Big Brother recap: An eviction, multiple alliances, and a new HOH cap off a wild week

Wow, what a first week this has been. As the season's first HOH, Frenchie has given us quite the show. Normally Big Brother gets off to a slow start every season, but Frenchie is throwing out some truly unhinged gameplay, and I have to admit it's been pretty entertaining. I don't think we're learning much about the larger dynamic in the house, but sometimes it's enough to follow one competitor for a week and just watch them flail wildly.

Which brings us to our first eviction night. After Derek X used the veto to save Kyland, Travis is now on the block alongside Alyssa. Frenchie says Travis is the target, but this vote is going to come down to the house. Frenchie doesn't have the control he thinks he does, and people are going to vote based on whatever ideas they have about early alliances.

While everyone ponders their vote, Frenchie is once again playing way too hard and making alliances with everyone. He starts to form what he calls "The Slaughterhouse," which starts out with Xavier and Whitney and then expands to include Kyland, Christian, Alyssa, and Derek F. What's great is that no one other than maybe Alyssa seems to be fully on board with the alliance. Sure, they'll play along for now and use the numbers, but they're also indulging Frenchie and letting him feel like the guy in control of the game.

As if that wasn't enough, Frenchie attempts to create an "all-girls alliance" (including him, of course) with Tiffany, Hannah, Sarah Beth, Claire, and Azah. He thinks this is helping his game, that he's covering himself "from all angles," but as we've seen so far this season, all these moves and promises are just making people suspicious. The girls, like everyone else, indulge his fantasy and let him think he's friends with everybody.

After Travis tries to show his more playful side by giving Xavier a lapdance for his 30th birthday, we get down to a little bit of campaigning for votes. The episode focuses solely on Travis, who tells Frenchie and Brent that he should stick around because he'd be the clear target next week, therefore acting as a shield for Frenchie. Then there are Travis' teammates, who express some worry about losing a challenge threat when they'll be competing for team safety every week.

All this focus on Travis had me, and most of you I assume, thinking that he was done, that the editing was just trying to liven up a rather straightforward vote. Sure enough, just about everyone votes for Travis, though some of the votes are tricky. Derek F votes for Alyssa, and so does Tiffany, but Kyland votes to evict his teammate Travis. Clearly, there are no solid alliances right now, and people are still feeling things out, and Travis just ended up being an easy target for the first vote.

Now, we do learn that Travis didn't go down without a fight. We didn't see it on TV, but during the exit interview, Julie and Travis talk about how he tried to blow up Frenchie's game before the show went live, telling everyone how Frenchie has been making a ton of promises and that he can't be trusted. Obviously, Travis figured he was going. Now, the question we should be asking is if The Slaughterhouse is actually in charge? Are they truly tight enough to get through these first few votes intact and pick the others off? I'm hoping that isn't the case and we don't get a repeat of recent seasons where one big alliance controls the whole game. Here's hoping Frenchie's week of chaos bleeds into the rest of the game.

We'll see how it plays out. At the end of the episode, after some live technical difficulties, Kyland wins the next HOH, and it'll be interesting to see how his nominations play out considering his involvement in both "The Cookout" and "The Slaughterhouse."

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