Heading into the 34th episode of “Big Brother 26,” the Final 5 houseguests were still reeling from the double eviction that sent home Leah Peters and Angela Murray. But with the HOH competition about to take place, each of their sights were set on winning the all-important power so that they could nominate two more people for eviction. So how did it all play out on Sunday night?
Below, read our minute-by-minute “Big Brother” Season 26, Episode 34 recap/live blog to find out what happened on September 29 at 10:30 p.m. ET/PT. Then be sure to sound off in the comments section about your favorite “BB26” houseguests on CBS‘s reality TV show, who annoys you the most and who you think will ultimately join the “Big Brother” winners list. As always, Julie Chen Moonves hosts the series.
Here are the names of the five remaining houseguests: Cam Sullivan-Brown, Chelsie Baham, Kimo Apaka, Makensy Manbeck and Rubina Bernabe. Watch Gold Derby’s exclusive webchats with all of the eliminated players so far: Matt Hardeman, Lisa Weintraub, Kenney Kelley, Cedric Hodges, Brooklyn Rivera, Tucker Des Lauriers, Joseph Rodriguez, Quinn Martin, T’kor Clottey, Leah Peters and Angela Murray.
10:30 p.m. — “Previously on ‘Big Brother’!” In the 33rd episode, Julie surprised the houseguests with the news that it was double eviction night. The first person sent to the jury house was Leah in a 4-to-0 vote over Angela. The Head of Household competition then took place with Chelsie prevailing. She nominated Angela and Kimo for eviction, but Kimo won the Veto and took himself off the block, so Rubina was put up in his place. Finally, the house voted again and this time they evicted Angela with a 3-to-0 vote over Rubina. So who will win the Final 5 HOH? Let’s go!
10:35 p.m. — In flashbacks of the double eviction, we saw Chelsie celebrate with Cam after winning Head of Household and their plan to target Angela for eviction because she had a better chance at winning a competition than Kimo and Rubina and Chelsie believed she’d nominate her. In the quick process of making that decision, Chelsie also promised Kimo that she was going to put him up and promise that Angela would be voted out and then communicated to Makensy that their trio with Cam was going strong.
10:37 p.m. — Once Kimo won the veto, Chelsie cleared putting Rubina up in his place with everyone in the house before actually doing it. Once Angela was up she pleaded with Makensy and Cam to save her and warned them that Rubina is “due” to win something, but even being close to Angela wasn’t enough to get Makensy to sway from thinking Angela is the bigger threat.
10:46 p.m. — For the next HOH, the four eligible players competed in a race to rebuild a 30-piece tiny puzzle using tweezers. Chelsie watched on as Rubina struggled to assemble even one row of the puzzle while Cam and Makensy were in a race for first place. Eventually Makensy got to the final row, but then an entire column of her puzzle dropped and then just like that everyone’s focus took a hit and there were many dropped pieces in every station.
10:59 p.m. — After many failed attempts, Makensy managed to get her faulty column to stick and successfully completed the puzzle to earn another HOH for herself. Because her two reigns are only separated by the double eviction, Makensy will basically have the HOH room in her possession for two straight weeks.
11:01 p.m. — Rubina and Kimo knew immediately that they were in a tough spot with Makensy having power because it was clear to everyone that the house is divided in a trio and them as a pair. Makensy’s win felt like vindication for Chelsie’s decision to oust Angela over anyone else in the double and when the two of them got a moment to talk, they solidified a twosome for themselves and both declared they would take each other in the end and not Cam. Chelsie was comfortable going head to head with Makensy because she feels like she can make the case that she made the decisions during Makensy’s first HOH, not her.
11:11 p.m. — Feeling like they’ve had a “really good game relationship,” Rubina thought she could sway Makensy away from nominating her, but Makensy made it clear that she’s starting the week with Rubina and Kimo on the block. Still, she discussed a female alliance and that she doesn’t want Rubina to go home. As a way of saving herself, Rubina disclosed that Chelsie was floating around to her that Makensy is winning too many comps and that she’s a threat in the game. Makensy knows that she’s a threat, but was still “flabbergasted” that Chelsie could possible be trying to target her.
11:20 p.m. — Based on what Rubina told her, Makensy had a conversation with Chelsie where Chelsie denied that she had a leading role in the talk with Rubina. Chelsie was surprised that Rubina would go to Makensy with that, but relieved that Makensy was buying her version of the conversation.
11:22 p.m. — As one of the last two men in the house, Kimo wanted to have a conversation with Cam about how they can get to the end together, but Cam was giving him nothing because he knew that Kimo was just doing what he could to save himself. Cam “took that information” to Makensy and Chelsie so that they’d be encouraged to make Kimo the target this week as the best social player of the season.
11:26 p.m. — At the nomination ceremony, Makensy shocked no one by revealing the digital faces of Kimo and Rubina as the nominees. In her speech, she said that everyone in the final five is deserving and that they’re at the point of the game where they “have to gun for each other.” At this point, Makensy wanted Kimo to be the target, but ultimately it wouldn’t matter which of the two goes home. Kimo and Rubina knew that their only chances were for one of them to win the veto and hope that they can ultimately convince Makensy to sway to their side against Chelsie and Cam.