HOH Blog: Jorge!

Hello everyone! First of all, I want to congratulate the Final 4 for making it this far. It has been a long, tough road to get here, and no matter what anyone says, all of us deserve it. With that said, I want to take this opportunity to share how I played my game now that I have made it to Final 3 by winning HoH, given that my head would have been on the chopping block had I not. 

Week 1

The first day of the this game, I made a secret alliance with Alex. At first, I had every intention of keeping my word to Alex, but for the first couple of votes, I'll admit, he made it very difficult! First of all, our "secret alliance" didn't stay hidden when he went up to Moises and proposed an alliance to him, in which Alex, Moises, and I would be this season's next "Plastics." I was surprised at how foolish Alex was for approaching Moises so quickly into the game. I understand trusting one person, and then feeling people out so we could add people, which is why I gave my initial trust to Alex to see how far we could take it. After Alex proposed the alliance, Moises, as I predicted, threw us under the bus. Please, don't take this to mean that I thought Moises was a distrustful person; I merely thought that, given it was the first week, it was too soon to immediately build a three-person alliance because we could easily be thrown under the bus. And I was right - Michael asked me about the being with Alex, which I vehemently denied, and then Moises confronted me about it, which I denied further.

Of course, this wasn't the only time I was thrown under the bus...Cody approached me about an alliance with Saxon, called the Bedazzlers. I wanted to trust Cody, but I didn't trust Saxon at all. I insisted with Cody that we couldn't trust him because he barely talked to me and quickly assumed that I would be interested in the alliance. My intuition told me that something was fishy, and I was right: Saxon leaked the Bedazzlers. essentially screwing over Cody and me. Despite these two instances of sabotage, my name was kept off the list of nominations in favor of bigger targets in the game, but it gave me the opportunity to learn a lot about my fellow players.

When Casey was nominated, I had a feeling Michael would be staying in the house. Although Alex and I wanted to vote him out, my gut was telling me it wasn't going to happen, and I tried explaining this to Alex, but I felt that he had blinders on. I didn't understand why he couldn't trust my intuition, but then it hit me: I had to earn Alex's trust. Although he had mine, perhaps he was weary of devoting himself to someone in fear of being backstabbed so early in the game. Completely understandable. In the end, though, I voted to evict Casey, and the vote turned out to be as I suspected, 7 to 5 in favor of Michael.  Had I voted Michael, the vote would have been a tie, and Jacob would have evicted Casey anyway; therefore, I was ecstatic that I went with my gut because I would have never had my foot in the door to play through the rest of the game without doing so.

Week 2

When I won HoH, I used the leverage I had gained by voting to evict Casey to make relationships with that side of the house, while Alex made relationships with Haydon's side of the house. Alex and I figured that we could use the information from both sides - because information is the currency of Big Brother - and play accordingly. During my HoH reign, Haydon wanted me to nominate Michael and Summer while Michael and Moises wanted me to go after Haydon and Alec. However, I didn't see any value in nominating players that weren't coming after me. Instead, I shifted my attention towards Mark, who had been antagonizing me the whole week. At the same time, I needed to diminish Michael's power, and it was apparent to me the Saxon was in love with him, so I needed one fewer vote in Michael's favor. I would have been happy if Mark left, but if it backfired and Saxon was evicted, that wasn't so bad, either. The only factor that stood in my way was the MVP. I begged Summer (who was Adam at the time I guess) to put up a random nominee instead of a target like Alex. For one, I wanted Mark or Saxon evicted, and two, I wanted to protect Alex. 

Despite my persistence, the MVP nominated Alex nonetheless. I was really pissed off, and it was clear to me that my opinion didn't matter to them. Thus, I took the initiative to actually align myself with Mark and Haydon. Felicity facilitated a "therapy session," in which Mark and I hashed out our ill feelings and tried working together. Haydon was also an ally of Mark's, so I figured this could be a very great opportunity to backdoor Michael or Moises if Mark won the veto. Not only would I gain an ally if Mark won the veto, but Michael would also be completely blindsided. I hinted to Michael and Moises that I wanted to backdoor Haydon, but that was never going to happen. In one of the closest vetos competitions of the season, however, Alex won with a 5 to 4 to 4 score, giving the MVP the power to make a replacement nominee. My plan was shattered, and Felicity was on the block. She then proceeded to self-destruct and expelled from the game. My HoH, however, wasn't a complete disaster because Alex was safe, and that's ultimately all the mattered.

