'Big Brother 26' Cedric Hodges Reveals He Went on the Block to "Test" Kimo and T'kor

WARNING! The final question in this interview reveals the results of this week's Head of Household competition. Please do not read past the word association if you do not wish to know who won HoH for the week.

Big Brother ’s house is open once more! Every week, Parade.com’s Mike Bloom will be bringing you interviews with this season's houseguests as they get evicted from the game.

At its core, Big Brother is a game that is all about navigating the rise and fall of power. And nobody represents this better in Season 26 than Cedric Hodges . The youngest houseguest started with no stake in the game, or even an ability to vote. But he quickly upgraded from his first night "downgrade," getting into a great spot within the most solid alliances in the game and even winning Head of Household. But just as quickly as it assembled, it all came crumbling down, as a series of events that included secret powers, clutch competition wins, and a massive house flip culminated in Cedric's devastating blindside.

Despite starting the season with no power, Cedric quickly joined the fray with a giant data disk costume to boot. He bonded with fellow downgrade Chelsie Baham , and the two of them got with Cam Sullivan-Brown to form a core. From there, the trio layered on, first with the five-person "Pentagon" alliance, then with the eight-person "Collective." When Cedric won HoH, the former Marine was expecting to tackle plans with military precision. But those intentions went AWOL when Tucker Des Lauriers approached him after winning the veto with a bold plan. He proposed that Cedric backdoor Quinn Martin , who was speculated to have a power. Despite Cedric insisting they didn't have the votes, Tucker went through with his idea, stunningly using the veto on Angela Murray instead of himself. But military man Cedric chose to trust in the Pentagon, and put up Makensy Manbeck instead.

What started as a squeaky clean week for Cedric ended as anything but. Tucker confronted him about not going through with the plan, saying he was coming after him from now on. Cedric felt fine with the threat, though, as Quinn used his "Deepfake HoH" power to take over nominations the next week. There was a clear house target in Tucker, but Quinn wanted to fill the block with competitors. And so Cedric enlisted as a pawn, in the hopes of beating his new enemy. Unfortunately, Cedric lost both the veto and AI Arena competitions to Tucker and Makensy, respectively. Even then, it seemed like he was safe, with his onion of an alliance on his side. But that onion had piqued the senses of Kimo Apaka and T'kor Clottey . Quinn told them about the Pentagon, and the two were immediately fearful about being on the outs of their alliance. And so they rallied everyone outside of the Pentagon to flip the house and, through tears, sent Cedric out, destroying the house structure in the process.

Now out of the house, Cedric talks with Parade.com about how surprised he was to be evicted, why he volunteered for the block after saving Quinn, and how he planned to move forward had he stayed.

Related: Everything to Know About Big Brother 26

First thing I need to ask is, how are you doing right now? It seemed like it was an incredibly emotional night for both you and even the people voting you out. How have the past 12 hours been as you're digesting it all?
I'm doing great. I'm doing good. Unfortunately, it sucks that I was evicted. But I was crying and torn up not because I lost the game or because I lost the chance of the money. It was because I built strong connections, and it felt like I was leaving 12 of my best friends behind. So I'm gonna miss them, but I wish them all the best.

You told Julie last night that you had an inkling you would be evicted, specifically citing Kimo and T'kor flipping. Talk me through what was going through your head after Makensy won the AI Arena and some last-minute strategizing began, through when you were evicted.
As soon as MJ won--not necessarily I lost, but as soon as MJ won--the AI Arena, I knew, unfortunately, my cards were probably going to get folded. Just because T'kor and Kimo have such a tight personal relationship with Rubina that it was going to be hard for them to make that decision. I just hoped that I could talk them into the rationality of me choosing to protect them and of me choosing to play my game and make it to the jury house with them would be enough to keep them. Becuase I don't know where Rubina is going to take them, honestly. I don't see that they're long for the game now. But I could be completely blind.

In your extended interview with Julie, you said, "If I had Joseph and Leah, I'd still be in the house." Talk to me more about what you meant by that.
So I assumed that would have Joseph, just because Joseph promised me, "Even if the vote's eight to one, I'll vote for you." I also thought there was a little bit of faith, a little bit of hope for Leah and/or Makensy, one of those two, which would have kept me in the house. Because I kind of knew T'kor or Kimo were going to go astray. But the unfortunate issue with Big Brother is no one likes to be truthful. So when everyone was campaigning for votes, everyone's protecting their personal game, in turn, damaging my game. Because they're like, "No, we're going to vote to keep Rubina." And Leah said she was going to vote for the house. So I was able to get four people to just tell Leah straight up, "I'm voting for Cedric," she would have voted for me as well, and I would have been in the house.

