Heading into the 17th episode of “Big Brother 26,” newfound Head of Household Tucker Des Lauriers had just nominated three people for eviction: Quinn Martin, Cam Sullivan-Brown and Brooklyn Rivera. While he told everyone that his true target was Quinn, his actual goal was to send home Brooklyn because he saw her as the influential leader over on her side of the house. But with the Power of Veto competition on the line, it was still anybody’s game as to who would be nominated at the end of the hour. So how’d it all play out?
Below, read our minute-by-minute “Big Brother” Season 26, Episode 17 recap/live blog to find out what happened Wednesday, August 21, 2024 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT. Then be sure to sound off in the comments section about your favorite “BB26” houseguests on CBS‘s reality TV show, who annoys you the most and who you think will ultimately join the “Big Brother” winners list. Julie Chen Moonves once again hosts the series.
The 12 remaining houseguests are: Angela Murray, Brooklyn Rivera, Cam Sullivan-Brown, Chelsie Baham, Joseph Rodriguez, Kimo Apaka, Leah Peters, Makensy Manbeck, Quinn Martin, Rubina Bernabe, T’kor Clottey and Tucker Des Lauriers.
8:00 p.m. – “Previously on ‘Big Brother’!” In the 16th episode, the eviction of Cedric Hodges sent shockwaves through the house, particularly with his Pentagon alliance members. Cam, Chelsie and Brooklyn were the only three people who voted to keep Cedric, which immediately made them targets when Tucker won “The Wall” HOH competition. Elsewhere, the Tanks alliance decided to add a sixth person, Joseph, and they renamed themselves Sixth Avenue. After Tucker had one-on-one conversations with everybody, he decided to put Quinn, Cam and Brooklyn on the block for eviction. Welp, it’s time to get this Veto episode started!
8:03 p.m. – Tucker was happy to start his reign with everyone on the other side of the house thinking he is coming for his public nemesis, but his own alliance was clued in to the fact that he really wants to go after Brooklyn because he sees her as the ringleader of The Pentagon. But because he wants her out, he had to tell her and Cam (his nominees) that he placed them there to help him take out Quinn so that neither of them would give it their all in the veto comp. Later, he went to Quinn to assure him that he’s not the target despite what he said at the veto meeting.
8:07 p.m. – Chelsie was “relieved” that she wasn’t nominated, but she knew that with the rest of The Pentagon up on the block that if any of them come down, she’ll go up as the replacement. Up until this point, however, Tucker didn’t know about The Pentagon, only the larger Collective alliance. In order to solidify his place in the new Sixth Avenue alliance with Tucker, Kimo decided to let him know about The Pentagon and its members which only made Tucker feel better about coming for Brooklyn. When Quinn and Brooklyn had some time alone, they put their heads together about what Tucker was telling him this week for the target, but they weren’t surprised that he was telling different stories.
8:14 p.m. – As one of the first off the wall in the HOH comp, Angela was placed on slop only for her meals this week. Because of that, Brooklyn and some other houseguests decided to put together a charcuterie board of meats and cheeses that Angela had been awarded in her HOH basket. According to Angela they did this without her permission and so she was deeply hurt that she wasn’t going to be able to enjoy her favorite food.
8:15 p.m. – In the selection for the players in the veto competition, Tucker pulled the chips of Makensy and himself from the bag. Tucker chose Joseph to compete with Makensy, the nominees and himself in the comp. Shortly after, Brooklyn spoke with Tucker privately in order to tell him that Quinn said she’s the real target in the hopes that it would set Tucker’s sights back on him instead of her. While it did add to the distrust in Quinn, Tucker knew that it only “showed her character” that she would throw her ally under the bus so easily.
8:21 p.m. – For the veto comp the players competed in the classic game “Hide-n-Go Veto.” The aim of the game was to each hide a veto memory card somewhere in the house in the hopes that there’s would be the last found by one of the other players. That being said, all of the cards look the same on the outside so when searching the house, no one would know who they are eliminating from the competition. Joseph hid his in Angela’s bag on one of the beds hoping to be obvious and not win, Brooklyn wrapped hers in a towel and clothing and hid hers in Quinn’s dirty laundry bag, Quinn hid his in a garment bag while in a time crunch, Cam hid his in a “really firm pillow,” Tucker hid his under one of the hallway drawers, and Makensy hid hers at the bottom of one of the planters by the front door.
8:27 p.m. – In the first pass through the house, Quinn discovered the memory card Brooklyn hid in his dirty bag and eliminated her from the competition. Next, Cam found the memory card Quinn his in the garment bag and eliminated him from the competition. The first place Tucker went was the planters where he found Makensy’s memory card. In her second pass through the house, Brooklyn was happy to “take her frustration out on the people that did her dirty” and tossed Tucker and T’Kor’s clothes out of the closets – that helped her find Cam’s memory card. Cam was the last to find the fifth memory card, ending the game.
8:38 p.m. – In the slow reveal of the order the memory cards were found, Brooklyn and Quinn were first to find out that they did not win. In the end, Chelsie revealed that the final card Cam found belonged to Joseph and so that meant Tucker was once again the winner.
8:43 p.m. – When the houseguests got back in the house to clean up, Tucker and Angela were angry that players threw their clothes all over the house in the most petty way. Tucker assumed that it was Quinn, reigniting his fury at him and wanting to go back on his word to not target him this week. Quinn denied that he messed with his clothes, but Tucker didn’t buy it.
8:49 p.m. – Brooklyn knew that Tucker thinking Quinn threw his clothes everywhere would work to her advantage because it would make him want to evict Quinn instead of her. But Quinn wanted to try “radical honesty” in order to try a new approach at getting Tucker to trust him. He admitted to Tucker that he told Brooklyn about the private conversations he had with Tucker and that went a long way to regain some respect him. Once again, Tucker asked about the clothes and with the new context, Tucker was willing to believe that he wasn’t the one that did it. Quinn also said that he was never going to go to the end with The Pentagon and it was always his plan to flip on them.
8:55 p.m. – At the veto meeting, Quinn decided to “make things really uncomfortable” in a warning to the other houseguests. In his speech, he disclosed that he knows about The Collective and The Pentagon with their plan to evict him last week. He said that he knows it’s Brooklyn and Chelsie in charge of that group which informed his decision to remove Quinn from the block and replace him with Chelsie. With their game blown up, Cam felt like everyone was “starting from scratch” and it would give them a chance to re-set everything after this week. Brooklyn saw Tucker’s decision as clear evidence that Quinn spilled all the beans to Tucker in order to save himself.