Is Austin Targeting Julia On 'BB17'?

The days are numbered for Liz and Austin in the Big Brother house. When Steve nominated Liz and Austin, everybody's least favorite love birds, for eviction on Sunday night’s episode, a collective head shaking happened around the world. Viewers everywhere knew one thing for sure: This wasn’t going to end well for either of them. And, without fail, the fate of Liztin has become even more strained in recent days. Liz and Austin fought openly in the house, bringing in other houseguests to air their grievances and talk strategy moving forward. But, even when they made up a day later, things were still tense between the two of them. And when Austin won the Power of Veto and chose to save himself over Liz — thereby getting Julia nominated alongside her sister — the fancy-free feelings that the two may have once experienced together were totally gone.

But the question in my mind as I watched all of this go down was whether or not Austin was indirectly targeting Julia by taking himself off of the block. Let’s take this very tricky question apart, shall we? Because there was plenty of evidence in the days leading up to the Veto Ceremony to suggest that Austin was starting to lean toward taking Julia out. There was never the sense that he was totally gunning for her exactly, but he was being more open about whether or not she or Liz would be a bigger threat to him in the game.

Obviously his for love Liz has been temporarily distracted by his gameplay.

Austin spoke with Vanessa a number of times over the past few days about which twin they should keep, Liz or Julia. After those conversations, he started to get worried about Julia staying in the game. Realizing that, even if he made it into the final three with the twins, he wouldn’t make it past that point, Austin started to seriously doubt his three-person alliance. And, although he didn’t say out loud that his intention was to take out Julia by saving himself, that conversation had to have impacted his decision to take himself off the block over Liz.

So do I think that Austin was targeting Julia directly by saving himself from eviction? Not exactly. But I do think that he has realized his place in their alliance this week. He knows now that he doesn’t stand a chance of making into the final two as long as the twins are together. Even though he may have been hoping all along that his showmance with Liz would get him there, Liz has been willing to cut him off if she had to since the beginning of the summer.

You know what they say, Austin. Blood is thicker than water. Thankfully Austin is getting his head in the game and finally starting to realize that.

Want more Big Brother? Listen to Bustle's Big Brother podcast, The Diary Room, below. And, of course, expect the unexpected...

Image: CBS (2)