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‘Big Brother 18’: Was The BB18 ‘Secret Room’ A Fail, And What Is America’s Care Package?

By Cia Young
Published on: 02:20 PST, Jul 29, 2016

Thursday night’s episode of Big Brother 18 finally revealed the secret room and the powers that came with finding it. Although envelopes of hope were found within this room, which was decorated in a Parisian style, the houseguest who was savvy enough to gain access to the room by figuring out clues was unable to keep its contents to himself. Additionally, a new twist entitled America’s Care Package was introduced, which allows the public to dole out advantages to houseguests.

As live feed watchers learned several days ago, Paul was the first houseguest to put these clues from around the Big Brother 18 abode together to determine a specific number (choosing the buttons on the phone in the upstairs booth to spell out P-A-R-I-S) to garner a message congratulating him on making the secret room discovery. As was seen in the most recent Big Brother episode, a hatch opened up in the booth and a glowing red tunnel gave passage to the elusive room.

Rob Cesternino, host of Rob Has a Podcast (RHAP), and the live feed correspondent, Brent Wolgamott, discussed the matter. Rob made the observation Paul was poor at keeping the secret room find to himself during a segment seen on the show featuring Paul being barraged with questions from his fellow castmates.

Rob aptly stated, it was almost as if Paul was holding a “terrible press conference with everybody… one of the worst press conferences I’ve seen this week.” Paul was getting “peppered with questions,” and he was acting as though he didn’t know what anything in the room was when asked, Rob noted.

Jokingly, Rob said when other houseguests asked Paul if they too could enter the intriguing secret room, Paul seemed to be saying, “I wouldn’t… it was scary… it was dark. I would stay away if you can… I would avoid it.” Eventually, of course, each of the houseguests figured out the code and obtained an envelope, as several were present when Paul entered the small tunnel.

Brent said that although Paul’s responses to questions were sketchy when houseguests questioned him, he was able to cover by telling the others he was lying in order to prevent the main targets in the house at the time, Frank and Bridgette, from getting access to the envelopes. Of course, they did anyway.

It should be noted that there were 12 sealed envelopes in the room, one for each houseguest, with only a single envelope containing a return trip ticket that would allow an evicted houseguest to immediately re-enter the Big Brother 18 house and continue to play the game. According to an announcement made by show host Julie Chen, this power will only be available for four weeks.

During the RHAP podcast, live feed correspondent Brent also argued the secret room was a fail because his expectations were much higher regarding this twist. He said, “So this is the big twist that they were talking about?” Brent further asserted, “…they couldn’t wait to reveal it to us [viewers] and finally did…” He also said he was anxious for “…a code, and a riddle, and you had to figure something out. Only for it… it’s like… this was nothing…”

Many tweets reflected the RHAP sentiment, with @BigBrothAnth writing, “No… the secret room twist is NOT awesome…,” and @AlanLopez029 posting, “If Paul was smart he would’ve gone into the secret room alone & not told anyone about the room so no one would discover the envelopes…,” as well as @ThinkVegas observing, “I like the Secret Room idea but it’s stupid to allow them ALL to access it…”

Frank was evicted Thursday night, and when Julie opened his envelope, he did not have the return trip advantage. The envelope only held a one-way ticket home. This means 11 envelopes are still in play, and one of the remaining houseguests holds the lucky ticket.

Also on the last Big Brother 18 episode, Julie announced America’s Care Package, which involves viewers voting to give houseguests special advantages over the next few weeks. Julie noted that each cast member could only obtain an advantage once.

According to Buddy TV, there are five advantages in total, with the first care package being a “Never Not Pass.” The houseguest who obtains it will avoid being a Have Not for the rest of the game.

The second care package gives the winning cast member the ability to eliminate two eviction votes for the following week’s eviction, Buddy TV reports. The third care package graces one houseguest with “Super Safety” and immunity for the week, but, along with that awesome advantage, the winner must wear some sort of superhero unitard.

The fourth care package “is probably the biggest one,” according to Buddy TV, as the winner will receive “all the perks and responsibilities” as that week’s Head of Household (HOH). This player will act as co-HOH and be able to choose one of the nominees for eviction.

The fifth and final care package is called the “BB Bribe,” and involves one cast member receiving $5k that can be used to bribe another houseguest, Buddy TV reports. It appears this advantage can be used in any number of ways, including to change a vote.

RHAP live feed correspondent Brent is hoping America’s Care Package puts a target on houseguests who win each of them, but this can only happen if there is some sort of announcement to the other players regarding who the lucky player is each week. This way, according to Brent, “Whoever wins, it’s going to create drama in the house…” because things can get tense “…when people who think they are popular find out that they’re not the most popular person,” presumably based on whatever advantage America cares to give them.

Big Brother 18 airs on CBS Wednesday and Sunday nights at 8 p.m. Eastern Time, and Thursday nights at 9 p.m. Eastern Time. Big Brother After Dark airs on Pop Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights at 12 a.m. Eastern Time, Tuesday at 11 p.m. Eastern Time, and Thursday at 1 a.m. Eastern Time. Live feeds are broadcast from inside the Big Brother 18 house 24 hours a day, seven days a week and are available from CBS All Access.

[Image via CBS]

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