Big Brother Thoughts: Week 2 Eviction Night, Week 3 Head of Household, and Nominations (2-Hour Episode)

Big Brother Thoughts is a weekly look at CBS’s “Big Brother” gameplay covering many of the topics we’ve been reviewing including strategy, persuasion, and more. Note: these thoughts will be based on the TV episodes, predominately from the eviction night show (not the “Live Feeds”).

• Alyssa seemed to let Kyle know about the girls’ alliance out of care for him personally, and less for strategic reasons helpful to her game. Emotions can, unfortunately, jeopardize gameplay. Overall, though, they’ve seemed to do a good job managing their relationship to not be seen as a threatening “showmance.”
• Nicole seems to be asserting herself more. When Monte was making his case to evict Taylor, Nicole shut his idea down because it was not good for her game. I would have liked to see Monte be more insistent.
• It had to be tough for Pooch to get blindsided. It seemed like he was playing fairly well before volunteering to be a pawn, but maybe just got a little overconfident.
• Nicole’s idea to be a pawn to backdoor Taylor was a little unexpected after what happened with Pooch. Her gameplay seems to be getting more aggressive; it will be interesting to see if it will carry her far or be to her detriment.
• Situational awareness is, of course, critical when talking game. I thought Daniel, Nicole, Ameerah, and Kyle did a pretty good job of pivoting their conversation when Michael unexpectedly walked in.
• In terms of nominations, Turner shared in the Diary Room that he thought Nicole and Ameerah were problematic players for his game. Later, Kyle suggested nominating Nicole and Taylor, an idea Daniel seemed to fend off (given Daniel’s final two deal with Nicole) as Turner went with Daniel’s idea to nominate Michael and Brittany. With Michael’s history of winning vetoes, you could easily make the case that Turner should have gone with his gut (and put up Nicole or Ameerah): putting up Michael has a high chance of resulting in Michael winning veto, taking himself off, and getting unnecessary blood (Michael’s and Brittany’s) on Turner’s hands.