Week 3

When Haydon won HoH, I was overjoyed that I had invested a lot of my time into aligning with him because I knew he wouldn't go after me just yet. Instead, he went after Michael and Summer. I would have preferred Michael and Jacob, but these nomination weren't so bad, either. However, Haydon's HoH reign was the turning point in the game where I realized Haydon and Mark were terrible allies. First of all, Moises gave me inside information about the Diamond Power of Veto. Although he only told me a half-truth, it was enough to use it to not only keep Moises safe, so that I could build up even more trust with him, but at the same time, Michael and Jacob could end up nominated next to each other, and we would take out Jacob. Why Jacob? I thought it was better to keep the bigger target in the game, while at the same time taking out all of his allies in order to reduce his power. But this was a moot point because Mark and Haydon went nuts! They both thought that Moises was bluffing and trying to keep himself off the block, but I told them that Moises had no reason to bluff to me. If he was indeed bluffing, he would have gone to Haydon himself and suggested that he had a DPOV (much like someone did in the next couple of weeks, but we will get to that soon). 

However, Haydon and Mark don't understand logic, and instead decided to nominate Moises as the replacement nominee, and to top it off, Mark taunted him on the chat by singing, "Diamonds." Worst players ever. Inevitably, Moises confronted me, and I tried to make it seem like I was working in his best interest, but I could tell that he could see through my bullshit lol. While it wasn't totally in Moises' best interest, because I wanted his allies, Michael and Jacob, to be evicted, it was nevertheless going to keep him off the block, and he wouldn't have to use the DPOV and become a huge target. It was then that Moises confessed that he didn't have the DPOV, but he could easily get it by outing Summer and Adam, which he now planned on doing because he was on the block. Although Moises didn't physically have the DPOV, he essentially had it by knowing the identity-switch twist because Summer and Adam had told him about it. Although I warned Haydon and Mark numerous times, they set off a huge chain reaction by making a terrible move and nominating Moise because then Moises outed Summer and Adam, got Michael and himself off the block, auto-nominated Summer and Adam, received the DPOV as a prize for outing Summer and Adam, used it to take off the real Summer, and put up Alec as a replacement nominee. Then, Haydon and Mark had the gall to claim it was rigged. I WARNED you it would happen!!! That's what made me so mad!!! You guys were just idiots, sorry to be so blunt., but it's true.

Anyway, Alex was also nominated alongside Alec and Adam, and I thought he was a goner because the numbers just weren't there. Haydon's stupid move basically put us in a huge hole, and we could not have the numbers to save Alex unless Michael and Jacob wanted to keep him.

And then the unthinkable happened.

Michael and Jacob (and Dallas, apparently) turned on Summer, Moises, and Adam, and voted to evict Adam. Moises was really mad at me for voting to evict Adam, but I wasn't going to evict Alex. However, I couldn't tell him why I wouldn't evict Alex, so I gave him a bullshit answer about going with majority, hoping to shift the blame to Michael. I was right, though, Michael was the one to blame, but Moises was mad at me for not telling him, and I was scared for my life in the BB house because I knew Moises could see right through me.

Week 4

The person who I wanted to win HoH the least then won HoH. How the hell does that happen? Haha, well I shouldn't expect any less from a game of Big Brother. When Moises won HoH, I knew I was on the chopping block because he was really mad at me. Additionally, he didn't know that Michael was the force being Adam's eviction and blamed Cody for it (or that it was Dallas, which it was, apparently), but before I could go ahead and throw Michael under the bus to Moises, I received the news that I got immunity! LOL, with immunity, I had nothing to worry about, and I didn't have to throw Michael under the bus to save myself. When Michael threw Cody under the bus to save himself, I figured that Cody would be safe despite Moises wanting to evict him because Haydon had won MVP and nominated Summer. Although Haydon initially wanted Michael up directly, he was convinced to put up Summer in order to backdoor Michael, but in reality, Alex and I thought it would be the best move to save Cody and Michael and vote out Summer because she was a huge threat and Moises' closest ally. At the same time, Cody would still be in the game, whom I really trusted and sincerely wanted to at least make jury.

