Taylor: “Barrett and Drew, they’re the best competitors. So more likely to win the veto and they can only take themselves down.”

12:34 PM — Taylor and Yash (HOH)

Yash: “I spoke to Melody and, like, we’re straight because you talked to her, which is huge.”
Yash: “I told Barrett, talk to Melody, but I also want to talk to you. So I talked to Barrett still.”
Taylor: “We didn’t talk to them, just them four. I don’t want to talk to them, too.”

Then he tells her where she sits.

Yash: “If it’s three noms, you know you’d be the renom, right?”
Taylor: “I know that.”

What follows is Yash working out loud how to get an Icon on the block without breaking the deal — and confirming, on the feeds, that the deal exists.

Yash: “So if three of you are sitting and Barrett wins it — all four people are clear. So if he uses it, the only two people left for the renom is Dee and Devens. Which means I’d be allowed to do it.”
Yash: “But it’s your call.”
Taylor: “What do you think makes the most sense for your game?”

Taylor: “I think it makes the most sense, if it’s three, to put all three of them up. But if one of them three wins — they come down, I go up. I’ll just have to trust that Dee and Devens would keep me.”
Taylor: “You don’t think they would?”
Yash: “I think they would. But the HOH never gets what they want.”
Taylor: “Devens better keep me. Dee better keep me.”
Yash: “And Melody even might.”
Taylor: “No matter who I sit next to, I would think I would stay. Because you would break the tie.”

Taylor: “Won’t you talk it out with Devens and Dee too? Let’s see what they say. If you’re in an alliance with people, you’re supposed to talk stuff through.”
Yash: “No, they would never say. Because then it puts them in jeopardy.”
Taylor: “Yeah, but they know that we wouldn’t send them home. Drew was our target.”
Yash: “This conversation only makes sense with you. Because then it looks like I’m trying to put them up.”

And then the line that names it.

Taylor: “It would only make sense for you to put me up as a renom.”
Taylor: “And then even at that point, like I told you, just say, I shook with Devens.”
Yash: “Yeah, that’s what I’m going to say.”
Taylor: “And because I want him to honor it, I can just say I offered to go up as a pawn.”

If it is only two noms, he already has them.

Taylor: “If it’s just two, though, who are you going to put up?”
Yash: “Drew and Melody.”
Taylor: “You sure? Why?”
Yash: “Because Barrett would be the renom, and Melody is my bigger concern of who would vote for Drew.”

Taylor argues him off it.

Taylor: “How about putting up Barrett and Drew, because they’re both the best competitors. So they’re more likely to win the veto and they can only take themselves down.”
Taylor: “If you put up Drew and Melody and Drew wins the veto, he can take himself down. Barrett goes up.”
Taylor: “If Barrett wins the veto and he’s not up, he can bring Drew down, which means I go up — which still should be fine. But if you put them both up next to each other, they can only use the veto on themselves.”

12:40 PM — Drew and Devens (Gym)

Upstairs, Taylor and Yash are building the board. Down here Drew already knows how it ends for him.

Devens: “It’s a long way out. It’s hard to tell. You look at every week and how many of them have actually gone according to plan.”
Drew: “Yeah, you think you know. Including last week.”

Drew: “Yo, if it’s two noms or three?”
Devens: “I mean, obviously two. F— three. If it’s three, bro, that’s crazy. I wouldn’t put it past them, but that’s crazy.”
Drew: “I think you’ll be fine.”

Later Drew works through who sits beside him — and Devens gives him the same answer Taylor gave Yash upstairs, without either of them knowing it.

Drew: “If it’s two noms, I’m going to be curious who’s going to be sitting next to me. I want to see what route he’ll go. I think he’ll go Melody. Over Barrett. He likes Barrett a lot.”
Devens: “I don’t think so. I would think that you would put the two people most capable of winning veto up. That third person can keep two people safe.”
Devens: “Barrett would definitely save one of you.”

Devens: “I realized last week that I have no idea what’s going on in Barrett’s head. Because he surprised me a few different times.”

On Barrett today.

Devens: “It does make me wonder what’s going through Barrett’s head today, because I know he’s obviously not a happy camper. He’s morose.”
Drew: “He’s just been slumped up. I have a feeling he might be all week.”
Devens: “Is it just being bummed? Is it the fact that now you’re realizing we had an easy run to the final five and it’s not going to happen?”
Drew: “Probably a combination of all of them.”

They are rooming together in the have-not room.

Devens: “I’m certainly not twisting the knife or anything. He’s getting it. I don’t need to say anything. I’m trying to be as nice as I can be.”

Drew: “It’s weird, I feel optimistic, but we’ll see. I’d rather feel optimistic than sit in the bed and feel sorry for myself.”
Devens: “Ebbs and flows, highs and lows.”

Devens nearly blew the Blockbuster on his first run.

Devens: “My very first run, I got three out of four comics wrong. Pod Almighty was the first one I did — I knew it was a P, and I put Pipe Queen there. And I had mixed up Chuk and Lala.”
Devens: “It is funny looking back that I screwed up immediately.”
Drew: “It didn’t matter, dude. You were meant to win that Blockbuster.”

