Big Brother 19 has been promised as the “summer of temptation,” has it lived up to that title this season?

Big Brother, CBS’ hit reality TV game show aired its 19th season this summer, the hook for audiences was that this was the “summer of temptation.” And on night one, we saw that firsthand when 16 brand new house guests entered the house for a chance at the $500,000, grand prize and before the night was over, one of the 16 would walk away empty handed while another would stay in the house with a nice sum of cash. Let’s recap what’s gone on in this season and at the end of it all, go over the 10 best moments of the season.

Night 1

16 new houseguests entered the Big Brother house hoping to earn the $500,000 grand prize for themselves. Little did they know that their first temptation of the summer would end the game early for one of them. The first temptation was $25,000 which was claimed by Kevin Schlehuber, however, as a result of this Kevin had to throw the first Head of Household competition. This also caused Big Brother 18 runner-up, Paul Abrahamian, to enter the house as part of the “BB Swap” twist, meaning Paul was taking the place of one of the first 16 houseguests. Paul was given friendship bracelets, a joke based on his catchphrase from season 18, “friendship.” Paul granted friendship bracelets to 8 houseguests, granting them safety from the night’s elimination. Paul choose Kevin Schlehuber, Dominique Cooper, Raven Walton, Elena Davies, Jessica Graf, Mark Jansen, Jason Dent, and Ramses Soto. After losing the competition called “Tempted by the Fruit,” in which the remaining 8 houseguests would play, with 5 being given safety and 3 being instantly nominated had to hold on for dear life as the last houseguest standing would be given immunity. While Cody outlasted everyone and had immediately safety, Alex Ow, Matthew Clines, Megan Lowder, and Josh Martinez. Others were granted safety by picking “safe apples” from the fruit in the garden, Christmas Abbott, Jillian Parker, and Cameron Heard were placed on the block for possible eviction after getting “poison apples.” By a vote of 2-1, the nominees voted for the house to cast votes as usual for who would go home rather than playing a competition. This decision proved fatal to Cameron  Heard as he was evicted.

Week 1

Following Cameron’s eviction, the rest of the houseguests played the Head of Household Competition, which was the second temptation opportunity so far, granting 1 houseguest safety if they claimed a golden apple instead of a regular one which was needed to win the competition, in doing so, their team was eliminated from the Head of Household Competition. This temptation was claimed by Josh Martinez. Cody Nickson won the competition and nominated Megan Lowder and Jillian Parker for eviction. Shortly after this, Megan left the game due to it triggering pre-existing PTSD she had. Because Megan walked, Cody had to nominate a new houseguest as a nominee, so he choose Alex Ow as the replacement. Part of this “summer of temptation” means that America gets to vote on a houseguest they would like to see earn a bonus to help them in the game. In week 1, America voted to tempt Paul Abrahamian in the Den of Temptation with the Pendant of Protection, which grants him safety for 3 weeks. After playing the veto competition, Alex Ow won and removed herself from the block. Without even talking to his alliance first, Cody had decided on his plan and had attempted to put up Paul Abrahamian, but Paul was immune due to his Pendant of Protection, stopping that plan before Paul could even sit down in the nomination chairs, forcing Cody to nominate another houseguest, he choose Christmas Abbott. After fooling around with Jason Dent, Christmas broke her foot but was allowed to stay in the house but was going to be ineligible for certain competitions due to not being medically cleared to compete in them (Big Brother Production was not going to modify competitions for Christmas, so she was either cleared and would compete or would not be cleared and couldn’t). The house turned on Cody for his double blindside of both Paul and Christmas without talking to anyone and he was blindsided when Jillian Parker was evicted.

Week 2

In a Candy Crush themed Head of Household, the house teamed up with Paul to give him Head of Household, which he won. Paul nominated Josh Martinez and Alex Ow with a plan to backdoor Cody Nickson. A wrench was thrown in his plan when Ramses Soto was nominated as a consequence of Paul accepting the Pendant of Protection, if Ramses was removed from the block there is no nominee to replace him. His plan succeeded regardless when he won the veto and removed Josh from the block and nominated Cody. Cody was then evicted from the house. Christmas Abbott was tempted with the Ring of Replacement, allowing her to replace any houseguest selected by random draw for the veto competition. The consequence for her accepting the temptation was that Jason Dent, Cody Nickson, and Jessica Graf were all forced to dress up as toads (VE-Toads to be exact). Dominique made herself a target during her in-house “talk show” interview with Cody before he left, where her line of questioning upset some houseguests.