It was at this point, however, that Haydon turned on me. I completely expected him to go after me at some point, but I didn't anticipate he would do it so soon. Bad move, Haydon. He wanted us to save Summer, so that he would put up Michael, but if Summer stayed on the block, she was his plan B to go home. Well, Alex and I were hoping Michael, Saxon, or Cody to win veto, so that Summer couldn't be saved and we didn't have to show our hand that we actually wanted Summer to go, not Michael. But then, one of the most controversial events happen, and Michael was accused of cheating, thereby nullifying the veto competition. Honestly, I think Michael should have been disqualified, and the person with the next highest score should have won veto. Instead, it's cancelled completely, and we play an impromptu competition right before the double eviction, and guess what happens? Summer wins the veto lol of course, Murphy's Law rules the world! She takes herself off, and Michael is nominated. Although Alex and I were wavering on whether to keep Michael or evict him, we anticipated that we would need Michael and Jacob to carry us through the double eviction; after all, we had been fostering a four-person alliance with them, which Jacob dubbed "Team  wtf are we." Unfortunately for Cody, Alex and I needed to keep Michael in the game so that we could get through the double eviction, so I had to betray someone I REALLY did not want to go. I would apologize, but I can't say I'm sorry for playing the game because our plan worked: Michael and Jacob were two of the 5 votes to keep me in the game. Cody just got really unlucky.

During the double eviction, Bailey and Michael were auto-nominated because Alex outed Bailey for being Renee (super obvious) and Michael "cheated." When Haydon won MVP, he had the sole power to put up and replace nominees during the double eviction because there wasn't an HoH, which I thought was complete crap lol why does Michael's ineptitude at faking screenshots and Bailey's bad cover-up job automatically deny every player the chance to win HoH and, therefore, safety during the double eviction? Just saying...

Anyway, Haydon nominated me because I voted to keep Michael, and he went after me full force. Thankfully, Alex actually bluffed that he had a DPOV for outing Bailey, which was completely plausible because Moises had received a DPOV for doing the same thing. Not only did his bluff keep himself off the block, but it was enough leverage to put fear in people and, thus, vote to evict Bailey instead of myself. His bluff was a great tool for us in the coming weeks, and it truly proved how huge of a player he actually was. Furthermore, his need to save me was confirmation enough for me to realize that he finally did trust me. It was beautiful.

 Week 5

After Bailey was evicted, I wanted to personally be the HoH to take Haydon out. During the endurance competition, Alex and I were bickering because neither of us would let the other person win HoH. I wanted it for personal reasons, and I didn't understand why Alex wanted it so bad. Did he not trust? Eventually, he messed up, and I won HoH. The next day, Alex apologized for being so stubborn, and we buried the hatchet. Yet, we took this opportunity to play it off as we were not on the same page.  I kept telling Michael that I couldn't trust Alex, and I think Alex was doing the same, in order to make it seem like we doubted each other, and people would dismiss us as a duo. For my nominations, everyone wanted Moises and Haydon nominated, but I'm not an idiot. I'm pretty sure had I nominated Moises next to Haydon, Moises was going to be evicted. Instead, I put up Summer in order to ensure that Haydon would be evicted because Moises would be forced to vote out Haydon, and a lot of people thought that Summer deserved to stay over Haydon. However, my plan B was, in case Haydon won veto, to nominate Moises. I don't think this comes to a huge surprise to Moises, but I knew he could see right through my bullshit when I told him that I nominated Summer in order to make sure Haydon went home. While that was true, Moises is smart enough to know that, if evicting Haydon backfired, Summer would be evicted, but for me, that wasn't so bad either because Moises would then go after the people that voted out Summer. At the same time, I didn't nominate Moises, so I still had some trust there left with him.

