And then there were three. Big Brother 17 is down to Steve, Vanessa and Liz, with all three fighting to win the final HoH and make it to the end to try and win the half million dollar prize. As always, the final HoH is divided into three parts. The first part is a battle of endurance, with the winner advancing directly to part 3 on finale night. The other two will get another chance to fight in part 2. After John’s eviction, the Final 3 began the first part on the live feeds.
SPOILER WARNING: This article contains Big Brother 17 spoilers. If you want to watch the live feeds and help support BuddyTV, sign up here.
The competition is similar to the ones from season 12 and 14 where the three HGs hang from lines and get dragged back and forth between two walls, getting slammed into one of them, occasionally being dipped into nasty red water. It has a carnival theme with candied apples and popcorn. Back in season 12, Enzo fell after 20 minutes, but Lane lasted more than two and a half hours before dropping, so Hayden won it. In season 14, it lasted less than 30 minutes with Ian and Danielle agreeing to throw it to Dan.
Here is my live blog of the competition from the feeds. As always, all times are Big Brother 17 local time, aka PT.
8:42pm: The feeds return with the competition underway.
8:44pm: They get slammed on the wall. The bottom half of their bodies are dyed red from getting dunked in the water.
8:48pm: Steve promises that it’s gonna be a long night. Steve and Vanessa seem to be having a lot of fun.
8:50pm: They all get sprayed with exploding white powder.
8:53pm: They are being repeatedly slammed into the wall about five or six times in a row.
8:58pm: Just like Murtaugh, Vanessa says she’s too old for this shit.
9:02pm: Liz and Steve talk about how fun it is getting smashed into the wall.
9:06pm: Steve is having a great time and talking a lot. Liz is talking some too. Vanessa doesn’t seem to be talking as much.
9:10pm: After 30 minutes, they’re all still hanging on. Vanessa calls it “Satan’s Carnival.”
9:13pm: Steve is happy this is more of a “How bad do you want it” endurance comp and not a muscular one.
9:17pm: Steve keeps making jokes about “You’re going down, literally” when they get dipped. Liz and Vanessa don’t seem amused.
9:23pm: After being slammed into the wall, Steve slips off the disk they’re sitting on to the apple below.
9:25pm: When they dipped into the liquid, Steve adjusted himself back up to the disk.
9:29pm: Liz and Vanessa both complain about their “packages” while Steve’s “package” is fine because it’s off to the side.
9:33pm: Steve seems to be humming classical musical to calm himself. He gets scolded and proceeds to conduct music with his hands instead.
9:45pm: After more than an hour, all three HGs are still in it.
9:53pm: Vanessa says her strategy for taking the hits against the wall is just to embrace it.
10:01pm: Vanessa likes dipping into the red liquid because it’s warm.
10:04pm: Liz about dipping into the liquid: “This part hurts my va-jay-jay.”
10:08pm: They get dipped into the liquid several times in a row. Liz thinks it’s gross and it hurts her lady business.
10:11pm: They do four dips yet again. Liz thinks it’s because she complained that it hurts her vagina.
10:12pm: After an hour and a half, they’re all still in it. By comparison, it took Becky about an hour and 40 minutes to do the slip-and-slide HoH while James won the wall HoH competition in just over 2 hours.
10:18pm: The talking has died down a lot. They’re all focused on the comp. The pattern seems to be a bunch of dips followed by a slam into the wall.
10:25pm: There’s been almost zero talking for the last 10-15 minutes.
10:27pm: The silence is broken by Vanessa laughing about how insane this competition is. She’s starting to lose her mind.
10:29pm: They reflect that Austin would’ve been terrible at this because of his size, but James would’ve killed it.
10:38pm: After being dipped eight times in a row, they get sprayed with white paint.
10:41pm: After nearly two hours, Steve, Vanessa and Liz are still all hanging on. We’ve got ourselves a real endurance competition.
10:43pm: Liz thinks she’ll never be able to have babies after this. Vanessa’s “vegetables” are pulverized. But Steve’s balls are fine.
10:49pm: They go for seven dips in a row into the liquid again.
10:52pm: After getting slammed once, they go for five more dips before getting slammed again.
10:55pm: They get slammed and go for another seven dips in a row. The producers are really trying to push these HGs since they’ve gone so long.
11:01pm: Now they try something different, slamming them into the wall five times in a row.
11:03pm: The five slams are followed by five dips and shout-outs for Da’Vonne’s catchphrases (“Find yo’ mama” and “Get yo’ life”) and for Jace’s Twitter.
11:08pm: The HGs go for six hard slams into the wall in a row.
11:16pm: We’re past two and a half hours with all three HGs still in. They just got slammed into the wall 11 times in a row.
11:18pm: Vanessa’s microphone belt is going into her back when she hits the wall and she wants to throw it in the liquid.
11:19pm: The get sprayed with confetti and then slammed into the wall two more times in a row without a dip.
11:27pm: They get sprayed again with something and slammed into the wall 16 more times in a row.
11:28pm: Vanessa has moved past the pain and now finds pleasure in getting slammed into the wall.
11:30pm: If my math is right, the HGs go for their 30th slam in a row without a dip.
11:34pm: Another five slams into the wall brings us to 35 in a row.
11:35pm: They finally get dipped again and love it. It’s been more than 20 minutes since their last dip.
