u/Capital-History4199

Since the last episode, I’ve seen a lot of people holding Lake responsible for the collapse of her alliance, but I don’t think that’s entirely the case.

First of all, I want to clarify something. Lake does bear some responsibility for this elimination. She made a terrible move by wanting to vote out a member of her own alliance and let herself get overwhelmed by her emotions. But it’s easy to understand why Lake made that decision.

Lake is naive. She grew up in a rather terrible family, yet one that provided her with a certain sense of security. Consequently, she didn't face the same struggles as other contestants like Riya or Ellie.

After leaving home, her book became a success if I recall correctly bringing her privileges she doesn't seem to realize she has.

You can see this in her reaction to her elimination in All Stars: she doesn't understand why someone would compromise their principles to advance in the game, because she has never faced that kind of hardship and managed to succeed while staying true to herself. In fact, had she stayed longer in *All Stars*, Lake likely would have acted the same way she does in DC5.

She judges Spencer just as she judged Ellie; she dislikes him because of the way he plays the game.

Lake grew wary of him, especially after Spencer eliminated Bruno who was their ally and part of their alliance believing it was the right move, even though it definitely wasn't.

Spencer weakened their alliance by showing he was capable of lying to them. Consequently, Lake decided to play the game her own way by trying to eliminate Spencer, a move that is understandable. He had already eliminated a member of their alliance, so what was to stop him from doing it again? Even though, in reality, Spencer still wanted to work with Lake.

Lake thinks she has the game figured out, failing to realize that the others are capable of strategic thinking too. She assumes that if she tells Natalia to vote against Spencer, Natalia and her alliance will simply do it showing that Lake doesn't fully grasp the intricacies of the game.

Basically, that’s what I wanted to say sorry if it’s a bit long. Lake doesn't think she can trust Spence who has already betrayed them, something people tend to forget and she tries to play her own game without realizing that the others can play the game too.

Lake is bad at the game, and that’s what the episode was trying to show, if I understood correctly.

Since the last episode and the way Oliwia acts around Dunia, I’ve noticed that her behavior is pretty similar to Jake’s. Jake was jealous of how close Aiden and Tom were, just like Oliwia is jealous of Ren and Dunia.

Neither of them seems to have had many friends growing up, and Disventure Camp is probably the first time they’ve been surrounded by so many people, so they both want to enjoy the experience as much as possible.

Jake was very flawed and sometimes annoying, but he eventually redeemed himself thanks to the support of his friends, and he even got back together with Tom.

But I feel like Oliwia’s story could go in the opposite direction. She’ll probably eliminate Dunia, and I doubt Ren would forgive her easily. The problem is that Oliwia probably wouldn’t even think she did something wrong.

After the merge, I can really see her trying to make friends but failing because, unlike Jake, she wouldn’t have real support. That could slowly push her into becoming more unstable and maybe turn her into a chaotic villain who targets anyone that doesn’t want to be her friend. We’ve already seen how the game changed characters like Gabby, Riya, and Hannah, so it wouldn’t surprise me if they did something similar with Oliwia.

Of course, maybe none of this will happen, but I’d like to hear your thoughts on this theory.

Before anyone attacks me, I like Tom, and this season is a clear improvement over All Stars. However, I feel like he's the one with the least to do right now on the favorites' team.

Spencer and Rosa's alliance needs more time to be developed. Fiore is clearly going to merge, and Gabby too, in my opinion. That leaves only Natalia, Benji, Ally, and Tom, and I think the Benji and Ally duo needs at least one more episode if one of them is eliminated soon to develop a little. Natalia could also be eliminated because she seems like the kind of character who gets a lot of screen time before the merge precisely to be a memorable early elimination, but I think there are too many interesting dynamics for the merge with them. Tom hasn't done much since Alec's elimination and seems to be more of a supporting character.

His elimination could also be a way for some characters to develop. Imagine Fiore, in order to get closer to Natalia, decides to eliminate Tom to "avenge" Alec, thus closing the loop. Spencer's alliance will also vote for him, and this will begin Lake's arc, as she doesn't want to vote for people she likes, even if it benefits her game.

In conclusion, I think Tom has less narrative potential than the other candidates, and I don't see what he could bring that would be interesting to the merge. However, I have doubts about his elimination because Jared might want to push him further simply because he's popular with fans, without bothering to give him a real storyline. What do you think?

Ally would have always voted against Aiden even without the team change.

Something I've seen recently used to defend Aiden's possible return is that he wasn't actually eliminated from the favorites' team because, without the twist, Fiore would have been eliminated, but I disagree.

Although the twist helps Ally ease her conscience, she's always had this view of the game, as she told Riya in DC2: "You can be enemies in the game but friends outside of it." Deep down, Ally knew what was in it for her in this alliance, knowing she would just be a disposable number. She did what she knew was best for her game by putting herself in a swing vote position.

I've also seen people say she did it so Aiden could interact with the fans, kind of like a gift, but I find that argument truly awful. What's the point of sending someone you consider an ally to a team where they have no connections and are highly likely to be targeted because they're a threat? Ultimately, that's what happened; Aiden was eliminated because of his relationships with the favorites.

However, I really appreciate that Aiden was moved to the fans' team because it shook things up.

What do you think? I'd really like to hear your opinion on whether you agree or not.