Big Brother 19 live feed spoilers: Paul’s Halting Hex ‘offer’ (day 40)

Hate Paul all you want for some of his tactics on Big Brother 19 — hey, we would even understand why you would want to since he’s not exactly playing the game like a Boy Scout. Nonetheless, this guy is still hustling like nobody’s business and some of his tactics may be working.

Even if Paul doesn’t know all of the mechanics of the Halting Hex precisely, he’s figured out enough thanks to Jessica/the rules of the show to figure out that she could use it to save Cody, the intended target of his Head of Household reign, this week. As a result of that, he is trying to broker a new deal with Jess that goes something like this: Convincing her to not use the Hex in return for promising her two weeks’ safety from almost every person that matters.

We don’t think in a million years that Jess will actually do this, but putting pressure on her to take a deal that would lead to Cody going out is still something worth trying on his end. Intimidation is a longstanding part of this game; it’s effective, even if it’s not fun.

What was actually more effective than anything is a simple conversation that spiraled entirely out of control. It began with Paul passing along information that Cody said to Matt the very first week about keeping Alex/Jason safe so that they could target Jessica and Elena down the road. This was SO early in the game that it doesn’t really matter all that much, but Cody, when confronted with it, completely lost his cool. He lied about whether or not he said it and then lost it on her for suggesting that he wasn’t trustworthy.

If this little comment was enough to split up Jody for any period of time, this was brilliant for Paul. However … we don’t think it will last. These sort of petty fights happen pretty often in the game, and it’s not that big of a shock to see one happening now over something so petty since things get blown out of proportion. They should be fine by tonight, but there may still be enough of a seed planted that it could be trouble down the road.

Where is Paul’s danger coming from?

We thought that maybe Kevin was actually talking about targeting him with Jason this afternoon, but the two were clearly goofing around. Yet, there may still be something in the two vocalizing that Paul is running the game. It doesn’t benefit anyone to let him get to the final six given that he is very good in competitions and doesn’t allow himself to get frustrated during them. It’s best to target him when there is the opportunity early in the jury and when there are plenty of people left to beat him in competitions.

If you missed it…

Our morning update from the Big Brother live feeds earlier today can be found at this link. (Photo: CBS.)