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Big Brother Season 17 Episode 18 Recap: Going For Big Targets

By Mark Drum
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We last saw the Big Brother houseguests fighting for this week's HOH competition from the live eviction episode where Jason was sent packing and Julia entered the house. If you watched closely in the opening credits, Julia was added with her twin sister Liz. Has anyone seen Steve? He's literally in the episode for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile the power couple "Clelli," looks to be in danger. But first let me recap everything that happened from last night's episode!

Let's Make a Deal

With Vanessa as the outgoing HOH, this week was a "game changer," because they finally got rid of BOTB, which meant there would only be one HOH moving forward each week. As Julie Chen said from last episode the game has reset, literally. It was if last week didn't happen because the number of houseguests in the house remains at 12. Vanessa was upset that she wasn't able to compete and had to put her trust in her alliance to win this endurance competition. Austin had a little incentive in winning from Liz as she promised him a "passionate," kiss if he became HOH. Austin failed to stay on as he fell second after Steve fell first.

James was the first to ask those competing for deals. Nobody however was speaking up. Then one by one more houseguests started to fall. We were down to five with James, Becky, John, Clay and Shelli. James again started asking if anyone wanted to make a deal. Nobody budging he started to play mind games with Clay to make him start to question how long he could stay on. Final three was James, John and Shelli. This time Shelli wanted to make a deal that would ensure safety for herself and Clay. James took the bait and also promised John for safety. In the end James won HOH and I really enjoyed his DR where he said he's not afraid to make big moves and get blood on his hands. Shelli however said in her DR that if James goes back on his word would show what kind of player James is.

The Sixth Sense Alliance Trust Issues

As the HOH competition ended, Julia wanted to confront Liz about her distaste for Austin because he revealed her name to Jason and then throwing her name to be evicted. Liz tried to explain to her that Austin was doing it to ensure safety for them. Austin tried to do some damage control, but Julia is not so trusting, she's willing to "forgive but won't forget it," so we'll have to wait and see what happens in the coming weeks. Vanessa was surprised to hear that Shelli would make a deal and include Clay but not include her. Which showed Vanessa how Shelli feels about her trust. Shelli did have a conversation trying to hash out her decision of not wanting to win the HOH and making a deal to ensure safety for her as well as Clay. Hopefully most of America is happy to see this alliance not in power and dominating a game. Now that the tables have turned we'll see if this alliance can survive this week.

Becky The Snitch

For some strange reason, Becky felt like she had to return the favor of her safety to Clay and Shelli by relying information to them. In the HOH room, Becky, Jackie, Meg and James had a discussion of who should be nominated. Right off the bat Shelli and Clay's names are suggested but were not sure whether or not they should put them up or have a backdoor strategy. Shelli seems to be the main target for James and was trying to hash out scenarios with them to ensure either one of them gets evicted. With this information Becky went to Clay and Shelli to let them know they should be happy as well as talk to James. Warning both of them their names have been mentioned for nominations. I will give credit to Becky trying to earn trust with other houseguests, but she's walking a fine line of gaining trust and being a snitch. Right now in my opinion Becky is in the middle of the pack for this game but she's trying to move her way from a floater to a competitor in this game.

Revenge For Jason's Eviction

With the news of their possible nominations, Clay and Shelli go up to talk to James. However they did try to calm down and try to act happy before speaking with him. There was a little spat between the two in how to approach James and how to calm down. As they spoke with James they made it clear they knew about Jason's eviction but didn't take ownership of getting him evicted. They kept pushing to put Austin, Vanessa or the twins up for eviction and not them. James went along with what they were saying but took their suggestions with a grain of salt. In the eve of nomination ceremony looming James was unable to sleep and needed to walk around. Confiding into Meg who seems to finally have her head in the game listened to James about his nomination decisions. I guess it took DaVonne, Jeff and Jason to be evicted to realize they needed to take out the power couple. The nomination ceremony was great, seeing Clay and Shelli's faces on the wall for nominations and hearing James' speech made for some emotionally charged nominees. Both of them wanted to remind the houseguests that James gave his word that he wouldn't put either of them up and broke his word. It seems Clay and Shelli forget this is a game and not everyone will play the game as "honest," as they are playing. Oh how the mighty have fallen.

Prediction For POV

This upcoming POV will determine if James' plan will be a success for Thursday's live eviction. Clay and Shelli will be hoping to rely on their alliance to help get one of them off and to hopefully convince James on a replacement nominee they could evict. But I predict John will win the POV after he is selected and decide not to use the POV. Which would be a nice little revenge for John as he had been nominated for eviction the first four weeks of the game. Tune in on Wednesday at 8pm on CBS Detroit 62 to see if James' plan to evict either Clay or Shelli gets a change of plans or if it stays in tact! I can't wait to find out!

Mark Drum is a Farmington Hills, MI native and Big Brother fan since 2000. Mark is a graduate from the University of Northern Colorado with a degree in Theatre Arts.

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