How many people can say that they left the Big Brother house on their alliance member’s HOH? Jimmy Heagerty can.
Jimmy left in a 9 to 2 vote, after only Rachel Reilly and Ashley Hollis voted to evict Kelley Jorgenson. However, after some debate in the Diary Room hallway with Clifton “Will” Williams, Ashley tried to go back and change her vote. Host Julie Chen Moonves told her she couldn’t do that. The 25-year-old AI consultant walked out the door and threw his sunglasses after his eviction.
But how did all of this happen? Let’s backtrack a little. Week four saw Rylie Jeffries winning Head Of Household. Mickey Lee got wind that Rylie wanted to put her and her friends on the block, so she used the interrogation power to overthrow him.
Mickey put up Rylie, Kelley, and Keanu Soto, hoping to get Keanu out, who has been the target for weeks. However, Keanu won the Power of Veto and took himself off the block once again. Mickey had to name a renom and had a tough decision to make.
She debated between Vince Panaro and Jimmy Heagerty. Once Mickey heard from both Vince and Keanu that Jimmy was playing all sides of the house and went against their Triple Threat Alliance, consisting of her, Jimmy, and Morgan Pope, her mind was made up. She told Jimmy minutes before the veto ceremony that he would be going up with very little explanation.
He tried to fight for his life in the house, but when Rylie won the BB Blockbuster, Jimmy remained on the block. He was evicted over Kelley.
Jimmy talked to TV Insider about his relationship with Rachel, how he felt betrayed by Mickey, and what votes surprised him.
CBS
Week one, you said that you wanted to get Rachel out, but now you’re one of her closest allies in the house. What changed?
Yeah. Well, Rachel and I definitely had a story arc, that’s for sure. But I think to know Rachel Reilly is to love Rachel Reilly. She is a killer mom, a great player in the game, and the best friend anybody could really ask for, especially in the house. And I think the more time I was able to spend with Rachel, the more time I was able to love her and to really want to work with her in this game. I think the house underutilizes her as a resource. She’s come back not once, not twice, but three times, and has watched this game play out for over 20 years. Rachel is like a Big Brother encyclopedia, and not utilizing that resource is an understatement for some of the house, for sure, and even if Rachel’s fashion can be a hit or miss, being around her, and just hanging out with Rachel has definitely been one of my favorite parts of being in the house.
You went out on Mickey’s HOH. Someone you had a final three with. How does that make you feel? What was going through your head when she told you that you’re going to be put up?
Yeah, I felt betrayed and blindsided, for sure. I thought it was four for four with HOHs that I could help, lead, or, if I wasn’t driving the car, be sitting in the passenger seat giving directions. Little did I know Mickey was going to leave me at the rest stop. And I wouldn’t find out until I came out of the bathroom and saw the car missing. I was most betrayed that she took the word of other people more than mine, and didn’t really give me a chance to defend myself after the end of her conversation. And I think at the end of the day, if you trust somebody, they should be your first and your last conversation, so you can round out everything that you’ve heard and determine what you know to be true and what you know to be false. So, I really wish Mickey had listened to me a little bit. Perception doesn’t define my intention. And my intention was always to ride with Triple Threat to the very end. And the fact that it didn’t look that way to Mickey and Morgan is unfortunate, but I was never intentionally doing anything to damage them or to damage our relationship. It was always a strategic foresight to keep the three of us off the block so that we could work to take one down, and the other two, if the other person hadn’t taken themselves off in the Blockbuster, could work to whip votes to keep them there.
Talking to Julie, you said you blamed Morgan for your eviction. Why her and not Mickey?
I think Morgan was whipping up votes to get me out. She did not like what I did in my week two HOH, and with Morgan, it’s always less of a conversation and more of a she’s telling you what to do. It’s her way or the highway. And so there’s not much fleshing out of a decision. I’m always somebody who likes to talk through a decision, understand different points of view before making a final decision, and with Morgan, her paranoia, I do think it got the best of her. Mickey, Morgan and I were never able to spend as much time together as we really wanted to, to mainly avoid suspicion, and because of that, I don’t think we’re able to build the strongest trusting relationship that I was able to build with somebody like Rachel, and at the end of the day, I think Morgan, working with Vince and Zach [Cornell] was more instrumental in my demise than Mickey was, even though she actually made the decision. And I told a lot of people on my way out, “Morgan is the one you need to go for,” because once Morgan and Mickey are broken up, Mickey is somebody you can pull close, trust, and work with.
