Big Brother 28 Op-Ed: Houseguests Keep Making The Same Mistake

There is one lesson the Big Brother 28 houseguests seemingly refuse to learn: Having the numbers does not mean you actually have the numbers.

The season has developed a familiar pattern. A group of players realizes it has enough people to control the house, forms a new alliance and starts celebrating its newfound power. Then, almost immediately, someone inside that group starts working with someone outside of it, another alliance forms and the entire structure begins to shift.

And somehow, the houseguests keep doing it again.

The latest example is The Mosh Pit, the seven person alliance that brought together The Crossovers and F.A.P. The group appeared to have exactly what every Big Brother alliance wants: numbers, connections and a clear target. Devens and Dee had The Crossovers, while Drew and Barrett were already connected to Melody and Mallory through F.A.P. Combining those relationships suddenly created a formidable majority.

Except there is already a problem.

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Mallory and Melody are questioning whether they actually want to go all the way to the end with the veterans. They have expressed concerns about Drew and Barrett’s connections to the “Icons” and are considering working more closely with players such as Yash and Taylor instead. In other words, The Mosh Pit has barely formed and its members are already looking for the exit.

That is exactly what keeps happening this season.

Players are building alliances based on the immediate circumstances rather than creating relationships that can survive when the target changes. Someone needs to go home, so everyone gets together and agrees on a target. But once that target is gone, the alliance has no real purpose anymore.

The current situation is even more complicated because so many players belong to multiple groups. Devens, for example, has connections that stretch across several alliances, while Drew and Barrett have managed to maintain relationships on multiple sides of the house. Those connections can be extremely valuable, but they also make it difficult for any alliance to know who is truly loyal.

The Diamond Power of Veto has only accelerated the problem.

Devens’ decision to use the DPOV completely disrupted Yash’s HOH and put Kamu in danger instead of allowing the original nominations to play out. Suddenly, players who thought they understood the week’s power structure were forced to scramble and figure out where everyone stood.

That should be a warning to everyone in the house.

Instead of constantly trying to build the biggest alliance, these players might be better served by building the strongest relationships. Seven people can agree to work together, but that does not mean seven people have the same endgame.

The Mosh Pit may survive the week. It may even control another week or two. But the bigger problem for this season’s houseguests is that they keep confusing a temporary majority with a real alliance.

At some point, somebody has to stop playing the numbers game and start playing the relationship game.

Because in Big Brother, the biggest alliance is rarely the one that lasts. It’s the one that knows when to break apart before everyone else realizes it is coming.

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