Big Brother recap: An important veto sees the Cookout drawing lines in the sand

In the aftermath of the very first all-Cookout nomination ceremony on Big Brother, things are getting a little tense. Kyland, this week's HOH, put Tiffany and Hannah on the block this past Sunday. Tiffany is his target, and he figures that Hannah would use the veto on Tiffany, so that's why she's on the block next to her. Tiffany feels betrayed because she thought she had a Final 3 deal with him, but instead, Kyland seems to be sticking to his Final 2 deal with Xavier.

Of course, not everyone is upset about Tiffany being on the block. In fact, Big D is ecstatic. If he had his way, Tiffany would have been his target a long time ago, but he stayed loyal to the Cookout and their mission. And, of course, Xavier is relieved that Kyland sticks with their agreement. As an added bonus, Kyland gets to be the one to ruin his relationship with Tiffany, and Xavier gets no blood on his hands.

On the other end of the spectrum, Hannah is confused by this decision. She didn't think she'd be on the block or that Kyland would be going after Tiffany, so she sits him down for a chat. During this chat, Kyland, for some reason, mentions that he didn't think Xavier and Tiffany would want to work together going forward, so that's partly why she's his target. That tips off Hannah to their potential alliance (not that it would have been that hard to figure out anyway), and she begins worrying that if Tiffany goes home this week, the guys will be working together and will pick them off one by one.

I'm honestly not sure that would happen. The guys are definitely working together this week because they all recognize that Tiffany is the biggest threat to them winning the game, but if she goes home, there are still plenty of avenues to the Final 2. Kyland might realize Xavier is the next biggest threat in the house once Tiffany is gone, or Azah, who's close to Big D and Xavier, might find a way to work with them and get to the end. There's still a lot of game to play.

But, focusing on the present for now, this is a huge veto competition with massive implications for the rest of the season. Tiffany and Hannah believe that the best option would be Azah winning so that she could pull one of them off the block, forcing Kyland to put up a guy and gain control of the vote. As for the guys, they want to prevent Tiffany from winning so that she remains the target. The competition is the classic "BB Comics," where players use a zipline to coast past a series of comic book covers featuring the season's players and then must memorize the order and other details. Whoever organizes their comics in the correct order the fastest wins veto.

As Kyland reads out the scores, there are two frontrunners insanely close. Big D comes in with a time of 10:05, and Hannah ends up right behind him at 10:06. Nobody else comes close, but there's still Kyland's time to reveal. He ends up coming in a good three minutes ahead of Big D, securing the veto and keeping control of his HOH week. Honestly, I feel bad for Big D here. He badly wants to win a competition, and this was definitely his best performance of the season so far.

So, with full control over the nominations, Kyland sits down with Xavier to discuss things. Xavier says he assumes he's keeping nominations the same, but Kyland expresses some doubt, suggesting he could maybe pull Hannah off the block, try to smooth things over with her, put up Big D as a pawn, and still target Tiffany. To me, this feels like Kyland exploring all options rather than anything concrete. At this point, he won't be able to smooth things over with Hannah, and there's no way Big D would enjoy being on the block so that Kyland can manage the jury.

While the above options don't make much sense to me, when Tiffany sits down with Kyland and tries to persuade him that if she stays, she'll be his ride or die until the end, I have to wonder if he's thinking about it. If I'm trying to analyze Kyland's position, I think he might have a better chance in a Final 2 with Tiffany rather than Xavier, simply because Tiffany is a more confrontational personality who didn't necessarily get along with everyone in the house, whereas Xavier seems pretty universally liked. But, as Kyland notes, Tiffany has proven again and again that she's willing to do anything to further her personal game (which, you know, is what all of these players are doing, but you get my point), so trusting her is no easy task.

Sure enough, Kyland sticks with his plan. He doesn't use the veto and keeps the nominations the same, all but assuring that Tiffany will be the first member of the Cookout sent to the jury house.

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