'Big Brother' Blowout: Zingbot Destroys the HouseGuests, Prankster Faces Crucial Veto

It's always the highlight of every season of "Big Brother" and Zingbot did not disappoint in his latest foray into the Big Brother house to savagely roast the HouseGuests.

Each year, we're surprised at just how ruthless Zingbot can be on a network television show, and he started off in fine form this season, calling the HouseGuests "the biggest group of f--king losers I have ever seen."

But while Zingbot was having fun roasting the HGs, they were sweating a key week in the house. Nick found himself nominated and on the block thanks to Holly's HOH reign. But he also scored America's Prankster award, allowing him to also nominated someone. He kept the power a secret, anonymously nominating Christie.

Two things happened here. On the one hand, Christie hilariously thinks this counts as her fulfilling her deal with Holly and Michie to act as a pawn for them in the game for saving her last week. Only they didn't put her up. But Christie's ability to manifest her own reality is second to none.

The second thing is that Nick gets to show what a beast he is at campaigning and getting into people's heads. It's becoming more and more clear that he is playing the strongest cerebral game in the house, and even having it all blown up and exposed by Christie a few weeks ago hasn't slowed him down.

Nick has a savvy social game, preening over everyone in the house and making those intimate connections. He flirts and charms his way into everyone's good graces. And the whole time, every bit of it is strategy, strategy, strategy. He may not even like these people, but it's clear he's playing harder than anyone in the house other than Christie.

The big difference is that Christie plays a loud, brash, in-your-face, accusatory, manipulative, crocodile tears type of game. It's obnoxious on a good day, but it is working for her. Nick, on the other hand, is playing a more subtle game. And thanks to his psychology background, even when they know how he's playing the game, he's still able to get into people's heads.

"Tommy, with all your constant singing and dancing this summer, you remind me of my favorite musical: 'Little Shop of Attention Whores."

"Nicole, you say you're afraid of birds, but you've been living with an old buzzard old season named Holly."

"Christie, wow, you sure got loud on Taco Tuesday. I don't mean your fighting, I mean your chewing. Mani-feast zing!"

"I almost forgot, I have something for one of you. Wait here. Nick, I brought you a present. Open it up! Time for a new haircut. Hail Caesar zing!"

Nicole, it must be tough for you in the Big Brother house with no friends, no boyfriend and no contact with the outside world. Actually, you must feel right at home."

"There is one HouseGuest this summer who is very voluptuous and if you don't mind me saying, quite busty. Pleased to finally meet you, Cliff. Watch the sideboob zing!"

"Jessica, with the game you're playing this summer, fans are already planning a convention in your honor. They're calling it Snoozefest."

"Hello, we haven't met yet. My name is Zingbot. What should I call you? Jackson, Michie or pompous douchebag?"

Poor Zingbot got arrested, and it took balls balanced on boards raised up a platform by strings, avoiding pitfalls, to take out 27 cameras to help him escape. This was a skill-plus-endurance challenge, and Michie absolutely made the right call by choosing to target the higher cameras first. It creates fewer pitfalls on the lower levels and sets up a faster endgame.

For all his talk that Holly's the brains and he's the brawn, Michie has done very well in mental competitions and competitions with mental elements, like this one. He is definitely the biggest competition beast left in the house, which even Christie had to acknowledge. Still, Nick was right behind him. But for his strategy, Michie might have lost that one.

As it stands, he didn't and Nick immediately decided to reveal that he was America's Prankster. It looked like an emotional outburst after a hard loss, but it was, as always, strategy. He wanted to leave Michie thinking that Nick has his back even when Michie doesn't know he has power. Nick could have put Michie or Holly up, but he didn't.

Nick's narrative is that this shows loyalty to the showmance. In reality, it's because he feared he would go up, rightly, and figures his best chance to stay is against Christie. This is also a good guess.

We were stunned when Christie orchestrated her survival over Sis (Analyse) last week, but now she's up against a campaigner and a talker every bit as savvy and brilliant as she is. These are the two most manipulative and clever people in the house.

Up against anyone else, we'd bet on Christie or Nick to be able to talk their way out of almost anything. But they're up against each other, meaning it's going to be very, very interesting to see what happens.

Nick is Holly's target, but she's already admitted she wouldn't be upset to see Christie go. Honestly, for everyone else in the house, they both need to go. Both are huge threats to win the whole game if they make it to the end, both because of how they've played and how well they can argue their case.

