By John Powell – GlobalTV.com

Before Big Brother Mecole Hayes was wheeling and dealing on Capitol Hill lobby for and achieving change. That high level of negotiating and politicking didn’t fully prepare her though for the utter chaos and mayhem found in the Big Brother house.

John Powell: Mecole, you’ve had a bit of time to decompress. How do you feel about everything overall?

Mecole Hayes: It was the experience of a lifetime. I am a super fan of this show. I left my very important job and my husband a month after my wedding to come and play this game because I believed so strongly in my ability to not just be able to navigate the game but to make it toward the end and hopefully walk away with the $750,000. Unfortunately, I’m sitting here talking to you right now (laughs) so obviously that did come into fruition but I had the time of my life and wouldn’t trade that experience for the world.

John Powell: You mentioned your husband, you mentioned him quite frequently on the live show and on the feeds as well. You missed making the jury by THIS much but you get to go home to see your family and friends. How are you feeling about that?

Mecole Hayes: You know, honestly, if I can go back and do something differently, I obviously would but hindsight is 20-20. When you’re in there, there is really no blueprint for navigating this game. I worked in politics for all of my career. I always felt like that was the most intricate and difficult place to navigate, especially Capitol Hill with all of its nuances but that is nothing in comparison to the Big Brother house. It is a world of its own and just getting acclimated to the house was an adjustment for me because it was dirty, nobody liked to clean. (laughs) Couple that with the fact that you have these games, which look moderately difficult on television, but then when you’re here, they feel impossible to win.

I talk to people from all walks of life in my everyday job and in the house I was always like: ‘What are these kids talking about?’ There was so much Super Mario conversations and this person from The Game of Thrones and about this anime cartoon. I was just like: ‘Okay, I’m losing brain cells’…It was insanity.

John Powell: Before you left you dropped a big bomb on everybody in the house. What was your intention behind that? What do you hope happens?

Mecole Hayes: I really do feel like Cory and America were a part of my demise. That’s why I included in my speech before the vote. People wanted to work with someone they could trust and I looked at America as someone who would not sabotage you and manipulate you into doing their dirty work. When I looked at her and Cory I really felt like they were at the center, in the core of the vote.

I don’t know how it looks to you guys but in the house you can feel the energy. People had been telling me a couple of days ago: ‘You definitively have my vote no matter what. I’m not changing even though Mama Felicia is telling people that I’ll be voting for her. It’s absolutely not the truth. You have my vote no matter what.’ Then, people start kind of tiptoeing around you. You’re in the bathroom and they see you in there and they turn around quickly because they don’t want to be asked where they stand and where their vote will be going.

My point in dropping the bomb that I did before I left the house was to throw a little shade at Cory and America and to just cause some disarray…I figured, let me start telling a few lies and throwing a little shade into this mix. I hope they all fight to the death.

John Powell: You may not know or you may know now that Felicia was definitely going home and then there was a flip and things started to change. One of the biggest reasons why it did change is because everybody considered you a better challenge threat and a competitor than Felicia was. Things turned out the way they did but you must be proud of that.

Mecole Hayes: Absolutely! When Cameron told me that I would be nominated, that I’ll be sitting on the block this week next to Mama Felicia he’s like: ‘You’re the pawn. She’s a target. There’s no world in which you go home. Everyone loves you.’ I was like: ‘Oh, please don’t run around here saying everybody loves me. What are you talking about? You going to guarantee safety for me and you don’t even have a vote this week?’. Kirsten had actually said it before she left: ‘Anybody who sits on the block next to Mama Felicia, they will always be the pawn no matter what and they’re all going home.’ Three times it has happened. She’s sent three players home now.

John Powell: Overall, you played a pretty low key game. What was your strategy?

Mecole Hayes: Coming into the house, I’ve worked in politics and started my career on Capitol Hill with some very important decisions, dealing with some very important individuals. I know that that can seem like a very popular thing but it can also cause a lot of jealousy and be seen as very threatening to people especially in environments that seem so fragile. Capitol Hill was so fragile and the Big Brother house is exactly the same. Everybody had to find a way to one-up each other and to put themselves in the best possible position. So going in I knew that I did not want to seem like a strategist or a mastermind.

While I always went into these comps wanting to win. Very early on when I didn’t win I was very sad about it but I was also thinking it wasn’t bad because Riley won her first HoH by walking quickly on a balance beam and she left the house quickly thereafter. My strategy going into the house was to lay low for the first half of the game and had I made it toward the second half of the game, really start to turn up the strategy suggesting who should or shouldn’t be put on the block possibly winning and putting myself in a position of power where I can make those decisions and kind of show my cards in that way. Had I stayed in the house and won HoH this week I know everyone was pitching the idea that Cameron needed to leave the house but I actually want to put Jag and Matt on the block and use that as bait to align myself with Cameron because he’ll always be a threat. He’ll get out sooner or later.

John Powell: I’m going to give you a little get-back here. Who do you hope follows you out of the house next and why?

Mecole Hayes: The next person that I hope follows me out of the house is Jag. The week that he was on the block next to Red I woke up that morning with so much steam. Jag has got to go. He’s the glue. He’s going to work with Blue, Matt, Bowie Jane and Cameron. They’re going to be a fierce five. We’re worried about Red and Cameron when we should be worried about a five-some instead of a twosome.

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