Big Brother 25 (Week 14)- Last Houseguest Standing

100 days. That's a long time to live amongst strangers. It's an even longer time to watch 17 people live amongst strangers. The 25th season of Big Brother ended on Thursday night, but not without crowning a winner. A lot of work was left to be completed before Finale Night. A special Sunday eviction gave way for the Final 3 before the jury of seven said their piece and cast their votes for the 25th winner in the show's history. 

Bowie's 3rd HOH Reign

Before we could get to the excitement of Finale Night, one more houseguest needed to be shed. When we last checked in, Bowie Jane had won the Final 4 HOH after defeating Jag in a tiebreaker, making this her season-tying 3rd HOH. As expected, she nominated Matt and Felicia for eviction. None of this mattered because the veto winner held the power for the week, casting the sole vote to evict. To no one's surprise, that winner was Jag, taking his record-breaking seventh veto of the season. This meant Bowie held no power, making it hard to judge her week. All she did was make the initial nomination, leaving the rest to Jag as he evicted the penultimate juror. 

Sunday Night's Eviction

At the time, this felt like a $750k decision. The choice was between the man he'd been loyal to, sometimes to a fault, for weeks and a woman he could beat in any competition. Hindsight will always be 20/20, but keeping Matt felt like the wrong move at the time. Ignoring their alliance, Jag was unwilling to cut the one player who could've taken the top prize from him by beating him in competitions on Finale Night. Did it come back to bite him in the end? No, it didn't. Could it have? Without a doubt, it almost did. As for Felicia, she made excellent points in her pitch to Jag to stay in the house. Unfortunately, Jag was loyal to a fault. She was an excellent casting choice by production and left with grace in 4th place. 

The Final 3 Face Off

As is customary for the Final HOH, three parts would determine the final HOH of the season, giving them the power to choose who joins them in the Final 2. Part 1 was an endurance competition, sitting Matt, Bowie Jane, and Jag on a disc, dipping them in "eggs," spraying them with goo, raining ice-cold rain on them, and knocking them into a wall. The competition was more challenging when they had to move off the discs and onto the bubble dangling under the disc. Bowie Jane was the first to drop after nearly 90 minutes. Knowing they were solid to the end, Matt and Jag determined the winner of Part 1 by playing Rock, Paper, Scissors just shy of the three-hour mark. Matt beat Jag, forcing Jag off the bubble to win Part 1 and ensuring his spot in Part 3. For Part 2, Jag and Bowie Jane had to separate every competition from the season into the proper universe chronologically. It's nothing unlike what we've seen in the past. Both struggled more than I expected them to, but Jag was able to come away with the win by nearly 30 minutes. 

Part 3 tested how well The Minutemen knew the jurors. They were given three statements about the six jurors and had to determine which statement was false. The houseguest with the most points after six questions would be the winner. Matt and Jag cruised through the first five questions, and even when they both missed the final question about Felicia, they came out of it tied 5-5 after six questions. This forced them to a tiebreaker, where Julie asked them how long Part 1 of the Final HOH lasted in minutes. The answer was 176. Matt wrote 140. Jag wrote 167, crowning him the Final HOH of the season and leaving him with another tough decision. 

The Final Eviction of the Season

Yet again, Jag found himself making a $750k decision. He had to pick between two people he'd promised to take to the end. As much as he tried to make it seem like Bowie Jane had a chance, there was no shot he was cutting Matt. His inability to do the job on Sunday night made me feel confident he was taking his fellow Minuteman to the Final 2. Bowie Jane exited the house and proved why she stood no chance against either Matt or Jag. She played for 2nd place and had been doing so for weeks despite a resume that could've worked in her favor. She tied for the season lead with three HOH wins with Cameron and Jag. No other woman in the house won more than one competition, let alone multiple HOHs. She only sat on the block on Day 100 in the Final 3, breaking a Big Brother record. Instead, she refused to get blood on her hands, going out in 3rd place with no money. Though slightly surprised, I was not upset with the decision. 

The Jury Says Their Piece

Before Part 2 of the HOH commenced, we saw the jury deliberate as Felicia joined the other five jurors to discuss their options for the winner of BB25. Dr. Will Kirby, our roundtable handler, gave an interview touting how tense the deliberation was among the jurors. None of that came through in the episode. If the intention was to misdirect us, production achieved its goal. The jury agreed that Bowie had no control this season despite her HOH wins. America called her a floater and stated it was a clear strategy. That was probably the best compliment she received during her portion. It felt like the jury knew it was coming down to Matt and Jag. It would come down to Jag's competition wins and Matt's social prowess. Excellent points were made for both. The most poignant statement made during the segment was Cirie saying Matt came into a game of conversations with the ability to hear most of them, yet he made it this far. I came away from the segment thinking the jury was leaning in Matt's favor. 

Questions and Final Pleas

I don't think the jury's questions influenced the jury's final votes. They came into Finale Night knowing who they were voting for, including Bowie Jane as the final member of the seven-person panel. For those of us at home, this was the moment we knew which direction the vote was going. If Matt's win was going to be solidified by his performance in this portion of the proceedings, he lost $750k with three questions. 

