Like any good video game console, Morgan Pope seemed to operate in two different modes on Big Brother 27. For the first six weeks, while she was winless, she helped make some major strategic decisions. Unfortunately, those decisions came at the cost of losing some of her tightest allies. But, once she faced the eviction vote, the former D1 athlete switched into competition mode. She turned up the heat, winning safety for a historic seven rounds in a row. Unfortunately, just when she needed it most, the former track star tripped right at the final hurdle. After losing the final HoH, she was taken out, one competition from winning it all.
Morgan came into the house lying that she was a professional gamer. But she showcased her propensity to play hard even without the title, getting involved in major alliances and making moves as early as the first week. When she came into power alongside close ally Mickey Lee, they made the controversial choice to turn on their alliance member in Jimmy Heagerty. The next week, she would lose another one of her people, but not by her own hand. She could only sit and witness her tight ally (and possible crush) Zach Cornell go out after choosing to not use his power to protect her. And, the very next week, she was put up by Rachel Reilly, facing the eviction vote against Rylie Jeffries, one of the most popular people in the house.
With this vote, Morgan’s game transformed entirely. She locked in with Vince Panaro, as the two were brought into the newfound “Judges” that protected her in a tight eviction. Despite losing her highly-anticipated Wall competition, she began pouring on the wins. Morgan was nominated two more times, the odds-on favorite to leave. Both times, she won clutch veto competitions to stay her execution. And, once she got past that, she and Vince began trading HoH wins to guarantee their upstairs residency would continue.
Indeed, Morgan’s alliance with Vince resulted in some of her best, but also controversial, work. During his third HoH reign, she pushed tirelessly for him to put up Lauren Domingue, feeling disregarded in lieu of his other number one. After long nights of arguments and affection that prompted a callout from Zingbot, her pushing finally succeeded. He put Lauren up and, while she didn’t get evicted immediately, Morgan was able to follow him up by evicting her herself. By the time the Final Three hit, Morgan seemed like the odds-on favorite to not only win the last HoH, but win the game outright. Her heart preemptively ached, though, for the idea of cutting Vince, feeling their games were too similar and wanting an easier win from Ashley Hollis. Fortunately for Morgan’s psyche, she never got that chance. Ashley pulled off an incredible win and had no choice but to cut Morgan, sending her out the door as the final member of the jury.
Hours after leaving the house, Morgan speaks with Parade about what led to her jury vote, how she flipped a switch halfway through the game, and her feelings on her relationship with Vince.
Related: Everything to Know About Big Brother 27
How are you doing right now, Morgan? Obviously, it’s been a heck of a day, to say the least.
Yeah, so, I mean, it’s obviously no secret that I’m bummed, to be real. It’s bittersweet. I knew that in order for me to win this game, I was going to have to win it out. And when I lost that final HoH, I just knew. Because if I was her, I would have taken me out, because Vinny was the easier person to beat between the two of us. So it is hard because all day today, I was practicing my final speech. I was deciding who I was going to take to the end. And it turned out that I just came up short.
But I think that although I did not win today, I left the best player of the season, even though I did not win, and I can stand on that, and I can be proud of myself. I mean, winning five Vetos and two HoHs all in a row to gain safety is unheard of, and I’m still kind of flabbergasted at myself. I’m looking at the mirror, like, “Who is that? That’s me. This happened to me.” It’s insane. I really can’t explain the feelings, because it’s like, while I want to break down because I wanted to win so bad, I know that God has a plan for me.
And I think when making history books as being one of the strongest female players to play Big Brother — this is just all what I’ve been told right from the greats on stage. I mean, Taylor, Chelsie, Derrick all had me to win. And to hear even Julie Chen like to have people who have been part of this family and this show for so long tell me that I’m going to be one of the best players to never win this game, is a compliment that I will never be able to replace. I mean, this sounds crazy, but to me it’s just worth so much more than the money. Like, of course, the money is going to change the lives of all of us. But at the same time, I’m just blessed, and I’m so proud of myself. I mean, you guys saw me leave. I was smiling. I gave them hugs. I said a joke all season long, like, “There’s no unsportsmanlike conduct over here.” It just didn’t feel right for me to feel any other way than just proud of the game that I played. And I left that house proud with what I did.
Let’s talk your jury vote. Were you always going to vote for Vince? Or did something happen during the jury deliberation to lead you that way?
No. To be honest with you, I knew that either Vince and I was going to be leaving that house tonight, depending on who won. If I won, Vince was leaving. If Ashley won, I was leaving, and I knew that Vince would have given me a vote, so I therefore returned the favor. I knew his story. I knew that he’d been applying for 10 years and this show meant so much to him. But I said this before, Ashley cooked him like a well-done steak, and she was going to win regardless. So as a friend and as an ally, it was a way of me telling him, “Thank you for playing this game with me, and I’m proud that we got so far. And congrats on second place.”
I’d be remiss if I didn’t stay on this dynamic. Because, after Zach left, it really seemed like you and Vince got closer both strategically and personally. But it also led to an incredibly emotionally complex dynamic from our perspective. How did that end up happening?
You know, Vince and I are LA locals. We were the only two locals in the house. So naturally, we’re going to gravitate towards each other. Because everyone else was connecting about the East Coast, and we’re sitting there looking like, “…what?” So the fact that he loved to strategize, I mean, I’m a gamer. So strategizing was what I wanted to do; it was what I was looking forward to. Because I was always thinking of my next move, or I was always thinking at least a couple steps ahead. Not too far, because if you think too far, that’s when you get voted out.
