BB28Sep 8, 8:32 AM

Morning Update: Destroy a Final Five

Overnight Barrett called unused veto destroying a final five. Yash wants a different four. Drew and Melody: one of us is cooked unless they win HOH. Three Icons still sit.

Tuesday morning, September 8. Yesterday's note already has the ceremony: Yash Patel held the veto Monday and did not use it. What yesterday's note does not have is Monday night, when Barrett Pfeiffer sat alone in the HOH room, a little loose after two hours of Labor Day partying, and said the quiet part into the walls: it has been really fun to be HOH and destroy a final five alliance.

The board has not moved. Week 9, Barrett has the key, Yash did not use the veto, Angela Murray, Dee Valladares, and Rick Devens still sit, eight people remain, jury has started, Dee and Melody Morris are on slop. Three-nominee week. The Blockbuster is still Thursday. Nobody has been evicted. The man who built the week has now told you what it was for.

What you already have

You do not need the animals rebuilt. Unused. Dee expected it and understood it. Devens looks toast and is not evicted, because a three-nominee week ends at a Blockbuster nobody has played yet. At 1:28 Melody told Drew Campbell she does not trust him or Barrett 100%. That's yesterday. Move.

Dee writes it down

At 4:33 Dee is alone in a bedroom after Drew leaves, talking to the empty space he left: you're trying to do damage control, but I will put you up next to Barrett with a smile on my face. Then she announces she's starving and goes to the kitchen, because revenge is a dish best served after a snack.

At 4:57 she reports her own line back: she told Barrett she will make him regret his decision for the rest of his life.

At 5:53 Taylor Brown asks Melody what she thinks of the all-girls alliance Dee and Angela are planning. Melody's answer is the whole modern game in one breath: smart to go along with it, and she would not want to be loyal to it. Taylor seems to agree. The alliance is born pre-betrayed.

Then the house gets ready for a production Labor Day meal, the feeds go to animals at 6:03, and whatever happened at that party stays at that party.

The title beat

At 8:55 Barrett is in the HOH room, alone, possibly a bit drunk, doing the math out loud: he just partied with them for two hours and now three people are mad at him.

At 8:57 he gets to the thesis. It's been really fun to be HOH and destroy a final five alliance. Sticking with the Icons the entire season wasn't going to make him happy. He feels pretty good that Dee or Devens leaves this week.

He does not name the five. He says "a final five" and "the Icons," and if you want to point at the old Crossovers shape — Icons plus Drew plus Barrett, from earlier notes — that's your archaeology, not his quote.

At 8:59 he hopes Melody or Drew win the next HOH, because otherwise he's F-D. He starts listing who might come for him — Angela, Dee, Devens — and when he gets to Yash, the feeds cut. Draw your own dotted line.

At 9:46 Taylor tells him she didn't like how they were mean to him today — the update figures "they" as the Icons. Barrett shrugs: it was expected from them.

Yash counts to four, and past three

At 10:18 Yash is in the HOH telling Barrett he's rocking with him, don't let what was said shake him. They marvel at how crazy it is that "only two Icons remain" — the update's words, and wrong on the board, where three Icons sit nominated and un-evicted. Call it house talk. The house is grading the week before Thursday hands back the paper.

At 10:25 Yash names his four to the end: him, Barrett, Taylor, Melody. That is not FAP. FAP is Drew, Barrett, and Melody, and Drew is conspicuously not in Yash's math.

At 11:13 Taylor and Yash are already playing next week. Drew is scared as F today, Taylor says. Angela yelled at Drew, per Taylor's report; he has no loyalty. At 11:15 she'd nominate Dee and Drew if she won. Yash sketches renoms — Melody if Dee comes down, Angela if Drew comes down. It's plan talk, not a locked week. At 11:17 Taylor tells Yash she would go home as collateral damage for him. At 11:27 Yash says he can't wait to see Drew leave. At 11:28 Taylor decides Drew could win at the end; Yash says his odds of getting there aren't high; Taylor says the jury doesn't like his ass. At 11:29 she goes to bed. Yash: good day, let's keep them going.

Meanwhile, FAP is still three

At 10:19 Drew and Melody talk to the cameras outside. Drew hopes Yash honors the cease fire, then says he's cooked anyway. His plan is to win the next HOH and the veto so the noms can't move. At 10:20 Melody hopes she wins HOH — because if not, one of us is cooked, and by "one of us," she notes, he means him.

At 12:15 Drew floats his fear: Taylor and Yash might go with the Icons, since Yash can't put them up per the bribe. That's Drew's read of a deal Friday's notes already can't agree on. Melody, as a friend and an ally, tells him not to be paranoid. Both agree one of them needs the next HOH. At 12:17 Drew whispers something; Melody asks if that isn't what he and Barrett do — plead the fifth. At 12:24 they hug in the have-not room, in front of a sleeping Dee. At 12:25 lights out, the have-not bed spinning with Dee and Melody on it.

Where that leaves you

Three sit. The veto stayed unused. Barrett has said what the week was for; the house has responded by drafting next week without him in most of the sentences. Everybody's plan is the same plan: win the next HOH. Thursday's Blockbuster is not written, and neither is the eviction.

Newest receipt at press time: 12:25 AM. The house was told to be up at 10. You do not have a Tuesday morning conversation yet.