The 999th episode of Big Brother kicked off with the fallout from the nomination ceremony, with Lala, Taylor, and Drew still going at it over what was said in the meeting during Lala’s head of household (HOH) about getting out the icons. Barrett, Yash, and Angela also get dragged into the conversation. It’s a convoluted mess. The whole blowup results in a few things:

  1. Drew is back in the good graces of Ms. HOH Dee.
  2. Lala consistently mentions wanting to take out Devens, making her a bigger target.

Lala attempts to do damage control with Angela, who she insists isn’t her target and that only Devens and Dee are her real targets. Angela believes the 58-year-old and is starting to think of ways to differentiate her game from her fellow icons. The good news for Angela is she was picked in the veto, along with Barrett.

Knowing the veto will almost certainly be used, alone by himself in the gym, Devens comes up with a plan to blow up the Moshpit alliance and put up Mallory as the re-nom. He runs the plan by Angela, who is fully on-board, as is the HOH. The problem: How to tell Drew and Barrett.

The HOH doesn’t address that problem until she has to. We go to the veto competition, a workout competition that was won by Lala -- yes, the same Lala that also won the Wall competition. 

With Lala using the power of veto on herself, the plan to put Mallory on the block is in full motion. The HOH tells Drew and Barrett separately her reasoning for making Mallory the re-nom:

  1. Her  and Yash’s bribe (though she tells them the bribe is only to not put her up, not all three icons)
  2. She’s back in the good graces of Haley, and she would never put her up.
  3. Mallory has told Drew before she wouldn’t put up Yash, Lala, or Taylor and is playing the middle now more than ever.

She acknowledges this is a selfish game move on her part, but it must be done. 

While she tells Mallory separately that she will be the re-nom, for the first time all game, causes Drew and Barrett to think twice about the Crossovers.

While sitting outside on the hammock, the duo declares the alliance dead. They’re baffled at why they would form the Mosh pit, then blow it up a week later. Meanwhile, Devens is laying on the couch across the way. He hears his name and decides to get behind the couch in an attempt to hear the conversation. When Drew and Barrett head inside, Devens confronts them and says, ”Just listening.”

This subtle phrase causes Drew and Barrett to become paranoid. They tell Dee in the HOH room everything before going to Devens and telling him the same thing.

Meanwhile, knowing she is the re-nom, Mallory goes nuclear in the diary room, screaming and crying, calling out the icons for being “fake” as the episode fades away. We also see Melody screaming in the gym. As the kids would say, absolute cinema!

Non spoiler thoughts

  • So… there’s a lot here. The only true alliances left in the game are F.A.P. and the icons. It took seven weeks, but my declaration that the Crossovers will run the season is (almost?) dead (I mean, there’s a chance they’re all still here next week).
  • Never tank comps because this is what could happen. Barrett and Mallory could have dethroned Dee this week during the HOH competition, and the whole week would have looked a lot different. They trusted a cutthroat player too much.
  • On that line, the icons are playing chess. The others are playing checkers. They know how to make big moves that aren’t personal; they’re just gameplay.
  • Barrett might have messed his game up.
  • We need more Devens’ camera talks!
  • What’s the 1,000th episode twist going to be?!