Rachel Says She Has ‘Unfinished Business’ After ‘Big Brother’ Elimination

Rachel Reilly came into the Big Brother house for a third time with hopes of becoming the show’s first two-time winner. Instead, she was shockingly eliminated after failing to complete a challenge.

“I feel that in the Big Brother 27 house, I do have unfinished business. However, expect the unexpected always on Big Brother, right?” Rachel, 40, exclusively told Us Weekly on Wednesday, September 10, following her elimination. “Like, if there’s a twist, you can’t really do anything but adapt to it, and if your back is up against the wall, you have to have a comp win to pull through.”

Rachel was the first casualty of the Mastermind’s White Locust twist. The Big Brother 27 cast competed in a “safety chain” competition nearly identical to the one on Reindeer Games that led to Danielle Reyes’ demise.

“I just wasn’t able to get that comp when I needed [it] for this White Locust maze competition,” she said. “And because of that, I am the first member to the jury, even though I was never nominated [and] I had never had a vote against me.”

If the twist had never happened, Rachel believed that she would have been in contention to be the season’s winner.

“I played such a great game up to this twist. And I wish that I was able to pull out that comp win, but I didn’t,” she told Us. “But I’m here to help crown the winner of Big Brother 27 and, yeah, unfinished business, absolutely, but again, expect the unexpected, and you have to be able to kind of roll with the twist.”

Rachel was one of the few players who first volunteered to give the competition a try. Ava Pearl won safety before the White Locust challenge and was tasked with picking who would compete first. Rachel, who seemed to have a good working relationship with Ava in the game, pulled her away to talk strategy. The move bothered Ava and she ended up picking Vince Panaro to go first so no one would be mad at her.

“I wish I would have competed in the White Locust challenge first. I think I would have been far less frazzled and far less stressed. I could have been more focused,” she explained. “So I do blame that elimination on Ava. I don’t think it was her intention for me to go home during the White Locust competition.”

Vince, who was in the Judges alliance with Rachel, completed the puzzle with plenty of time. However, Vince opted not to pick one of his fellow alliance members. Instead, he went with Lauren Domingue, with whom he has a secret Final 2 deal. Rachel added that she also bears some of the fault of her elimination on Vince.

Despite wanting to play first to have the most time, Rachel ended up going fourth and had three and a half minutes to finish the maze puzzle. She was ultimately unable to pull out the win, shocking her fellow players and viewers. While she blames Ava and Vince, she doesn’t think they both intentionally tried to take her out of the competition.

“I don’t think that any of the house guests had intended to send me home during this competition, which shows how my social game was,” she said. “But if that was their intention to send me home during the competition, then I mean, well played if that was what they were intending.”

Before making her surprise entrance into the Big Brother 27 house, Rachel competed on seasons 12 and 13. In her second attempt, Rachel was crowned a winner. From the fans’ perspective, she’s one of the greatest players in Big Brother history. After 14 years away from the CBS series, Rachel decided to come back because of her love of the game and everything it’s given her over the years, including husband Brendon Villegas and their two children, daughter Aurora and son Adler.

“I am a huge fan of Big Brother. I love this show. This is my show. I’m a Big Brother winner, a Big Brother legend. I met my husband on the show. I have a beautiful family because of the show. My sister played in the show,” she reflected. “So when the opportunity presented itself to play on Big Brother, I couldn’t say no. I absolutely love everything about the game, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to show how my game had evolved from seasons 12 and 13 to playing a more strategic and logical and social game than I did in previous seasons.”

While Rachel’s exit from the show has left fans and alumni heartbroken, she still has a deep love for the game.

“I would love to do it all over again if I could. I don’t think I could say no to Big Brother. It’s a very long time commitment. But it is my show, and I do absolutely love it,” she told Us.