Melody Morris: The comp flop of BB28. For two months, Melody has faced the brunt of the jokes this season. Every day, some creative Twitter user would post a new joke about Melody having zero comp wins. Even her own stan accounts joined in on the joke, with one making a graphic of Melody’s cast photo and the text “Zero Comp Wins” under it.
Now, those jokes can be laid to rest, as Melody won not one, but two competitions during double eviction week. With those two wins, she has drastically changed the trajectory of the endgame, but maybe not how she intended.
The Week’s Strategy
With Dee and Devens both somehow surviving Barrett’s revenge tour, coming out of it with more allies than they had before, all three members of F.A.P are in serious trouble. Drew or Melody need to win the next HOH competition or it is almost guaranteed that F.A.P will lose another member. Yash is also gunning for the HOH, wanting to burn the deal he made with Dee and thinking this would be the best opportunity to do so. He has F.A.P as three easy nominees and has ample opportunity to target the icons afterward. In a time-based HOH competition, Yash sets the time to beat with a time of 11:21 minutes. After Melody quite literally wipes out and Drew does abysmally at the competition, Yash becomes the new HOH.
As soon as Yash won HOH, it was already set in his mind that he would nominate Barrett, Drew, and Melody. Because of Dee’s bribe preventing him from nominating Dee and Devens, his only other option would have been Taylor, his closest ally. Despite the icons exposing the extent of the bribe during week 9, Yash decides to still lie about it. He tells Barrett that he can’t nominate Dee because of the bribe, but that he’s not nominating Devens because of a handshake. Barrett does not believe this one bit, now regretting being so loyal to Yash during his HOH reign. None of F.A.P. is surprised when they see all three of their faces on the memory wall.
It is a must win veto for Drew, who is Yash’s primary target and will go home if he’s still on the block on Thursday night. It is time for the famous Pressure Cooker! Or at least, a variation of it that production is for some reason rebranding the Pressure Cooker as. Dee and Devens get picked to play in the veto alongside Yash and the three nominees. It is set to be a long endurance challenge. Dee is the first to drop after 4 hours, followed by Melody about an hour later! When Devens drops after nearly 10 hours, it is down to Yash, Drew, and Barrett. The HOH, his primary target, and his secondary target. Barrett looks incredibly uncomfortable, having to hunch his back due to his height. Drew is falling asleep out of boredom. And Yash is sick as he’s competing! It is going to be a grueling showdown. Barrett drops next, narrowing the veto down to the two biggest enemies in the game. Drew is desperately trying to distract Yash by yelling, but he is not budging. It is nearly 3 A.M. when Drew and Yash work out a deal. Drew promises to Yash that he will vote out whoever he wants and never target or vote out Yash if he lets him win the veto. To a tired, sick Yash, this deal is enticing. After a lot of consideration, Yash accepts the deal and drops, meaning Drew has won the POV! However, unlike Dee, Drew has very little reason to actually follow through on his deal with Yash…
Melody tries convincing Drew to use the veto on her, but he never even considers it for a second. Drew saves himself from the block, and Taylor goes up in his place as the only viable nominee. Barrett and Melody are now in a lot of danger with Drew off the block. Barrett jumps up to primary target, while Melody is the secondary target, going home if Barrett wins the blockbuster. Yash and Taylor float keeping Barrett over Melody, but know that Dee and Devens would never agree to that. Instead, they just hope that Barrett wins the blockbuster so Dee and Devens will be forced to vote Melody out.
When the final blockbuster of the season turns out to be a skill-based table maze, it’s looking like lights out for Melody. Taylor has not proven to be effective in those kinds of comps and Barrett’s HOH win involved balls, just like the table maze. While Taylor does fail to get a single ball in, both Barrett and Melody get the hang of it. At first, they are neck and neck, but Melody clutches and is able to run away with it, securing her safety. Unfortunately, she knows it’s the end for Barrett, her closest ally at this point in the game. Barrett knows it too and wants to go for fastest exit in BB history. After he is evicted in a 3-1 vote, he makes a good attempt, but falls short of the record.
Barrett Pfeiffer: The Unexpected Icon Slayer
In the first weeks of Big Brother 28, if you had told me that Barrett would be less loyal to the icons than Drew, I would not have believed you. He just seemed to be so close to Dee in those first weeks and it seemed like he would have done anything for her. But then, after Mallory’s backdoor, it was like a lightbulb went off in his head. He actively began planning how to undermine the icons, but he kept on getting screwed over by the blockbuster results. When he won HOH, he made the big swing everyone had been waiting for, nominating all three of the icons. Unfortunately, Angela, the least dangerous icon, ended up going home due to brilliant gameplay from Dee. And his big move ultimately backfired on him this week, Dee and Devens set to get revenge on him. It was a bold play though and much respect to him for going through with it.
