The first HOH is crowned

The rest of the night passes uneventfully, with houseguests continuing to mingle and get to know each other before going to sleep. Day 2 begins with much of the same until Raquel gets called into the diary room. After a while, she emerges dressed in a beautiful white and gold toga to announce it's time for the Head of Household competition. The houseguests file out into the yard and react to what they see.

EUGENE (Diary Room) - "So I walk out into the backyard and it looks like we just stepped straight onto Mount Olympus. We're walking on top of clouds, and there's white stone pillars and golden curtains everywhere. I'm geek-ing out over here! This looks incredible!"

There are four competition stations set up around the yard. Each station has a metal structure with poles hanging off it (imagine a mobile that hangs over a baby crib) and several balls of varying sizes decorated like planets. The four competitors each head to their station as the rest of the houseguests move over to a viewing area to watch. Once everyone is in place, Raquel reads from a prompter to explain the rules of the competition.

RAQUEL - "Derek, Isabel, Julian and Roxy, by winning your group competitions yesterday, the four of you have earned the right to compete today to be the first Head of Household. This summer, the Big Brother house is decked out in images of the gods and goddesses of Roman mythology, the same ones that lend their names to the planets of our solar system. Right now, however, those gods are in trouble. Last night, an ancient titan awoke and disturbed the balance of the planets, throwing the heavens into chaos. Luckily, the four of you are here to help restore order to the cosmos.

Here's how the competition works. When the horn blows, you'll race to reassemble your solar system by hanging your planets onto the metal poles behind you. Be careful, though. The metal poles are not fixed in place, so you'll need to figure out how to balance your planets to keep them from falling. One error or accidental bump to the structure could cause your planets to fall off, forcing you to start again. Once all your planets are balanced on the poles, run to the middle of the yard to hit your button. The first houseguest to hit their button with their solar system still intact will become the first Head of Household of the season. Who's ready to play Planetary Pantheon?"

The houseguests erupt into applause before settling in to wait for the competition to start.

ETHAN (Diary Room) - "I'm super stoked to see this competition play out. I'll be honest, though, I didn't really pay much attention to the rules because I was so fixated on Raquel. I've been to a lot of toga parties, but I've never seen anybody look that good in one before. Shoot, am I blushing? *timid laugh*"

The horn blows and the competitors get to work. For the first few minutes, it's a lot of trial and error as everyone starts wrapping their head around the competition. Each planet has a different size and a different weight, so there's a puzzle element to figuring out which ones can balance each other. After a little while, we see Isabel and Julian both starting to pull ahead, making slow but methodical progress, as Roxy and Derek fall behind.

ISABEL (Diary Room) - "Even though I'm a chemist, I'm going to need physics to help me win this competition. These metal poles are essentially levers and, to balance them, you need to have the same amount of potential energy on both ends. Potential energy equals the mass of the object times the height of the object times acceleration due to gravity. So, I started by categorizing my planets in order from heaviest to lightest. Once I'd done that, figuring out where they all needed to hang was pretty simple."

The competition continues. After about ten minutes, Isabel and Julian both seem to have the puzzle portion figured out and now only need to deal with the balancing, widening their lead over the others. Roxy continues to struggle, feeling dejected but remaining calm through it. Derek is growing frustrated, continuing to get hung up on the same part that keeps collapsing on him.

DEREK (Diary Room) - "This competition's kicking my ass. Every time I think I have a couple of planets balanced, they fall off as soon as I look away. I can see that Isabel and Julian are both much further along than me. I need to step up my game."

ROXY (Diary Room) - "It's pretty clear that this isn't my competition. I'm still going to keep trying, but at this point, I hope that Isabel can win. I feel safe with her as HOH since I think she'll likely uphold our deal and not target me this week."

Fifteen minutes in, Julian and Isabel are both close to finishing their solar system. Isabel is working on balancing her last two planets, but Julian is right on her tail. It looks like it's going to be a close finish. Isabel steps away from her solar system and it looks steady for a moment, but as she runs to go hit her button, the last planet she hung slides off causing everything to collapse. The observing houseguests audibly react to this, and Isabel lets out an exasperated scream before running back to rebuild. Before she can get very far, though, Julian steps away from his solar system and sprints for the button. By the time he gets there, his solar system is still hanging up proudly, and he erupts into celebration knowing that he's won.

RAQUEL - "Congratulations, Julian! You are the new Head of Household!"

The rest of the house join Julian in cheers and applause for his win. Raquel places a necklace with the key to the HOH bedroom over Julian, to which he replies "Thank you, beautiful goddess" before continuing his celebration.

JULIAN (Diary Room) - "Your boy just won HOH! I told you no one could beat me in this house, and today I went out and proved it. Now, all these other houseguests are gonna know I'm a **** to be reckoned with."