Don't Let Steve's Tears Fool You On 'BB17'

Sunday night's episode of Big Brother 17 started off with a bang. That's because we got to see the fallout from Thursday night's double eviction in which Jackie was unexpectedly voted out from the house. Nearly all of the Big Brother 17 houseguests were altogether shocked, saddened, and stupefied by Head of Household Steve's decision to put Meg and Jackie on the block and his eventual decision to send the latter home. Even Steve broke down and cried about what went down during Thursday night's episode. However, those tears may not have been as genuine as they seemed.

Even though Steve was responsible for Jackie's eviction, I still expected him to be incredibly distraught over his actions. Steve was a hot mess during the double eviction, talking to himself, nervously pacing around the house, and even wishing he had his mommy. It really looked like Steve was this close to cracking.

But Steve stuck it out and got rid of the houseguest he wanted, even if it didn't make much sense to anyone at the time, or now, for that matter, even though we know the whole thing was a big misunderstanding. Still, the whole ordeal seemed to hurt Steve a great deal, and he broke down into tears like many of the other houseguests mourning the loss of Jackie. Remember houseguests, she'll be in the jury house for the rest of the summer; she's not dead.

During Steve's breakdown, Liz, Julia, and Vanessa all came to Steve's side to comfort him. They were all pretty stoked that Steve did their bidding, and tried to reassure him that no one thinks he's a bad person for evicting Jackie.

Even though I know it's not uncommon for a houseguest to put on some crocodile tears to get what they want in the game, I really thought Steve was really upset about what he had done. But the second Liz, Julia, and Vanessa left the room, his tears magically disappeared, and he said is was "about 50 percent acting."

So clearly Steve used his sobbing to garner some sympathy from the remaining houseguests for how hard it was to get Jackie out and deflect some of the blame. Steve, Steve, Steve. I didn't know you had it in you! You've laid low as little more than a floater throughout the whole summer, and now you're pulling out the faux waterworks. Someone is ready to play.

Soon after, Steve confronted Becky and Meg, both of whom wanted Steve to be on their side completely. The two told Steve that there were no hard feelings and that they basically blamed Jackie's eviction on Vanessa, which is basically the best outcome of this whole thing for the bespectacled one that there could have been. All three of them wiped away their tears and were ready to move on to play the game. No one ever said there wasn't crying in Big Brother, but it's definitely true that no one can afford to cry for too long.

For more on this season of Big Brother, check out Bustle's podcast The Diary Room below.

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