11:36pm: “The dips are a piece of cake, now” says Liz as they get dipped six times in a row.
11:38pm: Vanessa is trying to psych the others out by talking about hot showers, beds and food.
11:41pm: We’ at THREE FREAKING HOURS and all three HGs are still in it to win it. Liz is going a little crazy and they’re being slammed into the wall over and over and over again.
11:43pm: Vanessa is telling Liz stories. They’ve decided that talking is the best cure for the pain while Steve is silent. Vanessa seems indestructible.
11:45pm: Vanessa tells a story about spending a night sleeping with carnies.She’s just chatting like everything is normal while Steve can’t feel his legs.
11:48pm: Now Vanessa tells a story about how her dog got the name Bear instead of her original name, Dolce. Vanessa overfed her dog and she got fat and bloated, giving her giant bear paws.
11:52pm: Steve doesn’t seem that interested in the dog talk. He appears to be struggling the most. They haven’t been dipped in a while, it’s just constant slams into the wall.
11:53pm: Liz offers Steve a back rub from Julia if he drops, but Vanessa points out that she’s pimping out her sister.
Midnight: It’s officially Thursday. All three HGs have been hanging on for 3 hours and 20 minutes.
12:04am: The feeds were down for a minute or two and when they came back, all three HGs have moved down to sitting on the apples, down from their disks.
12:07am: Vanessa complains that her apple is different and there’s something under her legs that’s between the others’ legs, but she adjusts it.
12:09am: Story time is over and they’re all struggling on the apples.
12:12am: Over three and a half hours and they’re all still on.
12:14am: They’re all gripping onto the disks they used to sit on while being repeatedly slammed into the wall.
12:18am: Now Vanessa complains that Steve’s disk turns vertical while hers stays horizontal. But she may just not be doing it right.
12:21am: Steve loses his left shoe.
12:22AM: STEVE IS OUT!
12:22am: Steve slipped and fell into the liquid. He may be out first, but he lasted 3 hours and 40 minutes, which is very impressive.
12:26am: Vanessa seems to be trying to convince Liz to drop, but she doesn’t want to have to compete again. Vanessa claims she can go another 10 hours and NEEDS to win this because she can’t recover quickly enough for the second part.
12:29pm: Vanessa keeps saying her muscles don’t hurt at all, trying to get Liz to drop. She’s listing off all the amazing things inside the house.
12:30am: Liz counters that Vanessa knows more about memorization and would be more likely to beat Steve in part 2. Vanessa argues that part 2 is more about speed and Liz would do better. I actually admire Liz for not taking the bait. Ever since Austin, she knows she can’t rely on Vanessa.
12:34am: Vanessa has moved onto to threats, saying that she has 10 more hours in her and Liz will just hurt herself for part 2 if she keeps going. This works and Liz drops.
12:35AM: LZI IS OUT!
Vanessa wins Part 1 of the Final HoH!
Wow, just under four hours of epic endurance action. However, I’m a little disappointed because it did start to sound like Vanessa was bullying Liz into throwing it at the very end. But you can’t argue with the results.
Now Vanessa is guaranteed to play for the final HoH on finale night while Steve and Liz will do battle in part 2 later this week. Let’s see if Vanessa was right and Liz can beat Steve.
FUN FACTS
-The person who wins part 1 of the final HoH has gone on to win part 3 in 10 out of 15 times. However, the winner of part 1 has only won the entire game 5 out of 15 times.
-There have only been two times ever that the person who won part 1 of the final HoH was not in the Final 2: season 8’s Zach Swerdzewski and season 11’s Kevin Campbell.
-Vanessa is the eighth woman to win part 1 of the final HoH. Of the previous seven women, five managed to win part 3 and all seven of them made it to the Final 2. However, only two of them have ever won: season 3’s Lisa Donohue and season 13’s Rachel Reilly. In fact, Rachel in season 13 marks the last time that the winner of part 1 of the final HoH went on to win the game.
-This is the seventh time the Final 3 has featured two women and one man. In the previous six times it happened, the man won the game twice (season 2’s Dr. Will Kirby and season 7’s Mike “Boogie” Malin), but the man was eliminated in third place the other four times (seasons 3, 4, 11 and 13).
-This is the first time ever that everyone in the Final 3 has won at least 3 HoH competitions. Season 8 is the only other time that everyone in the Final 3 won multiple HoH competitions.
-John is only the eighth person ever to finish in the Final 4 without winning a single HoH competition. Season 7’s Dr. Will and season 8’s Jameka Cameron did it and also finished in fourth. Season 12’s Enzo Palumbo and season 16’s Victoria Rafaeli did it and finished in third. Season 5’s Michael “Cowboy” Ellis and season 10’s Robert “Memphis” Garrett did it and finished in second. And Dr. Will did it in season 2 as well, winning the game.
-John also ends the game tying the all-time records for playing in the most HoH/PoV competitions with 27 (tied with season 16’s Victoria Rafaeli) and playing in the most PoV competitions (12, tied with season 16’s Caleb Reynolds).
(Image courtesy of CBS)
Senior Writer, BuddyTV
John watches nearly every show on TV, but he specializes in sci-fi/fantasy like The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural and True Blood. However, he can also be found writing about everything from Survivor and Glee to One Tree Hill and Smallville.
