Big Brother 25-Weekend Recap for 11/05/23 (plus part 1 hoh spoiler)

Author: Mel

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Good morning all, There wasn’t much going on so I shouldn’t be calling this a recap anymore. This weeks recaps will be more of discussing whatever pops into my head over my morning coffee.

We’ve gone from this:

To this:

After Bowie won the final 4 hoh, Jag won the long awaited days veto comp. Think they were bummed it wasn’t the slip and slide?

They also played cards and hide and seek over the weekend. They got some new games too.

After avoiding Felicia, they finally started to include her in things again. She’d just gone to bed when Jag came and asked her if she’d like to play hide and seek with them. Felicia hiding in the cabinet:

Jag helped close her up:

Matt changed beds and moved into Cory’s old one. I’m convinced he did it just so he could have more conversations about their sheets. He had an abnormal amount of conversations wondering if America and Cory had washed their sheets. While setting up in the scramble room, I realized how many pairs of shoes Matt brought. I’m not sure if you can see it in this picture but he has them lined up and they span the length of all three dressers. That’s an insane amount of shoes to bring into the house. (I told you there wasn’t much to talk about)

Bowie had a ridiculous conversation with Felicia this weekend. It’s probably the only one worth mentioning. Boiwe started telling Felicia things she (Fe) didn’t know about the game. According to Bowie, she was the mastermind behind getting Izzy evicted. She said ever since Red was evicted, (the week Bowie says she was blindsided) she’s known everything that had been going on in the house. (Part of me wants Bowie in the final 2 just so she could say all this shit to the jury and see their reaction)

The weekend was spent with Matt being nervous and complaining about the stress of being on the block. His nomination didn’t even matter and he only had 1 person to campaign to but he still felt the stress. I wondered if any of the comments he’s made this season popped back into his head. (I doubt it) In recent weeks, Matt’s made comments about being annoyed when people wanted to campaign to him. He also got annoyed by Felicia campaigning to stay against him. It’s as if there’s a whole area of the game Matt’s gone almost 100 days and didn’t have to play. I guess you can’t appreciate the stress of some situations until you’re going through it yourself.

Bowie spent the weekend trying to map out the best time to drink their alcohol. She wanted to sneak it so none of if had to be shared with Felicia. She was also a sounding board for Jag over making his biggest decision of the game. For her game, she needed to be pushing Jag in a particular direction but she didn’t.

Bowie even played some bumper pool with Felicia. See, they CAN be decent humans when they want to be.

There was still plent of weekend time spent with the 3 hanging out upstairs:

And Felicia hanging out alone:

Felicia made them one last dinner to share together at the tiny table.

Felicia went to work trying to get Jag to cut Matt. Some of the stuff she said got into his head and some of her points were a miss.

Obviously, this was something Jag had already been thinking about. It’s possible someone who played more strategic could’ve pushed him over the edge. Instead, Felicia started counting votes and telling Jag, he’d probably beat her 4-3. In my opinion this was the wrong approach.

She simply needed to continue with the talks happening before Blue and America left. They both told Jag that Matt was winning the game. She could’ve also mentioned how Cirie would be in the jury house campaigning for Matt. After that, leave it alone. I won’t be too hard on her for it because nothing she said was the reason Jag decided to keep Matt.

We listened and watched Jag have an internal struggle all weekend. He said his head was telling him one thing, his heart was telling him something different and his gut just wanted to throw up.

He prodded Bowie several times to try to get her to agree with him. She did but not very hard. She wasn’t going to help and this decision was going to be all Jags. After watching Jag have an agonizing day in his mind, he decided he needed to cut Matt. He said he had to give himself the best chance at winning the game.

There’s been some speculation that a visit to the DR helped change his mind. It’s possible and it’s happened before but I’m not sure.

Soon after making this decision, he went into the DR for a while. After that, he had a teary conversation with Matt and it was obvious he was keeping Matt. There’s also a chance Matt did enough in his conversation to guilt Jag into keeping him. We SAW the struggle Jag was having so it wouldn’t surprise me.

Yes, the DR may have asked him questions that got into his head. On the other hand, we watched him have a hard time making the decision so I don’t think it would have taken much for him to switch back.

Jag staring at Matt’s memory wall pic:

It could’ve also been something as simple as finding out he had to stand up and evict Matt right in front of him. That could have been enough to get him to back out. The hardest part was listening to Jag tried to justify it with reasons. A lot of recruits do this because it’s hard for them to separate their emotions from the game. (I’m not saying it’s only recruits but it’s more common for them) Instead of trying to create reasons to make himself feel better, Jag could’ve just gone with the unemorional facts. The reason to evict Matt was simply that he’d probably lose the game to Matt. Done.

That’s an image of feeling like you have a heavy weight on your shoulders:

There’s exceptions but a large part of the fan base has felt Matt’s played the best game for most of the season. (I have too) That seemed to flip a bit when he didn’t put up a fight to keep Cirie. (It did for me) For some, it propelled Jag ahead of him. After Jag made the decision to keep Matt last night, it may have flipped back. (Again, it did for me)

I saw a lot of comments about people wanting Jag to keep Matt. It seemed to center around loyalty and “doing the right thing.” It was as if keeping Matt would be Jag playing the better game. (I’m curious if those same people are still saying Jag is playing the best game, since that’s what he did last night) I have a feeling many of them aren’t saying that anymore. If keeping Matt was Jag’s best move, then isn’t Jag still playing the best game since he kept him? (I didn’t think so but that’s my opinion)

Defining the best game is also subjective. For me, making moves that give you the easiest path to the end, mixed with causing the least amount of destruction in the process is playing the best game. Loyalty doesn’t enter into it for me. It’s a game of lies, deception and manipulation so how the hell can loyalty have anything to do with it? Isn’t the goal to win the game?

