Backdoor Betrayal Backfires, Sets Up Bloody HOH

The night started off with Jag and Red sitting on the block. Thanks to two overlapping alliances, both nominees thought they were safe and that they had the backing of their alliances.

Jag even semi-volunteered to be on the block, thanks to his BFF Blue’s suggestion, as he felt confident that despite getting voted out 10-0 last week (he was saved by Matt’s power), the Seven Deadly Sins had his back.

The problem is that Red was feeling super-confident that Legend 25 had his back. At the start of the week, they didn’t. In fact, the power trio of Cirie, Izzy, and Felicia had admitted that L25 was a fake alliance from the start meant to placate Cameron and Red.

As with every week, though, the house could not quite decide which alliance felt more real this week, and thus which Houseguest was the actual target.

If we needed any more proof of Cirie’s power and influence in the house, or further proof that Jared may be the biggest albatross hanging over her game, it seemed to come down to what decision she was going to make to mitigate threats to her game — caused at least in part by her son.

Thanks to Jared trying to be the godfather of the house, he made it pretty clear to Jag that Cirie had told him about Matt having the Power of Invincibility. As Matt had said he’d only told Cirie and Jag, this put Jag’s radar up and left him concerned about trusting Cirie.

Cirie’s mastery in these games has always been her ability to get people to trust her even when they absolutely should not. She should have been targeted from the start and has managed to avoid that by building yet another alliance of trust.

The biggest and most consistent weak point has been her son Jared and his idiotic, arrogant and bullying play tactics. He’s involved in the reason Red is a potential threat to her game, too, because he effectively told Red that Cameron was throwing him under the bus this week.

Now, there is some truth to that in that Cameron did say that at the end of the day, Red’s not the one writing the $750,000 check. But he also resisted the idea of going on the block as a pawn against his ride-or-die. Jared didn’t frame it that way.

When Red told Jared he wanted to have a discussion with both him and Cameron to clear the air and set the record straight, that caused huge concerns for the rest of the house, who were happy that the Chillers had broken up. Cameron and Red together are too dangerous!

So Cirie had to decide which she was more concerned about. Cameron and Red have pretty openly said they want to go after her power trio and her side of the house, but Jag has this potentially game-crippling intel about who she’s talking to in the house.

No matter which way it went, it was going to blow up one alliance completely and it was going to leave at least a few people feeling betrayed with Head of Household back up for grabs. There are some worst-case scenarios possible here.

In the end, Red had to wrap his birthday week with a sit-down chat with Julie Chen Moonves outside the Big Brother house, as a solemn Cameron looked shell-shocked. Only he and Bowie Jane voted to keep Red in the house, and with Julie announcing an 8-2 vote, they know it!

Fans weren’t going to have to stew and wait to long to see how the chips would fall this week, as the Head of Household was crowned before the live hour was up. It was a Humili-verse competition of counting colored farts.

The HGs were shown select clips from the season with fart clouds super-imposed over the footage in varying hues. From there, they had to answer true/false questions about the clouds. The last one standing wins. This is one of those true equalizer competitions as there are no physical elements.

It was looking pretty impressive at first, with all of the HGs surviving the first two rounds, but Round 3 took out Bowie, Matt, and Cirie. The next round was even more brutal, leaving only three competitors alive: Izzy, Cory, and Cameron.

You could not ask for a more interesting Final 3. Cameron had just been betrayed by essentially the entire house. Izzy is part of the power trio and alliance that’s been running the whole summer. And Cory has been laying low in the middle, observing and waiting for his chance to strike at power.

In truth, only Izzy was a safe bet for the power in the house … and she didn’t win. Instead, it was their worst-case scenario as Cameron secured his third overall competition win of the season. In fact, not counting last week’s HOH comp (which he was ineligible to compete in as outgoing HOH), he’s won the last three comps he’s competed in.

Getting the Space Cowboy riled up by booting out his best bud backfired spectacularly on the Houseguests. He’s more than capable of taking Veto this week, too, and having all the power.

Now, he doesn’t necessarily have the numbers to control who goes home, but he can make it hurt for those in power by determining which two Houseguests are sitting on the Block come eviction night.

If he decides to target Cirie, Izzy, and Felicia, then any combination of those three might be right up his alley. What will be even more interesting to see is if he tries to actually work with anyone this week.

If he’s feeling betrayed by Legend 25 turning on Red — which he absolutely is and should be — Cory, America, and Jag might start looking like pretty attractive people to talk with. And Jag has that intel about Cirie and Jared sharing information that could hurt them.

He already seems to have Bowie working with him to some extent, so it might be time to try and formalize something against the power in the house and make this a real two-way battle.

And what about outliers like Matt? He feels indebted to Jag but had grown close to Cirie. That relationship could be severed just by telling Matt that Cirie was feeding information to Jared, who turned around and threatened Jag about it.

For the first time perhaps all season long, those who’ve been in power this past month or so are going to start having to sweat. Cameron is no dummy in this game, nor are the others who’ve been kind of floating a bit thus far. Will this be the moment to come together and do something?

It should be a fun week!

