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Big Brother Season 16 Episode 17 Recap: Amber Takes The High Road

I was really sad to see Jocasta not going home this week. It was Amber, the Esthetician from North Hollywood, CA that went home. Team America's mission was announced and they failed this mission. No surprise because it was a risky move for their own game but would have been great entertainment for us. Is anyone else annoyed with the house voting as unanimously? Only one week we've seen a non-unanimous vote. I really like Amber's exit, she kept it classy and hopefully Caleb realizes she's not into him. But again it would have been great to see her blow up some houseguests' game and be entertainment for the viewers. Alas, this episode was predictable but we were left with a cliffhanger. Let's me recap last night's episode.

Amber's Impending Eviction

It was clear that Amber was going to be evicted, whether or not Caleb was on board. It's hard to see houseguest realize their game play was over, but Jocasta had no reason to worry. It may be good to worry but Jocasta should realize she's a floater and they'll keep her as long as she's of use to the Detonators. However for Amber, she was not happy about the decision and wanting to get answers. Meanwhile, Caleb was hoping the nomination of Amber would scare her and run back to his arms. Clearly he still isn't getting the picture and decides it might be a good idea to let her go. Zach's continuing to push people's buttons gives me slight job because there's at least one player in the house that's annoying everyone but nobody has yet to do anything about it. With the following week's HOH it seems pretty clear who the next targets may be.

I commend Amber for leaving with her head held high. She definitely played an honest game, but honesty doesn't get you far in Big Brother. If she was smart, she would have used Caleb's obsession to her advantage but didn't want to be that kind of player nor string someone along. I'm still surprised that Caleb thinks he's running the house, when little does he know that he's looking to be a possible target next week by those in his supposed alliance. The goodbye messages to the houseguests are always interesting to watch because you never know which houseguests' messages you'll see. For Amber's it was a good mix between those dislike, to game play to Caleb being a fool and still saying Amber is his Queen. It's safe to say that Amber will not be looking forward to the Finale party and seeing Caleb. However she may be this season's Nick Uhas and Caleb being GinaMarie from last season.

Team America's Mission Failure

So the producers definitely wanted to throw a curve ball to Team America and stir the pot a little bit. However Donnie was not having it at all, while Frankie and Derrick were trying to figure out how to play it out. In the end I think it was a smart move not to do it but definitely could have created some interesting targets for the following week. The mission was obvious, two members of Team America (Donnie & Derrick) to vote against the majority of the house and publicly pass the blame on two other houseguests. Donnie was absolutely right in saying that nobody would have believed him if he tried to spread gossip. Derrick and Frankie could have easily helped with this task. With Donnie not wanting to complete the mission, he apologies to America in the Diary Room with Julie Chen as he cast his vote. It just shows how much Donnie would rather play the game, then risk his game for a task America wanted him and the other members of the alliance to do for some money and a little chaos.

My Ranking Of The Houseguests

  1. Derrick - Even though he got eliminated from the HOH competition, he's still play a smart game.
  2. Frankie - Even though I may dislike some of his game play, he's proving to be a strong competitor and hopefully the other houseguests aren't picking that up or he could be up for eviction.
  3. Zach - He may be causing a lot of annoyance to the house, but he's playing the game and making himself known as the jerk/villain.
  4. Hayden - Winning the POV and using it on Victoria for his game play assured a vote for him from her but also a little bit of an alliance too. Hayden is definitely a dark horse with his social game but is a physical threat at competitions.
  5. Caleb - Beast Mode Cowboy is in the middle of the pack. He's doing enough to play the game but also he's starting to be a target, so hopefully he'll get his head back in the game now that Amber is gone.
  6. Nicole - She's still in the HOH competition and I think definitely wants to see revenge on Zach. So maybe we'll see another backdoor but it'll be clear if Zach is target. I loved how she took the "Fruit Loop Dingus," as a compliment. Nicole is definitely securing her spot on jury but will this Michigander win it? We'll have to wait and see!
  7. Donnie - Not wanting to agree with Team America's mission was a smart move, but I have yet to see Donnie win a HOH or not be put on the block. He's a very likable guy, but nice won't always get you to the finale. Hopefully Donnie starts to play more social and continue being a beast at competitions.
  8. Cody - Hasn't really done much but I would still consider him a dark horse like Hayden. Cody was smart in making a final two deal with Derrick, so we'll see where that goes.
  9. Christine - Tired to prove herself at the POV competition only to fail when she didn't see some of her gold bars were not fully stacked. Also as much as ratting Amber to the guys, that really affected her game by letting the guys continue to dominate this house. Also getting eliminated early in the HOH competition didn't help either.
  10. Victoria - I can't stand her zingers during the live eviction. It's like she's trying to get noticed. Hopefully she'll play the game soon.
  11. Jocasta - Floating her way to Jury. I would be surprised if she made the finals. Also being the first to be knocked out of the HOH competition, just awful.

Prediction For HOH, Nominations, & BOB Winners

With the slight cliffhanger of HOH, was anyone surprised that there were five houseguests left in the competition. I was surprise there wasn't a tiebreaker, but that would be difficult to judge, especially when they're playing for to HOH spots. So I predict from the five that it will be Hayden & Nicole that win. Then they'll nominate members of the Detonators for eviction with Zach being the real target. So Derrick, Frankie, Cody and Caleb may be nominated next week. However for BOB that will be interesting to watch with four guys competing. But I would think it wouldn't matter who wins because the main goal would be for Zach to be nominated.

I am however looking forward to next Thursday night because it's a Double Eviction. Now with this live double eviction, when they do the Fast Forward week, I believe Julie Chen will announce the twist of two HOHs will be over. Then it will be only one HOH the rest of the season and the next person evicted the following week would be the first member of jury. BUT FIRST, as Julie Chen will always say, we'll have to get through Wednesday's episode and this Sunday's episode before all that happens. So tune in Sunday at 8pm on CBS Detroit 62 to see which two houseguests win HOH, who they nominate for eviction and which HOH gets dethroned!

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