Can Vanessa Actually Win ‘Big Brother’ 17?

There isn’t that many people in the world that think Vanessa can win Big Brother 17 this summer. I’m not entirely sure if I’m one of them, but I do know that I’m a bit of a skeptic. Vanessa, who has been at the center of everyone’s target for almost half the season, has somehow — miraculously! — managed to stay in the competition and relatively out of danger. I say relatively, because it seems likely that Vanessa could be out of the Big Brother house at any minute. With John previously hating her, Steve feeling attacked by her, and the Austwins knowing that she tried to backdoor them earlier in the season, she hasn’t proven to any of the players that she is entirely trustworthy — and that is a tricky place to be in the Big Brother house at this stage of the game.

Even though Vanessa has done a bang up job of aligning herself with strong players, I don’t know how far those alliances will take her. Think about which players she has teamed up with throughout the season: Austin and the twins, Steve and John, Shelli and Clay. In each of these instances, she’s made the mistake of aligning herself with groups that are closer to each other than they are to her. What is going to happen to Vanessa if it comes down to her and the twins, or her and Steve and John, or her and Austin and Liz? In all of those alliances that she’s formed, no matter how tight they are, she is totally the odd man out. The third wheel. The houseguest most likely to be sent packing.

And then there’s the whole issue of the jury vote standing in her way. Even if Vanessa somehow managed to stay in the game until the very end, her winning the game is completely dependent on the jury members she’s long since kicked out and pissed off voting for her to win. Can you imagine Shelli voting for Vanessa? Or Jackie? Or Becky?

Um, yeah. I think Vanessa can count on that happening as much as I can count on winning an Oscar this year. And since I have never been in a major motion picture, that is entirely unlikely.

But who knows, right? Because if there’s one thing that I’ve learned about the Big Brother house this summer it’s that the infamous tag line is totally true: You should always expect the unexpected. Think of all of the things you never thought would happen this summer. I didn’t expect Meg to be a threat in this game. I didn’t expect Austin to have never gone up on the block. But somehow, these things have happened.

So could Vanessa win the game? Sure. It’s definitely unlikely, but it’s also Big Brother. Crazier things have happened.

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Image: CBS (3)