When we join the final house guests again, they’re in the middle of the first part of the final HoH challenge, which is titled How Bout Them Apples. Their only task is to stay on the apple longer than their opponents. Easy right? Not so much. They’re constantly being dipped into sticky candy apple water and then slammed against the wall, and if that’s not enough, they’re also periodically blasted with powdered sugar and whipped cream, all while enduring a really creepy clown voice egging them on. After a few hours, they’re told to move from their platform to the actual apple, which looks more like a teardrop than an apple. This makes the game that much harder because they can’t simply sit there anymore. Now they’ve really got to hold on and use all their muscles to hold themselves up. Before long, Steve falls off his apple, his legs unable to keep him up any longer.

This is when Vanessa starts to hit Liz with psychological warfare. She asks Liz if she’s hurting, and when Liz says yes, she says that she can go on for hours. She’s not hurting at all, so Liz might as well just drop because she’s going to lose anyway. You can see Liz already starting to cave to Vanessa. You can see the doubt on her face. I really want Liz to hang in there, just to force Vanessa to keep going, but once Vanessa promises to take Liz to the end if she wins the final HoH, Liz climbs down, handing Vanessa part one of the final HoH challenge. I’m sure a ton of us rolled our eyes at this moment.

Round two between Steve and Liz is a giant crossword puzzle. They’ve got to answer the clues by pulling their letters out of a box and then climbing the wall and putting the letters in the squares. Whoever finishes their puzzle in the shorter time wins! Steve is excited for this challenge, because puzzles are his thing. That’s what mechanical engineers do – they solve puzzles. Liz knows how smart Steve is, so she knows that she’s got to move quickly in order to beat him. They both seem to do well, though when Liz struggles with finding the answer to the food that Otev wanted, I can’t help but laugh at her. I don’t know one person who wasn’t ridiculously annoyed having to hear that word screamed out over and over again. Anyway, in the end, Steve wins part two by about three minutes.

Next we head over to the jury house, where Dr. Will talks to the jury about what they think of the final three. When Will asks Austin who he wants to see join them, he says he wants to see Vanessa so much he’d cut off his ponytail beard. Dammit! Why did she have to win that veto! We could’ve seen Vanessa leave the house AND Austin cut off that disgusting thing! But, John joins them, and then the real conversation begins. I’m not surprised to see many people in the jury praise Vanessa for her game. Yes, she had a hand in evicting every single one of them, but hey, she made the moves and had a hand in evicting every single one of them. After having a few weeks in the jury house, most jury members have calmed down enough that they’ve let the feeling of betrayal subside so that they can start to respect her game at least somewhat. Austin, of course, is still very bitter, but that’s not surprising. Becky and Jackie both say they don’t like the way she went about some of the things she did, like swearing on her mother and the gay community. I completely agree. I couldn’t believe it when she swore on her mom and her girlfriend. That’s definitely not honourable.

People seem to be more torn on Steve. Most say that he floated though the game at first, and John points out that Steve went to him and Vanessa for their help in making decisions, and that while Vanessa played on her own, Steve was protected by a lot of people. James says that he’s made it this far because The Sixth Sense and the Goblins were too busy fighting each other to notice Steve in the middle, riding it out. But Shelli points out that Steve threw challenges when he needed to and won them when he needed the win or when it was really good for his game, and I think she’s got a point.

The only people really defending Liz are Julia and Austin, of course, and Meg for some reason. When Shelli points out that Liz made a lot of moves for Vanessa, Meg counters with the idea that Liz made her moves to protect her alliance. You could say that about anyone who wins HoH and who has an alliance. It doesn’t necessarily mean she’s played a stellar game. Becky says that while she was good with Austin, by herself she’s not a great player, and I definitely agree with that. If she hadn’t been surrounded by Austin and Julia and been part of a threesome, I think she’d have been out long ago. If Austin had been voted out instead of Jason, I think it would’ve turned out to be a much different game.

The thing that surprised me a little was Austin’s declaration that if Steve wins final HoH and votes out Vanessa, he’d seriously consider voting for him over Liz. We all know that that would never happen in a million years, but it really shows just how bitter he still is about Vanessa’s betrayal. I don’t see a long lasting friendship between these two, but who knows? Maybe he’ll be able to let go of the anger at some point. Maybe.

So now we move on to the final part of the HoH competition, titled Scales of Just Us. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before. Julie reads parts of statements from the jury members and then gives two possible endings of their statements, and Vanessa and Steve have to guess which statement is the real one, a or b. It’s a close game. Steve has a one-point lead for most of it, but then Vanessa ties it up. In the final question, Steve gets it right and Vanessa gets it wrong, so Steve wins final HoH! I definitely cheered for him. And then it’s time for him to evict one of the ladies, and true to his word, he gives a heartfelt speech and then votes out Vanessa. VANESSA IS OUT OF THE HOUSE!!!!! HER REIGN OF TERROR IS OVER!!!!!

