Big Brother 23- Tuesday Recap for 9/7/21

Good morning,  Sorry I’ve been gone for so many days and todays post is so late!  The last time I recapped was Friday, after we finally heard who several people preferred in their F3’s. (We already knew a few) It was also the morning after Tiffany won the HOH and and a lot of things have shifted. When I did that Friday recap, I purposely didn’t say whether or not I thought Tiffany winning the HOH was good or bad. It’s because I thought it would be based on the results of the week. I think it’s safe to say now, it was bad…very, very bad.  If it had played out for her the way she’d wanted, ‘yea, she’s a genius!’ If it didn’t,  it was going to be ‘why the hell did you do that Tiffany?’

I know some are of the opinion Tiffany should’ve won the HOH and done whatever she needed to do to try to keep Claire one more week. Others felt it was a horrible decision that ruined her game. I can understand both sides of this argument but there’s one that is confusing to me. I don’t understand the opinions of people who were mad at Tiffany for winning the HOH but then a couple days later, saying Tiffany’s dumb if she doesn’t do everything she can to keep Claire. I mean, how can you have it both ways? Winning the HOH WAS Tiffany doing everything she could to keep Claire! That was the whole point of her winning it. Ya, I know she could’ve gone against the CO but she’d be screwed if she did that too.

I also think Xavier has managed to convince some of the viewers of some bullshit this week. He keeps running around saying “this was the plan,” “this was the plan,” but was it?   I know it changed after Tiffany won because X changed Azha’s mind but they went into that HOH with half the cook out wanting Claire to go and half of them wanting Alyssa to go. Xavier’s half doesn’t automatically become the majority just because it’s the side he’s on.  They agreed to throw the comp to either Derek or Azha but they also agreed, (most of them) they did NOT want Kyland winning another hoh. I guess what I’m saying is how rogue did Tiffany really go?  Azha and Derek F were out of it quickly and when Tiffany won it, the overall plan for the cookout didn’t change. The details of that plan did, only because Alyssa may have gone before Claire, but that’s it.

I quickly got over being bummed that I couldn’t recap for a few days and I can personally thank Xavier for it. Seriously, if he spends today bashing Tiffany, we will be on day 7 of listening to what a martyr he is, how unselfish he is, how much he’s done for everyone, the women haven’t done anything and blah, blah, blah. There’s no way I could’ve sat and listened to 6 days of that shit on repeat!

I’m not going to go over everything that’s happened for almost a week so I’ll just go over where the players are positioned heading into Thursday. It’s a good time for it heading into a double anyway. This isn’t a power ranking or anything like that. This is more of a ‘wow, you had a good week’ or ‘damn, you done fucked up.’  There really wasn’t anything that happened last night for this to be a typical Tuesday recap either. Ky camera talked about realizing he hadn’t focused enough on jury management and needed to change that.  Hannah was realizing that Alyssa’s chances of winning the next HOH were high since so many people were planning on throwing it. This is kind of leaving her in a pickle because she wants to gun for it but she just made a fake final 2 with Alyssa and is struggling to find a reason to give Alyssa if she puts her on the block.  Other than a bunch of silliness, there’s your Tuesday recap.

Here’s where I see each players games heading into the 1st Double Eviction: 