Matthew Klotz (27, deaflympics gold medalist) is actually in the best position in the house right now because he’s got a lot of information and he’s not someone anyone would target at the moment. How this week plays out could hinge on what he learns, shares and decides to do with the intel he has. [Grade: A-]

Cory Wurtenberger (21, college student) is also in a powerful position right now in that he’s a true free agent with a real desire to take down the power trio in the house. That should put him in alignment with what we assume Cameron will want to do, creating a potential new alliance that could make waves in this tumultuous new chapter of the game. [Grade: B+]

Jag Bains (25, truck company owner) is in an interesting position in that his alliance did come through and save him, making him perhaps loyal to the Seven Deadly Sins. But he’s also loyal to Matt outside of that. It could be that Cameron is working his HOH on an island with Matt and Jag both opting to stay loyal to the Seven, but that intel about Cirie definitely gives him some leverage right now. [Grade: B]

Cirie Fields (53, nurse) is about to be tested like she’s never been tested. Even if she can come out of this war unscathed, she will likely lose allies. But we also know that she’s more than okay with losing close allies so long as it’s not her. And she’s very, very good at this part of the game. so we’ll get to see just how good she is. We know her back’s against the wall. Maybe we’re naïve, but we wouldn’t count her out just yet. [Grade: B]

America Lopez (27, medical receptionist) might just have an in to stop being unfairly targeted for one, through her alliance with Cory. We suspect the duo might take this opportunity to try and work with Cameron to take a shot at the power side of the house. America has a great read on the house, so her insight could prove valuable if things align that way. [Grade: B-]

Mecole Hayes (30, political consultant) was a little more vocal this week than we’ve usually seen on the broadcast shows, proving that she remains loyal to the Seven Deadly Sins (and probably the core of the Bye Bye Bitches — minus Bowie). Luckily, she’s still far enough of the radar, she should continue to be safe while bigger players fire shots. [Grade: C+]

Blue Kim (25, brand strategist) trusts Jag more than she trusts even her own showmance, and Jag is tight with Matt. The question is how tight will the three of them remain with the Seven Deadly Sins with Cameron more than likely targeting them? Will Jag spill what he knows and blow up that alliance with Cameron in power? Blue finds herself in an interesting position and shouldn’t be targeted, unless Cameron just gets a really weird take on the house — if that happens, we’d be looking at Cirie for creating that take. [Grade: C+]

Cameron Hardin (34, stay-at-home dad) has all the power and none of the alliances. This house is interesting in that the power players have been playing from positions of no power for weeks now, influencing from the outside. Now, the big trio is vulnerable. Cameron might be able to get out a big target this week, but the house will not stop coming for him until he’s out. Can he create a miracle and play the next two months with his back against the wall? [Grade: C]

Felicia Cannon (63, real estate agent) is an easy target to weaken the other side of the house, and she’s probably seen as the most expendable by Cirie and Izzy if they’re given no choice but to cannibalize one of their own. It would come down to who she might be sitting next to up there. And we wouldn’t doubt that she would fight hard for herself, and could well save herself if it comes to it. [Grade: C-]

Bowie Jane Ball (45, barrister/DJ) is more than likely safe this week as the only other person who voted with Cameron to try and save Red. But that’s just about as far as her guaranteed safety goes. The only reason she’s still around is that there are bigger fish to fry. Unless she solidifies something real and real soon, her time will come. [Grade: C-]

Jared Fields (25, exterminator) is a messy, messy player. His boneheaded ego has exposed that he has some sort of alliance working with Cirie. As he’s also proven he can win competitions, he could well have made himself a good target this week if the powers that be decide he’s a bigger threat than the behind-the-scenes trio of Cirie, Izzy, and Felicia. Either way, he’s slowly making himself a nuisance that needs to be dealt with from every side, including his own. [Grade: D+]

Izzy Gleicher (32, professional flutist) has been the most visible target on the power side of the house for weeks now, which could make her the most likely target for Cameron to set his sights on this week. Her allies would do their best to try and save her, while we wonder if she would do the same. Would she out Cirie and Jared to save her own game? It would be brilliant, but we kind of think her love for Cirie would keep her mouth shut no matter what … which isn’t great news for her own game. [Grade: D+]

Red Utley (37, sales) fell on the wrong side of the numbers and on the wrong side of Jared’s emotional manipulation and lies. He became a threat to power. Truthfully, with Cameron immediately coming into power, it was probably the right move to take Red away from him. They’d have reconciled and Jared would have been called out as a liar, making things even worse in a week that’s going to likely be bad enough for those who’ve been in power. [Grade: F]

• “Regardless of where we are emotionally, I’m not giving up on my boy, Red.” –Cameron (in DR)
• “Jag thinks he’s the supporting actor pawn when actually he’s the headlining target this week.” –Cirie (in DR)
• “I’m a pawn, right” –Jag (to Cirie)
• “Are you still feeling lke Jag?” –Izzy (to Felicia)
• “I really am wrestling with that. I think with Red, everybody will be comfortable. With Jag, we’re going to piss some people off.” –Felicia
• “What if he just stands up and is like, ‘Don’t trust Izzy, don’t trust Felicia, don’t trust Cirie,’ as he walks out the door?” –Izzy
• “What was the thought process when you got out of bed in the middle of the night and left me there all by myself?” –America (to Cory)
• “I thought it would be a bad look for us to wake up in the same bed.” –Cory
• “I guess Legend 25 is the real alliance this week?” –Cirie (in DR with Jag as target)
• “I get that we’re trying to make Cam and Red feel comfortable, but we are a very indecisive group. I hope that we stick to the plan this week.” –Mecole (after Legend 25 meeting)
• “In the event that Red switches, that’s way worse than anything Jag can do because that means he keeps Cameron in the house.” –Jared (to Felicia, Izzy)
• “I always say stick with your original instinct. We said we were putting up Cameron and Red and if one doesn’t go, the other one goes, and now we’re letting both of them come off the godd–ned block.” –Felicia
• “We have two potential messes on our hands. And which one will mom have to clean up?” –Cirie (in DR)
• “I’ll celebrate.” –Cameron (to subdued HGs after winning HOH)

Big Brother continues Sunday at 8:30, Wednesday at 8pm ET, and Thursday at 8pm ET on CBS.