This past Wednesday was the seasonal finale of "Big Brother" season 18. As a super fan, I have been keeping up with the season all summer and I have been watching the show for quite some time now. After a twist-filled season, the finale managed to be the biggest twist of them all further proving why their slogan is expect the unexpected. Warning: spoilers ahead.
At the beginning of this season, 12 new cast members were brought into the "Big Brother" house with four returning players. Although we have seen this twist before, it is always interesting to see how it plays out with the house guests. At first, the new cast members thought the best strategy would be to try and take out the veterans for obvious reasons like they have more experience playing the game. However, those returning to the show had a different plan. They quickly controlled power in the house and took out the other houseguests one by one.
Before I knew it, we were down to the final three. Two veterans, Nicole and James, and one newbie, Paul. To determine final two, the three of them would have to compete in a few of their last competitions. The first competition winner would automatically go into the last head of household competition of the summer and the two losers of the first competition would compete in a different second competition. The winner of the second competition would then compete in their third competition against the winner of the first competition to determine who would become the final head of household. Paul won the first competition making him eligible to be the final HOH. James and Nicole then competed and Nicole came out on top. In the final competition, Nicole and Paul went head to head and Paul was crowned the last head of household of the season. As head of household, Paul was able to pick who he took with him to the final two. Paul picked Nicole and James was the final evicted house guest of season 18.
This is where things started getting shocking. The people who vote on the winner are the past nine evicted house guests called the jury. Each jury member gets one vote when deciding the winner. I was nearly positive that Paul would win against Nicole considering who was on the jury. Paul had some of his closest allies from the house on the outside. Each finalist had one last time to tell the jury why they should vote for them to win the cash prize of $500,000. Paul delivered a moving speech that proved he played a strong mental and physical game. Nicole delivered a speech that was less moving. As a matter of fact, I can't even remember what she said in her speech and it only happened a couple of days ago.
Julie started reading the votes and it was clear that the jury was split. It was tied four to four with one vote left. The final vote read was from Da'Vonne, a veteran like Nicole. In the house, Da'Vonne supported Paul throughout most of the game and had no respect for the game Nicole was playing. I was sure she was going to vote for Paul and he was going to win. I was wrong. Da'Vonne voted Nicole making the vote five to four and declaring Nicole the winner. I was so surprised I didn't know what to do. I thought Paul deserved the win so much more than Nicole and I could have never predicted that she would have won. Congrats to both Paul and Nicole on making it to the final two, and congrats to Nicole for winning!
