Big Brother 28

Big Brother 28’s Sunday night episode finally gave us our first look at the aftermath of Ashley Trail’s eviction. And it didn’t take long for the game to shift into high gear. With the first eviction behind them, the houseguests knew it was time to stop playing nice and start thinking about alliances, targets, and who they could really trust. The biggest question heading into the episode was who had won the Head of Household competition, and we quickly learned that Survivor veteran Rick Devens had claimed the power. If Dee’s first HOH was relatively calm, Rick’s reign promised to be anything but.

The Head of Household

The Head of Household competition paired the houseguests with different partners throughout several rounds, forcing them to adapt on the fly while sliding discs across a game board. The constantly changing partnerships meant players couldn’t rely on the same teammate for long, making communication just as important as execution. After surviving each round, Rick Devens outlasted the competition to become the second Head of Household of the summer, giving him the power to shape Week Two.

America chose Angela Murray

Before Devens could make his nominations, Julie revealed the results of America’s BB Time Capsule vote. America chose Angela Murray to take on the mystery challenge. She was called to the Diary Room and told she had been selected to compete in the first BB Time Capsule challenge.

She entered a separate room where she was strapped into the same spinning chair that made her dizzy during Big Brother 26. As the chair spun, a wall of screens flashed the words “POWER” and “PUNISHMENT” in random positions. Angela had one chance to hit a large red button and stop the display. Wherever it landed determined her fate. She later described it to the houseguests as essentially a 50-50 shot between winning a classic Big Brother power and receiving a punishment instead. Unfortunately, the display stopped on Punishment, so instead of receiving a game advantage, Angela was sentenced to spend the week as the Egg Detective, the same costume punishment Vince wore on BB27.

Devens

Devens started strategizing to figure out who to put on the block, and boy, did it turn into a fiasco! He originally planned to have a pretty quiet HOH week. But after talking with Angela, he became convinced that Rome wasn’t just a strong player; he was becoming the center of an opposing alliance. Angela painted a picture of Rome building connections all over the house, and Devens started thinking that if he didn’t act now, Rome could become too dangerous to remove later!

Late that night, after Devens finished his one-on-one conversations, he quietly invited most of the people he trusted upstairs to the HOH room. The meeting included the “Red Corner” alliance (minus Barrett at first), and the conversation quickly shifted from a casual check-in to a full-blown strategy session. The goal became much bigger than just nominations: they wanted to solidify a majority alliance and agree on a plan to backdoor Rome.

They accidentally made themselves look incredibly suspicious.

Someone realized Barrett wasn’t there, so Dee went downstairs to wake him up. Instead of only waking Barrett, she accidentally woke Lyric, Jason, and Rome in the process. Suddenly, those three knew something was happening upstairs in the middle of the night.

Rome, Lyric, and Jason gathered in the kitchen trying to figure out why so many people were awake. That’s when Rome decided, “I’m just going upstairs.”

He walked up to the HOH room and rang the HOH doorbell.

No one answered the door.

Devens had already locked the HOH door, and when everyone realized Rome was standing outside, the group actually moved into the HOH bathroom so he couldn’t overhear what they were discussing. Meanwhile, Rome stood there, rang the bell again, and still got nothing. Eventually, he gave up and went back downstairs.

The meeting broke up

Only a few minutes later, the meeting broke up, and a long line of houseguests filed down the stairs together. Rome, Lyric, and Jason were still in the kitchen and watched everyone come down one after another. At that point, they had all the confirmation they needed that a major alliance meeting had taken place without them.

By the end of the episode, Devens made his nominations, placing Jason De Puy, Lyric Medeiros, and Melody Morris on the block. While the nominations may have looked straightforward, it quickly became apparent that Devens had a larger plan in mind, and the episode hinted that this week’s target may not actually be one of the three nominees. That cliffhanger leaves plenty of room for the Power of Veto competition to completely reshape the week.

Rick didn’t just win HOH

Player of the Episode: Rick Devens
Rick didn’t just win HOH; he used it. Rather than settling for an easy Week 2, he gathered information, recognized that the house was beginning to split, and started building a majority alliance around himself. The late-night HOH meeting showed he wasn’t content to coast. He was actively trying to organize numbers and think several moves ahead. Whether it ends up being too much too soon is another question, but for this episode, he was driving the action.

Honorable Mention: Angela Murray. She may have wound up in an egg costume, but she also helped steer Rick toward taking a bigger strategic swing instead of playing it safe…as much as I hate to admit it!

Oops Award: The Midnight HOH Meeting
Instead of giving this to one person, I’d give it to everyone in that HOH room.

Think about it:

The Entire Alliance

They gathered almost the entire alliance in one room. Dee accidentally woke up people who weren’t invited. Rome literally walked upstairs and rang the HOH doorbell. The room went completely silent. Nobody answered. Then a parade of houseguests filed downstairs minutes later.

If your goal is to convince the outsiders that no alliance exists…that is about the worst way to do it!

If Week One was all about introductions, Week Two is shaping up to be all-out war. Alliances have been drawn, secrets are already leaking, and the lines in the sand couldn’t be any clearer. If this episode is any indication, we’re in for one wild week…and I can’t wait to see how it all unfolds!

Photos TRT Image Team