Big Brother 27 Week 1 Recap: First HOH, Alliances, and Drama Unfold

Big Brother 27 has officially kicked off, and the drama is already in full swing. We are one week into the annual summer hit, and Big Brother has thrown several punches at the contestants. We have had an HOH, a mystery accomplice, a surprise 17th houseguest, twists and turns, and ultimately, our first live eviction. And of course, it has not been smooth sailing for everyone, as several houseguests have already decided to stir the pot and cause some early drama. Could we expect anything less from a season with the queen of drama herself? Let’s dig into the recap!

Big Brother 27 Day One Packs a Punch

Day 1 in the Big Brother house historically packs in a ton of content in a very short time, and Big Brother 27 was no exception. Often, the full breadth of material is covered not just in episode one but in large portions of episode two as well. There was a lot to keep up with on the first day, including formally meeting the 16 (erm, 17) houseguests competing this summer. There was not even enough time for the houseguests to actually meet each other, though, before the first twist of the season hit the house.

A mysterious man popped up on the screen and stole a Head of Household (HOH) artifact from the Big Brother 27 house, as well as the host herself, Julie Chen. This led to two impromto challenges that ultimately offered a couple of prizes to the winners of each. Zach Cornell won $10,000 for finding Julie, and the additional option to offer it in the future to an HOH in exchange for safety, while Jimmy Heagerty won an advantage for finding the HOH relic, which allowed him to choose the four players who would be the only ones to compete in the upcoming HOH challenge, one that Vince Panaro ultimately won. Not too equitable.

The twists kept coming, though, as everyone gathered back in the Big Brother 27 living room. A new houseguest was unleashed onto the house (cast member 17, for those counting), and it was none other than the highly infamous and highly polarizing Big Brother 13 winner Rachel Reilly. While some players immediately saw the threat and target Rachel is, not only as a Big Brother legend, but a reality television legend as a whole, the rest saw it as a huge opportunity to learn from, and align with, one of the best to ever play.

Another bombshell was dropped; the twist from last season, AI Arena, was returning, meaning the HOH would have to nominate three players, and on eviction night, one player would win a competition and save themselves. Finally, the houseguests were told that a secret accomplice was amongst them in Big Brother 27, one who had helped with all the chaos that happened throughout the day. If the house could figure out who the accomplice is, they would have to leave the game immediately. If they guessed wrong, though, the accomplice would become an official houseguest. With that mystery left in the air, night one ended, and paranoia was rampant.

HOH and Veto Plays Out, and Deep Drama Unfolds

The house put on their detective hats and went searching for the accomplice. Big Brother 27 has 17 houseguests, so the probability of actually guessing the right player is low. Still, the contestants spoke amongst each other, trying to pick up on clues and deceptions from throughout the day. The house seemed to come up with a consensus that Rylie Jeffries, a professional bull rider, was the pick. Unfortunately, they were wrong, and Rylie felt hurt by the house. The real accomplice, Amy Bingham, was revealed to the audience but not the cast, and no one suspected her at all.

Vince took charge as the first Big Brother 27 HOH, and this is when the drama really began. Before Vince could even get to take a shower in his new HOH room, Big Brother 27’s public enemy number one, Ashley Hollis, asked to use his shower room. She ultimately was up there for two hours, and while it has since been proven that she only took about a 30-minute shower, and the rest of the time was chatting with Vince, the rest of the house believed the entire time was in the shower and that her disrespect and self-centeredness were appalling. She became the name on everyone’s mouth, and Vince chose to nominate her along with Amy and Zae Frederich.

Plans were foiled pretty quickly, though, as Ashley pulled off the win in the power of veto competition. Kelley Jorgensen, who seems not to recognize the mistake of being a pawn, offered to her alliance member, Vince, that she would go up as a replacement nominee if needed. Vince, trying to avoid as much bloodshed as possible, took her up on her offer when Ashley used the veto on herself.  Normally, that would end the veto meeting, but Jimmy Heagerty had other thoughts. He stood up and promptly ripped into Keanu Soto for trying to get him nominated, and promised he was coming for him next.

The First Houseguest Is Evicted

After the first Big Brother 27 veto meeting, Keanu approached Jimmy to try and smooth things over, explaining that he only mentioned Jimmy’s name because he was told Jimmy was coming for him. While that is true, Jimmy, of course, denied it, and they seemed to at least leave amicably. The same cannot be said for the final drama pair of the week, Rachel and nominee Zae. Anyone who knows Rachel knows she simply cannot stay away from the drama. With her best alliance member, Amy, on the block, Rachel began to work the house against Zae. Zae took exception and approached Rachel to essentially say that if she comes for him, she’s his target.

Rachel, predictably, did not take kindly to this. She yelled at Zae and told him that if he came for the queen, it would be a mistake. The argument continued into the house, and the rivalry was born. Rachel appeared to have pulled a good portion of people to her side, but the muscle bros alliance was trying their best to save Zae as well and mount a counterforce to Rachel, who they saw as manipulating the house and the biggest threat in the game as a returning winner. On eviction night, the first Big Brother 27 BB Blockbuster competition was held, and Kelley pulled off the victory in an unscramble challenge to take herself off the block.

With only Amy or Zae left to vote out, the house was pretty split. Mostly, it was actually split by gender lines, with only Kelley voting against Amy, while Ryley and Jimmy voted against Zae, leaving the vote 9-5 for Zae to go home. Rachel won the battle and seems to be firmly in control of the house right now. With Keanu and Zach firmly set to avenge Zae, and Kelley, Will, and Adrian evidently not buying into the Rachel hype just yet, what can we expect next from the Big Brother 27 Houseguests?

Tune in every Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday night at 8 PM EST on CBS or Paramount+ to watch all the drama unfold, and access the Big Brother 27 livefeeds on Paramount+ or Pluto TV. Also, on Friday, July 25, CBS will air the first-ever Big Brother: Unlocked show, which invites former players every other week to discuss the state of the season. With so much Big Brother content to soak in, enjoy the summer madness!