Big Brother recap: First veto competition sends Frenchie spiraling into chaos

A quick recap! A few days ago on Big Brother, Frenchie won the season's first HOH competition, and in doing so, kept his entire team of "Jokers" safe from eviction. Then he went around the house making a Final 2 with everybody and told all the women and POC players in the house that he was going to "shake things up" this season and not target them. He was ready to target the "alpha males" who, in so many other seasons, end up making it to the end because people are too scared to target them. Then he nominated two POC players, one a woman, for eviction and blew up any trust he'd built. Quite a start for Frenchie!

That brings us up to speed! And guess what? Wednesday's episode delivers even more evidence that self-proclaimed "BB genius" Frenchie is, in fact, pretty terrible at this. Picking up after the nomination ceremony, it's clear that everyone in the house has no idea what's going on or why Frenchie chose Kyland and Alyssa for the block. Derek F (a.k.a. Big D), is even more confused because he's got a Final 2 with Frenchie and hadn't heard a single word about his plan for nominations.

Early on, things go two different ways. There's Kyland, who's emotional and feeling betrayed, talking about how he wanted to create an inspiring journey for "kids who look like" him. Then there's Alyssa, who directly confronts Frenchie along with Christian. She asks why she's a target, and he tells her it's because of the blooming showmance. Alyssa is livid. She denies it. Christian, showing his true colors, says that it "makes sense" because they "look like they would be good together." Alyssa just stares at him, and it's unbelievably awkward.

Anyways, Frenchie ends up second-guessing himself and his targets and shifts his focus to Derek X, who he might backdoor if the veto should allow it. His reason for targeting Derek X? Something about him being close with Travis and forming alliances, but in reality, Frenchie is grasping at straws. He's making a classic BB mistake: he's playing way too hard. He's paranoid, and he's getting up in everyone's business and then questioning himself. He looks erratic and untrustworthy and it's going to get him booted real quick if he doesn't course correct sometime soon.

What Frenchie should be doing is building relationships and alliances on the down low, which is exactly what's happening elsewhere. Tiffany, Derek F, Azah, Kyland, and Xavier have come together to form "The Cookout" in an attempt to buck the usual Big Brother narrative and keep a Black alliance strong until the end. Of course, as Tiffany points out in the Diary Room, there can only be one winner, but they feel like they have a larger purpose here early on this season.

That brings us to the season's first Veto Competition, which involves constructing a cocktail maze that sends a rolling cherry down into a large cocktail glass. It's a pretty complicated puzzle that you have to get just right, and the competition is tight. Alyssa comes real close to getting it but it's Derek X who nabs the win after being the only one to start solving the puzzle from the bottom, which ended up giving him an advantage in the home stretch.

Of course, this once again blows up Frenchie's plan because he doesn't really have a plan; he's crumbling under the pressure. He says this is his "worst-case scenario." Let me just recap his worst-case scenario for you: it involves a guy he wasn't targeting, and who he has no reason to target, winning veto, which means Frenchie now can't remove one of the people he actually originally nominated. This guy's whole game is chaos and we're only a few days into this thing. It's wild.

Frenchie ends up approaching Derek X to "clear the air." He says that he doesn't want to sway his decision, but that he wouldn't argue with him using the veto to save Kyland so that he could put up Travis as the target instead. Derek X goes back and forth on what to do because he likes both Kyland and Alyssa, but also wants to have this week's HOH in his corner. So, in the end, he does what Frenchie asks. He pulls Kyland off the block, and Frenchie nominates Travis in his place.

Look, Frenchie deserves no credit here, but I do love that Travis is now on the block and that this vote just got a lot more interesting. Alyssa would have gone home no matter what against Kyland. She might still go home! But Travis sitting next to her gives us a lot more intrigue heading into the first eviction of the season.

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