Anyway, Moises won veto, took Summer off, and I nominated Alec, sealing Haydon's fate. I'm not sorry to say that Haydon brought it upon himself and played a terrible game.

Week 5

When Summer won HoH, I went, FUCK! lol I anticipated turning on Michael and Jacob eventually, but I wanted it to be in a couple of rounds. As soon as Summer won HoH, Alex and I knew we had to cover ourselves. Of course, I'm sure Michael was doing the same because his little "picture leak" that pictured himself, Jacob, me, and Alex together gave Summer the idea that the four of us were together. Additionally, they were telling Moises about it, so when Moises confronted me about it, I told him that I did it in order to save myself during the double eviction (which was true). Thankfully, they understood that Michael and Jacob were a bigger threat to their game, and Summer nominated Jacob and Dallas in order to backdoor Michael. Personally, I didn't want Michael to go because I wanted him to make jury. He was a nice guy and I felt bad for him, in the same way that I felt bad for Cody. 

When I won the veto, however, I had to prove myself to Summer and Moises by using the veto on Dallas, giving them the opportunity to backdoor Michael. Yet, I wanted Jacob to go because he was a bigger threat to my game; I still thought I could work with and influence Michael. So I went to Michael and insisted that he ask Jacob to quit the game. If Jacob quits, the game resets, and we move on to the next week of the game, thus keeping Michael in the game without having to go to a vote and showing my hand. Apparently, Jacob didn't want to quit (seriously, I don't understand because it seemed like he cared a lot less about the game than Michael did, yet he wasn't quitting to ensure that Michael stayed, which is pretty crappy to do to Michael lol), so I voted against Michael in the end. To Michael's credit, he managed to stay in the game despite my vote by convincing four other people to keep him. I was shocked and displeased. My vote against Michael revealed my hand, that I was no longer with him, but he stayed in the game! I will say, though, that after this vote, Michael should have never trusted me. Shame on me? I say shame on you.

Week 6

Thankfully, I won HoH, which gave me the opportunity to backtrack a little bit and save face with Michael. I had no intention of nominating him (unless he did or said something that made me think twice), and instead, I wanted to go after Dallas. Dallas had actually started talking to me, and I immediately assessed him as a very intelligent, logical, and calculating player. To make matters worse, he was Michael's ally. I planned on nominating Alec and Dallas, tell Michael and Dallas that Dallas was the pawn, but then everyone in the house would vote out Dallas, and I would pretend to be blindsided alongside Michael and Dallas. When talking to Alex, however, he kept insisting that Dallas wasn't a threat, and Alec was the better person to evict. I repeatedly told Alex that Dallas was a very intelligent player and he was playing under the radar, but Alex wanted to keep him. Eventually, he convinced me, so Dallas, you can thank Alex for saving you lol

Ultimately, I decided to target Terry because I knew he was just an extra vote for Michael, and I nominated him alongside Saxon because Saxon was a vote to keep Terry. Furthermore, my nominations kept my options open because I could always backdoor anyone I wanted, and that included Alec and Michael. At the same time, I decided that, because I wasn't going after Dallas, I would try and become really good allies with him. I thought he was really sensible and logical, so it wasn't very hard to befriend him; I almost wish we had talked this extensively earlier in the game. 

When Saxon won veto, I decided to nominate Alec because I figured Michael would still be a huge target for Moises and Summer to go after, and Michael would go after them as well. Additionally, Alec was more becoming more active than Terry, so it was better that Alec went instead of Terry.

