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Chappelle
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David Bloomberg
Welcome back to why Blank lost. For the second eviction of Big Brother 28, I'm David Bloomberg, and with me is my co host, a man who would never be described as a beta or submissive chappelle.
Chappelle
I'm sure somebody thinks of me as a beta or submissive, but I'd have to reject that. Maybe, I don't know. I'd call myself an alpha male. Not in the Big Brother sense. So I don't really know where I would fall. Yeah, in the Big Brother house, when it comes those things, I. I think Rome would be okay with me, though.
David Bloomberg
Yeah. Yeah, I think so. You're, you know, kind of a mastermind behind the scenes and that's what he, that's what he was looking for, those types of people and he needed more of them, clearly. But we'll get to that in a minute because it has been quite the second week of Big Brother here. But of the surprises that we saw Rome leaving early, not, not one of them in in our preview podcast, I gave Rome a 1 out of 10 for how I thought he'd do and following my rules. And I believe you were somewhere in that ballpark as well.
Chappelle
I, yeah, I if I didn't give him a one, maybe two at the highest, but I, I, I could see through this band. I, I could tell this was someone who was not very familiar with the game, someone who had their preconceived notion about how the game was going to go, what they were going to do, and how it really didn't align with you Big Brother's strategy. And so I really didn't think he was going to make it too, too far. I think both of us knew that a competition here and there could, could definitely save him and that could have actually happened this week. But overall, I he didn't seem like a rule follower to me and so I'm not shocked to see him go out right here.
David Bloomberg
Yeah. So the question we will answer today is how did he live down to that lowest possible rating when it came to my rules and were there other factors at play? So we'll find out the way we always do by evaluating how he played compared to a set of guiding rules. I originally wrote way back in 2004 and have modified ever since. We'll analyze his actions using what we saw on tv, live feeds, interviews and other information. And of course, the most recent published version, which is a few years old, I noticed it still says you're playing for half a million dollars. I'm like, oop, gotta update that. It is at rob has a website.com bigbrother rules. But before we get to that, we always have some other things to discuss about the week in general. One that I want to talk about today is Drew and Barrett versus Angela's paranoia because for a little while now, we've seen Angela believing that those two, especially Drew, are plotting to turn against the icons. And that paranoia is like, extremely contagious. It has spread now to Dee, Devins, Haley. So far, Camus seems immune to it, but at least those three. And who knows how much further it'll go. And every time Angela sees either of them talking to someone else, she is sure it's a big plot against her and it's just like of all people, she should have learned from her previous season that it doesn't work that way. I would presume she watched it back or at least heard after the fact that when she was absolutely certain people were against her, they were often actually on her side. But it's like she just truly can't help herself.
Chappelle
She's in too deep. You know, she can't see the forest for the trees. She's in there and she's. They're being told, hey, this is your alliance. We're all good. But because she's in so deep, she's like, but are you my alliance? Are we good? You know, she. I think she trusts Dee and Devin so much because she feels like she knows them better. She saw them on tv, right? So there's a level, maybe parasocially, or maybe it's just. Just because we watch them on TV shows that we have a better understanding for who they are. And so maybe she just naturally feels like that connection is stronger. Everybody else, though, if you don't, you know, if you take a. A step out of line, Angela might suspect you of doing something nefarious behind her back. We saw this the first time she played. Like you said, I don't really know if Angela has a good grasp on the things that happened the first time she played because I've just seen her make different comments on the feeds and stuff about, you know, I think that one of the controversial things she said this week was about Rabina getting voted out and saying, oh, I mean, being saved. It's like, oh, well, she was campaigning and they didn't want, you know, she was campaigning about how she wanted to be the first Filipina to go far in the game. And Angela looked at that and said, well, it seemed like they did it. That was almost like a sympathy save when if you watch the show, you know that T? Cor and Kimo actually really flipped the house. Like, it took a lot to keep Robina. It wasn't just a sympathy save. But that minimalization of her move makes me think that maybe Angela hasn't done a lot of self reflection on the game that she played. And she doesn't realize that the first time around she was. I mean, that. That low budget movie rant about crazy Eyes, that was all Angela's paranoia. No one had done anything to her. She just laid in bed and spun herself into a frenzy. And so it's no shock to me that she's acting like this again. I was just hoping that she would have learned Something from the first time.
David Bloomberg
I mean, she indicated in pregame she kind of gave conflicting signals. You know, she said. She said, well, I'm going to, you know, try not to be as paranoid. But then another time she said, who am I kidding? I'll probably revert to it. If you know that about yourself, then look at what's happening and try to stop it. You know, it's like they say, the, you know, the first step is recognizing you have a problem. Angela, you have a problem.
Chappelle
Yeah, it's a really good point. Like, if you're. If you're suspicious of somebody, you can address it and then maybe quell your suspicions. But it seems like instead of going to Drew and saying, here are the things I thought I saw you doing, can you make me feel better about that? What is. What's been going on? What's your point of view on that? Instead, she goes to D, who she trusts more, and she vents about it and, you know, she talks about it, she airs out her grievances, and then D, who. I've decided as far as these Survivor players go, the. The Survivor game is just too fast. It is too fast. Especially the new era. They're used to gaming constantly. You know, you. You. You got a day and a half before you got to get the next person out. You already need to be working on who's probably going to go next after that. And these people, they're just looking for any reason to start gaming again. So when Angela goes and says, will trust Drew deactivates. And she said, oh, bet. Let's do it. Let's talk it out. How do we get them out? What do we do? What do we got to do? And so I do think that Angela paranoia is spreading, and I think the Survivor players are actually kind of welcoming a little bit with their. Their eagerness to game.
David Bloomberg
Yeah, I mean, it makes a very difficult situation for Drew and Barrett. And you said it, and it's something I often mention relating to Survivor is that you do almost have to figure that anytime you as a player talk to other people, others are going to assume it's about strategy no matter what it's actually about. We've. We've heard that from some of the people who get voted out early on Survivor. They're like, well, I was just. I was just chatting with so and so, and all of a sudden I get lumped in with them. Well, yeah, because it's Survivor. That's why. And, you know, Aubrey, Rob, and Taryn talked about it in Aubrey's rhap interview as well, noting, there are just so much. There's so much more time to kill, so many more conversations in Big Brother than in Survivor. And that whole time frame, like you said, is stretched out. If you're going to Tribal Council on back to back days, then every moment you have is precious. You're not going to waste it. So if you see a group talking, yeah, you should probably be worried. That makes sense. In Big Brother, the days are long, the nights are longer. You have to entertain yourself. Sometimes that means chatting with a woman you want to get to know better. Sometimes it means sticking a piece of cucumber on your forehead in the storage room to see whose will stick longer. This is the entertainment that they have. But Drew and Barrett need to realize what's going on and find a way to mitigate these situations so they don't get punished. For Angela.
Chappelle
It's. It's pretty surprising, too, that it hasn't really gotten back to them that they are putting this target on their backs, you know, because. Because D and Angela aren't exactly being discreet about it. You know, I think they've pretty openly been talking about how they don't really trust the two of them. I think Devin is doing a lot of work to kind of keep that at bay because he does trust Drew,
David Bloomberg
but, I mean, even he's made some comments about it and. Yeah, but you're right, it is interesting about how much they know because Devin's did come in. We saw in live feeds, Devin did come in and warn them, like, hey, just so you know, there's some people talking about this. I don't know that he specifically said, your tight allies are talking about this. I think it was more generic than that. And then, of course, we saw the scene on Thursday that the two of them seem to understand where they are in the tool shed. There's the trio. The trio and them. But we need to see them do something about it. Even though I have to admit I'm not sure what they can do.
Chappelle
You know, that's a good point, David. When they did their outline of how they viewed the house, it was the vets, then the corner, and then them. I never looked at the house structure like that. I always looked at it. At it like the vets and them. Then they brought in the corner as the last people. But apparently the. And. And this is, you know, OG strategy, you know, so I'm not saying anything new. But when they are the last two people or the last person to walk into that room, when they have the big alliance there. It did give them the idea that, okay, I'm. We're the last ones in, so we're the first ones out. We're at the bottom. But I never really thought about it like that because it just felt like Devins was vouching for them so hard. And I think Barrett also was kind of in Dee's pocket for a while, but I think that moment, it feels like it kind of gave Barrett the ick. You know, he walked in and realized, oh, God, I might be at the bottom. And then since then, there's been, like, a rift between that group. And as you said, we saw them walking and talking and talking about how they were going to change their position and not be at the bottom, but I never thought they were at the bottom. I think now they might be, but at first, I think that that's where they. That's where they stood.
