But if Paul hadn’t been safe, and went up on the block, I’m not convinced Cody would’ve had the votes to get him out.
In fact, Matt/Raven and Mark/Elena’s willingness to evict Jillian over Christmas strongly suggests that Paul had already succeeded in winning enough of the majority’s loyalty.
Instead of trying to fly under the radar and let these houseguests forget he’s a veteran of the game, Paul used his veteran status as a strategy to earn trust.
Cody (and by proxy, Jessica) was the only person who actively tried to target him early on, and that backfired hard thanks to his Safety temptation.