Big Brother evicted Lawon Exum and returned previously evicted houseguest Brendon Villegas to the competition during Thursday night's broadcast of the thirteenth season's fifth live eviction show.
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Lawon, a 39-year-old legal file clerk from Urbana, IL who currently resides in Inglewood, CA, was evicted from the Big Brother house via a 6-0 vote on Day 41 after being placed on the chopping block by Kalia Booker, the season's fifth Head of Household.
Kalia, a 30-year-old writer who currently resides in Los Angeles, CA, had originally nominated two of her Big Brother rivals -- former twelfth-season houseguest Rachel Reilly and former eleventh-season houseguest Jeff Schroeder -- for eviction. Following her nominations, Kalia had assured Jeff that Rachel was her true target and she had simply nominated him in an attempt to help ensure Rachel's eviction.
However, Jeff won the subsequent Power of Veto competition and opted to remove himself from the chopping block, resulting in Kalia -- who had became increasingly worried about Big Brother host Julie Chen's prior warning that the next evicted houseguest would "have a chance to get back in the game" -- and deciding to nominate Lawon in Jeff's place and cut a deal with Rachel despite the objections of Danielle Donato, Kalia's closest ally in the game.
While he had attempted -- unsuccessfully -- to keep it a secret from his fellow houseguests, Lawon had actually offered to be nominated and evicted, after assuming -- incorrectly -- that the returning evicted houseguest would receive an additional special power which would help him advance further in the game.
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But instead of revealing he would automatically remain in the game and receive a special power, Julie surprised Lawon -- and the rest of the houseguests -- by revealing what she had already shared with viewers when the returnee twist was first announced during last week's eviction show: that Lawon would have to compete against another previously-evicted houseguest for the right to return to the game.
After introducing the season's four other previously evicted houseguests -- Keith Henderson, Cassi Colvin, Dominic Briones, and Brendon Villegas, Rachel's former twelfth-season "showmance" partner turned real-life fiance -- and explaining that they had been sequestered since their evictions, Julie revealed that Brendon had won the home-viewer voting poll that allowed viewers to determine which of the four houseguests would get the chance to compete for the chance to return to the game.
Brendon and Lawon -- who appeared to be in shock that his deliberate eviction strategy wasn't working out as he had envisioned -- then competed in a live competition to determine which one of them would get to return to the game.
Dubbed "That's How We Roll," the skeeball-like challenge required Brandon and Lawon to each attempt to roll basketballs baring the names of each of the season's original 14 houseguests up a ramp and into a hole as the game's eight other remaining houseguests watched and cheered them on.
The challenge would last three minutes and the houseguest that sank the most basketballs and assembled the most unique collection (only the first sunk basketball with each houseguest's name would count toward the overall total) would get to return to the competition.
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Brendon jumped into the early lead and easily won the challenge, defeating Lawon -- who still seemed dumbfounded and unable to comprehend what had just unfolded -- via a 14-9 score, winning the right to return to the Big Brother house.
"Lawon, I'm sorry, your game is over. Lawon, please say your goodbyes," Julie said.
Rachel, whose mouth had previously dropped open in shock when Julie had revealed there was a chance Brendon could be returning to the house, then ran to Brendon and jumped into his arms as Kalia and Danielle -- who had successfully nominated Brendon for eviction during her prior Held of Household reign -- smiled nervously and attempted to determine how their plan to eliminate the couple had fallen apart so spectacularly.
Due to the special evicted houseguest challenge, the Thursday's Big Brother broadcast did not include the houseguests competing live in the season's next Head of household competition. Viewers will see the competition on Sunday's Big Brother broadcast instead, Julie announced.
About The Author: Steven Rogers