Cory Caught Lying Makes Him Backdoor Option

With his back against the wall all season long, Cameron is trying to find some allies he can ride-or-die with and he hopes that he’s found them in Jag and Matt. The problem is that he’s also the single biggest threat in the house. Can that person ever trust anyone?

With his nominations and target this week, Cameron is thinking all the way to the end of the game. This week’s evicted Houseguest is the last person who will not make this season’s Jury, which is why he has his sights set on Felicia. He worries Mama Fe can work her persuasive magic to convince everyone to vote against him in the end.

He’s gotta get there first, though, and there are many steps between here and there. Thus far, his only path toward ultimate victory has been to win his way there. Almost any moment he’s been vulnerable, he’s been targeted, including when he was evicted unanimously.

It’s interesting, then, that he’s more concerned about someone’s persuasive abilities in a Jury House as opposed to someone who might be gunning for him and has the capabilities of winning competitions. Yes, he’s allied with the strongest two competitors, but Cory has won a HOH comp and proved willing to make a big move already.

As usual, Felicia was all mouth this week, dropping everyone’s names to try and save her own. She threw Cirie under the bus again as a mastermind, but Cirie has been laying extremely low since all of her allies were evicted. Her new strategy is the one Bowie Jane has been using all season, become wallpaper.

After tossing out Cirie’s name, Felicia pointed out that Cory has been playing a very dastardly game. We noted in the last episode that he had approached Felicia and Mecole about a Final 4, but got caught by Matt doing it.

Now, he’s spinning the story to say that it was Mama Fe who approached him and America about the Final 4. He’s sowing a bit of chaos of his own with these lies, trying to manipulate how people feel about other people in the house. It can be effective, but you have to get away with it.

Is anyone buying what he’s selling? Blue appeared to when she confronted Mecole about it. If enough of that happens, it paints a bigger target on Cory’s back and makes him someone that fewer people are ever going to trust.

All if it means that Cameron is well aware that there are two ways to look at this week. He can clean up the Jury to better suit himself by getting rid of Felicia, or he can consider flipping that vote to Cory as a competitor who will come after him.

The first thing to even keep that option open would be for Cory to not get picked to play in the Veto competition. Luckily that’s exactly what happens as possessed little girls start haunting the house.

Tied to coincide with this Friday’s premiere of The Exorcist: Believer in theaters, this season’s pitch-black haunted house competition played out for the Veto. Aside from Cameron and his nominees, he chose Matt as his Houseguest Choice while Mecole chose Blue and Felicia drew America’s chip.

It was hard while watching the six of them tackle the competition to determine who was doing well and who wasn’t. Well, we’ll say it was hard to know for five of them. Poor Mama Felicia, so proud because of her military-trained night vision, got herself so turned around she started looking for the first item again before taking herself literally right back out of the house.

How do you get so messed up that you eliminate yourself?

That was the end of her dream of securing her own safety, so what was left was that power of persuasion and gift of gab that Cameron is so worried about. But first, she’d need someone to win who might actually use the Power of Veto.

She didn’t even care if it was her or Mecole that came down just so long as a bigger target than her went up. in her world right now, that meant Cory. The only danger was that if America won, she’d likely keep nominations the same to protect her showmance.

In the end, though, America did not win, nor did she come in the Top 3, which are the times we got. The time difference between first and second place was literally 23 seconds — which had to be absolutely devastating for Mecole. She lost to Cameron by that much.

She came that close to being able to save herself and forcing Cameron to make a new nomination. Instead, he was left with all the power this week. Now, he could still choose to use the power, but would he?

He pitched the idea to his Fugitive allies about shifting his target from Felicia to Cory after Blue told him that Cory told her he was going to target Cameron next week. Now, Cory was lying to Blue — he intends to target her — but she doesn’t know that.

It just put another bit of suspicion in Cameron’s mind that Cory is a huge threat to leave in the house one second longer than needed. But when he pitched Jag and Matt about this, only one of his boys seemed on board with it.