David Bloomberg
I. I mean, I think there are a few things happening there. First for Barrett, he needs to realize, and I don't think he will based on what he said. Yes, he was the last one brought into the tool shed, but they tried to wake him, like, three times. He wouldn't budge. That is not their fault. Now, has anyone told him that? I don't think so. I don't think he realizes that he was only brought in last out of happenstance and due to deep sleep. As far as the trio thing, I don't know if Drew caught this or not, but there was a conversation between Devins and Drew Where Devins was. This was on live feeds. Devins was talking about, we have the tool shed, and then we have the crossovers, and then we have our trio. Well, in Devin's mind, what he was talking about was the icons, but he said it out loud to Drew, and Drew said, oh, you mean you, me? And I don't remember who the third person was. And Devin was like, yes, yes, of course. That's what I mean. But Drew's sharp enough. He may have picked up on Devin's slip there. It wasn't as bad as, like, say, naming your alliance to someone who's not in your alliance, but it was darn close to it.
Chappelle
Yeah. So that paranoia and stuff is only going to make things worse. And so I think, you know, Drew and Barrett really need something to shake the house up, that they plan on changing their position because if their current alliance, the tool shed, keeps winning, then they're going to stay in the same spot. You know, they're not. They're never going to be able to take a Shot. Because why would you take a shot at your own side when you have these people who are actively coming against y'? All? So if anybody in that tool shed alliance that's not named Drew a Barrett, when they're going to be stuck in that same position as they whittle down their. Their other numbers, the people that they could use to maybe shift the power in their. In their favor. So whatever they have to do, they have to start winning power very quickly.
David Bloomberg
Yeah. And that's the thing, because, like, they've demonstrated their loyalty. They. They bring information. They bring good information, but every time, especially Drew brings. Brings it to them. Angela and now Dee are like, oh, thank you. Thank you. And then they turn around, and they're like, well, if they're telling us this, what are they talking to the other people about when it comes to us? And, you know, we saw Angela going further off the deep end, talking about how Drew was probably laughing at her in the diary room and so on. It's truly nuts considering that she went through this once before, and she should know she was wrong then.
Chappelle
If. If you're a producer, David, are you in the diary room being like, angela, what do you think about Drew? You know, are you really, like, are you really gonna poke that bear? Because I gotta think that's. I think somebody's riling her up, because it does feel like every time Drew does something, it's like it's getting right under her skin, and then she goes and riles up D. And then they'll rile up each other. But I wouldn't be shocked if the line of questioning isn't, you know, oh, how do you feel about Rick? How do you feel about D? And then that Drew. That Drew guy? Huh? What do you. What do you think about him? You know, I. I don't know if the tone shifts when they talk about him, but it definitely does feel like the air of not trusting him is. Is just floating around like it's in the atmosphere in that house.
David Bloomberg
Yeah. Yeah. Now, those two have, of course, formed their own named alliance, and it is the jugglers.
Chappelle
Hey, that's impressive. I. I cannot juggle. I've never tried it, like, because it just looks like something I wouldn't be able to do. But that was cool. I didn't. I didn't expect you to have that one in you.
David Bloomberg
I did a whole video juggling the whole time, so Just about that topic, but it's been a while since I. I picked up beanbags there, so. But I wasn't gonna try with clubs or rings. I have those, too. But, yeah, doing a video, I'd have just been bonking the camera and myself. Probably so. But, you know, all they can do now, like you said, they could stay wary. They could look for signs that something is going to come at them. But like you said, there's no place for them to go now. And if it continues like this, I think there are going to be people looking back on the season and say Drew and Barrett did it to themselves. All of their possible people were picked off and they did nothing about it, like we've seen in certain Survivor seasons. And it's like, no, they didn't. I could already see myself getting into arguments with those people because it's like they didn't have an opportunity. There was at no point could they have realistically turned. If this continues now, we will see what happens. Obviously, I'm just forecasting the future based on past events. They will need some specific circumstances, like either the. The icons turning on the tool shed and they can, you know, figure out which way they want to go there or. Yeah, like you said, someone on the other side, Melody, Mallory, someone like that winning hoh, and at that point, they're going to have to make a decision and. And flip because otherwise I think that Angela is going to keep pushing and pushing and eventually someone is going to cave in if they keep winning HOH on that side.
Chappelle
Yeah, Jordan, Barrett got to win, too. You know, that's the beauty of Big Brother is that you could be at the bottom, but if you win a challenge, that could. That can change your odds in the game. That could change where you stand in the pecking order. If they start winning, then people will come to them because they have power. You know, if. Let's say Drew wins the next hoh, if he's really uncomfortable in his spot, and I guess he didn't sound as uncomfortable as Barrett, So let's go with Barrett. If Barrett wins the next hoh, he's not comfortable in his spot. He sees their numbers on that side. Okay, grab the betas and submissives that Rome thought that he was going to pick up and then do something about it. You win, you put those people on the block and then make them campaign against each other. This is how Big Brother works. But you have to be able to win. We are. Gone are the days where you can just chill in the house and hope for the best. And if you want to change your position, you have to win a competition.
David Bloomberg
And even then, it's going to be tough for them because like Lala believes she's in an alliance with two of the icons. They don't care about that alliance, but she believes it. And if, let's say Barrett does win hoh, is he going to be able to get Lala to vote with him against them? No, I don't think so. I don't. Those two don't seem to have much of a relationship. You know, is. Is he going to be able to get probably the rest. Many of the rest. He probably could because they'll eventually see how it is. But you need all those numbers if he does. So. Yeah, they need to. Like you said, they need to win something that's about their only option or hope that the tool shed turns on the red corner. I'm sorry, there's a war within the tool shed.
Chappelle
Yeah, we'll see what happens. But they gotta do something soon.
David Bloomberg
Yeah. So do you have anything else that you want to discuss before we move to our next semi regular segment?
Chappelle
Yeah, I have a question. What's your opinion about BB Unlocked now that they are using it to hold viral information in the game hostage?
David Bloomberg
So I, I know that you cover BB Unlocked. Full disclosure, I did not as of yet listen to the podcast from last night because I didn't have a chance last night as we're recording this. So. So I don't know what your opinion is. I was saying on Blue Sky, I do find it interesting the way they're doing this because someone else on Blue sky, and I can't remember who it was, pointed out they used to be holding live feed clips hostage from the live feeders. Now they're holding game clips hostage from the TV only viewers. I prefer this. I mean maybe it's because I was watching Unlocked anyway and so it's like, well good, put some interesting content in there and I do think they have upped the game this season. I think it is more interesting, more fun. Certainly all of the mentions of RHAP last night didn't. Didn't hurt matters at all. And so I do like what they have done to. To make it a better show, a more interesting show to get more people to watch because I think that news will spread. I think that's why ratings were up week one and I'm sure ratings will be up again this week from compared to before because truly Unlocked before I think most casuals ignored it. Certainly most like live feed viewers ignored it and some actively boycotted it because it was felt that they were holding hostage, you know, some of that. Those live feed clips. I I do think there's a general sense that it's gotten better.
Chappelle
Yeah. And they've even giving us a little bit more on the feeds, too. Not so much that they're not still holding stuff hostage, but.
David Bloomberg
Right.
Chappelle
Them coming back from the. From the. The veto ceremony and letting us see the end of that. I don't remember Big Brother doing that before in the past. And then I think most recently after the. The show went off, we got to see Angela put away her. Her costume, you know, for just 15 minutes. And then they. They. You know, so they're breadcrumbing us a little bit, saying, okay, don't complain too much. Yeah, we're holding some stuff hostage, but we're giving you a little bit too. So I don't know. I don't know if we think Taylor Hale directly or if it's just, you know, maybe they're bringing in some, you know, newer viewers of the show, some more passionate fans of the show to really influence the things they're showing us because they are feeding the live feeders more than they normally do. Especially last season when they had unlocked to. To. To keep all that stuff from us. At least they're giving us a little bit so that we don't feel completely starved out by the show.
David Bloomberg
Yeah. Yeah. Of course, one bad change they made is with their switch over back to X instead of blue sky where they were last season. You know, the. The. The posts that they're popping up are from X instead. So that's a bad thing that they did. But, you know, but overall, on the whole, I'd say it was generally a good change.