Tiffany-   I may as well start with Tiffany since she’s gone from the penthouse to the outhouse.  There’s still a way for Tiffany to win this game and I don’t think her lie to Claire is going to prevent it. (There’s plenty of other reasons for that) After this week, the mountain she has to climb just got a whole lot taller. Besides Alyssa, Tiffany has the greatest chance of being evicted tomorrow night. It’s kind of fitting, since this year’s BB theme is all about gambling and taking risks. She took a risk last week and she lost. It’s why I said her hoh is a bit results oriented because if she’d won that HOH but managed to smooth it over with the cookout, even if Xavier never got on board, it would’ve been OK. She could’ve gone into the double still having Claire and having Xavier & Kyland as targets ahead of her. Some of her personal relationships with other members of the cook out prevented that from happening.  Azha said she was glad Tiffany won it instead of Ky but it didn’t take much for X to change her mind. Derek has never liked Tiffany and maybe there’s nothing she could’ve done early in the game to change that but she didn’t really try so we’ll never know. Tiffany’s personality is a little abrasive and that’s never been a good thing with Derek or Azha.  X has been repeating BS all week about Tiff and Azha and Derek F were primed to believe it, in large part because of Tiffany’s personal dealings with them.  This week started with X wanting Tiffany and Hannah as his F3 and it’s ended with Tiffany becoming his #1 target. She’d put in a lot of work in to pit X and Ky against each other and it was paying off but that’s gone now.  Tiffany wasn’t lying to Claire when she said she’d probably follow her out the door if she left. Tiffany isn’t being tricked because she knows what this week has cost her. She knows the decision to keep X and put the cook out first will probably cost her the game.  Sure, maybe Tiffany also screwed up by not telling Claire the whole truth but how was she not screwed either way? X wasn’t ok with spilling the cook out. (It’s kind of like Fight Club, the 1st rule of CO is don’t talk about CO) Azha and Derek were on the side of telling Claire and Alyssa. Once X (sort of) changed their minds about that, what was she going to do, tell them anyway? If she’d done that, she’d be in the same spot she’s in now, except worse.  Tiffany can’t play for hoh so she really needs Hannah to win it.  She might be ok with Ky or Azha winning because I’m not convinced either of them will want to take her out.  The only reason X was pissed this week was because he thought he was going to lose Alyssa. Tiffany did NOT turn her back on the Cook Out as he’s been claiming.  She never wavered on what she’d have to do if Alyssa won the veto and she said that to Xavier the night she won.  She also told us (while camera talking) that if the worst thing happened, she had made this bed and she knew she’d have to lay in it. Shr hasn’t whined and cried about having to do it either.  Like her or not, there’s one thing that can be said about Tiffany. She owns her game, her mistakes and the decisions she makes.

Xavier- The time Xavier has spent trying to convince the CO that Tiffany might double cross them has only been Xavier trying to justify preparing to double cross the CO himself. (Maybe) I know there’s a lot of Xavier fans and I’m a fan of his too but I won’t lie, this week has kind of soured me on him.  I realize when I think about Xavier, I have to compartmentalize my observations. On one hand, there’s his game and for his game, it’s smart for him to turn the house against Tiffany and it’s smart for him to want to keep Alyssa. If he could find a way for the CO to not be bitter, (he can’t) it would even be smart for him to keep Alyssa all the way to the F2. So far, the hg’s don’t seem as annoyed with him over his cry baby antics this week as some of the viewers have been.  The only area I can see where Xavier has hurt his game is this week is becoming the 1st target for Hannah and Tiffany over Derek F. Only one of Hannah and Tiffany can play for the hoh so he still comes out ahead. Ky seems to want to keep both Tiffany and Xavier so he doesn’t even have Ky (maybe, I’m not sure) gunning for him. Even if I’m reading this wrong and Ky is lying to him, it doesn’t matter because Ky plans on throwing the next HOH. I’ve always seen Ky & Tiffany as the biggest strategizers in the CO but it doesn’t matter what I see as a viewer. The house doesn’t see their games the way I do, at least for now. They see Tiffany and Ky’s games as messy. Xavier has them convinced to give him more credit than I personally think he deserves. Xavier is positioned extremely well heading into Thursday tho.  Not only is he keeping Alyssa this week, (or for an hour) he also won the battle over when to spill the beans about the CO. Even Derek F fell on the side of telling them the truth. There’s only one person who benefited from keeping it a secret and that’s Xavier. Somehow, he managed to get his way this week on that too. It may have pissed me off but I have to be fair. If this was reversed and it was Tiffany getting her way, I would applaud the manipulation. That’s my take on his game, now let’s talk about why I’ve soured on him. If all the things Xavier was saying was purely for game and to turn the others against her, I would applaud it. However, he seems to believe a lot of this shit. He seems to really think he’s sacrificed the most and played the most unselfish game for the CO. Let’s take a look at what Xavier had actually done this season. He fought to keep 2 side people in the game and that’s not selfless. (Christian and Alyssa) I believe Tiffany was the person who pointed out, he doesn’t get to have 2 people, especially when Derek F and Azha were sharing a person. He was also unsuccessful in his attempt to keep Christian that week. The other thing he managed to accomplish was during Christian’s HOH. He had one job as they all have this season. If it’s the week your person was hoh, your job was to steer them where you want them to go. (Ky managed to accomplish that with SB) What did Xavier do when he attempted to keep Hannah off the block on Christian’s hoh? He did such a poor job that not only did he have a huge hand in accidentally getting Hannah ON the block, he actually had a hand in accidentally getting her targeted that week because if the things HE said. What did he do when Hannah briefly became the target? He gave up at the first sign of difficulty and ran and told Tiffany, they may have to cut Hannah and just let the CO move forward with 5 people. There’s that other thing that’s been talked about so much about how Xavier is the glue that holds the cook out together. Really? He had one conversation between Azha and Tiffany, mediating a personal issue they were having. Yeah, that seemed to help them but how is one conversation glue? If Azha didn’t have an irrational crush on Xavier, doing that may have actually been detrimental to his game. Xavier should have recognized that a little bit of beef between Azha and Tiffany would be good, because he could use it later to divide them. The thing with Tiff and Azha wasn’t like the week Derek F wanted to be done with the cook out. Even though Azha and Tiffany didn’t communicate well, neither of them ever talked like they were going to give up on the cook out. For me, it’s just been hard to listen to him talk about how much he sacrificed for the alliance when in my opinion, he’s given up the least and he’s fought the hardest to be selfish. (Again, good game just annoying to hear)  Listening to him and Derek F talk about the women needing to pull their weight WHILE the women were winning comps was also ridiculous. The HOH Xavier won was thrown to him!  Xavier has also been the person who’s benefited the most from the cook out’s existence.  Hannah, Tiffany and Ky have all put in a lot of work during different weeks to get the target off Xavier.  I’m impressed his tantrums put him in the best spot, I’m just not impressed with the tantrums themselves.

