Big Brother’s house is open once more! Every week, Parade’s Mike Bloom will be bringing you interviews with houseguests as they get evicted from the game.

“If it looks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.”

This has been the credo running through Faysal Shafaat’s head throughout his entire reign as Head of Household. The simplistic logic caused Fessy to make arguably one of the biggest swings in the show’s history, targeting his own ally due to mistrust and officially declaring it Duck Season. But, much like the Looney Tunes short that shares the same concept, the Duck Season sign had been purposely planted by another contestant to get Fessy’s hunting rifle turned on someone else. The rascally rabbit, in this case, was JC Monduix, who was able to convince his “puppet” that Scottie had not only been consistently flipping on his alliance but also had eyes for Fessy’s showmance partner Haleigh Broucher. As a result, a week that started with the “Level 6” alliance sweating their stance in the game ended with them confidently sending yet another member of “The Hive” out of the house, having successfully turned the opposition against each other.

More than two months before he walked to Julie Chen with a twirl in his step, Scottie made a first impression as a goofy, couch-tipping virgin. While he was running away from other houseguests like Rachel Swindler, who were eager to be his first kiss, he found a close confidante in ex-cop Steve Arienta. Though the tub of their bond had filled with water, it quickly drained during Steve’s surprise eviction the first week. Now left on the back foot without his closest ally, it was understandable that Scottie was nervous when HoH Kaitlyn Herman told him he was going up. Though she tried to assuage him by saying he was up as a pawn against Winston Hines, he still had apprehension he’d be following his friend out the door. Luckily, it was a short stay on the block, as Tyler Crispin took him off with the Veto to gain his trust (or possibly make a different type of play after viewing his Houseguestsonly.com profile). In his place went up a shocked Chris “Swaggy C” Williams, who faced yet another jolt when he found out Scottie voted against him (wearing his shirt, no less) in the hopes of getting a Power App. Though he didn’t get an app, he did get power in winning the next HoH competition. He used the opportunity to target the tight pairing of Winston and Brett Robinson, the latter of whom has a charisma that left Scottie intoxicated. After a week of threats made against him, midnight deals being brokered, and compliments about his arms the size of honey-glazed hams, the man who was so shaky the week prior didn’t flinch, even though his intended target of Brett didn’t leave the house.

The small moves made in Big Brother often have larger consequences down the line. Though Scottie was able to use his power wisely, his vote against Swaggy loomed largely. Though he thought he was in good with Fessy, Haleigh, Angie “Rockstar” Lantry, and Bayleigh Dalton, everyone in the house was wary of where his loyalties were. Tyler tried to embellish their relationship to throw him under the bus, he was suspected of being the Hacker after being removed from the block once more, and he was suspected of many flips and hinky votes in the house, the latter of which came home to roost this past week. When only one vote came in to keep Rockstar at the last eviction, Fessy interrogated the house as to who stayed loyal to the intended plan. Scottie truthfully raised his hand, but a challenger emerged in Brett, implementing a plan JC and Tyler concocted to sew more seeds of distrust in the opposition.

Additionally, JC began to get in Fessy’s ear (when he could reach it). He told him about Scottie’s supposed feelings for Haleigh to stoke his jealousy, and Scottie didn’t necessarily help his case when he told Haleigh he loved her in front of Fessy. Due to all these factors, Fessy did the unthinkable: he nominated Scottie against Brett, hoping the truth would come out as to who was loyal. After losing the Veto to Brett, Scottie’s game became messier than the mattress-covered Have-Not room. Out of desperation, he worked with Sam Bledsoe to get Fessy to nominate Haleigh since she would be one of the only people he could stay against. When that pitch understandably went up in flames quicker than the brown sugar Brett was cooking, he walked it back and pivoted, using the Veto meeting to target Sam and accuse her of playing everyone. Unfortunately, all of this only furthered the image Fessy and the others had of Scottie. Salton was far from salty leaving the house, though, using his eviction speech to apologize to Haleigh and Sam for his actions and hugging everyone on the way out. He might be in an even better mood to know that the shipping manager has an opportunity for a return shipment to the house in winning the Jury Battle Back, where he would surely have some reasons for revenge.

Now on the jury, Scottie talks with us about why he came across as so untrustworthy, who he gravitated towards after Steve left, and thoughts on both his friends and enemies left in the house.

As inexplicable as you found your nomination, this was the culmination of the houseguests generally having a hard time trusting you. Why do you think you had a perception of being untrustworthy?

The Swaggy C vote thing doesn’t help, but I came clean about that. That was the only big lie I told, and I came clean about it. I was so blunt and straight up, I think they thought there was no way I could be so honest with them. 99% of the time I was so honest with them, and they didn’t accept it.

Fessy ends up nominating you, and you have speculated that he could be the one who has been continuously flipping votes. What are your feelings for him coming out of the house?

I think he is a hypocrite. Whether or not he is in a secret alliance or he is just dumb, his reasons for targeting me were just dumb. He’s saying he’s what he doesn’t like. He says I did things, like talk to Brett before the nominations, but I only did that because Haleigh told me to. I did everything Haleigh and Fess told me to. And it ended up getting me on the block. If that alliance was true, then none of that made any sense.

What’s your relationship like with Haleigh? Did you ever fear Fessy would get jealous of the time you spent together?

No. If I get out of here and find out that is what happened, I am going to be so pissed that he would be that petty. That would infuriate me. There is no way it was that petty of a reason! That would suck.

From the beginning, you were feeding information to both Swaggy and Tyler. Do you think navigating sides like helped or hurt trust in you?

I thought, at first, all three of us were on the same side. We were all together. It took both of them only 12 hours for them to go and tell everyone else. So I didn’t think I was navigating two different paths, I thought we were all together. Then I naturally gravitated to Tyler.

You lost your closest ally in Steve right from the get-go. How did you try to find a new group to fall in with?

From there, Tyler was the easy one. He was someone I was talking to week one when I wasn’t talking to Steve, and I thought we had a similar mindset. After Steve left, I got closer to Haleigh and Tyler. I just used the connections I made. I’m a good talker one-on-one, but when people are worried about the game all the time, I could tell they were on guard. So I tried to make an honest, genuine connection with everyone.

In the past couple of weeks, you separated yourself from the rest of “The Hive,” deciding to instead join up with Angela and Tyler. What prompted the jump, and did you have every intention of sticking with them?

Tyler and Haleigh were on seemingly different sides, and I kept flip-flopping between the two. I preferred Tyler and Angela as a group, but individually I liked Haleigh more, but I didn’t trust Fess. Angela kept her word to me on everything she said she would do and that is something I could work with. Same with Tyler. It probably would have been smarter to work with Tyler and Angela. But every time I talked to Haleigh, I would melt.

Let’s finish with your thoughts on a couple of other houseguests. You targeted Brett from your HoH reign, only to become enamored by his charisma and personality. What is it that makes him so appealing as a player and person?

I said that in my speech, I said all of that. Brett as a player, the dude is good. He constantly has a target on him, that I put there, and he is getting through the game one step at a time. He is sly about when he talks game. Overall, I respect his game. He does a good job relating to people, telling jokes. I tried to warn people. I exposed him, and he has done a good job working through it.

Your angle after Brett won the Veto was to put up Sam, saying that she was playing everyone and would beat anyone in a jury vote. How much validity was in that statement?

She has to be playing everyone. She got that first Power App. There’s something with Sam because ever since week one, no one talks about putting her up. I smell smoke with Sam.