“Ohh Baby, I Love a Good Blindside” — Dee Clocks Drew’s Damage Control

3:45 PM — Dee and Yash

Dee starts by admitting she does not want to do the thing she has to do this week.

Dee: “I don’t want to campaign against them. It feels s—ty, because you know they are my friends.”

She has already tried Taylor. Her pitch there was to sell herself as a shield — if Dee is on the block against anybody, Dee goes home over that person. Taylor’s answer was that she had better start campaigning.

Then she gets to Barrett, pointing up at the HOH room, and runs through how loyal she was to him and how stupid she thinks the move was. “It’s so crazy.” On the other side of the house, she is unbothered: “It won’t last.”

Yash: “Yeah, it’s so obvious. It’s so obvious.”
Dee: “Just know that there is no pairing with me.”
Yash: “If you stay, let’s ride. Whether it’s votes…”
Dee: “No, 100%.”
Yash: “We can win.”

She wants him to know none of this is spite, and he heads her off.

Dee, laughing: “I don’t want you to think I’m f—ing bitter either. There’s a reason why I feel strongly about this.”
Yash: “I know you enough to know that doesn’t have me worried. Your loyalty got burned. You are a very loyal person, so it hurts.”

They agree on a plan: Dee talks to Taylor again, and then Yash follows up with her.

4:00 PM — Drew and Dee

Drew finds Dee crying and asks if he can hug her. She lets him, thanks him, and tells him she wants him to have his moments. Then she tells him she is fine.

Dee: “Just missing them and everything, really. Like, on the block obviously sucks, dude. But I’m, like, so pumped. Because I do have a feeling I’m not going home. For whatever reason, I just feel it. So I do think I can win that Blockbuster.”
Drew: “I think you’re the favorite. I don’t think you should count any of them out, obviously.”
Dee: “No, I would never, ever, ever count them out.”
Drew: “I am hoping for you or Devens to be back, obviously. I know one of you will.”

Then she opens the case against Barrett, and it is the most complete version anybody has made.

Dee: “I just keep putting in my mind — why did Barrett do that so soon?”
Drew: “It felt way early.”
Dee: “And the craziest part is he doesn’t even have the votes. Because if we decide to turn on him, he has no votes.”
Drew: “And then he screwed me too.”
Dee: “Of course. You’re good with me. Don’t worry about me.”
Drew: “No, I’m not worried about you either. But we don’t have the votes to survive anymore. If me or him or any of us were on the block.”

Her arithmetic is brutal and she has clearly run it more than once.

Dee: “He wanted to prove a point and make a big move. I’m like — put the three Icons up, whatever, revenge for Mallory. But two are coming back. And you do not have the votes, and you cannot even play in the next HOH.”
Dee: “There’s a double eviction coming up, and guess what? One of us is going to win it, and his ass is going up.”
Dee: “He really made like a $750,000 mistake.”

What she says next is the part she seems to actually mean.

Drew: “You never questioned him.”
Dee: “And it hurts even more to know that I questioned you. Over him.”
Dee: “It hurts my heart, because I know it’s going to happen. He’s going to be out of this game. And he will regret this for the rest of his life.”
Dee: “Eight years waiting to get on Big Brother, only to f— up with a game move like this. Like, go against people that were never going to put you up.”

Drew relays Barrett’s own reasoning — the fourth-and-fifth-place line he has now given to half the house — and Dee dismantles it.

Drew: “He was like, I would have been devastated if I got fifth and he got fourth. And it’s like — at that point, we don’t know if that even was gonna happen.”
Dee: “That was never gonna happen that way. Because we needed each other in the jury. We all need each other in the jury. And there’s always ways in this game.”
Drew: “He’s practically opened up the game for everyone.”
Dee: “He definitely opened it up for me. I’m very excited to put his ass up when I win. Very excited. And I have no problem letting him know that either.”

She has watched this happen to people before, and she is specific about it.

Dee: “I’ve been around people who have made that one mistake in a million-dollar game. Bro, for the rest of their life they have nightmares about it to this day. People I know personally who always talk about it and are always crying about it. And I just know that’s going to happen to Barrett.”
Dee: “They usually say that fans are like the worst players. The super fan — they get really excited when they have their moment.”
Dee: “He wanted to make such a big move for his ego that he failed to strategize a few steps ahead.”

And her strategic note is the one that will sting most if it ever gets back to him.

Dee: “He could have still done it, maybe with two. Keep one of us in your pocket. None of us were questioning him. We’re all f—ing hurt — that’s why we feel so passionate about it, because we were not questioning him.”
Dee: “What he could have done is kept one of us in his pocket. And then the other two would have been like, why the f— is that one not up?”
Drew: “Yeah, you would have been questioning him.”
Dee: “We would have been questioning each other.”

Then Drew gives her something he has apparently been handing out all day.

