Monte was in the core group of decision makers from week one all the way through the end. Though he had a rough patch where Daniel was trying to aim the house at him after Nicole's eviction, he was never in serious danger of being evicted despite being openly acknowledged by several people as a threat. When he won HOH, the people he wanted out were evicted. When Taylor won HOH, the people Monte wanted out were evicted. In the late going, when Taylor wanted to get rid of Turner, Monte prevented it. Because he felt the danger Turner presented as competition in the final two was greatly mitigated by the fact Turner would take him to final two if he earned that right. On Taylor's HOH, again, she wanted Turner out, but it would have been colossally stupid for Monte to vote out Turner and compete against Brittany and Taylor in that final HOH when neither she nor Taylor could be expected take him to the end. Brittany had performed well in a timed challenge before AND the Q and A segments. So again Taylor's wishes were thwarted, and Monte cruised into a final three where both opponents were going to take him to the final two. Then, he took that power out of their hands by winning the final HOH. Monte was responsible for evicting Michael AND Turner. On paper, his game looks about as strong as BB game's ever look. So he MUST have been a giant dick off camera. That bit where he was all petulant about Taylor's comment about his god child and her reclaiming her head phones while he was sleeping must be his true colors. Because if people liked him, and the above was his resume, this vote makes no sense.

Taylor got a raw deal in the early going. Paloma didn't like how she was flirting with the guys, playing pool in her bathing suit, and looking all hot. She turned the house against her. I feel like it's not that hard to do. In the early going, no one wants to be the first out. So if Paloma goes to the girls and says, Taylor is snuggling up to all those bro's, we need to get her out. And then, she goes to the guys and says, Taylor is rallying a girls alliance because she wants to stop a bro down before it really gets into swing. Everyone is like, cool, a target and it's not me...Taylor is evil...I'm down. Paloma buzzes in Daniel's ear about how the house is against Taylor. Daniel wants an easy target, so he's like, that's cool, let's get her. Then, he nominates her and announces it's come to his attention Taylor has been rubbing people the wrong way. (And by people, he doesn't realize he means the pool table with her fine bikini ass. And it was really just Paloma and my mother in law who took great offense.) Cue multiple groups of people (it wasn't just Nicole and Daniel) ragging on Taylor behind her back. All that was unfair. And I thought Taylor handled it well. Admirably. People were unfairly mean to her. And she did not let it crush her. She got put in a bad spot, and she didn't give up. (But I think an assist has to go to Turner for recognizing the unfairness of what she was going through and speaking up to the house about it during his first HOH.)

Once she was embraced into the Leftovers alliance, she made strong overt connections with Joseph and Monte and she got in good behind the scenes with Michael and Brittany. I actually think this latter was probably a big key for her. When people feel like you are their close teammate, once they get eliminated, you're their horse. It didn't seem like that threesome was super well recognized if at all. Not knowing that Michael and Brittany might feel some ownership in Taylor's success helps hide Taylor's end game threat level. So she really rebounded well from her early position to this really good social position. ...In case you were getting the idea I didn't like her or thought her game had no merit. Not the case. She fostered important connections. She gave a kick ass speech that highlighted her fortitude and resilience and downplayed the importance of comp wins and evictions. For me personally, there was just a lot of fluff and bull$#!% included as well--like she's a crusader for womankind and don't forget Kyle is evil even though we know damn good and well he had no racial malice in him. A possible inconsistency in the heroic narrative might include promising safety based on race and gender...but Brazilian women don't receive full coverage when it comes down to it.

But the results seem to indicate she's right. Traditional markers of good game play are overrated. Controlling power through comps wins and exerting the power you have in a strategically sound way is not that important. If your first HOH is a $#!$show of you parading half a dozen horrible ideas that are going to put your alliance at risk, that's fine. What's your alliance for if not to talk you out of all your bad ideas? I don't know. On some level, I get it, but on others, I'm really baffled. I thought we only ignored strategy and control when we hated 'that guy'. And even then, only sometimes.

If you're Monte and you value the game you've played and think you deserve to win based on the merit of your play, who do you think is a bigger threat to defeating you? Turner or Taylor? If he thinks his resume is superior and Turner's resume is the next best in his opinion, isn't he going to eliminate Turner? There's some logic in thinking that way. He's thinking his game and Turner's are similar, by eliminating Turner, he wins taking out Turner points and gobbles up all the votes of people who value winning power and using that power to control one's destiny. In hindsight, it's quite possible by eliminating Turner he put the one other person on the jury who values what he values and would give him a vote.