Week 3

Alex Ow wins the endurance Head of Household competition. She nominates Jessica Graf and Dominique Cooper, with the latter as her target. This week, America choose to tempt Jessica Graf with the Halting Hex, which allows the holder to nullify one of the next 4 evictions, stopping it dead in its tracks. Jason Dent won the Power of Veto while Kevin took another temptation for an unknown sum of money, later announced to be only $27 dollars. Jason choose to leave the nominations the same and Dominique was evicted.

Pre-Jury Buyback

Cameron Heard, Jillian Parker, Cody Nickson, and Dominique Cooper were given a second chance to re-enter the game in a three step buyback. The four houseguests would compete against each other in a puzzle competition, which Cameron and Cody won. The two would then face off in round two, with a billboard with 10 tiles which they had to knock over, which Cody won. The houseguests had an opportunity to vote on a house challenger to prevent the winner from re-entering the game. The house voted on Paul as the house challenger, leaving him to face off against Cody, which he lost and Cody re-entered the game.

Week 4

Jessica Graf won the Head of Household competition, where the entire house doled out punishments to her and her showmance Cody, but regardless she still won. She nominated Josh Martinez for personal reasons and Ramses Soto as a pawn to get Josh out. She won the explosive pattern themed veto competition and kept the nominations the same, but her failure to realize Ramses wasn’t a good pawn proved fatal as her and Cody were blindsided again when he was evicted over Josh. Jessica outright tells that house that she is “safe for multiple weeks” because of her temptation when asked a question during the live show by Julie Chen.

Week 5

Paul strikes again, winning Head of Household and nominating both Cody and Jessica directly, calling their bluff that they are allegedly safe for weeks. The punishment for Jessica accepting her temptation are finally revealed, it’s called the temptation competition. The winner is guaranteed safety while the loser is on the block as a third nominee. The first temptation competition was “Bowlerina” which was played by Jason Dent, Mark Jansen, Matthew Clines, and Alex Ow. Mark wins the competition and is safe while Jason loses and is nominated for eviction. Paul then wins the “BB Stormwatchers” Power of Veto, making it his fourth competition win of the season. He removes Jason from the block, leaving Jessica and Cody as his final nominees for the week. Jessica uses her halting hex to stop the eviction and the house plays the next Head of Household competition, the entire week is a wash.

Week 6

Josh Martinez wins Head of Household, planning to target Elena Davies for eviction because he thinks she is shady. Cody and Jessica plan to have him win the temptation competition and have her throw it so he can play for veto and save her so they both have safety. Their plan is only ⅔ completed, as Cody wins the temptation competition and Jessica loses the competition, Josh pulls Cody’s name for Veto, but Christmas uses her ring of replacement from the den of temptation and gets Cody’s spot in the veto, leaving Jessica to fend for herself in the veto. Josh choose to nominate Mark Jansen and Elena Davies. He pretends that Jessica Graf is his target. The veto competition is “OTEV the possessed piglet” (played similarly to musical chairs but requires a card with the correct number or name on it to advance to the next round), which Mark Jansen narrowly wins after Alex drops her answer card on her way up the ramp. Mark uses the veto on himself and forces Josh to name a replacement nominee. Josh chooses Raven Walton. Jessica Graf is evicted by a 7-1 vote, only receiving a vote from Cody to stay in the house, voting to evict Raven.

