The 'BB18' Showmances Have All The Power

We're closing in quick on the Big Brother 18 season finale. Now is the time when the potential winners start showing their true colors. As the pool of Big Brother houseguests dwindles, it looks like a surprising alliance has formed that could contain a few winners: the showmances. Yes, it definitely appears that Natalie, James, Nicole and Corey are joining forces in an attempt to not only get Victor out ASAP, but also Paul and Michelle. Big Brother 18 has gifted us with three very iconic and powerful showmances, each of them as glorious as the next but all of them involving some big power players. It looks like the surprises will keep coming if this new showmance squad is to be believed. There's power in numbers; Natalie, James, Nicole and Corey are poised to show us how it's done from here until the season finale.

While Zakiyah and Paulie are in the Jury House (and possibly rekindling their romance away from all those camera), we now get to focus all of our attention on the remaining two showmances and how they are wielding their power in the final weeks of Big Brother 18. With Natalie as one of the Co-Heads of Household, James is automatically safe from elimination. But how did Nicole and Corey get in on the action? Well, it appears that they have all united for the common goal of getting Victor and Paul out of the house as quickly as possible. Watch your backs, guys. It's about to get crazy in this house.

I always thought that getting involved in a showmance could be risky when it comes to playing Big Brother. The obvious pitfall being that if the showmance goes sour while you're in the house, you're causing tension between possible alliances. The other problem? That your showmance might be nothing more than a summer romance; on top of losing the game, you leave the Big Brother house with a broken heart. But such is not the case with Natalie and James or Nicole and Corey. Both couples got together quite early in the game and they're still going incredibly strong.

Miraculously, their showmance alliance powers have often shielded them from being put up for eviction. Kudos to these four for not only taking a romantic plunge, but coming out on the other side of the dicey showmance situation relatively unscathed. I don't know if I'd have the guts to incorporate romance into my own Big Brother gameplay in such a major way. If this squad sticks together to evict the singletons (Victor, Paul and Michelle), then we might actually be watching one of the winners of Big Brother 18 at work right now. But who would come out victorious out of these four?

While I would agree that this is a solid strategy for everyone involved to ensure they can stay in the game longer, there is a major caveat that either the squad doesn't see or are unwilling to acknowledge. The biggest issue is that even if they get Victor, Paul and Michelle out of the house, they will still have to break up their showmances in order to win. Major bummer alert. The squad will eventually have to break back up into their respective pairs and start to play shady once more in order for one person to emerge victorious. The upside here is that if the showmance is actually romance, maybe one the winner would split the prize money with their Big Brother honey.

The mysteries of the heart may be endless but the gameplay of Big Brother is pretty easy to decode. Who knows if these showmances are actual romances that could be affected by the game? But whatever the real deal is, it looks like the next few weeks of the game could be all about the domination of the Showmance Squad.

Image: Bill Inoshita/CBS