BB28Jul 28, 8:39 PM

Evening Update: Devens Wants Jason Safe—to Force Drew’s Hand

Devens says he wants Jason to win the Blockbuster to force Drew and Barrett to show their hands. Drew and Barrett are assembling a save-Mallory push, while Taylor says Jason and Mallory both need to stay.

The afternoon's strangest twist didn't come from a competition—it came from Devens, who spent the week helping put Jason on the block and now says he wants Jason to win the BB Blockbuster. His logic: Jason has less sway in the house, and a Jason save would force Drew and Barrett to finally show where they stand. That counterintuitive gambit is the spine of tonight's update, and by 7:45 PM even Drew and Barrett were quietly wondering why the people agreeing to their plan seemed so comfortable with it.

The board, unchanged

Week 3 HOH: Kamuela "Kamu" Kirk
Veto: Lyric Medeiros won and used it on herself Monday
Final nominees: Jason De Puy, LaTrice "Lala" Verrett, Mallory Aurichio
Evicted so far: Ashley Trail, Rome Seymour
BB Blockbuster: Not yet played—nobody is safe, no matchup is set, no vote is locked
Devens' Diamond POV: Still unused, with no new confirmed movement this window

Devens flips the script

The counterintuitive turn came in a run of afternoon conversations with Kamu. At 4:10 PM, Kamu vented that it would be frustrating to do all the week's work only to watch Lala walk out the door, and Devens agreed the work would feel worthless. Then, at 4:12 PM, Devens dropped the real headline: he wants Jason to win the Blockbuster. His reasoning was purely strategic—Jason carries less influence, and keeping him would force Drew and Barrett to reveal themselves. Kamu was surprised and noted the obvious cost: if Jason stays, their side needs to win HOH.

The plotting continued. At 4:13 PM, Devens and Kamu floated opening a three-person working relationship with Yash, with Devens knocking Drew for shuttling between sides too visibly. At 4:17 PM, Devens gamed out a different branch: if Lala wins safety and Jason faces Mallory, he'd somewhat prefer Mallory to go—but he wouldn't ask the house to do it. And at 4:25 PM, he put the finest point on it: he likes Drew personally, but he wants this vote to force Drew's hand.

Jason's long afternoon

Jason, the man at the center of everyone's calculations, had an emotional day. At 3:49 PM he told Lala that in real life he wouldn't put up with this kind of conflict—but in the Big Brother house, you still have to eat chicken with everyone. Minutes later, at 3:53 PM, he sketched his revenge board: Kamu, Chuk, and Haley on the block if he ever gets power.

From 4:42 to 4:46 PM, he worked out while talking to Lyric and then straight to the camera, declaring he wanted to win HOH and send Kamu home, giving himself a loud pep talk, and framing the Blockbuster as a must-win. Then, at 4:54 PM, the adrenaline drained out: Jason curled up on the couch and cried. It was a raw swing from bravado to exhaustion, and a reminder of how much weight one nominee is carrying into an unplayed competition.

Taylor works the middle—and calls out a leak

At 4:31 PM, Taylor told Melody that Jason and Mallory need to stay, and said she'd work on Yash. That's a preference, not a locked vote—but it's another data point for the keep-Jason column, which also got a nudge at 1:19 PM when Melody said that if Jason wins the Blockbuster, "we get him on board." Not everyone agreed in that conversation: Drew said he doesn't trust Jason, and Mallory said she trusts Lala more.

Then things got pointed. At 5:25 PM, Taylor confronted Yash over information leaking, laying out a chain by her account: a prior Jason-vote conversation traveled from Yash to Drew, from Drew to Dee, and back around to Taylor. Whether Yash's version matches is unclear, but the confrontation shows the information economy in this house is anything but airtight.

The save-Mallory push—and the paranoia inside it

At 7:44 PM, Drew and Barrett campaigned to save Mallory. Dee and Devens said they were on board, with the caveat that more people still needed to be brought in. Drew even suggested a management trick: make Kamu think the plan was his own idea, like a co-HOH.

But the campaigners don't fully trust their own campaign. At 7:45 PM, Drew admitted saving Mallory really only benefits him and Barrett—and Barrett wondered aloud why Dee and Devens seemed so comfortable with it. Given that Devens spent the afternoon explicitly saying he wants to force Drew's hand, Barrett's suspicion may be the sharpest read in the house tonight.

The three Blockbuster branches

Nobody is safe until someone wins, so here's the honest map:

Jason wins safety → Lala vs. Mallory. The save-Mallory push is collecting names, but it is not locked, and even its architects are second-guessing their allies.
Mallory wins safety → Lala vs. Jason. There's been keep-Jason talk from Melody and Taylor, but Drew's distrust shows positions remain mixed.
Lala wins safety → Jason vs. Mallory. Devens privately leaned toward losing Mallory here—but said he wouldn't direct the house to do it.

Meanwhile: The Giggle Girls

Not everything was scheming. At 7:40 PM, Lyric, Melody, and Mallory christened themselves "The Giggle Girls" with a hands-in cheer. A newly named trio in a playful moment—not evidence of a formal strategic alliance, at least not on these receipts.

What matters next

The Blockbuster is the whole ballgame. Its winner doesn't just save themselves—they choose which of these three branches becomes reality, and every branch tests a different set of loyalties. Watch whether Devens' force-Drew's-hand plan survives contact with an actual result, whether Barrett's suspicion of Dee and Devens hardens into action, and whether Taylor's leak confrontation with Yash reshapes who trusts whom. Nothing is locked. Everything is live.