Morgan Pope was a competition beast on Big Brother 27. She won five Power of Vetos and two Head of Household competitions. This gave her the record of most consecutive weeks immune with seven, meaning she kept herself safe for seven weeks in a row.
She formed many alliances that kept her safe throughout the game and won when she needed to. She also got close to Vince Panaro in the house and stayed loyal him until the end. Although she became the last juror of the season, Morgan still has a lot to be proud of.
Morgan talked to TV Insider about keeping her real profession a secret, Ashley cutting her, her relationship with Vince, and more.
CBS
You made it to the final three, that’s nothing to cry about. You play an amazing game.
Thank you.
So I’m going to start off by saying, I don’t know if you know this, but you immediately hold the record for the most consecutive rounds immune with seven. That means you were safe for seven weeks in a row. That is the most since Ian Terry in season 14 with five. Did you ever think that you would hold a record like that going into the game?
No, no. It’s funny because I remember when I won my vetoes in a row, and everyone’s like, “Oh, you’re on Kaycee [Clark] status right immediately. And I’m like, “You’re going to compare me to Kaycee, like what?” And then when I couldn’t win that fourth veto, at least I’ll, be compared to, not necessarily compared to Kaycee, because she won the game, but the fact that they even mentioned her name next to mine, I was like, “Wow.” But to think that I have a record is — I didn’t even know that.
I’m just learning this immediately. That is wow. I am shocked, honored, blessed, humbled. Like that is insanity. I don’t know what came over me. I just kept going with momentum. I was just unstoppable, and I’m so proud of myself.
Ashley decided to cut you in the final three. Were you shocked by that? Did you think it was going to happen?
It’s hard because her and I’s conversations were always us going to the final two together. And I think that was under the impression that she was not going to win the final HOH, that I was going to. It’d be smart for me to take her and not Vince, which was obviously a tactic for her, because I feel like I could have won either way. It probably would have been more of a landslide against Vince than against Ashley, which is why I was very torn. Even immediately, part of me feels like I would have taken Ashley, because I know I would have beat her, but I could have taken Vince to beat him too. But it was hard, because when she won, and I was holding her hand on the way out and telling her how proud I was of her and congratulating her, part of me just had this feeling that I was going to be the last juror. And it’s like when you when things are out of your control, you can’t let it get the best of you.
I always stand by the fact, when you try to control something, it controls you. So I knew in that moment that, I could look back and leave this house being proud of the game that I played, and even if I didn’t win this game, I do believe that people are going to remember the game that I played, and when they hear Big Brother 27 they might even mention my name before. Ashley. I mean, like it’s something that I know that while I didn’t win the game, I was the best in the game, and I’m very flattered by that, and I’m honored to hold that title, if you will.
Being a seventh juror, you got to cast a vote, and you were the sole vote for Vince. Was that in spite of Ashley or were you just being loyal to Vince?
Yeah, no, it was definitely not in spite of Ashley. Ashley cooked in her speech. I said it before, I was like, she cooked him like a well-done steak. I was just I was so proud of her, truly. And it was hard, because I remember when I was jostling the keys in the bag, I kept going back and forth between Ashley and Vince, and I was just like, I played this whole game with Vince. I’m one of the only people who knows his story and knows how much this meant to him, and I know that if roles were reversed, he would have voted for have voted for me. So it was just one of those ways of saying thank you for playing this game with me, and the fact that we didn’t go after each other when we had so many times where we could have, and I know he would have done the same for me. So just one of those ways where it’s just like, you know he wasn’t gonna win. He knew he wasn’t going to win, and I would not take back the vote.
I mean, it was just that was my best friend in the house, and what one way to say thank you, then to send him a vote, kind of like what I did in week 10, where I took Ava [Pearl] off the block. Ava was safe no matter what; she wasn’t going to go home. It was more of the fact of me saying thank you to her for saving me in week seven, sitting next to Rylie [Jeffries] on a five-to-four vote; it’s just like the little gestures to me mean a lot. And I had already told Ashley before leaving the house that I love her. I mean, I hugged her and told her how proud I was of her and that she deserved to win. I hope she doesn’t think any differently about my vote. And she’s like, “shorty, I knew you were gonna vote for Vince. That’s all good.” Like she didn’t care. So she understood my intention, and she even knew, even in the house, that I told her if Vince was on the block finale night, etc, like, in the best two, would I be allowed to vote for him? No, but would anybody be surprised if I vote for him also? No.
You were just saying you were loyal to Vince and best friends with him in the house the whole time, but you told Julie [Chen Moonves] that you would have taken Ashley.
Yes, I was going to take Ashley because the thing is I think a lot of people thought that I wouldn’t have it in me to do it, but I know that if I really wanted to put the nail in the coffin, I earned this win, and I deserve to win. Because if I were going against Ashley’s speech, people might have been like, “Oh, she’s cooking.” But if I were to win and take out my number one ally and best friend, that shows that I came to play a game, not to play a game of best friends; we’re playing Big Brother, not Big Bestie.
