*Warning: BB17 spoilers ahead from the live feeds.*

UPDATE 4: On the Thursday, August 27, Week 9 live show, the vote was unanimous: John McGuire, aka Johnny Mac, the rock star dentist, was evicted by a 5-0 vote. After he was evicted, he told Julie Chen he'd target Meg (!) if he got back in the house. Not Vanessa. Not Austwins. Not even James. He'd go after Meg to try and weaken James. So that's sad news. But the good news for JMac fans is that he won his way back in the house -- only a few minutes after leaving it! He was the last juror standing in the world's shortest endurance competition. However, bad news for sanity fans followed directly after that: Vanessa won the comp, so she is the Week 10 Head of Household. Oh boy. Another Vanessa HoH. Take a deep breath, everyone.

(Endurance comp controversy: Several players were disqualified, which is why the comp was so short, and at first fans thought it was because they sat on the disc. But it looked like Vanessa sat on a disc too. So fans wondered why she wasn't disqualified, giving the win to John. But John appeared to be sitting too. Apparently the rule was that your feet had to be on the disc, and you could sit on it too; but Shelli, Jackie and Becky were sitting *without* their feet on the disc, which led to the disqualification.)

If you're curious about the Week 10 nominations, they came in on Friday, August 28: Vanessa nominated James and Meg for eviction. James was most likely going home/to jury unless he won POV ... so it's a good thing James *did* just win POV! Does this mean Johnny Mac could be re-evicted? Maybe. We'll see what Vanessa does on Monday during the POV Ceremony. She needs a replacement nominee, and John is an option. But he's not the only option. Meg may be the one going home instead.

There's more, though: Julie said a double eviction is coming on Thursday, September 3; it's possible someone could finally target Vanessa in that HoH. She's not only good at mental comps, she can win endurance comps. She's amazing. And she's crazy. And the HGs are crazy if they don't take her out the second they can.

UPDATE 3: Here's a quick update for anyone who watched the Wednesday, August 26 episode, saw that Vanessa won POV and is no longer even a remote option for eviction, and wants to know which final Week 9 nominee -- Steve or Johnny Mac -- is going home on Thursday, August 27. Well ... it's almost certain (let's call it 93%) that John will be evicted. On Wednesday night, Austwins and Vanessa decided on John, and Vanessa even told John about the plan to evict him, so he's not blindsided. That's not pure kindness, it's fear that he could be the returning juror. But you never know, they may change their minds for the umpteenth time by the time you finish reading this. For once, the vote was so split that these fools were seriously -- *seriously* -- considering a game of rock, paper, scissors to decide who to vote out. But they seem to have a plan for Thursday's live eviction, which will be closely followed by the four jurors (Shelli, Jackie, Becky and probably John) competing to return into the house. So John could walk back in within minutes. Vanessa, Liz, Julia, Meg, and James are the only ones who can vote on the live show, and since that's an uneven number there will be no tie. This could be interesting. As of now, Johnny Mac is back in the bullseye, but start a prayer circle for whichever one is your favorite!

UPDATE 2: Oh My Lanta did things blow up on Monday before the POV Ceremony. At that ceremony, Vanessa did not use the POV and just kept the nominations Steve vs. John. Before doing so, there was serious house drama, centered around (who else) Vanessa. John was the one who bit the bullet and told Vanessa about last week's five-person deal to backdoor her. She flipped out, per usual, and since Steve was named the backdoor mastermind (really?!) she now wants Steve out. Vanessa is potentially the swing vote, so she may be able to push that. Plus, she tends to get her way. However, on the other side, Liz and Julia want to evict John for ratting out the deal. As of Monday, Austin was arguing to keep Steve and evict John, but Vanessa may change his mind. It is not clear at this point what Meg and James want to do. Vanessa made it very obvious that she feels betrayed by Steve and wants him gone, so Meg and James should see that Steve is a shield for them as long as he and Vanessa are both in the house. Team Steve over Team Johnny, but since many fans think John is cute they'll be thrilled if he stays. This one may come down to the wire with the target going back and forth until Thursday's live eviction. By the time they all vote, Vanessa and the twins will be on the same page about who goes home. As mad as they are at different people, they don't want to lose each other as allies. Vanessa is running her alliance, but this has to have her scared at least a little bit -- since Austwins was involved in the five-person deal to backdoor her -- so maybe she'll go along with what they want to show she's a team player.

