole beat him. Either Jason or Morgan is winning, so I just had to say my word about this article.
It’s interesting that you think Morgan & Kryssie are so similar. I think Jason & Morgan are very similar. I’m excited that they are both in the finals because there isn’t a clear winner. Jason played a great game. But so did Morgan. Yes, Morgan wasn’t the strongest in her alliance but that was because she was in such a strong alliance. LNJ was full of weak players. You didn’t even mention the sister twist. That was quite an accomplishment to keep that a secret. That adds points for Morgan. It’s basically one side of the house vs the other, just like it has been all season.
Here’s my take on the Final 3;
Kryssie is NOT gonna win. Enough said on her. Morgan is just lucky that she’s here, because she heavily depended on Alex and Shelby to help her through. She’s only getting sympathy votes, the way I see it. Jason has played the best game, given that he was Public Enemy #1 the very minute he walked through the door. He manipulated the other side when his side was in danger, he managed to win it out when he, himself, was in danger, and he never really received the blunt of America’s rage. We voted him back in, we gave him the most powerful Care Package, and we never gave him an eviction vote. Jason deserves this win, but I’ll be happy with Morgan winning, I can respect her game too. But this would be terrible if Ms. Quote-on-Quote-Puppetmaster FartBurp won. (Don’t worry, that’s never gonna happen.)
Nobody ever targeted Jason because he became an untouchable. When monte tried to get him out, America took him out and the rest of the house was scared of targeting Jason. That is hardly good strategy.
This is incredibly biased. Morgan and kryssie are not at all on the same level socially or strategically. Morgan’s weaknesswas a self admitted strategy, while kryssie blamed hers on many other factors. Morgan attempted to reach out to the other side, while kryssie did not.
Americas help was not at all evenly distributed. Jason came into the game with a large fanbase, who instantly targetted monte when he made it clear he wanted Jason out. 5 of the American noms were from the BS side which were far more powerful than the CP or other twists. It took away all the power from the HOH.
Branden, I love your sense of humor. I get your sarcasm and like the best entertainers—you always leave me wanting more! You kill me. ;)
Actually if you want to say weakest morgan was… because she allowed her sister to control her game. even when her friendship with whitney was at jeopardy. because even though whitney may have been low man on the totem pole morgan was weak to allow her sister to control which way and how she should play her game. IF morgan had been smart about it she would have aligned with the other side and helped her sister to get rid of every person until they were in the final 3 but they couldn’t see past their own noses to figure out that was the best game plan to make it to the end together. SO that was their own fault to have alex become evicted.
As a Shelby fan, I’m going to choose NOT to use my power of voting for the winner, because all 3 of these people sucked as players. They couldn’t have let Alex, Shelby, or Danielle slide into the final 3? Come on, man.
Jason played a good game but this article gives him a bit too much credit. It was America that wrecked the Ball Smashers. And if he wins, Jason should share his prize with the voting viewers. Morgan’s game is under-rated. She played and played hard, especially after Alex left. She strategized right alongside Shelby, making those two a real team. It was actually her idea to use the care package to turn Justin against Danielle. Her social game was effective, too. The only real enemy she made was Kryssie and she even tried to mend that. Kryssie wasn’t listening tho because by that time she’d become Jason’s minion.
Thanks for posting the comp wins, Branden. I wasn’t 100% sure what the score was between Morgan and Jason (knew Kryssie wasn’t even close to either one of them).
Sorry Morgan gets my vote. She played a good game. Was it great? No. But she did it with class unlike Jason. Was his great? No. His was okay. He didn’t do anything the first half of the season. Winning comps isn’t everything. Morgan was on the block 4 times and managed to win her way into the F3. Just can’t reward Jason. Hoping Morgan wins. And I sure hope they don’t do another season like this.
Let’s all agree on one thing. At least cornbread Monte and Scott aren’t on the finale. Thank goodness
Jason for the win i agree with what was said!
Kryssie and Morgan tied? Seriously? I mean I can see where you’re going but Morgan has won 2 more comps then her and while one was the last one, there’s no way Kryssie could do that running. And they’re tied in noms so u can’t use that really for deciding. So while I think Jason probably deserves it more than Morgan, Morgan deserves it way over Kryssie I believe. And I wish I could say Jason had the advantage of being a vet, Morgan had the advantage of having a twin and an immediate ally in the house so u can’t really use that either. But I will be voting for Morgan mostly bc I like her a lot more than Jason.
Yesss. Voted for Morgan too. And will do again tomorrow. Morgan for the win. Jason had his chance two years ago. .