To follow-up, I think Vanessa has to put up someone like Julia as the replacement nom. She cannot put up Jmac or Steve.At this point, I just don't think that Vanessa can trust the Austwins to keep someone like Jmac or Steve over Meg. They chose James/Meg last week, so they will be super-tempted to do it again this week. James has already talked about getting Austin to vote out Steve if he is the replacement nom.
Vanessa has already started floating the idea of using Julia as the pawn, so that might be what she is thinking. I don't think Austin and Liz would take it well. It also opens up the idea of whether Steve and Jmac would get sneaky and take a shot at the Austwins. Either way, it's a sticky spot.
LAST EDITED ON 08-30-15 AT 10:42 AM (EST)Yeah, but I mean she has to put up Julia as a pawn and just settle for booting Meg this week. It's kind of pointless in a way, but she has to isolate James.
Leaving James/Meg intact is just way too risky for her. Putting up Julia ensures that Austin continues being reliant on Jmac/Steve to keep her. Literally the only downside would be if she seriously annoys the Austwins by doing it. Maybe they would take it poorly... The Austwins are pretty spoiled by now. But it's a pretty minimal risk compared to the risk involved with leaving James/Meg together. Any competent Big Brother player should be able to give the "you are a safe pawn" speech and make them feel comfortable. The plan would work. Steve has made it pretty clear that he wanted Meg out, anyway, so the likelihood of funny business would be pretty low.
Austin has been pretty sneaky so far, coaching James and Meg on what to say to get Vanessa to nominate Jmac. They know James/Meg will go after Vanessa, but they're telling her to tell her they're going after Austwins. I think the strategy is, if they can get every single person in the house suggesting Jmac except Jmac and Steve, she'll do it. It sounds like Vanessa has been leaning that way lately.
Unfortunately, Vanessa got pretty drunk last night on wine (who would blame her, though?) and had a heated HOH convo with James. James actually went up to play nice, but Vanessa was clearly in a combative mood. James was pitching that he would let it be water under the bridge and would go after the Austwins, but Vanessa seemed pretty skeptical about whether it was true. James was also pushing pretty hard for Jmac to go up on the block, which is setting off more alarm bells in Vanessa's head.
I missed this part, but supposedly the Austwins had a convo with Vanessa after the James stuff. And now they're on board with Julia going up as the pawn. Liz actually suggested it. They trust Steve 100% to keep her and they want a public reason why they can't work with James. They also want to build a road with Jmac. I don't think there would be any funny business if they did that, since Steve really does want to get rid of Meg.