UPDATE 1: Dagnabbit. Vanessa went and won POV. She's good. She's paranoid and hypocritical, but she's good. The feeds were down for five hours on Saturday night and when they returned, The Mad Hatter had the power. Right after she won Veto, Vanessa said she would keep the nominations the same, so John or Steve may be evicted -- unless she decides to take one down and backdoor James or Meg. That's still possible, and the answer will come during Monday's POV Ceremony. Vanessa's alliance was initially leaning toward evicting John, but they're also worried about Steve. They believe Steve and John have been working together this whole time and Vanessa thinks Steve is two-faced. However, they also worry that James and Meg will work with whoever returns into the house from the jury. If Steve is smart, he'll spill the whole backdoor Vanessa plan to Vanessa to at least try to get her to use the POV on him, or maybe get her vote if he stays up, so they can turn on Austwins (with the help of whoever returns) next week. Vanessa is known for changing her mind every few minutes, so don't put too much stock in any declarative statement from her until nominations are final. Actions speak louder than words.


No matter who is evicted from "Big Brother 17" Week 9 this Thursday, August 27, he or she will have a chance to return to the house within the hour. The four jury members will compete on the next live show, and one of them will stay to compete in the next Head of Household competition and try to survive Week 10. Will professional poker player Vanessa Rousso be the houseguest who has that eviction/possible redemption story? Nope! Sorry. She must have a sixth sense (haha) for when she should cover her own butt, and she won protection this week, whether she really needed it or not. Johnny Mac may end up following his girl Becky out the door this week instead. (#Jecky4Eva) But if Vanessa's former Freaks and Geeks ally Steve Moses is ultimately seen as the bigger threat, then he'll be the one crossing his fingers for the buyback.

How did it come to this?

Vanessa's onetime close ally, Austin Matelson, won the HoH competition that had just started on the August 20 live show. Last week, under his showmance Liz Nolan's HoH, there was a lot of discussion about possibly backdooring Vanessa. They decided to table the move until this week, and the original plan was for the Austwins alliance (Austin/Liz/Julia) to throw this HoH so they didn't have to be the ones to put anyone up. They had made deals with everyone in the house, so being HoH would show their cards.

But Austin finally won a solo HOH right he should've thrown it, and as of Friday afternoon he was deciding whether to nominate Vanessa outright or try to backdoor her. He settled on nominating Steve and John. Both Julia and Liz said they wanted to evictJohn instead of Vanessa, since 1) they don't really trust John, 2) Stevewould be forced to work with them without John, 3) Vanessa has not gone against the twins (and she never sold Julia out, unlike Austin) and 4) whoever returns to the house will be gunning for Vanessa. Vanessa is a good shield. Without her in the house, Austwins becomes an obvious target. (They're already an obvious target, with back-to-back HoHs, but anyway.)

When Austin told Steve he wanted to put up Steve vs. John, with Steve as the pawn and Vanessa (maybe) as the replacement nominee, Steve was not happy. Can't blame him. What is the point of making an alliance with people who put you up instead of the two other free people in the house -- Meg Maley and James Huling? It just shows that Austin wants to keep James and Meg as his true final five allies and sees Steve and John as expendable.

On Friday, it looked like John would be evicted next if he did not win the Power of Veto. Vanessa was not even a serious backup target at that point, since Austin was leaning more toward James, if someone else had to go up. The POV competition was held late on Saturday, and the POV ceremony will probably be a formality on Monday, with Vanessa keeping the nominations the same. But stay tuned to see which way the house leans in the battle of John vs. Steve.

What do you want to happen?

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