Morning Update: Taylor Takes Part 1

Taylor Brown won Part 1 of the final Head of Household. That's the overnight headline, Thursday, September 24 into Friday, September 25, all times Pacific. She goes straight to Part 3 on finale night. She does not have the key — nobody does. The Week 13 board stays empty on purpose: no Head of Household, no veto, no nominees. Drew Campbell and Rick Devens play Part 2. The winner of Part 2 meets Taylor live in Part 3. Whoever wins Part 3 is the last Head of Household and picks the Final Two. Part 2 has not happened yet.

If you missed Thursday's live show: Dee Valladares went out and Taylor, Drew, and Devens made the Final Three. That's covered in Evening Update: Final Three.

The blackout. At 8:21, feeds cut to pets. A feed site figured the cut covered the Final Three dinner and/or Part 1 — either way, the competition ran off the feeds. Pets sat there for about two hours by 10:21. At 10:45 the feeds flickered back, and by 10:48–10:49 two updaters had it: Taylor won Part 1.

What the comp was, per the houseguests after the fact. Hanging. Kites. A puddle. Going backwards. A shock if you leaned forward — which Drew found out personally. Taylor said she hung with one arm because of a bad shoulder, the same reason she lost the wall. She couldn't look down, put her weight on one hand, and almost fell forward once. Devens said he felt he had to look down and counted. Drew's own duration: about ten minutes, per Drew at 10:57. That is the only clock on the updates. There is no drop order.

They also can't agree what year was on the set. Drew said today was 1775. Taylor said 1752. We're not picking a side.

Drew took it well, at least out loud. At 10:48 he said Taylor crushed it and he can't even be mad. At 10:50, to Devens: we got this, we just like to make things harder on ourselves — noting Taylor has one Head of Household win and now the first part, and, by his count, six times on the block. That six is Drew's line, not a verified stat. At 11:23 Devens told Drew he'll return the favor unless Drew beats him to it. They shared pizza. Stay focused, drag each other to the end.

Taylor is already in finale mode. At 12:50 Devens hugged her and said congrats; she said she's taking her hair out and practicing her speech. Earlier, at 12:33, she asked when the little dinner is and when Part 2 is — she'd do Part 2 first, then the dinner. Devens wondered if one episode is just the dinner. That's them guessing. Nobody in that house has a schedule.

The talk after — labeled as talk. Taylor told Drew he made a good choice keeping Devens and is guaranteed a Final Two now, because she'd be dumb to take Devens. She has to win on finale Thursday. She has to get to the seat. Drew is gunning for Part 2, and Taylor says she'll help him study, because she wants at least second. They think Part 2 is the time-machine dates and Part 3 is the usual jury-question round — the one that's been the same forever. Both are their guesses, not spoilers.

More talk: Taylor thinks Dee might have won Part 1. Drew says he might regret his choice if he loses Part 2, and that he knows he could have beaten Dee at that. And Taylor says if she'd won the Final Four veto, she'd have let Dee have the vote and gotten rid of Devens, because she didn't trust Drew to do it. All of that is a read, a regret, and a hypothetical. The veto already happened. We're not reopening it.

Where things stand. As of about 2:54 AM Friday, all three are still up talking. Part 2 has not run, and we're not going to guess when it does. Taylor holds a ticket to Part 3, not the key. The finale is Thursday, October 1, 8:00 PM Eastern, 5:00 PM Pacific, 90 minutes. Sunday, September 27 still has the one-hour episode at 9:30 PM Eastern — contents unknown, and we'll keep it that way.

Receipts

• Jokers quick view — the 10:48 win call and the post-comp talk
• Evening Update: Final Three — Thursday's live show and how the Final Three set