Big Brother Head of Household Jason Dent won the Power of Veto competition and opted not to use it and leave his initial eviction nominations as-is during Wednesday night's CBS broadcast, leaving "showmance" couple Matt Clines and Raven Walton on the chopping block.

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Jason's decision shocked both Matt and Raven, as he had told the couple they were only being nominated as pawn nominees because he wanted to "backdoor" Kevin Schlehuber by nominating him for eviction as a replacement nominee after the Power of Veto was used to remove one of them.

However, unbeknownst to the pair, Jason had actually been targeting Matt for eviction.

"They think they're pawns, and it's a backdoor for Kevin.  Not the case -- they're a showmance, it's time to break the showmances up... there's no backdoor here, there's only one oversized door with Matt's name on it," he boasted in a Diary Room interview.

Big Brother's Wednesday night episode began on Day 66 right where Sunday's episode had left off and picked up with the conclusion of the nomination ceremony in which Jason had announced his nominations.

Afterward, Jason had also hugged Raven and assured her she would be getting removed from the chopping block shortly.

"We'll pull you right off," he told her.

"Thanks for making the speech nice," Raven had replied.

Later, Jason's ally Alex Ow -- feeling threatened by Jason's friendship with Kevin -- began attempting to convince Jason that Kevin wasn't a nice guy and mean to the rest of the houseguests.

"The original plan was to send home the showmance, but since Kevin has been getting on my nerves I wouldn't mind sending him home this week," she explained in the Diary Room.

"I don't know if she's trying  to bait me into something here because I'm HoH or what," Jason noted in the Diary Room afterward.

In addition, Paul Abrahamian also joined Alex in pressuring Jason to nominate Kevin as a replacement nominee after the PoV competition, arguing that failing to do so would turn Matt and Raven into enemies.

In a Diary Room session, Jason admitted he hadn't actually envisioned nominating Kevin.

"Even though the ruse was that Matt and Raven were pawns so that we could send  Kevin out, I never really had pictured following though with the steps and actually having to put Kevin up there.  I feel really fishy about the situation," he said.

Afterward, Kevin, Paul and Josh Martinez were all randomly selected to compete in the week's PoV competition alongside the HoH and the two eviction nominees.

The PoV competition was a Big Brother classic in which each houseguest had to hide a veto card somewhere in the house and the player whose veto card was found last would win the competition.

Jason, Kevin, Raven and Matt all opted to hide their cards in furniture cushions, armrests, or pillows.  Josh hid his in the bottom of the refrigerator, while Paul tied up his inside his shirt and jacket hanging in a bedroom closet.

After the PoV results were announced and Jason's win was revealed, Jason told Kevin how Matt and Raven had been told Kevin was the week's eviction target and asked if Kevin would be okay being a replacement nominee so they could continue the ruse.

"If he does decide that he's all right, then that makes Paul and Alex happen and Matt and Raven will still be blind to the fact that we're sending Matt home and that'd be awesome," Jason explained in the Diary Room.

However, Kevin told Jason he didn't want to be nominated, especially after being told that Matt and Raven believed Kevin would be getting evicted.

"No, don't put me up now, f--k that!" Kevin replied.

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"Kevin's not hip to the idea.  I'm just not going to use Kevin as a pawn because he's my pal.  He's not comfortable. I'm not comfortable.  I'm not going to do it," Jason explained in the Diary Room afterwards. 

"I don't care about the blowback from Matt and Raven.  I haven't said 50 words to them in 68 days.  I don't want to go against Paul and Alex, because I'm with them.  But gosh-dang, I'm doing not doing it."

Jason's decision heavily frustrated Alex and Paul -- and they didn't do a good job of hiding it from Kevin.

"There's something fishy about Alex and Paul looking back and forth at each other.  I'm starting to actually get a little paranoid and thinking that they want me to put Kevin up so that they can swap the vote and send him home," Jason noted in the Diary Room later.

Not content to let the matter rest and let Jason get his way, Alex then recruited Christmas Abbott into the scheming and Alex, Paul and Christmas attempted to convince Jason that it was in his best interests to nominate Kevin for eviction, especially since Matt and Raven represented two potential jury votes compared to Kevin's sole vote.

However, Jason continued to hold strong -- creating a riff between Alex and Jason.

"We do the mob tactic in this house... Alex, I get it. For some reason, you really can't stand Kevin.  So you're trying to raze everybody else to do your dirty work," Jason vented in the Diary Room afterwards.

"So if I do use the veto I'm going to have Kevin pissed at me, who is my pal.  If I don't use it, I'm going to have Alex, Paul, Christmas, Matt, and Raven pissed at me. It's a terrible spot to be in."

Meanwhile, Matt and Raven had remained pretty confident Jason would be taking Raven off the chopping block given his post-nomination comment to her.

But at the PoV ceremony, Jason blindsided Matt and Raven by announcing he was keeping his eviction nominations the same.

"I personally feel these are tough waters to navigate inside the house.  And whenever I have tough decisions to make, I always find it coming back to my core beliefs and my core thought will work the best in high intensity situations.  So with that being said, I've decided not to use the Power of Veto," he announced. 

"But I will entertain a question from either one of you at this moment," he told Matt and Raven.

"I don't have any questions for you," a shocked Raven snapped back.

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"I'm good buddy," a downtrodden Matt replied.

Big Brother's live eviction episode will air Thursday, August 31 at 9PM ET/PT.
About The Author: Steven Rogers
Steven Rogers is a senior entertainment reporter for Reality TV World and been covering the reality TV genre for two decades.