Hubris and the Head of Household competition proved to be a deadly combination for Matt as Britney grabbed the wheel of the HOH bus and drove it in the direction the fractured Brigade dictated—directly over him.
Last week Matt had the Diamond Power of Veto, but rendered it useless by wasting it on Kathy. This week, he threw a key HOH competition despite knowing his secret alliance members, Enzo and Hayden, were openly pushing for him to leave. Rather than credit Matt for their invincibility up to this point, they feared him as a winner and determined him a threat. Matt’s “diabolical super genius” should have kicked in and outed the Brigade, but his arrogant allegiance to them led him to believe he still had safety in numbers.
Leading lady Britney stood poised to finally evict the remnants of Brenchel and send Brendon packing. Enzo, up as a pawn and Brendon her target, she made her nominations. While Matt was smugly taking credit for orchestrating this week’s planned eviction, his Brigade turncoats brought Lane into the fold and were busy devising the Brain’s backdoor.
Lane approached Britney, but she was not too keen on his designs to get Matt out. Brendon remained her mark going into the Veto competition and she wanted everyone on board with her plan, but soon found out it was every man for himself.
In a game of reward vs. punishment, Hayden and Lane took the prizes. Britney’s HOH wishes be damned. Essentially the Veto went to the player willing to endure the worst punishments to become the winner. Not surprisingly, the two players on the block sacrificed the most. Enzo donned a Penguin suit and donated all of his clothes to charity. Brendon, not to be outdone, decidedly won by shaving his head, taking rancid chum baths every hour for 24 hours, handcuffing himself to another houseguest (Britney), and choosing to live three weeks as a Have-Not.
With Brendon off the block, it cleared the path for Lane to convince Britney to put Matt in that empty seat. Britney was easily becoming the Brigade’s puppet, but Matt tried pulling some strings of his own by gunning for his best friend Ragan. His attachment to the Brigade destroying his one true partnership in the house, Matt repeatedly threw Ragan under the bus Britney was no longer steering.
As reigning HOH no longer at the reins, Britney needed some help. Promising advice from a former houseguest, Pandora’s Box arrived just in time, but no strategy was included. Instead, Jessie Godderz from the past two seasons exploded into the room amidst a cloud of confetti announcing, “That’s right Britney, Mr. Pectacular is here!” Britney reluctantly got a gun show complete with work out tips, but if she had received a game hint; it should have simply been, “Open your eyes. Lane is playing you and the entire Brigade is using you.”
Backstabbing Ragan furthered the Brigade’s case for Matt going up. Highlighting Matt’s disloyalty sealed his fate on the block and Britney spared no time disclosing Matt’s betrayal to Ragan.
Armed with that knowledge, Ragan stopped romanticizing his relationship with Matt and ultimately saw the Brigade as a not-so-secret alliance with Matt as a former member. Matt tried his best to dissuade Ragan’s epiphany, but upon discovering there was no swaying Ragan, he ran back to the Brigade to inform them of their exposure.
It was futile. The Brigade had been plotting to cut ties with the Brain of the operation long before his side alliance with Ragan imploded. By a vote of 4-0, Matt was out and the Brigade lobotomy complete, although many would argue that happened weeks ago.
Face-to-face with Julie Chen, Matt didn’t really have an answer to the question all of America could not stop asking, “Why didn’t you out the Brigade?” Besides making an excuse that Britney was an evil succubus, he gave no concrete reason for sticking with the traitors instead of siding with Ragan and Britney. Baffling. Matt was one of the few actually playing the game from the very beginning; why hand over his game to his backseat driving alliance members?
From that moment forward, we experienced one week in about thirty minutes during this special double eviction episode. Hayden successfully sped through the competition to become the new HOH. He then quickly put up Brendon and Ragan and they were off to compete for the Veto.
Ragan had been studying the season’s timeline all week and it paid off for him during the Before & After Veto competition when his knowledge led to a win and his satisfied departure from the block. Britney went up in his place and when it came time for the houseguests to decide between her and her original target this week, Brendon; Britney remained the last woman standing. In another unanimous vote, Brendon was evicted and off to join his love Rachel in jury house paradise. *cue the release of the doves and ‘At Last’ by Etta James.*
Prior to leaving, Brendon likened the Big Brother house to a “really nice version of prison.” Well the inmates are running it. And by inmates, I mean the Brigade. Can Ragan use his discovery of them to his benefit and will he enlighten Britney? Who will win HOH? With the dwindling choices, who will be nominated? Stay Tuned. Final Four is only a week away.