Thursday's 'Big Brother' was jam packed with twists, turns and a contentious ousting.
*Caution: Spoilers ahead!*
Friendships, alliances and bonds between former teammates are all starting to feel the heat in the Big Brother house! The fifth week of season 23 saw some risky gameplay, impressive competition performances and a cliffhanger going into Thursday's eviction episode.
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.
After last Sunday's eviction -- which saw Whitney Williams get the boot -- Derek Xiao won the Head of Household endurance challenge, giving him the opportunity to nominate two houseguests for eviction.
Derek X set his sights on the only other houseguest who has proven to be a real beast when it comes to competitions. However, if he nominated Christian Birkenberger directly, there would be a chance for Christian to win the Veto competition, so Derek X nominated Sarah Beth Steagall and Britini D'Angelo, with the intent of backdooring Christian after the Veto comp.
Things went sort of according to plan -- for a bit. Britini ended up winning the Power of Veto, and unsurprisingly removed herself from the block. However, Derek X made the mistake of letting Alyssa Lopez -- Christian's showmance -- in on the plan.
Alyssa immediately told Christian, who went all-in on trying to get Derek X to keep him off the block, because he would be a shield for him in the weeks to come. The drama was amped so high, Wednesday's episode ended before the Veto ceremony could even go down.
So Thursday's show opened with the ceremony, and things went exactly as predicted. Britni vetoed her own nomination and Derek X went through with his plan of nominating Christian.
As soon as the nominations were locked in things originally seemed doomed for Christian. Sarah Beth even said she doesn't feel the need to campaign for herself because Christian is just such a huge target.
However, as stress fractures began to form in The Cookout alliance, and other alliances mulled over the ramifications of keeping Sarah Beth over Christian, Tiffany Mitchell took it upon herself to flip the house, turn the votes and get Christian to stick around for one more week.
In a surprising development, The Cookout drama deepened as Tiffany began quietly feuding with two members of her alliance -- Azah Awasum and Derek Frazier -- over her machinations. If The Cookout does fall apart, this could have far greater repercussions to the season that Thursday's eviction itself.
When it finally came time to vote, Christian and Sarah Beth made heartfelt pleas to their fellow houseguests.
"I am in the position I am right now because I played the game I said I wanted to play -- an extremely loyal and competitive game -- and I'm very proud of it," Christian shared. "If I were to stay, I would continue playing a loyal game to everyone that is loyal to me. However, I know that this is a game and nothing will be taken personal, so you guys do what you have to do."
"I love this game and want to it be here ... I hope you agree it would help to you keep me in the game. It is also the last week before jury, this vote could be the difference between you winning or losing $750,000," Sarah Beth shared. "I promise, if I was on the jury, I would make an objective vote and vote for the best person because we are an amazing cast and we deserve an amazing winner, I love and respect each one of you."
When it came to the vote, however, things ended up going how people thought they would at first -- Christian got the boot with a vote of 7-2, with even Tiffany voting for Christian after all that drama over flipping the house.
Christian took the results in stride and gave out hugs while leaving the house. He saved his goodbye for his lady love, Alyssa, for last, and planted a passionate "goodbye kiss" on her lips, as the house cheered them on.
Christian sat down with host Julie Chen Moonves after exiting, and addressed his showmance and the steamy smooch.
"I discussed it with her, I don't know where we stand at the moment ... but yes, I want something after this, for sure," Christian admitted. "But two months of not seeing her potentially would be a long time, so well we're going to wait until after."
As for getting put on the block by Derek X, Christian said he understood where he was coming from and why he felt compelled to target him, but he thinks the plan is going to backfire.
"I respect it in the sense that he did what was best for his game," he explained. "But I think that it was not a smart decision, because he's going to go out much sooner than if I stayed around."
After the eviction, Julie spoke with the remaining houseguests and informed them of a whole new twist -- the High Rollers Room. Essentially, it works like this: There's a new room with three casino games, each of which will give a lucky winner a special game-changing power. However, it costs BB Bucks to play the games. America will vote on who should get BB Bucks, and the three houseguests with the most votes get 100 BB Bucks. The next three highest get 75, and everyone else gets 50. Then they can spend those playing the casino games, and the games with the best possible powers cost the most.
It's an interesting and complicated twist, and Thursday's episode was so jam-packed, no new HOH was decided. Fans will have to tune in on Sunday (or watch the livesteams on Paramount+) to see who earns the title.
Big Brother airs Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. For more, watch below.
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