Todrick & Miesha vs. the House

Three strong competitors were eliminated back-to-back-to-back as Todrick Hall and Miesha Tate solidified their stranglehold on the House, using any and every tactic at their disposal to lie, manipulate and dominate the game.

Apparently, the elimination of Carson was the catalyst for Todd Bridges and Lamar Odom — who’d been working with Todrick and Miesha all game — to realize they were playing for third and fourth, at best. And when we say Todd and Lamar, we’re being very generous to Lamar.

Poor Lamar still has no idea what’s going on and he’s been a disaster in all of these competitions this season. The only one who’s perhaps been worse than him has been Cynthia Bailey, who has come in last more times than we care to count.

That’s why Todrick and Miesha made the calculated decision to abandon their Final 4 with Todd and Lamar and shift the target to them sooner rather than later. Seeing Cynthia as no threat, they decided that they needed to make it four for four in getting real threats out of the game by sending Todd packing.

At this point, we wouldn’t be surprised if they turn on one another before the end of this game. They’ve betrayed every alliance except for that one. Of course, if they turn on one another, then they prove they have no loyalty at all, which could hurt them even more with what’s sure to be a contentious jury.

We can’t believe Todd didn’t put this together just a bit sooner. He had an opportunity to target Miesha and Todrick in this last eviction. Yes, Carson was a threat to him, but Miesha and Todrick are a power duo and both are good at comps. That makes them a far bigger threat than Carson and Cynthia, or even Todd and Lamar, themselves.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Todrick and Miesha may think they’ve got the game wrapped up, but with three Houseguests united and gunning for them, they really needed a Head of Household win tonight to keep both of their games alive and together.

This week’s HOH competition was all about catching the details and noticing the subtle differences. Unfortunately, this did not mean the return of BB Comics. The absence of this and OTEV this season so far has been very disturbing, but maybe they were concerned about injury with this cast.

Instead of hanging and gliding, the Houseguests had to run through the House and look at six different pieces of art and then compare them to those same pieces on the Memory Wall — only one piece on the Memory Wall is a fake (i.e., there is one detail changed).

Making the challenge for the underdogs even great, Todd was forced to sit this one out as the outgoing Head of Household. Of the three, he’s the only one who’s won competitions and come close in others. Cynthia and Lamar have been disasters since Day One.

Again, it falls back to making your move way too late, after helping the dominant duo take out all their strongest competition. Even they acknowledge that Todd is their only real threat still in the House. For those who root for underdogs, it would be a beautiful upset for either Lamar or Cynthia to win anything!

Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen this time. Cynthia was eliminated first, continuing her bad luck run, followed quickly by Lamar. At this point, it didn’t matter, though Todrick wanted to build his resume with his second win, while Miesha is going for an overall comp win, shooting for her fourth.

Ultimately, though, she came up a bit short, and Todrick padded his resume, which he has been talking about constantly. Realizing that he’s losing the Jury with each eviction, Todrick has been very worried about upping his competition wins to try and earn respect that way.

While Todrick is unaware of just how much the Jury is unhappy with the nastiness of his gameplay outside the House, America has been getting an earful from everyone he’s had a hand in evicting.

The show has started showing a little of his nastier side, because it’s sure to come up in the live finale when the Jury gets their chance to confront him. On Saturday’s recap episode, we saw him get personal with Chris Kirkpatrick, telling the *NSYNC founder that he does take personal Chris flipping alliances.

Meanwhile, he expects no one to take it personal when he does it, or when he lies directly to someone’s face and then maneuvers to get them evicted from the House. He’s been accused of playing the victim in the House, and just saying unnecessarily rude things both to people and behind their backs.

In a hilariously brief exchange tonight, we saw a quick scene from just before the last Eviction. In it, Carson laughed about being all dressed up because how often do you get evicted? Everyone laughed about it, with Todrick’s laughter coming a bit late — and then Lamar calling it out for sounding totally fake.

Was it? We’ll never know that, but we do know that Todrick went from upset about that to even more upset when Todd told him that things might change if he or Miesha don’t win HOH. Todrick was not about hearing anyone suggest he might not win! He has been laser focused on winning this game and winning that prize money, at any and all cost since Day 1.

At the same time that he’s in the House fighting for the $250,000 grand prize, social media has been abuzz with old allegations levied against him from former dancers and business associates for non-payment dating back a couple of years, as well as other things.

On Sunday, that social media buzz went more mainstream when a 2019 article from The Daily Mail compiling a lot of those allegations, as well as others of an even more unsavory nature, was resurfaced. Of course, Todrick is not available to respond to any of these allegations currently, which you can read about in full over at The Daily Mail.

The article does include an apology reportedly from Todrick, while trashing a dancer who called him out for non-payment and racism, among other things. “Sorry to anybody I have hurt or burned in the process of pursuing my dreams,” Todrick reportedly wrote. “I promise you it was never intentional.”

It seems likely he might have to again address some of these allegations, or at the very least his behavior in the House, once he gets out and sees all the press he’s been getting during his time in the House. They say there’s no such thing as bad press, but…

One of the most enjoyable relationships to emerge in these recent episodes has been the unlikely friendship/rivalry between Todd and Lamar. Poor Lamar, who is incredibly competitive in his own right, has had a terrible time in the game.

Tonight, we saw him and Todd competing to see whose blood pressure was lower. It was absolutely ridiculous, but the stakes couldn’t have been higher for Lamar, who even insisted on switching arms to try and get a better number.

We also got a scene of them in the bathroom where Todd opened up about how much he’d like to go into outer space. Lamar was absolute not about it, and when Todrick walked in on the middle of it, he didn’t even know why they were talking about it because it’s not gonna happen.

