By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Friday, August 28, 2015
"Johnny Mac" McGuire spent much of the game floating, not committing to any particular alliance, biding his time. He was used as a pawn a few times and tried to be friends with almost everybody. That strategy backfired.
"I knew it was coming," he told Julie Chen after being evicted, with that signature goofy laugh.
If he gets back, he said he'll target Meg Maley.
But he has a one in four shot of getting back in the game along with Atlanta's Shelli Poole, Becky Burgess and Jackie Ibarra in the jury house. (They began the competition Thursday night. We'll find out Sunday who returns as TV viewers but there are spoilers all over the Web if you care to know who made it back in and who ended up Head of Household.)
The dentist's closest friend was another floater, the more innocuous super fan Steve Moses.
The pair decided last week to join with Austin and the twins in what they thought was a super safe alliance.
But in this house, alliances are mostly suggestions, not carved in stone.
Head of Household Austin Matelson is a case in point. He has created alliances with literally everyone left in the house and had to turn against two people by picking them for eviction.
So he made 1,000 mental calculations, consulted his evil side Judas and decided to place Steve and Johnny Mac on the block. He thought this was the least harmful move for his long-term game.
Surprisingly, he had even made an alliance with Meg and James Huling, whose futures didn't look so hot last week after their ally Becky Burgess was cut. And he promised to keep them around over Steve and Johnny Mac. (Of course, the twins are untouchable for Austin.)
[I wrote last week I really thought Meg and James were in danger. Proves how little I know!]
The wrestler made it clear to most everybody that Johnny Mac was the target but kept Vanessa Rousso in his back pocket for a possible back-door eviction.
Fortunately for Vanessa, she eliminated Austin's option by winning a veto competition by a wide margin, using her face-reading poker playing skills to her advantage deciphering facial parts of different "Big Brother" players.
Vanessa has been a perplexing and very dangerous survivor in this game. She seems to be perpetually negotiating and cutting deals, then crying and feeling betrayed. Sometimes, she'll forgive. Sometimes, she'll beg. Sometimes, she'll cajole. Almost all the time, she'll be pondering 18 different current and past alliances and how things will play out down the road.
In the meantime, virtually everyone in the house has targeted her to go home at some point. People often see her as a threat or an annoyance or both.
Johnny Mac made a final move to save himself by telling Vanessa about the Austwins/Steve/Johnny Mac alliance that targeted her . It showed his desperate willingness to throw Steve under the bus to save his own hide.
Vanessa became upset with Steve, who she thinks created the so-called alliance. So there was some talk picking Steve.
But in the end, Johnny Mac's move backfired. He was unanimously cut.
And Vanessa remains in the final seven. Impressive.
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