don't know how many of you watched eurovision, but i think this makes sense. i considered all of them watching from canada, so some of them could vote for their countries.
(yes, i think derek would've enjoyed michelle the most)
Episode 1:
Anastasia doesn't take down Dunia and Lake isn't fast enough.
The elimination is easy, same as in ep 2 only that Spencer doesn't find any scroll and Natalia can't convince Ally to vote for Aiden. Fiore is eliminated in a 7-5 vote.
24th place: Fiore
Episode 2:
Ren still finds the idol. I think Evie sits this one out. Alec, seeing that he lost his only ally actually locks in and pushes harder, needing time to think of a new strategy. Even with Manu trying his best, Alec with the help of Ana, Lake and Spencer actually win it.
Sam of course will be the one to find the scroll. Aubrey comes here with the whole "Let's vote for Sam, he's a scorpio" thing. Sam actually doesn't reveal it to anyone, Aubrey gets swapped. As for who she chooses to get on the other team: easy. Alec. She hates him.
Episode 3:
The cyan alliance is actually really strong, Anastasia bonds with Rosa further but she hasn't yet been introduced to Lake or Aiden as a friend of Rosa's. She's in distress, but will start to bond with Aubrey thanking her for getting Alec out of their team. As for who sits out, Evie yet again. Because of that and the fact that Gabby is dizzy, the fans reach the top of the volcano first. Now it's tricky, but I think Nura and Dunia (they will start get along, just like Ana and Lake did in canon) will actually be the ones to throw the stones, while Alec chooses Benji and Gabby (observing how weak she is). Sadly Gabby loses for the favorites, while Benji does nothing useful to help more(still laying low). Then once again Spencer, Natalia, Anastasia, Aubrey, and Benji unite to vote out Gabby (Spencer manipulates Benji that he would be a target since they don't want to lose Gabby out of that alliance and he basically didn't even try to do the challenge properly, but Ally still doesn't flip, because she's much closer to Gabby than she is with Benji). This still wouldn't be enough, as Tom, Gabby, Rosa, Lake, Aiden, and Ally will all vote for Spencer for being untrustworthy (Rosa would protect Anastasia, Benji is still in the alliance(or so they thought), Natalia and Aubrey don't have enough reasons to be targeted, so Spencer is the only logical option)
23rd place: Spencer
Episode 4:
Everyone is now mad at Benji for flipping on the alliance. Natalia still brings out food for Gabby as in canon. Rosa this time remarks over breakfast that it was nice of Natalia to do that, and Anastasia agrees talking about missing Marissa. Then Rosa says how much she misses Sofia and that she'll do anything for her. So no Rosa thinking Anarissa broke up in this timeline. The sitouts are Ara and Finn this time since they can't be bothered to search for corn. Lake, Tom and Gabby hold the rope for the favorites, while Manu, Sam and Alec are the ones to hold from the fans. Alec actually works with Sam, the latter admiring his S1 gameplay. Manu once again with the support of Bruno locks in and is able to carry the win. Gabby holds as tight as she can, but I do think she stands no chance against a motivated Manu. During the challenge, instead of Ana roasting Alec, it's reversed. Anastasia has been trying to get closer to Natalia seeing the Cyan alliance be so strong, but Natalia kinda always ignored her. Now it's Anastasia who asks Natalia why does she ignore her when she tries to gets closer and Natalia goes off on her with something like: "B*tch, who do you think you're fooling with this "nice" attitude?? I know how petty you can be from last season and I'm the main reason you lost the money, I don't believe you a second when you say you want to be close again. You'll just betray me again". Anastasia says something like "Ok, I understand and I'm sorry for pushing. But I will do anything in my power to prove I'm not the broken person I was last season".
The dynamics of this team are as follows: Gabby-Tom-Rosa-Lake-Aiden-Ally are an alliance. Benji is on his own, sad that Ally is disappointed in him. Anastasia and Aubrey are ok with each other, Rosa and Ana are getting much closer, Natalia realizes it's bad and bonds with Benji. But despite all that, Natalia will work her PR magic to turn Ally against Aiden and she'll win this time. Ally was often left out of the Gabby-Tom-Lake-Aiden core who were unbreakable, so she started to feel insecure about her position in this game and Natalia works with that. As for getting Aubrey and Ana on board, Nat will use the fact that Ana wants to get close to her as a weapon, lying that "she thought it over and she's right, they can mend the bridge". There will be a tiebreaker between Benji and Aiden, with Aiden losing just because Benji cared more about the paintings.
