Big Brother 18

***Big Brother 18: Last Rights*** was the eighteenth season of *Big Brother SIMulator*. It began on January 4 2021 and ended on January 12 2021. In-game it lasted 30 days, ending when Jalen Baldwin won over Chiara Lombardi in a 5-2 vote.

## Twists

* **All-Star Cast:** This season featured fifteen returning houseguests from the franchise's first seventeen seasons who are considered "all-stars" for their gameplay from their respective previous seasons.
* **Last Rights:**

## Houseguests

 **Winner**

 **Runner-Up**

 **Jury: *Jalen***

 **Jury: *Jalen***

 **Jury: *Chiara***

 **Jury: *Jalen***

 **Jury: *Jalen***

 **Jury: *Chiara***

 **Jury: *Jalen***

 **Evicted**

 **Evicted**

 **Evicted**

 **Evicted**

 **Evicted**

 **Evicted**

### Previous Seasons

* From ***Big Brother 1*:** Chiara Lombardi (4th).
* From ***Big Brother 2*:** Lydia Spencer (13th).
* From ***Big Brother 4*:** Chiara Lombardi (4th).
* From ***Big Brother 5*:** Brandy Wilcox (6th); Rocky Fellbrook (7th); Jasper Walker (11th).
* From ***Big Brother 6*:** Chiara Lombardi (7th); Brandy Wilcox (14th).
* From ***Big Brother 7*:** Jasper Walker (Runner-Up); Lydia Spencer (5th); Rocky Fellbrook (9th).
* From ***Big Brother 9*:** Christian Darnell (4th).
* From ***Big Brother 11*:** Amir Teshuan (10th).
* From ***Big Brother 13*:** Christian Darnell (16th).
* From ***Big Brother 14*:** Halif Aram (5th).
* From ***Big Brother 15*:** Ursula Reynoso (Runner-Up); Jack Ocampo (4th); Julie Jarold (7th).
* From ***Big Brother 16*:** Karim Elizabeth (5th); Mike Trolley (7th);
* From ***Big Brother 17*:** Jalen Baldwin (4th); Hartleigh Norton (15th).

## Game History

### Week 1

As the fifteen houseguests entered the house and learned of the season's Last Rights twist, the houseguests nervously socialized and strategized to prepare for an intense season. As the first HOH competition, a pool endurance competition, was held, Jack ultimately emerged victorious and secured power for the season's first week. Jack nominated according to the house's social preferences, picking two outsiders in Hartleigh and Lydia to sit on the block.

A power structure began to form with Brandy, Chiara, Jalen, Karim, and Rocky. Chiara and Brandy were especially close after their time on *Big Brother 6*. Jack trusted Chiara and Brandy and used them as his in point for the larger alliance. Christian, Jasper and Mike were also well-situated within this alliance. In a writing value POV, Jack won once again, sweeping the week and keeping his nominations the same.

Ursula, Jack and Julie secured a final three deal as all three had competed on *Big Brother 15*, despite the tensions between Ursula and both of the others during the season.

As the house entered the eviction, the consensus was that Hartleigh, as a more physically fit and less spontaneous player, was a bigger threat in the game. Since Hartleigh had few connections with other houseguests this idea was widely accepted and Hartleigh became the first houseguest to face Last Rights.

### Week 2

Despite Jack's efforts not to rock the boat in the first week, the large power structure beginning to form in Week 1 around houseguests who self-identified as "Big Threats" saw the relationship the three houseguests from *Big Brother 15* had as a threat to their own ability to dominate this game. As outsiders in the game, Halif and Lydia secured a final two deal. Halif also became closer to Ursula and Jack, members of the *Big Brother 15* alliance. In a brand-new "stay in the conversation" HOH competition Mike beat out Chiara and Jalen for his first win in the franchise.

Mike approached the Big Threats to discuss his best move for the week. While he had a desire to break up their power structure, he felt that following their intuition and targeting the players from *Big Brother 15* might be a better move, and it would shake up the general quietness of the house. As Jack was the best ingratiated into the social dynamics of the house, Mike nominated Ursula and Julie for eviction.

Chiara and Brandy campaigned for Ursula, a perceived social threat and another dominant player, to leave the house. In a bonsai speed POV, Mike narrowly beat out Julie to continue the trend of HOHs sweeping their weeks, and was able to keep his nominations the same. Tensions grew between Mike and Julie, but Julie was reassured by Chiara and Brandy of her safety for the week, which increased their relationship.