My mother in law thinks Taylor seduced her way into the final 2. I doubt it. I know I'm not supposed to point it out, but there was a shared bond between Monte and Taylor before they started swapping body fluids. And I'm not supposed to mention it (I've learned nothing from Kyle's demise), but he might have taken her based on that bond regardless. I think he thought he deserved to win, but if not, he'd be really happy to see Taylor win, fluids aside.

I watched about 30 minutes of the finale after only watching the first 30 minutes of the season. Then I got on Twitter to see what people were saying. A lot, including some former players say Taylor is the best winner ever and had the best final speech ever. Is there any truth to that? From reading some posts in this forum….no.

Turner also deserves to lose for serving Kyle up to the houses whims. Kyle was Turner's closest ally and gets evicted on Turner's hoh lol. I get Kyle was unusual circumstance but doesn't mean you had to evict him on your hoh reign. The house would have him as target the next week anyway. Also for voting Brittney out instead of Taylor. Turner's only chance to win would have been against Brittney at that stage. He decided to just vote who he liked and what his allies wanted throughout. Nice guy but was chillin instead of thinking strategy.

Monte made a huge mistake not taking Turner where i think he wins 9-0 or close to it. I think he thought he would win against either. Which if the voting is always on merit of course he wins hands down. He was no Dr Will mastermind but was solid and involved in all decisions all season. Then won many comps. Made the biggest move in taking Michael out when Turner wasn't even gonna do it. He played a very mistake free flawless game. Deserved to win vs almost anyone in the house really. But he made the big mistake of not realizing if you're up against the wrong person things might go weird and change people's votes. He must be sick. You could see he realized his mistake even before they voted he knew this wasn't gonna turn out good. He let Taylor talk him in to taking her thinking it wouldn't matter. Turner was very loyal to him too. If he stayed loyal to Turner he wins. Not saying should choose the loyal one over who you'd have better chance, just sayin. I feel bad for him was supposed to be his night. Hopefully she needed the money more than him who knows.

Choosing to take Taylor has to go up as one of the worst choices in BB history. Right up there with Cody taking Derrick. Paul taking Nicole.

I think Monte handled the David blow up fairly well.
Ultimately, i think the story is that he didnt finnesse the jury well enough. I thought he gave a good explanation for this in his speeches, but he had already lost the game by that point.

I thought Michael made a good point. Early in the Leftovers, they were bending to Taylor’s whims. Mostly because they felt bad for her. They really wanted her to feel comfortable and included. So in a way she was kind of the decision maker that resulted in Nicole and David’s boots.

She had a good speech. As far as speeches go. Theyre usually dogshit.
It just didnt contain a ton of game relevant information.
I wont fault people for hyperbole but for me, Ian’s speech was the greatest. If memory is serving, Steve had a strong one. But im racist and sexist

I'm usually not a conspiracy theorist, but given the heavy-handed way CBS handled this (seeing to it that the houseguests all sat down in a well-lighted and miked room and had a Very Serious Discussion about racism where they explain to Kyle why he's the worst person ever), I wouldn't be surprised if they essentially told the house that Kyle's leaving this week one way or the other, so it would be a good idea if you just voted him out so the game continues at a normal pace.

I like how Michael made a point to say I"M voting for the person who played the best game. Like he was separating himself from the jury who seemed to be voting a different way. I thought he was the 1 sure vote for Monte when he said that. Was he trolling us and Monte? I think so. Wanted to get a dig in on Monte for evicting him. I think Taylor patted Monte's hand after Michael made the statement like well you got Michael's vote for sure. If it was a troll i get it sorta. If he was being sincere him being a fan of the game makes me sad. Pretty sure was trolling though like his eviction saying i only got one thing to say..............

I was trying to guess what the votes would be before they voted then while they were voting. I predicted only Michael and Turner would vote for Monte. Again wasn't sure on Michael until he stated he was voting for the most deserving.

