'Big Brother 26' Joseph Rodriguez Says Quinn 'Got on His Nerves' and Made 'Puzzling' Decisions

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.

All the classic movie villains have one thing in common: They monologue. No matter how unrealistic, they gloat about their plans and prospects before usually being humbled by their rivals. Unfortunately, video store clerk Joseph Rodriguez fell victim to one of the most common tropes in film: He got caught monologuing. Through seven weeks, Joseph had built what he felt was a killer game that left him out of the fray of the chaos around him. But when he chose to tell the other houseguests about his position, it drew more eyes on him than a session in the "Mattrix." After a week of mayhem that saw one of his closest allies putting him on the block, the tent of a perception Joseph had built collapsed around him, as he was checked out of the house in yet another eviction blindside.

As a Big Brother superfan, Joseph wanted to model his game after the legend Will Kirby . And he did just that in a few capacities, namely throwing competitions every chance he got. After a few weeks of playing under the radar, Joseph ended the first month of the game in a comfortable position, all in on his eight-person "Collective" alliance, as well as forming a tight relationship with Tucker Des Lauriers . Unfortunately, the mustachioed man's game turned hairy at that point, as the Collective splintered apart with Cedric Hodges' blindside, and the house flipped once more to evict Tucker. Despite losing his number one ally, Joseph was confident as the prejury was coming to a close. After all, Quinn Martin , one of his closest allies, was HoH. Leah Peters , who he self-admittedly harbored a crush on, had the Veto. And Angela Murray was announced as Quinn's target.

Sadly, that confidence was something Joseph was happy to express to the other houseguests. He spent the past week being loud and proud about his position, his social game, and even his Final Two with Tucker. But when Leah shockingly used the Veto on Angela, Quinn felt forced to put up Joseph, wanting to keep the others who voted out Tucker safe. Joseph was blindsided and irate, and secretly swore revenge on Quinn. But he still felt secure going into the eviction, up against two members of a strong trio and former allies of Tucker in Kimo Apaka and Rubina Bernabe . But, as seems to be the case this season, the pawn position is one of the most dangerous to occupy in the house. In a wild eviction vote, Angela voted to keep Joseph, despite their conflict earlier in the week where he told her he was surprised she was still in the game. Chelsie and Makensy, meanwhile, broke away from their allies to vote out Joseph, feeling he was more dangerous for them on jury than Kimo. And so seven weeks of Joseph's confidence was shattered in an instant, as he was sent out just before making the jury.

Now out of the house, Joseph talks with Parade.com about a last-minute pitch he made to Chelsie for his safety, his complicated relationships with Quinn and Leah, and why he was so upfront about his game to the other houseguests.

Related: Everything to Know About Big Brother 26

Suffice it to say, we've got a lot to get into. It's clear that you were a little shocked, to say the least, at how all the votes turned out. In that purgatorial two-minute period after the AI Arena into the eviction votes, were you picking up any weird vibes as to how things would go down?
Yeah, I feel like the fact that they were all in that pink room and seemed to want to try to get away from me, I was like, "What is going on?" I never fully trusted Chelsie again. I knew that she had it out for me, you know what I mean? That's why–I don't know if they showed this–an hour or two before the vote, I came up to [her] and I was like, "Chelsie, if I win HoH, I will not put you up." And I would have stuck to that. I literally told that to her. And she was like, "You're good. You're good. Relax." And everything like that. So I literally told her I would not put her up. Which I would have stuck to that.

Honestly, had I won HoH, I would put up Angela and Quinn and probably Kimo or Rubina, which one of them would have come down. I would have tried to work with Chelsie again in the game, because I would have been like, "F–k Quinn, he put me up." Angela, could care less. I'm not gonna stick my neck out for her anymore, and I don't want to go back on the deal I had made with people that I would put her up and everything like that. And if either of them would have left, I really wouldn't have cared. So that's pretty much what I would have done. The one that surprised me is honestly Makensy, because I feel like her and Kimo never talked. They both said as much, that they never taught the game. I was the one person who maybe talked game with Makensy the most in the house. I was at least up there. And I meant it too when I said I would never come after her. I would want to go to the end with her, because she didn't start playing the game till day 45. So, really, I'm puzzled by that more than anything else.

Well, she and Chelsie had been talking in the days prior about getting rid of you. But she did tell some of the other houseguests last night that she felt swayed by Kimo's eviction speech. And then there's Angela voting to keep you, despite everything that went down with the two you this week, saying that she felt Kimo didn't have the votes. So it's a whole calamity.
[ Laughs .] And the funniest thing too is her little goodbye message to me, where she's like, "Oh, you're the reason I'm up on the block." It's like, maybe it's you calling that kid an idiot, a narcissist, a liar, all these things. The fact that she thought I had anything to do with that is like crazy to me. He put you on the block because he wanted to! You really think I could convince that kid to not put you on the block? And when I originally had a conversation with Quinn, he told me Rubina was the target. So I never lied to her. That's crazy. "Oh, I know that." Shut up, you don't know anything that's going on.

