BB28Aug 31, 8:29 AM

Morning Update: Veto Ceremony Day

Monday morning the veto ceremony still hasn't happened. Drew is HOH; LaTrice, Taylor, and Yash sit; Yash has veto. Sunday he walked a Devens volunteer replacement and told Melody it is not Barrett. Recaps say he also floated Dee after feeds cut. Nothing is locked.

It's Monday morning in the house, and the board looks exactly like it did when Sunday's note filled it in: Drew Campbell is HOH, LaTrice Verrett, Taylor Brown, and Yash Patel sit on the block, and Yash is holding the veto he won somewhere the feeds weren't. The ceremony has not happened. Which means the only open question of the week — who Drew names if that veto comes off the block — is still open, no matter how many people in the house talk like it's closed.

And they talk like it's closed. The house is treating Yash using the veto on himself as settled fact — they even staged a joke pose about it Sunday around 11:04 PM. You are not the house. You write "if."

The volunteer path

Drew spent Sunday walking the pawn plan with the pawn himself, which is either efficient or a category error, depending on how Thursday goes.

Around 12:52 PM in the gym, Drew laid it out: the replacement he'd want is Barrett Pfeiffer, but putting Barrett up paints a target on him, or pushes him away, or both. So the plan is Rick Devens — because Devens volunteered, and because Drew thinks it confuses the other side of the house.

At 1:00 PM, Dee Valladares joined them and gave the plan her blessing with an asterisk. She doesn't believe Angela Murray or Barrett would vote Devens out. If they did, she'd be pissed, and she'd go work with the other side. Then she told Drew that even if Melody Morris stays off the block, he should keep his eyes open. Free advice, delivered to a man mid-plan.

By the pool table around 11:12 PM, Drew and Devens were rehearsing. Devens goes up. Drew can't put Melody up — he's lost too many jury votes already, by his own count. Devens will act annoyed at the ceremony, sell it. Drew's one request: win the Blockbuster, because he does not want to break a tie. Devens' reply: "you are stuck with me." Drew will give him the heads-up; Devens will look down after leaving the HOH room. Theater, blocked and staged.

At 11:32 PM, Melody asked Drew who the renom is. Drew: you'll find out tomorrow. It's not Barrett. That's the version she went to bed with.

The other side of the same coin

Here's the fun part: nearly everyone reassuring Devens has also, on camera, described cutting him.

Sunday around 5:54 PM, Barrett briefed Melody. Devens volunteered and now regrets it. Devens is out there trying to get Melody on the block instead — never mind that Drew already told him Melody's off the table and Devens said he understood. Barrett's summary: "I need him to put up Devens." Both Barrett and Melody agreed Drew loses their jury votes if Barrett goes up. And then Barrett said the quiet part: if it came to a vote, he'd vote Devens out — "do not tell anyone that." Melody didn't need convincing. She'd vote Devens out, period. She also mentioned that if she'd won the veto, she'd have used it on Taylor, which is a sentence several people in this house would find educational.

Devens, meanwhile, is not exactly serene about his own volunteer status. At 10:17 PM he told Dee, with Angela there, that it's fine if he goes up — but he told them nobody in their group votes for anyone at final two if they flip and vote him out. A jury hostage situation, offered casually over evening conversation.

At 10:46 PM, Angela relayed the threat to Dee. Dee agreed he's not wrong. Then she laughed, because when she wanted to use that exact tactic, Devens told her it was wrong. Growth, or something.

Melody's own math arrived after midnight. At 12:03 AM: if she sits next to Yash, she stays; next to Lala or Taylor, she goes. Drew told her he'd follow her to jury soon and no, he wouldn't vote her out — he's told them that. She thinks she goes up next week and goes home anyway. At 12:19 AM she asked if the Icons will be pissed that Drew's using one of them as the renom. Drew: I hope not. I told them I wasn't putting you up.

At 12:47 AM, Melody got called to the DR. Lights off in the HOH after she left. Feeds cut. That's your last direct look inside the house.

The Dee float

What happened after that is recap territory, so hold it with tongs.

Big Brother Network's Monday recap says Drew camtalked late Sunday about renoming Dee — wondering why she should skate past her own selfish moves, having already told Devens and Barrett that Melody's safe. A Monday morning fan update attributes a quote to him: "Dee was selfish, why are we letting her get away with it," along with the read that Barrett and Devens vote his way, though Barrett might slip a vote against Dee. RealityBBQ's Day 55 recap adds Devens hinting he doesn't want to be the replacement and asking Angela and Dee to push, plus the Crossovers aiming that no-final-two-votes threat at Barrett specifically.

None of that is a Jokers-timed receipt. Do not lock Dee. Do not lock Devens. Drew rehearsed one name all night and floated another after the cameras stopped catching it, and the only ceremony that counts hasn't happened.

The ceremony is next. The feeds will cut for it. You'll find out the way Melody does: tomorrow, which is now today.