Big Brother Season 18 Episode 15: The Battle Back Competition

By Mark Drum
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It has been 38 days since Big Brother started this season and another twist was finally unleashed onto the house. But first, we saw Glenn, Jozea, Victor, Bronte and Tiffany's games all come to an end this season. However, Julie Chen revealed the Battle Back competition, where the evicted houseguests would have a chance to come back to the game. There were four rounds and each round consisted of many of the following HOH competition sets and games. We saw some physical and mental competitions, giving each competitor no clear advantage. In the end only one of them could return and they had to battle against the following evicted houseguest to claim victory to move on. Here's my recap of last night's episode!

The Return of Glenn

Back on day two, Glenn was evicted from the Big Brother house -- but he had been sequestered and was waiting to compete for his chance to get back into the game. His opponent was Jozea, the self-proclaimed "Messiah" of the Big Brother house. Their Battle Back competition was the Berry Balanced competition with a twist, instead of 40 berries they only had to get 20 and they also had a "poison berry" to use to slow down their opponent, but they had to do so before one of them reached 10 in their opponents slot. The winner of the competition would then face the following week's evicted houseguest to move on. I really thought this would have no advantage over anyone. But with speed and determination Glenn couldn't out maneuver Jozea from winning. Which meant the 50-year-old dog groomer and former NYPD narcotics officer's game was officially over. In winning the first round, Jozea was award the "Battle Back" title belt.

Friends Battle To Win

Now that Jozea won the first round, he was to do battle with the following week's evicted houseguest. That was none other than his final two companion Victor. It was a bittersweet reunion knowing only one of them could move on and also evicting the other. This round featured the Kiss My Ace competition, but instead of throwing a ball to get the highest number, Victor and Jozea had to hit five of their opponent's targets on different size tennis rackets. They only had three balls to throw into their racket and also had to run to retrieve them when they ran out. This competition challenged Victor and Jozea into figuring out how to throw their ball to the racket to then bounce over the net to hit the targets. Early on, Victor had a good lead over Jozea. But determined to keep his Battle Back belt on his waist, Jozea tied it to be a close game. But it just wasn't enough to stop Victor from winning this round and taking the Battle Back from Jozea, sending the 25 year-old make up artist from Los Angeles, CA officially home.

Doing The Math

Looking to reunite the Spy Girls alliance, Bronte was eagerly awaiting for her opponent in this round of the Battle Back competition. It was a Team Unicorn reunion as Victor came from the smoke to appear and saw Bronte as his next opponent. Even before the competition started, Bronte threw some harsh words over to Victor saying the whole house didn't like him. This round featured the Euro Trippin' competition set. They had to view three different monitors of photos of the current houseguests while answering questions about the photos and correctly placing the houseguest to the corresponding to the answer. The first person to get all six questions correct would move to the final round of the Battle Back competition. For Bronte, it was a mental competition and not a physical competition that may have given Victor an advantage so she knew her math skills may come in handy. However it just wasn't enough to stop Victor on claiming his second win and keeping his title as the Battle Back champ. So the 26-year-old the aspiring mathematician college student from Denver, CO was sent packing, but before making her exit she gave some advice to Victor to "trust no one" in the house.

Rockin' To Come Back

Tiffany was hoping that her Battle Back competitor was anyone but Victor, who she said was a competition beast. Lo and behold it was Victor who Tiffany saw coming through the smoke. Since there wasn't a HOH competition last night, the set up in the Big Brother backyard was new to us viewers. The competition was a puzzle they had to arrange, while also listening to announcement about the Big Brother Electric Festival guests who'd be playing. Many of those guests playing were homage's to past Big Brother season idioms and guests. Tiffany was feeling very confident in her puzzle skills and Victor didn't want the opportunity to return to the game pass his way. Both competitors had similar strategies in working on the puzzle. Both made some errors giving each of them some time to catch up. One big mistake both made was the placement of the top row of the puzzle and Victor noticed this first to give him a quick lead over Tiffany. This was just enough to claim his entry back into the game and be crowned the Battle Back Champion. Tiffany, the 32-year-old High School Math Teacher from Palm Gardens Beach, FL, just hoped she made her sister Vanessa of last season proud of her game play. But just as Bronte gave advice to Victor, so did Tiffany by saying to "not trust Day and trust Frank." I wonder if Victor will use the advice that Tiffany and Bronte gave him as he re-entered the house.

Decoding The Next Twist

As the episode was just ending, Julie Chen announced there was a secret room in the Big Brother house that will be active for the next four weeks that could help someone's chances of getting further in the game. I predict this power is similar to coup d'état or will we see a return of a third nominee. So much speculation! There were some hints to where this secret room is located from the signs that are posted around the house. From those posters each had a word highlighted green. In looking at those words it reads, "Secret Destination Departing Now." There's only one place that has a "departure," which is the living room and it's most likely behind the nomination chairs. I can't wait to see if any of the houseguests figure it out and my guess is the very observant Da'Vonne will be the one to find it.

Prediction for HOH & Nominations

Now that Victor is back in the game, it would be imperative for him to win this upcoming week's HOH. However I think having just competed against Tiffany, he may still be worn out and may throw this competition to not create an even bigger target on himself. I predict we're in for an endurance competition and I think our Michigander Michelle might claim her first victory. Her target will most likely be Frank and Bridgette with Frank being the main target. Frank was safe thanks to the team's twist but now he'll also be trying to win this week's HOH and may be even a dark horse to win. Tune in on Sunday at 8 p.m. on CBS Detroit to hear the reactions of Victor's return to the game, the HOH competition and which two houseguests will be nominated for eviction!