Drew: “I told Devens this today. I’m gonna tell you, I’m gonna tell Angela. I’m not going for you.”
Drew: “I will be giving you guys a sympathy vote. I don’t give a f—. I’m not going to be in the majority of the house. I’m already at the bottom of whatever’s going on over there.”
Drew: “I’m going to tell Angela — listen, it’s not because I want you out. It’s just because I don’t want them to feel like they didn’t have anybody in here. Like, I’m still with you guys.”
Drew: “I don’t trust anyone.”

Dee: “I believe you. After I put you up and after the noms, you already know where I stand. There is no question.”
Dee: “This was something we built since day two. As rocky as it was. But it’s a beautiful thing.”

She closes the sympathy portion with the money.

Dee: “My heart hurts for him, to be honest. That little boy in him is going to be crushed. That little boy with the big dreams.”
Dee: “And you get back into the real world and somebody else got that $750K in their bank account with those zeros. And you got to go find a job.”
Dee: “All five of us are paying the price.”
Drew: “I just wanted to check on you and make sure you weren’t, like, super depressed.”
Dee: “Oh, I’m good. If anything, this is a fire inside. I’m ready to win that block. I appreciate you so much.”

Drew leaves. Dee turns to the camera.

Dee: “He is so scared. Little does he know, I put his ass up so quick he’s f—ing shaking. So he’s doing a little damage control. Ohh baby, I love a good blindside.”

She also caught the one word in the whole conversation that gave him away.

Dee: “Notice how he says — yeah, I want you or them to come back. Or. Because in his mind, he thinks that whoever’s sitting next to Angela goes home.”

Then, alone, she gets happy about it.

Dee: “God, I love this game. This has been so f—ing fun.”
Dee: “Even now when we’re on the block, it’s probably even more fun. It’s scarier, but it’s more fun. Because you put so much of your heart into this the past two months. And you start thinking, there’s no way I can go home right now. There’s no f—ing way.”
Dee: “And I didn’t feel like that on Survivor 50. I knew. I’m like, all right, I’m so screwed right now. Not that I didn’t try, but I kind of accepted it. And I don’t want to accept this.”

There is also a lengthy detour in which she picks her nose on camera and refuses to apologize for it — “don’t act like you don’t do this at home by yourself either” — before landing on the two things she actually wants.

Dee: “I’m so pumped. I want it to be Thursday already.”
Dee: “Every day in Big Brother is a great day for revenge.”
Dee: “And on top of that, I still wouldn’t put Yash up. Because Yash could definitely make it to the end and win. Can you imagine he wins that final three, and I’m in the final three, and he has to take me to final two? That’d be f—ing insane.”
Dee: “Gotta see this 5K play out. Gotta see it play out.”

Where it stands: Drew spent twenty minutes telling a nominee he is not going for her, that he will give the Icons a sympathy vote, that he is at the bottom of his own side and does not trust anyone in it. Thirty seconds after he left, Dee told the camera he is scared, that she put him up so fast he is still shaking, and that the whole visit was damage control. She also caught the tell — he said he wants her or Devens back, not both — and read it exactly right.

Underneath the performance, her strategic read is the sharpest thing said all week: Barrett should have nominated two and kept one Icon in his pocket, because the third would have spent the week wondering why they were spared instead of holding the other two together. Which is precisely the board Melody talked him out of — she told Yash a few hours later that Barrett “was just going to do two” until she told him it would piss everybody off for nothing. And the last thing Dee says on the feeds is that she still would not nominate Yash. The $5,000 is still holding, and she wants to watch it play out.

6:39 PM — Dee and Taylor (Bathroom)

This is the campaign. Dee has already been to Yash; now she does Taylor properly, and it is fifteen straight minutes of the most direct pitch anybody has made this season.

Dee: “I don’t know why, but I feel like I’m going to come back into this game. I talked to Yash.”
Dee: “I just wanted to tell you — in the case that those three will never put each other above each other.”
Taylor: “It’s another trio in here. So we gotta even the numbers out.”
Dee: “Yeah. But my loyalty since day two was to them. It is what it is. And then this happened.”

She reads the other side’s thinking back to Taylor, and it is not flattering to Angela.

Dee: “They don’t want me to come back mad. They don’t want Devens to come back mad. Because they know that they’re in for it.”
Dee: “They definitely don’t want two of us back. Because what they want is Angela to stay in the game.”
Dee: “What they want is for me and Devens — one of us — to leave the game. Why? Because we are better competitors.”

She stops halfway through to note she has been reading her letter, which is not helping: “Oh, Jesus Christ. So it’s, like, not cute.”

Then she tells Taylor exactly what she has been telling Drew, and that none of it is true.

Dee: “He’s very scared. Because he keeps coming to me and saying, like — if I put up Yash, will you vote to evict him? And I’m telling him yes.”
Dee: “But that is not the case.”

And then the offer, which she makes twice and does not hedge.

Dee: “My promise to you would be — I’m not looking at anyone but Barrett. I don’t care about anybody else. And I have no loyalties right now.”
Dee: “And I told Yash this too. If any of you are sitting next to me in the case that there’s an eviction, I’m going home. Like, you are good.”

She contrasts herself with Devens, who she thinks could still patch it up over there.

