“Big Brother” giveth, “Big Brother” taketh away. After winning HOH, Cliff Hogg III shook up the game by nominating Jack Matthews and Jackson Michie, but now his plan and the potential for live feeds gold are likely to go up in flames because of Christie Murphy‘s Panic Power.
Jackson won the Veto on Saturday afternoon, which created Cliff’s worst-case scenario because now Christie could activate her power and upgrade the Veto to the Diamond Power of Veto, allowing Jackson, not Cliff, to name the replacement nominee. Jackson and the Six Shooters want Isabella Wang out, and if she goes up on the block, the remaining Six Shooters and most of the outsiders would evict her over Cliff’s intended target, Jack. The irony, of course, is that almost everyone recognizes what a threat Jack is and there’s no better time than now to get him out pre-jury, but they’re all cowards (except for Cliff).
The rest of the weekend was just a ton of strategizing around Christie’s power. She doesn’t actually want to use it for Jackson and would prefer to keep it for herself, so she pitched to Cliff for them to agree on a mutual target (ahem, Bella) that he could renom so she wouldn’t have to use it. If this power never existed, Cliff would’ve just renom’d Holly Allen or Analyse Talavera, who do nothing, to ensure that Jack goes. He told Christie that he would never renom her or Tommy Bracco if she didn’t use it and that he’s OK with letting her choose the renom so she can keep her power. Obviously, she brought up Bella, whom Cliff agreed was untrustworthy and wouldn’t mind seeing go.
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Christie painted herself as a genius when she kept recounting this chat to the Six Shooters, embellishing with each retelling that Cliff swore up and down on his kids’ lives and then his whole family he’d renom Bella. (He didn’t, but his daughter tweeted that he can consider all family swears null and void.)
Was Cliff just bluffing? Before the Veto comp, Nick Maccarone encouraged Cliff to tell Christie what she wants to hear to convince her not to use her power and then do whatever he wants. But again, that was before the comp was played and their nightmare came to fruition. And Cliff said in the Diary Room on Sunday’s episode that he doesn’t want Christie to use her power, so he could just be feeding her what she wants to hear. He hasn’t done a Cliff Notes for feeders since the Veto, but he likely knows that his back is up against the wall because his HOH is about to get f—ed and his target could stay and go after him going forward.
Cliff put out feelers on Sunday to see if he’d have the numbers from the outsiders to get out Jack even with Bella on the block, and the answer is no because Kathryn Dunn would rather evict Bella. Sam Smith tried to flip Christie to boot Jack because this is their “only chance,” but Christie is worried people will gun for her if she doesn’t use it. Jack campaigned to Cliff by promising two weeks of safety. And though he understands that Bella is likely going home, Nick warned Cliff that the Six Shooters are probably lying to him about protecting him. Nick later pitched to Christie to flip on Jack and keep her power.
“[Jack] is going to win BB21 if he doesn’t go this week,” Nick argued. “No one else is going to take a shot at him. You said you would never let a guy pressure you to do something. If you go home next week, you are going to regret it for the rest of your life. If you use it, who knows what’s going to happen?”
SEE ‘Big Brother 21’ spoiler Week 4: Who was nominated for eviction?
Christie thinks she’d beat Jack in a final two, but she admitted that that she wants Bella out now because Bella said she would nominate Christie if she won HOH. Nick had to inform Bella she’s “f—ed” because of that comment, so she had to try to do some damage control with Christie, which really amounted to nothing. She claimed she said it when she was pissed in the aftermath of the blindside. Christie admitted she feels pressured to use her power even though she doesn’t actually want to.
“Obviously this power is something that I won and I want to keep and use for myself,” Christie said. “But I may not even be on the block the next two weeks. I have the pressure from the boys and the girls. When Cliff won HOH, there was not a single doubt in my mind that I was going on the block. I knew that I was going on the block. In that moment of fear, I gave him [Jackson] my word [that I would use my power on him]. If I do not use it, like I said I would, I will have that half of the house literally gunning for me cause that’s betrayal.”
SEE: Week 4 Power of Veto ceremony results on #BB21 and what they mean for July 25 eviction
By the end of the night, Cliff appeared to have thrown in the towel to get Jack out because the votes aren’t there. “As much as I wanted Jack out, I don’t think it’s going to happen,” he lamented to Nicole Anthony, who pointed out that he could make a promise Christie and renege on it. Cliff said it was too early in the game for him to do that. He and Christie then had a chat to more or less finalize their deal to renom Bella regardless of whether Christie uses her power.
“I’ll tell you what got me more than anything else that you talked about. I do not want Bella on this jury,” he said. “That could ruin the entire BB21 season if you get a bitter person that stirs discontent in that jury house.”
Christie agreed that Bella would “ruin” the jury and since she has until 11 a.m. PT on Monday to decide whether to use her power, she promised Cliff she will give him a heads-up. “You have my word. Any decision I make, I will come to you,” she said.
SEE ‘Big Brother 21’s’ Ovi: ‘I feel really dumb’ for forming that sham alliance
So unless Cliff has some devilish plan up his sleeve, what could’ve been the first crack within the Six Shooters’ armor is foiled this week by a “Big Brother” twist. But props to Cliff for taking the shot in the first place since literally no one else was willing to (sure, no one else outside of Gr8ful was previously in power, but everyone has been like, “I want Jack and Jackson gone… but I don’t want #bloodonmyhands.”) If Christie does use her power, then at least Cliff can claim that he flushed out the remaining powers in one week — Jack used his, and the original Veto players, Holly, Jessica Milagros and Sam, were replaced by Analyse, Kat and… Sam. So it was a wash. We told you it was a crappy power.
It is a risk for Cliff to let Christie potentially keep her power in the game while allowing her and her alliance to eliminate their target. But maybe this is the kick Christie needs to look out for herself and keep her mouth shut sometimes. Her whole ordeal was self-inflicted since no one spread that news about her power but her. Since she told everyone, the Six Shooters see her power as theirs, so now she has to decide whether to “waste” it on someone else instead of being able to use it whenever she wants.
But a twist might actually work this season, so miracles do happen.
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