A Big Brother 20 houseguest just obtained a power that grants them the power to remove himself from nomination before a selection. Survivor idol, anyone?
I know I promised to drop recap coverage of Big Brother 20 after the week one eviction, but I’m still watching just to see if there’s anything to talk about in relation to Survivor. I did the same last season, where the bitter jury discussion related hard to those who fell short on Day 39. However, a recent power to enter the game has shades of the Immunity Idol.
A player named Tyler cemented his status early in the game as a fan favorite, overplaying his surfer persona in order to play a smart, manipulative game from the middle. As such, he became the top trending of the week, allowing him to pick one of a few named powers of which he has no idea what they do.
He picked The Cloud, which allows himself to prevent going on the nomination block at any nomination ceremony or veto meeting as long as he sits “in the cloud” before the nominations/veto decisions are announced. It also lasts for eight weeks, which is roughly the equivalent of getting deep into the jury phase.
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Of course, he can only use it once and then it’s gone forever. It’s an interesting twist to the Hidden Immunity Idol, in which Tyler can play it only once, and only on himself. Based on the Big Brother rules, however, he could prevent himself from getting nominated in the first place, someone wins Veto and then backdoor him if another player is vetoed and the Head of Household wants him up.
Survivor has become to Idol-dependent in its recent seasons. We saw Ben Driebergen idol his way to a controversial Final Four fire-making run, and we saw passive players not threaten Dom and Wendell, both of which had multiple idols and other powers. Adding new wrinkles into advantages to make them timed and still offer a bit of vulnerability to the player is a fun change.
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This power has similar notions to the Exemption Necklace idea pitched on Reddit, where you can be safe but not be allowed to vote. Either way, it’s interesting to see Survivor ideas crossover onto Big Brother, and vice-versa.