Week 7

Alex Ow wins the Head of Household title for a second time this summer. Host Julie Chen informs the house that they need to fight for their lives because this season there is no jury buyback like in years past. After a sound related Temptation Competition called “Where Were You?” (which everyone but Christmas Abbott and Alex Ow play in), Mark Jansen won safety once again, leading Alex to nominate Jason Dent and Elena Davies, while Matthew Clines threw the competition in case Cody Nickson tried the same to gain a pass to play in the veto competition, which Cody did try but he failed, accidentally getting a question right. Matthew Clines wins his first Power of Veto, primarily because Elena Davies got greedy and took the $5,000 that Alex won in the yankee swap type veto, where elena gave her a punishment she had earned (“Tour guide for a week” in which the wearer must carry around heavy camping equipment and cook hotdogs for everyone whenever a certain noise plays), going back on her word to Alex that they wouldn’t curse each other with punishments. This backfires on Elena and the target on her back begins to grow. In order to go through with the plan to successfully backdoor Cody, Matt uses the Power of Veto on Jason and Cody is nominated in this place. Cody was evicted by a unanimous vote.

Day 58- Week 7 Double Eviction

When Julie Chen announced the Double Eviction, it meant the end of the game for either: Christmas Abbott, Kevin Schlehuber, Paul Abrahamian, Mark Jansen, Elena Davies, Jason Dent, Matthew Clines, Josh Martinez, or Raven Walton. After winning a shuffleboard-like Head of Household, Jason Dent secured his safety and targeted Mark Jansen and Elena Davies, nominating them both for eviction. In a puzzle power of veto, it was neck and neck between Jason and Mark, but Mark pulled out the win and removed himself from the block. Once again, Matthew Clines found himself sitting next to Elena Davies on the block. Elena was evicted nearly unanimously, with Mark being the only person who voted out Matt. This ends the first double eviction, Cody Nickson and Elena Davies are the first two jurors, placing 11th and 10th.

Week 8

Big Brother 16 winner Derrick Levasseur joined the house to recap the season and host the next Head of Household competition, “Tales From the Decrypt.” Christmas Abbott won her first Head of Household competition and wanted to “shake things up.” She nominates Jason Dent and Matthew Clines, her target truly being Mark Jansen. Mark uses the new “Tree of Temptation” twist to claim a power but he gets “Save A Friend”. Mark chooses to save Paul Abrahamian, which is a waste because he was already safe this week. Mark says he chooses Paul because of the friendship bracelet Paul had given him in the early stages of the game. Jason Dent won his second veto of the season and removes himself from the block, Mark is nominated in his place. Mark was later evicted by a 4-2 vote, with Jason and Alex voting against Matt to frame Kevin for it, while Alex accidentally voted that way. Mark takes his eviction extremely well, says he is happy he got the experience and that he likes everyone in the house.

Week 9

After Mark’s eviction, the houseguests compete in an endurance competition called “Everyone’s A Wiener.” The houseguests must hold onto grips inside of a hotdog bun “cage” they’re in and outlast all the others, if you fall, you’re out. Jason Dent wins his second Head of Household and settles on the targets Paul had convinced him and Alex to go after last week, Matt Clines and Raven Walton. He nominates them under the guise that they are pawns and the target is Kevin Schlehuber, when in truth, one of them is the target and one of them is going to jury. Jason also wins the “Hide and Go Veto” Power of Veto and leaves the nominations the same, leaving Matt and Raven as the week’s final nominations. Matt deliberately breaks the Have-Not rule, so he has a penalty vote against him, which was useless because he was going home anyways. Matt is evicted by a 6-0 vote, becoming the fourth member of the jury, placing 8th.

We actually had a chance to see the jury house, where Cody Nickson has been for only a little bit before Elena Davies followed him. Cody was unsurprised by Elena eviction and expected her or Mark to follow him. Having been in the jury house for a week now, Cody and Elena await the next person to come. Elena wants it to be Mark Jansen because she misses him, but she wants him to win, so she doesn’t want him there. Unfortunately for her, it is Mark. Elena comments that everyone is playing “Big Paul” and not “Big Brother.”

Week 10

Thanks to some strategic setup by Paul last week to ensure Jason is evicted this week, Paul convinced everyone to throw the competition. Kevin was out first because Alex refused to drop out unless Kevin did. Alex followed right behind him. Then Raven. Then Paul. And finally, Josh. Yep, that’s right, that means Christmas Abbott, the girl with the broken foot, won a footrace thanks to Paul (this was the competition where houseguests had to hold down multiple buttons and wait for the words “ready, set, go” to appear on the monitor at the very end, releasing a button means that you have been eliminated). Christmas nominated Jason Dent and Alex Ow for eviction, with Jason being paranoid all week and Alex being completely clueless. Paul won the power of veto, which he used to save Alex, making Christmas renominate Kevin Schlehuber in her place. Paul saved Alex in order to save face with her for next week, which Josh Martinez is aware of this as he seems to be the only one onto Paul’s antics and he doesn’t like it. After a tie vote with Paul and Alex voting out Kevin and Josh and Raven voting out Jason, Christmas breaks the tie, voting out Jason Dent, making him the fifth member of the jury, placing 7th.