So I really focused on building a trusting relationship. Because, as people saw, I had Mickey as my number one ally, who was throwing me under any bus she could find. So it was hard when I started to realize that the allies that I thought were my real allies were, in fact, not my allies. They were my enemies. And so I had to pivot, and Vince was somebody that always had my back. And because I showed him the kind of ally I was when he was on the block, him saving me was obviously the best for my game. But it showed him that — and he said it tonight — I proved to him that I was worthy of working with.
And I think as we progress forward, obviously, we’re in a house where emotions are high. You go through highs and lows, and you need someone to talk to. You need someone to just feel like they can hear you out. And so having a friendship with him was really special to me. And I’m grateful that I got to go through the game with a duo. I mean, in what world does a duo last to Final Three? I mean, people should have taken us out a long time ago! Those are things that I would have done if I wasn’t in the duo. But the fact that I had a strong friendship with him is the reason why we were able to progress forward in the game.
Now I know you had a certain reaction to the Zingbot of it all, and the idea that your friendship might be perceived as something more. Did that change the way you viewed your dynamic at all? And how do you anticipate your relationship being now that you’re out of the house?
It’s a great question. I mean, I know when the Zingbot happened, I mean, everyone saw my face. I was actually shocked. I did not think that that was the perception. I know my intentions. I know that it was strictly platonic. It was strictly a friendship. So when I heard that, I just had a lot of questions. LIke it’s as if I was a cartoon character, I had question marks floating above my head, like, “What the hell is going on in this house? As if I didn’t think this house was already crazy enough. What is happening?”
Because him and I have had conversations about his girlfriend and, their plans and things like that. So I was just very shocked. However, from my perspective, it is strictly platonic. We are just friends, and outside of this house, a friendship is going to resume, if that’s something that he’d like to continue. If not, then it’s a game. At the end of the day, he did win four HoHs. I won vetos and HoHs. It made sense for both of us to play the game together. I mean, we’d be silly not to, because that was a tactic for me as well. I mean, I remember when I took the veto and used it on Ava, I told him, “If you don’t put Laura on the block, we can’t work together anymore.” That just wasn’t gonna be something that was going to help my game moving forward was not working together. So as far as I’m concerned, because I can only speak for myself, it is a strictly platonic friendship.
I want to talk more about that Lauren move. Because we saw you pursue it relentlessly, and really use the Judges’ jury votes as a cudgel to get Vince to not put up Ashley. Was that truly why you were pushing for it, or did you have other motives?
It was both. It was definitely for the Judges, because the other replacement nominee was Ashley, and she was in the Judges. And he kept worrying about what the jury was going to think. And t I’m like, “Well, let’s bring it back to Day 60, when Rachel left because you decided to pick Lauren over the alliance. If you want to show the jury that you are willing to say, ‘I’m going to put the alliance first this time.’ Because this is your chance to do it.”
Of course, that was a benefit for me. Because Lauren was coming after me, and I knew that his reaction wasn’t as strong as mine was when he was on the block. So I knew there was something about potentially him and Lauren going to the Final Two. But I was like, “You know what? This is the move I need to make. I’m going to buy favor with Ava, and I’m going to make sure that Lauren gets on that block. And if she is there on eviction night, I am going to vote her out. And tough luck if it’s on your HoH, because I want her gone.”
And luckily, everything kind of worked out. Kelley left, Keanu got to stay. Because that was initially what I really wanted was Keanu to stay. And then I went HoH, and she got to go home on my HoH. So it worked out nonetheless, but that was definitely a move for the Judges, but more importantly, for me. But that’s the thing. It was also to help him. I mean, he wanted to know how he could regain jury votes. You had people say that you had “Lauren goggles” on. So show them that you don’t have Lauren goggles on, you know?
From our perspective, it really seemed like, once you were nominated and lost your beloved Wall comp, a switch flipped in you. Talk to me about going on that competition run, and did that affect the way you played the game at all?
Wow, you have great questions. I love these. So first, when it comes to the vote, I mean, it was terrifying. That was my first time on the block coming into eviction night. And I knew the votes were close, and I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. But I knew when I survived that I was given a second chance, because that was the closest vote of the season, aside from the tie that we saw that Vince broke to send Kelley home. And so I knew with that, and I knew when I went into Wall comp, the drive that I wanted to win. And I literally slipped ,and just to fall and be a Have-Not — I mean the irony, it was actually quite hilarious. I was like, “Oh my God, of course that happens to me.”
But I knew how bad I wanted to win the wall comp that I just felt like I needed to start proving myself. Because, I mean, the first half of the game, everyone kept talking about, “You’ll have to peel me off that wall. I’m not losing.” And I just face plant and just eat it, and I just fall right into a Have-Not. And it was just like, “I’m sure America loved it. It was probably hilarious.” And I was even laughing at myself after a while.
But I just knew that after both of those extreme lows, because it was a low of almost not staying in the house and then a low of not winning a competition that I wanted to win so bad. I had to prove to myself, not even the other house guests, that I could win competitions. I didn’t come here to just be a social player. I came here to be an all-around, well-rounded player, and the only way I could prove that was to start winning. You said it perfectly. As I started winning, my momentum started picking up. It was kind of how I think about how I run track in college. I was a 200 runner. When you start, you really get those power steps. And once you go, it’s just like you take off, and that’s just kind of how it was. The momentum was going, and I won when I needed to. I’m still in shock. I’m still in shock. When you’re talking about my accolades, I’m like, “Oh my god, did I really do that? That’s just crazy.” The feelings that I have and knowing what I was able to do and make history, it feels far worth more than $750,000.
Related: ‘Big Brother 27’ Runner-Up Vince Panaro Says He’s ‘Not Too Worried’ About Relationship After Alliance With Morgan (Exclusive)