Chappelle
Cool. Yeah, that was my question.
David Bloomberg
Well, then it is time for another edition of Julie Chen Moonves's Roundabout Blank. In this case, we actually have Julie backtracking a little bit from slamming Devins incorrectly last week. She told Dalton Ross, he won me over when he admitted to Rome's face that things were going to get ugly and then went the extra mile and exposed who Rome was willing to sacrifice. Sacrifice. And then won the veto fair and square. I'm not really sure what winning the veto had to do with anything in that list of things that he did, but. Okay, Julie, you do you. And then she continued. All this being said, he may be the living, breathing example of Big Brother's tagline expect the unexpected. In Survivor, he was known as an agent of chaos, but here in bb, we just call that Tuesday. Again, not really sure how all those thoughts connect, even as Julie begrudgingly sort of admitted that she was wrong. About Devins, she still, in that last part, tried to downplay him. You know, all week they were acting like, oh, this moment on TV is huge. We're going to make such a big deal out of it. And she's like, ah, it's just a regular day. And she picked Tuesday. Of everything, Tuesday's probably the most boring day in the Big Brother house. It's not even Waffle Wednesday.
Chappelle
Right. You know, Julie, don't fight it. You're a fan, and that's okay. That's okay. Sometimes we watch these shows, we come in and we are. I don't want to root for this person, but they start to win us over. I think I've seen a lot of that with the Angela haters. I'm not necessarily an Angela fan. I guess if you had to put me in the Venn diagram, I'm closer to the hater side for Angela. But, you know, I do have to give her her credit where, you know, for these first couple weeks, she's been playing way better than I would have, you know, considered. And even though the paranoia thing is still happening, I think that's just her. I think for her, she's playing the best that she could possibly be playing. And so I have to give her credit where it's due. And I think Julie is begrudgingly starting to give Rick Devins some credit as well. So I'm glad the backtrack is happening.
David Bloomberg
Yes. Yes. Now I have a special bonus addition to the segment this week. Jerry o' Connell is wrong about blank, because Jerry did an interview with Mike Bloom, and he said, I'm actually amazed that the newbie house guests are not going after the icons more. If I was in that household, and I'm a newbie, I would say, we've got to get these people. We've got to get them out. And Mike tried to kind of help him along and point out that only D and Devins have been hoh. Like, hint, hint. The newbies. Saying something like that out loud wouldn't be very smart. Jerry brushed it aside and said, still, I'm amazed that there's more plotting against newbies than there is. Like, we got to get these people out of here. They're going to win this thing. It's just like, Jerry, come on, man. You're. You're a fan. You're. You're supposed to understand this. It would not be a great idea to talk about your future plans for going after the icons while the icons are in power.
Chappelle
Yeah, you know, I think that that's probably something that I've seen in the fan base as well, where the fan of the show just instinctively says, okay, you bring back these returnees or these icons, you got to get them out because you can't let these people go far in the game. And so you're, your knee jerk reaction is, how do I get them out? We saw that in the first week with Lala, you know, immediately being like, angela's got to go. I think we saw that with Jason as well. A couple people where they just plant their flag and say, we're not going to beat these people. We have to take a stand. The problem is in Big Brother, going against the vets rarely benefits you. It definitely benefits you to align with them to some extent. We've seen that. I mean, I think every example of working with returning players has always proven that, yeah, you're gonna have the vocal people who say, we're not doing this. But because of the way the show is structured, the way they bring people back and give them certain advantages, the fan votes as well, it is more times than not beneficial to just get in bed with the, with the people in power and they're going to get power eventually. And so you go with them and then you start to work with them, you know, cozy up to them a bit and then when you get the chance, you get out of there. And so, I mean, look, look in the past, I mean, even last season, Zay, you know, he's going up against Rachel Riley. It's not, that's not a wise thing to do. You know, don't get me wrong. Yeah, if I'm Zay, I'm probably thinking I don't want Rachel in the game long because she's a winner of Big Brother. She's not going to be great for me. But by putting yourself against her, the people who are naturally drawn to her are going to throw you under the bus at the first chance they get. And you see the same thing with these people. You got people saying, I'm going against the vets, but you also have people who immediately like, because I know the vets, I want to work with them. We saw that last season with Morgan. She wanted to work with Rachel because she was a vet. So, you know, it's, it's always a dangerous game to target those people who are coming back or these bigger names. I get the instinct to do it, but in practice, I don't know if it's ever the best strategy.
David Bloomberg
Yeah, I mean, you know, we said, or at least I said in the in our preview podcast, I was like, what you should do is get rid of them right away. The problem is you can't do that for the reasons you mentioned and because production always protects the vets.
Chappelle
Oh.
David Bloomberg
Only one of three people can be hoh. Oh, it's the. It's the three icons. Okay. So you know, they're fine the first week, and then, you know you're giving away power.
Chappelle
Yeah.
David Bloomberg
By your vote. Oh, gee. Like, they're not going to win the first three. So it's like, come on. So, yeah, you don't really have a choice. And especially once, you know, it's one thing to say it hypothetically, like, at the first week, of course they're going to the camera. We got to get rid of them. Well, that's hypothetical at that moment, but once, you know, oh, D. One power. Hoh. Devin's one hoh. Okay, what are you going to do? You can't go around saying, let's get rid of them. You. You can't do that no matter who the HOH is. So gone.
Chappelle
Yeah.
David Bloomberg
Come on, Jerry.
Chappelle
Yeah, it's okay. I get the instinct. But at the same time, like, what do you look like in this situation? There's nothing these people could have done yet. All they have to do is wait for their opening, and they just haven't found it yet.
David Bloomberg
Right. Now, I will say, at least Jerry was right to talk about how he checks in with Taryn every morning to find out what happened on live feeds. And that was even before all of the Rob and Taryn and rhap shout outs on Unlocked. So it was a. It was a big week. You know, for. For shoutouts.
Chappelle
There it was. I didn't like the diary room shout outs during the eviction night, but the ones from Unlocked, they were good for me. I appreciated those.
David Bloomberg
Yes. Yes. Well, there was one that was good from D on eviction night.
Chappelle
Yeah. Big shout out to Brandon Dahmen.
David Bloomberg
Yes. So, all right, well, Rome came into Big Brother 28 with a plan to protect the betas and submissives. And you know what? He actually kind of tried to do that. So why didn't it work out for him? Was it that very plan that tanked his game? What other factors came into play, like, say, a young woman named Lyric or his inability to keep his mouth closed? Let's dive into it all, because at rjp, we know Big Brother and we know why Rome lost. Now, the first and most important rule is to scheme and plot. And one reason Rome came to the majority alliance's attention was because they thought he was doing a lot of this. But I have to tell you, as I look back over things, I really feel like the tool shed gave Rome a lot more credit for scheming and plotting than he actually deserved. He was just kind of hanging out with people. And, yeah, he called himself the President at one point, but I think, correct me if I'm wrong, I think the only actual named alliance he had was four seasons, which wasn't even very real. And, you know, as a. As a way to look at how much scheming he did while he was making out with Lyric four days into the game, Rome even said, oh, it's too early to form alliances now. And then added, mallory was trying to form a big alliance. It's too early now. Just a week ago, you and I talked about Ashley realizing that not making alliances before day two was too late. And then when. When Rome realized Devins was coming after him, he commented in the diary room that he would go to war, but you need an army to go to war, and he didn't have one.
Chappelle
This man did not play Big Brother. He came in the house and forgot to play Big Brother. He started to flirt and hang out with his friends. That's really what he was doing. Yeah, there were strategy talks happening, but that wasn't his main objective. You know, to me, it felt like when he was on the way out, he didn't have that killer instinct that made me feel like, okay, I need Rome to stay. You know, I definitely see we're getting an exit press that. He said, oh, I would have come after the vets. Sure you would have. You know, everybody would have. Everybody would have, could have, should have, did all these stuff. But while you were in the house, what were you doing? You know, we know you were booed up with lyrics, but for you to be there for two weeks and only be a part of basically one named alliance in this house where everybody's in a named alliance, he was really resting on his social influence. And I don't even think that was active gameplay. I think that's just who he is. He was a likable guy. People were drawn to him. And the vets picked up that he had in the tool shed. I guess, as a whole picked up that he had a lot of influence. And one of the people who really started to push that that narrative was Angela. And we know Angela is just naturally a paranoid person, so to see you as a social butterfly, she thought that you were at least scheming and plotting, and he Was not. And if he was scheming and plotting, maybe he would have made it past this round, but it doesn't seem like that was one of his main objectives.
