John doesn't care who ends up going home. He doesn't have a relationship with either Meg or Austwins. Ideally he needs to work on dwindling down the Austwins which he has been mentioning to Steve, but he's banking on the fact that either him or Steve win the next HOH. John won't have a problem voting against Julia this week but he would need Steve on board.
Voting Julia out is very risky for Steve. He risks Austin/Liz/James/Meg coming together to form a F4, and additionally pissing off Vanessa for flipping his vote. Austin & Liz would also be a much deadlier combination than Austin/Julia or Liz/Julia, so Julia really is the worst person to take out from Austwins. Austin & Julia aren't compatible, and Julia sucks at competitions, while all Liz & Julia would do is spew venom which they've already been doing for the past two weeks any ways. Austin & Liz are the worst combination of people to blindside.
For Steve to vote out Julia, he would need to be confident that James and Meg will stick with him and John until Final 4, and I'm sure James/Meg will get to work on that if Julia does in fact go up. But at the end of the day I don't see Steve going against Vanessa. Vanessa would have to be on board for backdooring an Austwin, and Julia is a terrible person to backdoor.
Austwins no doubt need to be split up but taking out JULIA of all Austwins, in this given fashion is a very risky play.
I don't think it matters who goes up as renom out of the three. Steve/John/James would be smart to vote out one of the Austwins, even if it is Julia. If they don't, then they risk all three of them playing for DE HoH, rather than just two of them.
If they evict Meg, it'll be John/Steve/James vs. Austin/Liz/Julia in the DE HoH.
If they evict Julia, it'll be John/Steve/James/Meg vs. Austin/Liz.
Sure, Austin or Liz could win, but the chances are slimmer.
If it were one of Liztin I think Steve would at least entertain the thought for a few days, but Julia isn't worth risking his spot in the game. Him/Jmac/Vanessa could just win out if they are final 6 because they are all good at comps, and the ones at the end tend to gear towards what they are all best at. Although that'd be somewhat boring, and I'd rather there be a blow up at the DE, so he should just do it anyway :x
If u r Steve using the logic that Austin Liz meg and James team up is a mute point as saving Julia leaves austwins and Vanessa together which is a much scarier foresome...if you're Steve and u vote out Julia nowise the perfect time as its less likely Austin Liz would come for him first over meg\James and John\Vanessa...
If u r Vanessa u wouldn't be mad at Steve because she NEEDS him to do it without her knowing so she can truly say she had no idea and not hurt her spot in the game...
So overall if you are Steve its more pros than cons for booting Julia not to mention going into de Liz will be a mess
Unfortunately it makes no sense for Vanessa to agree to take out an Austwin because she already has James/Meg going for her next week and saving Meg wouldn't really help her with them as the damage has already been done and having only Liz/Austin instead of all 3 Austwins in the game give James/Meg even more incentive to go after her (never mind the fact that Austin/Liz would blow up her game).
So it'd be silly for her to agree to get Julia out, and I agree Steve wouldn't (and probably shouldn't) try and get Julia out without Vanessa's blessing. It's also too risky for him to recommend nomming Austin or Liz in case Vanessa flips the script and nominates him for even suggesting it.
the thing is steve isn't in a good position in the house regardless. If he takes out Julia, he can use that at the final two as his big game changing move to sway votes for the win.
At this point though, he's kind of screwed either way he votes, because he's at the bottom of the austwins alliance