Let's talk about that aforementioned "kid" in Quinn. It's clear from what you told me that there would be no love lost had you stayed in the house. Talk to me about your relationship with your fellow superfan, and how it culminated with him putting you up at the Veto ceremony.
Man, I want to be careful with my wording here. But Quinn really got on my nerves a lot of the time, to be honest. From a personality standpoint, I feel like me and him always kind of clashed a little bit. He's a nice kid and everything like that, but just not my cup of tea necessarily. And as a superfan, I feel like we were both maybe a little overconfident in some ways. But he especially would just make these decisions that I've found very puzzling, very bad. Putting Cedric up was not a good idea. Putting me up was a horrible idea. He was such an obvious liar in the game, and somebody who was exposed early on by people as being a liar. So yeah, to me, he was just very puzzling [in] a lot of his decision-making.

You talk about your overconfidence. Let's get into it. Because you were open to others about how good of a game you were playing, that you had compared your game to Doctor Will–
They prompted me that in the Diary Room. They asked me for comparisons and of who I was modeling my game after. And I said, Dr. Will and Dan. That was not me being like, "Oh, I'm as good as them," or anything like that.

Well, some of the other things that you were saying, like telling Chelsie she was one of the best women players in the house next to Brooklyn, or telling Makensy that you would beat her in the end, or even outing your Final Two with Tucker, all contributed to the vote flip and your eviction. Talk me through your logic in being so open about your strategy.
Well, the thing with Chelsie is that what I told her in the background was nothing new. Me and her had recognized that from early on in the game that we were two of the best players in the game. We had said that to each other multiple times. So that conversation in the backyard was nothing that I hadn't said before, that she's a good social player and everything like that. And honestly, I would have tried to work with her again. And I also told Makensy that same conversation that I thought she had a good chance because she had to fight for her life and everything like that. And the thing with saying I had a Final Two with Tucker, I just wanted to kind of be forthright about what I did. That way could explain to people like Leah, "Hey, this is why I did this." Because I thought that maybe being honest about it, instead of lying like Kimo was, would look a little bit better. So that was the logic behind it.

There were also times when you were very upfront about how you were doing in the game. You had talked about being in competition for America's Favorite Houseguest, and how you were probably getting a lot of airtime.
I don't think I ever said I was getting the most airtime. I thought most airtime power rankings, I would usually put myself at eight.

Right. But I also think that statements like that made Chelsie and Makensy in particular feel like you would not be someone to work with them and vote for them should you make the jury over someone like Kimo or Rubina.
No, for sure, yeah.

Let's talk about another complicated relationship with Leah, who is another reason why you're sitting with me today. You told Julie last night that, in retrospect, you should have pushed her not to use the Veto harder, but you didn't want to push her in the other direction. Talk to me about your dynamic.
Yeah, it was weird. And honestly, she was one of the reasons I admitted to my Final Two with Tucker right away, because I wanted to let her know, "Hey, this is why." Because she asked me if I would have voted her out over him the week prior. And so she kind of knew what that meant. We didn't have much of a game. She didn't really talk game with anybody for the first half of the game. And that was a lot of people's complaints about her. So I was one of the only people who wasfeeding her information and giving her stuff. And then also we had a great personal relationship. She was the one person in the house that I could go to be like, "Aren't all these people super annoying?" And she'd be like, "Yes, they are." And we could just kind of laugh and have fun about all that. And so, yeah, I think we had a great personal relationship. And I also knew I could beat her in the end. So I felt like she was a good person to have by my side.

To that point, let's talk about Tucker, who you were locked in with until his eviction. Talk to me about your relationship, and what do you think your chances were against him in the Final Two like you seemingly wanted?
I would be a fool to think that he wouldn't get clipped at some point. And I kind of always knew that. And in some ways, I was kind of happy when he went out, because trying to navigate the game with him was extremely difficult. He was always going after the people that I wanted to keep around. But, had we gotten there at the end, he did a couple of things. I don't want to harp on them too much, because I think he is a good person. But he did a couple things in the house that I know that a lot of people didn't agree with just from a personal standpoint. So I feel like, if we're just looking at the jury, Angela had a better relationship with me. She would have voted for me. Leah would have voted for me. Quinn would have voted for me over him. And I think Chelsie just did not like him on a personal level. I think she would have voted for me over him. So I think there's a couple people that he really rubbed the wrong way. So I think it would have been pretty easy, honestly.

To finish, give your rapid-fire thoughts on each of the remaining houseguests. Starting with Angela.
Delusional.
Cam.
Chill.
Chelsie.
Smart, but mean.
Kimo.
Adorable.
Leah.
Lovely.
Makensy .
Class act.
Quinn .
Unfunny, but kind.
Rubina.
Sweetheart.
And, finally, T'kor.
The best.

Listen, man, I love watching superfans get to play the game they've dreamed about for so long. And obviously it would be more ideal if we were talking in a month with $750,000 in your pocket. But I wish you the best of luck walking out of the larger "Mattrix" of the house back into the real world.
[ Laughs .] Thanks, man. Only one person gets to win, so I'm not beating myself up too much over any one thing. I made a lot of mistakes along the way. But to get the key to go in the house, to get to play this game for more than half the time there, get to experience it all was super fun. And honestly, I'm glad I'm not gonna be in the jury house.

Oh, really?
Everybody cares so much about getting to vote on the winner. I don't really care that much about that. If I don't get to win, then whatever.

Next, check out our interview with Tucker Des Lauriers, who was evicted in Big Brother 26 Week 6 .