Big Brother 24: Week 2 Recap

After an incredibly hectic and unprecedented first week of Big Brother 24, things really needed to cool down. Week 1 saw a self-eviction that canceled the first elimination vote of the season and the first big twist. It garnered a lot of controversy from the fans and former players of Big Brother with talks of bullying and micro-aggressions dominating the first week's narrative. The second week does start with a small controversy but it ends with an early candidate for the moment of the season. It's a bit of a weird one since the normal Thursday eviction was aired on Sunday and I'm doing these reviews with the episodes when they air, so this review will go from the Week 2 HOH competition and end with the Week 3 HOH competition and the winner before getting into what I expect to see this coming week. 

Did Jasmine's Foot Touch the Ground?

It didn't take long for a new subject to be at the forefront of discussions online. The HOH competition was done in two parts. The first was aired during the Thursday episode involving the 14 eligible players competing head-to-head in an obstacle race with the seven winners moving on to play in the second half to crown the new HOH which would be aired on Sunday. Jasmine was matched up against Terrance and right as she was about to finish moving across the wall at the end of the course, her foot slips off and it looks like her foot hit the ground, meaning she'd need to go back to the start. No one says anything and she finishes the competition, beating Terrance. It seemed like Julie was going to say something about her falling off the wall, but, in a literal twist, Jasmine fell off the platform, twisted her ankle, and it seemed like the point was moot. The evidence everyone online attached themselves to was the fact that the confetti on the floor seemed to move a lot when her foot went down. The angle of the camera doesn't provide much help since her foot goes out of the frame and comes back up before the camera can pan down. This would be huge because Jasmine would go on to win the HOH in the second part of the competition, which didn't involve her being on her feet at all. It's way too early to say that this affected the entire game for the rest of the season and it might be an over-exaggeration to say that it will be game-changing, but it certainly isn't a great look for Big Brother. 

Michael- The Season's Early Comp Beast?

I feel like the term "comp beast" is thrown around quite a bit in Big Brother, sometimes to those that don't deserve it. It's way too early in the season to say that Michael falls into that category, but he has been showing out so far. We've only had two weeks of competitions and thus far, he's won two POV competitions and finished second in this week's HOH competition. It might be fine to call him the "King of the Veto" thus far. He's arguably had more control over the game than anyone else thus far.

Jasmine's HOH Week

We can argue the semantics of her win in the first round, but she tore the competition up in the second part. As a Southerner myself, I'd be disappointed if a Southerner didn't win the "pie-eating" portion of the competition. Jasmine outlasted six others to take the crown, even after trying to get Michael to throw it to her, and she control the course of the game for the week. At the beginning of the week, she was very clear that Taylor was going on the block, going as far as to tell her she was going up as a pawn. Pooch volunteered himself to go up as the second nominee, also under the impression that he would be the pawn for the week and that the girls wanted to target Taylor for the second week in a row. Jasmine took this as an opportunity to make the first big move of the summer and she was back by the girls in her alliance to get it done. She also made it clear that it didn't matter who went home because she'd be happy with either Pooch or Taylor leaving. Outside of dropping the keys before the nomination ceremony, the week went according to plan. It became clear that Pooch was going to be the target for the week as the week played out. Michael winning the POV and not using it, despite expressing that he wanted to take Taylor down, meant that Jasmine was going to get her wish to make an impactful week. Overall, she had a much better week than Daniel did and she got to actually do something despite being incapacitated for the week with a sprained ankle. 

The Week's Eviction

The vote between Pooch and Taylor came as a surprise to me. I wasn't completely surprised that Pooch was eliminated since it seemed like the attitude of the house was leaning towards it happening. What surprised me was that Pooch didn't get a single vote. All of his guys voted him out. It might have been for self-preservation on their part or maybe they just didn't like him, but Joseph or Monte or Kyle could've thrown him a pity vote. They obviously opted to send him home 12-0 and call it a day. The look on Pooch's face was priceless because he had no clue it was coming and those are the best types of evictions. We knew something he didn't know and the rest of the houseguests did a good job of keeping it from him. On the flip side, I'm happy for Taylor. She's had a rough two weeks and has survived on each occasion. The only thing I worry about for her game is that now she'll be used to get a target out a bunch of times and she'll be stuck in a cycle of being on and off the block with the threat of her being taken out at the last second. That's a dangerous game to be playing. 

What Could Happen This Week? (+ the Introduction of the Festie Bestie twist)

Sunday's extended episode allowed us to see the HOH competition and Turner emerged as the third HOH of the summer. He won a long competition against the other houseguests to earn his safety for the week. I like competitions like this because they are multi-faceted and require a lot of different things. Along with earning his own safety, he also earned safety for one other person in the house, and that's where the big twist that Julie alluded to last week came to light to shake up the house. Julie introduced us all to the "Festie Bestie" twist which placed the houseguests in teams of two. She noted they deliberately waited until this week to do it so that the houseguests could get to know each other. The besties were chosen during the HOH competition. As they were eliminated, the houseguests were given the choice to either sit with Jasmine, who couldn't play since she was the reigning HOH, at an empty table, or pair up with a houseguest at an empty table as the tables filled up. This led to seven teams of two. Turner, as the HOH, was paired with Jasmine since she was not paired with anyone at the end of the game. The strategy used to pick the pairs was very reminiscent of the strategy The Cookout used last season. Alliance members, for the most part, attached themselves to people not in their alliance so that they could get them out without feeling like they'd be sent home. Each week, a set of besties will be nominated for eviction but can also be taken down as a pair if the POV is used on them and a new set of besties will go up. Julie teased that something will happen with the surviving member of the duo, but we won't know that until the next elimination takes place. I have no clue who Turner would target outside of the guys he is working with right now. Taylor appears to be an easy target, but I think she needs a break this week. I wouldn't be upset with Brittany or Terrance is the target this week since I don't think either is doing much. I don't know what to expect with this twist, but this game is about to be over-strategized to oblivion.