Big Brother recap: Zingbot is back, and a very important veto is up for grabs

On Sunday's episode of Big Brother, we started to see how the Cookout might be fracturing. Based on the "master plan," Tiffany was supposed to lose the HOH competition this week as long as another member of the Cookout was there to win it. Instead, when the competition came down to her and Kyland, she decided she didn't want to take her turn on the block. She won HOH, then refused to nominate her "plus-one" player Claire just like everyone else had, and instead targeted Alyssa and put Xavier up as the pawn.

Needless to say, as the episode kicks off, some members of the Cookout aren't too happy with Tiffany taking control of the decisions. Big D sees this as just another example of why he's been butting heads with her all season long, but Xavier is the really angry one. He shouldn't be on the block again, and Claire should be the one the Cookout targets. Everyone else in the alliance sent their plus-one home, no matter how hard it was to do, and he's mad that she's decided to pull a fast one on everyone. I absolutely get where Tiffany is coming from; you have to play an individual game at this point. But I also wonder if she could have just evicted Claire this week and then worked harder on securing a sub-alliance within the Cookout to get her to the end.

Anyways, Xavier has a good vent session with Big D, where he lays out all the sacrifices he's made throughout the game for the alliance, including throwing competitions. Now, he's considering blowing things up. He tells Big D that if he wins veto, he might use it to take Alyssa off the block rather than himself. His reasoning? It would ruin Tiffany's game. She'd either have to put up Claire and get rid of her ally, or she'd have to nominate another member of the Cookout and blow up her alliance. Big D admits that he "loves a messy, messy plan," but he knows Tiffany is unpredictable and would rather the nominations stay the same, even if he'd like Claire to go home too.

That brings us to the yearly occurrence of Zingbot, and can I make a confession? I hate Zingbot. He's annoying, he talks at an excruciating pace, and if we're being honest, only about one or two of his many zingers actually land. Like, him roasting Azah for her crush on Xavier was solid, and him pointing out Hannah as the boring player of the season was a nice burn, but otherwise, his material is incredibly stale.

But he's here to bring us to the veto competition, where Hannah, Big D, and Azah will play alongside the two current nominees and the HOH. It's a competition we've seen before, and it's one I love. The players must use tweezers to stack mini cocktail glasses into a pyramid inside an impossibly tiny house. I love this competition because it's one of the few on Big Brother that requires patience and precision.

Because this week is high on drama, Alyssa ends up winning the veto, and there's no doubt she'll pull herself off the block. That means that Tiffany now has to decide whether to put Claire up and send her home or turn on the Cookout. Once Alyssa wins the veto, I don't think Tiffany really considers anything other than sending Claire home, but she's struggling to handle the situation. She wants to tell Claire what's happening because she's a friend and needs to preserve her jury vote, but she also doesn't want to expose the Cookout.

So she and Hannah concoct a story about how Tiffany made a deal not to put Hannah, Kyland, Azah, Xavier, and Big D on the block this week, and they seem pretty happy about using that to explain the situation to Claire. My first thought was this: why the hell would Claire think making a deal like that with that many people is somehow okay and not an alliance? Thankfully, minutes later, when Hannah tells Xavier and Big D about this idea, they say the same thing, noting it's way too close to an admission that their alliance exists.

There's no way around it though, Tiffany has to have this conversation with Claire, and I do feel for her, just like I've felt for every other member of the Cookout who's had to have these difficult talks with the people they've grown close to. It's an incredibly emotional conversation, with Tiffany saying that she doesn't want to be part of the history of this show where Black players are constantly pitted against each other and left fighting each other on the block, which means that she has to nominate Claire. Because Claire is a very loyal and genuine person (both her greatest strength as a person and her biggest flaw in this game) and respects and loves Tiffany, she accepts that this is what's happening, though not without many, many tears.

So, Alyssa pulls herself off the block, and Claire is put up in her place, and there's no way she's not going home. But, as we know, Thursday is a double eviction, which means that Alyssa probably isn't as safe as she thinks now. I'd be very surprised if the Cookout deviates from their plan at this point. Bring on the Final Six, when things should get very interesting!

Related content:

• Julie Chen Moonves says it's hard for people to 'understand the 'importance' of the Cookout on Big Brother
• Derek explains calling out Sarah Beth as the new Nicole Franzel on Big Brother
• Julie Chen Moonves weighs in on the dominance of the Cookout alliance on Big Brother
• Christian Birkenberger kisses and tells about that Big Brother smooch