24/7 in the “Big Brother” House and they can’t cut loose and just imagine what if? It can’t be game-face all the time, can it? Well, for Todrick and Miesha it appears as if it has been. That’s been working so far for them, but they’ve definitely been neglecting their social game. It helps if the Jury likes you and playful banter can do that.

In an attempt to accomplish that with his nominations — rather than just have genuine conversations with people, let’s try and get them to like us with a show! — Todrick put on a little extra “extra” for the nomination ceremony.

He sang in falsetto — it wasn’t great — to announce his own arrival, came down with a long train and a lot of pomp and circumstance before doing what everyone knew what he was going to do. With a dramatic flourish, he betrayed his second-to-last alliance, putting Todd and Lamar on the Block, with Todd his obvious target.

With Todrick as HOH the tie-breaking vote this time around, it’s going to be impossible for all three of the underdogs to stick around, but Todd and Lamar have a chance to save themselves with the Veto. However, if Todd loses, that’s probably the last hope for the underdogs. Sorry, but we don’t have much faith in Lamar and Cynthia in those comps, either.

Tomorrow night’s double-eviction episode will either set Todrick and Miesha up for a run to the finish, or break them up entirely. If they were going to betray one another — and we could see it happening — a double eviction is the perfect time to do it, because it all happens so fast you don’t have to deal with that anger from whomever is getting stabbed in the back for very long.

Todrick won’t be eligible to compete in this next HOH, so it’ll be Miesha against whoever is left. If she loses, it’s more than likely she or Todrick will go home no matter what happens with the Veto. If she wins, she or Todrick will also need to win Veto to guarantee they’re both safe.

Miesha Tate (35) is poised to win this game. She has not poisoned the Jury against her nearly as much as Todrick, and she’s built a legitimately impressive resume with competition wins and overall dominance. The only thing that could hurt her is an excessively bitter Jury and sitting next to someone other than Todrick. Grade: B-

Todrick Hall (36) is just sabotaging his own game by — burning every bridge he can find? Honestly, we’re not sure if this is some sort of strange strategy or not, but his behavior and how he talks to and treats people is starting to rub the House the wrong way. He may still yet be able to pull off the votes to win, as he has played the overall best game in the House (except for jury management). He’d have a better shot if this Jury wasn’t able to go home and see exactly how he’s been behaving, and what he’s said in the Diary Room. But it’s all going to come down to how bitter they are, or if they’ll respect game. Grade: C+

Todd Bridges (56) is positioned to play spoiler. The power duo is coming for him, but he’s got a real chance of spoiling their party. If he can win Veto, he saves himself (but loses an ally). If he can get to the end, he has a real shot at winning the game over Miesha or Todrick with a potentially bitter Jury. The challenge for him is going to be getting through the double eviction. If the other side wins power and he can’t save himself, he’s done. So his journey to the end is hard, but if he gets there, he’s got a real shot at victory. Grade: C-

Lamar Odom (42) and Cynthia Bailey (54) could possibly get dragged to the end, and if that happens, one of them could actually win over Todrick or Miesha simply because neither of them played a really dirty game … or really much of a game at all. It all comes down to how bitter and angry this Jury still is come Wednesday. We know the last three evicted Houseguests have been fired up about Todrick upon eviction, but will they stay that way or decide to respect that they got outplayed. As Julie says, “We’ll find out … soon enough.” Grade: D

• “Are y’all sure you’re letting us out on the 23rd?” –Lamar (to production)
• “Don’t let me win next Head of Household.” –Todrick (planning to play even more cutthroat)
• “I need to start winning for my ‘Big Brother’ resume and I need to start winning now.” –Todrick
• “Carson and I tried to make a deal with Todrick and Miesha. It’s a little disappointing because we saved Miesha and they kind of didn’t return the favor when we needed it.” –Cynthia (working with the “devil you know”)
• “I just wanted to let you know, we’re gonna give you the chop.” –Todrick (to Carson before eviction)
• “Please try to win at this point. Seriously.” –Carson
• “It’s better for them to gun for three of you than one of you. You have nothing to lose.” –Carson (telling Cynthia to work with Lamar and Todd)
• “It’s not every day you get evicted.” –Carson (after getting complimented for his outfit)
• “That laugh was so fake, Todrick.” –Lamar
• “If he has any place to talk about somebody being rude, it’s quite frustrating if I’m being completely honest.” –Todrick
• “I’m ready to go home.” –Todrick
• “You know you ain’t goin’ nowhere.  it’s gonna be you and Miesha … but it’s gonna be the vote that’s gonna have to do it. I don’t know if you can get the vote … Unless there’s a surprise change, unless somebody else wins an HOH, you could be in trouble.” –Todd
• “Thank you, Todd. I think it’s a little premature for these predictions, Todd, and I would really like you to keep your negative energy over there because I got a game to still try to win tonight.” –Todrick (in Diary Room)
• “I’m hoping they abide by the loyalty we had and don’t put me up.” –Todd (wasn’t planning to do that himself)
• “Who you think they’re gonna put up?” –Lamar (to Todd)
• “Me and you. They’re not afraid of Cynthia. Poor Cynthia ain’t got one right.” –Todd
• “I been a gymnast. I used to race–” –Todd
• “Who are you? The world’s most interesting man. You done did gymnastics, child acting, baseball player, rode horses.” –Lamar
• “Yes, I done everything. Ain’t my fault I done everything.” –Todd
• “I don’t know why they waited so long,until this point in the game, to really play hard when they really should have been playing with Todd. They came just swinging a little too late.” –Miesha (to Todrick)
• “I have always wanted to be HOH and this might be my one and only shot, so this ceremony is going to be one for the Big Brother books.” –Todrick
• “Watch out Dan Gheesling, I know you had a funeral, but get ready for this procession, okay?’ –Todrick