After breaking their final three agreement with him, Kyland is sharing what he really thinks about Derek F and Xavier in his exclusive interview with AfterBuzz TV!
In what may be the biggest blindside of the season, Kyland Young was evicted from the Big Brother house in Thursday night’s episode. After winning both the Head of Household and Power of Veto, Xavier nominated Kyland and Azah for eviction and opted not to use the veto to take either of them off the block.
This left all the power in the hands of Derek F, who opted to evict Kyland after Xavier swayed him to do so as it was the best move for Derek’s game. Both Derek and Xavier had previously made final two agreements with Kyland, making for a tense eviction Thursday night. Now, Kyland is sharing his honest thoughts on his two allies in his exclusive interview with AfterBuzz below:
AFTERBUZZ: What was going through your head in the moment you were evicted?
KYLAND: After being nominated week one, I learned very quickly that you always have to be ready for any week to be your last, and things can come regardless of how certain or assured you are by anyone in the house. I knew there was a possibility as soon as I lost that veto that there was a high chance I could go home. This is something I stated multiple times after that happened, and as soon as Xavier didn’t use the veto like he had said he would, I knew what was coming next from Derek.
I think for me, there was definitely sadness as far as not getting to continue the game, but also I’d say a lot of it was just disappointment in terms of me and at least Xavier, and a little bit Azah. We had talked about how important representation is and that the first Black winner of Big Brother have a certain respectability as far as their gameplay and the things that we thought were important. I mean, whether you’re looking at Azah’s letter from her parents mentioning money is a great servant but terrible master, and you shouldn’t prioritize it above your values, or you look at things Xavier and I talked about specifically around valuing and admiring competitors who go head to head and toe to toe as opposed to those that take the easier indirect route; that was stuff that I was pretty much prepared to discuss. And for me, it just made the most sense for me to talk about it with Xavier because, at the end of the day, Azah and Big D both made the move that was best for their game. They weren’t strong competitors, so they knew that they had to take any opportunity they could to progress their game forward.
And I told Derek F on three different occasions very explicitly that his better game move, if he takes personal out of it, would be to send me home over Azah. So I knew that there was a risk he would follow through on that, but my hope was that Xavier was of that same head-to-head competitor mindset that mine was as far as not giving Derek F that opportunity to send me home, but I turned out to be wrong. And that’s the thing; you can always be wrong in this game. And I’m not ashamed of being wrong. I’m not regretful of any of the decisions that I made because I made them for a certain reason for things that I believe in personally, and I understand that different people value different things.
AFTERBUZZ: If you knew Derek F was planning to evict you, what would you have done differently in your conversations with him this week?
KYLAND: As far as my conversations with Derek F this week, I was asked actually a couple times if I had wanted to just lie to him and tell him that I was committed to our final two or not tell him that his better strategic move if he had the opportunity would be to evict me over Azah. But after we had ensured that Big Brother was gonna have its first Black winner as soon as we made final six with all six members of The Cookout, I was pretty idealistic. And even actually before then, when I realized that we were gonna have a path to the end, I knew that how somebody won was gonna be just as important as winning itself. And for me, I knew that having the strongest competitors at the end had a respect for the game that could show that we were achieving not just Black excellence, but Black excellence at a high level that could be considered a little bit more honorable and direct, and even potentially iconic. But I understand that this is a game where people can make other moves, and some people, like I said, do value winning by any means necessary over winning in a specific way. I find myself in the latter group, and I do not hold any ill will towards people who find themselves in the former group. It’s just a difference of ways that we want to go about the game and the things that we value.
AFTERBUZZ: You had a final three with Hannah and Tiffany, who both said they needed you in the house for their game. Given how this week went, do you regret evicting them?
KYLAND: I was very intentional about not offering anyone a final two or final three. Other than my commitment to the mission of The Cookout and getting us all to the end, I knew that I would accept any offers given to me, but I would never offer them myself. So whether that was Xavier in week two or three offering an unofficial final two, same thing for Big D and other people, and then, of course, Tiffany and Chaddha at the end, realizing that other members of The Cookout wanted to target them first and I was their best chance to move forward, as far as openness to do so, that was something that was definitely a difficult decision for me at the time because my closest person in The Cookout was Tiffany. And I love Chaddha; she’s just our little sister for everyone.
So for me, what it came down to was that same element of representation. We were gonna have the first Black winner as soon as we made final six; that was certain. So then I started thinking about what do I want that person to represent? And what do I want that final two to represent, or final three? And I knew that it would be more of a statement if we had the people at the end of the game, not just be any three competitors, but three people who were great, well-rounded players, socially, strategically competition-wise. And when Tiffany made the choices that she made, as far as things that she defined as selfish and things that she defined as disloyal, I saw that as not meeting the standard that I thought would be best on a representation level. Xavier had a consistency that made me believe he would be different. He wasn’t. I understand the reasons why; it’s just a matter of his priorities. And it sounds like no one actually was besides myself. So I just needed to carry myself through one more win, and I couldn’t make it this time, but it got me to fourth, and I got there on my own terms, so I’m good with that.
AFTERBUZZ: How do you think evicting you will affect Xavier’s game?
KYLAND: The only real change for Xavier is that he has an easier path to final two. We competed in almost a dozen competitions, and I beat him eight of those 11 times when we were competing in the same competitions, not counting the ones that either of us were throwing. I mean, if we take out the ones that we had to win, then it would still be five to three. I think that I had a pretty good chance of beating him in that final HOH, and I think that his move proved that he believed the same and just wanted to have an easier path to the end. I understand that different people have different priorities as far as winning by certain means as opposed to others. And that is a way to play the game, and it’s something that is within the rules and respectful in its own right. I think that he has an easy path there right now, given the competition records of Azah and Big D, but of course, if any of them wanna pull it out, that would be exciting to see.
To find out who makes it to the final two, tune in to Big Brother Friday, Sunday, and Wednesday on CBS and watch the live feeds on Paramount+.