As Vanessa leaves the house, Liz starts crying and thanks Steve for taking her to the end with him. She tells him multiple times that she loves him and how grateful she is to him for it, and once again, I can’t help but roll my eyes – after I’ve finished screaming about Vanessa’s eviction, of course. Just the other day, Liz said she hated Steve for evicting her sister, though she still trusted Vanessa when Van evicted her boyfriend, and now she loves Steve again. This girl is ridiculous. It’s clear that her opinions of people are completely dependent on what they can do for her. These kinds of people drive me crazy. She’s a typical mean girl. I do have to say though, she looks gorgeous. I’ve long thought Julia was the prettier one, but tonight, Liz takes the cake.

But enough of Liz’s cleavage. Let’s get back to the game. Vanessa doesn’t seem super shocked when she joins Julie outside the house. She says she’d never trusted Steve fully, so this wasn’t a huge surprise to her. She also mentions that he’s stabbed her in the back numerous times, but I’m drawing a blank. Someone refresh me about his betrayals? I can think of at least once or twice when she betrayed him, but not the other way around. But she also admits that she’d have voted Steve out if things were the other way around, so she can’t really fault him for ousting her, in my opinion. I’m surprised she doesn’t cry to Julie, though by the end, it looks like she’s close to tears.

The jury joins Julie on stage and then the question and answer period begins. Hands down, Steve is the better interviewee. One or two of his answers are a little bit weak, but at least he actually has answers with specific examples of how he’d played the game well. It’s obvious how long he’s been watching this game, because he had his answers ready to go. I’m guessing he rehearsed answers to a bunch of possible questions, because he sounded very poised and confident. The socially awkward boy is mostly gone, replaced by a confident man-boy who knows how to win people over with his concise, specific answers. Liz, on the other hand, clearly hasn’t prepared for anything (though how could she, if she’s never seen the show?), so her answers aren’t really answers at all. Becky specifically asks her which strategies were hers and not Austin’s, and she couldn’t give an actual answer, because there wasn’t one. She’s practically handing this game to Steve, and I love it. As much as I’d love a woman to win, I don’t want it to be Liz the mean girl.

So after giving their final speeches (both of which are really good, so Liz must’ve rehearsed this part), it’s time to vote, and once that’s done, the first six house guests are brought out. Vanessa shares with everyone that she’s a poker player and has won 4.5 million playing the game, and no one seems to care. They barely even seem to acknowledge her. She definitely doesn’t get the reaction she was clearly hoping for. You’re no Derrick or Donny, Vanessa. They’re actually likable people.

Austin is asked what happened to Judas this summer, and Austin says he couldn’t follow through because he liked everyone. So he became Judas just enough for all BB fans to hate him, but not enough to actually affect his game. What a waste. Audrey says her life has been amazing since she got out of the house because people constantly tell her how she’s changed their lives, and I think it’s great, though after all the lies she told in the house, I can’t help but wonder how much people really do like her and how much of her story is true. She’s choking up though, as she speaks, so I decide to believe her, this time.

The best comment comes from Jason. He praises Vanessa’s game play but then criticizes her for not following through and owning it. Instead of admitting, even to the audience that she’s manipulating everyone, she cries and whines and plays the victim. He’s right on the money. So many people on the forums this summer have complained about exactly this, so it’s great that Jason is voicing the complaint of the masses. Now tell them we don’t want the BoB next year, Jason! Make them get rid of it!

Now it’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Julia reads the keys and finds that Austin and Julia both obviously voted for Liz. The shocker is that Vanessa also voted for her. Hmm, you say there are no hard feelings, Vanessa, but then you vote for Liz out of spite? Those feelings seem super hard to me! It doesn’t matter though, because everyone else votes for Steve, so STEVE WINS BIG BROTHER!!!!!!!! He immediately starts to cry and almost hyperventilate, and after a hug with Liz, they both hurry through the door and join the rest of the cast. I don’t blame him. If I’d just won half a million, I’d be bawling.

So now the last thing to do before the end of the show is to award America’s Favourite Player. John, James, and Jason are the final three, and James ends up winning the $25000. Yay for James! I’m not surprised. Throughout the first half of the game, Johnny Mac was the one to beat for AFP, but by the second half, a lot of people were over him. Many still liked him, but James played the game more than John, so then James became the favourite to win. I’m sure Austin and Vanessa were both shocked to not even be in the top three.

So that’s it! What did you guys think of the final episode? What did you think of the season? Were you happy with the outcome, or are you going to boycott the show because you hated it so much? And what would you change for next season? Personally, I’m happy with the outcome based on who made it to final three. As much as I’d have loved to have a female winner, I’m not a fan of either Vanessa the bully or mean girl Liz, so I’m happy that Steve pulled off the win. I still would love to know what would’ve happened if the house guests had voted out Austin instead of Jason or Vanessa instead of Shelli. I really, really want them to do away with the BoB next year. After two years of it, it’s been proven that it sucks. It affects the way people vote and nominate, but not in a positive way. It promotes these large groups of people to vote together, to get rid of the underdogs. And what fun is that? Overall though, no matter how much frustration we might have felt over the crying and whining, this season has been pretty good. There was tons of drama to make up for the lack of it last year, showmances, back-stabbing, and enough craziness to hold us over, hopefully for another year until it comes back next year. Until then, I’ll see you later! Join me over at the Dancing with the Stars recaps on this site and keep in touch!

– Rebecca