Drew: “You’re collecting them all.”
Devens: “I’ll take it. I’m like a Pokemon trainer.”
Drew: “Try and win that veto this week so we can be twins. Like father, like son.”

Drew: “I hope you know I’m still not gunning for you, Dad. Believe it or not. It’s up to you, man.”
Devens: “I appreciate that, son.”
Drew: “I’ve got two people still in mind.”

Drew owns his part in last week.

Drew: “I didn’t help. I put you up instead of Melody.”
Drew: “If she wasn’t here, I don’t know if you would have done it. I think he would have had an easier time putting up Lala, Yash, Taylor.”
Devens: “Oh — if Barrett would have had an easier time. Maybe.”

And on Dee since Angela left.

Drew: “She actually doesn’t seem that upset at me, though. Or maybe she’s a really good actress.”
Devens: “I think she’s just more upset that Angela’s gone than anything.”

The rest is the friendship, which both of them say out loud.

Drew: “Genuinely, really happy you won the Blockbuster, man. Those tears weren’t fake.”
Drew: “There’s a couple people in here that’d be pretty torn up if they left. And you’re definitely, if not the one, probably first or second on that list. That’d be like, damn, this house is weird now.”
Devens: “The house would not be the same without you either.”
Drew: “Oldest guy in here hanging out with the youngest guy.”

On coming back, Devens has terms.

Devens: “I’d come back. It would just have to be the right circumstances. Like, wouldn’t be right away — just because of the kids. I’d certainly come back for one of their short ones.”
Drew: “Reindeer games, you’d probably have a blast on.”

And the best thing in the half hour, which is about Melody.

Devens: “I was thinking about Melody the other day — if I was a stand-up comic, how annoying I would be in this house. I would just be like, this is my platform. I would be doing bits constantly. Like, oh, they’re going to clip this.”
Devens: “I’d like to see her up on stage.”
Drew: “Me too.”

And one shout-out, mid-set:

Devens: “Four exercises, four sets, fifteen each. I said, okay, that’s easy. Shout out, Kamu.”

1:21 PM — Yash, Barrett and Taylor (HOH)

While Drew is downstairs in the gym telling Devens he would rather feel optimistic than sit in bed, the room above him settles on a word for him. Barrett gets there first: after seventy days together, what Drew did is a betrayal, and Drew is the one who surprised him.

Taylor takes the word and disagrees with the surprise.

Taylor: “Not one that even surprises me, for him, to be honest. I guess at the same time, it don’t surprise me. He’s been doing that s—.”
Taylor: “It’s like, damn, the same night. I didn’t even get to brush my teeth yet.”

What got her is what came after.

Taylor: “That was the biggest. That’s what got me. Because I’m literally sitting here, and I remember he laid here, laid upside down and said, oh, they’re just talking about whatever they were talking about. All right, y’all, good night.”

And then she corrects the record on where it came from.

Taylor: “That’s why she gave us her blessing to even vote her out yesterday. That’s why she looked at me. She said, do what’s best for your game.”
Taylor: “That’s why she said, you guys are making a good game move, and I’m proud of y’all. She gave us her blessing because she knew that was the right thing for us to do, was to keep Dee.”
Taylor: “So that’s another part of it, too. Man. Yeah, it was a lot.”

Barrett and Taylor have now landed on Drew as the traitor, the last Icon out of the house is the one who handed Taylor the proof, and the HOH standing between them has already named Drew as one of his two.

1:22 PM — Drew and Devens (Gym)

Forty minutes later, still lifting. The game has almost entirely dropped out of it.

Drew: “For syllabus day, day one would be really crazy. All right, you guys might not know me — and you show them a little highlight reel.”
Drew: “What would you teach if you could?”
Devens: “I think I could definitely teach the basic comms courses, like freshman comms courses. Then I could teach the podcasting course for sure.”
Drew: “Do they have a podcasting course?”

Devens: “Not only have I done a lot of podcasting, making my own and doing them for Paramount Network, but I created and hosted the Middle Georgia State University official podcast from scratch.”
Devens: “And then I could definitely do broadcast writing. I could do broadcast journalism. I’ve got 12 years of broadcast experience. So I could do marketing. I’ve got the master’s in public relations.”

Devens: “I could create a course on reality television for sure. A lot of universities have that.”
Drew: “Do they really? And is it like the making of the show, or is it the psychology aspect of it — what it does to your brain?”
Drew: “They have Johnny Bananas come in and be a guest speaker.”
Devens: “Well, Virginia Tech’s own — oh, Johnny Bananas, I’m sorry.”
Drew: “Who do you think I said?”
Devens: “Johnny Fairplay. Well, he also would be a great one. He’s a Virginia Tech grad. I could get him to come up.”

