Big Brother 20 – Tylers Game

Good morning! We’re so close to the end and it’s been a great season. No matter who wins, it was a success as far as entertainment and good game play. My husband, who doesn’t watch the show, even has occasional opinions this year. He may walk by when it’s on, ask a question out of curiosity and move on to something else but he’s never watched an episode. He doesn’t know who half the cast are but this morning, he was shocked to learn KC evicted Angela.  It’s telling when someone who can’t even be called a casual viewer thinks KC made a huge mistake. I’ll be going over Tyler’s game this morning, not KC’s but today is when he said it and by tomorrow, I’ll have forgotten. I’ve been convinced JC would be in the top 3 for AFP because of casual viewers but if the Vegas leak is to believed, it doesn’t look like he will. They’re saying the top 2 so far are Tyler and KC. This is followed by Brett, Sam and Haleigh as a distant 5th. Angela and JC are 6 and 7.  It could be true because my mom is a casual viewer and she said she stopped liking Haleigh early on and she’s been tired of JC for quite a while. She’s just one opinion but I always like to get it when it’s a year she isn’t watching any feeds. Just like the winner of the season, AFP could be a surprise too and that’s not a bad thing.

I wanted to mention Sundays recap show. I usually don’t like them but I actually did this year. We don’t normally get a blindside segment! This season was so good, I guess I didn’t mind seeing some things twice. Part 1 of the hoh comp looks really cool too. That’s all I wanted to say about it because I don’t think we need a recap for a show that’s already a recap. If you missed the episode, this is the comp and it looks hard:

Feeds yesterday: 

Yep, they’re still bored so it isn’t just us! They went over everyone who liked everyone in the first couple of weeks (as in shomances) Naturally, Tyler thinks everyone wanted Angela. Fessy did like her at first and Brett did a little bit. (I think the thing with Brett was made bigger than it was) We already knew Rachel chased Brett around and that was mentioned too.  Tyler didn’t focus on how he liked Hayleigh and if you remember, he did. They went over the memory wall and talked about who they would date and in what order from least likely to most likely. Bob played with them a lot over the intercom and they finally got an activity. They made tie dye clothing. Kaycee and Tyler have decided to start a clothing line with C2C. (CBS may own that now so they better check first) Their plan began as selling labeled bandanas but quickly moved up to an entire clothing line. The only things that stood out from other seasons when they do tie dye was the prep work and color choices. Later, they were given some blow up bowling pins and a huge blow up ball. (JC is a terrible blow up bowler btw) JC trashed Angela some more and Tyler gushed over her. If he had to worry about the other 2 being scared of Angela’s vote, he’d have blown it by now because he talks about her constantly. Back to the tie dye:

Instead of just grabbing some trash bags and quickly covering the table, they wrapped the entire table in saran wrap to protect it:

Once they got going, it looked like the clean up after a murder. Red isn’t a good tie dye choice. If Sam were still in the house,  when I first saw this, I’d have been terrified:

They rearranged the furniture and Bob let them which is unusual. I guess when you don’t have a view of anything, you may as well mix it up to watch the stairs and refrigerator:

Tylers Game:

I was almost dreading going over the game Tyler played and I apologize in advance fo how long it will be. I thought JC’s was hard because he did so much but Tylers is even harder. I couldn’t possibly recap everything Tyler did to get to the end because he had his hands in everything. There isn’t a week when he didn’t know what was going to happen and that’s rare.

Before going into the house , Tyler said he’d like to work with someone from the opposite side to keep the house divided, pick off people from both sides, let that person think he’s loyal to them, cut them near the end and take all the credit. That’s exactly what he’s done! It’s impressive when a player sees their strategy isn’t a fit for their season and they can develop a new one as they go. It’s also impressive when someone can go in and implement the one they set out to accomplish.

Tyler obviously has alot of charisma because everyone wanted to work with him or at least, be friends with him. Swaggy, the guy who thinks he runs the world and still runs the game from Twitter, wanted to work with him too. Rockstar and Steve are the only ones who didn’t seem to care about Tyler. That’s not surprising based on what we learned about Rockstar and her preconceived ideas about stereotypes. Steve used to be a cop and Tyler comes off like he’s a pothead so that one makes sense too.

He also played with a maturity we rarely see on this show in a 23 year old. There’s been so much talk about how Haleighs only 21 and would’ve done so much better if she were a little older.  That’s probably true but she and Tyler are almost the same age  and people have forgotten that. My son is 22 and I could only hope he would’ve had that level of calmness, maturity and respect for the game and other people. The way Tyler handled Sam, JC and Kaitlyn was impressive. He didn’t lose sight of the embarrassment Kaitlyn might cause herself on tv and he tried to help her, help herself. He handled the fight with Bayleigh the best way anyone could’ve in that situation and I lost count of the times someone would say something inappropriate and he’d try to shut it down.

