There's A New Alliance On 'Big Brother 17'

With the evictions of Clay and then Shelli, Big Brother 17 's Sixth Sense alliance dwindled down to a Fourth Sense, and that's not a common phrase. So clearly, the remaining members of the Sixth Sense (Austin, Liz, Julia, and Vanessa) had to either disband or get a new name for their group. At first, it looked like they would continue as this foursome, calling themselves the cringeworthy name of Austin's Angels since they had one dude and three ladies a la Charlie's Angels. They even did the pose. Luckily, this quartet eventually decided to pull Steve into the fray, and with that, they became known as — drum roll, please — the Scamper Squad.

Yes, I did gag a little bit when the four almost went with Austin's Angels, but when the quintet announced that the Scamper Squad was actually going to be a real thing, I'm pretty sure I threw up in my mouth a little. There wasn't really an explanation of why the Scamper Squad name was chosen, although it seems likely that it would have something to do with those ridiculously adorable squirrel costumes the houseguests had to wear during a Power of Veto competition a few weeks ago. The house has gone kind of nuts over them. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Is the Scamper Squad the worst alliance name in Big Brother history? No, I'm pretty sure the Quack Pack from BB14 was an even lamer name. And it's much better than some of the other suggestions that were thrown out, such as HBICs, the Freaky Geek Squad, and something completely confusing having to do with the letter of each of their first names. All right, all right. So maybe the Scamper Squad isn't so bad after all.

But no matter what name these five chose for their alliance, it ultimately has nothing to do with how successful it will be in making it to the end intact. The alliance just formed, and already some cracks are starting to show. Things do not bode well for the Scamper Squad.

That's because Becky, in a last-ditch effort to save herself from being put up on the block this week, told Head of Household Liz, along with Julia and Austin, that Vanessa was always on board with the plan to backdoor Austin a couple of weeks ago when she was HoH. Becky tried to convince them that Vanessa only has her best interests at heart, and if you get in the way of that, you're gone. You could tell that Austin, Liz, and Julia had their minds blown so much, they were almost at the point of having their noggins explode. Almost.

So that definitely made the trio skeptical of their alliance partner Vanessa and how loyal she would be to them down the road. However, they kept the Scamper Squad strong, and Liz nominated Becky and John, even though she doesn't totally trust Vanessa at this point. Still, with that bombshell dropped on Austin, Liz, and Julia, who are the tightest trio in the house, I'm not very confident that the Scamper Squad alliance is going to make it to Labor Day.

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Images: Sonja Flemming/CBS (2)