u/PyroFirefly

From a storyline perspective, Aiden is still kinda unfinished: his tunnel vision fumbled his game, he doesn't want to give up, and he's kinda desperate to win this show at any cost. As much as many people don't want him to rejoin, assuming there's a double rejoiner, I wouldn't mind Aiden in the merge again, at least for two reasons. However, assuming there's only one rejoiner and considering that Benji needs to win that comeback the most, there's a way to give Aiden a proper resolution with just the comeback and the motel episodes, so I'd be satisfied with both directions.

The first reason is kinda meta-narrative: Aiden left by instructing the Cyan Alliance to "annihilate" the rest of the team, so it would be fun if he thought his friends were actually eliminating the rest of the competition, and then get back pretending to get the control of the alliance again, only to find out that they're not working together, leaving Aiden to wonder in the confessional what happened during his absence, in his usual whining overreacting style. But that can also be reduced to a confessional before the comeback challenge, something like "My friends have done a great job since I left! Just watch: when I get back to the game, I will annihilate the rest of the competition by myself and finally get what I deserve!", only for him to fail, complain, and get a send-off during the motel episode.

Let's get to the second reason, the most important one: Lake. Before Spencer, Aiden's elimination triggered Lake's convinctions about the game, her belief in winning with an honest game with her friends by her side. As shown, Lake struggles to separate characters from gameplay and doesn't want to accept the game's ruthless nature. Moreover, there have been signs of pettiness in her, including being bitter toward Anastasia and even some reluctance to agree to Ally's plan, refusing to tolerate the idea of a friend going behind another friend during the game. At this point, a confrontation between Aiden and Lake is pretty much necessary to the development of both, especially Lake, if she's meant to go through the endgame.

One could have Aiden get back to the game to corrupt himself even more and push Lake's convinctions to the extent, but Rosa is right there, and EP13 is preparing the soil for an impactful Rosa's boot that will push her merge story. So, they could use the comeback challenge for them to interact, with Lake wanting Aiden back in the game so she can have a friend on her side, one she can trust, but ultimately observing that Aiden's motivations are driving him into a vicious circle. Or, Lake could confront Aiden about the nature of the game, asking how he managed to play differently while still keeping his morals, things like that.

For me, Aiden could still rejoin, even reach the finale and ultimately lose as a result of his drive to win, the same that faded his vision in EP8, when his group blindsided him, pushing Aiden to pose himself as that cockroach that never dies and keeps coming back ("It will take more than THAT to get rid of me!"); but I can live without that. As long as his motivations get explored a bit and concluded the run by realising that winning the show is just a goal he created for himself to overcome his inferiority complex, I'd be satisfied too. But if that's how Aiden is meant to end his run in DC5, I want him to push Lake's story, since it's quite interesting but not well-paced enough so far. I'd argue this is the most interesting season for both Aiden and Lake because they're not repeating what they did in the previous season and are facing new obstacles. However, this is also their most controversial season, the one in which their flaws have been made more apparent. I hope both characters get a proper resolution, and it's pretty much needed for them to interact at the bare minimum during the comeback (it could also be the Motel episode if Lake places 5th).

You could make an argument for Rosa because of what they're setting up with Lake, but I think she can stay a little longer, especially when her presence in Lake's one-sided beef with Spencer has been pretty much marginal. This episode pretty much wrapped up everything going on with Tom and Gabby, especially the latter. Sure, there are still hypothetical crumbs about Gabby undergoing an independence arc, but I'd argue it's not warranted or even necessary to happen anymore. Given Tom's last confessional, it seems very likely that Natalia's scheme with the idol could cause another little tension in which one of Tom and Gabby ends up as a casualty (especially by sticking with the idea that Natalia is a main character this season). Or, more simply, that one of them is going out in EP14.

Could they be the double boot of the season? Unless the comeback is EP14 for some reason, it's safe to assume that 11 characters will compete for the comeback, and so the next episode, the first from the merge, will feature one boot. This means that if Tom and Gabby are meant to be booted together, they're bare minimum staying until EP16 (or EP15, if there's an elimination right after the comeback). Otherwise, one of them is 99.99% leaving next episode.

Who should leave first? Honestly, and this might come from my personal bias, it should be Gabby. Before this episode, I considered Gabby one of the three "wildcard winners", so a character that has narrative material that could get expanded during the merge and even lead it to a win. However, the moment between her and Tom in EP13 seems like a closure to the stream of thoughts she had since EP10: her being annoying, her not being happy, her being hurt by Natalia; all of these thoughts converged into a potential resolution. For me, unless there's a twist coming next, I could see a scenario where Gabby's storyline pretty much reached its conclusion in this episode.

What about Tom? Tom's story, at least when it comes to supporting Natalia and Gabby, seems to have reached an end, too. However, ignoring his popularity (which still comes out as a big reason for him to be around until this point), I think this will be his last season, so they're probably planning to give him a proper send-off, showing that he can go pretty far when he's not distracted by romantic drama, as it would be pretty ironic if he ended up ranking worse in the season where he's fully lock in. However, since Ally brought him up as a big threat, he could still go in EP14, and it would still be a valid scenario.

I'm so sad about Ally's elimination because her "storyline" was an entire play on what she said to Riya in DC2 Remake, the line about betraying allies in the game while still being friends outside of it. On paper, that was something fresh and interesting. However, Ally barely got any exposition, minus blindsiding Aiden and Benji, two moves that moved the entire team (plus the Fans) minus her. She spent most of the time doing the challenges and being sidelined. She wanted power in the game, to the point of sacrificing her friends to get a better position, thinking she was excused by how the game works, and the story never had us interacting with her so much.

I guess now it's even more obvious that Benji is going to rejoin and that she will help him to make amends for blindsiding him. I wonder how she's going to handle Aiden, now that they're both competing for another chance again. But I'm still sad because, on paper, Ally's "storyline" could've been something fresh and interesting to see, especially because Ally herself is one of the most versatile characters in the show.

(Artwork is from Dragon Ball Z Bucchigiri Match)

(Artworks are all from Dragon Ball Z Bucchigiri Match)

I'm taking Ted and Lynda in an eventual Second Chance season as an example, since I think this idea could work fairly well with them.

Ally didn't take into consideration the power of the plot. That's the only thing that could stop her.