'Big Brother' Blowout: Final 3 Revealed After Explosive Fight -- Plus, Did Production Help Michie Win?

This was the big moment "Big Brother" fans have been waiting for. For the first time, the alliance of Michie, Holly, Cliff and Nicole would have to turn on themselves, so how would they do it, and how would they justify dying it?

The power was all in Michie's hands as he was the Veto winner. With Nicole Head of Household, his only choices would be between Cliff and his showmance, Holly. Seems pretty obvious, right? But what about the deal he made with Cliff, shaking his hand and looking him in the eye. Doesn't that mean something?

Not a damned thing, according to Michie.

The 24-year-old server from Nashville said that the moment Nicole and Cliff even considered taking Tommy to the Final 4, all bets were off. From that point, he started lying and taking fake deals. He concocted an elaborate lie that helped seal Tommy's fate.

But when that didn't work, he laid heavily into a guilt trip on Holly and Cliff that they were going back on their word to two people who'd had their backs the entire time. Suddenly, honesty and integrity were the most important thing to him when he was on the opposite side. But did he mean it?

Not a damned word of it, according to Michie.

This was all a play to dupe them into keeping Holly. He'd already admitted to Holly that their smart move was to get rid of her and break up the showmance. He knew it was the best game move from them, but not the best move for him. And at the end of the day, Michie is thinking about Michie. He doesn't even really care about Holly's game.

WARNING: LIVE FEED CONTENT ... SKIP IF YOU DON'T WANNA KNOW

One of the big stories that broke on Thursday before the live eviction episode was a clip from the live feeds that showed Michie complaining about how much he struggled during the Veto competition, that he still won by more than two minutes.

In the clip, Michie says, "I knocked down f-king five faces. They kept saying did not receive a punishment. Did not, and I'm like, 'Oh shit!.' Is that Michie revealing that production was telling him he'd misunderstood the question?

It was intentionally worded awkwardly to create a double negative contestants had to unravel to know who to target, but in the footage on television, it looked like everyone had no problem with understanding the answers.

Holly and Nicole could be heard saying, "Same," but were they saying they also got help from production, or just agreeing with Michie's frustration? A lot of times when he rants, the other HouseGuests just kind of nod along and agree without really listening.

For many conspiracy theorists, this is further proof that CBS and production interfere to try and massage the results they want and control who goes forward in this game (as much as they can), but this one is really hard to interpret.

It could be that production helped everyone understand the question, though that begs the question of why they made it easy to misinterpret in the first place? You'd think that would be part of the challenge; part of the mental component.

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It's almost hilarious that Michie got so angry when Cliff basically attempted the exact same approach to save himself that Michie tried on Holly. He pushed for Michie's honor and integrity and keeping his word.

So Michie had to lean again heard on his self-justification for why he just went Machiavellian super-villain on this game. Even his speech during the Veto meeting and eviction meeting were trying to very hard to justify his decision and effectively saying he broke his word because Cliff and Nicole almost broke theirs.

It's a good game play, as members of the jury had to concede, but it's a very dirty game. Will they reward dirty? That seems somewhat mixed at this stage. Probably encouraged by production, they talked up each of the remaining finalists, though there was certainly a lot said about Nicole's quiet game suddenly emerging with competition wins and securing her way into the Final 4.

And they don't even know that she and Cliff got Holly to agree to a deal that put Nicole into the Final 3. That deal was for Nicole's benefit, not Cliff. He trusted Michie's word, but the 24-year-old preschool aide from Long Island knew better. Where she comes from, it's every man or woman for themselves, so she saw what Michie was doing.

It's a shame Michie has played such an angry close to this game. He says he hates that he has to play this way, but he's playing it with relish, and even strategically plotting his justifications. At the same time, there is Diary Room footage of him saying he believed in and intended to honor their Final 4, so all of this could truly be coming from a place of hurt and betrayal.

But that's kind of scary as to what it shows Michie -- or mankind -- is capable of when they feel sleighted and decide to take the gloves, and their moral compass, off. Paul played dirty in past games and lost. Tyler made deals with everyone and played dirty last season and lost.

A true "BB" fan knows the importance of jury management and Michie seems to think that his comp wins alone should make them give him the prize (even over Holly). He may be in for a big surprise if and when he gets to the Final 2.

