Big Brother 26: Episode 2 — Second group of houseguests

The second group of Big Brother 26 (BB26) houseguests are set to enter the house.

I’m hoping the final group of houseguests will feature at least two people I can feel some sort of attachment to vibes-wise, otherwise I’ll struggle to feel the need to keep watching this show. 😅

That usually determines whether I watch a season. I want to watch this season so I can recap it, though, so I can share my thoughts and give another side of me that not many people see or know. 🧐

Houseguests

I think houseguests calling themselves BB fans is a bit meh — in order to be a contestant, you have to have watched at least one season of the show…and why would you go on a show you’re not a fan of? 🤔

• Quinn has long, curly red hair. He’s a “crash cymbal player” — I don’t do band, so IDK if that’s a real thing. I’m autistic. Don’t @ me.
  • I like his vibe somewhat. I wouldn’t have perceived him as athletic.
  • He’s clearly Gen Z, doing that awkward heart with his index and middle fingers. 🥴
  • I predict he will crush on Makensy.
• Brooklyn is from North Dallas, Texas.
  • I’m interested in how she thinks of LGBTQ+ rights.
  • She’s got the white girl boss vibes, but she’s multiracial. 🤔
  • I don’t know if she’ll make it to BB 26 jury, but I think she’ll go further than Week 3 at least.
  • Seems to practice that toxic competitiveness…and I get the feel her husband would be fine if she had a light/platonic showmance if it helped her win.
• Matt’s a tech sales rep and considers himself an “urban cowboy”.
  • He looks tall. Wonder if he’s 6’5″.
  • Super competitive.
  • Might use BB26 as a dating pool.
  • Bi vibes, but probably actually hetero.
• Lisa’s a private celebrity chef.
  • Ooh. Makensy’s probz not gonna be the house cook anymore. Lisa’s determined to handle the food.
• Leah does cocktails and is supes social.
  • She loves “fluffy men” and gets sad when they lose weight. 🤔 Not sure there are any of those guys in the house…
  • She wants a girl to win BB 26 because not many women win the main show (only 8 have).
• Cedric is a former marine intelligent analyst. 🤔
  • His nickname is “Playboy”. He likes older women and is okay with showmances.
  • He plans to “play dumb until it’s time to turn it off”.
  • Feels too cocky. I think he’s going to be one of the first few houseguests to leave.
    • Last season, Jared Fields played a similar game and was sooo toxic.
• T’Kor handmakes and sells crochet things.
  • Her crochet pieces have been complimented by Michelle Obama and Kelly Clarkson.
  • I don’t want to jinx anything, but I do feel as though she’ll be approachable to other people in the house as a whole. Her personality is like girl-next-door rather than the life-of-the-party commonality between other women in the house thus far.
• Kenney’s a former undercover cop and currently a sergeant.
  • He’s not planning to tell anyone he’s a former police officer; his strategy is to go into the house being like their dad, confidant, friend — which is suuuper smart, because OMG. Not only is this playing to your former job, but it’s also hiding your most evictable trait.
  • I’m keen to see how long he lasts!

Entering the house

Quinn, T’kor, Matt and Leah enter the house first. Quinn’s outfit is really mismatch-y, and I love it? 😅

Leah thinks Matt has Prince Charming vibes, but needs to see what’s underneath the jacket (remember: she likes “fluffy men”). She likes Quinn’s vibe.

Matt goes on in the Diary Room (DR) about how he’s gonna show everyone how sweet, kind, genuine and authentic he is — and then stab them all in the back. 😒 Like no one has ever done that before. 🙄

T’kor notes (in DR) that it feels like she’s been teleported back to high school — with the hot jock (Matt), beautiful cheerleader (Leah), quirky class clown (Quinn) and maybe that makes her the nerd.

Cedric, Lisa, Kenney and Brooklyn enter the house next. Kenney targets the younger kids; Cedric notices Kenney’s American flag on his arm and wonders if he’s former military or police force. 🧐 The observation. OMG.

Voting for Ainsley

This second group of houseguests votes on whether to allow Ainsley into the house as a 17th houseguest, akin to the first group.

Rewatching her video, I do see the hints to allow her in — but I mean, they’re still too generic. I know no one wants to add one more person to the house to have to move out later.

Cedric considers letting her in because they both like to surf and really owns his “Playboy” label. 🙄 In a house of strong women, I hope his play isn’t missed — that they see through it.

Matt judged Ainsley for her clothing choice in the video, so 🧐 I’m gonna be monitoring how shallow he is.

Leah and Quinn vote to allow Ainsley in, while everyone else votes against it.

Competitions

AI Chip Installed (upgrade)

Goal is to install four uniquely shaped upgrade motherboard chips and install into Ainsley’s central mainframe. The mainframe room will constantly gyrate.

Quinn goes first and seems to struggle, but he gets all the pieces properly installed.

Leah also competed, but she lost this competition, so Quinn won the upgrade.

Facial Recognition (downgrade)

Goal is to use their face to move a scanning disk along the pathway and deposit it into the recognition receptacle.

If the disk encounters their shoulders or chest, Ainsley will allow it, but they can’t use their arms or hands.

They have 60 seconds to move three discs into their respective receptacles.

This comp seems harder than the last downgrade one. The curves are the parts to watch for. 👀

Everyone struggled so hard. 🤣 I think it humbled Matt a bit.

The good part, though, is that they need only to not be last. It’s fine if they suck at the game, so long as they don’t take the longest or completely flunk out.

Cedric — proud, proud Cedric — loses and therefore wins the downgrade.

Results & consequences

Ainsley appears in the proto box to share the news. Players whose games are upgraded will be revealed secretly, so people won’t know.

Chelsie and Cedric’s have been downgraded to BB Mascots, so they can’t compete in the Head of Household (HoH) or Power of Veto (POV) competitions for the week, nor can they cast an eviction vote. They may still be nominated and evicted, however. 💀

(That really sucks, because OMG. POV comps, you can usually compete even if you’re nominated to be evicted. 🥴)

My thoughts

I like this second group a bit more. 🤔 I think they have more personality than the first group, especially since the initial group was filled with so many people who liked to party.

Big Brother houseguests are always social people; they can’t be introverted and avoid people, so of course they’re social. I’m not a fan of extroversion being associated with alcoholism, though.

Maybe they separated the groups of people the way they did because it seems more balanced? I don’t know.

Considering how politically charged the US is currently, I wonder how everyone’s prejudices will affect their relationships.

Watching houseguests see each other and have their own comments to say about other houseguests is interesting to me as an autistic person. They seem to care less about not actually knowing each other and only decide based on surface-level things whether they like someone.

In that way, it’s shallow and I wonder if perhaps it’s because they’re likely non-autistic. Allistics aren’t defined by their values, passions and interests and don’t mind ignoring those things to maintain social intersections because they don’t think that that defines them as much as their social intersections.

Big Brother, for/to me, is like a social experiment involving non-autistics. Could there be autistic people in BB? Yes, totally — Ian Terry was one. However, autistic people aren’t usually featured on reality television beyond sensationalism or stereotypes.

BB tosses people of varying beliefs and prejudices into one house for 90-100 days. Last season, a houseguest was removed from the house because of racism and white supremacy.

There can only be so much diversity on BB before it’s dangerous for diverse houseguests, unfortunately.

I don’t want to see autistic houseguests on BB until allistics stop flocking to those shows to see how “normal” they are.

So, yeah, I think of BB as an allistic social experiment.

After all the ish allistics put autistics through, I consider it fair. ✨