The Double Eviction: Fall of a Frontrunner
As has been precedent, it’s time for double eviction night! The final six will become final five over the course of one hour. It’s kind of a shame, since the final six round is such a fascinating week. It’s the start of the endgame. The true frontrunners become clear by this point. However, it’s been blitzed over for most of the new era. Luckily, this double eviction is one of the more exhilarating ones of recent years, with the three biggest front runners all having to fight for their life.
It’s the classic “What the Bleep” comp to decide the double eviction HOH. In yet another clutch win, Melody wins the competition and becomes the new HOH! In one night, she’s gone from laughing stock to x2 comp winner! Melody is not going to let her chance at making a big move slip. Barrett may not have been able to get one of the former Survivor players out, but she fully intends to. Melody nominates Dee and Devens for eviction, putting them in yet another life or death situation.
The veto competition is a simple puzzle. Devens blitzes through the veto comp, winning in under a minute and saving himself from eviction for the third week in a row! Unfortunately, he may have just sealed the fate of his partner in crime, Dee.
Melody now needs to scramble for a replacement nominee. Taylor and Yash scramble to make sure that Drew is that replacement. They tell Melody that she needs to nominate Drew because if she doesn’t, he’ll vote with Devens to keep Dee. However, Melody is very hesitant to nominate Drew, as, despite everything he’s done, he is still her closest ally and friend left. She breaks the news to Taylor and Yash that she’s going to nominate Yash. They are now freaking out, while Dee and Devens corner Drew and desperately try to make sure Drew will vote with them. Julie is frustrated as she has to yell at Dee, Devens, and Drew to come to the living room in order to stay on schedule. Devens uses the veto on himself and Melody names Yash as the replacement.
Dee and Yash are now the final nominees, arguably the two biggest threats to win it all. Dee has her #1 Devens voting to keep her, and Yash has his #1 Taylor voting to keep him. It all comes down to Drew. Will he finally prove that he is not the icons’ lapdog?
The vote is 1-1, Drew is the last houseguest to vote. He hesitates (or pretends to) about his vote, before finally casting his vote to evict Yash and giving an evil smile to the camera. By a vote of 2-1, Yash is evicted in 6th place and the two Survivors are still in the fight for $750,000.
Winner Watch: Dee Survives the Double
There have now been two opportunities to vote out Dee, a Survivor winner, and the houseguests have kept her both times. It is amazing that she was yet again put in so much danger during the double eviction. Just last week, she had told everyone that she was coming after Drew, yet, he was somehow the deciding vote to keep her during the double. The hold that Dee has over the game is undeniable and with Yash gone, I think this is her game to lose. Her only threat is her closest ally, Devens. I’m willing to bet she’ll be able to outplay him though.
Player of the Week: Melody Morris
This is mainly based off of Melody winning two competitions after not winning anything all season. I take back everything I said about her last week. Her ultimate move to send Yash home and failing to get either of the Survivors out this week is controversial, but I’m going to defend her. Yash was such a big threat to win the whole game. He’s amazing in competitions and unfortunately for Melody, she was not in his endgame plans. If she couldn’t get a Survivor out, getting Yash out is the next best thing. Given what we know now, Dee wants to keep Melody and maybe even take her to the final 2. Her still being in the game over Yash is good for Melody. I feel like a lot of people are too blinded by their love for Yash to look at this move objectively.
Flop of the Week: Drew Campbell
It is hard to fathom how Drew kept Dee in the game. She literally told everyone that she was coming after Drew and his F.A.P. allies. Yet, he seems content with playing for second and just hoping that Dee or Devens drag him to the end. Even after Drew saved Dee’s BB life, she still talked about needing him gone next not even an hour after the double was over. Whether or not Yash being evicted is good for Drew’s game is up for debate. But the bottom line is that he is not playing to win $750,000, he’s playing to win $75,000.
Yash Patel: Skullet Master
What a wild journey it’s been with Yash. I was not his biggest fan when the preseason interviews came out. I had little hope that he would have any ability for the game. I assumed he would be all about the comps, but completely disregard strategy and sociability. He proved me wrong though. After a rough start, being nominated week 1, Yash laid low for a while. Then, he won HOH in week 6 and his game started. His HOH ended poorly, with his main man Kamu being evicted due to the DPOV, but that was arguably not his fault. He still established himself as a strong player and gained Lala and Taylor as close allies. He saved himself by taking Dee’s bribe during her HOH reign, even if that wasn’t a good deal for him. It allowed him to make it another week. He then risked his entire game to make sure Haley went home in the year 1000 twist. It takes a lot of guts to do what he did. He steamrolls the veto during Drew’s HOH to stay safe, but loses Lala. Then, his two mistakes come. First, not evicting Dee was a massive blunder. She was his biggest threat to take the crown from him and he kept her. His second mistake was that deal with Drew, which Drew clearly never intended to follow through on. I get that he was sick, but he should have made sure that Drew was still sitting on the block come Thursday night. Still a great game from Yash though. I have yet to come around to the skullet, but I have come around to the most chill, laid back guy on BB28.
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