Kyland-  His game has probably been the biggest roller coaster this season. He’s up, he’s down, I mean who can keep up? He may be a little all over the place but it isn’t happening on accident. I said recently, Xavier benefited the most when people started to become skeptical of Ky.  The same thing has happened this week. Ky was on everyone’s last nerve and they were ready to take him out 1st.  Now, he’s in a great spot because they’ve turned on Tiffany.  He’s in trouble with Azha and really, that’s about it. Alyssa started the week saying he would be her target and Xavier already has her not really having a preference between Ky and Tiff.  If she were to win this HOH, X will convince her Tiffany needs to be the target. Right after Ky was saying he wanted Tiffany as his F2, he’s taken advantage of the situation this week to throw her under the bus every chance he gets. (It’s been pretty entertaining) Think about it, Ky didn’t throw that HOH comp to Azha either but no one’s pissed at him. His gameplay is harder to understand because you don’t really know what he’s thinking but it’s working. Ky has gotten himself back in this game.

Hannah- She’s been busy.   She made a fake F2 with Alyssa to project herself which was smart. (Alyssa will be pissed if Hannah has to target her this week but I don’t think Alyssa was dying to vote for Hannah in a F2 anyway) Hannah’s the one who had the plan to convince Alyssa that Alyssa convinced Tiffany to put Claire on the block. Far fetched I know, but it worked!  She was the only one who seemed to recognize how ridiculous Xavier was behaving and even kind of called him out on it. Personally, I appreciated it but it didn’t help her game. By no coincidence, this was around the time Xavier started saying Hannah needed to go too. Hannah is certainly no one’s main target but she needs to be careful in the double. Depending on how things go, if Tiffany is otb and wins the veto, Hannah could end up being a casualty.  (Also if Alyssa wins veto) She’s put good work in with X but Ky ruined it by telling Xavier everything they discussed this week. Before a couple of days ago, I would have said Hannah was the best positioned person to make it to F3. I can’t say that anymore since she’s on Xaviers shit list.

Azha- Ky is still her main target after Alyssa. I felt bad for her this week having to listen to both Derek F and X telling her she hasn’t done anything in the game. No, she hasn’t done much but if you want to call anyone the glue for the CO, I think it’s been Azha.  If she and Tiffany had been able to speak the same language, I really think she would have been better positioned. (I blame both of them for that)  She would’ve been able to be in on the plans more if that had happened. Maybe Azha hasn’t been the glue as much as she’s the heart of the CO.  She comes from the most selfless place of all of them.   She’s never had any power in the game and has always had to pretend to be fine with other people’s decisions. I don’t want to give her more credit than she’s due but I’ll say, that isn’t the easiest thing to do.  She’s also had to spend 2 months listening to how Derek F has been the puppet master. Shit, that alone deserve some credit! (I’d have jumped on that day bed and strangled him by now)  I’ll never be very impressed with Azha as a player but I think she’s a beautiful human being and I really like her.  She’s funny, she’s talented and she’s kind. (not what I usually look for in a BB player but she is who she is and who she is, isn’t cut out for this game) As far as her game, out of everyone, she had the right idea this week. She was the most vocal about wanting to tell Claire the truth and said it was stupid they were continuing to lie. As usual, no one listened to her opinion and it didn’t happen. It doesn’t change the fact that she was right.