David Bloomberg
Yeah, I mean, he, he, he seemed to have some connections, but the more he hung out with Lyric, the more those connections broke down. Because he was paying a lot more attention to Lyric than the game. And even as late as Wednesday, he spent most of the day that is supposed to be reserved for waffling just sitting around with Lyric rather than trying to convince people to keep him. I think I saw him try half heartedly with Haley, but that wasn't going anywhere, especially with Haley, you know. Now, he could have campaigned all day. Would it have mattered? Probably not by that point. But it is surprising how sometimes people can pull it off. That's why it's called Waffle Wednesday. You actually need to try for that to happen.
Chappelle
It was just. He didn't. To me, he didn't care about the game as much as some of the other people. Right. I think that people like Melody, they will go down swinging no matter what. I think that people like Jason, you know, we saw him and how the. The level of competition in that blockbuster between Jason and Rome. Jason was running, you know what I'm saying? The entire time running. It was not one second wasted. You know, I just don't think Rome had the desire to be in the house to where he would do anything to stay in there. He'll make these alliances, he'll break these promises, he'll say whatever he needs to say. And I think all of that goes aligned with just the reason why he wasn't able to scheme and plot the way he should have. He just wasn't motivated to do it the way he. That I would like to see a Big brother player do it.
David Bloomberg
He should have been motivated to stay with Lyric. Come on, man.
Chappelle
Well, he figured she'll get voted out before the jury anyway, and then she could just come home and he could be her big, strong man, apparently.
David Bloomberg
God, when he was asked that was that.
Chappelle
Did you say that?
David Bloomberg
Yeah.
Chappelle
There was a lot on tv. Why would he say that?
David Bloomberg
Boyfriend. As a boyfriend, you have one answer to that. You always say, I want her to stay in there as long as she
Chappelle
possibly win it all. Yeah. Bring home the money.
David Bloomberg
You never say, I want her to be voted out so she could be here with me. She's gonna see that and be like, what the hell?
Chappelle
What the hell? Yeah, I would you. I just thought it was a crazy thing to say, but again, that. To Me that shows you who's locked in. Lyrics like, okay, you gotta go so I can stay. I'm by. You gotta go. I'm trying to stay. But for him, he's like, what if we both left? You know, what if I get voted out? And then you shortly follow after, and then we get married and then like, hey, hey, bro. Keep your eye on the prize.
David Bloomberg
Yeah, well, for him, the prize is lyric, so. Yeah, yeah, exactly. You know, she may not have the same opinion there. Well, we'll find out. They seem to in that, you know, two weeks from now, but we'll talk about that more later. Now, even when it came to, you know, going back to his other relationships, even with Devins, when you think about it, all Rome had with him was an understanding of sorts, not an actual alliance, which made it that much easier for Devens to turn on him. Like, Devins approached him, and he gave him, you know, I don't remember the exact words, but it wasn't like, okay, yeah, let's form an alliance. We'll be the chess players, you know, or whatever. Because that's where that was mostly formed. It was like, yeah, okay, I got you. You got me. There's a reason naming alliances has a power. It makes no sense logically, but it has a power to certain people. And it might have been a little more difficult for Devins to flip up. Maybe not, but it might have been more difficult. He told Mike Bloom the few days before the hoh, Devins and I were sitting or outside sitting alone. He's like, no one talks game with me. You're one of the only guys in this house that talks to me like this. I trust you. I hope you trust me. You're one of my closest allies. And Rome said. And I took that to heart. I really felt like he and I were having a good moment, and I thought he was a good guy. With the power of both of us, we could go really far in this game together. So in other words, Rome fell hook, line, and sinker for Devin's sob story about how nobody wanted to work with him when in fact, he already had multiple alliances.
Chappelle
Yeah, I think if. If Devin's is telling you that. I think at that point, you said, we're locked in. Me, you, and Lyric, you know, do something. Try to at least try to give yourself some coverage, you know, and you probably should have done that before Devin's won HOH for sure. You know, like, D was in power last week. Where were you and Devin's, you know, when that was going on? So, yeah, I think that we see a lot of people with these named alliance and they're getting out of control. Everybody in the house has a named alliance with somebody, but the reason for that is that at least you feel covered when the HOH happens. So that way these people have to actively betray you, you know, so that gives you more license to be upset. If, if someone you're not aligned with comes after you, then all you can do is stand there like Rome and say, yeah, that man's a good ball player. You know, like that's, that's it. You could just like charge into the game and say, well, I wasn't working with him, so that's why I ended up on the block. Make an alliance with these people. Scheme and plot.
David Bloomberg
Yeah, well, I mean, Rome did try to make an alliance after Devens was hoh. He said, hey, come, come join the four seasons after there were four.
Chappelle
Four seasons in it.
David Bloomberg
And it was clear the alliance was pre formed and Devins was only being invited because he was hoh, you know, and, and so it's like, that's not the way you do it. And you know, then of course from there, Rome spilled literally everything about his game, virtually unprompted, and even offered himself up as a pawn if Devin's wanted. It was like he was going through a checklist of all the wrong things to do when it came to scheming.
Chappelle
Yeah, it's just again, you're not. He wasn't really locked in. He didn't really know the show that well and so he was just going off of his instincts. But your instincts are not enough to get you through Big Brother a lot of times. I mean, sometimes it works out for people. But I would strongly recommend that, you know, you really take an active stance in your gameplay as opposed to just being social and letting the game pass you by.
David Bloomberg
Yeah. I will say, when it came to scheming and plotting, after nominations, when it became clear Rome was going to be backdoored, he gave Lyric some decent advice that led to her maneuvering her way off the block. He did more strategizing to protect her than he did for himself.
Chappelle
You know, I, I'll give him credit for that too. The, the, the fake breakup, as. As dumb as it sounded and as. As transparent as it seemed, it did to an extent work. Right. It kept him and Lyric off the block together. So by the end of the week, there was actually a world where if he won the blockbuster, him and his Showmans would have survived. And so, you know, as hard as I was on him preseason and even, I guess to an extent I am now. I will give him credit that that is impressive because the vets should have. Not that like, they should not have made that mistake. Massive fumble. Rome could be in the house this week, and he could be winning hoh and targeting some of these vets. I mean, if he's being honest about what he said when he says, oh, I'm good, I would have gone after the vets, then this could have been an incredible mistake for Rick Devins. So, you know, I. Kudos on making that happen. I think again, his urge to save Lyric was bigger than his urge to remain in the game.
David Bloomberg
Yeah, I do want. I. He did help or maybe, you know, instigate the plan for that. I want to give more credit to Lyric. She made it happen. She convinced people that she was not really a player and that she was more naive and innocent and, oh, you know, made made Devins feel comfortable. Devins even said, I. I don't know why, but I trust her as I. Well, you shouldn't, you know. But, yeah, but yeah, Rome contributed to that. But Lyric really made it happen. I think.
Chappelle
Yeah, she's very impressive week for. For Lyric. Even if, like I said, it's a little transparent. It still. It still looked really good.
David Bloomberg
Right. Right. Okay. Well, the second rule says not to scheme and plot too much and to keep your scheming secret. As with last week, I feel I have to reiterate something here. Keep your scheming secret. Rome violated this rule badly, in multiple different ways. First, how obvious he and Lyric were about their showmance. This rule specifically notes that such relationships are just begging to be split up. Of course, it also says the best way to do this is to nominate both members of the showmance, something as we just talked about, that Devin's d' Angela apparently forgot. But it still didn't work out for Rome. The rule continues. Quote, players need to avoid the appearance of being part of a tight pair. If you fall in love and you value that more than $750,000, good for you. But these are rules about how to win Big Brother, not how to win a soulmate. And Rome even acknowledged to Dalton Ross that if he could go back and change one thing for his game, quote, I would have probably hidden my feelings for Lyric a little bit better than I did. It's a bit too late for that one room.
