Vanessa Has A New Alliance On 'Big Brother 17'

For weeks, Vanessa has been in danger of being put up on the block and evicted from the Big Brother 17 house. But oh, how the tables have turned. Vanessa won this week's Head of Household competition and John got back into the game after being evicted, so there was definitely a whole new vibe in the house during Sunday night's episode. And with that came a totally new side alliance comprising of Vanessa, John, and Steve. But will Vanessa look back on that move as being one of the best or worst decisions she made during her time on Big Brother?

On the one hand, the Scamper Squad alliance Vanessa is a part of with Austin, Julia, Liz, and Steve is a powerful one to be a part of. Austin and Liz have won the past couple of HoH competitions, and it's likely that they could continue to have the power to control the game in the future. Vanessa might not want to go against a trio that has physical prowess and the numbers on its side because if she makes one wrong move, these three could very easily take her down.

However, as John made clear to Vanessa before he was evicted from the Big Brother house, Vanessa is the low woman on the totem pole in that alliance. Vanessa asked John to form a partnership before he was voted out of the house, and she confirmed that move with him and Steve when he came back into the game. Austin, Liz, and Julia are absolutely not going to turn against each other, so Vanessa would definitely be the first one to go when the time comes. That's after Steve, of course, who's possibly hanging by an even weaker thread in the Scamper Squad than Vanessa. So when it comes down to it, Vanessa really didn't have much choice but to align with John and Steve.

Now that Vanessa has won HoH this week, she is at a critical point in her game. With so few people left in the Big Brother house, everyone is basically working with everyone else, so anyone she puts up will basically break up an alliance in some way, which should only benefit her game, right?

However, though it could definitely be risky to go up against the powerful force that is Austwins, I ultimately think Vanessa's best bet is to leave the Scamper Squad behind and give her full support to John and Steve and whatever awesomely bad alliance name they come up with. As I said, Austin, Liz, and Julia are never going to want to take Vanessa to the end, so the best thing she could do is to break them up before that even becomes an issue.

I wish, hope, and pray that Vanessa, John, and Steve target and successfully evict Austwins (Liz would be the optimal alliance member to get out first due to having a close ally in both Austin and Julia, of course). I really think Vanessa has a strong chance of taking home the $500,000 prize at the end of the summer, but she's got to stop being under the spell that Austwins seems to have over her right now and being willing to finally get some blood on her hands.

Images: Sonja Flemming/CBS; whosreadyforatakeover/Tumblr