Warning: This article contains spoilers for the Big Brother season 25 finale.
It was the longest season in Big Brother history. But it is finally over. After 100 days locked inside a fake house, a winner finally emerged victorious from season 25 of the CBS reality franchise on Thursday's live two-hour finale.
Jag Bains, Matt Klotz, and Bowie Jane formed an alliance called the Mafia, and then proceeded to mow down every single name on their hit list, including competition beasts like Cameron Hardin, strategic threats like Cory Wurtenberger, and reality TV legends like Cirie Fields. After they ousted Felicia Cannon on Sunday's live eviction episode, it was time to compete against each other to sit in the final two chairs and plead their case to the jury.
The first part of the three-section final Head of Household competition was an endurance challenge that forced the players to sit on big bubbles and be thrown against a haunted house while also being dipped in scrambled eggs and blasted with colored paint. (If you have never watched Big Brother, that previous sentence most likely makes no sense. If you have watched Big Brother, it makes all the sense in the world.)
Bowie Jane was the first to drop, leading to an endurance battle between Matt and Jag. With no end in sight and the competition closing in on the three-hour mark, the Minutemen decided to settle it with a game of rock, paper, scissors. When Matt went with rock and Jag chose scissors, the latter dropped and Matt had won part 1 of the final HOH and automatically advanced to part three.
That meant Jag and Bowie Jane had to face-off in part two — a competition in which they had to put all the competitions from all season long in the correct order and in the correct universe (again, it's a BB thing). Even after giving what he called "the worst performance of all-time," Jag easily defeated Bowie Jane to advance to yet another battle against Matt in part three — with the winner reserving a seat at the finals and getting to choose whom he sat next to, with $750,000 at stake.
In part three, Matt and Jag had to separate fact from fiction in statements from and about their castmates. The duo tied in that one so it came down to a tiebreaker question, which Jag won to guarantee himself a spot in front of the jury. Would Jag stick with his biggest ally in the game and risk losing to Matt's superior social game, or take the almost guaranteed win against Bowie Jane, who was seen as a floater and a follower in the game.
Standing in front of both of them, Jag made his choice: "Ultimately, I have to do what I think is right and make the decision I hope my family will be proud of, the decision that I hope my Sikh community will be proud of, and the decision I hope Bowie Jane, that you are proud of as well. If I sit next to Matt and lose 6 to 1, the one thing that I pray is that that one vote is from you Bowie Jane. I have to take Matt to the final two and I have to vote to evict you, Bowie Jane."
While it appeared that Jag's decision may have cost him $750,000, Matt stumbled with the jury — failing to clearly articulate the strengths of his game in terms of moves he could claim as his own beyond saving Jag when he was unanimously voted out. Jag, on the other hand, came on very strong, proclaiming that, "My hands are covered in your blood. I am the most dominant, masterful, and strategic player in this house."
In the end, the jury agreed, rewarding Jag's competition and strategic prowess over Matt's social game, handing him the win with a 5-2 vote. It was an eventual finish to a topsy-turvy season, but in the end Jag — who was the first Sikh player in franchise history — also become the first Sikh winner, cock-a-doodle-zooming his way to the $750,000 and making it out of the house just minutes before it was struck by another Time Laser.
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