Following the elimination of Big Brother 25’s AFP Cameron Hardin from ,” eight contestants had remained in the lodge before the series second episode, and with just five episodes left to go. The ultimate champion of this Christmas-themed mini-season will take home a cool $100,000.
So how did everything play out in the second episode of “Reindeer Games” on Tuesday, December 12 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT? What really happened and who was the second player to be sent packing? Find out in the minute by minute recap below:
9:00 p.m. – “Previously on ‘Reindeer Games’!” In the first episode, Santa Claus welcomed the players to the winter lodge and told them they needed to save Christmas for all of the children of the world. (Seems about right.) Britney won the Christmas Carol task and earned an advantage in the upcoming Jingle Bell Brawl and also the ability to disadvantage someone (she chose Cody). Frankie persevered in that letter-themed competition and was tasked with naming two people to duke it out in Santa’s Showdown (he picked Cameron and Xavier). In the end, Xavier was able to complete his yeti sweater the fastest, and so Cameron was eliminated from the game.
9:05 p.m. – After the first elimination, Britney and Danielle put their heads together to think about how best to target Cody and Frankie because they were too strong of a duo. Danielle was in a side alliance with Britney, but she also has something going with Xavier, Josh and Taylor in a larger group. On the other side of the house, Frankie was concerned with patching things up with Xavier after he single-handedly put him in the Santa’s Showdown against Cameron. Xavier reiterated his perspective that it was a “logical” decision for Frankie to make and so there’s no hard feelings.
9:07 p.m. – Cody reflected with Nicole on his position in the game, knowing that Taylor is coming for him and that everyone else in the house has a target on his back. Cody told Nicole that she has the safety of not being an early target, but Cody wasn’t shy about saying that at least he has Frankie on his side so that if he wins then Cody should be safe, too.
9:09 p.m. – Jordan returned in the morning to present the next Naughty and Nice challenge. This time the houseguests had to take a list of 20 carol songs and compare it against torn up sheet music dispersed around the lodge in order to narrow the list down to the one song that the “cranky carolers” are still willing to sing. Once again, the winner would earn an advantage and the power to give someone else a disadvantage.
9:12 p.m. – In the race to eliminate carol titles, no one seemed to work together and instead all eight players ran around the house, except for Danielle who leisurely stepped from room to room. Because she won this power on the first day, Britney was in no rush to win again and so she went in the Diary Room for a guess first with “Silent Night” knowing it’s wrong. Josh went in next with “Silent Night” as well. Taylor went into the DR with “The First Noel” and Frankie followed with “O Come All Ye Faithful.” Cody was not phased by everyone running into the DR so he decided to go through the rooms another time. Nicole wanted a chance at winning to she rang in with “Go Tell It on the Mountain.” Xavier realized he knew the answer, but he didn’t want the answer so he let Cody chime in before him. Cody gave the answer “Deck the Halls” before Danielle and Xavier went in at all.
9:20 p.m. – Jordan called the houseguests into the living room to deliver the news that Cody was the winner of the advantage. The result put Taylor on edge because she knew that she had called Cody out publicly and so she’d be the likeliest to gain the disadvantage. Jordan then dropped the bomb that this Jingle Bell Brawl challenge would be played in teams with the winning team of four all earning safety from elimination. As his advantage, Cody got to choose which three players would compete on his team and the disadvantage would be for the entire other team.
9:24 p.m. – Cody told Frankie straight away that he has no interest in hiding their bond and so he’d obviously be putting them on the same team. He also said that he wanted to bring along the biggest competitors in order to compile a “super team” to compete. He brought Xavier in next to the team and asked who should be brought in as their fourth. Xavier said it wouldn’t be a good idea to do an all guy team, but didn’t have a strong opinion which of the women they should add. Later he told Josh that he wasn’t picking him for his team, but that with him, Frankie and Xavier on the other side they could guarantee that Josh wouldn’t be put up for elimination.
9:28 p.m. – In her chat with Cody, Danielle told him that she’d be “personally offended” if he doesn’t pick her and begged for him to do so. Britney explained to Cody that she’s not going to “long term target” him and he was willing to give her a pass for giving him the disadvantage the first day, but that didn’t mean he would put her on his team. Taylor was up front with Cody about putting an envelope in his box at the last challenge and that made him consider that it might be in his best interest to work with her for this challenge in order to “keep his enemies closer.”