The biggest knock on Matt was that his dynamic with Jag made it feel like Jag held the power by winning the competitions. On the surface, it's a fair assumption since Jag won three HOHs and seven vetos, while Matt was HOH once and earned two vetos, along with his Path to Power win. In reality, Matt played a huge part in the social dynamics of the house. The problem was he couldn't articulate it to the jury. He had the ultimate trump card by saving Jag from eviction in Week 4, but he rested on that one move, calling it his biggest move of the season and insisting everything was him and Jag, with neither serving as the leader of their alliance. He also admitted to lying about taking Jag out, saying he was telling people what they wanted to hear. In his defense, he couldn't during his HOH since Jag won the veto, and then he won again in the Final 4. Meanwhile, Jag pretty much lied to the jury, saying it was all him once he was given a second lease on life in the game. He tried to spin Matt saving him by saying it was because of how he was playing socially. It's nonsense, but it was better than anything Matt said when questioned. 

They were each given one last chance to plead their case to the jury. Matt opened by saying there was no blueprint for him coming into the game since no deaf person had ever played Big Brother. Matt knew the initial thoughts about him, and he opted to sit back and withhold from winning competitions early in the game, only pulling out the stops when he needed to. He touted his social game and used his residency in the Have-Not Room to overcome his inability to hear most conversations. He felt he could've played just as strong of a game if Jag had left in Week 4. On the other hand, Jag was far more abrasive in his final speech. It felt like he was commanding the jury to vote for him. He asserted that he single-handedly evicted the entire jury and that his hands were covered in his blood. Matt had the edge in this portion, but it felt too late to change the jury's minds. 

A Little Fun Before the Reveal

Before revealing the winner, we needed to catch up with the pre-jurors, minus Luke, and spill some secrets. Mecole called Cameron the season's hero, to which Cameron was flattered, though he didn't see himself as the hero or the villain. Bowie Jane revealed that while she's a DJ, she's also a barrister, which Felicia revealed Cameron had guessed in the jury house. Bowie Jane also revealed that she's 45, though people weren't surprised. Felicia also clarified that she's not related to Denzel Washington, though we'd already seen a conversation between her and Cameron. 

The big moment we were waiting for was the reveal to the jury members that Cirie and Jared are related. Julie posed the question to Matt, and he jokingly and creepily said Cory and America before saying he had no clue. Obviously, the pre-jurors already knew, having been told by Julie upon their evictions. The jurors and finalists were floored. Matt and Jag's jaws were on the floor. Felicia finally realized why she could never get between them. Cory seemed to ponder his life decisions, saying he voted out Jared and then tried to work with Cirie. Izzy provided some insight into how she figured it out, saying she knew the second they were on the stage together before entering the house since she was already a Cirie fan and followed her on social media. Jared also revealed that he'd told Blue, which Cirie wasn't happy with because Blue made it seem like she'd found out on her own when she told Cirie she knew. 

The segment ended with a weird thing, with Reilly pulling out a Q-tip in front of Matt. It was cringy, and I could've lived without it. Of the showmances to hype up, they chose the one that isn't a showmance. We didn't ask Cory and America about their future or even Blue and Jared. Red didn't say a word the entire time, though production probably didn't want to give him a platform with how critical he's been of them. Kirsten also didn't say a word, which doesn't surprise me since she was given a raw deal in the first week. The meat of the segment was the Jared and Cirie reveal, which was appropriately delivered. 

Did the Jury Get it Right?

The game came down to my preseason pick and the player I'd picked third. I'm not patting myself on the back, but I am. Based on what each juror said as they locked in their votes, I was confident Cameron and Bowie Jane voted for Jag, while Matt had Cirie and Felicia. Blue would vote for Jag since they were closer, leaving Cory and America as the swing votes. Leading up to his eviction, Cory seemed firmly on Matt's side, saying he'd played the best game of anyone in the house. He carried that sentiment into the jury house, and while America is her own person with her own vote, it felt realistic to assume she'd vote the same way as Cory. They were the difference in whether it would be a 5-2 vote for Jag or a 4-3 vote for Matt. The second Julie revealed America's vote for Jag, the outcome was locked in. Cory followed suit, securing the 5-2 victory for Jag, crowning him the winner of Big Brother 25. I'd love to hear the reasoning for Cory and America's flip during the postseason. 

This could've gone either way. While "deserved" might be a strong term, I have no problem with Jag being the winner of the season. I think he's overestimating how good his game was, equating a good game to how many competitions he won, and taking too much credit for certain moves. He also became too complacent with his position at the end, playing up a "we were bullied" angle with Matt and Bowie for the final few weeks that was preposterous. Ultimately, concerns over his jury management proved to be misleading. He had the votes to win regardless of who he was sitting next to. His competition wins are hard to overlook. He's a record-holder in Big Brother history. He's also the first Sikh player and winner in the show's history. The jury got it right, though an argument can also be made for Matt. 

Did America Get it Right?

I could live with the final results of the game. Where I was left dumbfounded was the result of America's Favorite Player. This was blasphemous, and it shows the disconnect between those who watch the live feeds and are tuned in and those who rely on the edited episodes to tell the season's narrative. As someone who listens to experts' opinions on the game to help keep me informed, this Final 3 was equally surprising and not surprising. I knew the hardcore fans would be behind Cirie because they have been since the beginning. Given how much of their showmance we saw blossom in the house, America and Cory would've been strong contenders for the crown. The casual fans loved Cameron. They were the deciding force in his winning America's Favorite Player. It was even more evident when Matt was also in the Final 3 for AFP. It's easy to say since I voted for Cirie to win the prize. Cameron wasn't in the top half of my ranking. I think the people got it wrong, ending an already subpar finale with depressing news.