Big Brother 19 Finale: And the Winner Is...

After quite the divisive summer, Big Brother 19 crowned an equally divisive winner: Josh.

Josh's victory came at the end of a two-hour season finale which featured plenty of tears and lots of yelling by the jury about how much they dislike the top three. The episode kicked off with Paul, Christmas and Josh competing in part one of the final HOH competition, a farting unicorn-themed challenge that Paul won after Josh and Christmas fell. (Let's not even talk about how Christmas, who is still recovering from a broken foot, was able to last so much longer than Josh.) When it came to part two, a medieval-themed comp that mixed memory and accuracy skills, Josh managed to beat Christmas, securing his chance to compete against Paul in part three.

In the final comp of the summer, Paul and Josh had to predict how jury members answered a series of questions. Josh won and decided to bring Paul with him to the final two in the hopes that the jury would be more pissed at Paul than they were at him.

When it came time to face one of the most bitter juries in Big Brother history -- consisting of Cody, Mark, Elena, Matt, Jason, Raven, Alex, Kevin and the newly evicted Christmas -- it wasn't pretty for Paul. The vet was confronted about allegedly using bullying tactics, betraying friendship and lying to the jury members right up to the point of their evictions. On the other hand, Josh got off fairly easy. Although his tantrums were obviously brought up, as was his apparent lack of strategy, Josh put up a decent defense by saying that, as a secret superfan, he knew to play dumb and claimed that his fights with people were part of his gameplay.

After the interview portion was complete, Paul (who was wearing the same outfit that he wore to the Big Brother 18 finale last summer) ran down all the ways he ensured he'd make it to the finale two, from his competition victories to his social game, all without touching the block a single time. During Josh's time to talk, he highlighted the shots he took at big players and the fact that he played an extremely loyal game.

In the end, Josh managed to sway the jury enough and won the $500,000 prize with a vote of 5-4 (in a great twist, Cody wound up being the deciding vote in favor of Josh). It was a terrible moment of deja vu for Paul, who lost to Nicole by a single vote last season. And so yet another summer ends with Paul going home with $50,000 in his pocket and a "forever a bridesmaid" reputation.

But even if you aren't thrilled by who won the season, there is one winner we can all cheer for: Cody was named America's Favorite Player, earning $25,000 and responding with his already iconic cheerfulness.

Big Brother will return with a celebrity edition this winter.

(Full disclosure: TV Guide is owned by CBS.)