Big Brother 20 premiere review: Sam the Robot and Swaggy C’s choice
Also, it’s probably the start of a few annoying twists … but you have to just accept that at this point if you are a fan of the show. It’s kind of like Paul being in the audience.
Sam – The first person we meet is welder Sam Winslow, a woman who really is like no other. She’s from the middle of nowhere and literally lives in her mom’s yard. She’s amazing casting.
Tyler – Prototypical surfer dude. The best thing about him is that he seems to be marginally aware of the fact that his character type is terrible in the game.
Bayleigh – She’s a former Miss Missouri USA and, beyond that, a flight attendant. There’s a lot of truth to how stressful being a flight attendant is, though. She’s probably used to dealing with annoying people.
Steve – He’s a former undercover officer and a professor now — also, apparently he is in a biker group. Ironically, he kind of looks like Jimmy Smits’ character from Sons of Anarchy.
Kaitlyn – She still doesn’t feel like a real person with all of her talk of energy and orbs floating around people. We do think that she probably helps people as a life coach, but it feels like she’s just there to promote that.
Winston – Of course, we picked this guy again about 36 hours before we find out that he’s obsessed with guns. Not exactly sure how that will allow him to relate to other people in the house.
Angela – She’s a fitness model and a much better athlete than most people are probably aware of. She also runs a business.
JC – He’s a dancer and power-lifter. He’s a big character but probably isn’t going to be good at the game … at all.
After we met the first eight people, they all went into the house — and Bayleigh was the first one in. Red alert! That’s bad news for her given that nobody has ever won the game after being the first person in the game. We also had our first major surprise of the night, as Tyler and Angela both have connections to Hilton Head — which could put a huge target on their backs.
Second wave of players
Rachel – She’s a Vegas performer and through her time there, she’s figured out how to manipulate and do everything she can. She’s got some serious potential.
Swaggy C – He’s a day trader, former college basketball player, and also apparently babysitter who is currently learning how to swim.
Rockstar – She apparently believes in “peace through partying,” and like with Kaitlyn we’re not sure if she is there to be a player or a character. She’s also, apparently, a pagan witch … so there’s that.
Brett – He’s a “bro” who does “bro stuff,” but he’s also a cyber-security engineer. He fights hackers. He’s got a ton of skills that could help him.
Kaycee – Apparently, she is the Odell Beckham Jr. of women’s professional football — she’s good at what she does, but can she really tone down being competitive?
Scottie – He’s never been kissed, and apparently he’s down for that. He loves Dungeons & Dragons and is a super-strategist. His biggest problem, though, is that he’s a massive nerd … but also athletic.
Haleigh – This year’s edition of the “random contestant from Texas A&M.” She’s a farm girl who is really from the middle of nowhere. She’s also in college for psychological studies.
Faysal – We do love the fact that the show has a Muslim contestant, and we do hope that this leads to some other houseguests getting to learn more about his faith.
Getting to meet everyone
There were some obvious connections that everyone made. Swaggy and Faysal already feel like bros, and Scottie already had an awkward moment courtesy of Haleigh. The houseguests all gathered up to talk about themselves, and that included a few interesting moments — Rachel is already attracted to Winston. Meanwhile, Faysal is also into Haleigh and apparently Tyler is intimidated by Steve already. Scottie told everyone that he hadn’t been kissed and, after that, everyone just wanted to kiss him.
The first challenges
The houseguests were divided up into groups, with four women and four men being moved to different platforms. The winner of this competition had a chance to save both themselves and seven other people for the week.
What we saw in this challenge was certainly bizarre, to say the least. The players were “moved” to different areas in order to compete, and the first group of eight had to search darkness for folders. The basic objective here was to try to avoid the one folder that would cause everyone to suffer a terrible punishment. Angela is the one to found the folder that would allow her to move forward and compete in the next competition for power. Kaycee, however, ended up finding the last folder and punishment.
As for the other eight players, they were doing their part to compete in what was, effectively, a spelling competition. This really didn’t seem anywhere near as hard as the other one, but that may just be because it didn’t involve people running around in the dark. Swaggy C was the victor and with that, he would face off down the road with Angela. Sam, however, is the last person and faces a punishment.
The final showdown
It was Swaggy C vs. Angela and it was super clear that Swaggy has no idea how to be subtle in this game. He wanted to reach a deal with Angela so that they could save each other no matter what happened, but when she didn’t want to do that, he pretty much declared war on her.
The competition was a battle of endurance where the two competitors literally had to surf the web. Both did a really good job, but in the end, Swaggy won and he has the power. That doesn’t necessarily mean that he is HoH, but he can “re-program the game.” He could choose two of the first four groups who moved into the house to be safe. The problem that Swaggy C ran into, though, is that he promised Angela that he was safe before the rules starting to become clear. He was also super-close to Bayleigh and she expected some degree of safety from him, as well.
The punishments
Apparently, the game-changing “punishment” involved, in part, silly outfits. Kaycee had the Pinwheel of Doom, which involved a funny costume — when her pinwheel started to spin, she had to remain in that room until it stops. Meanwhile, Sam was apparently turned into a robot, which may be very well one of the most hilarious twists that we’ve seen in recent memory. She wasn’t physically in the house and instead, she basically had to steer this thing around and talk through it.
While these punishments should not ruin any games, they are still really funny.
Swaggy C’s decision
Of course, Swaggy saved his own group, but then he also decided to save Kaycee, Haleigh, Scottie, and Faysal. Basically, he took the easy way out and just saved everyone in his group of eight he walked into the house with. Basically, he’s now got both Bayleigh and Angela made at him.
CarterMatt Verdict
It’s a pretty good cast (why does Swaggy keep talking in the third person?), we find the robot twist oddly fantastic, and in the end, a great start to the season. If the rest of the season goes like this, we have some high hopes for whatever is coming next.
Also, we’ve got now the BB App store twist — which could give us a lot to discuss moving forward this season depending on who is trending.
Related – When will the live feeds return?
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