Big Brother Season 20 recap: The first HOH nominates two houseguests for eviction

On Big Brother 20, eight houseguests battle to become the first Head of Household. Alliances begin to form, and two houseguests are nominated for eviction.

Swaggy’s decision not to honor his promise to Angela isn’t going over well with the fitness model or her crew. What’s not going over well with me is how Swaggy C refers to himself in the third person like a certain egomaniacal President we all know. Swaggy’s arrogance will be his downfall in Big Brother 20. 

Kaitlyn and Angela head to the storage room and begin bashing Swaggy C. He overhears his name and stands just outside the door, listening to every word. Kaitlyn quickly has a change of heart. She admits to Swaggy C she got heated, but after some meditation, she realizes he’s just doing what’s best for his game. Her new attitude pays off because Swaggy appreciates her kind of coming clean (she doesn’t know he heard her trash talking him).

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As I suspected, Kaitlyn is overseeing meditation sessions with several of the other houseguests (#BBhippiecommune). It’s important to keep your chakras aligned during this stressful time.

They’ve got nothing better to do, and it’s more interesting to watch than the guys working out and saying “bro” every five seconds. Although, I think Kaitlyn throws out the word “namaste” far too often.

Alliances are forming. How long they’ll last is another story. For now, Swaggy C, Kaitlyn, Rockstar, Haleigh and Faysal, aka “Fessy,” are all pretty solid.

Eight members of the house are safe from eviction, but there are eight more who still have to battle for Head of Household.

The first HOH competition, “Microchip Mayhem,” is pretty simple. Each player must make their way across a balance beam, grab a “deletion dot,” bring it back to the start platform and place it in another player’s tube. Once a player has ten dots in their tube, they’re eliminated. If a player falls off the beam, they must start over. The last houseguest remaining win and becomes the first Head of Household.

Bayleigh and Tyler work together to get rid of Steve who struggles to make it across the beam. Kaitlyn guns for Sam because she didn’t perform well in the last challenge, and they aren’t particularly close. That’s a great strategy, Kaitlyn. Why go after a bigger threat when you can take out an easy target?

Kaitlyn isn’t the only one who sets her sights on Sam. Angela and Winston team up to take out the welder (I previously referred to Sam as the resident redneck, but since she’s from a more mountainous region, hillbilly would be more accurate). I do like Sam, and her charming colloquialisms like “hotter than a nun in a watermelon patch.”

At least it’s understandable why Angela and Winston target Sam — she goes after them first. But her strategy is more about whose tube is closer than what makes sense for her game.

Sam is eliminated first. Steve, Kaitlyn, Winston and Angela follow. It comes down to Bayleigh and Tyler. Bayleigh gets upset and calls Tyler out when he drops a dot in her tube while JC is still in the game. Tyler figures only one of them can win, so it might as well be him.

JC goes out, next is Bayleigh, and Tyler wins HOH.

Sam takes the loss hard. She feels like she’s being shunned. Rachel encourages Sam to not count herself out quite yet. Sam’s got to rally and plead her case to Tyler.

Winston, Angela, Rachel, Brett and Kaycee pledge to have each other’s backs (#brainsandbikinis). This is bad news for Sam, Steve and Kaitlyn, since Sam and Steve are on their own, and Kaitlyn is the only member of her alliance who is eligible to be nominated.

Bayleigh’s in a tough spot as well, since she snapped at Tyler during the comp. She tries to backtrack, not wanting to get on his bad side, but Tyler’s caught a glimpse of her true colors.

Winston recruits Tyler to become the sixth member of their group, and he seems down. This means Tyler doesn’t have many options left when it comes to nominees, and he’s leaning towards Sam and Steve. If one of them comes down, Bayleigh goes up.

As if Sam isn’t in a precarious enough position, she has to try to convince Tyler not to eliminate her when she’s “online.” Sam tells Tyler she’s used to standing on her own, but it’s different in the house. She doesn’t have a teammate, and when she says nobody wants to play with her, she’s right. I don’t know if we can totally blame that on the robot disadvantage, but it certainly isn’t helping her.

Sam isn’t one to beg or talk about other people behind their backs. Even though Tyler says she shouldn’t view herself as a target, Sam knows nominating her makes the most sense. Tyler is touched and second guesses his decision to put Sam on the block.

Sam does have some people in her corner. Neither Rockstar nor Kaitlyn thinks Tyler should put her up. They want to see Angela and Winston on the block. The twosome worked together during the HOH comp, and they’re strong competitors. Swaggy C sees evicting Sam or Steve as a wasted HOH and encourages Tyler to make a power move by nominating Angela and Winston.

Bayleigh tries to do damage control but makes things worse for herself. Tyler questions who Bayleigh feels really good with, and she admits she and Swaggy C are like family. This is odd, since we don’t see them talk game at all this episode, and Swaggy C did hang his bestie out to dry when he could have saved her.

This confirms that Bayleigh is rolling with Swaggy. Tyler is torn. He can either make the safe play and nominate Sam and Steve, or he can draw a line in the sand, and go after somebody on Swaggy’s side.

Tyler decides to nominate Sam and Steve. He claims there’s no rhyme or reason this early in the game. It just seems fair, since they were the bottom two in the HOH competition.

Next: Big Brother Season 20 premere recap: 16 houseguests move in

Did Tyler make the best move for his game? Does Sam need to toughen up? Who is your favorite houseguest? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Big Brother 20 airs Sundays at 8/7c, Wednesdays at 9/8c and Thursdays 9/8c on CBS. Tune in on Sunday, July 1 to see who wins the Power of Veto.