Houseguests and viewers, we have reached the conclusion of our weird, wonderful Big Brother journey. In a moment I’ll begin our walk through the true identities of the nine players who were evicted this season. Then, we’ll announce the jury’s votes for the winner of Big Brother. But first, I want to sincerely thank everyone who participated in this game. This was my first time running a game of this length and magnitude on my own, and your patience and enthusiasm made it a great experience for me, and I hope all of you as well. Now, on to the reveals!

Joining me for this stroll down memory lane will be everyone’s favorite goofy old dude, Till Goldworthy!

TG: Hey there every one! Its Till here. What a crazy game this has been lol! I sure enjoyed the break from the Garden center and from Gloria. Just kidding honey!! Haha. I didn’t get as far as I would of liked to but I sure as heck had a fun time playing. I didnt think an old fogie like me would be able to keep up with all you young whippersnappers and boy was I right lol! Anyways I sure had fun sharing the house with all of you.

DK: Our first eviction of the season was Randy Boxer, and as you already know, it was a hard-hitting one, as Randy was former Survivor champion Zack Sauvageau. Randy seemed to have trouble getting solid connections made with other players at the outset, and that made him an easy target without long-term repercussions. As the two finalists show, it’s often good to lay low during the early stages of Big Brother, but you can’t lay too low.

TG: I wasn’t sure if Randy was really a boxer but he told me that was just his name but that he really liked boxes. I agreed that there pretty nice and Gloria has a really nice one for all her knitting stuff. For some reason Randy wanted me to send a picture of her box. Guess he must really like boxes. Nice fellow for sure.

DK: Another player whose lack of connections made him an appealing target was our second evictee, Corliss Blackbeard, who was probably most notable for his stalling tactics during the Veto challenge that aggravated the other players, as well as his entertainingly grandiose concession speech. Corliss was played by our only new CdL recruit of the season, Alex Kunau. My recollection is that Alex was brought in by one of the other players here, but someone may have to refresh me on what that link is.

TG: I didn’t get to talk to Corliss too much but I think he was a pirate. At least he would always walk around the house with a big foam pirates hat. One time he asked me if Id heard about the new pirate movie. I told him I wasn’t sure but then he told me “its rated ARRRRRRRR!!!” Oh boy did I laugh. He was a pretty neat guy.

DK: Our first juror, Gnopukindabak Crockett, experienced several BB tropes – falling from HoH one week to out the door the next, facing blowback from his surviving nominee (Kellifer) coming after him, and finding himself with fewer true allies than he may have thought he had. It seemed like the choice to evict him was a narrow one between him and one of our eventual finalists, Blimp, although the votes didn’t turn out that way. Although some other players somehow got it in their heads that Crockett was female, in truth he was everyone’s favorite vigilante, Bret Highum.

TG: For some reason I thought Gnopükindabak was a German name. Old Till can be kind of slow sometimes lol. He explained to me that it was a Indy Koosh name. He wanted to know why everyone kept calling him Davey and asking about his hat so I explained that Davey Crockett was an American patriot and wore a Coonskin hat. I’m sorry I could never pronounce your name right Mr. Crockett!

DK: Till Goldworthy was my favorite character this season, as Erik “hungry joe” Something committed to the daffy old guy bit from the get-go (although I originally got the name from a Hobbit name generator). Unfortunately, sticking to his character in the game longer than anyone else did opened the door for other players to foment suspicion of Till’s true motives among the Houseguests, as Till was a popular nomination option going as far back as Corliss’ eviction week. His eventual eviction week also saw the single biggest ModFail on my part with the utterly broken Veto challenge; if it’d been fixed, who knows who would have won, but I’m sorry about that, Till.

DK: Now we come to the first member of the alliance (self-styled the “War Pigs”) that controlled the first four evictions before it began to cannibalize itself: Orgulas Proudfoot. Orgulas was our first HoH, and his aggression and hard work dominated the early course of the game, until his fellow alliance members Meredith and Silver turned on him and helped send him out (although nearly everyone left in the game was involved to some extent). I don’t know if he’d consider himself the leader of the War Pigs, but he was definitely the chief of paranoia, including wondering if someone posting a random music list on a different site that included the song “War Pigs” was somehow sending a signal (it wasn’t). Who else could be this obsessive but our dear leader himself, Kelly Wells? The answer is no one.