22nd place: Aiden
Episode 5:
The teams fracture, with Gabby and Tom spending more time with Natalia, while Rosa and Lake with Anastasia and Aubrey. Easily the double idol is found by Natalia and Anastasia while they go on a walk to talk. Favorites lock in and win. The fans' dynamics are interesting: Sam, Alec, Finn and Ara form one alliance, Bruno and Manu form another one, Ren, Dunia, Ernesto and Nura form another alliance. Oliwia's still an outsider. Evie lost the challenge. It's an easy vote: 11 to 1, Evie gets out here
21st place: Evie
Episode 6:
Back to the carnival, the sitouts are "randomly" still Finn and Ara. The teams are:
Fans- 1. Sam, Alec, Dunia; 2. Ren, Nura, Oliwia; 3. Ernesto, Manu, Bruno
Favorites- 1. Anastasia, Rosa, Natalia; 2. Gabby, Tom, Lake; 3. Aubrey, Benji, Ally
After finding the half-idol, Natalia has been planning to get rid of Anastasia to get in full control of the idol, and she started to throw the challenge. Neither Ana nor Rosa noticed it and the favorites lost.
Natalia pitches to Gabby and Tom that she's worried that Rosa and Lake will be hurt by Anastasia since she's not trustworthy. Ana and Gabby never bonded, and she went with this idea easier. Ally just wanted to be part of the majority. Benji is easy to convince. So Natalia, Benji, Tom, Gabby, and Ally vote for Anastasia. Anastasia, Lake, Rosa and Aubrey vote for Benji since he is not that helpful. Anastasia is eliminated, taking it with grace, giving Natalia the same advice as in canon. Gabby starts being suspicious of Natalia
20th place: Anastasia
Episode 7:
Favorites lock in and win due to Manu's negligence. Alec uses his advantage.
The votes: Sam(who knows about Ren's idol, but he also knows he can't trust anyone on his side, so it's a plan b ), Alec x 2, Finn, Ara, Oliwia vote for Manu. Bruno, Manu, Ernesto, Dunia, Nura vote for Alec. Manu is voted out.
19th place: Manu
Episode 8:
The musical.
The teams are:
Tomcat- Tom, Gabby, Natalia, Benji
new song- Rosa, Lake, Aubrey, Ally (nina hates Aiden and makes his friends lose)
Total Reaction- Sam, Ara, Finn, Alec, Oliwia
Let Me Explain- Bruno, Ren, Dunia, Nura, Ernesto
The immunity is given to Ally for her great vocals. The votes: Natalia has a target on her back after the whole Anastasia vote, so Rosa, Lake, and Aubrey vote for her. Rosa and Lake talk to Tom about this and he says he's not sure, but seeing how much they are hurt by the Ana vote he gives in. Meanwhile, Natalia wants to vote out Rosa to get her off her back. But Gabby doesn't want to vote for Rosa(she votes for Benji) and Natalia knows that, so in a 4-3-1 vote Natalia would be out, but she uses her idol and Rosa is out. Lake is really hurt after losing Aiden, Ana and now Rosa in such a short term, but she's ready to lock in.
18th place: Rosa
Episode 9:
With Sam, Dunia and Ernesto the fans can win this easily. As much as Lake wants to lock in, Alec can see she has neither Aiden nor Rosa with her, so he plays mind games with her and gets her distracted, Dunia and Sam having no problems picking her up. Ernesto can actually stay strongly stuck to that pole so Tom and Aubrey will have a harder time trying to pull him. Fans win again.
Realistically, I think Lake, Aubrey, Tom and Ally would still vote for Natalia, while Natalia, Gabby and Benji would vote for Aubrey. Natalia is out and she takes it poorly. Tom gives her the same speech Tess gave Ellie in AS that this game is not good for her, but Natalia will stay petty.
17th place: Natalia
Ren still has her idol and no one else has any advantages.
Aside from Evie, all of the eliminated contestants chose Rescue Island.
I wonder if the fandom would be so divisive if the fans were to outnumber the favorites..
Fiore and Spencer as the first 2 boots would be interesting, but one of them would be guaranteed to return.
think again 😭😭
also why didn't she mention lake..
(with and without repeats)
excluding the unfair ratio it would give between fans and favs (wouldn't be the first time they wouldn't care about the balance), i would actually live for it. there are still many things to do with both of them
like for ana she could play harsher and harder (not as much as her s4 self, but wouldn't be as laid off as she was up to ep 7) and still have her storyline with natalia.
for aiden, they kept mentioning both in lake's elimination in as and in his first elimination in fvf that they "haven't got much time to spend together" so an aiden comeback where he actually plays with lake isn't too far fetched...i don't think ally will reach that far, but if she'll be around they could also explore further the ally-aiden "rivalry".
so far none of the losers give off strong vibes to rejoin the game, so unless ren/dunia/nura/sam/spencer are eliminated next i do see an opening for ana or aiden to rejoin
but once again, there are 24 contestants and 26 episodes and we still got no double elimination...i personally still don't see the need for a comeback, but i'm waiting to see what they'll do with it
doing this in chronological order made me realize the s1 ellie-fiore-alec trio is such an unbeatable force
by the time s5 ends i still have the hope that i'll change my mind about benji, natalia, and ally 🤞