Although Chiara and Brandy had set their target on Ursula, the entire house was not feeling the same way. Jack specifically had a much closer relationship with Ursula, and so encouraged his fellow houseguests to vote out Julie. Word got back to Julie about this, which further weakened the *Big Brother 15* alliance. More, Ursula had made good relationships with Amir, Halif, and Jasper, all of which were more on Ursula's side and hoped to upset the rising power structure. Lydia, too, was easily swayed.

At the eviction votes were split, but despite campaigning the only votes to keep Ursula came from Jack, Amir, Jasper, Lydia and Halif. This meant that Christian, Jalen, Rocky, Chiara, Brandy and Karim all voted to evict Ursula, which meant Ursula would become the second houseguest to face Last Rights against Hartleigh.

In a similarly split vote, Amir, Julie, Jasper, Lydia, Halif, and Jack all voted to save Ursula, whereas, in an effort to follow through on their plan, Christian, Jalen, Rocky, Chiara, Brandy, and Karim all voted to keep Hartleigh. This meant HOH Mike had to break the tie, and he ultimately decided to stick with his plan as HOH and formally send Ursula packing, making her the first houseguest to be evicted in a 7-6 vote.

### Week 3

With the successful eviction of a second outsider, the Big Threats alliance reinforced its own power. Brandy, Chiara, Christian, Amir, Jalen, Karim, and Rocky all made their alliance official, with smaller deals between Christian, Jalen, and Karim; Karim, Jalen, Brandy, and Chiara; Christian, Chiara, and Brandy; and Christian, Brandy, Chiara and Amir. Mike saw himself progressively falling on the outside of conversations and began to plan to turn against the large majority alliance, who had assumed he was a number for them. Lydia mostly aimed to work with the majority, becoming especially close to Karim and Christian. Halif and Jack worked together from the outside and hoped to be able to turn the numbers. Continuing her Last Rights, Hartleigh worked on her relationships with the women in the house and tried to lower her threat level to maintain her safety.

In a painting value HOH, Chiara won in a landslide victory and, despite previous displays of loyalty from Jack and Julie both, nominated the remaining members of the *Big Brother 15* alliance against one another. She did damage control with an angry Julie, telling her she was just a pawn. Then, in a skater rink endurance POV, Chiara's ally Karim won and decided to keep nominations the same.

For the vote, Halif encouraged Lydia to side with them and vote to keep Jack, and Mike disliked Julie and felt she was more likely to target him as he previously nominated her. However, the majority saw Jack as the much bigger threat, especially considering the work Julie had put in to ingratiate herself into the majority. Ultimately, Halif and Mike were the only votes against Julie, with the rest of the house voting to evict Jack in a 8-2 vote.

Since Jack was still perceived as a strong player and one who would oppose the Big Threats alliance, Hartleigh did not have to do much convincing to keep herself safe in the game. While Halif voted to keep Jack and Julie did as well, both valuing their ally's presence in the game, Mike flipped to do damage control and the majority alliance wanted to follow through on their targeting of Jack. This led Jack to be the second houseguest evicted in a 9-2 vote.

### Week 4

With another week of the power structure being reaffirmed, Jasper worked to ingratiate himself in it and specifically formed an alliance with Rocky, Amir and Christian. Halif still refused to back down to the majority alliance, making no effort to integrate themself. Hartleigh talked to Brandy and Chiara about her potentially joining forces with them in the game.

Mike beat out Karim in a sprinting HOH competition and decided it was time to strike on the Big Threats and instill chaos in the house. He nominated Brandy and Chiara, who had both been the most visible targets of the majority alliance and were largely involved in its founding. This created outrage from the majority and Brandy, Chiara, Karim and Jalen specifically set sights on Mike as a target. Jasper, Rocky, Christian and Amir all had ties outside of this power structure, even though Christian remained very close to Chiara and Brandy, which limited their outrage.

In a sitting endurance POV, Mike once again pulled out the win but decided to flip his initial plan to do some damage control and also make a big move. He took Brandy, his own nominee, off of the block and named Karim, a close ally of the duo, as replacement. Many of the outsiders were eager to see Chiara go, but the majority of the alliance saw her as a powerful part of their own power structure and a shield for themselves. Still, Christian and Jalen had been close to Karim, and with Halif and Lydia aiming to disrupt the power structure four votes went against Chiara. Christian lied about her vote, secretly hoping to gain more control by taking out a key player in Chiara. However, Chiara's connections proved too strong, and with Amir, Julie, Rocky, Jasper and Brandy all voting to evict Karim, he ended up being sent to Last Rights in a 5-4 vote.

