Big Brother 24: Week 11 Recap

We started the week by knowing we had one person in the Final 3 already and it would be a very slow burn with just four people in the house. We'd get a little bit of drama between the lovebirds, but it was otherwise a week-long wait to get to Eviction Night on Thursday. We did get some exciting guests in the studio for Thursday night as the Cookout returned to talk about the season and who they want to win. Though we knew around Sunday or Monday who was going to be evicted, it was still cool to see a little bit of fight left in the competitors. 

Mon-Tay is Dead?

The only real drama we had inside the house this week centered around Monte and Taylor. After starting a late-season romance last week during Monte's reign, it carried into this week when Taylor took power. They spent a lot of time together in the HOH room, but constant contact can lead to tension from the smallest things. The greatest source of this tension seemed to come from an incident in the HOH room when Taylor took her headphones from Monte after he fell asleep. Not only did this wake Monte up, but Taylor's words seemed to rub him the wrong way. This was shortly after she'd said something about Monte not being there to see his goddaughter for the last three months, though she clearly meant nothing ill towards him. This led to Monte confronting her while in the bathtub, talking about how it came across as very condescending, and opens some old wounds that had been there from the very beginning of the game. Taylor sincerely apologized to Monte for sounding condescending, saying she meant nothing negative towards him, and she was clearly hurt by what he said as evidenced in both the diary room and what she said once he left the HOH room. She noted that the early-season narrative seems to be coming back around and it's not fair since it's being overblown and taken completely out of context. 

Welcome Back to The Cookout

The big surprise heading into Eviction Night this week was the tease for the return of The Cookout, last season's alliance that made it all the way to the end and helped to crown the first black winner in 23 seasons. I was especially interested in their appearance since they've all been very vocal about the treatment of Taylor in the house, as well as other facets of the game while watching from home. Julie opened by asking Hannah about this season's alliances and how they maneuvered throughout the game, but the most poignant thing she said was that it is unlikely to ever be an alliance like The Cookout ever again do the cohesiveness of their singular goal. Azah was very quick to jump on the lack of women represented in the Final 3 because of yet another all-girls alliance that crumbled early in the game and ironically the one girl excluded from everything is the last one standing. On the subject of Taylor, Julie asked Tiffany about the controversy surrounding Kyle and I loved that Julie asked her specifically. She noted that it is often hard to separate the game from personal life in the house and that it was very clear it had happened again here. She also criticized Terrance for wanting to keep Kyle over Taylor after everything he said and not owning up to it. Julie ended the segment by asking the men who they want to win and it really came down to Taylor and Turner. I found the lack of support for Monte both surprising and not surprising at the same time. While I love The Cookout (minus Derek F), this segment felt awkward and underwhelming. It was short and not well put together. Still love them though. 

Taylor's HOH Week

The Final 4 HOH is famously known as being significantly less important than the veto competition. Still, it didn't prevent us from celebrating and running up and down the streets when Taylor beat Brittany to win the HOH and ensure her spot in the Final 3, bringing the fruition her promise to wear her sparkly dress on Finale Night this Sunday. Her decision of who to put up was pretty easy. She was nearly evicted last week and Brittany and Turner split the vote, then Monte saved her and evicted Alyssa. It seemed pretty clear that Brittany and Turner were going to touch the block since neither would own up to voting her out last week. She didn't win the veto but Monte did, so the nominations were going to stay the same. This meant the entire decision was going to be on Monte, meaning she was pretty powerless by the end of the week. It's hard to judge her because we knew what this was going to be from the jump. Who cares? Taylor is going to the finale. 

This Week's Eviction

Brittany was evicted this week, to the surprise of absolutely no one. Once Monte won the veto, it didn't matter how hard Brittany pushed or how sensible her argument was. There was no way that Monte was going to vote Turner out at this point since he's confident Turner will take him to the very end if it comes down to it. Turner is clearly the bigger threat from a competitive standpoint, but they're also friends. It didn't matter if Taylor pushed for Brittany to stay. Monte knew what he was going to do before he even won the power of veto. There isn't much to say other than Monte better hope Turner really does take him if he wins the Final 3 HOH. 

Next Stop: Finale Night

With Brittany's eviction this week, the Final 3 is set as Monte, Taylor, and Turner are bound to battle it out for the chance to win $750k. They'll first have to battle it out in a three-part HOH competition to determine who will cast the final eviction of the season before the nine-person jury casts their votes to crown the winner of the season. This means we now have three combinations as to who will be in the Final 2: Taylor v. Monte, Taylor v. Turner, or Turner v. Monte. It's hard to speculate who is going to win each of those matchups though I'd argue that either Taylor or Monte has to be considered the front-runner because Turner's jury management has been pretty bad to this point. Jasmine doesn't like Turner, Michael noted that Turner didn't take credit for evicting him, and others on the jury are closer to either Monte or Taylor. As of right now, I think Monte holds the edge right now over Taylor based on the fact I think he stands a better chance of winning the Final 3 HOH and no matter who he chooses to sit next to, I think the jury is more likely to look more favorably on him. I personally am rooting for Taylor, as I have been the entire season. She deserves this win more than the other two after everything she's been through all season. Put the $750k on her and give her America's Favorite Player too.