Jag Bains, Matt Klotz and Bowie Jane all made Big Brother history upon entering the house back in August, and one of them is now poised to win the show’s longest season ever.
Season 25 will come to a close on Thursday (CBS, 8/7c) after a record-breaking 100 days. And though none of us are sitting on the actual Big Brother jury, tasked with choosing this season’s champion, we’re still eager to get your predictions for who will win during Thursday’s finale — as well as your thoughts on who should win. First, let’s revisit each houseguest’s current standing in the game:
BOWIE | Bowie, the first Australian contestant to play on the Stateside Big Brother, spent most of this season floatin’ right along, content to hide in the background while other players made serious game moves. It’d be easy to write Bowie off as an unworthy winner, given her penchant for doing whatever the current Head of Household wants to do, or her unwillingness to take big shots when she has the chance. (The Oct. 26 double eviction episode presented a major opportunity to take out Matt or Jag, and she let it pass her by.)
Still, there’s something to be said for surviving a 100-day season and never once getting nominated for eviction, as Bowie’s achieved. She has seldom been mentioned as a potential target by other houseguests, which speaks to a respectable social game, and she has won three Head of Household competitions — that’s more HOH reigns than either Matt or Jag have had. It remains to be seen if that résumé can clinch her the win, but she’s certainly not without her strengths.
MATT | Big Brother‘s first-ever deaf houseguest, Matt has held his own despite facing significantly more obstacles than his fellow contestants. His place in the Final 3 is a momentous one, and he’s got some strong arguments to win the whole thing: In addition to four competition wins — one HOH, two vetoes and the Power of Invincibility — Matt also developed a sterling social game that kept him off the nomination block until the final days of the season.
Although Matt’s name frequently came up as a potential target in the season’s early weeks — largely due to his alliance/pseudo-showmance with Reilly — he successfully took himself off everyone’s radar as the summer wore on, all the while forging strong bonds with power players like Cirie and Jag. Say what you will about Jag’s decision not to evict Matt in the Final 4 (probably a bad choice!), but their Minutemen alliance will go down as one of Big Brother‘s most formidable duos.
JAG | Ooh, Jag’s a tricky one. The first Sikh houseguest to ever play Big Brother, Jag has had a unique journey through the season — a journey that included his own eviction, by a 10-0 vote, back in Week 4. He was saved from eviction by Matt’s Power of Invincibility, and went on to become a strategic and competitive beast (seven vetoes!), but his early and unanimous eviction is an asterisk that jurors may find hard to ignore.
Speaking of the jurors, Jag seems to have done poor jury management in the back half of this season; not only has he orchestrated nearly every juror’s demise, but he appeared to relish doing so, with goodbye messages to the evictees that often explained how, exactly, Jag had played a role in their downfall. It could ultimately work in Jag’s favor that several of the jurors — from Survivor legend Cirie to BB superfans America and Cory — have an appreciation for savvy and cutthroat gameplay, allowing them to let go of their grudges and hand Jag the win anyway. But if he’s sitting in the Final Two with Matt — a fellow competition threat who’s got way fewer enemies in the jury house — Jag may have to settle for second place.