I know you found this out, but a big reason why you're talking with me today is that Quinn revealed the Pentagon to Kimo and T'kor, who were not happy about being on the outside of the Collective. And even Quinn himself knew that he was fourth in the Pentagon because of how close you, Chelsie, and Cam were. Give me your reaction to that.
So unfortunately, I kind of had a feeling that Quinn was going to tell Kimo about the Pentagon. Just because Quinn and Kimo, that's how everyone found out about the power; Kimo leaked it. So I was hoping that by Week Three, me proving my loyalty-- which is very much why I didn't put Quinn up--to the Collective and to the Pentagon was going to change the perspective. It led to me sitting here today, because T'kor and Kimo, I'm sure, felt like they were going to be the first ones cut when the Collective got to be together. So I understand from a game perspective. I just don't think that it was smart for their game.

You said both before and after the game that your approach was, "Reward loyalty with loyalty and disloyalty with distance." So, had you stayed, was the plan for you to stick with the Collective, then the Pentagon, then a Final Three with Cam and Chelsie.
Had I survived eviction, my game plan teetered on if T'kor and Kimo had stayed true. Which is why I volunteered to be a pawn the first place, which we'll get into, I'm sure, later. But my game plan, if they stayed true and voted with me to stay, was very much to run the Collective as far as we could. Cut T'kor and Kimo first, cut Joseph next. Oh, let me give you some sauce.

Do it!
The first double eviction, we were going to cut Quinn. And the Pentagon was going to go from the Pentagon to a rectangle. And then from there, I was going to run with the Rectangle; that's going to be Final Four. And then weigh my options with who I stood a better chance with at the end.

You set me up for it. Let's talk about you volunteering to be on the block. Because, on paper, you had shown Quinn your loyalty by not backdooring him on your HoH. So what made you decide to agree to go up as a pawn?
So it was a series of unfortunate events. Why I volunteered was, actually, I thought was ingenious. I thought Quinn was going to have a vote being the Deepfake. I thought he was going to have a vote. So we were going to have the votes to keep me in the house, regardless of if T'kor and Kimo flipped. So the whole reason for me volunteering was to be a loyalty test to T'kor and Kimo. If they went astray, I would know which two votes went astray. And then from there, it was going to be easy to cut them and bring somebody like Leah in, who we could trust.

Interesting. So you going up was almost a test balloon to see if T'kor and Kimo would take the bait and vote you out. And then you could adjust accordingly.
Exactly. If it came down to me being on the block, I'm not gonna lie, I had confidence that I would win either the veto competition or the AI Arena. Unfortunately, the AI Arena is the one thing I needed it not to be. If it was a mental comp, I would have been great. If it was a physical comp, I would have been great. But being a technique comp, that's where I struggled.

Rewinding to last week, you came in wanting to have a clean HoH reign, only for it to end up quite messy. Talk me through the process of Tucker approaching you with the plan to backdoor Quinn, you deciding to not put him up because you didn't have the votes, and Tucker confronting you after. Especially considering, ironically, you end up going home on Quinn's HoH the very next week.
Right, crazy! So Tucker brought me the plan. And I'm not gonna lie, I pondered it, because Cam and I knew Quinn was snaking. But the only issue we ran into is he didn't bring me the plan until very last minute. So I didn't have time to run that to ground with the other players in the Pentagon. If the other players decided that that's what we would do, we would have done it. And then Quinn goes home and I build a relationship with Tucker. But for me, it didn't make sense not being able to talk that through surprising the Pentagon and breaking all my trust there to gain an asset in Tucker, who wants to see the strongest competitors go home first. So I would have blown up my game, blown up my HoH, for Tucker to still win and put me on the block.

To finish, give your rapid-fire thoughts on each of the remaining houseguests. Starting with Angela.
Angela...unique. [ Laughs .]
Brooklyn.
Amazing.
Cam.
Dope.
Chelsie.
Big sis.
Joseph.
Flip-flopper.
Kimo.
[ Pause .] Conflicted?
Leah.
Floating.
Makensy .
Big head.
Quinn .
Snake.
Rubina.
Not an asset.
T'kor.
[ Pause .] I don't know. Sweet. She's sweet.
And finally, Tucker.
Tucker, the first word that comes ahead to my head is "rival." Man, that's my rival. Unfortunately, he sniped me.

I'm not sure if this is news to you. But Tucker won the wall comp and is the new HoH.
Oh! [ Laughs .] Okay, yeah. Hm. hat would have been difficult to navigate this week, for sure. I definitely would have played it like I threw the wall if he would have won.

Next, check out our interview with Kenney Kelley, who was evicted in Big Brother 26 Week 3 .