Day 79- Week 10 Double Eviction

Following Jason’s eviction, the houseguests competed in the “Fake News” competition, where houseguests had to determine whether the headlines read by host Julie Chen were real or fake reports of events in the house. Alex Ow wins HOH and immediately nominates Kevin Schlehuber and Raven Walton. The houseguests then compete in the “Lime Drop” power of veto competition, in which houseguests must rush to their ball pits and find their “lime” bouncey balls and rush to the other side, drop them over the railing of the bleachers and into the tube. The first houseguest to get 4 limes in their tube wins. After narrowly tying with Raven and Alex, Josh Martinez pulls out a win and claims the power of veto. Josh decides not to use the power of veto and leaves Raven and Kevin as the final nominees. Raven Walton is evicted by a 2-1 vote, placing 6th and becoming the sixth member of the jury, with Paul and Christmas voting to evict her and Josh voting to evict Kevin.

Week 11

In a BB Comics themed HOH (based on the trailer for “The Revengers”, which includes references to former houseguests Victor Arroyo, James Huling, Michelle Meyer, Nicole Franzel, Frankie Grande, Austin Matelson, Jessie Godderz, Dan Gheesling, Caleb Reynolds, and Da’Vonne Rogers. Josh Martinez wins HOH and nominates Alex Ow and Kevin Schlehuber, calling Alex a comp beast and Kevin a floater. Paul Abrahamian later wins the Power of Veto and talks to Alex about jury votes, saying he can’t beat her in the end because he would lose numerous votes to her. Paul has decided not to use the Power of Veto, leaving Kevin Schlehuber and Alex Ow as the final nominees for the week. Paul votes to evict Kevin and Christmas votes to evict Alex, leaving Josh to break the tie and he votes to evict Alex. With that, Alex Ow has been evicted by a 2-1 Vote, placing 5th and becoming the 7th member of the jury.

Day 85 and the Final Three

Following Alex’s eviction, Paul, Christmas, Josh, and Kevin became the final four, but that would be short lived as they would have to quickly compete in the final normal eviction of the summer. With Josh Martinez ineligible to compete, Paul Abrahamian, Christmas Abbott, and Kevin Schlehuber competed in the “What The Bleep?” competition, which Paul Abrahamian won and he nominated Josh Martinez and Kevin Schlehuber. Paul Abrahamian also won the Power of Veto and decided not to use the Power of Veto, making Kevin Schlehuber and Josh Martinez as the final nominees. Christmas votes to evict Kevin, making it official, Kevin has been evicted, placing 4th and becoming the 8th member of the jury.

Speaking of the jury, we got to see them all interact and learn of one another’s demises in the game. Cody, Elena, and Mark await the next arrival to the jury house, which is Matt. Cody comments about busting out of the jury house. The next person to join is Jason, who explains that he was blindsided and that Alex was in on it, which she wasn’t. Elena points out that everyone is buying everything Paul is telling them. The next person to walk into the jury house is Raven. She annoyingly believes that she has been a puppet master and she, Matt, and Paul were controlling the whole game and that her showmance was the one Paul wanted to go with. Mark comments that maybe that’s why they’re here and not in the house. Next up is Alex. After watching Alex’s week summary video, Mark comments on the comic book Raven had in the BB Comics veto, he says “why not the puppet master?” Raven’s tape explained to Jason that Alex didn’t know he was going to be evicted with her saying “that’s for you Jason” over and over. Raven then spills the beans on the plan, that her, Josh, Christmas, and Paul had this planned out. Mark and Raven get into an argument with Raven still holding firm that she is a puppet master and that Mark did nothing to contribute to the game (sigh, that’s completely wrong, Mark contributed with his competition wins, 2 temptation competitions and 2 vetoes, where as Raven won nothing and annoyed everyone).

