Eviction Night
Rick Devens is the winner of Big Brother 28. He won 6–1 on Day 87, also took America's Favorite Houseguest, and leaves with $810,000. To get the win, he evicted the houseguest who had kept him in the game a week earlier.
Part 1: the log. The finale picked up in 1752, where Sunday's episode had left the final three: standing on a spinning log through fake rain and randomly timed lightning shocks. Drew and Devens had a deal: Devens would drop and hand Part 1 to Drew. It never came into play. Drew fell first and called himself "the mayor of choke city." Taylor, screaming and cursing the whole way, outlasted Devens for nearly an hour and went straight to Part 3.
Part 2: Shakespeare with a slingshot. Devens and Drew played for the other Part 3 seat in a Shakespeare-themed playbill game. Each round gave a clue, and the player had to slingshot down the cutout of every evicted houseguest who didn't fit it. Drew won the first round. Devens won the next three: Zingbot's targets, the replacement nominees, and the past HOHs.
The jury roundtable. BB26 winner Chelsie Baham hosted the jury, and Dee, out in 4th, caught them up. It stayed civil, a long way from Sunday's Angela vs. Melody fight. Yash and Barrett argued that Taylor saw more of the game than she got credit for. Others thought she had flown too low to win.
Part 3: spot the lie. Each juror recorded statements about the season, and the finalists had to pick out the false one. Both got LaTrice's, Barrett's and Melody's right. Only Devens caught Angela's and Yash's. He didn't miss a question; Taylor missed two. At 5–3 the last question wasn't needed. Devens was the final Head of Household.
"This is a total betrayal, and I know that." All week Devens told Drew he would take him to the end. The night before, Taylor used Devens' own vote math against him. If he sat next to Drew, Drew would get Melody and Barrett, plus Taylor and LaTrice: four votes, enough to win. If he cut Drew, those votes had nowhere to go. Devens agreed. He cast the only vote and evicted the houseguest who had saved him at Final 4. Both of them cried. Devens said he did it for his family and his kids. Drew told Julie it was the right move, "but this hurts."
The final arguments. Taylor asked the jury to "call me the Cinderella of the season." She'd been on the block six times and was still there. "Faith, perseverance and courage. My game wasn't silent." She asked Drew directly for his vote. Devens pitched the opposite kind of game: "I made big swings. I woke up, did not want to coast. I wanted to attack the game. My hands are covered in blood."
The vote. LaTrice, Taylor's support system all summer, cast the only vote for her. Angela, Barrett, Yash, Melody, Dee and Drew voted for Devens. 6–1.
The rest of the night.
- Devens also won America's Favorite Houseguest, ahead of Yash and Drew.
- He is the second houseguest ever to win the game and AFP in the same season, after Taylor Hale in BB24.
- He is the first Survivor player to win Big Brother.
- His $810,000 is $750K for the win, $50K for AFP and the $10K Pharaoh's Curse money.
- At the pre-jury reunion, Rome and Lyric said they're moving in together, Mallory revealed she's a rocket scientist, and Jason talked about his Drag Race past.
- Julie closed by announcing two more seasons.
The fantasy fallout. Devens scored +39 in one night. The season's previous single-episode best was +12, by Yash in Ep31. That puts him at 77, BB28's top scorer, ahead of Yash (41) and Drew (35). Taylor scored +14 for runner-up. Devens was on a roster in 13 of 14 drafted leagues and on 20 of 57 solo teams. Only six league teams and three solo teams had named him their BB Winner pick. Barrett was the most popular winner pick.