After the Big Brother 28 Unfollowing Drama, I Keep Thinking About the Warning Rick Devens Gave Dee
The tension between Dee Valladares and Mallory may have followed them out of the Big Brother 28 house, but a moment from the live feeds suggests the fallout should not have come as a complete surprise. Long before the season ended, Rick Devens appeared to warn Dee that building a friendship with Mallory outside the game might be harder than she expected.
Dee, a former Survivor player who entered the Big Brother house alongside Devens, approached the game with a bold strategy that won her some attention but also created enemies. Since her exit, the online discussion has increasingly focused on her decision to follow and then unfollow fellow houseguest Mallory on Instagram.
The social media drama might seem like a minor post-show squabble. Yet revisiting an exchange between Dee, Devens and Drew from later in the competition offers an interesting glimpse into the tensions that were already developing.
The Live-Feed Moment That Now Looks Different
During a conversation captured on the Big Brother 28 live feeds, Dee expressed an interest in getting to know Mallory better once the show was over.
“I wanna get to know Mallory more, I feel like we never had the chance,” Dee said.
Drew and Devens were less optimistic. Their response was essentially that a friendship outside the house was unlikely, particularly after Dee had been honest with Mallory about her intention to put her on the block.
Devens specifically suggested that Mallory was not “the forgiving type” and might not want to maintain a relationship with the other contestants after the game.
At the time, none of them had left the house and witnessed the full extent of Mallory’s reaction to her experience, both before and after her CBS exit. Nor had Devens’ midseason move to save himself during the Blockbuster competition prompted the viral reaction from Mallory that later circulated online.
Mallory had also made it clear in the Diary Room that she was unhappy with Dee while the season was airing. In later interviews, however, she drew a distinction between disliking Dee’s gameplay and disliking her as a person.
Looking back, Devens’ warning feels particularly relevant given what happened after the contestants returned to their lives outside the show.
Mallory Explained Why She Was Upset With Dee
During her post-elimination interviews, Mallory acknowledged that Dee’s move had hurt her, especially because appearing on Big Brother had been a lifelong dream.
“I do not hate her on a personal level,” Mallory explained. She described Dee’s decision as a bad game move and said it was difficult not to become emotional when someone else’s actions ended a dream she had wanted to fulfill for years.
Mallory also pointed out that Dee and Devens had been recruited from Survivor, suggesting that their arrival from another reality competition was part of a broader issue. Nevertheless, she reiterated that she did not hate Dee personally.
Mallory later addressed the situation on X, pushing back against the idea that her emotional reactions meant she held personal hatred toward anyone.
“Everyone can think what they want,” she wrote. “While the show is going on and my friends are in there I am emotionally invested because I care about them.”
She explained that she was entitled to support her friends and found it difficult to watch people she cared about being hurt. She also suggested that anyone who had competed on the show would understand the emotional investment involved.
“Anyone who has been on the show would understand that and it will be fine when it’s all over,” Mallory continued. “I don’t hate anyone.”
Her comments presented a more nuanced picture than the heated reactions viewers had seen during the season. Mallory was upset about what had happened in the game, but she maintained that her feelings were not rooted in personal hatred.
The Instagram Unfollowing Added Another Layer
Despite Mallory’s public insistence that she did not hate Dee, the relationship between the two women appeared to take another turn after Dee left the house.
The pair had followed each other on Instagram, but Dee later publicly unfollowed Mallory. Fans noticed the change, and the resulting discussion turned the social media move into another talking point surrounding the season.
Whether Mallory had fully moved on from the conflict remained unclear. What was evident, however, was that the tension between the former housemates had continued to attract attention beyond the competition itself.
It is also possible to wonder whether Dee’s earlier conversation with Drew and Devens influenced how she viewed the prospect of maintaining a friendship with Mallory. Perhaps their prediction that the relationship would not survive the game helped shape her decision. That remains speculation, though, and there is no confirmation that the conversation played a role.
Whatever motivated the unfollowing, the incident highlights how relationships formed under the pressure of a reality competition can become complicated once the cameras stop rolling.
Why the Survivor Players Created Friction
The disagreement between Dee and Mallory is hardly the first feud in Big Brother history, and it certainly will not be the last. But the arrival of Dee and Devens from Survivor introduced a different style of gameplay into the house.
Their experience came from a separate competition format, and their approach did not necessarily align with the expectations or relationships of the existing Big Brother cast. That difference made friction almost inevitable.
Dee has previously offered advice to future Big Brother contestants in an interview with CinemaBlend. Her perspective on how to approach the game helps illustrate why her style could have clashed with Mallory’s expectations.
Ultimately, the conflict reflects one of reality television’s recurring challenges: contestants may be competing for the same prize, but they do not always share the same understanding of loyalty, strategy or what should happen after the game ends.
What began as a strategic decision inside the Big Brother 28 house has since become a public discussion about friendship, betrayal and whether game-related disagreements can be left behind. And after revisiting Devens’ warning to Dee, it is difficult not to see that the possibility of an outside-the-house fallout had already been raised long before the Instagram unfollowing became a story.