One word can be used to describe the Big Brother 19 alliances and that word is consistency. The recurrent theme regarding the alliances of this season is that they definitely centered around Paul Abrahamian. Week after week on Big Brother, Paul has been referred to as the “Puppet Master” all across the Internet. Article after article has described his ability to orchestrate his Big Brother 19 game through the houseguests (aka minions) without getting blood on his hands.
We are down to the last week in the Big Brother house, so let’s take a look back at how the alliances have progressed throughout this season of Big Brother.
As soon as Paul entered the Big Brother 19 house, his veteran status alone gave him an advantge in the game. To add insult to injury for all the other houseguests, he was blessed with “friendship” bracelets. These bracelets granted the recipients safety from the first night eviction. It seems fair to say that all of the houseguests had the cards stacked against them, except Paul of course.
Once the dust settled inside the Big Brother house, and the houseguests became a bit more comfortable, Cody Nickson made the first big move in the game. It didn’t take Cody long to start putting together what he called a “power alliance,” while all of the other houseguests were referred to as outsiders. Cody’s big move involved him betraying the alliance he created; he did this by nominating alliance member Christmas Abbott to the block during the first week.
Cody’s misstep in the game was Paul’s opportunity to step forward and use that against Cody. That was the beginning of the end for Cody. As we know can see, he and his showmance partner Jessica Graf were the only houseguests inside the Big Brother house that had no intention of becoming a Paul minion. They both clearly had their own agendas, and Cody’s agenda did not include following any of Paul’s marching orders.
Looking back to the second week in the Big Brother 19 house, Paul was already firmly in control. In fact, in my alliance recap for week two, I said that Paul was calling all of the shots and the houseguests were allowing him without a second thought. Funny how things have not really changed much from 9 weeks ago.
At that point in the game, Paul’s house majority alliance included Dominique Cooper, Mark Jansen, Elena Davies, Matt Clines, Raven Walton, and Christmas Abbott. On the other side of the house, the outsiders included Alex Ow, Josh Martinez, Ramses Soto, Kevin Schlehuber, and Jason Dent. With Paul’s majority numbers, he easily targeted and evicted the only real competition he had in the game: Cody.
By the time Cody earned his way back into the Big Brother house, Paul had a firm hold on all of his minions. Paul had so much control by that point that he was able to convince his crew to flip the script on Cody and Jessica. Jessica had won Head of Household and the Power of Veto during week four; she and Cody held all the power, or so they thought. Paul was able to garner the votes to send home Ramses rather than Jessica’s nemesis and target of the week, Josh. That sent a clear message that Paul came to play Big Brother, and he had the houseguests in his back pocket to carry him through.
As Cody and Jessica were off on an island by themselves, Paul cozy’ed up to the remaining outsiders. This was around the same time Paul really started employing his minions to do the dirty work for him. Let’s not forget the pots and pan debacle performed by Josh, which was an attempt to bait Cody into a physical altercation. This was where the game took a dark turn, and Paul should be ashamed of his actions.
During week six, Alex, Jason, and Josh were in one of the strongest positions in the Big Brother 19 house. Paul was vying for their loyalty as was Cody before his second eviction. This was also the point in the game when Christmas and Josh began to pull closer and closer together. Aside from Christmas using her Ring of Replacement (at Paul’s direction), which voided Josh’s ability to evict Elena, they were able to mend their relationship.
Alex was the HOH during week seven, but again, Paul was calling all the shots from behind the scenes. Paul managed to even convince Matt to refrain from saving himself from the block after he won the POV. That is unheard of in the game of Big Brother. This move set the stage for Alex to backdoor Cody, and the majority alliance voted Cody out of the house, for the second time.
In week eight, Paul started to employ a third wheel strategy for his game play. Rather than draw a line in the sand with his alliance, Paul set things up for himself so that he was the third wheel with all of the remaining “deuces” left in the house. He was able to do this with Josh & Christmas, Matt & Raven, and Jason & Alex. Kevin was the only floater at this point, but Paul made sure to seal a final two deal with him as well. Paul had firm deals in place with each and every houseguest, and he managed to keep that a secret amongst all of the them.
Week nine gave us a glimmer of hope that Jason may just go rogue, create his own alliance, and get out from underneath Paul. That ended up being a false hope. Jason ended up alienating himself from Alex momentarily and positioned him closer to Kevin. Having any type of relationship with Kevin inside the Big Brother 19 house won’t get you very far. This is a lesson Jason had to learn the hard way.
So now we are down to the final five. As mentioned earlier, consistency and Paul have been the alliance theme for the Big Brother 19. Paul has hand picked his final five; he also has plans for the final four, final three, and final two.
Based on what we have seen thus far, Paul should be good with his final four once Alex is evicted tonight. Kevin should be the next to go on Thursday, which leaves Paul’s alliance pick of himself, Josh, and Christmas for the final three.
Will Paul make it to the final two? We will know soon enough.
Thanks to everyone who joined us each week to see where the alliances fell from week to week. Join us again next summer for the Big Brother 20 alliance updates, and in winter for Celebrity Big Brother‘s alliance updates.
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