BB17 - "The Audrey Show"

    Although Steve and Jackie sit on the block as this episode begins, James and Jason immediately meet in the HOH room to discuss how many votes they need in order to backdoor Jace. Recent events have caused the majority of the house to turn against Jace, wanting him to go home this week. Despite his goofy personality, and urge to make the other houseguests laugh, it seems to simply annoy the rest of the house, rather than make them like him. In an effort to lighten the mood, Jace decides streaking through the back yard is a good way to make the others like him, but the houseguests seem less than impressed, which causes Austin to fear for his own game, feeling being associated with Jace may cause people to target him as well.

    In a desperate attempt to get on James' good side prior to the Power of Veto competition, Jace and Austin meet with James and Audrey in the HOH room. Jace makes a promise to James that if he wins Head of Household next week, he will keep James safe if James does not nominate him this week. This conversation causes “Cloud-Town” to be formed between the four houseguests.

    Being a fan of the game, Da'Vonne knows there is often a competition involving counting, and the objects in the house. As Da' begins to walk around the house, counting different objects in order to drill them into her memory for the future, Jeff, Clay, and Shelli grow wary of her as she enters their bedroom in the house. Jeff decides to take the initiative and question Da' about it, which causes her to feel personally attacked. Da' isolates herself in the HOH bedroom in order to calm down, when Jeff joins her in an attempt to apologize. Despite his apology, Da' feels it is fake and he is only doing it for damage control, which seems to just anger her more. To make matters worse, Clay also joins Da' in the HOH room to apologize, but again, she doubts the sincerity of his apology, and grows angry at Audrey, feeling Audrey convinced him to apologize, and told him exactly what to say.

    Slop makes its entrance into the BB17 house, as James is informed that as the first HOH of the season, he must be pick the first four have nots of the season. James picks Liz, Austin, Vanessa, and Da'Vonne as have nots, feeling it only fair considering those four are safe for the week, and do not have the fear of being nominated or evicted. As the have not room is revealed, John may be regretting not volunteering to be a have not this week, as it resembles a dentist office. Although in the diary room, John complains about the outdated equipment and states “This is a dentist I wouldn't want to go see!”, which seems ironic considering several houseguests and fans, feel the exact same way about this “creepy dentist”.

    James, Steve, Jackie, Becky, John, and Jason compete in the first Power of Veto competition of the season. The competition consists of the houseguests searching for letters spread across the backyard. They have ten minutes to gather as many letters as possible, to spell a word. Each letter is assigned to a point system, similar to the game of Scrabble. The person who spells the word totalling the highest total points, will be crowned the winner of the POV. Austin confesses he is secretly hoping for James to win, because he feels James will do what him and Jace want with the veto. Little does he know, James wants to win in order to use the veto to backdoor Austin's best friend in the house. For what may be the first time in BB history, every player in the competition manages to correctly spell a word in the ten minutes provided. However, it was Steve to come out on top with the word “trombonists” equaling a total of twelve points. In celebration, Steve shows off his knowledge of the game as he references past players words, specifically Brendon's from BB12, stating he had the longest word in history with the word “understanding”.

    New alliances start to form in the Big Brother house as the episode continues. Or should we say, Audrey makes more alliances as the episode continues. Already in two alliances, one between her, James, Jason, Da'Vonne, Meg, and Clay, and another between her, James, Austin, and Jace, Audrey still doesn't feel secure as she begins recruiting more people into her alliance. Audrey goes as far as to threaten Jeff, stating if he doesn't want to be nominated this week, he'd better come upstairs to talk.        Clearly feeling in power of the house, housemates grow wary of Audrey, and James contemplates nominating her instead of Jace as the replacement nominee. Several fans, including BB16 winner Derrick, have begun comparing Audrey to Devin from last season. Derrick recently tweeted that watching her play the game was giving him Devin flashbacks. Big Brother might as well be renamed "The Audrey Show" after this episode, but Audrey had better be careful, or she could be the next one out the door.

    Feeling completely safe, Jace is shocked as he is named the replacement nominee after Steve uses the Power of Veto to save himself. Austin is also surprised from the veto outcome, and once again begins to fear for his own safety knowing the house had been lying to him and his “bro”. As the episode concludes, it seems “Cloud-town” wasn't as real for James as it was for Austin and Jace. Jace's fate seems sealed, but will this duo have the charm it takes to flop the house to their advantage? After all, expect the unexpected.