When I evaluate who’s playing a good game, I look at what their odds are of making it to the end and how may ways they’re covered to get there. There isn’t even a close 2nd to Tyler in this area. He went otb once by the hacker and almost the entire house was outraged when it happened. He came off the block but Haleigh quickly realized, he wouldn’t have been voted out even if he hadn’t. He didn’t hit the block again until the F4 and he STILL wasn’t in danger of being evicted. How many more ways can a player be covered?

His personality is directly related to his game because Tyler had a calming effect on people and that may have a direct link to the level of trust they put in him. He was terrible when it came to explaining why someone should do something or why they should make a particular move. He used trust and his emotional connection with people to avoid the need to make a good argument at times. He’s lucky he has that quality because “trust me” doesn’t usually work as a reason for someone to make a game move.

We used to think winning the first hoh was a game curse but recent seasons have proven otherwise. The first one lasts 2 weeks instead of one so it can help to set a tone for the game…if you have the right kind of personality. If you’re a bossy tyrant, the peasants will spend the first 2 weeks plotting to get you out. Tyler is so laid back and friendly, he didn’t run his hoh that way. This set a tone for people wanting to work with him because he was in power and having 2 weeks to realize they liked him too. By the time his hoh ended, he’d formed good relationships to carry him for a while. He was also able to come up with a “fair” reason for his noms and that never hurts. Steve and Sam were the last ones to finish their comps and he used it as a reason to put them up. During this first hoh, Tyler made an alliance with Swaggy and Scottie called the core, made a F2 with KC, linked up with JC and started getting close to Haleigh. (This was during the 1st week which wasn’t on the feeds) The 2nd half of the hoh, which we did see, he made a F2 with Sam because he realized she had a power app and Winston came to him about L6. If you remember, Sam is the one L6 planned to evict initially. Tyler had to work on L6 to change their minds because Winston & Brett felt pretty good about Steve & Scottie at the time. He also had to work on Kaitlyn because he needed her vote to get Steve out.

Tyler had to make a pretty quick call early in the game. Swaggy & his group thought they were working with him and they’d already decided Angela needed to go. (She’d done well on the surfboard comp against Swaggy) He & KC had also just joined L6 as the final two members. Either he stuck with them or it would’ve been a very short lived alliance. He made the right call since L6 has been one of the strongest alliances in 20 seasons. He didn’t know that was going to happen but there were indicators for which way he should go. Winston came to him and ASKED him if he’d like to form the alliance. Swaggy and the rest of Foutte made assumptions. They’d just start saying “ok, Angela will be the replacement nom.” Tyler gave a dumb reason for why Bayleigh would have to be the replacement to get Swaggy to chill out. (Swaggy still wanted to work with Tyler after this tho) He gave Kaitlyn an even dumber reason for why Steve had to be evicted and L6 was on their way. The Kaitlyn, Fessy, Haleigh conflict fell into Tyler’s lap and he knew how to use it to turn Kaitlyn. By this time, Tyler said he liked Haleigh but had backed off when he saw her doing the same thing with all the guys in the house. Once he hooked up with Kaityn, he had to let the connection go completely. (The first week is why I said Hay had lingering issues with Tyler. She couldn’t work him like the others and she didn’t like it) He solidified his friendship with Sam, Steve left and we had the first blindside of the season. (I remember thinking Tyler was doing too much and the risk wasn’t worth the reward to keep Sam. I really thought he was playing too hard, too fast and would blow his game. That shows why he’s playing the game and I’m only writing about it) This may seem too long and detailed for the first eviction but everything leading up to that eviction had a huge impact on the rest of the season. (The first one is usually a throw away for us too but it was a sign of great things to come. We got a “hit” and didn’t even know it)

Kaitlyn became the next hoh and Tyler had put enough work in with her to get her to turn on her alliance and get Swaggy backdoored. This was crucial because he’d just chosen L6 over Swaggy. Tyler’s comp wins were very important too because they HAD to have that veto for it to happen. He won the veto, got Kaitlyn to make the move and walked away with Kaitlyn taking the blame for it. He also built trust with Scottie by using the veto on him and got Winston, his own alliance member, to be ok with staying otb.  Making the move was only half of it. Most people have to pay the price for making it, he didn’t. Rockstar was on to him but if there’s one person in the house who has your number, you want it to be someone who can’t do anything about it.

Scottie had the next hoh and even though Tyler didn’t have much say in who Scottie went after, he was still playing double agent at this time so he wasn’t in danger. Kaitlyn had taken the blame for Swaggy so Foutte thought he was still working with them. When they counted votes for plans to evict Brett, they just assumed they had Tylers. They all saw him as the dumb beach guy being led around by Kaitlyn. Tyler kept his mouth shut about his power app and let Winston go home. He had to juggle some lies when Winston questioned why Sam wasn’t using her app to help them since it was the reason Tyler convinced them to keep Sam.