TG: I must admit even though I live in Lebanon theres not a lot of diversity in my town. Oh and in case your wondering thats Lebanon Missouri lol! So it took a little getting use to to be in the house with 2 Indians. I always had to stop and think for a moment because my brain always wanted to called Mr. Proudfoot “Arugulas” LOL!! I enjoyed my talks with Mr. Proudfoot. He seemed a popular fellow as he was always whispering in the corner with someone. Great guy.

DK: Meredith Monstergumby was the next victim of the HoH-to-out effect, since Blimp took the groundwork Silver laid for him in the Poker Hands challenge and turned on the two former War Pigs himself. As one of our biggest true Big Brother devotees, I was never surprised to see Michael Rivet orchestrate a big move to take out Orgulas, nor was I shocked to see him the victim of someone else’s big move. Still, if he stuck to his original strategy of never winning challenges, he may have survived past this point.

TG: Gloria didn’t belive me at first that there was a monster in the house. She just thought Id had a nightmare after eating too much at the fish fry lol! Merry always said that she hadn’t learned good but I thought she was very articulate young lady.

DK: Kellifer Lumbermuffins was an important player to many players’ evolving strategies during the season and heading into the endgame, including Merry’s and Blimp’s, and also possibly Silver’s and Barnaby’s, but eventually his penalty nomination for non-submissions made him an easy target after Blimp’s Veto win. Colin Woolston had several life-events conflating at the same time, including closing on a house and a championship Play with the Prose campaign, so it was understandable that BB took a back seat. Still, I admit that with the players left I could easily have seen him in the finals if he hadn’t been in position to get evicted fifth (due to the penalty).

TG: When I saw there name on the sheet I thought Kellifer was a girl since Kelly is a girls name and I was surprised to find out he was a guy lol! I didn’t talk to Mr. Lumbermuffins that much but I sure do love muffins so he was alright in my book lol!

DK: El Burro Rosa, the fourth War Pig, joined up with Blimp and Barnaby after the disintegration of that alliance, and made it to fourth place after the epic Battleship Veto win by Barnaby led to him choosing her to evict (a move that, in my opinion, essentially guaranteed Barnaby’s spot in the finals). Though she’s not new to the site, this was Melissa Diamond’s first go-round in one of our big strategy games, and she acquitted herself well – fourth place is nothing to sneeze at. So everybody watch out for her in Survivor!

TG: I really enjoyed spending time with El Burro. He always made me laugh and laugh. He even took the time to send me some birthday wishes over the internet! Thats how you know someone really cares. Oh Burro Gloria wanted me to tell you “mi amor eterno para ti, mi amor” Whatever that means lol!

DK: I never made an “official” unofficial pick to win, but after the first couple weeks, I think Silver Berzerker would’ve been a good choice – he was secure in a strong alliance without being its dominant figure, he was influencing the direction the game went without being obvious, he was on working terms with basically everyone in the game, and he could win challenges. He mis-stepped when he handed the Poker Hands challenge to Blimp, but survived due, again, to his superior connections, and made it all the way to only the final challenge away from having a good shot to be the winner. If it’s any consolation, Erik Dikken, if we ever get to the point of having BB All-Stars, you’re already on the shortlist.

TG: To me it doesn’t matter if your white black brown red green pink gray or whatever but I didnt know that there would be some of each in the house lol! We could of made our own Noahs ark haha! It was a little scary sharing the house with both a monster AND a wolf but Silver was a nice guy for sure lol! I wish he would pick something besides Sinatra for karioke though.

DK: I didn’t write up much about the finalists yet myself, so I’ll let Till take it away here…

TG: Barnaby was always a quiet fellow. He was always off in the corner reading a book while Randy was detail his “exploits” or something but I always felt he was a nice guy. We didn’t talk so much except for exchanging tips on maintaining our mustaches but so I don’t have one anymore there wasn’t much I could add to the conversation lol! Still I’m glad he did so good this game because he seemed like such a nice fellow.

