HOLLYWOOD—After Liz’s beyond boring reign as HOH, fans had to endure another week of boring gameplay as Austin, yep, Austin rose to power. Austin and the twins, Liz and Julia, had deals with virtually everyone in the BB house, so picking nominees would be no easy task. When he made it clear to Vanessa that Meg and James were not being targeted, it became obvious that Vanessa, Steve or Johnny Mac would be on the chopping block. After a bit of back-and-forth regarding the pawn game, Austin chose to nominate Steve and Johnny Mac.

Those two had been secretly working together for a few weeks, but their nomination only further strengthened their bond. Vanessa had no idea that she has been the target of most of the house since week 6. She weaves so many lies and deals, she hasn’t realized that everyone has caught onto her game; they are just using her to do their dirty work.

The plan was to utilize Vanessa as a backdoor target, but not in a million years did I ever suspect Austin to pull the trigger, even if he had the opportunity to do so. When Vanessa won the POV, all of the cards remained in her hands. She got power crazy once again, bullying both Steve and Johnny Mac to attempt to get information. When John spilled the beans about the secret five-person alliance, all hell broke loose. Liz threw Steve under the bus and Vanessa went in angry b***h mode as usual, making threats. Vanessa, Steve was not the mastermind, Austwins were!

She chose not to use the veto, but if she were smart she would have; her biggest competition, James, would have been nominated, likely evicted and then returned as one of the jurors battling things out. Speaking of the jurors, Julie dropped a bomb on the houseguests on Thursday when they learned that one of the four evicted jurors would get the opportunity to return to the game and in power. By a unanimous vote Johnny Mac was sent packing, and he proved that he doesn’t have much game strategy. Seriously, you’re planning to target Meg, what the hell are you thinking? Many suspect Johnny Mac as pulling one over on Julie, but I ain’t buying it. He seriously planned to go after a contestant who could easily be taken to the final two and would be a sure win for any of the remaining houseguests. I mean, Meg may be bad at competitions, but Julia is just as bad as Meg, she just doesn’t see what the viewers and everyone on the feeds see. I would prefer any of the evicted houseguests over Julia; she’s such a damn bore.

The jurors returned to the game to compete in a competition that was expected to last a long time, but barely lasted 10 minutes. It was one of the worst anticlimactic moments in “Big Brother” history. I was seriously rooting for Becky or Jackie to re-enter the game, even Shelli to a degree because they would shake things up. Johnny Mac just seems to float, so him re-entering the game brought little to no excitement at all.

He needs to make some sort of serious game move for him to earn my respect. He’s funny, but beyond that his gameplay has been horrid. I do like the idea of Johnny Mac, Steve and Vanessa aligning, but I am dying for someone to take out Vanessa and this may be the week to make that happen. Why? It’s double eviction this Thursday and the houseguests seriously have no idea, none, so this might be the last opportunity to send Vanessa out the door. If she goes, it changes the entire dynamic of the house.

With Vanessa as HOH, we already know her targets, James and Meg. She better hope James doesn’t win that veto cause if he does, she may as well prepare to be taken out. James is smart and he knows if he has any chance of getting far in this game, the manipulator has to go, which works well for James cause he can team up with Johnny Mac and Steve and take out Liz and then Austin. Why? Julia won’t work with Austin, so it’ll be easy to sway her before taking her out.

I’m seriously hoping for double eviction that one of the twins is sent packing and followed close behind by the other twin, but Vanessa exiting the canvas would be just as exciting. How can we make that happen? I hope James wins HOH because if Meg leaves everyone is an enemy to him, except for maybe Johnny Mac. With the home stretch upon us, “Big Brother 17” has to shake things up to keep fans interested.