Devens: “I’m visiting Notre Dame in the spring. To speak to a mathematics course.”
Drew: “You are?”
Devens: “And a brain biochemistry course. Two separate courses. The professors reached out — will you come up, we’ve got a little bit of money, we could fly you in. And I was like, hell yeah.”
Devens: “I told them I don’t have a presentation, but I’ll do a Q&A and anything they want. And they were like, yes, awesome.”

He is hoping a friend who teaches can come with him, and is not sure the man can get away.

Devens: “I just want a full tour of Notre Dame. It would have been even better if it was during football season. I was like, can I go to a game?”
Drew: “I’m sure those little moments — I don’t even think they’re little, but probably really fun to do. You’re just like, hell yeah. These people think I’m someone. This is cool. Like, oh, you want to hear what I have to say? Okay.”
Devens: “What an ego boost.”

Devens: “At Virginia Tech, when I go up for homecoming, I’m doing the game and the parade, but I’m also doing one or two student affairs events and then going and speaking to a broadcast class.”
Devens: “Which was funny, because the broadcast professor reached out to me separately and was like, hey, you have news experience. Will you come talk?”

Devens: “Some kid that he mentored, before he was a Virginia Tech professor, was a news reporter in Macon and came and interviewed me about being on Survivor. And he was like, hey, you went to Virginia Tech? My mentor teaches there — he’s a big Survivor fan. Would it be okay if I gave him your email? I was like, yeah. Go Hokies.”
Drew: “That’s got to be weird, huh? You’re like, man, I’m on the other end of it now.”

And the part that clearly bugs him.

Devens: “The big social media guy at Virginia Tech is a huge reality fan. So he gives me tons of love. Whereas Middle Georgia State University — well, I’m kind of in charge of that. So I don’t give myself lots of love.”
Devens: “Virginia Tech gives me so much love and MGA doesn’t, which is so weird to me. I’m like, I’m here, I’m available, I’m willing to do it.”
Drew: “You’re like, it should be the other way. And you can’t be the one to say it.”
Devens: “Right, exactly.”

Thirty minutes in, one flicker of the week ahead.

Drew: “You know what would be really funny? If it’s three noms and the Blockbuster is the ropes.”
Drew: “I’m kind of hoping for it.”
Devens: “Yeah, that’d be good for you.”
Drew: “But it would just be funny. Really poetic.”

Devens: “Dee wanted the ropes so bad. I was just like, listen, you’re going to regret this. I’m going to smoke you in the ropes. I was so amped.”
Drew: “I’d be amped for the ropes, too.”
Devens: “But I’m glad it was what it was.”

Then the reason his back hurts.

Devens: “My back right here is just screaming at me about yesterday.”
Drew: “I’m confused. Everyone’s saying the same thing, and I’m like, I wonder what it was.”
Devens: “Oh, no, I wiped out. Mine’s from eating s—, for sure, 100 percent.”
Drew: “Like, during the actual game.”
Devens: “My very first — literally, I took my shoes off and then was like, go time. So I ran, stopped on a dime, and just — cartoon fall.”
Drew: “That’s so funny, dude.”
Devens: “And then I did it maybe twice more during the game, and then again after the game, obviously.”

Drew: “I’m like, I think I’m just slow. I think I need a little more hustle in me.”
Devens: “I don’t know, man. We got pretty much the same number of wins on things.”

Drew has noticed something about this season’s Blockbusters.

Drew: “This is the first time I think there’s more guys than girls in the house, by the way.”
Devens: “Oh, I didn’t even realize that. Which is really funny. If that was real, we would just be crushing it right now. Game over.”

Drew: “Every time it’s been a Blockbuster, the majority of the time it’s been a guy and two girls. Have you noticed?”
Devens: “Dude, I was literally thinking about that yesterday. I was like, wow, in my Blockbusters I’ve taken out the two oldest women in the house. But then also Dee and Taylor.”
Devens: “I was like, didn’t Drew go against all girls too?”
Drew: “Melody and Lyric. And then Mallory and Taylor.”
Drew: “Kamu went against Haley and Angela. It’s always two girls and one guy.”

They work backwards through the season and turn up two that break it — Jason was in Rome’s, and Week 5 was Barrett and Chuk.

Drew: “Most of the time it’s two girls, one guy. That is funny. It’s just weird.”
Drew: “So part of me is like, can I celebrate that hard about this?”
Devens: “I didn’t celebrate very hard either time.”
Drew: “Which I’m sorry for putting you in that position.”

Devens racks the weights. Drew follows him out.

Drew: “I’m not trying to be your shadow, but I don’t like being in there alone.”
Devens: “It’s okay, Shadow.”
Devens: “You said you haven’t seen Homeward Bound?”
Drew: “No, I haven’t.”
Devens: “That’s the name of the golden retriever. Shadow. But you’re more of a Chance.”
Drew: “Is that another dog in there?”
Devens: “Yeah, that’s the young rambunctious dog. Played by Michael J. Fox.”

Devens: “Dude, you’re definitely more of a Chance. You’d see the movie, you would hard agree.”
Drew: “No, I take it as a compliment.”