See which houseguest got the boot during Thursday's live eviction ceremony.
*Caution: Spoilers ahead!*
Friendships and shomances are great and all, but it seems, no bond is stronger than a powerful Big Brother alliance. At least, not for Sarah Beth and Kyland Young.
If you're anxious to just find out who got kicked out, scroll down below. But first, it's important to see just how this eviction played out over the last week.
This week's rollercoaster began immediately after last week's eviction, when Derek Xiao got the axe, and Tiffany Mitchell then won the title of Head of Household.
After some failed attempts by Sarah Beth to convince Tiffany to send Alyssa Lopez to the block instead of her, those attempts failed. Instead, Tiffany nominated Sarah Beth (who has very few allies in this game) and Kyland, the only ally Sarah Beth has.
The only problem is, Kyland isn't actually her ally. Sure, he's her best friend in the house and there's a lot of romantic undercurrent to the time they spend together, but Kyland is part of the most powerful alliance in the house, The Cookout, and Sarah Beth has no idea.
Kyland has spent the entire week in the awkward position of pretending to be Sarah Beth's ride or die while at the same time knowing he's totally safe and that she'll be going home because he's got the protection of The Cookout.
One minor complication involved fellow Cookout member Xavier Prather also being on the block due to a complicated punishment related to last week's Veto challenge, but he was also very aware of how safe he was.
On Wednesday's episode, Claire Rehfuss played a powerful game in the High Roller's Suite known as The Coin of Destiny, which allowed her to became a "shadow Head of Household." It gave her the ability to override both of Tiffany's nominations. However, since Claire and Tiffany have been very close this entire time, Claire kept the nominations exactly the same.
It's important to note that Claire is not part of The Cookout and doesn't even know it exists. Furthermore, her playing the Coin of Destiny and being the "shadow HOH" was actually all part of The Cookout's long-game plan, because it means Claire cannot compete to be HOH next week.
So Sarah Beth's last hope to survive was the Veto Comp -- which involved solving a logical puzzle with photos of since-evicted houseguests. In the end, Sarah Beth came up just short of winning, and the Power of Veto went to Hannah Chaddha.
Hannah ended up using the veto to remove Xavier from the block, leaving Sarah Beth and Kyland as the only remaining options and essentially sealing their fate.
Sarah Beth didn't take this particularly well, and cried on Kyland's shoulder about how the only reason they are there is because the rest of the house didn't like them. Kyland refrained from explaining how it's actually just her that the house seems to have a problem with, and maintained the secret of The Cookout amid his best friend's emotional turmoil.
As Thursday's show played out, it felt even more like Sarah Beth's fate had been sealed, as she barely played a role in anything happening in the house. She didn't seem to campaign very hard or even talk to anyone, for the most part. It felt like she'd just surrendered to the inevitable.
That doesn't mean she didn't still make a plea for herself ahead of Thursday's live vote.
"If you're thinking of evicting me tonight, all I'm asking is that you reconsider for a moment. There are a lot of reasonable, tactical reasons to keep me in the game," Sarah Beth shared in her appeal speech. "I know if I walk out the the door tonight, some of you are going to look at this moment and you're going to think, 'Man, that wasn't the best decision for my game.' And I know what it feels like to make a decision and regret it later. It's awful, and I don't wish it for any of you. So, please, all I'm asking is please take one more moment to consider what is good and what is safe for your individual game before you make a decision. It is not too late to change your mind."
Kyland, meanwhile, delivered an appeal that truly showed how safe he felt, explaining, "If you decide, after [our] conversations and everything that's going on, it is best to keep me, then please do. If you keep this wonderful woman, who I have nothing to say anything bad about, then do that, if it's best for your game. I love you all."
After all the votes were cast, Sarah Beth got the axe by a vote of 5 to 1 -- the one vote for Kyland coming from Tiffany, who said she did it out of sympathy for Sarah Beth, but could also have been trying to stir a bit of paranoia in Kyland.
After giving hugs to all her other house guests, Sarah Beth left the house and joined host Julie Chen Moonves for an exist-interview. She revealed just how in the dark she was about The Cookout when she watched Kyland's goodbye message to her, and he revealed that there was a "secret alliance" that he'd been a part of the entire time.
"I had no idea that there actually was a secret alliance," Sarah Beth admitted. "I had been joking with Kyland about it."
Sarah Beth's attitude toward Kyland seemed notably chillier when Julie asked, "Did you make a friend for life in Kyland?"
"I think I made quite a few friends for life," Sarah Beth responded, almost evasively.
After the interview, the remaining houseguests came together for a Head of Household endurance test, which involved holding onto a rope and getting twirled around in a large circle. Fans will see who held on longest became the new HOH in the next episode this Sunday.
Big Brother airs Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. For more, watch below.
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