Austin Matelson has had a rocky road as Head of Household. As Sunday’s episode showed, he questioned his alliance with Vanessa Rousso and got her to admit she’d lied to him in the past. The “coming clean” was enough for her to avoid nomination, although most of the house still seems to want Vanessa to leave. Austin gave a cryptic nomination speech — Entertainment Weekly called it a “full-on supervillain speech” that was “long, rambling, and ultimately [meant] nothing.”
Austin then nominated Steve Moses and John McGuire, even though he admitted they had nothing to do with the long-ago plan to backdoor him.
But, as Big Brother viewers know, nominations are only the first steps on the long road to eviction. On Saturday, the veto competition was held, and Monday, the veto ceremony took place. Live feed viewers now know which two nominees might be evicted — and then have the opportunity to come back during the “returning juror” competition on Thursday.
Warning: Spoilers from the Big Brother 17 live feeds to follow.
As Big Brother Network reported, everyone’s target-they-can’t-quite-get-out, Vanessa Rousso, won the Power of Veto. That not only gave her a nice medallion to wear in the diary room, but eliminated any hope that Rousso’s detractors might have that she would somehow get backdoored. More interesting was the question of whether Vanessa would use the veto.
As regular watchers know, Vanessa has alliances with almost everyone in the house, including a lot of players who are already gone. She’s had a semi-stable deal with Steve, but as the engineer has started to play the game a bit more strongly, he’s made his own pacts. On Sunday’s episode, viewers saw Steve deny to Austin he had a final two with John, as Vanessa had claimed.
During the veto ceremony Monday, Vanessa refused to use the Power of Veto. The final nominees are, therefore, Steve and John. But, as Big Brother Network revealed, the ceremony was not until after John had told Vanessa about one alliance she didn’t know about: the one between himself, Steve, Austin, and Liz Nolan and Julia Nolan.
Austin himself had said during Sunday’s program that his huge collection of alliances had made it difficult for him to choose nominees, because everyone felt safe with him as the Head of Household.
When Vanessa got the info from John, she confronted Steve. When he didn’t fess up, he became a bigger target. As Big Brother Network summarized, Vanessa wants Steve gone, while Austin, Liz and Julia want John out the door. So far this season, regardless of her position in the house, Vanessa has been able to effectively campaign for whomever she wanted evicted. But it is a long time until Thursday night, when the votes will be cast.
Whomever goes will have the opportunity to walk right back in, as Thursday’s episode will also feature the “returning juror” competition between the last four evicted house guests.
Big Brother 17 airs Sundays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays on CBS.
[Images: CBS ]