Holly is probably in the best position to win this game right now because Michie is most likely to win out the final comps and if he does, he'll take Holly. If she's smart and she wins, she'd take Nicole and have on her badge the fact that she cut the biggest comp beast in the house. Could she beat him next to him? Yes, because then she could play on the integrity of her game, so long as the jury doesn't associate her with all of Michie's dirty. Grade: A

Michie is possibly blowing his game with his angry decisions and the "villain" twist he's decided to take in these last few weeks. But he still has an incredibly strong case for winning, based largely on his competition wins. Then, he has to play on the gamers in the jury by showing them that his "villain"twist only furthered his game, and even kept Holly alive. Would they buy it? He tried for damage control with his speeches in front of America, as his public image seems very important to him. But the jury doesn't see that. Grade: A-

Nicole seems to have a lot of support growing in the jury. If she can actually win this next HOH (and you know she'll pour everything she has into it), she might be able to beat Michie or Holly in a Final 2. If she takes Michie out with her final volley of the season, she's almost assured a win. The fact is she played an honest game, and a strategic game that the jury is starting to recognize. And once Cliff gets there, they'll learn even more about her, including perhaps how he talked her into keeping Holly over Tommy. But first, she's gotta get there. Grade: B

Cliff had no chance once Michie got angry. He has managed to remain angry for a week now, constantly refueling his rage to justify betraying his word. And he let Cliff trying his own tactics against him only make him angrier. Cliff, to his credit, absolutely owns up to putting too much trust in Michie and blowing up his own game. He'll really beat himself up, though, if Nicole follows him out. Grade: F

"It's very refreshing when people say things and mean them and stick to them." --Nicole (to Michie and Holly ... um, about that)

"I love you do death, but I do want you to know this will be the final three." --Michie (to Nicole, referring to them and Holly)

"Michie hammered me and Cliff last week about not sticking to our word, not sticking to our deal. How dare we even consider getting rid of Holly before Final 4? Michie makes the Final 3 with Cliff, looks him in the eye, shakes his hand, and lo and behold, Mr. Integrity himself breaks it." --Nicole

"Don't use last week as an excuse for this week. Cliff was not the one that was questioning voting out Holly. I was." --Nicole (to Michie)

"I've always sad you're not the fourth wheel to a tricycle--" --Michie (to Nicole)

"So I'm just the third wheel to a bicycle. This is gonna be a great finale night!" --Nicole

"Holly and I had not at any point considered going against y'all. It turned into y'all were going to take Tommy to Final 4." --Michie

"Because I knew this was going to happen." --Nicole

"Here's the thing, it wasn't going to happen." --Michie

"I don't believe that." --Nicole

"Michie tells me to do him a favor and not tell Cliff. Tell you what, Michie. You do me a favor. Go f--k yourself." --Nicole (in DR)

"I'm numb, disappointed is the right word. I want to stay calm for Nicole's benefit. But inside I'm screaming at the top of my lungs, 'How could you do that to me?!'" --Cliff (after Nicole tells him)

"Look, it's a game. Michie's just a real hypocrite. I don't quit, I don't surrender, and I will do what I have to do. I'm gonna keep on fighting until they drag me out of this damned place." --Cliff

"He can destroy my game, but I think I can destroy his as well." --Cliff

"If you and Holly are up there, Holly honored her promise, you didn't. That's going to affect the way I vote. And it'll affect Nicole's decision and the way she votes." --Cliff (to Michie)

"I feel like it's probably a lot easier way to [win] if Holly's over there championing your cause as opposed to me being over there, talking to all those guys for the next few days." --Cliff (to Michie)

"I have ten wins up to this point. You're gonna hand half a million dollars to Holly because I won't stick to a deal that you pushed me into taking? Dammit!" --Michie (it's a tough game)

"Nick and Kat, their relationship has blossomed a lot. I think they secretly really liked each other and couldn't do anything about it and now they're busy doing other stuff together." --Analyse

"Now we're the jurymance." --Kat (about Nick)

"Why are all my favorite people in this house?' --Christie (upon arrival at jury)

"Because you evicted us." --Kat

"I didn't expect to see you because you've been manifesting that you were gonna this double for a month, so your manifestation didn't come true very well, I guess." --Christie

"I will say, I don't respect your game, but you were playing a good one." --Nick (to Christie)

"Are you still thinking about Bella?" --Producer (to Nick, hooking up with Kat now)

[Priceless] --Nick (you can't define his look after that question)

"Michie and Holly are going to be Final 2." --Jessica

"Holly's gonna win." --Nick

"So you were never going to vote for me if I was sitting next to her and you didn't promise her that." --Nick (after learning Tommy and Christie knew each other)

"If I was the deciding vote, no. I couldn't. Family comes before 'Big Brother'" --Tommy

"That's the only reason I put her up." --Nick

"She was gonna win this because she is a gamer." --Jessica

"Nicoel has been the deciding vote numerous weeks and has made the decision to get herself to the Top 4." --Tommy

"Nicole seems like she has been saving up her steam. No one saw her as a threat. But I also think that Nicole has played a huge factor in every freaking eviction. I mean it seems that almost every vote has come down to Nicole's choice and who she was going to vote for. For someone quiet, she's making quite the impact on this game." --Christie

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