Even in the Diary Room, Matt was cool with Cameron taking the shot at Cory. Even though he and Jag also have a side deal with Cory, if Cameron takes the shot, that protects them. Jag, though, doesn’t see it that way. Instead, he’s worried about showing their cards too soon.

Of course, he didn’t say that to Cameron, but Cameron has proven to be an extremely perceptive player, and he immediately figured out that his bros are probably also working with Cormerica, effectively leaving him feeling alone in the house again.

At the Veto Meeting, he gave Mecole and Felicia a chance to plead their case. Mecole opted not to do that, instead deferring to whatever Cameron chose, while Felicia used her opportunity to thoroughly throw Cory under the bus for lying about her approaching with that FInal 4 deal. Cory just smirked.

Well, what happened in that moment for Cameron was two-fold. He believes after such an aggressive display against another player, the house would definitely vote Felicia out. He also believes she painted a huge target on Cory, helping him out there, too.

The episode ended without revealing whether or not he chose to use the Power of Veto and put Cory on the Block either next to Felicia or in place of her. It would be interesting to put them side by side and let the House decide, but we think he’d leave Mecole because he wants to guarantee whichever target he chooses goes home.

For us, we’d suggest going ahead and taking the big backdoor shot. We’ve seen it work with Hisam and Cameron himself already this season, the two strongest physical competitors. He could buy himself some time to smooth things over with Felicia, and if you keep her longer, she’s not in Jury as long to sway anyone.

Plus, you do know that Cory is a master debater himself, with even more skills at persuasion. Who’s to say he would vote for Cameron to win after he were to get evicted? Surely Cameron isn’t thinking of taking him to the end, so what’s to say he might be bitter, too.

We’ll have to wait to see what he chooses, but it certainly looks as if it will either be Felicia and Cory targeted this week, which is good news for Mecole. Except, as we also know, pawns sometimes go home. And this house more than any in recent memory, with their total lack of true loyalty in any real alliances outside of Final 2 deals, loves to flip a vote (or at least debate it).

Matthew Klotz (27, deaflympics gold medalist) is just sailing through this game, not really raising suspicions in anyone. Everyone trusts him and no one seems threatened by him in any way. He’s played a game with integrity, so at some point, they’re going to have to realize he’ll win at the end, but that point isn’t right now. [Grade: A]

Jag Bains (25, truck company owner) is trying to play a very safe game, but it could jeopardize trust with Cameron. That said, if Cameron keeps Cory off the block, that will be huge for his own persuasive abilities in this game. He’s done a great job of positioning himself pretty much in the middle of almost everything. [Grade: B+]

Cirie Fields (53, nurse) is trying to blend in and disappear and it’s mostly working. Yes, everyone knows she’s a threat overall, but she’s not a threat right now, right? She has no allies anymore, they believe, and she doesn’t win anything. What she has, though, is her ability to deeply and genuinely connect with people, and then manipulate them. [Grade: B]

Blue Kim (25, brand strategist) came in third in this week’s Veto, once again proving that she is a strong competitor who just hasn’t broken through yet. She’s a free agent right now, so people are looking to snatch her up. That means no one is really looking at her as a problem since she’s seen as a solo for the moment. Depending on where she lands, we’d expect that to change pretty quickly. [Grade: B-]

Bowie Jane Ball (45, barrister/DJ) is basically a disposable player at this point. She’s not really loyal to anyone (maybe Cameron) or anything in this game, forges no real alliances and just kind of floats from one moment to the next, barely playing. [Grade: C]

America Lopez (27, medical receptionist) is perceived as having no real game of her own, because Cory does all of the dirty work for their duo. She’s a very smart and savvy player, but if she wants any chance of winning, she probably needs to take him out or do something big and flashy herself. Right now, she’s more likely to be taken out in lieu of him, if they can’t get him, once shots start getting fired their way. [Grade: C-]

Cameron Hardin (34, stay-at-home dad) has the chance to make a cleaner path to victory for himself, if he can truly trust The Fugitives. Otherwise, he’ll just keep taking this game week by week and hope for the best. Either way, he will always be under threat of backdoor eviction because he is the biggest comp beast of the season … by far! [Grade: C-]

