Big Brother Blowout: Season's Final Nominations Strain Alliance, Backstabbing Begins

Even though there is still one strong alliance in the Big Brother house, it's not necessarily as strong as it used to be. That's because the players in that alliance see the threats all around them ... and then there's Rubina. Makensy has dominated the season with competition wins, while Chelsie has held her own in that regard, but been the clear mastermind of most of the moves (except a mid-game where her side lost power for a while). And then there's poor, sweet Cam. Honestly, Cam's best option would be able to get rid of both Chelsie and Makensy and take Rubina to the end, because he has been so carried throughout this game, he'd lose to either one of them. Honestly, he'd probably lose to Rubina, too, because she's at least scrapped her way this far. Nevertheless, this week's Head of Household is so important because your power can be limited if you don't also win the Power of Veto. After all, with only four players left, if the HOH doesn't win Veto, then whoever does is safe and gets to evict one of the other two with the sole vote. At least if the HOH also wins POV then they can have some control by choosing who's on the Block and who gets that sole vote. So there's a lot of strategy and finesse to navigate this week as Head of Household. Of course, you've gotta win it first. As outgoing Head of Household, Makensy is in the most vulnerable position of the week. But as the season's reigning comp beast, she's also the most confident player when out of control so long as there is at least one comp between her and eviction. All she could do was sit as host and watch to see what would happen next. To her credit, Makensy was pre-gaming this week pretty hard with her allies in the trio, Chelsie and Cam, and Rubina, reminding all of them that it's basically "three v. one" this week. To the trio, she's making it clear that Rubina is their obvious target. On the other side, she's pretending to jump on board Rubina's all-female Final Three dreams. Honestly, Makensy is good with whatever, just so long as she's laid the groundwork for any combination of people to want to keep her around. The competition saw players faced with a wall of "computer code" (just a random assortment of letters, numbers, and symbols) in which they had to find a two word phrase. The person who found it and buzzed in correctly as to which of three columns it was in the most across seven rounds would win. After three rounds, it definitely wasn't looking good for Chelsie, with her zero points to Rubina's two and Cam's one. Even Makensy had to weigh in, saying in a confessional, "Chelsie, Chelsie, listen. Look. You are losing to Cam and Rubina! What are you doing? Lock the heck in!" Even though the pep talk wasn't in person, it still somehow worked. Chelsie went on a run, winning the next three rounds to take the lead. In the final round, though, she faltered. Luckily, it wasn't Rubina winning, which would have forced a tie-breaker round, but Cam. In the end, he and Rubina tied with two rounds each, but that still left Chelsie victorious with three rounds. As she collapsed to the ground in victory, you could already see the wheels start turning inside the player who's spent all summer trying to not get any blood directly on her own hands. Better to let others do that dirty work for her as she orchestrates from behind the curtain. Once again, Chelsie proved what a keen mind she has for this game, performing a similar feat to what Makensy was doing by hedging all of her bets. "They're both afraid of us being a pair, and we are. So I may consider putting you up," Chelsie told Cam. "Either way, it doesn't matter who's on the Block, it's just a placeholder." On his way out, she slyly asked him who he'd send home this week if he were to win Veto. "I think it's smarter if we send Makensy home," he said, which was music to Chelsie's ears. He'd take out her biggest threat in this game, leaving her a cleaner path to victory (and no blood on her hands). With Rubina she shifted tactics entirely, instead commiserating with Rubina feeling her "role" in the game has been as a "placeholder" on the Block week after week. " "I don't want that to be your role in this game if it doesn't need to be," she told Rubina, setting up a reason for Rubina to consider keeping her around by remembering this moment of mercy, should she make it to the Final Three and win power, choosing who to sit next to in the Final Two. When she approached Makensy about possibly sitting on the Block, Makensy was fine with it. But she quickly proved that Chelsie wasn't the only one thinking ahead. "I'm not tripping over anything," she said, slyly adding, "My only thing is, like, if you won Veto?" "I would use it on you. And then you would have to make the decision between Cam and Rubina," Chelsie replied, both assuaging Makensy's con