Chappelle
I mean, day. Day two, we saw, you know, we saw clips from day two of him being like, you know, I think this is this Is the one. I think this is a day two. You start to already lock in on this show match. I mean, look, keep your feelings to yourself. Fine, whatever. But you making out and stuff like that on the have not bed and. And then some, you know, doing all the things you're doing while laying inches away from people we've seen have not rooms where there's a little bit more space between people when they're sleeping. These people are sleeping on one spinning bed together with a little divider between them. And y' all are doing. Right. Y' all are doing so much publicly and then saying like, well, you know, we also broke up. Really? That's crazy, because I heard you last night kissing, you know, and we could hear you last night whispering to each other. They weren't. He wasn't trying to keep anything a secret. So just be like, I think I could have hid my feelings a little bit more. A lot. A lot of it. Like, that's. You know, you gave away your biggest ally in the game. Most of these alliances are trying to remain secret to some extent. You're number one. You don't have a named alliance for it, because it's just the girl that you want to be with the entire game and potentially outside of the house. So, yeah, he. He definitely gave his position away very quickly.
David Bloomberg
Yeah. Like you said, the lies that he came up with were. Were so bad. Oh, I. I was only up in lyric spunk because she had lost her voice and, you know, was whispering, so I needed to be up there to hear. And these are bunk beds. They're all right there. They could hear you. And then later, they had their master plan that we already talked a bit about breaking up. Even he laughed at that in interviews because it was such an obvious lie. And yet some people who should have known better seem to fall for it for at least a little while.
Chappelle
Yeah. The best that Rome could do, I guess, in these spots. But it's still bad, you know, and. And then I guess, you know, when you have these big secrets, you're supposed to keep them secret. Right. I think at some point, he's kind of like just like, yeah, we. We're back together, you know, like, it's. It's like the worst kept secret that. That the house ever had was this showmance. And so, yeah, if you're not. If you're trying not to put a target on your back. He went about it the complete wrong way.
David Bloomberg
Yeah. So, as I said, he screwed up in this rule in multiple ways. Another was, of course, the Way he just handed over his entire strategic alliance map to Devens. First, he told him his extended group, and then he, of course, boiled down his list. He forgot it was a game, just because he liked Devens.
Chappelle
You know, he said he wanted to protect the betas and submissives, but he offered them up very quickly. You know, I. I think saving Jason and Lyric, I don't think that's necessarily saving the better. I wouldn't consider either of those two people a beta. A beta or submissive. But to be like, yeah, Lala is good. You can have her. Mallory, anybody, basically any little women on the bottom that. You can have them. But don't take my strongest two allies. Look, okay, well, I don't. I don't know, man. I thought you were supposed to be championing the little people.
David Bloomberg
He.
Chappelle
He was willing to get rid of them. And don't get me wrong, he should have been trying to save Lyric and Jason. Those. They seem like very strong allies for him, but to just give that information to Rick Devins and say, okay, don't. Don't backstab me when you. Especially when you don't have, like, a real solid alliance between the two of you. It was a misstep.
David Bloomberg
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the way he wanted to protect the betas and submissives was a little different. I have something to say about that later. You know, it wasn't. It wasn't protecting them in the way of not using their names. It was a different way that we'll see. But yeah, in. In telling Devins all of this, he also broke a specific corollary within this rule which says if any alliances do get out in the open. Oh, actually, here it is. I forgot it was right here. Do not let it be known that you are the decision maker. But Rome prided himself on being in charge or the president, as he said. And this is where Taryn got Rome to explain his betas and submissives line in the RJP interview. And Rome said he didn't want to work with the Alphas, but be the face of the people who would be the masterminds behind the scenes. And he would basically take the attention off of them. And so he didn't mean protecting them that way. He wanted. He wanted to be out front leading the betas and submissions. He wanted to be the face of them. And, I mean, he succeeded there. He definitely took the attention off of them, which is literally the opposite of what he should have been doing.
Chappelle
He said, don't target them, target me.
David Bloomberg
Yeah.
Chappelle
And what Are we doing? Are you trying to win the game by being the biggest target on your side of the alliance? I just. I think that he was just very misguided in what he thought the game was. I know they don't show them the game and sequester. I think Taylor Hale said they don't give them any. Any episodes or anything like that to watch. I kind of wish they would, you know, or, you know, just. Just so that some people aren't in here just walking around like. Like little targets, you know? For Rome, it was just a matter of time before somebody got him out just like this.
David Bloomberg
Yeah. I think in his mind, he would draw the attention to himself, and then he would win whatever comp in order to ensure safety. And. And it's like, no, you can't just automatically decide you're going to win a comp. It doesn't work that way. I don't know. Maybe he saw. Maybe he saw last season and it did seem like the person who needed to always want a comp and he was like, oh, that'll be me. I'll draw attention to me and I will protect everyone.
Chappelle
Yeah. I think people should realize, first of all, that these cops can be so random sometimes, you know, but then also that they're not easy. And then all these other people have a skill set as well. Right. So it's like, yeah, you might think you're very. He said, I'm the most competitive person I know. That's great. That's. You're the most competitive person you know. You know, but when you get in this house, these people are also competitive and they want to be there. And I think that, you know, him imagining him winning a bunch of competitions, like a Keanu style or even like Tucker style, where it's like, oh, yeah, it doesn't really matter what I'm doing in the game because as long as I win, I'm fine. You. You didn't have to put up or shut up. You didn't have to win. And he wasn't able to do that.
David Bloomberg
Right. So Rome also spilled his plan for what he'd do if he stayed in one hoh. Telling several people that you mentioned this that he would put up all three of the icons. So doing exactly what Jerry o' Connell was wrong about. You know, two of the people he told were those who were nominated against him, Melody and Jason. So of course they told others about it with Melody's info, getting to Devins through Drew and Jason, telling Devins directly. When you have, like, two separate lines of evidence come together like that, you know, it's more likely to be true. And yet another reason to want Rome out, because he was doing exactly what Jerry o' Connell said he should do,
Chappelle
following Jerry's rules and not yours. The dangerous game you're playing, Rome.
David Bloomberg
Yeah. And then, as if things weren't already bad enough, Rome tried to campaign to the guys. Just the guys. Maybe he thought it would be secret, which is ridiculous to believe, but Dee hilariously blew it up, even though we didn't see it on tv. I. I think Devin's summed it up nicely on live feeds by saying. Saying I feel like he just alienated the BLEEP out of all the women.
Chappelle
That seems to be a common occurrence in this house as well. You know, there'd be a couple other people who. I just couldn't see them having a good, active working relationship with the women. But this was the best that. It's the best that Rome could do with the limited knowledge that he had and following what his miscon, you know, idea of Big Brother is. And so he thought, okay, well, the guys are a lot of votes. If I get those, then maybe they'll keep me. I can. I can be a shield. It's like, that's not how this works. If we keep saving you to be the shield, are you really the shield? You know, at some point. At some point, you're the sword, like Taylor. And so, yeah, might as well just get rid of you.
David Bloomberg
Yeah. All right, we could go to the third rule, which talks about the need to be flexible. How would you say Rome did here?
Chappelle
Not. Not great. You know, the. The pivot. I thought the best thing he did in flexibility is pivoting away from Lyric for a little bit. You know, that attempt was nice for him. Again, this is a person who is com. Like, just completely confessing his love two weeks into the game, talking about marriage and stuff like that. So for him to actively be able to be like, all right, we need to separate in the game. I'll give him credit because that is something that I wouldn't have expected from him. I thought once he was in there, he was going down the ship. I just knew we were going to see him and Lyric sitting on the block hand in hand, you know, by the time the night came. But they managed to separate themselves a little bit. Aside from that, I don't really see a lot of flexibility in his game. Like you said, the scramble does start late in the week, and he tries some. He tries some interesting things. But I think when you're looking at Devin's, and Devin's is kind of like, oh, well, who are you willing to sacrifice from your side? You know, for lack of a better way of just putting that, you know, I think the answer there is Devin's. You put up who you want to put up, you know, do what's best for your game. I'm with you. You know, and then if Devin is really with you, he might, you know, go above and beyond to save your showmance, you know, But I think he could have learned a little bit more in flexibility, for sure. Yeah.
David Bloomberg
And you talked about this earlier. Everybody has multiple alliances. Almost everybody. Rome barely had one. You've got. Part of being flexible is having different options, and Rome had one or zero options, pretty much. He had four seasons and lyrics, but neither of. I mean, I think lyric was in four seasons, so it's just not. There was nothing he could do. There was no place to maneuver.
Chappelle
The proof. The proof is in the pudding. This is the second week in a row we. We almost had another unanimous eviction here. Okay. If not for Taylor just throwing him a pity vote, you know, saying, I just thought he should have a vote so that people. Now, I thought this was crazy thing to say. He said, I thought she should. I thought he should have one vote so that he knows that somebody in the house does care about him. Said, damn, Ashley found dead in the ditch somewhere. Y' all didn't give a damn about Ashley feeling this. But. But see, I guess that's the power of Rome's social game compared to Ashley's. The issue is that more. More people should have been willing to ride with him, and they could have been trying to get these numbers, but they knew by the time this is all said and done, he was going home.