Mecole Hayes (30, political consultant) could be vulnerable if nominations don’t change because Felicia is a very persuasive speaker, and Mecole doesn’t seem to really try that hard. Whatever happens happens. Her low-key game could see her walk out the door. Will she fight when it comes down to it? This will be her first test to see how badly she wants to stay in this house. [Grade: D+]

Cory Wurtenberger (21, college student) is a great backdoor option, but it’s not clear if Cameron will take the shot right now or hold off. We believe that if he doesn’t, this could go down as the moment he lost the game. That’s because it doesn’t sound like his Fugitive boys would take the shot if they rise to power, and he’s clearly the biggest threat outside of them. He’s on everyone’s radar, but no one is taking the shot. Will Cameron? [Grade: D]

Felicia Cannon (63, real estate agent) has been Cameron’s target all week, but it remains to be seen if she’ll remain his target come Thursday night. With him wanting to build trust with Matt and Jag, there’s a good chance Jag’s hesitation will cause him to back away from his plan. It could mark the turning point and end of his game if he does, but he so desperately wants real allies to play with, we think he’d do it to try and build that trust — even though it would only further prove that Jag is trying to keep more options open for himself and Matt. [Grade: D]

• “I cannot have Felicia going to Jury because I believe she will sway the entire Jury against me.” –Cameron (in DR after nominations)
• “Boy, please. Cameron, your real damn problem is that you don’t know how to connect to people. You got here because you were able to win comps. I got here because of who I am. And I’ll take that all day over you winning some competitions.” –Felicia (in DR after nominations)
• “At least my hair was cute.” –Mecole (seeing herself on Diary Wall)
• “One of my favorite things to talk about with Cory is the U.S. Constitution. I just love seeing his nerdy side come out. I think it’s very hot.” –America (in DR)
• “America really lives up to her name. Nothing gets her going like some good old American history.” –Cory (in DR)
• “I’m trying to see if you trust me enough to play a game with me.” –Felicia (to Cameron)
• “No. I don’t see us working together. It’s going to be very hard. You are very good at talking to people. I don’t want you in the Jury House.” –Cameron
• “I think there’s a bigger target in the house.” –Felicia (about Cory)
• “He was running around telling people about you asking him about doing a Final Four.” –Mecole (to Felicia about Cory lying about who approached who for Final 4 with Cormerica & Fecole)
• “They’re telling other people that we asked him? Cory’s full of s–t.” –Felicia
• “You’re a good player, Felicia. It doesn’t matter how well you compete in every competition, it matters how well you compete in every conversation. You are a competitor.” –Cameron (to Felicia)
• “I guess I better get busy. ‘Cause I’m gonna see you next week.” –Felicia
• “I do not want Felicia in that Jury, but I will tell you right now, I will take the gamble to go ahead and get his ass out of here right now. We’re all going to let her believe that she’s leaving this house. And then I’m going to pull her off of the damned Block and put Cory there next to Meme and Cory will go home and we will get out the smartest, sharpest player in the House and The Fugitives will roll over everyone here.” –Cameron (to Jag and Matt)
• “I think if we’re going to attack this thing from a competitive standpoint, this is the move.” –Cameron
• “I don’t fully agree. There is a shot that we need to take eventually. My gut tells me it’s an early shot.” –Jag
• “All I know how to do is be honest. That’s who I am. Sometimes people don’t like to hear the truth. The truth shall set you free. I’ve watched you this whole game. He’s throwin’ me and Meme under the bus this week saying that we approached him about a Final 4. No we didn’t. We did not approach him about a Final 4. He approached us about a Final 4. So I might go home Thursday and that’s okay, because you know what? I played a brutally honest Felicia game and that is all that matters to me.” –Felicia (speech during Veto Meeting)

Big Brother continues Thursday at 9pm ET, Sunday at 10pm ET, and Tuesday at 8pm ET.