For the second week in a row, a “Big Brother 23″ double eviction left the so-called pawn stunned. Last week, Hannah shocked Alyssa when she told her she was nominating her, leading to the final non-Cookout houseguest’s eviction. On Thursday, the tables were turned when Azah told Hannah she was putting up her and Xavier with the intention of booting the latter. Hannah did not understand why Azah wouldn’t nominate Kyland, but she did understand that she was doomed unless she won Veto. She didn’t, and to make matters worse, Ky won it and saved X, making Derek F. the renom, and they cast the 2-0 vote to evict her.
The 21-year-old sounds off below on Azah’s “dumb move” of nominating her, how Kyland’s “insulting” and how her game wound up being the complete opposite of how she had planned on playing.
Gold Derby: You looked crushed when Azah told you she was nominating you and Xavier, and you seemed to know the writing was the wall when you lost Veto. What were you thinking during the entire double eviction?
Hannah: I pretty much knew that as soon as Tiffany left the guys were going to send me home and then send Azah home. I believe that they have a final three and I knew that in order to make final four, I would’ve had to win either HOH or Veto, so when I lost both, I knew that I was going home. … I still tried to campaign, I still tried to fight in a last-ditch effort to convince Kyland and Xavier to keep me in the house because — no offense to Big D — between myself and Big D, I do feel like I am a stronger competitor, like I am slightly more of a strategist than he is. And Kyland repeatedly told me that he would like to take the strongest to the end and because Tiffany left — call me egotistical, but I felt like that person should’ve been me. So the fact that the guys kept Big D over me even though that that is kind of contrary to how they envision the outcome of this game to be, it told me that they’re working together.
Gold Derby: If you had won HOH, what would you have done?
Hannah: Oh, my God, if I had won HOH, I would’ve absolutely put up Kyland and Xavier. And Kyland won Veto, so I would’ve thrown up Big D. Azah would’ve probably voted for Big D and then I would’ve broken the tie in Big D’s favor, so Xavier would’ve gone home. Basically I would’ve kept Azah off the block under all circumstances because that is the only way to guarantee that one of the guys goes home. And that could’ve caused people to have to reposition themselves in the house, reconsider who they want to move forward with, and that person could’ve been me by getting either Kyland or Xavier out. So that was pretty much my only path to making it farther in this game and unfortunately I wasn’t able to pull out a win in the HOH comp or the Veto comp, so at that point, I knew that I was going home.
SEE ‘Big Brother 23’s’ Tiffany: ‘Kyland wants to keep Xavier because he is so egotistical’
Gold Derby: You have tried to tell Azah that you think the guys are working together, but she didn’t seem to believe you. Why do you think she didn’t believe you and do you think she believes they’re working together now?
Hannah: I have tried to hint to Azah that I believe the guys are working together. Xavier did make a comment to me pretty early on in jury and he referred to me as the Britney Haynes of this season. How I kind of interpreted that was the three guys are working together and I was going to be Britney’d. So I was gonna be cut at four, and that let me know that, “OK, maybe the guys have something.” And then in order to damage control, Xavier did tell me later that the guys were talking about a final three deal but he had no intention of honoring that. I think he wanted to, I guess, keep my guard down about it and not get me to start thinking and speculating about the relationship that the guys have.
But going back to the question, I don’t think Azah wanted to believe that Big D was more loyal to anyone else besides her. I think she was in denial. I think that she is trusting the final three that she has with Xavier and Big D, but what she’s failing to realize is that people can have multiple final threes, people can have multiple final twos. I told Kyland that I wanted to take him to the end. I told Xavier that I wanted to take him to the end. Big D, Tiffany — when my best chance of winning would’ve probably been sitting next to Azah. So I think Azah’s just a trusting person and maybe even now she doesn’t think that the guys are working together. In her goodbye message to me, she told me that Kyland was able to convince her to target me this week and that was in her best interest. I have to give it to Kyland because targeting me during her HOH was absolutely the worst thing that she could’ve done for her game and now she’s ineligible to play in the final four HOH. So she’s kind of setting herself up to be very vulnerable to get sent home because now instead of having two opportunities to guarantee her safety, she only has one. So, yes, with that being said, dumb move on Azah’s part. If she would’ve used her HOH to take out Tiffany, that would’ve still been a dumb move. It’s not even because it’s me sitting here. Hopefully she does realize that the guys are working together. I think the writing’s on the wall. I think it’s pretty obvious, but I just think that Azah’s a very trusting, naive individual in the game.
Gold Derby: You remarked that you’re not “worthy” in Kyland’s eyes to take to final two as a strong competitor. Why do you think he doesn’t deem you “worthy”?
Hannah: So my strategy going into this game was to downplay the heck out of my intelligence. Any time I would come up with an argument of some sort, I would try to act unsure of myself because of my age. I didn’t want to start raising red flags. I didn’t want people to think that my smartness was threatening. So Kyland did not take me seriously, and on top of that, I’m a young woman who said that she was in fashion. I feel like a lot of young artists are discredited or invalidated or made to feel they aren’t as smart because of the path that they’ve chosen. So some of that was kind of intentional, like I was trying to be underestimated with my athleticism and also with my memory and intelligence, but Kyland was unnecessarily condescending about it. He at one point remarked that I don’t know people, I don’t know this game, and he would never sit next to me in a final two because essentially I’m not worthy of that. And I don’t know who made him the gatekeeper of the final two of “Big Brother” Season 23. But I don’t think that was his place to say and even though I was trying to be underestimated, it was insulting.
Gold Derby: If the Cookout didn’t exist, how would you have played?
Hannah: If the Cookout didn’t exist — I did plan on laying low for maybe the first week. I don’t think it’s smart to make an alliance here and an alliance there in that very first week because you don’t know who you’re dealing with, so my strategy was just to observe, observe, observe, and then go from there. But once I kind of found a group of people who filled all of the niches that I personally could not fill, I wanted to ride with them to the end and then eventually turn on them. I didn’t plan on playing a very loyal game, which is ironic because I came into the house, the Cookout was what it was. Even though I wasn’t officially part of it until a little later, they still knew that they were going to protect me, just like I knew I was gonna have their backs. So, yeah, my strategy definitely had to shift. I played a much more loyal game than I planned on playing and I don’t regret that at all.
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