'Big Brother 17' Spoilers: Part 2 HOH Winner Revealed, Does Liz Have Guaranteed Final 2 Slot?
Part 2 of the final HOH competition was played Friday in the Big Brother 17 house, revealing who will be facing off in Part 3 in the finale.
Who Would 'Big Brother's Vanessa Want In The Final 2 With Her, Liz Or Steve?
Final 3 houseguests: Liz Nolan, Steve Moses and Vanessa Rousso
It's been quiet in the Big Brother house ever since Wednesday's live show, mostly due to only three people being in the house. That changed on Friday with the second part of the HOH competition being held.
Steve Breaks Down In The 'Big Brother' House Over Veto Competition Decision
Liz and Steve faced off in the competition, with Vanessa having won Part 1 and automatically advancing to Part 3. While feeds were down during the competition, it was revealed through context clues after they returned that there was some sort of spiderweb that involved connecting houseguests with events that happened in the house.
And when the feeds came back, Vanessa was congratulating Steve. So Steve is the winner of Part 2 and will face Vanessa in Part 3, which determines the final HOH of the summer. Liz officially has no shot of winning the final HOH and must rely on either Steve or Vanessa taking her to the Final 2.
With this result, Steve and Vanessa celebrated as if this was a guarantee that they'll both be in the end. Of course, we know that Steve is intent on evicting Vanessa as his big power move of the season. Meanwhile, Vanessa has been buttering up Liz throughout the week. While we don't know that she would take Liz to the end over Steve, it seems like she would have a higher probability of winning, game-theoretically speaking.
Steve asked Vanessa if they should tell Liz that they're taking each other to the end, but Vanessa was hesitant about telling her. This makes it pretty clear that Vanessa may be leaning towards taking Liz to the end. Steve later talked to himself and whispered something about Vanessa potentially being "onto him" regarding his plan to evict her.
So as it stands now, it seems unlikely that the jury would reward Liz next to either Steve or Vanessa - especially considering she lost both HOH competitions. Vanessa has been the mastermind of the house all season and could easily make a compelling case against Liz, who was well protected the whole game and barely made any big game moves. And if Steve evicts Vanessa, he barely even needs to make a case for himself considering he slayed the biggest player in the game.
Steve and Vanessa should have Liz as their intended Final 2 partner if they want a better chance of winning the game. Of course, Vanessa has manipulated Steve all game long, so she very well could make one final move to get him to take her to the end if he wins HOH.
Steve vs. Vanessa would probably be the closest vote of the three possible combinations. Vanessa has clearly played a dominant game but her jury management has been lacking. Meanwhile, Steve has an underdog story of overcoming his social anxiety and being more likable than Vanessa. It would be close, but Vanessa would probably have the edge.
The final days in the Big Brother house will probably be tame, but it will be interesting to see how Steve and Vanessa handle things. Will Steve reach out to Liz and make a Final 2 deal behind Vanessa's back? Will Vanessa stick closer to Steve and manipulate him with talk of how many jury votes he won't have vs. Liz? We can't wait to find out.
Big Brother 17 airs another new episode Sunday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.