Three weeks into Big Brother 28 and we have a pattern. The Toolshed wins the HOH. The Toolshed backdoors someone. The rest of the house votes the way the Toolshed wants. The evicted houseguest leaves in a unanimous vote while everyone looks deeply sad about a decision they made enthusiastically. This week added one new element to the formula: a tea party. Mallory organized a wholesome backyard gathering. Kamu used it to publicly confront Jason De Puy about lying to him. Jason spent most of the week banging a wooden spoon on a metal kettle like he was auditioning for a percussion ensemble. And by Thursday night, he was the third person evicted from BB28, 12-0, with his parting words to Kamu being "don't touch me." Week three, everyone. Let's get into it.

HOH: Kamu Wins. The Toolshed Remains Undefeated.

Following Rome's eviction — and Taylor Brown's lone rogue vote against the tide, which is the most interesting thing anyone has done in three weeks and deserves acknowledgment — Kamu Kirk won the week three HOH competition. Three HOH competitions. Three Toolshed wins. Dee in week one. Devens in week two. Kamu in week three. The alliance that Drew named after tools is running this house with the efficiency of people who have done this before, which, in the case of three of its members, they literally have.

Meanwhile, Devens this week was voted into the BB Time Capsule by America and emerged with the Diamond Power of Veto — a supercharged version of the regular veto that lets him save a nominee and name the replacement himself, bypassing the HOH entirely. It doesn't expire for six weeks. He has only told Dee. Rick Devens now has HOH immunity as outgoing HOH, a real alliance running the house, and a Diamond Power of Veto that nobody knows about. The man came here to play and he has not stopped.

The Plan: Backdoor Jason. Again With the Backdoor.

Kamu's actual target was Jason De Puy from the start — but Drew, who apparently has opinions about everything, convinced him to backdoor Jason rather than nominate him outright. So Kamu put up LaTrice Verrett, Lyric Medeiros, and Mallory Aurichio, telling each of them privately that they were not his target, promising Lyric specifically that he'd use the veto on her if he won it, and quietly hoping Jason wouldn't get picked to play in the veto comp.

Lala's chip was pulled. She chose Jason to play in the veto. This was the worst-case scenario for Kamu, who told the cameras he was less than thrilled. The veto competition went ahead with Jason in it — and he nearly won it, losing by mere seconds. Lyric, however, came through and won her first competition of the season. She used it on herself, exactly as everyone expected. The backdoor was set. Kamu nominated Jason as the replacement. And then things got weird.

The Tea Party: Mallory's Wholesome Idea, Kamu's Nuclear Option

Mallory hosted a tea party in the backyard. A nice idea. A social, low-stakes gathering where people could relax and talk and pretend they weren't all playing a game where they vote each other out of a house weekly. It was going fine, right up until Kamu decided that a backyard tea party was the correct venue to publicly air his grievances about Jason's gameplay.

The grievance: Jason had made a deal with Kamu before nominations — shake hands, agree that if he was picked to play in veto and won it, he'd give Kamu control of how it was used. After the deal was made, multiple people came to Kamu saying Jason had also promised deals to all three nominees. Kamu felt played. He may have been right. But confronting someone about it in the middle of a social gathering, in front of everyone, while Mallory's carefully planned tea event dissolved around him, was a choice. Kamu made it. Jason spent the rest of the week banging a wooden spoon on a kettle — a callback to Josh Martinez's BB19 strategy of psychological warfare through kitchen percussion — which did not help his case or his relationships but was at minimum a commitment to the bit.

Jason later described the tea party confrontation as "very disheartening" and noted that nobody spoke up for him in the moment. This is accurate. Nobody spoke up for him because the Toolshed had twelve votes and Jason had a wooden spoon.

The Block Buster: Mallory Wins by a Heartbeat, Jason Loses His Composure

On eviction night, Jason, LaTrice, and Mallory competed in the Block Buster — a reverse Jenga with VHS tapes, because this season's time travel theme extends to the competitions. Players had to remove tapes from a wobbly tower and deposit them in a box at the end of their lane. Most tapes deposited wins. LaTrice eliminated herself from contention within seconds with an early mistake, leaving Mallory and Jason to fight it out. It was a legitimate nail-biter. Jason was right there. He made a last-second attempt to sneak a tying tape in. He came up just short. Mallory won by seconds and pulled herself off the block.

Jason was extremely emotional after losing. When Kamu approached him to offer sympathies, Jason's response was immediate and unambiguous: "Don't touch me, Kamu." Three words that will probably be in the BB28 highlight reel, and which represent a cleaner summary of week three than anything else that was said in that house.

The Vote: 12-0. Again. Because This Is Apparently the Season of Unanimous Votes.

There was a brief, tantalizing moment mid-week where it seemed like the vote might not be unanimous. Melody had been working a seven-vote plan to keep Mallory if Jason won the Block Buster and Lala ended up on the block — arguing that Mallory and Jason were competition assets worth keeping against the Toolshed. Taylor was on the fence. Drew and Barrett had privately discussed whether flipping was worth the risk. For approximately 48 hours, BB28 looked like it might produce its first genuinely contested vote.

Then Jason lost the Block Buster, Mallory came down, and the "coup" scenario evaporated. The house voted 12-0 to evict Jason De Puy — aka Salina EsTitties, Drag Race alum, wooden spoon percussionist, man who survived week two by winning the Block Buster and then couldn't do it twice. He left emotional. He left without Kamu's hand on his shoulder. He left in the third consecutive unanimous vote of a season that seems determined to prove that this cast is either very aligned or very afraid to be the one person who voted differently. Either way: boring. Taylor's rogue vote in week two remains the highlight of BB28's voting record so far. It wasn't even her plan. It was just a feeling. It was the best thing anyone has done.

Where Things Stand Going Into Week 4

The Toolshed has won three HOHs, executed three backdoors, and evicted three people by unanimous vote. Ashley was invisible. Rome was too loud. Jason was too messy and too obvious about making deals with everyone. The Toolshed is still intact, still dominant, still running this house like a Survivor alliance that accidentally wandered onto a different show and decided to stay. Mallory has now survived being the primary target in week one and a backdoor target in week three. She is either very good at this game or very lucky, and at some point the distinction stops mattering. Lyric is still in the house, still processing her post-Rome reality. Devens has a Diamond Power of Veto that nobody knows about and six weeks to use it. The people who are not in the Toolshed have not yet had a serious conversation about doing something about the Toolshed. Week four is coming. [→ À TOI : tes impressions — Jason en partant, Kamu et la tea party, qui tu penses qui va finalement se lever contre la Toolshed]