Ashley Hollis walked into the Big Brother 27 house with a game plan slicker than a Love Islander’s lip gloss. On paper, she’s a lawyer — sharp, strategic, and terrifying to sit across from in a courtroom — but in the house? She downplayed all of that, packaging herself as the sweet, non-threatening type you’d never think was capable of cutting your throat in the Diary Room. That mask gave her space to float between alliances like a social chameleon, dipping into Girls Girls, Peach Cobbler, and The Judges without ever letting herself become the main target.

Here’s the gag though: Ashley wasn’t exactly racking up comp wins. She snagged the Week 1 Power of Veto and then laid low for most of the summer, letting the bigger egos bash each other around. It was only when the lights were brightest — finale night — that she switched into beast mode. She nailed Part 2 of the final HOH comp, fought her way to Part 3, and suddenly she was sitting in the Final 2 chair with the power to tell her story her way.

And tell it, she did. Ashley pulled out her ace card and dropped the bomb that she’d been a lawyer this whole time. That reveal reframed her game from “floater” to “mastermind” in one swoop. The jury ate it up, especially after she hit them with the line: “To me, a Big Brother winner is someone who turns their enemies into allies, not their allies into enemies.” It was giving “closing arguments in court” energy, and the verdict came back quick.

The result? A 6-1 win over the cheatmancer Vince and the ultimate glow-up from underestimated houseguest to Big Brother champion. Ashley proved you don’t need to win everything, you just need to win at the right time — and know how to sell it when the spotlight’s on you.