The Senate is born and Alina begins her punishment

EVERYONE - "Who are we? The SENATE!"

The nine of you chant your new alliance name together before throwing your hands up. There's an electricity in the air now that your alliance is finally solidified with its own name. With everything handled for now, the group starts to trickle their way back downstairs, leaving in small groups to avoid suspicion from the rest of the house. As the members of the group all continue to go about their days, we hear some of their inner thoughts on this development in the Diary Room.

CHIRAG (Diary Room) - "I love our new alliance name, The Senate. It's perfect! We represent the majority of voters in the house, so we decide who goes home. Now, we can move forward in this game with our goal of evicting Julian this week."

LIAM (Diary Room) - "So I'm now officially in this nine-person alliance called The Senate. They want Julian out this week, but that's not what's best for my game, so I need to figure out a way to keep Julian around without The Senate suspecting I'm working with him. Thankfully, the plan is to not put him up initially and instead try to backdoor him after the Veto. If I can convince whoever wins the Veto to not use it, I'll be able to keep both of my alliances intact."

As afternoon starts to transition into evening, you suddenly hear the sound of trumpets blaring. This starts to get the houseguests excited as the announcer comes on to confirm what's about to happen.

ANNOUNCER - "Alina! Please go to the backyard immediately! Your punishment awaits!"

Alina lets out an exasperated sigh as she gets out of her Have-Not cot and starts to trudge her way to the backyard. The rest of the houseguests follow her, and you can see that the competition set from this morning has been fully cleared away now. All that remains is the pillory, which Eugene helps Alina get into.

ALINA (Diary Room) - "So, because I came in last in the Gladiator Gauntlet, any time I hear the trumpets, I have to stop whatever I'm doing and have someone lock me into these barbaric-looking stocks until Big Brother tells me I can leave. Last time I checked, this kind of punishment was for criminals, and losing a competition is not a crime. Big Brother, you're killing me over here!"

While Alina is locked in, you and the other houseguests take shifts keeping her company. About 30 minutes into her punishment, you and Julian are sitting around with her. Julian is doing most of the talking, while you're mainly there for moral support.

JULIAN - "How are you holding up?"
ALINA - "It was okay at first, but now my neck is starting to hurt."
JULIAN - "Do you need anything?"
ALINA - "Could you get my water bottle? I think I left it in the kitchen."

Julian goes inside to get Alina's water, leaving the two of you alone for a moment. As soon as the door shuts behind Julian, Alina immediately starts questioning you.

ALINA - "John, am I going on the block?"
John - "Probably."
ALINA - "I knew it. I f***ing knew it."
John - "Daisy Mae doesn't want you evicted, though. She just wants to teach you a lesson."
ALINA - "A lesson for what? For getting into one stupid fight?"

You can see where this conversation's going. Alina's digging for ammunition to use against Daisy Mae. You decide to shut this down now before it gets out of hand. You stand up and face Alina directly, forcing her to look up at you from her stooped position locked in the pillory. As you approach, you notice Alina's face becomes slightly flushed as she cranes her neck to look up at you. Her body language subtly shifts from defiant to meek, with her eyes breaking focus and her thighs squeezing together. You have to admit she looks pretty cute squirming like this. Something to keep in mind for later.

John - "Listen, Alina. You're not going up because you got in a fight. You're going up because you've made no effort to build a game relationship with Daisy Mae. You've had several days now to sit down with her and have a conversation, but you haven't. Instead, you've spent all your time begging for attention and leading Eugene and Julian on. That might work for you on your Instagram page but, here, you need to put in time and effort with everyone individually. If you can't do that, you'll be disposable."

You're slightly worried you may have just set her off, but Alina doesn't fight back. She breaks eye contact and looks down at the ground for a moment before the door to the backyard opens again.

JULIAN - "I've got your water, Alina! It was in the Have-Not room."

You sit back down as Julian gives Alina her water bottle. The conversation picks back up where it left off with Julian and Alina, but the atmosphere has definitely changed. Alina makes several glances over toward you, and you meet her gaze each time, proving to her that you meant every word and won't be pushed around by her. Now she knows where you stand and, at least for now, you have the upper hand over her. Eventually, after about an hour in the pillory, the Big Brother announcer comes over the intercom to tell Alina that her punishment is over for the time being. She and the rest of the houseguests head back inside to prepare for the evening.