Sparks flew during Thursday night's eviction on Big Brother as Kyland Young headed to the jury. Kyland was the third member of the history-making Cookout alliance to exit the house this season. He was one of six Black players to make it to the Final 6, guaranteeing that, for the first time in 23 seasons, a Black person will win Big Brother. Once the Cookout achieved the goal of making it to the Final 6, they faced the reality that they had to turn on one another. Xavier Prather and Kyland pledged allegiance to each other, creating a Final 2 deal called The Gentlemen. Even though Kyland would have removed a strong player if he left Xavier on the chopping block during the second eviction of Double Eviction Night, he chose to save him and honor their deal. It appeared the duo was headed for the Final 2.
Throughout the last week, Xavier began to have doubts about keeping Kyland until the end. He nominated him for eviction alongside Azah Awasum. He then convinced Derek "Big D" Frazier to evict him. After he was evicted, Kyland asked Xavier why he was blindsided. Xavier responded it was a game move and he would eventually find out the truth. Kyland then brought up Xavier's nephew, Kobe, stating Xavier was setting a poor example for him. Xavier is helping to raise Kobe because his father, Xavier's brother, passed away in April. Kyland said, "I think that if your nephew has nobody to look up to, that is gonna figure out how to raise him and teach him how to be a man…" Xavier interrupted him, warning, "I highly suggest you stop talking about my nephew."
The argument continued to escalate with Azah and Big D attempting to diffuse the situation. Julie Chen was clearly shaken, shouting "Kyland! Kyland!" over the intercom when he seemed hesitant to leave. Kyland then finally exited the house. In an interview with EW, Kyland expressed no remorse about his behavior. When asked if he regretted bringing Xavier's nephew into the conversation, Kyland, stated, "I tend to speak pretty objectively. So as far as what I was speaking about to Xavier, that's something that I maintain fully because I wasn't suggesting that he's a person that lacks all character as a whole."
After his initial comments, Kyland continued to defend himself, claiming Xavier completely disregarded their earlier conversations. "It's just that Xavier and I had specifically talked about ... those people who love to go head-to-head with the strongest competitors as they can," he said. "For this season, we had bonded over the fact that if we're going to have a first Black winner, we want them to win at the highest level. And at the highest level would be, according to those sort of role models we look up to, going to sit in those final two chairs with somebody who is a tough competitor overall." He stuck by his comments.
Xavier and Kyland spoke repeatedly about how they wanted to show "Black excellence" on the show. It is stunning that Kyland would defend his attempt to destroy Xavier's character by questioning his ability to help raise his nephew with integrity. It was hard to watch a member of the Cookout attack another so viciously after an entire season of representation and pride. Xavier handled himself with class and poise and may find himself holding that $750,000 check on finale night as the season 23 champion of Big Brother.
Big Brother airs Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET on CBS.
Source: Entertainment Weekly