‘Big Brother’ down to the final four
By: Matthew Lutey
The houseguests started out the week with a competition at “Horror Fest,” and now they are scary close to reaching the end of the game.
Alyssa Snider, a marketing agent from Siesta Key, was evicted Thursday on the CBS reality show ‘Big Brother.’
That leaves a final four of Taylor Hale, a personal stylist from Detroit, Mich.; Monte Taylor, a personal trainer from Bear, Del.; Matthew Turner (who goes by Turner), a thrift store owner from North Attleboro, Mass.; and Brittany Hoopes, a hypnotherapist from Austin, Texas.
The objective of “Big Brother” is to be the last houseguest remaining, which results in a $750,000 prize. Houseguests are cut off from the outside world, followed by cameras and vie for power to be the Head of Household and nominate two players they would like to see eliminated. A weekly vote is conducted to evict one of the nominated houseguests.
The week began with the houseguests shaking off a dramatic double eviction night last Thursday that saw frontrunner Michael Bruner voted out. His ousting opened up the game for a new favorite to emerge.
Monte took a step in that direction by winning a Head of Household competition where the houseguests fumbled around in the dark to board six different doors in order to keep a fictitious killer out.
Monte has worked with all of the remaining houseguests but Alyssa for most of the game. In addition, Monte was concerned about the number of friends Alyssa has already in the jury that will decide the season’s winner, so he decided to nominate her.
Brittany was Monte’s second nominee. In Michael’s final moments, he exposed that Brittany was leaking secrets and forming a lot of deals.
“I nominated Brittany because she’s proved to me that I can’t trust her as much as I thought,” Monte said in the diary room. “I nominated Alyssa because I think that Alyssa has a lot of friends in jury that will vote for her, and I don’t want to go against that in the final two.”
Brittany won the Power of Veto competition after solving a gear puzzle, which allowed her to remove herself from the block and force Monte to nominate a replacement nominee. The only two options Monte had were Taylor and Turner, his two closest friends remaining.
Monte’s goal was for both of them to stay. That is why – despite some strong-arming from Brittany to put up Turner – he named Taylor the replacement nominee. Had it been Turner, Taylor and Brittany would have likely voted Turner out.
“I do trust Taylor,” Monte said. “But I worry that putting Turner on the block this week is like putting a juicy steak in front of a starving man. While I don’t want to damage my relationship with Taylor, I do have to weigh that against the possibility of losing Turner, at a point in the game when I need to keep him as a shield.”
After the veto ceremony, Brittany switched gears to wanting Taylor out over Alyssa. Brittany started to feel like Taylor was distancing herself, and wasn’t confident in the final two they had formed.
“Taylor has barely said two words to me,” Brittany said. “It seems like the moment I couldn’t help her not get on the block, the closeness is gone. She is spending all of her time up in the HOH room. Is the final two with me or does she have a final two with Monte upstairs?”
Brittany and Alyssa came up with a plan to convince Turner to give Alyssa sympathy vote, in theory forcing Monte to break a tie as long as Brittany voted out Alyssa. But Brittany intended to vote out Taylor too, and blindeside her out of the house.
Alyssa’s emotional plea didn’t convince Turner to vote in her favor. Despite that, Brittany still voted out Taylor, so Monte did actually have to break the tie.
Thursday’s episode ended with Taylor being crowned the upcoming week’s HOH after winning a true/false competition at “Fashion Fest.” That ensures she will be part of the final three, and make it to finale night.
