Taylor's Big Brother redemption is 'the best episode in a decade,' say fans

The first official eviction of Big Brother season 24 saw the shocking departure of Joe “Pooch” Pucciarelli over the long-targetted beauty queen Tayor Hale, but Taylor wasn't off the chopping block just yet. 

At first, it looked like Taylor could breathe easy, with this week's Head of Household Matt Turner nominating the new "Festie Bestie" pair, Michael and Brittany. However, Ameerah quickly puts it in Turner's head to throw Team Nicole and Taylor in as replacement nominees should two-time POV holder Michael should win veto again. Turner agrees to backdoor Taylor because she's been a target week after week and it's less blood on his hands, he reasons. He alerts Nicole of the plan, who strategizes that she would throw the veto comp so that Taylor could be evicted. 

However, it turned out that not all of the Big Brother season 24 cast wants Taylor out—realizing the power and impact of the girls' alliance, Monte, Kyle, Turner and Joseph reckon that they could pull Taylor into their own alliance to gain the upper hand in the house. "The girls are really prioritizing their game over ours," Monte says, so Kyle brings up the idea of blindsiding Ameerah, "the head of the dragon," and putting her and Terrance up as replacement nominees instead. 

Turner selects players for the veto comp, pulling the names of Taylor and Nicole to join nominees Brittany and Michael as well as Turner and Jasmine to compete in a complete-the-puzzle Woodstack game. Nicole is upset that she'll have to throw the comp, confessing: "I'm having an internal struggle because I am a competitor and I am an athlete." After finding out that Nicole was crying in her room, Taylor goes to her teammate to console her and let her know to not worry about their partnership if Nicole needs to bow out of the game, a sentiment that Nicole does not take well.

That all leads to a blowup between Taylor and Daniel, with whom Nicole is in a final-two alliance. Daniel tells Taylor not to speak to him until the finale. "I thought he was joking, is he serious?" Taylor asks, ending up in tears. 

"I never tried to hurt her, I never tried to hurt Paloma, I never tried to hurt any of the girls in the house," Taylor sobs in a confessional. "I have a feeling that she's not going to contribute in this veto and advocate to get me on the block next to her. I have to win the veto."

Taylor and Nicole don't win the veto comp, due to their lack of communication, leading Michael and Brittany to victory. However, all hope isn't totally lost for Hale. At the end of the episode, Kyle, Michael, Brittany, Joseph, Monte and Turner pull Taylor into the HOH room to discuss forming a new alliance against the girls, called The Leftovers, and work to backdoor Ameerah in the next episode. 

"I have been looking for people to trust with everything," Taylor tells them. 

"I guess what Julie says is true: expect the unexpected, and you can expect to see more of me, " she says in a talking head. 

Fans react to Taylor's redemption arc on Big Brother: