‘Big Brother 17’ review: Operation Austin is in effect

We feel like “Big Brother 17” had a really tough challenge tonight in trying to construct a narrative, given how crazy the week has been on the live feeds. For the most part, though, we feel like they did a good job explaining how Austin went from being in a secure alliance to a public enemy of everyone in the house.

The funny thing is that he was getting exposed mostly for doing something really stupid! Austin was not trying to betray his alliance; instead, he was just saying ridiculous things to Jason hoping that it would look like he wasn’t that close to the twins and Liz / Julia were not too significant a threat to anyone in the house. Him lying to Vanessa about it was baffling, and understandably he was set up to be evicted.

The Battle of the Block is not the greatest competition in the world, but we did like it for the most part tonight … maybe because the Outback Steakhouse sponsorship brings back hilarious memories of Sandra Diaz-Twine from “Survivor.” The paint-throwing and the strategy was fun to watch, and it was actually harder to win with just one person. That’s why we think Liz’s performance here was more impressive than Frankie’s last season.

Here are a few other funny notes from this episode:

1. Clay and Becky thought for sure that they were going to win, and now they’re stuck on the block. Meanwhile, Vanessa’s stuck as Head of Household.

2. Johnny Mac not being nominated is gold. Johnny Mac doing almost anything is gold.

3. Yes, James crushing on Vanessa’s mom is awkward and Caleb-like, but how much of it did we really need to see?

4. It was interesting given how much time we spent on Audrey that she was barely even existent on the show tonight. They really moved on quick! Grade: B.

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