293. Deborah Agboola (BB19 - 3rd Place Goddess)
Clearly off to a great start again, I see! Deborah should
obviously be 200+ spots higher but duh, we know that already. I actually don't disagree with the critique of Deborah not having many Moments, but she's more of a ~presence~ anyway and a damn good one. Every BBUK house can use a sassy Nigerian mother figure and Debs played her part well. She had fun relationships with just about every single person in the house, and I credit that to her steadfastness in
not switching bedrooms, a move that I think was a pretty darn strong one strategically? I remember there was a live from the house right after the Second Chancers entered and Deborah explained that nobody will ever make her feel so uncomfortable as to move her from
her bed, especially so that they can talk **** about her and her friends and scheme about them behind her back. Not only was that a strong move strategically, but it showed that she's a strong badass who doesn't back from from anybody.
Deborah also exhibited the rare quality of... being a human on Big Brother who is capable of self-reflection
like, I think she's the only person
ever who showed remorse and even embarrassment from a Fight Night before Big Brother was forced to intervene and give out formal warnings and lay into everyone separately in the Diary Room. Not only is that a great ~human~ quality to have, but it also led us to Han-nuh screaming at her about LET'S GO TO THE BEAUTY PARLOUR!!!!!!!!
My final favorite quality of Deborah (and really both of the Agboolas in this case, let's just make this a joint write-up) was that she was one of the only HMs in franchise history who was fully aware of Race and Big Brother don't exactly mix and she was able to discuss this both explicitly and implicitly in ways that didn't entirely alienate the viewing audience. Contrast that with her VILE SISTER who trotted out the RACE CARD according to the cat ladies (is that still a banned phrase? Don't report me please x) and we actually landed ourselves in a scenario where Deborah was the favorite to win for some time?!?!?!?! And then the show doubled down on Isabelle WINNINGton and Deborah faded to 3rd place goddess, but we also had the rare instance of someone actually going on A Journey in the house so it wasn't all for nothing.