After 99 days of competition wins, lies, and manipulation, Jackson Michie was crowned the winner of Season 21 of Big Brother, taking home the $500,000 grand prize.
Wednesday’s finale kicked off with Season 2 winner Dr. Will Kirby leading the jury roundtable as they debated who should win. They seemed set on giving the win to Jackson or Nicole and certain that Holly did not deserve it after doing little to get to the end.
The final Head of Household (HOH) competition continued as Nicole and Holly battled it out. Part two saw the ladies rock climbing and having to correctly identify which days certain events happened in the house. I felt like this competition was made for Holly, since she actually rock climbs in real life. Nicole finished in 14 minutes, while Holly did it in 10. This meant Jackson and Holly would face off in the final part later on.
The final part of the competition saw the showmance answer true/false questions about the jury. Jackson answered all eight questions correctly, making him the final HOH of the season. To no one’s surprise, he evicted Nicole, making him and Holly the final two houseguests standing.
Nicole exited the house to the biggest cheers of the season and sat down with host Julie Chen Moonves for a brief (and I mean brief!) interview. She said she was blessed to be a part of the show and learn about herself.
“I have learned so much about myself,” she said. “This has been such a transformative experience. I have learned so much about myself and who I am.”
Once the jury questioned Holly and Jackson and locked in their votes, things got juicy. Julie said that some things that played out over the course of the season needed to be cleared up. She called out several of the houseguests for their bullying and racist behavior, giving everyone a chance to respond to the controversial remarks.
Julie then asked Jackson about the first night he was “camp director”, where he banished David, Kemi, Jessica, and Cliff. Fans felt this was due to the contestants race and age, so Julie gave him the chance to set the record straight.
“It had nothing to do with race or age or gender or minority ever,” Jackson said. “Everything I did in this game did not see that. This was strictly players against players. I even advocated for everything staying game in my first HoH. Race, age, religion, gender, none of that ever had anything to do with any decision I made.”
David shot back, saying looking back on the season, some of the decisions seemed to follow a pattern.
“I came to the conclusion that it was gameplay but since I have been watching the show, there seem to have been some implied biases,” he said. “I hope you guys are able to become better people.”
It was then time to find out who had won. Julie revealed that Jackson had won on a 6-3 jury vote and took home the grand prize. However, as he was announced the winner and left the house, Jackson did not smile or look happy at all.
“I did it for my family,” Jackson told Julie. “I did for my mom. I did it for my dad. At the end of the day, what matters more to me than half a million is that they’re proud of me, and I just hope that everything’s alright.”
Before signing off, Julie had one more piece of business to get to, the America’s Favorite Houseguest prize. She announced Nicole had over 1 million votes and won $25,000.
What did you think of the finale? Let me know in the comments below!
Big Brother returns to CBS next summer for its 22nd season.