Week 7

In a twist of events, Dallas won HoH, and I felt a lot better about investing all that time with him the previous week because that would keep me off the block. When I won the veto, I had to make up a reason for using it on Moises. I always intended on using it in order to buy trust with him, and then Summer would be nominated. Alex and I, then, would decide whether it was a good idea to use Alex's veto on Summer, thereby saving both Moises and Summer, or not use the veto and then evict Summer. Personally, I thought we should have evicted Summer (I think Alex will agree on this now lol), but we decided to keep them in the game another round in order to keep a huge target ahead of us. Alex then decided to threaten Dallas to put up Michael. I honestly thought that it would never work. I talked to Dallas a lot, and I surmised that he wasn't the kind of player to respond to threats. Alex insisted on threatening him, so I just went along with it and even suggested to Dallas that we cut our losses and have him nominate Michael. For my game, I would have loved it if Dallas backdoored Michael, but I just thought it would NEVER happen...and I was right. Dallas was so pissed, and he gave a big, ol' middle finger to Alex by not nominating Michael lol. When deciding between Saxon and Terry, Michael let me know that he wanted to keep Terry over Saxon because Terry would be a vote for him; thus, Alex and I insisted to Moises, and Summer that we vote off Terry because I figured that Saxon seemed to be distancing himself away from Michael, whereas Terry was just another one of Michael's puppets. So yes, Saxon, Alex and I saved you lol don't you feel crappy now that you were involved in his eviction? :P

Week 8

And this is yet another week where we find out THE DAY OF that we have an HoH comp...seriously, Big Brother, a little forewarning more than a few hours before the competition would help! Alright, enough complaining haha, sorry!

Anyway, Michael wins HoH and nominates Moises and Summer. Summer wins veto, of course, and Michael nominates Saxon, thank goodness. Alex and I were REALLY worried that he would put up Alex, but he didn't, so mission accomplished! Alex and I were the deciding votes, and we had to determine whether it was better to keep Moises or evict him. As much as I talked to Dallas and Michael, there are only two reasons why I chose to evict Moises:

1. Moises throughout the week had been insinuating that this was the time to turn on Alex and get Michael to put him up so we could evict him. I figured that, if we kept Moises, he would continue to go after Alex in the following rounds. While I thought that Moises would be loyal to me, I knew that he would go after Alex, so I had to protect my duo. I did this for us because it was not a good move for me as single player, but I've been playing for two people the whole time, and I couldn't stop now.

2. Moises and Summer were a duo! And with Summer continuing to win competitions, she would always keep Moises safe, which meant that someone else could go home, such as Alex or even myself. I would have preferred for Summer to go over Moises, but I had to strike while I had the chance, and I felt this was the best move. It would leave Summer without a number 1, and she would be a free agent that we could pick up.

Alex and I actually planned on forcing a tie so that Michael would be the one to evict Moises and therefore get all the blood on his hands, but I think he fell asleep or something. Who knows! lol but I got all the blood on my hands, which further cemented in Dallas and Michael's mind that I was with them. However, I did not want to be with Michael, and with all his puppets evicted, he was ripe for eviction.

Week 9

When Summer won HoH, I was definitely nervous because she could easily take revenge upon Alex and myself by nominating us. Thanks to the trust I had built with Michael and Dallas, they were very open and brazen about their conversations with Summer and told me everything. In order to ensure that Alex and I weren't nominated, I went ahead and alerted Summer of what they had said. Whether Summer had any intention of keeping Michael and Dallas safe is moot - Alex and I weren't nominated, and that was the goal of the week. I also proposed working together towards the finals, which received a very lukewarm reaction. Finally, Summer won the veto to seal Michael's fate. 

Then, the double eviction took place, and my internet sucked! Again, I say that Big Brother should at least give us a heads up sooner so we can plan ahead. This was VERY frustrating! I could not participate, and Alex was up against Saxon and Dallas. Saxon won HoH and nominated Dallas and me, and I messaged Summer that my offer still stands if we were to use the veto and keep me safe. She responded by saying she would follow through and do something crazy, but I didn't know what she meant. Apparently, she executed her plan of backdooring Alex by taking Dallas off the block when she won veto and then evicted him. I was definitely surprised because I know that Alex had been going to her about being her next Moises. 

Thus, I'm sure that, had I not won HoH, I would have needed to win the veto. It also doesn't help that Michael is trying to use reverse psychology by telling people that I would win at the end so that then the players in the game would vote to evict me. It's pretty transparent and kind of lame.

Anyway, I'm really happy that I made Final 3, and whoever else makes it there, we all have a really good shot. I'm sure it will be an exciting finish! Good luck on veto!

-Jorge