Season 27 had a tough act to follow, but still came out as one of the best Big Brother seasons in years. This season had a murder mystery theme that kept audiences glued to the screen.
*Spoilers Below*
Big Brother is a competition reality show on CBS. Over the course of the summer, 16 houseguests compete for safety and power through various competitions. The last one standing wins the $750,000 grand prize.
Every season of US Big Brother has its own theme, and this year’s was something they’ve never done before: murder mystery. This theme gave for some really incredible competitions, like bringing back a stolen artifact while trying to dodge laser-beams, or giving your opponent the poisonous drink with the hopes they won’t swap glasses. I especially loved the head of household competition that Rachel won, where houseguests had to hide in a room marked safe by a specific clue. Not only was it clever, but it was very entertaining, almost like a horror movie. Everyone was dressed up for prom, and they had to do a bit of acting when the phone call told them which rooms were safe to hide in.
Big Brother’s motto is “expect the unexpected”, and every year there are new twists that shake up the game. The instigator was a small twist that managed to raise some suspicion. This houseguest was supposed to be an accomplice to the Mastermind, a masked figure who was the main antagonist this season. Similar to the saboteur from Big Brother 12, this houseguest participated in a twist earlier on in the game that affected the whole house. The house was to vote on who they thought was the accomplice, and if they got it right, the accomplice would be evicted instantly and returning player Rachel Riley would take their place. They did not get it right, so both the accomplice and Rachel stayed. Unfortunately, the accomplice Amy was evicted on week two, so the twist wasn’t relevant for very long.
The BB Blockbuster was game-long twist that changed how houseguests survived this season. Each week, three houseguests would be nominated for eviction. On eviction night, the three would battle in a competition that would remove one person from the block. The winner of that competition would come down and the vote would then be between the two remaining houseguests. This made the season really unpredictable, because you could never guarantee that a target was going home. But it did make it very thrilling when my favorite houseguests won.
This infamous competition broke the internet after what happened with Rachel. After Mickey’s eviction, the final nine houseguests were “invited” to the “White Locust” resort. Ava won the initial competition and won safety for herself, but had to pick someone to participate in the White Locust Maze. Similar to a hamster wheel, houseguests had to maneuver a disc through a giant maze. The first houseguest Ava picked had six minutes to complete it.
If that houseguest succeeded, they would choose the following person who had one minute less. This would continue, and if any person couldn’t complete it, they would be eliminated. Surprisingly, Ava chose Vince. Vince chose Lauren, and Lauren chose Morgan. Everyone had passed easily, so Morgan chose Rachel. Morgan was confident Rachel could finish it, and that she would then pick Kelly to go next. Rachel had three minutes to complete it but failed. She was immediately evicted from the house, and became the first member of the jury.
There were several houseguests I called my favorite this season:
Without a doubt, my favorite houseguest has to be Rachel. Rachel Reilly is a returning houseguest from seasons 12 and 13, and was the winner of the latter. Her sister Elissa also went on to play in the infamous season 15. This season, houseguests played too safe and were too timid, but Rachel brought the energy. She wasn’t afraid to make big moves and call people out. The best drama and the funniest scenes were brought to you by her.
From the start, I knew Lauren was one of my favorites. She was totally robbed of this game. As another undercover superfan, she had many tricks up her sleeve. She won two HOHs in both week three and nine, and won the iconic OTEV veto competition in week six. She had such a sweet and sincere heart behind all of her decisions, and I was so disappointed in Vince when he nominated her for eviction. She was one of the few loyal people in there, and she definitely deserved to win.
Adrian was such a kind-hearted guy. I loved how passionate he was about the game, with his own practice versions of competitions he built in his backyard. With such a short-lived time in the game, he fell victim to Lauren’s HOH and was evicted week three. I really wish he stayed because I would have loved to see him go farther.
With Rachel gone, the final three came down to an unexpected trio: Vince, Morgan, and Ashley. Everyone knew Morgan had this season in the bag. Not only her two head of household wins and four vetos, but also extremely good gameplay. Vince had four head of household wins , but was a very sketchy player. He got out his original final-two alliance with Lauren because Morgan convinced him to. Ashley had only one competition win, so she knew she had to win this final head of household to get safety in her own hands.
With the final HOH, Ashley won and chose to evict Morgan. She then won the season by a vote of 6 to 1.
Season 27 of Big Brother is one of the best seasons in the post-covid era for sure. The pre-jury was totally unexpected, and I feel like most of them should have stayed far longer than they did (like Jimmy, Adrian, and even Zae). I would definitely recommend this season to new viewers. Even if you’ve never seen this show before, this is definitely a great one to start with. I’m very excited to see what happens next season!