Last Rights came with less deliberation. Although Hartleigh had done a good job of aligning with the majority, Karim was so well integrated that almost everyone hoped to see him stay or at least pretended to for appearances' sake. This led to Hartleigh being evicted in a 9-1 vote, only receiving the vote of Halif who still intended on breaking up the majority.

### Week 5

Relationships solidified between Amir and Jalen as well as Chiara and Jasper, showing how Jasper and Amir had integrated into the heart of the Big Threats, especially since both claimed to be on the right side of the vote. Christian solidified a relationship with Halif as well as she saw them as a viable final two option, but worried they were too preoccupied with going against the majority alliance. Halif felt good about their relationship with her, but was still wary of her role in the main alliance.

In a dance endurance HOH, Amir pulled out the win and took one of the final steps in the overall domination of the power structure by placing Halif and Mike, the two dissenters from the week prior, on the block. Then, in a pressure cooker POV, Julie pulled out the win and, with hopes to better her placement with the alliance, kept nominations the same. While the majority alliance was wary of Halif's rebellious gameplay, Mike had already drawn the line in the sand and made it impossible to keep him, with the house sending him to Last Rights in a unanimous 8-0 vote. From there, once again Mike came up short with too few allies, and only Halif voted to keep him. This made Mike the fourth houseguest evicted in a 8-1 vote.

### Week 6

When Chiara won a chess HOH, her second HOH of the season, she immediately set sights on the one remaining person who opposed the power structure she had created: Halif. This led her to put up Halif alongside floater Lydia.

Then, in a speed POV, Chiara pulled out her first POV in her four seasons as a houseguest and kept nominations the same, sealing Halif's fate in the game. With no one to turn to and no relationships strong enough to see them through, Halif was sent to last rights against Karim, who maintained strong ties to the majority alliance, in a 7-0 vote. Due to Karim's stronger ties, Halif ultimately was evicted via Last Rights in a 8-0 vote, the first unanimous Last Rights vote of the season.

### Week 7

After being notified that the week would be the last before jury, the houseguests were told that it would be a chain week. Christian, Rocky and Jasper wanted to take a strike at Chiara, Jalen and Brandy who, along with Karim, had a strong alliance that they did not want to face moving forward. In a social HOH, the votes for who should receive HOH went as follows:

Amir and Jasper vote for Jalen; Julie and Lydia vote for Christian; Rocky and Chiara vote for Brandy; Jalen votes for Amir; Christian votes for Lydia; Brandy votes for Chiara. Although Rocky was one of the people who wanted to oppose the Chiara/ Brandy side of the alliance, he worried a Chain Week was the worst time to do it, as burning bridges could mean former allies would not choose to give him immunity. With three houseguests receiving two votes a piece, this led to a revote. During the revote, all houseguests kept their votes the same except for Julie, who switched her vote to ally Brandy. This meant Brandy was HOH, her first competition win in her three seasons with the franchise. This also meant Brandy would start the chain.

Brandy selected Chiara, her closest ally. Chiara then went on to pick Jalen, rounding out their trio. From there, Jalen picked Amir, someone he had grown closer to since he was friends with all of the men in the Big Threats alliance. Amir saved Rocky, a main ally of his, and Rocky saved his number two, Jasper. Jasper saved Christian, the third of their trio. This left Lydia and Julie as nominees with Christian casting the deciding vote. She was upset with the scenario, as she knew both were invested in her, especially considering their votes for her to win HOH. She ultimately decided to take out the free agent, Lydia, giving the last remaining safety to Julie. This was a questionable decision considering Julie's relationship with Chiara and Brandy, who she was trying to overthrow.

Entering the final pre-jury Last Rights vote, Karim and Lydia were up for nominations. Christian, Jasper and Rocky began their plan to flip the script by sending home Karim, a close ally of Jalen, Chiara and Brandy. Christian pulled in Julie, who she had just saved, and despite Julie's relationship with Chiara and Brandy she wanted to create change in the power structure at hand. She also had gotten much closer to Lydia, as both were on the outs of the house. This led Christian, Jasper, Rocky and Julie to vote to keep Lydia, whereas Chiara, Amir and Jalen voted to keep Karim. This meant that Karim was evicted in a blindside 4-3 eviction, becoming the sixth houseguest evicted and the final pre-juror of the season.