Final HOH Part 1

The first part of the final Head of Household has begun! The winner of this competition will automatically advance to the third and final part. The competition is called “Tail of the Unicorn” and here’s how it works: houseguests had to hold onto the tail of their unicorn machine in front of them while the platform they stand on is moving, the last houseguest standing wins. Paul wins the first part.

Final HOH Part 2

After losing the “Tail of the Unicorn” competition, Josh and Christmas competed in the second part of the final HOH, fighting to earn their spot in the final round against Paul.

Final HOH Part 3 and Eviction

The final round of the final HOH, it’s Paul vs Josh. The winner automatically guarantees themselves the second place and the $50,000 prize. The competition is called “Scales of Just Us.” This is the typical jury member question competition.

Question 1: Cody said “my favorite moment in the house was… winning the battle back” (Paul gets a point)

Question 2: Elena said “my biggest regret in the game was… not standing up for Mark more” (Josh gets a point)

Question 3: Mark said “what irritated me the most was… when the house harassed and bullied Jess and Cody”. (Josh gets a point)

Question 4: Matt said “the best part of being in the house was… (Josh gets a point)

Question 5: Jason said “my most embarrassing moment was… not being able to defend myself in an argument with Matt” (no one gets a point)

Question 6: Raven said “the most annoying thing about the house was… the gross, nasty kitchen”. (No one gets a point)

Question 7: Alex said “the houseguest who made the worst decisions was… Jessica” (Josh gets a point)

Josh wins the final Head of Household, making Christmas and Paul the final nominees for the night. Josh casts the sole vote to evict Christmas, making her the ninth and final member of the jury, placing 3rd.

Finale Night

Votes:

Cody Nickson cast his vote for Josh Martinez

Elena Davies cast her vote for Josh Martinez.

Mark Jansen cast his vote for Josh Martinez.

Matthew Clines cast his vote for Paul Abrahamian.

Jason Dent cast his vote for Josh Martinez

Raven Walton cast her vote for Paul Abrahamian.

Alex Ow cast her vote for Josh Martinez

Kevin Schlehuber cast his vote for Paul Abrahamian.

Christmas Abbott cast her vote for Paul Abrahamian.

By a vote of 5-4, Josh Martinez is the winner of Big Brother 19, while Paul Abrahamian is the runner-up… again.

The top three for America’s Favorite Houseguest were Kevin, Cody, and Jason. Cody wins America’s favorite houseguest… wait what? How did either of these things happen? I’m honestly extremely disgusted with the jury and the pick for AFP, Cody was in no way deserving of the cash and neither is Josh. This is the second year in a row that Paul has lost to someone who definitely did not play hard enough to deserve  $500,000 over him because of a bitter jury, but that’s a topic I’ll discuss in another article soon. Anyways, I guess I should look back at the brighter moments of this season.

The Best Moments of Season 19

1. Josh Martinez and Mark Jansen ruin their friendship over a pool game.

Josh and Mark played a game of pool outside in the backyard, which ultimately resulted in a fight between the two and then Josh and Jessica Graf. The two men agreed that the loser of the game had to drink a combination of hot sauce and pickle juice. Shortly after that, Josh and Mark argued over if Josh had scratched the ball or not, meaning he would’ve lost, which Josh did do. When Mark asked him about it, Josh denied that he scratched the ball and Mark threw the pickle juice/hot sauce in Josh’s face. Not only was this completely insane and unnecessary but it actually changed the game going forward because it made Mark and Elena bigger targets than they already were and made it harder for them to associate with people close to Josh. While the two eventually made up and Mark even said during his exit interview with Julie Chen that Josh is a good guy, it caused ripples for a while.

2. Cody Nickson’s Exit During His Second Eviction.

Now, I don’t watch the live feeds and I don’t like Cody or Jessica at all, in fact I’m a Paul supporter and have been since he was on last season, but I think that this moment was a big insight to how the houseguests were so vile and hostile to each other. When Cody was evicted for the second time in the season, he skipped right over everyone, didn’t say goodbye to anyone, he just went straight for the door. He walked over the table in between everyone to avoid them. Even in his exit interview with host Julie Chen, Cody admitted that he hates everyone in that house and I’m sure the rest of the house returned that hostility back to him.