David Bloomberg
Yeah.
Chappelle
Yeah.
David Bloomberg
Well, the fourth rule says players should not let their emotions control them. I don't think we have anything to discuss here. We can skip this one, right? There's nothing emotional.
Chappelle
Oh, my God. This. The weeping. The weeping. It Stand up. And then also the love. Love is an emotion. Do not throw your game away on day two and decide that you're going to be in a public showmance. That's crazy. Showmances are. Are beneficial in Big Brother. They really are. Especially a showmance that can win competitions. But keeping that showman secret has been so beneficial for so many people, or at least getting to the point where, okay, now that we're a public showman, there are bigger threats in front of us. But to come out. And basically, when we're looking for reasons to get rid of somebody when nobody has wronged anybody, when we're just like, okay, give me something. You went and found a huge target and just place it on your forehead because you could not keep your emotions in check and not. Not some crazy anger or, you know, like you didn't get pissed off and say some wild thing. I mean, don't get me wrong, he definitely got pissed off and said some wild at certain points. But to allow yourself to get wrapped up in this love story that you wrote yourself, it. It really did take your game for no reason other than you felt a lot about it, you had strong feelings, and you went with it.
David Bloomberg
Yeah, Obviously, this one was a huge problem for him. We discussed in the first rule how he did more strategizing to help Lyric that he ever did to help himself. And it just. He didn't help him. He helped her. And. But we're talking about him here, and, you know, we saw in the live feeds Saturday, him telling Lyric he wanted to protect her, even if it meant he would lose the game because she meant too much to him. And I guess it made sense to him because if he had to live his life without her near him, the days would all be empty. The nights would seem so long.
Chappelle
Deep sigh, deep side. I don't like this at all.
David Bloomberg
Even.
Chappelle
Even on his way out, you know? All right, everybody just wanted to let you know, me and Lyric, madly in love. Been lying to you all week. All the tactics that she used let me just highlight how effective she is at pulling the wool over your eyes. All right, bye. And then just leaves her in the house where people saying, like, damn. I kind of. I kind of believed her. That's crazy. Maybe she's better than I thought she was. Thank you, Rome, for highlighting that portion of her game. This man was completely wrapped up in emotion through since day two.
David Bloomberg
Yeah. I do want to say, even if after the season is over, the two of them go on to become a successful big brother couple and they live happily ever after and they have big brother babies and everything else, it still will not alter our analysis of this as a game move. And as a game move, he blew it.
Chappelle
Absolutely.
David Bloomberg
All right, well, the fifth rule says players need to pretend to be nice and play the social game. I would say, for the most part, Rome did well here. What do you think?
Chappelle
Yeah, for sure. People thought so highly of him socially, and that's why they looked at him as a threat. You know, they knew. People like Angela knew that if Rome was galvanizing that side to make a move, then he could. He wasn't because he wasn't playing the game actively, but he could have. He really did have a lot of social influence, even to the point where Taylor is throwing him a pity vote. So there he was. He played nice with people. Now we definitely saw him slip up, you know, him and Thog getting their little. Their little tiff after the fight, after the ceremony.
David Bloomberg
Not everybody knows who Thog is. I think Haley.
Chappelle
Haley, Thog Martin. Yeah. AKA the. The Thog. I know. I love. I love Thog. Yeah, he, you know, he definitely had a couple moments, but he even went out of his way to patch that up. You know, him and Haley both kind of men fences on that. So I think he was willing to play nice. You know, when Rick Devins pulls a wool over his eyes, he's. He's not like, Rick Devins is an awful person. And it's me versus him. He said he played a good game. You know, this man is honorable. I still love him, you know, so, you know, whether that's him pretending or not, I don't think this was one of his. His weaknesses in the game.
David Bloomberg
Yeah, I agree. So often the players who are voted out this early have some aspect of this rule to blame because they're just pissing people off. But over and over, Devins kept saying it was nothing personal and it really wasn't. I. I think Devin's really does like the guy and probably almost everyone else in the house feels the same. And like you said, he kept a level head and except for when things finally got to be too much and he blew up. But, you know, he told Mike Bloom nothing in that house is personal. As a competitor, I looked at him and I said, wow, you outplayed me. That was amazing. It was really well done. So, yeah, that was, you know, that one was fine.
Chappelle
Seems like a nice guy.
David Bloomberg
Yeah. Well, the sixth rule says not to be too much of a threat. Rome didn't exactly have a good understanding of how to handle this. He began by winning one of the first safety comps. And he has an athletic job. He has obvious muscles. So he decided he needed to downplay himself as a threat by throwing comps. When Yash wanted to pick him to play for veto if he got house guest's choice the first week, Rome told him, no, don't do that. I'm just going to throw it to avoid being seen as a comp threat. As Taran noted in the very first live feed recap, it doesn't do any Good to go around telling everybody you're throwing comps so you won't be seen as a threat. It literally kills the whole point. You're saying, I am such a threat that I have to avoid being seen as a threat. And he went around saying this to multiple people.
Chappelle
He forgot to. He knew that he needed to downplay himself. But by speaking about it, you were doing the antithesis of that. Also, when he's sitting around saying, I think I'm the president, he wasn't able to step away from that and say, no, how does that make me look? Because if you think you're the president, what do you think other people think about you? Right. So he's. He can tell that he has a lot of social influence and that people are coming to him and people want to be his friend. He could tell. But he didn't look at that and say, oh, that's probably going to make me a target. Maybe I should downplay that a little bit. Maybe I should get people to, hey, maybe we shouldn't talk so publicly. Maybe I should go form some secret alliances. Maybe I should use my influence as the president to go and form a coalition around me. But he wasn't really doing that to build. He was just happy that people were like, he's like, I have a lot of people like me, you know? And so. Yeah. And that magnetism that he had is part of the reason why he looked at such a big threat. He is athletic, but also, you're very social as well and people want to work with you. Yeah. I think we need to get you out and for him. So, yeah, maybe you gotta dim your light a little bit and not just be like, don't just tell people I'm dimming my light. You gotta actually do it.
David Bloomberg
Right. Well, the problem is he decided apparently to dim his light at perhaps the wrong time because he told Devins he threw this week's hoh. Clearly. Clearly a brilliant decision on his part. Now we don't have confirmation past that mention to Devin's. I went back and rewatched the comp. It's, you know, as Devin showed, it can be hard to. To throw this. I don't know if they get practice throws, for example. And so like his, for his first throw that we saw slid between the two hats. So he got a very low number there. Maybe he threw that, maybe not. But if he did, then he was stupid to tell Devins the truth for the same reason we just discussed about how it doesn't actually reduce your threat level if you Admit you weren't actually trying to. And if he didn't throw it, but just told Devins that he was stupid to lie about it because. Well, the same reasons, really.
Chappelle
When did he get locked out of that room? What was the day? What. What was that week one? Or was that when Devin's was hoh. Did he get locked out of D's room when they formed the teacher?
David Bloomberg
It was this week.
Chappelle
It was Devin's.
David Bloomberg
I know it seems like so long ago. So much has happened already, but.
Chappelle
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So I. I want to go back to the Ashley vote. He was aware that the house was split on that and that they end up, you know, remember, they end up going and saying, all right, we all need to vote Ashley out because we don't want to give away our stance. But there was suspicion around that, you know, what if. If they were going to vote her out or. You know, I think for Rome, when there is so much suspicion in the air about where the votes is going, I think this is not the moment where you want to throw the challenge. You know, he was. He was trying to play like he was a floater. Like, oh, yeah, I'm just gonna lay low, throw some challenges. People are gonna keep me around because I'm. I'm likable. But he wasn't in a floater's position. He was the target. And so when you're. When you're the target or when you can be the target, this is your chance. This is. You need to seize power to at least keep yourself safe. If I'm him and I'm in a public showmance, there's no way I'm throwing this challenge because I want to keep me and my showman safe. You know, like, now you have to take a more active position in the game because you've put that target on your back. He just couldn't identify that the target was already on him. Throwing challenges was not going to get that off his back.
