If you saw last Thursday’s episode of Big Brother, you saw that America’s biggest headache was finally gone. By a 7-3 vote, Cody Nickson was evicted for trying to blindside his own team member. All orchestrated by Paul, and he didn’t stop there. One by one, he’s been turning people against each other, flipping the votes and remaining in power. Welcome to Big Brother.
HOH Competition
Sunday’s episode of the CBS show picked up with the ongoing Head of Household competition, and of course, the houseguests must face “The Wall”. As if holding onto the handlebars as “grips” wasn’t hard enough, imagine being pelted with slime and splashed with freezing water as well. Josh Martinez and Mark Jansen both fell, with Kevin Schlehuber, Ramses Soto and Raven Walton shortly after. Then Matt Clines, Jessica Graf and Dominique Cooper fell. Leaving Elena Davis, Jason Dent and Alex Ow left. Alex and Elena made a deal to keep herself and the people she chooses safe. They agreed, which made Alex the new HOH. Elena and her team are certain Alex would shoot at Jessica, but Jason and Jessica hope Alex would focus on a powerful target.
Alex … (Paul’s) agenda
Shortly after the HOH competition, Jessica campaigned to Jason about keeping her off the block. Her only ally, Cody, just left the house and she is technically alone in the game. Her pitch was to align the outsiders and take a shot at the power alliance in the house (Elena, Mark, Matt, Raven, Paul and Dominique). Jason bought it, of course, and was on board.
Finally, Alex and Elena met to discuss the deal they created. Elena said she wants Dominique, Mark, Matt, Raven and Paul safe. So pretty much half of the house and their mothers too. But Paul wanted Dominique out, and all of a sudden, Alex did too.
It’s Christmas Time in the Big Brother house
Christmas Abbott returned to the house after having surgery on her foot, and revealed that she has 10 broken bones along with four dislocated bones. Things got emotional when she told her roommates that she would never be fully healed, ultimately finishing her journey as a CrossFit champion.
Nominations
Before the nominations took place, Dominique talked to Alex to let her know that she sensed she is on her radar. Dominique, being shady, started mentioning that there is someone in the house that is insecure about her friendship with Mark. Dom, could you be any more obvious?
Alex, of course, picked up that she is speaking about Elena due to the weird "showmance" between her and Mark. All in all, Dominique dug her own grave by speaking about her teammates behind their backs and made her an easy target.
Alex nominated Jessica and Dominique. Dominique was upset because she felt more people on her side of the house were involved in her nomination. Paul was sitting pretty because he literally pulled the strings on every player in the house. Silly kids. You would think that because Paul is a vet in this game, the rookies would know he is great at lying. But, of course, they fall right into his trap.
Dominique heard God
After the nomination ceremony, Dominique started to piece clues together about the person who betrayed her and correctly assumed it was Paul. Paul would throw his own mother under the bus to further his game. Being strong in her faith, Dominique started to pray in tongues — a gift given to few by God to speak an unknown language — and she heard Paul’s name three times during her prayer.
Afterward, Paul approached her and said that he hopes she doesn’t think it was him that went against her. Come on Paul, this is the same old story you say to every single person in the house. Dominique doesn’t buy it and asked if it was him, which he totally denied, as expected. “Honesty is my game, I only know how to play an honest game,” Paul lied.
The Power of Veto Competition
Kevin, Dominique, Jessica, Christmas, Jason and Alex were all picked to play in the Power of Veto competition. The players had to walk across a balance beam that moves to get to the other side and hit their button 50 times. If one fell their score reset. Jason immediately took the lead and talked about his plot to get Dominique out, for some reason. Jason and Alex were neck and neck and eventually Jason won the POV. Paul, being a puppetmaster, was ecstatic because he realized that Jason does what Alex says and Alex does what Paul says. Paul is really sitting pretty by manipulating the whole house and they don’t even realize it.
Another big plan by Paul…
Paul came up with this three-step plan to get Jason and Alex (POV and HOH holder) to spin things his way. First, he told Alex to take off Jessica and nominate Mark. Why? Because Mark and Dominique are best friends in the house — apparently — and with both of them on the block, one is guaranteed to go home.
Secondly, he went to Jason and pretended like everything he just came up with was Alex’s plan. Jason took the bait because he’s almost as bad of a player as Cody was.
Finally, he convinced both of them that the plan to put Mark on the block was their plan. You would think that two brains are smarter than one but nope. They just praised Paul like he’s the God of Big Brother.
There’s a snake in the Big Brother house
After the POV ceremony, Dominique thought she would try to talk to Alex to see if she could get her to realize what Paul was doing.
“How does a snake operate and how does it ensure that it doesn’t run into things around it?” Dominique asked.
Instead of listening, Alex took that information and went straight to Paul. CBS seriously casted the worst players in the show’s history, and this stunt only proved it. Paul then called a house meeting so he could call out Dominique. His actions should have been a red flag to the entire house, but we’re talking about the Big Brother 19 cast here. During the meeting, Paul talked in circles and disrespected Dominique and her faith. Not cool, Paul.
POV Ceremony
Jessica and Dominique both gave speeches on the block about why Jason should use his POV on them. Taking shots at Paul and Elena, Jason decided not to use The Power of Veto. Jessica or Dominique would be evicted on Thursday night’s Live Eviction.
A Pool Match from Hell
Josh and Mark made a bet while playing pool that the loser had to drink a cup full of pickle juice and hot sauce. It came down to the last shot and Josh double hit the cue ball, making his shot illegal. Josh blew up and started acting like a child.
“Did I lose that game of pool?” Marked asked him.
Josh said yes, and Mark immediately threw the drink in his face. Josh stormed off and came back with ketchup and mayonnaise and threw it all over Mark. Really? About pool? Alright.
Things went to the next level as Josh starts clapping his hands and pouring out game play information like he’s on The Bad Girls Club. In the midst of that, Jessica called out Josh and said Josh was plotting to get Christmas out of the house last week. All in all, the houseguests are all focused on turning on each other instead of realizing who the real threat is.
The Den of Temptation
The final Den of Temptation is the Halting Hex, which gives someone the power to cancel one of the next four evictions. Jessica won and took the temptation. It’s interesting because Jessica is on the block next to Dominique. She could have used it to save herself, or took the chance of getting evicted.
The Live Vote and Eviction
Dominique was evicted by a vote of 10-0. During her interview with Julie Chen, she said she would be quiet if she could go back in the house and she’s going to pray about a friendship with Paul.
Battle Back Showdown
Chen brought out the first four evicted houseguests, Cameron Heard, Jillian Parker, Cody and Dominique. Cody was surprised to see Dominique, for some reason, as he was the one who threw her name under the bus with false accusations.
Chen revealed that this year's Battle Back Showdown would be different than last season. The person who wins will re-enter the house and the curse from the Den of Temptation will be revealed.
As the show ended, Paul spoke to Kevin, Alex, Jason and Josh about Jessica having the temptation. Next week, an evicted houseguest will re-enter the game, the power will be up for grabs in the new HOH competition and a curse will be unleashed on the house.
Big Brother airs on Sundays at 8/7c, Wednesdays at 8/7c, and Thursdays at 9/8c on CBS.