When you were HOH in week two, you didn’t consult with Triple Threat for renoms. Do you think that had something to do with it?
Maybe? They avoided me like the plague when I was HOH, and in a way, I never forgave them for that. I felt really alone when I was HOH. I didn’t have my girls riding beside me, and I didn’t love that at all. And with Morgan, she kept coming up to my HOH room telling me what to do. Instead of flashing out a decision, I felt like I had better conversations with Mickey. But at the end of the day, in an HOH on week two, where you have to put up five people, you’re more focused on the blood that you don’t have to put on your hands and keeping your hands clean that early in the game. So that’s exactly what my goal was. I relatively think I accomplished that, considering both my targets pulled themselves off the block. But could there have been more conversation, absolutely, but I think it was a two-way road that nobody was currently driving.
If the powers didn’t completely uproot your HOH, how do you think it would have turned out?
I think Keanu or Kelley would have gone home. I think, we saw it, without Kaycee [Clark] there, Keanu would have lost the veto because he had a false start. So I do think Keanu would have lost to Kelley in a blockbuster. And I think he would have gone home. So I think my HOH would have been a lot cleaner without these powers. But at the end of the day, I said, if I could send someone home who was emotionally unstable, and work to get rid of the powers during my HOh, or at least most of the powers I would have felt like it was successful, and setting the people up I was working with for more success and their HOHs. I didn’t realize that would be too much success in Mickey’s HOH, but I’m happy I could be a resume builder for her. [Laughs.]
When you were talking to Vince in the gym about Rachel keeping him safe if he voted to keep you, were you being truthful about that, or were you just trying to get votes?
No, no, I knew he was lying to me. I knew he was a part of the reason I was on the block because I have a feeling it was between me and him, and I think he knew that as well. So what I was trying to do was what I could to save my butt, like I also told Mickey she wasn’t going up, and that probably wasn’t true either. I was saying what I could and trying to lull people into a false sense of security. At the end of the day, those might be the antics that led to my demise, but Rachel and I were 100% gunning for Vince. I think he knew that, and I think we knew that. So I don’t, I don’t think there’s any love lost there, but I don’t think anybody was under an illusion in that one.
You went out on a nine-to-two vote with only Rachel and Ashley [Hollis] voting to keep you. Did any of the votes shock you?
They did. Yeah, I expected Katherine [Woodman] to vote to keep me, and honestly, I expected Will and Ava [Pearl] to keep me as well. I think they knew me being the threat I was in the house,I didn’t have the votes to stay, and so we’re only protecting their own games. But I was a little surprised. And yes, it’s nine to two, but after what we saw with Ashley, I think we can call it nine to 1.5.
How did you react to Ashley changing her vote to you?
It’s just part of who Ashley is. She is a lovable girl, but she is always late and pretty indecisive. So there are two qualities that describe Ashley. That’s one of them. So, if Julie said she hadn’t come in and changed her vote, or kept Julie waiting while she was trying to cast her vote, I might have been a little surprised.
Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently?
Yeah, I think I definitely would have listened more than I spoke, even though that’s antithetical to my character. And one of the things I always told myself going in is I never wanted to water myself down or be anything other than who I was, and I think I over-aligned. I think that’s the reason I ended up on the block and going home this week, is because I tried to make a softer alliance with Kelley and Keanu, primarily as an extension to damage control for my HOH. So, I think I overcorrected the damage control that I needed to do from my HOH week, and over-aligning, I think ultimately led to my demise.
Would you ever come back if asked?
Yes, a million times, yes! I’m eager to go back in that house next season, All Stars, whenever CBS and Big Brother call, I answer and say, yes.
Would you want to come back with the same cast or different?
Please? Different cast. These people can be boring sometimes. I’m sorry.
Big Brother, Season 27, Wednesdays, Thursdays & Sundays, 8/7c, CBS