### Week 8

Amir was annoyed he had been left out of the plans of the people he had perceived himself to be closest to. However, he did not express this after Rocky won a mural painting HOH. Rocky nominated the obvious targets in Chiara and Brandy, who both felt betrayed after their allies had turned on Karim and now seemed to be targeting them. In a stay up late POV, Christian was able to seal the deal and keep the nominations the same, breaking up the power duo of the season.

With Christian and Jasper aiming to take out the biggest target, Chiara, and Amir and Jalen hoping to save on to a major strategist in their alliance and instead evict Brandy, Julie found herself in a power position as a swing vote. She had forged close relationships with both throughout the season, but ultimately felt Chiara was a more powerful player and therefore a better ally to have in the game. Despite Rocky's attempts to sway her otherwise, she stood firm and voted to evict Brandy. Brandy was sent to Last Rights in a 3-2 vote.

Still, Brandy had many allies in the game, and so facing off against free agent Lydia in the Bloodlands, she had some chance of staying. While the draw to Lydia was she had no connections and was not perceived as a threat, if anything being a piece on the board they could sway, Julie decided she wanted to keep Brandy in Last Rights, as she held more sway than Lydia for her in the game. This, combined with Chiara being eligible to vote and keeping Brandy, led to Lydia's eviction in a 4-2 vote, making her the first juror of the season.

### Week 9

With seven left in the house save Brandy in Last Rights, lines had been delineated clearly with Chiara and Jalen on the bottom. So, when Jasper won a running HOH, he made the easy choice and put these two on the block. However, when Jalen won a swimming endurance POV Jasper had to name a replacement nominee. Due to his close relationships with Christian and Rocky they were not in consideration. Amir convinced Jasper he still felt their earlier connection and did not hold previous moves against Jasper although he did. This made Jasper more comfortable with Amir, and pushed him to nominate Julie as a pawn to get Chiara out.

In the eviction, Jalen and Amir voted to evict Julie with the hopes of keeping close ally Chiara in the game. Rocky and Christian voted to evict Chiara, as they wanted to finally take out the player they had been targeting. With the vote split, Jasper was left to break the tie, and voted to evict his target Chiara.

With the duo of Brandy and Chiara both facing the Last Rights vote, Chiara's social capital once again proved strong as Amir, Jalen and Julie all voted to keep her, seeing her as a stronger player and likely stronger ally than Brandy. Despite Christian and Rocky voting to save Brandy, this led to Brandy beng evicted in a 3-2 vote, making her the second juror of the season.

### Week 10

Week 10 was announced as an instant eviction. With Jalen being targeted by Rocky, Christian and Jasper, he and ally Amir were eager to shake up the game. Julie found herself similarly on the outside, though she had a connection to Christian and was not under direct fire from the new majority alliance.

Amir won the guitar skill HOH and, despite the trust Jasper thought he had built with Amir, took a shot at the other side, naming Jasper and Rocky as the nominations. As all of the remaining houseguests were closer to Rocky and Amir preferred to see Jasper go, Jasper was sent to Last Rights in a 3-0 vote.

In Last Rights, Chiara and Jasper were up for nomination. While Christian and Rocky wanted to save their ally Jasper, Jalen and Julie likewise wanted to save their ally in Chiara. This led to Amir breaking the tie and, given his prior alliance with Chiara, was the reason he voted to save her, evicting Jasper in a 3-2 vote and making him the third member of the jury.

## Trivia

* The post-season gameplay rankings went as follows, from best to worst: Jalen, Christian, Rocky, Chiara, Jasper, Amir, Julie, Karim, Brandy, Mike, Lydia, Jack, Ursula, Hartleigh, Halif.
* This season has the greatest representation of houseguests from different previous seasons within a single season. Houseguests in *Big Brother 18* represent 13 different seasons, all but *Big Brother 3*, *Big Brother 8*, *Big Brother 10* and *Big Brother 12*.
* In Week 10, gameplay rankings for the remaining houseguests were made, considering position and win equity. They went as follows: Rocky; Christian; Jasper; Amir; Jalen; Julie; Chiara (Last Rights).