Derek F- He’s not going to win this game.  The only path I see for him to win is if X manages to keep Alyssa past tomorrow, pisses off the CO, takes Derek to F2 and the CO is bitter over it. There you go, there’s his path to victory. Derek F is Raven levels of delusional and maybe that’s why Xavier has gotten worse. Those two have just fed off each other for a week. On a human level, I understand it a little bit. It would be hard to go into the yard week after week and before a comp even starts, know that you don’t have a chance. That has to be frustrating. He’s also spending time with guys like X and Ky, who love to act like they do everything. He can’t jump on that bandwagon with comp wins so he’s convinced himself he’s the brains. Everyone wants to feel important and he’s no different. He’s also half responsible for the bad relationship he has with Tiffany. It’s like this week when he tried to fake being sad over what Tiffany was going to have to go through. She knew better and she called him on it and told him ‘stop, I know you’re happy about it.’ He’s a bad liar but having said all this, his position has improved. A week ago, X was eyeing Tiffany and Hannah as his F3. This guy’s thing was always fake to X and Ky but unless X is lying and wanting to make a run at it with Alyssa, I think Derek F is possibly X’s real F3 plan now. Derek was also going to be the first target for Hannah and Tiffany but thats switched to X.  I’d like to say he hasn’t done anything to make this happen but he’s continued to fuel X’s fire this week so he has done something.

Alyssa- She was done and gone the moment Tiffany won the hoh but a tiny veto saved her.  This is where I’m supposed to brag on Alyssa for saving her own ass when it was on the line but with everything else going on in the house, I just can’t. I mean, she’s seriously spent the past couple of days bragging on herself for convincing Tiffany to put Claire on the block. She really thinks they’re getting ready to pull a fast one and double cross Tiffany on a vote to save X.  I’ve had second hand embarrassment listening to her talk about this and it’s almost painful. I think Alyssa is a sweet person and she’s a fan of the game so I think the trick they’ve played on her is going to make it worse when it’s over. (Its good gameplay tho.  They needed a way to get Claire on the block without making Alyssa suspicious) I just hope she can move on making swimsuits or enjoy her new relationship with Christian, hanging out in his parents basement.  I don’t know, I wish her well but she’s not winning this game. Even if X decided to completely burn the CO, (which I’m not convinced he’ll do) she still won’t win the game. On a week when her back was against the wall and she managed to save herself, her position is still terrible.

Claire-  There isn’t really much to say because Claire’s leaving tomorrow. I guess I could say in a different season, up against a different alliance, Claire has presented very good reasons why she should stay this week. Unlike Alyssa, who makes absolutely no sense, Claire’s reasoning is rational and and maybe she could have stayed if things were different. Watching the conversation between Claire and Tiffany, when she found out she was going on the block, was sincerely painful to watch. It wasn’t even painful for me because I was watching someone’s game end, who’s a huge fan of the show. Let’s face it, Claire hasn’t played the best game so it’s hard for me to get too bothered by her leaving. It was because I was watching 2 people who’ve grown to care about each other, going through a sad situation. This is a game but it’s real people playing it and there are real feelings involved. Claire has been a huge benefit to Tiffany to bounce things off of all season with strategy. She’s never really gotten enough credit for that and I think it’s another way Tiffany’s game may take a hit. (That’s assuming Tiffany doesn’t leave 45 minutes after Claire)  Tiffany may get the chance to tell Claire all about the cook out in great detail sooner vs later. Sadly there’s not really anything else to say about Claire, other than like Azha, I think she’s a beautiful human being.

Could Alyssa win the HOH tomorrow night? Anyone has a chance on any Thursday but how much better are her odds this week?  Xavier is planning to throw it, Kyland is planning to throw it, so Alyssa’s only competition is Azha, Derek F and Hannah. Those are some pretty good odds. Alyssa, who is completely clueless about what’s happening in the house, could actually be the person to cause the Cook Out to take their first loss.

I know this was a long one but I’ve been gone for quite a few days. I’m also sorry this wasn’t my regular recap but I felt it was the best way for me to dive back in after being gone so many days. Besides, what can I say that’s not already been covered this week?

There isn’t much to do other than sit around waiting for tomorrow night and see how this is going to play out.

Have a great Wednesday!

Mel