I’m also not playing the game and don’t know what it’s like to make friends in the house. If you can cut your BFF and either still get their vote or not need their vote, I say, make the path easier for yourself. Having said that, I can understand why someone would do the opposite. You may fear the jury will be turned off if you cut your closest ally. (That’s rare) You may also just have a hard time cutting them out of guilt or because you’ve grown to care for them. That’s the one I can’t relate to but it’s because I don’t know what it’s like to be in there and get close to people.

It’s a catch 22 sometimes too. It can be hard to make it to the end with a ride or die unless you build alot of trust with them. How can you build that trust unless you’re promising each other that you’ll take each other to the end? There’s a lot of things you have to say to someone to keep them loyal to you for almost 100 days. I can sit here and write that Jag made the wrong decision and I still think he did. It doesn’t mean that I don’t understand the decision he made. (I’m not sure the jury will understand it tho)

Jag evicted Felicia and kept his word to Matt:

Felicia talked to Julie for a too short interview. It was probably the best exit interview we’ve seen this season. Felicia played a flawed game and she talked too much. Her gut was wrong over half the time even though she’s still swearing it was always right. However, it was so much fun watching her play. She never stopped working thru the entire season. She also never lost confidence in herself and her abilities. The Big Brother world needs more Felicia’s in it.

We got to hear from the jury again. Don’t read too much into those segments. Sure, Cameron really could be rooting for Jag but it could also be a clip that’s intentionally misleading. Cory and America may still feel like Matt’s playing the best game. However, Cory did seem to be giving Jag props for taking out Cirie tho. Cory understands the game and knows it only benefited Jag. Cory and America aren’t ‘loyalty’ players either. They definitely would’ve felt better about Jag’s game if he’d taken out Matt.

Taylor made some good points during her segment. It’s nice to get feedback from someone who’s actually watching the show. Even if subtle, she called out the comp bullshit and what makes a good player. Obviously, Taylor’s a fan of the social game where I prefer the strategic game. Neither of us seem to give a shit about comp wins, unless you use them strategically. (Cameron’s a good example. He won 3 hoh’s and failed to take out his target ALL three times so how impressive were those wins?)

Taylor also disagreed with Julie, even if the viewers didn’t realize it. (Julie did at least) if you don’t already know, Julie gives a weekly interview over how the players are doing in the game. To sum it up, whoever she thinks is leading each week, has alot to do with how many comps they’ve won so far. This was Julie’s expression when Taylor was shutting that idea down:

Julie also told us (or threatened us, with the way I feel at the moment) with a holiday surprise. We’ll know when we know and I’m too tired to speculate. I’m sure my feelings will change but right now, I don’t even want to think about a winter BB season. (Ya’ll have no idea how behind I am watching trials. I’m a court junkie for most of the year so I watch a lot of trials that are live streamed)

There has to be at least a small part of Jag regretting the decision he made last night because….Matt won part one of the final HOH. Now, Jag needs to win part 2 and 3 if he still plans on cutting Matt. He apparently did an impressive job of it too. Jag commented to Bowie about the way Matt was only using one hand at times so it sounds like Matt killed it.

I’m not even sure Jag is planning on trying to take Matt out for sure. I know Jag’s wanted to be Cody and Derrick 2.0 for most of the season. He needs to remember Cody lost because he took Derrick to the F2. After their emotional talk, he may try to stick with Matt. He may also feel like he kept his word enough by getting Matt to the final 3.

Tomorrow, I’ll probably get more into the games of the F3. Sometimes it’s fun to make an argument for each one of them. It’s just things they can tell a jury or things they could put a spin on to try to get them the win. It doesn’t mean I believe all those things. It’s just things to make the argument. For funsies, I’ll even do one for Bowie Jane. (I can tell you now, Bowie’s not winning BB25)

This isn’t going to be the most exciting finale we’ve ever seen. None of the remaining 3 have played a stellar game. They’ve played decently well but each with some major flaws. If you’re a bit deflated and feeling like ‘it’s the worst final three in history,’ I’d argue that it isn’t. Seasons 9, 15 and 19 were pretty bad too. (I’m not counting Andy in 15 because unlike many, I think he played a really good game that year)

As for Jag already being voted out once, if he were to win, twists playing a role in a win isn’t new either. If Jag wins, he may have an asterisk after his name but he’s not alone. He would just go into the same category of winners like Dick in BB8 and Rachel in BB13. (Those are just 2 examples) Neither of them would’ve won their seasons without twists helping them. I’d also argue, their twists assisted them way more than Matt’s power this season helped Jag.

I keep reading that Jag is still only in the game because of Matt. I don’t agree with that either. True, Jag stayed in the game the week he was voted out because of Matt. After that week, which was very early in the season, Jag’s kept himself in the game. He was still voted out though and whether or not he can spin that into a positive remains to be seen.

Here are a few Halloween pics from the jury house before I go.