David Bloomberg
Yeah, yeah. You know, talking about the Ashley vote, I don't think he knew a lot of them, did not know where those lines were. They were very blurry at that point. I think Melody clocked it. I'm not sure who else did. Rome clearly did not clearly. And so. But yeah, in a situation like that, this whole thing of I'm going to throw right off the bat because I won one comp. Just. There's too. Too many possibilities. He just felt so secure, like you said. And. And maybe part of it is, you know, as he was trying to reduce his threat level. In his mind, he still thought of himself very highly. He told Dalton Ross, these icons were quaking in their boots because of me. And it's just a testament to me. It feels good. It shows that I have strong qualities that people think should be out. But I also think that Angela knew I have a strong sense of leadership. I can rally a lot of people. That's one of my biggest assets. And that's what I thought I brought to the game. And I'm just sitting here looking at this interview like, oh, oh, yes, yes. From. I'm sure Dee and Angela and Devins were quaking in their boots.
Chappelle
Well, is the rallying in the room with us? If you could do. You had this power, why didn't you use it? You said they could see all these good qualities in me. Could you not see them in you? Why didn't you rally the votes? Why don't you have a side? I think when I think about throwing challenges, when we watch these shows, we. It's because you don't want to have the power because you don't want to wield it. And you don't want to show where your loyalties lie. You didn't have anybody. You showed who your loyalties were. You told Devin exactly who your alliance was. You only really had the four seasons that you should have been protecting anyway because that was your named alliance. This was the perfect time to win a challenge. And then everybody who you're not aligned with, you say, okay, boom. What can you do for me and my people? This is how you do that. But to just come in, like I said, get into a very known public showmance, put that target on your back and then say, and now I'm going to throw the competition. How does that benefit you? You're not going to wield any power. You're not going to rally any troops, and you haven't put yourself in a position where you should be trying to hide who you're working with. If anything, it should be very clear that Rome had his people. The four seasons, he had Lyric as a one on one. And then all the rest of these people were kind of secondary. And so for. For me, I think this is where you. This. You try to win. Instead. He was trying to throw.
David Bloomberg
Yes, yes. I like the way you put that. You know, the rallying part, you know.
Chappelle
Yeah. You can't rally people without power. Where was it? Where was the rallying?
David Bloomberg
Yeah. All right. Well, the seventh rule says to trust almost nobody. And. And Chappelle, I bet there's one person in particular you can think of who Rome definitely trusted when he shouldn't have.
Chappelle
Yeah, this trust for Rick Devins is crazy. You know, not so much that it, like I get it. You could trust Rick Devins, that's fine. He seems like a stand up guy, right? But you trusted him to the point where you were willing to give him the, the keys to your game. You know, trust him to an extent. But if you trust him that much, why aren't y' all in the final two? You know, like, like if you say almost nobody, that means you gotta trust somebody at some time. Right. You have to be able to to vouch for people and to know these people have your back when it's time to vote. So I get that. But if you're telling this Rick Devins all this stuff, this should be a we decision. Who do we want to keep safe? Not who on my side do I want to keep safe. Jason and Lyric, maybe Lala, but you know, she could go, but not those two people. No, that's. If you're gonna trust Rick Devins, trust Rick Devin, go all the way in and make this somebody who not only you're trusting, but you're working with moving forward. And it just felt kind of like you said like a gentleman's agreement, you know, like, oh, I'll look out for you if I can. That's not good enough if you're going to be telling somebody all the ins and outs of your game.
David Bloomberg
Right, Right. Yeah. He rome told Mike Bloom my truth to him was always going to be out there. I never felt like I was going to backstab him because I trusted him fully. Which is interesting because we already talked about how he said in interviews that he would have nominated Devin's D and Angela if he won hoh. So now we clearly have some contradictions there. He couldn't even keep his stories straight in that regard. But he also said in his rhap interview that Jason and Lyric told him Devins was not to be trusted. And we saw Jason as soon as Devens walked in running around. He's going to back which Jason, you're wrong. I mean, I know it seems like he proved him right, but no, if you're Devin's ally, he is never going to backstab you. Like I fully believe he will go to the end with D if they can do it. Even if he believes D will beat him, he will go to the end with her. He will not backstab her.
Chappelle
Right, I agree. I agree, I think, but I Think Jason's point, it still stands, right? If you're not his ally, then you should not be trusting him. In Rome, you had not proven yourself to be an, an alliance member to him. Yes, you had proving that y' all have a good working relationship. But he's not going to go with you to the end. Right. The same way you are sure that he would go to the end with D, you don't have that relationship. So when, when your actual alliance, Jason, Lyric when they say don't trust him, why would you trust him over them?
David Bloomberg
But he said he thought he could change him, which is a ridiculous thing to say about someone who has already played Survivor twice. So it's not like this is some inexperienced person you're going to mold. This is someone who has played a game like this in much harsher conditions twice already and you're suddenly going to be like, oh, let me teach you. Let me the person who knows nothing about these games. Let me teach you how to play. If Mr. Honesty, loyalty, integrity, Joe could not change Rick Devins, Rome was not going to.
Chappelle
Joe.
David Bloomberg
Not that Rome has any idea who Joe is.
Chappelle
Rick Devin's a grown ass man. I ain't letting no 20 something year old come in and tell me that they're gonna change me. Change me. Do it be is what got me here. You know what I'm saying? You can't change Rick Devin. And this is a tale as old as time as. Well, people. I, I'm going to be the one to tame the beast. I will change them. No, you won't. You're just going to be a victim. You're gonna get like you. You're trying to tame the dog. It's gonna bite you. And that's basically what happened.
David Bloomberg
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, the main point here is you can't just hand over your game to someone else like that. I don't, I don't care how trustworthy you think they are. You know, I, I think Angela said it.
Chappelle
He.
David Bloomberg
He laid it all out on a silver platter.
Chappelle
Yeah.
David Bloomberg
All right, so it is about time to wrap things up. What are your final thoughts about Rome?
Chappelle
You know, he could have gone far into this season as somebody who won a bunch of competitions he decided to throw. So that didn't help. He seemed likable enough. So I, you know, appreciate that he didn't come in and make a bunch of enemies and go out like a huge jerk. But as far as somebody and their prospects to do well in the Big Brother game, we saw it in the interviews. We knew this was not going to be like he wasn't going to be long for this game if he didn't win a lot of competitions. I think we said the same thing about Yash, and Yash has been slipping under the radar, you know, but he also doesn't have the same social influence that Rome has. Yash is not putting that huge target on his back for being a threat. You know, if anything, Yash has other issues with that'll put him in people's line of fire. But being a threat is not one of those issues. And so I, you know, I think he did about as well as I thought he was going to do without any competitions. With the competitions, he could have probably been a contender for later on in the game, but this just didn't work out for him. And I, I'm not shocked.
David Bloomberg
Yeah.
Chappelle
Yeah.
David Bloomberg
Well, Wikipedia says the Roman Empire fell for a combination of reasons, including power struggles, increasing pressure from invaders, and a loss of effectiveness and numbers in the Roman army. Among other things. This Rome had some similar problems. Despite being thought of as a leader, he didn't put together an effective army, let alone one that could compete with the numbers on the other side. He thought he held power, but never truly did and suddenly felt the pressure of an invasion that targeted himself and his closest allies. All of those problems were self inflicted or at least made worse by his actions. He gave away far too much information. He showed exactly who he stood with, from those he told Devins to the showmance that was clear to one and all. And every attempt he made to hide anything just made things worse. Whether it was telling everyone he was going to throw comps or trying or lying about breaking up with Lyric, Rome was the focus of the entire week. It was so clear he didn't even have hope for a waffle Wednesday. And he helped in all of that because he was fully willing to sacrifice his chance at 3/4 of a million dollars for a woman he met two weeks earlier, hamstringing his ability to even try to get himself out of the situation. Now, another factor that Wikipedia says contributed to the decline of the Roman Empire was incompetent emperors. Rome did not call himself an emperor here, just the president. But when it came to following these rules, he was exactly as competent as we thought he would be when we met him in the pregame. And that is why Rome fell.
Chappelle
Y X failed. Coming to you live here on rjp. That's a, that's a good wrap up, David. I think for Rome. Pour one out. You know he was a good sport. I wonder. I, I'm very eager to see what kind of content we get for him now that he's outside of the game.
David Bloomberg
Yes. Who does he team up with? Does he team up with Matt and start doing videos with him or does he, like, find someone better?
