It’s all come down to this.
After 83 days in the Big Brother 27 house, either Chicago attorney Ashley Hollis, Palm Springs gamer Morgan Pope, or unemployed Californian Vince Panaro is about to become $750,000 richer. Collectively, these three Judges Alliance members saw 14 other people leave the game, including jurors Rachel Reilly (the former winner of Season 13), Will Williams, Kelley Jorgensen, Lauren Domingue, Keanu Soto, and Ava Pearl.
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Here’s how the two-hour season finale will play out. First up, viewers will see who won Parts 1 and 2 of the final Head of Household competition — they already took place on Thursday and Friday. Then, the winners of those two challenges will go head to head to see who claims Part 3. The champion will get to solely evict one person, leaving just the final two remaining. Finally, host Julie Chen Moonves will invite the jurors back to grill the finalists, before they cast their life-changing votes.
Read on for our recap of Big Brother Season 27, Episode 39, which aired Sunday, Sep. 28 on CBS.
The Final 3 on ‘Big Brother 27’CBS
We begin where Thursday’s episode left off, with Ashley, Morgan, and Vince celebrating making it to the final three with a champagne toast. Ava left the house in fourth place, and later told Gold Derby she still believes she has a “good” relationship with Rachel. In addition to the winner being crowned tonight, Julie will also announce the audience’s choice for America’s Favorite Houseguest. That honor comes with its own $50,000 check. Now, let’s dive into the finale!
HOH – Part Once in a Lifetime
It was Day 80 when the final three took part in the first of three comps to win the final Head of Household of the season. For the comp, they were required to stay on flying, spinning, steaming and buzzing aircrafts longer than the others. Each had their own reasons for needing to win: Morgan knows she’s a huge threat, Vince needs to build a stronger resumé than Morgan, and Ashley is aware that Morgan and Vince will likely take each other to the final two. Despite that, Ashley fell after 28 minutes and 45 seconds claiming that she was “gonna be sick” from all the spinning. Vince last about twice as long, finally dropping at 53 minutes and 25 seconds. Morgan’s win meant that she’d advance directly to Part Three to face the winner of Part Two. Vince was disappointed in his performance, calling it a “once in a lifetime” opportunity to secure his spot in the finals and he “blew it.”
Cody’s Chat
On deck this season to guide the jury through their deliberation chat was Season 22 winner Cody Calafiore. The first five were disappointed to see Ava walk in as the sixth juror, but news of another Morgan comp win set off a chain of reactions in her favor. Rachel admired her “competitiveness” and Keanu thought that her “social game shined in the beginning of the game.” Ava countered that Morgan “can get BB paranoid” and Kelley thought that it was hard to separate Morgan and Vince’s moves. A lot of them thought that Morgan “played Vince’s game,” which Rachel called “Morgan’s downfall.” Lauren thought Vince’s best move was being in the Judges alliance and while Keanu thought his lies got people on his side, Ava and Kelley weren’t impressed with how “unnecessary” some of his lies are. Will called it a “level of messiness” that he didn’t know he could vote for. Rachel was concerned that the jury would react “bitter” and doesn’t want them to discount Vince just because they’re upset, highlighting that “each one of you are here because of him.” Ava bigged up Ashley for being loyal and then was shocked when Will disclosed that she’s a lawyer. In that regard, Kelley was impressed that she was able to “dumb herself down” in that way. Keanu pointed out that Ashley has not lived up to most of the things that Rachel laid out for an ideal winner.
HOH – Part Order for Two
Season 16 player Frankie Grande was brought in as host for Part Two of the HOH comp to guide Ashley and Vince through their ziplining attempt to destroy The Mastermind’s billboards that they’d have to reassemble as a puzzle displaying the faces of six houseguests. By the end of “Unmask the Mastermind,” the winning player would also trigger a reveal of the true identity of The Mastermind. Vince was first to knock down all the blocks of his three billboards and was already referring to the puzzle of faces as “pretty easy” before Ashley was off her zipline. He assembled a puzzle of Will, Amy, Keanu, Rachel, Jimmy and Mickey and then had to decipher a passcode based off of the order they left the game. He confidently declared that he knew the dates of everyone’s exit from the game, missing that the prompt was to use the order they left. When Ashley read the prompt later, Morgan realized from the sidelines what they’re missing, but Vince never read the prompt again while Ashley did.
By the time Ashley buzzed in for her win, Vince was still frustrated and hitting his buzzer with the same incorrect numbers. It wasn’t until Ashley pointed out “the order” in the prompt that Vince realized his mistake and claimed that she didn’t beat him because he beat himself. From the Diary Room, he declared this scenario “by far the worst” for him all season. To no one’s surprise, the one and only Dr. Will Kirby was revealed as The Mastermind when he was brought outside in handcuffs, but he claimed to have been framed.
Back in the house, Vince continued to beat himself up over the loss with Morgan consoling him while downstairs Ashley told the camera that her final move of the season will be to win Part Three and “take Morgan out.”
HOH – Part Three Statements Wrong
Playing out live, Morgan and Ashley took part in the last comp (“Perjury Duty”) to win HOH and make it to the final two seats. As always, this comp had three-part statements from the jury members which the players had to identify as true/false. Over the course of the comp, they both got Rachel’s statement correct. Morgan got Will, Kelley and Lauren’s statement wrong. After only four statements, Ashley secured the win with four points and earned her spot in the final two and the right to choose her opponent.
