At the beginning of this season of Big Brother, viewers were promised that there would be "A new twist every week," and that this would be the twistiest season ever for the houseguests. The BB Takeover twist was supposed to ensure that there were big changes in the house every week. However, as the season went on and more happened in the house, the takeovers were dropped in favor of dedicating more time to what was happening amongst the houseguests. Now the show is down to the Final 6, and things have slowed down a bit. Alliances are well-established, and there isn't as much room for big, exciting, or unexpected moves. Is this it, or could Big Brother 17 have some twists in store?
Big Brother has a big bag of tricks when it comes to introducing twists into the game. Throwing one in at this point would create even more tension in the already tense house, and could help a fan favorite or hinder the game of one of the more disliked houseguests. This far into the game, there are three twists from BB seasons past that could still be added in to shake up the last few weeks of Season 17.
America's Player
I know. We've been through this before. First people thought Audrey was America's Player, and then everyone thought James was America's Player in what turned out to be a joke with production (and an accidental prank on the whole audience). Now Steve is suspicious that John is America's Player, which isn't true. However, it would be fun if for these last couple of weeks, a houseguest was chosen as America's Player and had to play pranks on the other houseguests. This doesn't affect gameplay all that much, and is probably the only twist they could do that would be low-stakes this far in the game. Besides, the feeds have been boring since James hasn't been around to prank people.
Pandora's Box
Pandora's Box was a twist that held either a gift or a punishment for whoever opened it. This twist could also have a consequence for anyone who didn't open Pandora's Box. For instance, in BB11 when Kevin opened Pandora's Box, he was locked inside the box room while money fell from the sky for all the other houseguests to collect. In BB12, Brendon opened the box to win a spa retreat, while the house was forced to spend a day with vindictive juror Rachel Reilly back in the house. Although the twist hasn't been seen since BB14, these rewards and consequences could provide a fun way to shake up the house, and could lead to interesting tension towards whoever decides to activate the box.
Coup d'Etat
The Coup d'Etat is the Big Brother equivalent of a Deus Ex Machina. When a houseguest receives the Coup d'Etat they are not only allowed to take down one (or both) nominees from the block, but they are able to put up their own nominees. This twist is a massive game-changer, and could easily ruin someone's game due to random chance. The twist was used by Jeff Schroeder in BB11, after America voted for him to receive the power. While this twist would be interesting, it's power is devastating and could make a lot of fans very angry if it fell into the wrong hands.
Big Brother 17 has been notably low on twists, for better or worse. It's unlikely that the houseguests will have to deal with a new twist this late in the game, but if they do, then hopefully it's a fun one that doesn't damage anyone's gameplay too severely.
For more on this season of Big Brother, check out Bustle's podcast The Diary Room.
Image: Monty Brinton/CBS