Dee: “There could be a world where Devens repairs his relationship. Because they’re just boys, the three of them. And they’re very, very close. That s—’s not going to happen with me.”
Dee: “I have not even spoken to Barrett once. Because I’m not going to play that fake s—. Every word I said, I meant. And we’ll be friends after this. And if he doesn’t want to, that’s his problem.”

Her explanation for why she is free now is the one that costs her something to say.

Dee: “I have no f—ing loyalty anymore. It feels so good in a way. It did hurt.”
Dee: “I didn’t pick Yash when I had the choice, because my loyalty was with everybody else. Even when he can’t f—ing put me up. He told me that was a low point in his game. And I’m like, I’m sorry. I really am. It’s just that my loyalties were with someone else.”
Dee: “But now they’re not, and I’m open. And my f—ing target is set.”

She is not precious about the risk either.

Dee: “There’s a double eviction coming up. I can leave in the double, I don’t care. Let me get my f—ing karma on these guys.”
Dee: “But more so, to have someone to fight alongside you two. Because you and Yash are outnumbered.”

Taylor has apparently been telling people Melody is not really into Drew. Dee is not having it.

Dee: “Yeah, they might not work outside of here. But in here, they’re together. Did you observe last night?”
Taylor: “That’s when I said — it’s official.”
Dee: “It’s been happening since forever, but they feel so f—ing comfortable right now.”
Dee: “Barrett, Drew, possibly Melody — because she’s with them no matter what she tells me. She’s extremely comfortable.”

She has one grievance she cannot let go of, and it is the same one Angela has been chasing all day.

Dee: “You can’t tell me Drew didn’t f—ing know about us going up.”
Taylor: “That’s what I told him. Drew wanted Devens to go home. Bro, I know.”

She has already had that argument with Devens, and lost it.

Dee: “I got into a bicker with him. Because I go to him like — open your f—ing eyes. And he goes, stop talking to me like I’m an idiot. I’m like, oh s—, my bad.”

Then Taylor asks the actual question, which is about Thursday.

Taylor: “When you win the Blockbuster — would you keep Devens or Angela? Who would you want to keep? Because now you have a vote.”
Dee: “Personally, of course I want Devens to come back, because he’s the better competitor.”
Taylor: “We can beat it. The three votes.”

Taylor’s worry is that a returning Devens goes straight back to Drew. Dee’s answer is that she will handle him.

Dee: “Not if I’m here. Because I will f—ing talk to him and he will listen to what I have to say. Devens, do you want to stay in this game?”
Dee: “And I will absolutely go against Devens if he decides to not do that. Absolutely. If I’m here and he goes back to Drew, I will absolutely go against him.”
Taylor: “He will do it. I promise you, he will do it.”

Then Taylor gives away where her own head is, and Dee shuts the door on it.

Taylor: “We’ve talked about a final five with Melody.”
Dee: “It’s game over. It’s done already. Drew, Barrett, Melody — those three are never going to go against each other.”
Dee: “I’d love a world where I work with Melody. She’s a really cool chick. But I think it’s too far gone in terms of those three.”

Her read on the running order is the part Taylor should probably write down.

Dee: “Their first priority is Yash. And then it would be you.”
Taylor: “Yeah — but in a world where Yash keeps winning vetoes, I’m collateral damage.”
Dee: “Yes. 100%.”

Production breaks in to tell Taylor to move her necklace away from her microphone. She does, and gives Dee the only answer she is going to get tonight.

Taylor: “I’ve never lied to you since I’ve been here. Never. So I’ll definitely consider it, and I’ll let you know.”
Dee: “You don’t even have to let me know their pitch. I know them since day two. I know the way that they game.”

She finishes on the threat and then on the thing underneath it.

Dee: “What they don’t want is for me to come back into this house angry as f—. And I will absolutely come and destroy their lives.”
Dee: “In a way, I’m glad it happened. Because I could have never done that to Barrett. I was never going to do it. I was blinded. But I don’t have that anymore.”
Dee: “I will lose a f—ing arm and a leg to win, just to put those two f—ers up.”

Dee: “Barrett’s dream will be cut short if I stay in this game. It will be. That little boy, Big Brother dream will be cut short.”
Dee: “And now I don’t have any ties to them. It kind of feels freeing in a way.”

Where it stands: Dee has now made the same offer to Yash and to Taylor within three hours — she has one target, it is Barrett, and if either of them ever sits beside her at an eviction she goes home instead. It is the cleanest pitch of the season and it costs her nothing, because she is on the block anyway. She also handed Taylor the thing Drew would least like her to have: Drew keeps asking whether she would vote Yash out, she keeps saying yes, and she has no intention of doing it.

Taylor’s tell is the interesting half. She mentioned a final five with Melody, which means the ceasefire is not the only arrangement she is holding — and Dee killed it in one sentence: “It’s game over. It’s done already.” Then Taylor conceded the point herself: in a house where Yash keeps winning vetoes, she is collateral damage. Two Icons are surviving Thursday, both of them know it, and the only question left is which one Taylor and Yash decide they would rather have back.