3. Cody Nickson Tries To Nominate Paul Abrahamian In Week 1.

You almost have to feel bad for Cody despite how he acted on the show. He puts up his original target, Megan Lowder, next to Jillian Parker and then Megan leaves the game after the drama and fights triggered her PTSD. Then he puts up Alex Ow, who his showmance Jessica hates with a passion and wants out and she wins the veto (partially his fault because he threw it to her) and then he has to nominate someone else, so he chooses the logical answer, the only veteran player in the house, Paul Abrahamian… except Paul won safety in the Den of Temptation twist, so Cody got screwed again and has to name a replacement for his replacement on the spot, which he chooses Christmas Abbott. Not only does this baffle Cody that Paul has safety but he also had to nominate ⅓ of the house in one HOH, made a giant target on his back, and effectively destroyed his alliance before the season even really began because of who he nominated alone.

4. Josh Martinez and his Pots and Pans

After several fights, Josh starts to break out the pots and pans from the kitchen and bang them together and disrupting the whole house just to get the attention of and call out the people he dislikes. While it was a little over the line, it was certainly entertaining.

5. Jillian Parker Gets Blindsided

Not only was week 1 a total mess but it ended with a blindside, which is not typically a good way to end the first week of the game. Believing they had the votes to get Christmas Abbott out, Cody and Jessica never really campaigned to keep Jillian but she still was evicted when Christmas and Paul joined forces and flipped the house. Jillian was a obvious floater so the decision to evict her seems like a waste in my eyes but hey, a blindside is always fun to watch.

6. Kevin Schlehuber Accepts His Second Cash Temptation.

Kevin claimed $25,000 dollars on the first night of the game, he later claimed another cash temptation in a veto competition he played later on, an undisclosed amount. Kevin accepted it because he was doing terribly in the veto, in doing so he earned a whopping $27. If Kevin ends up as the third or worse player, he will at least $25,027 and had he won America’s Favorite Houseguest, he will have $27 more dollars than the runner up, who earns only $50,000.

7. Kevin Schlehuber and Paul Abrahamian Fight With Inflatables.

Paul and Kevin were jokingly set up in a “fight” with the inflatable swans in the pool, they both had them around their waists and the inflatables themselves had large necks. Since actual violence isn’t tolerated in the house, it obviously wasn’t an actual fight but what made this funny was that Kevin swung his inflatable swan’s head first and caught Paul off guard. The bird noises thrown in there made this even more comical.

8. Raven Walton and her tall tales.

Numerous times, Raven has claimed to be capable of things or part of things that would never be even a little bit plausible. Raven claimed her and her mom were part of Mensa. Yes, that’s right, Mensa, the high IQ group. This is the same girl who talks in incoherent English and says random things from time to time. Raven’s outlandish claims are as follows: she needs a new pacemaker every year, she has arthritis, she is dying from two terminal diseases (one is so rare only she and a family in Sweden have it), she needs knee surgery, she can’t have kids and needs a hysterectomy and wanted to have $25,000 to have her eggs frozen, she had to get 4 or 5 (never definitively answered as she has said both) stitches after falling down the stairs in the Big Brother house, she has endometriosis (which she claims is a rash on her organs), she has one or two years to live, her mother and her both have gastroparesis but her brother doesn’t because it hasn’t activated yet, her pacemaker can be turned off by an iPhone if it’s placed on her stomach, she has died twice on the operating table, her mother is lighting proof and so on. There are over 100 examples of crazy and insane claims Raven has had.

9. Trejo the Toucan, more than just a pool toy.

Last summer, Paul had a inflatable pelican that he wore around his waist just for the fun of it. He named it Pablo the Pelican after a while and it became a trademark thing for him. That is until Michelle Meyer, a rival of Paul’s was evicted and stole Pablo before she left the house to talk to Julie Chen. This summer, Paul has a new inflatable: Trejo the Toucan. Trejo, again named by Paul, is allegedly a “cousin” of Pablo’s. Hopefully the two can be reunited soon.