What do you think was your biggest move of the season?
I think my biggest move this season is probably what everyone already knows, but I’m going to say it anyway, was using the veto on Ava. Vince had his three targets up on the block, but I only had a pawn, or, well, it was an ally, Ava was an ally. Kelley [Jorgenson] was the target, and Keanu [Soto] was my shield, so that block was not stacked the way that I needed to be stacked. And I know Vince valued our game relationship a lot, and he knew that if he didn’t make the decision that I wanted him to make, that we probably wouldn’t be working together, and he would be an even bigger target in the house, and he wasn’t really willing to risk that, which was smart, because I would have had no choice but to go against him if he was trying to keep Lauren in the house.
I know, using that veto and giving him all the best possible, you know, pros of why Lauren should touch that block, and she did, you know it was the best move that I had at the game, because it’s instilled this distrust between Lauren and Vince. So that was just check number one of making sure that Vince got closer to me and not to Lauren, because I know he was kind of working both of us because he wanted the final three to be us three, because he would have gone to the finals regardless. So, that way, with that distrust, like when I won, HOH, it’s just I knew what to do. Like, there was already enough mistrust there. I had enough votes to send her home. And it just kind of worked as a one two checkpoint.
You just said that You knew that Vince was working with you and Lauren. You found out he had a final two with Lauren. Did you ever think of like putting him up or maybe team up with Lauren and get Vince out because he was playing both of you?
Kind of. Lauren was not trusting of me because of the way my early game was where a lot of people said I couldn’t be trusted, and all this, even though I proved that I was an honest and loyal player, all you had to do was have a conversation with me. I told Lauren straight up, like, if Keanu was your target, on your HOH, like you kind of stacked the block, like I was your target, which I was, let’s call a spade a spade. We’re gonna have a woman-to-woman talk. So, for me, I knew working with Lauren was not in the cards. For me, neither of us was interested, because I had extended so many opportunities for her to work with us. And I do feel like the smart move for her would have been to work with Vince, and I. We would have protected her, and she would have been able to kind of skate underneath, just like Ashley did.
Ashley basically took the opening that Lauren could have had. And so I feel like there was never a time that I thought about putting him up, like there was a brief moment when it came to Ava and Ashley, I was like “I could use the veto and Vince could go home here.” But the problem is, Ava was a very strong social competitor, and everyone loved her. To go through a game where an HoH is thrown to you and you win a clutch maze where Rachel Riley goes home. I mean, she didn’t have to win the rest of the season. And if she was to go the entire season having an HoH thrown to her, and just having a clutch maze and ending up in the finals, she could have won the entire game. I mean, making it that far, it’s just it was too risky to keep Ava, where Vince had already done so much damage to his game and to so many people that, to me, making that move just would have been silly, because then I would have had two people that I may not have beat, and I knew Ashley was going to be a competitor.
I even talked to Vince about it, where I was like, “If Ashley wins this last stage of HOH, I’m going to have to make sure my speech is cooking, because her social game was just as good as mine, and we had very similar moves. So it’s like, it’s really going to come down to who they felt was going to be the best player.
Is there anything you would have done differently, or any regrets you had in the game?
That’s a good question. I don’t think I regret anything, because I played one hell of a game. I think the only thing I would have tried to do more of is take more time in the Diary Room to really think about what people said to me, to really think about things, because I’m a naturally trusting person, and Ashley played a great social game. Hers was one of the best, and I even told her that. Were there times where she could have told little white lies to me? Of course, she was an attorney. She lied to all of us, but I was a gamer. I lied to all of them. It’s just funny, because it’s like I look at a younger version of myself when it comes to the social game, like we played very similar games when it came to the social game, mine was just a little bit more threatened than hers, which I felt would have been more compelling in a speech, because, I’m a social threat and a competitive threat, and people still can’t get rid of me.
Do you think if you told the house guests that you were a gamer, it would have hurt your game?
I do think so. And I remember one time I was talking to Rachel, and she came up to me, and she’s like, “Keanu is a competitive threat, and he’s a gamer.” She mentioned that he was a gamer, and it just re-solidified to me that if a Big Brother legend can pick up on what a gamer means, I knew better. That was the one secret that I knew I couldn’t share. And man, when I heard them talking about games and stuff, I was sitting there, like, I want to talk about it so bad. I want to talk and tell y’all, like, you guys realize you guys are playing with a professional competitive gamer right immediately, right? But, I can’t. So, I think one of my other best moves was not talking about that, and it was hard. It was so hard to not say that I had that planned in my final speech to drop the bomb of you know who people were actually playing with. And unfortunately, I didn’t get to make that speech. Didn’t get to make that speech, but immediately they all know, and I can proudly talk about being a gamer.
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