Sam became hoh and the best Tyler could do was know he was safe. No one controlled Sam or what happened that week. Tyler spent some time with Bayleigh which was good because she was still leary of him since he’d suggested her as the renom during his hoh and took her out of an earlier comp. It’s the first week he disagreed with JC because Tyler wanted Kaitlyn to stay. I think Tyler was going the wrong direction because even though she was loyal to him, she was so time-consuming, he wasn’t spending enough time with his other people. It helped him when she left, even if he didn’t see it at the time.

Bayleigh won the hoh and the bonding Tyler did the week before helped him. He could’ve easily been her target but the more he worked on her, she wanted to work with him. This was when he became the “wounded little bird” in the eyes of Foutte and Bayleigh. This was also the week Tyler came up with the plan to tell Bayleigh that Scottie was his best friend. It was funny and far fetched at first. Can simply saying someone is your bff and that you  trust them, make them your bff and make them trust you? Apparently,  yes it can. Bayleigh had started working more closely with Scottie so it was exactly what she wanted to hear. Scottie felt he had a good bond with Tyler but wasn’t sure where they stood in the game. After Bay told Scottie what Tyler said, Scottie felt almost like he’d just gained an unspoken F2. (It’s is one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen accomplished in this game, well, this and Fessy taking out Scottie) Tyler won another crucial veto and gained Bayleighs trust by not using it. Miscommunication could have caused L6 to end that week. When Bayleigh misunderstood what Tyler meant about Angela being the renom, told Rachel and then she shared it with Angela, they began to doubt Tyler. KC put out the fire before it got too far, Tyler convinced Angela he was telling the truth and Rachel was on her way out the door. As a bonus, they learned Bayleigh had the power app. This was a wierd week because neither Bayleigh nor Tyler was lying. I think it really was mostly a misunderstanding mixed with some of Bayleighs embellishments. Tyler managed to convince two L6 people that it was a bad idea for him to use the veto and Brett (the bigger shield) stayed.

Tyler was always #1 with KC but he was at the bottom of the L6 alliance before Angela won her first hoh. He gave Angela the veto he technically won which she turned around and used on him. Brett had to become the double agent at this time  because Tyler had shown his loyalty and couldn’t play the middle anymore. From this week on, Tyler took Bretts place in L6 and Brett was on the outside looking in. Bayleigh had her blow up which didn’t effect Tyler’s game and people just felt sorry for him.

Haleigh needed to get Tyler out during her hoh since she’d just told him she was the hacker but he won the veto and saved himself. Fessy’s hoh came next and JC got the target on Scottie. Tyler had been working on Fessy all season in small ways on his own. Fessy really wanted to work with Tyler so Fessy offering a F4 to Tyler and Angela wasn’t that hard to pull off. This happened because of the comfort level Fessy had with Tyler, not Angela.

The remaining weeks in the house, L6 controlled the hoh and the votes. They dictated the order people left and tossed in a Brett blindside too. Brett hadn’t been a target for Angela and KC but he’d been on Tyler’s radar for a while, in spite of making a F2 with him late in the game. Tyler got distracted by his new romance with Angela which really irritated me at first. The truth is, Tyler had set himself up so well, he had the luxury of time to relax and get a new girlfriend because no one was coming for him and they won every hoh. He had to juggle things a little with Sam and JC because they were jealous but really, what were they going to do? They wanted Angela out, not Tyler. Scottie left by a unanimous vote but even he came back in telling Julie that he’d try to work with Tyler. The work he put in the first half of the game allowed him to let things run their course. What we sometimes saw as lazy was mostly him reaping the rewards of that work.

Tyler won comps when he needed to, made big moved when he needed to and talked other people into doing what he wanted. When he couldn’t, he won a comp and forced it to happen. He can make a great case to win. There was never a week he didn’t know what was going to happen and he was rarely in danger. He played sloppy at times and articulating WHY someone should do something wasn’t his strength at all. This could be what hurts him in the end. He did such a good job of playing the dumb guy who was being bossed around by women, he may have a hard time changing peoples minds in a short amount of time. He lied to a lot of people and used an emotional connection to do it. It’s amazing game play if you don’t have an emotional jury. This is when you have to know your audience. For example, is he insightful enough to praise Bayleighs game and give her the apology she wants? It doesn’t matter if she deserves it or not. She thinks she does and that’s what matters. If the jury wants to give the win to KC because they think she pissed off less people, it’s justified. Her hands are cleaner than Tylers. He has 3 main obstacles imo. He has to get the jury to see he was in charge and he only played dumb, he has to get them past being lied to over all his broken F2’s and he has to get JC’s vote. He has to get this done in less than an hour. He also needs Angela to not be gushing about him the way he is about her.  I cant believe I’m going to say this but Tyler needs to throw the last hoh and be taken to the end. It guarantees he’ll have JC’s vote and this may or may not be a close one so every vote could be crucial.  Tyler’s been an amazing player to watch and he’s done more than enough to win the game.

Tomorrow, I’ll go over the reasons KC also deserves to win this season. I just want to give a quick shout out to Gerardo. I knew the Finale couldn’t arrive without my ride or die showing up to the party! We’ve all missed you! Have a great Monday everyone!