“Big Brother” season 18 premiered Wednesday, June 22, and a lot went down in the two episode premiere. Let’s begin with the first twist of the night. As many speculated, there were four veteran players that returned to the house for their second chance at the half million dollars. The spoiler sites were correct in predicting the four players to return. The house guests first met Nicole from "BB" 16.
Recommended for you
The house guests were incredibly shocked and some house guests soon turned angry that there would be more returning players, and that they would be gaining a second chance. Paul was particularly upset, because they have more experience. James from "BB" 17 then surprised the the rookies.
Tiffany’s sister, Vanessa, was on James’ season, so this made her nervous when he popped out of the luggage that was sitting around. Tiffany did not come forth and let her fellow house guests know who her sister was. However, Paulie did after he saw and met Nicole. Paulie’s brother, Cody, was on Nicole’s season and the two were actually pretty close. Paulie knew it was a smart move to come forward and let everyone know who he was before they found out from someone else. Da’Vonne from "BB" 17 was the third veteran to enter the house.
She immediately knew that Tiffany was Vanessa’s sister, because she was also on Vanessa’s season. However, Da’Vonne kept this information to herself, because she knew she could possibly use this information in the future to benefit herself. Last, but not least, Frank from "BB" 14 entered as the newest house guest.
Frank’s season was the last season we have seen veterans enter the house. While I was happy that James and Nicole were back, I was highly disappointed that Zachary Rance would not be returning to the show this season. This was probably my exact reaction when Zach did not pop out of the luggage.
The next two episodes were extremely packed with content, competitions and twists. Julie Chen dropped a bomb on the house guests before the first competition, letting them know they would be working in four teams this season and each veteran had to be on a separate team. Big shock, right? No. This is just another take on the coaches twist in "BB" 14. Except, they aren’t saying the vets are coaches, but why would the vets not coach the rookies? Nicole is the vet of the team Freakazoids, who claims Corey, Glenn and Tiffany. Then there is team Category 4, who has Frank as their veteran leader and Paulie, Bridgette and Michelle. Da’Vonne leads team Big Sister with Zakiyah, Paul and Jozea. The last team is Team Unicorn, who has James as their veteran and Natalie, Bronte and Victor as their rookies.
“Big Brother” shook things up and decided to make the first competitions a little different than normal. "BB" decided to do a marathon of competitions, with the losing team out of them all competing in one final competition. This decided who the first house guest to go home was and who was the new HOH (Head of Household). The Freakazoids was the team who consistently lost, so they competed as individuals in one last competition. The person who lost the competition was the first to be eliminated. Poor Glenn fought until the very end and it was a photo finish race, but Glenn was ultimately the first voted off the island. Literally. The competition was played on a moving island. This is also a reference to some house guests who confused the Power of Veto competition with survivor.
I digress. The remaining three house guests of The Freakazoids had to come together and decide who would be the HOH (Head of Household). Using reverse psychology and good strategy, Nicole was crowned the first HOH.
To my surprise, Paul and Jozea started playing the game full force, immediately. Jozea, the self-proclaimed Messiah, opened his mouth too soon to too many of the wrong people. Even though the vets were split up into separate teams, they all formed together and pledged allegiance to one another. After some deliberation, the vets decided to bring in a few rookies that showed promise: Corey, Zakiyah, Michelle and Tiffany. Together, these eight house guests formed the Eight Pack alliance. The rest of the house guests rallied together with one common goal of eliminating all the vets. Jozea decided to tell Da’Vonne that all of the rookies were gunning for all of the vets and Nicole, the HOH, was his first target. Now, this should have been my first clue that this guy was absolutely clueless about the game of “Big Brother,” but I obviously missed the first hint. He was telling someone that is closely aligned with the HOH that his target was Nicole. If that wasn't enough information for Da’, he was also telling her that all the rookies were coming after her! With this information, Nicole had to fulfill her first duty of HOH and nominate people for eviction. Nicole nominated Jozea, for obvious reasons, and Paulie as a pawn to ensure that Jozea would get evicted.
The twists just continue after that. Another competition was introduced called "BB" Roadkill. This competition has all the house guests compete individually. Whoever wins, gets to secretly nominate a third house guest for eviction. Frank won the first "BB" Roadkill competition and nominated Paul as a third nominee to go on the chopping block. However, Paul redeemed himself, won the POV (Power of Veto) and pulled himself off the block. Bridgette went up as a replacement nominee.
Jozea was evicted from the "BB" house on Thursday during the live eviction, which is no surprise! This guy thought he knew everything about the game of "Big Brother"! There was even one time he was talking to Frank and explained how he wishes he was on Frank’s season ("BB" 14), so he could hang out with Frank, Mike Boogie ("BB" 2, "BB" All-Stars, "BB" 14) and Will ("BB" 2, "BB" All-Stars). This is a great sentiment, but the only problem is, Will wasn't even on "BB" 14.
The problem with Jozea is, he thought he knew the game, but in actuality, he really knew nothing. He was too confident in himself and his game play when, in my opinion, he had the worst game play I have ever seen. He will probably realize his obvious mistakes when he gets home and re-watches the show, but he’s out of the house for now, so that’s up for him to decide.
The twists don't end there! Julie revealed on Thursday's episode a new twist called Battle Back. This will give one house guest the opportunity to re-enter the game. Each week, one evicted house guest will battle the newly-evicted house guest. Whoever wins will advance and play against the next evicted house guest. This will continue for the first five evicted house guests. Tune in next week to see the first Battle Back when Jozea and Glenn compete against each other.
If you want to find out what goes on in the house before everyone else, follow @JokersBBUpdates on Twitter! Jokers live tweets what happens on the live feeds, so viewers can know everything that happens in the house, even if it isn't aired on the show! Tune into “Big Brother” on CBS on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Now all that’s left is to update your rankings! Here's mine:
1. Frank
2. Nicole
3. Da’Vonne
4. James
5. Zakiyah
6. Michelle
7. Corey
8. Tiffany
9. Paulie
10. Bridgett
11. Natalie
12. Bronte
13. Victor
14. Paul
15. Jozea
16. Glenn