I like how Turner voted for Monte. Like he was the one person that could have reason to be mad at Monte for not taking him and vote out of spite. And i don't know how those jury's work during commercial breaks but i bet they all whispered to Turner everyone is voting Taylor so you should too. But Turner being the chill dude was like ehhh naaah. They almost convinced him to jump on board but in the end he went with his bro who he also knew deserved it.

There was a lot of merit to Taylor's game. She's got a lot of fortitude in dealing with unfair negative attention being directed at her and she's a really good saleswoman. Those qualities were worth $750 this year.

I can get behind devaluing duplicity and unkindness. Saying, let's not reward those things and change the world for the good. But devaluing skill and competence and the achievement of goals...I balk at that. The message here is don't waste your time winning comps and directing votes like Michael, Turner, and Monte did. All that gets you is targeted as a threat and eliminated. And in the endgame, it doesn't win you any points. Sit around eating chips and having good conversations with people instead.

Having people feel like you were on their side > having people feel like you were responsible for eliminating them. So, let go of all that stress of trying to control things. Remove the competition from this competition. Quit worrying about your resume and start crafting your story.

Taylor's opponent was in good standing in the game from day 1 till the finale. He won several comps, including the pivotal one to evict the best competitor in the season and the final two comps to control who went to the end. Taylor's final speech suggested that a vote for her was a vote for improving humanity. She said she stood in for women everywhere. She reiterated all the adversity she had to overcome during the game including having to sit on the block next to a disgusting racist scumbag (later she sweetly patted that same guy on the shoulder). She implied the game of Big Brother would be revolutionized and America would be a better place if the jury would ignore comps and evictions and vote for resiliency. During her speech people were nodding their heads and misting up. She won in a landslide. I'd say her speech was pretty good. If she had given her speech earlier in the game, I think everyone might have just self evicted.

I love the way Taylor used the racial alliance thing. That’s really one of her most impressive decisions of the season.

Also, during her speech about how unjustly persecuted she was, with a generous amount of righteous indignation, she said she was accused of using someone's mental illness as a tool in the game. Let me repeat. She reminded America about someone's mental illness in her closing argument.

She would say anything for $750,000. Monte wouldnt even talk to Indy and Jasmine for $750,000.

I just started watching this on paramount+, I've only seen like 2 seasons from start to finish. They are fairly good if you do that, so I thought I'd give this one a try.

No BB25 interest this season huh? I used to love this show but haven't watched the last 2 seasons. I watched the premiere this year but it was awful. Will follow on the internet and maybe watch a little because Cirie is on there but still don't have much interest.

Oh and a houseguest was evicted today for a racial slur they say. I guess I'll have to watch the eviction show tomorrow night to get the lowdown on that.

These shows aren't quite as fun to watch if everyone is nice. A good story needs conflict and resolution. Of course, it's a big mistake to not be nice with social media annihilation at stake, but it doesn't seem CBS is too interested in having anyone remotely villainy on the show. Cirie and Cory are probably the 'snakes'. I guess viewers just flip a coin on who to root for.

Hard R at least?

In the scrambleverse, slurs are actually words of encouragement.

Dont blame Luke. Blame Frankie and Danielle and Britney. They did this

Reilly an instant star.

I really hate that they put a secret duo in the house. It’s so unfair to everyone

Yeah. Things still looked promising as started as a divided house with lot's of interesting houseguests. But then Cam sold out his alliance for no reason other than he got scared for no reason. Then acted like he did his alliance a favor in destroying and exposing their alliance. Now it's gonna turn into Cirie and company huge house alliance picking off all the awesome players like Jag, Cory, Blue, and Reilly.

Still can be good season but need a Cory, Jag, or Blue hoh this week.

Villain's this year look to be Cam and Izzy.

I only watch BB Can but saw what a big advantage it was when the Pax Bros got to play together as one person as they could spread out their social connections to cover more bases leaving them off the block until week 9.

Having Cirie in the house to begin with as a 4 time Survivor, snake in the grass and Traitors player is already a big edge.

Having her in there with someone she can trust unconditionally in total secret feels extremely op.

It's a bit like how in Mafia/Traitors/Among us etc the 'bad' side have the advantage of knowing who each other are

Izzy has sat prayed and waited her whole life, begging to be invited to the cookout. All she has to do is suck Cirie’s clit for three months and she has it. Congrats, izzy.