We ought to start calling Rick Devens “Icarus,” because he’s flying a little too close to the California sun. (Rickarus? That anything?)

For weeks now, Devens and his fellow reality icons living in the “Big Brother” house have been an unstoppable force. If they aren’t actually in power during a given week — and they often are — they’re still theoretically in power, puppeteering other players’ moves and convincing allies to do their bidding. (See: Drew voting out Mallory last week, a move I do believe will haunt him when this is all over.)

But such a dominant steamroll of Season 28 has led Devens, at least, to perhaps get too comfortable in this game, as evidenced by his volunteering to go on the block this week as a replacement nominee. Does he know nothing of pawns’ fate in this game? Of pawns-who-volunteered-to-be-pawns’ fate?! I suppose not, because there he’s sat on the block for the past three days, appearing to only be occasionally nervous on the live feeds that he might get the boot if he remained up for eviction after the BB Blockbuster.

As Thursday’s episode revealed to us, though, Devens should have been very, very nervous about the future of his “Big Brother” game this week — because if he didn’t win the Blockbuster competition, he seemed poised to be evicted by a unanimous vote. Yes, unanimous! Not only did Devens’ fellow Crossovers member Barrett plan to vote Devens out, given the chance, but even Dee and Angela — Dee and Angela! — seemed to understand they couldn’t let this opportunity pass them by if Devens were sitting in one of those nomination armchairs on Eviction Night.

Blockbuster and eviction results

And that was all fun while it lasted!

This slightly cynical recapper has been watching “Big Brother” since its very first episode, and it feels as though every summer, there’s some force at work that keeps victory juuust out of reach for the underdogs. The little guys win every now and again! But more often than not, the game continues to unfold how it’s unfolded all along — which is to say that Devens won the Blockbuster competition on Thursday night, even though Taylor was just moments away from a potential triumph herself. (I should say here that I actually quite like Devens, and think he’s playing an excellent, win-worthy game. But is it too much to ask for this game to be upended?)

Anyway, after Devens’ victory was revealed to the rest of the houseguests, he and his fellow allies quickly whispered at the couches about who they should vote out. They didn’t all vote together, though: Devens and Dee both evicted Lala, while Angela — a longtime friend of Lala’s in the house — voted to evict Taylor.

In the end, Lala was ousted by a vote of four to two, with Barrett and Yash’s votes serving as the other two against her. But she left the house graciously, and finally confirmed to Julie Chen Moonves what we’d all been wondering: Yes, she actually was frequently confused about what was going on in the house this summer. But Chuk doesn’t need to know that.

With that, Lala becomes the first member of the Season 28 jury. “Big Brother” fans, how are you feeling about her eviction? And who do you want to win Head of Household next? Drop a comment below!