With the power in her hands for the first time all season, Ashley as the final HOH cast the sole vote to evict Morgan because she wasn’t sure if she could beat her and agreed with Vince that against him it “could be a toss up.” Morgan exited the house with a smile on her face and seemingly happy for her two close friends to make it to the final two chairs. She admitted to Julie that she thinks Ashley made the right move and doesn’t blame her. Morgan then confirmed what Ashley told Vince moments prior in the house that she was going to take Ashley to the end instead of Vince because she wasn’t sure that she’d beat him.
Bring in the Jury
Before Julie brought Morgan out to join the jury, both Rachel and Keanu declared that they would prefer it to be Vince and then everyone audibly gasped when Morgan walked out instead and were informed that Ashley won HOH and brought Vince with her to the final two.
Keanu asked Vince about his “emotionally manipulative game” that “lead to horrible jury management,” to which Vince said that he was acting out of his emotions in those moments and that the moves he made were for himself. He referred to the “double-edged sword” of the multiple paths he created to get to the end of the game and apologized for anyone feeling manipulated. He asked that they appreciate what he did from a “game perspective.”
Rachel asked Ashley about her “great social game,” but wanted to know “specific strategic moves.” Ashley named her ability to “adapt to the game” through repositioning like her alignment with different people and especially with the Judges alliance when she convinced Rachel to keep Morgan. She also pointed out that she had “protection” from Keanu and Ava as well.
Kelley returned to Vince with a question about the sincerity of his “lying” and “crying.” He said he “spoke with passion and with conviction,” calling all of his crying “authentic.” He wanted them to know that his emotions were sincere even when talking game.
Will referred to Ashley using Rachel as a shield, wanting to know about her “personal contributions.” At that point, she went back to the multiple alliances she had with every single member of the jury that created a thread of protection for her throughout the house.
Lauren offered Vince the opportunity to differentiate his game from Morgan’s. Vince said Morgan can’t take credit for him joining the Judges alliance because he made that for himself in order to get protection from people that he previously wasn’t working with. He also noted that in the “first six weeks” he didn’t align with Morgan at all and so the decisions he made for nominees at that point were his.
Ava gave Ashley the chance to argue why she deserves to win over Vince. She said that she “strategically aligned” herself for protection by “turning enemies into allies” and through her ability to earn loyalty from everyone in a “social game.”
Morgan’s one question went to Vince so that he could talk about the “strongest part” of his game. Vince said that he “caused a lot of damage and had to do damage control.” He tried to use Ashley’s line about enemies and allies in his own favor, but that triggered laughter from both Kelley and Lauren.
Final Statements
In their final statements to the jury, Ashley referred back to “ShowerGate” and reminded them that even after that she was able to remain off the block week after week. She said she did “purposeful annoyances” in order to create a “small target” on her back without putting her in danger. A reference to Elle Woods from Legally Blonde brought out her secret that she’s an attorney so that she could let them know she let people think they were controlling her, but she knew all along exactly what she was doing.
Vince bounced off of Ashley’s secret by declaring that he’s “really unemployed” and that she’s a superfan that has tried out for the show for years. He said he “came into this house with very little confidence” so that he could highlight all of his many comp wins as a triumph for himself. He numbered all of his nominations and how many of them went home on his weeks as HOH, taking full responsibility for all of his actions and the big target he put on his back. “Yes I lied,” he said, arguing that he put his “blood, sweat and tears” into the game by playing it the way it is supposed to be played.
At the keybox as they cast their vote for a winner, Rachel said that “Big Brother is about winning competitions when you need to.” Will declared his vote for his “little girl” and that it “ain’t no surprise.” Kelley highlighted “the best social game.” Lauren gave an iconic “Uh, love ya.” Keanu cast his vote for the player he said he’d vote for while still in the house. Ava wanted the winner to be the person that “believed in themself.” Morgan voted for who she thought “played the best game.”
Return of the Pre-Jurors
In a mini-reunion with the entire cast on stage, Julie counted 8 out of 10 people as having a “final two deal” with Vince, but he said it’s because he was “winging it” and that Morgan was his “number one by far.” Jimmy Heagerty said that he and Mickey Lee “hashed it out” about her turning on their alliance to evict him, but gave credit to Morgan for orchestrating that move on her own behalf. He also offered compliments to Morgan’s game because he thought she had a lot of power in the game, including running Vince’s HOH reigns.
Rachel opened up about the “real alliance” she had with Keanu, but underscored that she would always choose her friends within the Judges alliance over their “frenemy” alliance. Katherine Woodman and Rylie Jeffries made it clear that they’re together in a relationship that has gotten stronger since they left the house. Amy Bingham was finally outed to all as the accomplice to The Mastermind, at which point Julie gave the floor over to The Mastermind themself to reveal that it was actually a shared responsibility from Jessie Godderz seeking revenge for the “Coup d’etat” power, Frankie looking to avenge being taken out by a twist of his own, and Eric Stein who was thwarted in Season 8 by the “America’s player” twist. Their manifesto being “if you can’t beat a twist, become one.”
Winner and AFH Reveal
Looking for four votes to win, Morgan voted for Vince, Ava voted for Ashley, Keanu voted for Ashley, Lauren voted for Ashley, and Kelley voted for Ashley. Those four votes handed Ashley the $750,000 prize as the Big Brother Season 27 champ, but that didn’t stop Julie from revealing the votes from Will and Rachel that were also for Ashley for an official 6-1 vote.
In other wins, Taylor Hale defeated Derrick Levasseur in the Big Brother Unlocked fantasy draft with the first round pick of Ashley and from a Top 3 for America’s Favorite Houseguest of Will, Keanu and Rachel, it was Keanu that earned the $50,000 prize in America’s vote.
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