Chappelle
I don't really know who his people would be because he doesn't really give me the same vibe that Matt Hartman gave us. Now, they could bond over a joint disdain for Angela. Maybe that could be something they bond over. But Matt was unlucky in love in the Big Brother house. You know, him and Mackenzie, they did the. In the house. Yeah. And you know, and honestly, you know, this trajectory could be very similar to that. Right. Like he goes out pre jury very early on and then maybe Lyric works her way to the end of the game, but whatever, if. I don't know if it was that time away from each other or maybe they just aren't as compatible outside the house. But things don't really work out for Madden McKenzie, I really don't think Rome, if he want to keep his relationship with Lyric going, I don't think hanging out with Matt Hardman is going to be good for your morale. You know, he might be a little down on your prospects here, so, I don't know, find somebody else, but make some good content. Give me something to talk about on the slot.
David Bloomberg
Yes, yes. All right. Well, everybody should be sure to stay tuned for our predictions in a moment, which, as we mentioned are spoiler free and written without any knowledge of what happened on the feeds after the eviction. But first, a few other pieces of information. First, I want to mention that the rules we are referencing here are similar to, not exactly the same as, but similar to the Survivor rules. And those come in a shorter and much more colorful version. As a poster, you can go to robhasawebsite.com yxlostfeed, scroll down to the poster, click on it and order it. The poster also comes in a T shirt and a checklist version which is closer but again, still not exactly the same. So again, go to. Rob has a website.comYX lost feed and if you order, you know, like if you order shirts now, you may have time to be, you know, have them for rahabcon in Milwaukee when you're, when you're there, which by the way, might as well announce now I will be at rahabcon, so. So, you know, I'll be looking forward to seeing a lot of people there. You can go to rehab. I think, I think you can go to rehabcon.com rehabcon.com to get tickets. I think that's, I think they're open to everyone now. I'm not 100% sure if only patrons can get them, but you know, I guess you find out by going there. Besides that, since Big Brother is a 24. 7 game, make sure you follow us on social media to get our full thoughts throughout the week. I post videos Every day at TikTok, YouTube and Instagram where I am @David Bloomberg TV. Been making about on average 3 per day with fun stuff from the show the live feeds, my thoughts on what's happening and you can find all my various accounts at linktree David Bloomberg, including my Blue sky, where both of us make our social media homes and we encourage everyone else to do likewise for your Big Brother discussions. So many of the Big Brother update accounts have moved. It is a, a fun community. It is a better place overall despite what what CBS marketing seems to think for this season. We've mentioned Rob has said he's primarily there for Big Brother and I noted last week that even Rick Devin's mother in law has endorsed it.
Chappelle
Yeah, Blue sky is the place to be. I'm at Chappelle's kickback on there and David is at David Bloomberg. You can also find me at Recap kickback on all social media platforms and keep up with the podcasting that I do over there. Mari and I are still talking about House of the Dragon. We just wrapped up up our Vampireless that coverage and we got some other things coming your way on Recap Kickback but make sure you follow on all social media platforms. I'm creeping up on 3,000 subscribers on YouTube, so YouTube.com recap kickback. Yeah, we're gonna, we're gonna see if we can hit it before the end of the summer. But then you can also catch me over on Rhap, the famous rhap from Big Brother Unlocked, where I'll be talking about the slop and then of course he every other week talking about BB Unlocked. This week we had Izzy and Jenny Autumn on as our guests and so that was a great time as well though.
David Bloomberg
Yeah, I'm looking forward to listening to that definitely. All right, we could go to predictions. As I mentioned, we write these up or at least in our heads before the HOH comp. So you know, I understand some people don't want to know about live feeds. You don't have to worry about that here now considering we knew it's a big build for the HOH Comp that required the backyard to be closed for a while. I think it's going to be something fairly athletic which I believe will favor Camus abilities. I think he will, you know, get there. He will become HOH and that's when things will get interesting because although I mentioned earlier that it seems like he's held off on the Drew paranoia, I'm not convinced Haley has been hammering him about yes, thog has been hammering him and I, I don't know if he will fall to it. I think he will realize even if it's true, it's still too soon to go after someone within your own alliance. He has been fairly steady about that. So I think he will stay making logical deductions about the game and instead he will go along with a different person. Haley really wants out Lala along with her. I think he'll nominate Taylor as a close ally of Lala's and then either Mallory or Melody or Jason if he nominates Jason. If he wants Lala out and nominates Jason, I think it could be a mistake because I think more people would want Jason out than Lala and so he won't necessarily get his target it but if not, then I think he'll be successful and Lala will say bye. Bye.
Chappelle
Interesting. So I took a different approach because you know, I'm team fun feeds. I want the chaos. And so I was thinking, okay, what is the best thing that we can happen? We've seen this in Big Brother before. We like the tides to shift. We want the power to go back and forth so we can root for the underdog sometime so it doesn't get stale. So after watching that blockbuster, I really thought Jason has has some momentum and okay, this would be the perfect time for him to go in. If it's an athletic competition, I think he's, you know, probably no slouch at that. And so I really hope that Jason is able to win HOH and really just, you know, go and make this a little bit more interesting right now because as you said, the combo thing would be very straightforward. But I think Jason, he would target those vets and then we would have to see what it looks like when the vets have their backs against the wall. And I think that could be really fun. And so Jason putting up D Angela and Devin's, that would be my fingers crossed, optimistic prediction of the week.
David Bloomberg
Okay, Yes, I give, you know, I often give the here's what I think will happen and then you give the flip side of here's what we hope will Happen.
Chappelle
Yeah, basically. Yeah. Jason's down and out, you know, so, you know, we love to see the underdogs kind of rise up in Big Brother. It's the fun of watching the game.
David Bloomberg
Yeah.
Chappelle
Yeah.
David Bloomberg
All right, well, as we wrap up, I want to encourage people to check out the RHAP Patron Program at robhazawebsite.com patron in addition the Facebook groups and Discord, there are like, I don't know, three or four Patron only podcasts for Big Brother, including the one you already mentioned, the slop.
Chappelle
Yeah. And you can help support shows like ours and everything on this network by becoming a patron@robhasawebsite.com patron and make sure
David Bloomberg
you're also subscribed to all of the RHAP podcasts. At weknowbigbrother.com you'll find content like us and other big Brother, all the other Big Brother podcasts, daily live feed updates and more.
Chappelle
We want to thank Scott St. Pierre and Jess Sterling and the whole RHAP and reality TV rap, UPS feed, behind the scenes team for all the work they do, editing and posting and everything else.
David Bloomberg
All right, well, let me add to the thanks there by thanking you, Chappelle, for another great episode. This was fun. And, you know, we will. We will see everyone in a week. You can find us on social media. In the meantime, I don't know if you have any words of wisdom to send us out on here.
Chappelle
David, my word of wisdom is for you. Make sure you take a Sharpie with you to rahabcon so you can sign these posters and stuff like that, because I think if. If I would be like, showing up with my poster, I would definitely want, you know, some signatures on there. So be. Bring your pin. You might have a lot of things to do.
David Bloomberg
Okay. All right, I will do that. And that is, of course, in almost exactly a month from now. So, you know, we're them. We'll still have plenty of time to talk about that, but I'll try to put some aside as soon as we're done here because otherwise it'll just leave my mind and I'll forget. But yeah, all right, in the meantime, everyone, we'll see you on social media or right here in a week. Bye.
Date: July 25, 2026
Hosts: David Bloomberg & Chappelle
This episode of "Why ___ Lost" breaks down the second eviction of Big Brother 28, focusing on why houseguest Rome became the second boot. David Bloomberg and Chappelle analyze his game using the famous RHAP "rules" framework, integrating insights from the live feeds, TV episodes, exit interviews, and social media. Along the way, the hosts discuss alliance drama, returning player paranoia, live feed content changes, and classic strategy missteps—all with their signature humor and in-depth knowledge.
Each section references David Bloomberg’s classic rules for winning BB ([32:44]–[71:44]).
Why did Rome lose?
He was out of his depth in strategic gameplay, allowing emotional and social distractions—especially his relationship with Lyric—to override Big Brother essentials. Rome failed to build effective alliances or keep secrets, overshared with the wrong people, and neglected to defend himself or seize power when needed. While charismatic, he neither adapted nor prioritized the essentials for Big Brother survival, making his eviction inevitable.
For fans:
Follow @DavidBloombergTV and @ChappellesKickback on all major platforms for more RHAP coverage between episodes. Tune in for daily updates, recaps, and in-depth strategy breakdowns throughout the BB28 season!