After a few days to digest the Big Brother All-Stars season finale, and the whole season in general, a few takeaways about the quality of the season come to mind.

Big Brother 22 ended with the best episode of the season, seeing BB16 veteran Cody Calafiore claim the $500,000 for the first time. Calafiore chose Enzo Palumbo to sit next to him in the final two after winning the final head of household competition.

The surprise of the night did not come with Calafiore winning, he easily played the best game of any of the 16 houseguests from day one, but with whom Calafiore chose to go with him to the final two. He chose Palumbo over fellow BB16 alum and BB18 winner Nicole Franzel, which was a blindside to Franzel but a welcomed outcome for the show’s fans.

Fans have completely changed their tone on Franzel since she returned to the house for BB18 and defeated fan-favorite Paul Abrahamian in what has been proclaimed as one of the worst jury decisions in the show’s history, with a bitter jury robbing Abrahamian of the first-place prize. Since then the fans have shown their frustration with Franzel as she bragged about her win and feels that no one gives her any credit, and she continually stated in the house this season.

The decision by Calafiore not to take Franzel was surprising because of how close they are as people and players as well as the final two bond that they formed from day one. The takeaway is simple, Calafiore was not confident in beating the former winner, and decided to take the easier route with a lesser worthy candidate in Palumbo to secure his spot as one of the 22 ever winners of Big Brother.

With Franzel not winning this season, there remains not a single two-time winner in show history, dating back to season one in 2000. Franzel lost in the final two as a former winner along with Dan Gheesling on BB14. With BB22 being a fully all-star season, don’t expect many returning players to enter the Big Brother house again for at least a couple of years. The next few seasons should be all new players and the possibility of finding new stars in the process.

Another takeaway is with the cast and people’s opinion of it. Fans ripped the cast a few weeks into the season after being decently satisfied with it on premiere night. The problem that fans had with the season is the thought of pre-game alliances that ran the game from start to finish. ‘The Committee’ alliance was the dominant force behind every eviction this season.

The problem is not with the pre-gaming, houseguests who were on the original all-star season of BB7 said they did the same thing, but with the lack of balance on both sides of the game.

If any of Janelle, Kaysar, Da’Vonne, Bayleigh, or Kevin won ANY head of household competition this summer the outcome of the season would have been easily altered.

Fans should appreciate the aspect of being able to see some of these all-stars play again. Seeing Janelle and Kaysar play the game was a first for the new generation of Big Brother fans who did not watch their earlier seasons live. Da’Vonne and Tyler are big fan favorites and it was cool to see them give it another go for the money. Even though David is not a typical “all-star,” it was certainly interesting to see how he decided to play the game, not always making the smartest decisions and providing some rookie mistakes.

Finally, the last and biggest takeaway is how dominant of a game Cody played. He finished BB All-Stars with eight total competitions, four HOH’s and four vetoes, never touched the block, and is the second-ever winner to win in a unanimous decision, Gheesling was the first on BB10.

Calafiore claimed second place on BB16 after taking fellow legend Derrick Levasseur to the final two with him, losing 7-2 in the process. Calafiore cements himself as one of the best players in the show’s history, playing a great game in his first go-around but taking what he learned to develop his game into a strategic mastermind.

Calafiore, in my opinion, slots into a top 5 that holds the likes of Dr. Will Kirby, Gheesling, Levasseur, and a toss-up between Dick Donato, Mike ‘Boogie’ Malin, and Danielle Reyes.

There are lots of great players that I did not mention, but Calafiore has made himself a staple in this category regardless of how fans want to view the season.

Big Brother will return for season 23 in summer 2021 with a whole new set of houseguests trying to make a name for themselves and potentially find themselves as legendary players of the game as many from this year’s all-star season will be for years to come.