The campaigning should be epic and beautiful to behold. Both using extremely different strategies and the most evenly balanced block yet. If we had to guess, we'd suspect Christie has the votes to stay, but Nick could pull off a miracle.

He thinks he's got this, but it's going to be hard for him to secure votes from Tommy or Michie, while Jessica and Christie have grown close. He could get Nicole and Cliff, but they also might want to support Holly's wishes to show solidarity for the foursome deal they made with Michie and Holly.

It should be Nick going out the door on Thursday, but it should have been Christie last week. We shall see, we shall see.

Cliff is in a great position right now. He's aligned with Holly and Michie, but both of them would get targeted before him. His social game is incredible, as he's beloved by everyone, and his strategic game has been working thus far. On top of that, he's played a game that most see as having integrity, even though he's made deals after deals. He's got a strong case. Grade: A

Holly has proven herself a strong competitor, but Michie will still be seen as a bigger physical threat than her -- and he is a comp beast. That gives her a shot at surviving a block with both of them up and then regrouping. She is a student of the game and a smart player. She might even fare better without him, but if they can continue to control the game (or their allies), they could both go far. Grade: A-

Michie is essentially playing the same game as Holly, but he's the bigger physical threat and competition threat (he's won four now, no one else is close), so he will always be the target. That said, he has built alliances and connections throughout the house, which could be used to save himself. Grade: B+

Tommy is losing allies fast, but he's proven very flexible (in more ways than one) and also has many friends on every side of the house. His loyalty to Christie could be his undoing or could turn this game around in a heartbeat and help put them on top. Of everyone not in the power alliance of four, Tommy is the most likely to find a way to infiltrate and rise up as he has an incredible social game. Grade: B

Nicole is aligned with Cliff and the showmance, and yet remains firmly in the middle of the house, effectively floating through this game. It's not her fault she's never picked to play in the Veto, but she's yet to make her mark on the game in any meaningful way. The good news is it makes her easy to overlook. The bad news is it also makes her look expendable. Grade: B

Christie remains an absolute dumpster fire of a player, but you can't stop watching her play. And the fire keeps burning and everyone stands around and warms their hands and doesn't want to get rid of her because then they might get cold. It's remarkable that her explosive and messy style of playing continues to work for her. At this point, she should be a huge target, but we'll never count her out until she's out. Grade: C+

Jessica appears to maybe be close with Christie now. She has kept a distance from Cliff and Holly after they turned on Kat and sent her out the door, and that's left her on the wrong side of the numbers. That said, if there were somehow to be a flip and she were open to it, we know Cliff would make a deal with whoever is in power. And Jessica can take power. But for now, it's not looking great for her game if she doesn't. Grade: C-

Nick has the capacity to pull off a miracle, as Christie did last week, but he'll have to do it against Christie whereas she had to do it against Sis. This is a huge difference. We're just not sure he has the numbers to pull it off, though we've seen crazier things happen. He's going to need every bit of his charm to give us the truly unexpected this week. Grade: D

"I'm assuming that America's prankster is Nick. There's plenty of reasons why he would put me up on the block next to him." --Christie (yepper)

"I came back from the dead last week. So if I can bounce back from that, I can definitely bounce back from this." --Christie (it was impressive)

"I just feel like Nick must think that I'm stupid. I read energy. Nick, I'm pretty sure that you're the prankster and I don't believe you that you're wishing me well and hoping that I win the Veto. Let's just be real. You don't want me to win the Veto. You put me on the block. But, whatever." --Christie (assuming the truth for once)

"Oh my god, I have to stay in here longer because they're about to pie everyone in the face." --Nick (trying to stay in Diary Room through assault, but Nicole got him anyway!)

"This pie punishment is the perfect retaliation for all the things these people have said or done that have just annoyed me." --Nicole (enjoying it perhaps too much)

"I hate that she really thinks this is us cashing in that end of the deal." --Holly (about Christie assuming Prankster nominating her fulfills her offer to be a pawn)

"Say 'thank you, pompous douchebag.'" --Michie (after 'freeing" Zingbot by winning Veto)

"You didn't have to go for it." --Nick (to Michie)

"I didn't know who'd go up." --Michie

"It wasn't going to be you. The best way to show loyalty is when people aren't looking. That's when you show loyalty. I hope you saw that."

"I wanted to plant a seed in his head that I've had his back even when he didn't know." --Nick (strategizing always)

"And we skirt by another week." --Michie (to Christie)

"I have 16 lives." --Christie

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