Big Brother 28’s Yash Patel revealed whether or not he would have remained loyal to reality TV icons Dee Valladares and Rick Devens once he fulfilled his end of the bargain for the Survivor 45 winner’s BB Bribe power.
“I would have remained loyal to Dee. I would have put Devens up the second I have the chance,” Yash, 24, exclusively told Us on Friday, September 18, following his eviction from the game. “Devens is by far the biggest threat in the game. He is a social genius. He’s been playing a masterclass, and he’s sneakily very good at competitions, so I would have put Devens up without a hesitation. I don’t trust him. He has done me wrong multiple times.”
While Yash didn’t have the best track record with Devens, 42, in the game, the financial analyst felt the opposite about Dee, 29.
“So putting Devens up would have been an easy decision. But I trust Dee. After Taylor [Brown], she was probably my number two [ally] going into eviction night,” he admitted. “So I think I would have stayed true to Dee, but I would have put Devens up.”
Yash and Dee ended up forming a working relationship when she used her BB Bribe power on him. Dee won the prize during the third week of the BB Time Capsule. The power gave Dee the opportunity to offer one houseguest $5,000 in exchange for a specific gameplay action that benefited her game.
During the sixth week of the game, Dee attempted to use the bribe on Yash to guarantee herself safety during his Head of Household (HoH). Yash declined at the time and put her on the block alongside Angela Murray and Haley Thogmartin. However, Devens ended up using his Diamond Power of Veto power to save Dee and replaced her with Kamu Kirk, who ultimately went home.
After losing his ally on his HoH, Yash was in a pickle and went into self-preservation mode. Dee offered him the bribe a second time — but this time with more restrictions. Dee bribed Yash to not only keep herself safe but Angela and Devens as well, meaning that he could not put either of them up as an initial or replacement nominee during his next HoH. Yash agreed to the terms and found himself with three new allies.
“I gave in for a few reasons. First and foremost, the week before during my HOH when I had initially declined it, it’s because I believed I could rally the troops for the quote-unquote newbies, and we can keep Kamu to get out the icons. I really believe that was in everyone’s best interest,” he recalled. “We didn’t have the votes, and I didn’t have the support there, which definitely hurt, and it left me feeling ‘Who do I have in this game?’ I tried to help them; they declined my method of helping. I’m not a savior, so I’m not gonna keep trying to help y’all.”
Yash knew he needed to focus on saving himself, especially after being “a bit burned” by the house’s decision to evict Kamu.
“Even though I didn’t want to be in that room getting the bribe by the icons because it was definitely a strong bribe on their part. It was an opportunity to insulate myself pretty well,” he told Us. “Because there’s no real good way to decline that bribe because if I decline that bribe, not only would I go up, but that bribe would have been offered to somebody else. And had that bribe been offered to somebody else, and that person cannot put up the three icons, it’s guaranteed then that person would put me up, because I’m one of the biggest threats outside of that.”
While many fans have criticized Yash’s decision to take the bribe, he believes it did help his game a little bit.
“Short term, it improved my game because it kept me safe. Long term, which is why I was reluctant on taking this bribe in the first place because I knew the long term implications,” he explained. “It hurt my game because I had to play the game with handcuffs on. I couldn’t play freely. I couldn’t win whatever I wanted to win. Every competition became strategic. Is it worth winning? Think about who I would want to put up. Then I also had to navigate the game socially in a different way because the bribe almost made me feel like I had to have other people do my dirty work in putting up the icons because I couldn’t do it myself.”
Big Brother airs on CBS Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays at 8 p.m. ET.