One of my favorite memories of the house was Gone With the Blimp and Corliss arguing all the time. Corliss would boast of his dominion of the sea with Blimp would laugh and laugh and call him land-lubber and Corliss would challenge him to fights for such “scurrilous a fronts”. But then they’d get drunk and sing air and sea chantys together. What a character lol!

Well, that’s about it for Old Till. I had a blast competing with everyone and I’m almost done with the Honeydew list Gloria made for me while I was gone. You all feel free to come visit me at the Garden Center anytime.

DK: Thank you very much, Till! Oh, here’s one fun fact about the finalists before we get to the Jury vote reveal: they’ve each been finalists in Survivor before, too. If you haven’t figured out who they are yet, you’ll find out in a moment, after we read the votes…

ORGULAS: This is an interesting final, in that both players spent considerable time on the outside of alliances and probably are less “in the know” than several of the players in the jury. That said, both had an idea about how they might get to the end, and both got there. However, Barnaby’s plea when he was up against me was, apparently, the first that a couple people had heard from him, or close to it. So, for me, the vote comes down to active vs. passive. Both players were passive at the outset, obstensibly by design, but Blimp relied on himself and made a great move to nominate his perceived (and probably actual) biggest threats, Merry and Silver. Meanwhile, most of what Barnaby did amounts to waiting it out and hanging on to Silver. That’s definitely a way to get there, but I just can’t allow myself to vote in favor of a game that looked to rely on others all the way through. VOTE: GONE WITH THE BLIMP

SILVER: My vote is for Barnaby. While Blimp may have had a better strategic game, this vote comes for a few reasons. Never at any point in the game was Barnaby in danger of being voted out. He was both unthreatening and well connected at the same time. He may not have been the guy making the decisions, but he was certainly in the right places at all the right times. I respect the moves that Blimp made when he made them, but he still stabbed me in the back twice. That’s just poor jury management.

MERRY: Congratulations to both of the finalists, I think you both played a good game to get to the end. However I do believe one of you played a slightly better Big Brother game to make it to the Final 2 and that person is Barnaby Winstringham. He set up several alliances, made the right call on when to ditch them (including on when to ditch Blimp) and as a result ensured he would make it to the Final 2 with minimal blood on his hands. That is what Big Brother is all about and that is why he is getting my vote to win this game.

BURRO: Vote Blimp

Based on jury answers, your games were very similar…except that Blimp was coming off as a little cocky. This had me wanting to vote for Barnaby at first, but then I realized…Blimp’s game seemed more thought out. And I have to admit that, while playing with him in the final games, I came to really like him and found him to be a fair and enthusiastic player. He screwed me over once or twice, but he was honest about it. When he made a promise to me, he kept it. So, there you go.

CROCKETT: To decide between two players that played similar games (quiet and non-threatening early, more involved and scheming as the game went on) is difficult. I’ll go with the one that took a few more risks and won challenges when it really counted at the end.

My vote is for Gone With the Blimp to be the winner of Big Brother. Well played, Captain.

TILL: By a razor thin margin I’m going to give my vote to Blimp. Both played relatively similar games but it just seems to me that Blimp was a bit more in control of his own destiny. Good game all.

By a vote of 4 to…2,

Will “Barnaby Winstringham” Young is the runner-up to

THE WINNER OF CDL BIG BROTHER I, BROOKS “GONE WITH THE BLIMP” MAKI

I guess Kellifer abstained, or something. That pretty much brings this game full circle.

As far as our winner goes, what could I possibly say that hasn’t already been said? Brooks wins everything, and now everything includes Big Brother. For Will, it’s another close, second-place finish…one of these days he’ll get over the hump, since he clearly knows what it takes to get to the end of these games.

Thank you all again for playing, and those who were watching, thank you guys for following along as well. If you’re interested in seeing my chart of the game, that’s located here, and my notes document following the course of the game is located here. UPDATE: And the jury house is right here.

Congratulations, Brooks. There’s no easy term like “Sole Survivor” for Big Brother winners, but whatever it would be, you’re now it.