9:35 p.m. – When the time came, Cody announced that his team would consist of Nicole, Frankie, and Xavier. That left Britney, Danielle, Taylor and Josh as the opposing team. In addition, Cody gave the Naughty list stocking to Taylor, but the disadvantage would be felt by her entire team.
9:39 p.m. – For the Jingle Bell Brawl, the two teams had to decorate four Christmas trees by placing ornaments of different weights on branches of different lengths in order to balance them perfectly. Each player on the team would have to balance the branches of one of the four trees. As their disadvantage, Taylor’s red team had a tiny fifth tree for Taylor to decorate before they could move on to the main four.
9:45 p.m. – Nicole went first for Cody’s green team because they figured that the trees would get progressively harder and it’s best that she take the easiest one. Nicole performed so poorly that Taylor was able to finish he tiny tree before Nicole got a single branch balanced. At that point, Britney jumped in for their first tree and was able to balance both branches before Nicole could finish. Danielle went in next for their second tree moments before Nicole finished and Xavier was tapped in for the green team’s second tree. On the second tree, Danielle finished first before Xavier had a single branch balanced. Taylor went third for the red team and went so quickly that she finished before Xavier could finish, giving them a full tree and a half advantage for Josh to close it out. Eventually Xavier pulled it together so that Frankie could begin on the green team’s third tree. Josh was able to balance two of this three branches fairly quickly, but when he started on the third branch the other two took a tumble. Britney gave Josh the advice of starting from the bottom branch this time and in that moment, Frankie had a tumble of his own. Josh got the bottom two branches balanced and then quickly balanced the third at the top and hit the button in order to secure a blowout win for the red team!
9:58 p.m. – As the winners, the red team was safe from the day’s elimination, but they had to agree on one person from the losing team to also make safe, sending the other three to Santa’s Showdown with the last place finisher in that challenge getting eliminated.
10:00 p.m. – Because he assembled the teams, Cody knew right away that it was unlikely he’d be the person saved by the other team. The red team decided to meet with each of the green team members to hear their pitch for safety. Frankie said that he kept all of them safe the previous day when he had the decision to make, but Cody was ready to take the fall for the team and said he’ll go in. Nicole pointed out that she’s not a challenge threat and so if they put all of the guys in the challenge then it would “force a big target out.” Xavier congratulated the red team and he felt comfortable that his alliance members Taylor, Danielle and Josh would do their best to protect him.
10:05 p.m. – After deliberation, the red team gathered the green team to announce that the one player they were saving from Santa’s Showdown was Nicole. Privately, Britney explained that the three guys are all strong competitors and they’d be “idiots” to not seize the opportunity to send one of them home.
10:08 p.m. – Immediately, Xavier was taken aback that his alliance was not willing to protect him and it was only the second day. Later, Danielle told Xavier that they went back and forth between him and Nicole, but they all insisted that no one threw his name out there it was just a group decision that they needed him to take one of the other guys out.
10:13 p.m. – For this Santa’s Showdown, the three players had to assemble the “perfect gift” for five different children with very picky lists. In their effort to get the five boxes correct, if they have any incorrect then they’d be buzzed out and would have to determine which box to finish. The first two to finish earn their spot back in the house and the one to not finish in time would be eliminated.
10:17 p.m. – Cody was the first to stuff a box with a pink teddy bear and then Xavier and Cody also collected the same bear for Timmy’s box. Xavier determined that Bridger was looking for a plane and Alex was looking for a cassette player. Frankie realized that he picked the same teddy bear for Lydia, but that had to be wrong because she wanted something unique. Cody figured that Lydia would want a horse instead. Xavier was the first to hit his button, but his fifth box had to be incorrect because he had a dinosaur toy in the box with a tail. He replaced that with a telescope and that was what he needed in order to be the first player to finish!
10:24 p.m. – Frankie smartly noticed that Xavier was correct with the telescope in the fifth box, but he still hadn’t replaced Lydia’s toy with something unique so he had to go back in the workshop to find something else. When he saw the pink horse, he went with that toy for Lydia and that was exactly what he had to do in order to take second place. Xavier and Frankie’s decisions meant that Cody was eliminated and would follow Cameron out of the house. But before Cody left, he chose a gift from the tree and in it was a fruit cake!
10:27 p.m. – Cody’s elimination was great news for everyone in the house except Frankie and Nicole who had closely aligned with him. That didn’t stop Frankie from jumping around the house in excitement though.
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