BB28Sep 4, 2:32 AM

Morning Update: Lala Goes, Barrett Has the Key

Thursday night Devens won Blockbuster and LaTrice went home 4–2 over Taylor. The house is in jury. Barrett has the Week 9 key. No noms yet. He told the camera he wants an Icon out — or Yash. Eight remain.

Thursday night, house time, and the branch from yesterday morning's note that actually fired is the one nobody in the bathroom planned around: Rick Devens won the Blockbuster, pulled himself off the block, and LaTrice Verrett went home 4–2 next to the woman the bathroom swore it was saving her from. Then the feeds came back and Barrett Pfeiffer was wearing the HOH key. The board says Week 9 now: Barrett HOH, no nominations, no veto, eight people left. Jury has started. Buckle in.

The Blockbuster and the 4–2

The comp, as televised: a ball pit, a set of stairs, items to drop and hang, four balls to win. Devens is first out of the pit, first to score, and rings in with his fourth ball before anyone else gets close. Julie confirms it — Devens is safe, and LaTrice and Taylor Brown sit in the eviction chairs.

The vote goes 4–2. Drew Campbell, as HOH, doesn't vote. Dee Valladares, Barrett, Yash Patel, and Devens vote to evict LaTrice. Angela Murray and Melody Morris vote to evict Taylor. Julie reads it, LaTrice stands, smiles, hugs everyone — a big one for Taylor — tells the house to be good to each other, and says she loves them.

Her exit interview is the best thing on the broadcast. She hashtags herself #confused, says she faked it till she made it, points out she's 58 and a woman can do anything, and says she's excited for her jury spot — see you finale night, with a dress and fabulous shoes. She liked the goodbye messages from Angela and Taylor. Drew's and Yash's, less so.

Julie closes the show by announcing BB Comics is this week's veto, and Jay Mohr is on the Unlocked stage, and neither of those is tonight's story.

What that did to yesterday's card

Yesterday's card said the bathroom coalition wanted to keep Lala and evict Taylor. Hold that up against the vote and watch it dissolve.

Melody and Angela actually did it — they're the two Taylor votes. Barrett and Yash voted Lala out, which means Barrett executed the other sentence he said Wednesday, not the overnight keep-Lala plan he nodded along to. Dee voted Lala out despite spending yesterday asking why anyone would cut Lala. And Devens voted Lala out, which is the one vote that matched what its owner said in advance. Give the man that much.

So the pair the bathroom wanted saved sat on the block together, and the coalition that built the plan split its own vote down the middle. If you want the full anatomy of how that plan got assembled, yesterday's note has it. You don't need it rebuilt here. What you need is what happened next.

At 6:08 PM the feeds are live and Devens is walking Dee through the Blockbuster win. At 6:10 he asks her who she voted out. Dee says Taylor's votes were Yash and Angela. Devens says Yash is lying. Dee says Yash is a F'ing liar. Note for the record: Dee is wrong. Yash voted Lala out, same as she did. She is calling him a liar for a vote he didn't cast.

It travels anyway. 6:16, Dee tells Barrett that Yash is telling people he voted to evict Lala — then she says Taylor. 6:32, Melody tells Drew that Yash told Dee and Devens he voted Lala out. Drew does not care, which is the most Drew sentence of the night.

Then 6:42, and here's the jewel. Yash tells Melody that when he passed Barrett in the hallway, Barrett said vote out Lala. Melody says: I voted out Lala. That is false. Melody voted Taylor on national television about ninety minutes earlier. Yash says he told Angela it was Melody. Angela is listening. So the two people accusing each other of lying about the vote include one who's telling the truth and being called a liar for it, and one who's lying to his face and getting away with it.

Jury, briefly

Lala said the jury spot herself on the live show, and the house is already operating on it — Yash is talking about jury members seeing goodbye messages, Devens and Taylor are gaming out have-nots after jury. We're in it. Eight remain: Drew, Barrett, and Melody as the three FAP members, whether or not they're voting like it; Dee, Devens, and Angela as the Icons; plus Yash and Taylor. Lala is out of the house and on the jury, which is a new job for a woman who spent the week asking who the fourth vote was.

Barrett has the key

Feeds cut for the HOH comp. At 9:57 PM they return, and Barrett is in the kitchen wearing the key. No comp name on the record — Barrett later says there was a lot of running, Yash did quite terrible, Melody did good, Devens went 5-for-7, and Dee went 6-for-7 on balls. Dee and Melody are the have-nots.

Around 10:00, Devens tells Taylor he kept her over Lala and assumes Angela was one of those votes. Angela voted Taylor. Taylor says she didn't want Lala to go with a zero. Lala got two.

Around 1:20 AM Friday, Barrett gets the HOH room and the letter from his mom, and the house goes soft for an hour. Angela is crying and Yash is holding her. Melody is crushed by the letter and pretend-calls her own mom. It's sweet. It's texture. It's not the spine.

The spine is 2:13 AM, Barrett alone with the camera. He says he kind of told Devens he was kind of good — he's been lying to him for a week so he could keep lying to him. He wants an Icon out this week. If he doesn't get one, he wants Yash. And to make it stick, he says he needs to nominate all three Icons, so the veto can't save the target and two of them are safe anyway.

That is a camtalk, not a nomination ceremony. Nothing is on the block. But Week 9 opens with a key, a mom's letter, and a man explaining to a camera exactly which three people he'd like to line up. Watch the noms.