Al Bracken Photography

This show made me: feel suspenseful, cynical of human nature, laugh out loud, cringe, binge watch, reflect on how I use social media to gain affirmation and connection with others, feel resentful, feel relieved,etc. At one point I was like "this is boring," because the contestants were just sending messages back and forth to each other all the time and I wondered how long can this go on as a show? But the game threw in unexpected challenges that kept things interesting and kept the contestants on their toes and literally made my eyes widen and heart beat accelerate. Overall, it seemed the common strategy to stay in the game was to build relationships so you would be rated highly by the others. Within that premise, there was plenty of opportunity for suspicion, trust and alliance building, romanticism, self doubt, over thinking, insecurity, excitement, surprise, disappointment and more. The big question that loomed over all their virtual interactions throughout the show was whether or not they were being REAL or FAKE. SINCERE or STRATEGIC. KIND or CALCULATED. The top two contestants that made it all the way to the end had an alliance from early on. When the one of them won and everyone celebrated at the reunion, I thought it was bitter sweet because in the final vote in the prior episode, contestant A voted contestant B as their personal #1 which was consistent within the dynamics of their alliance, but contestant B voted A much lower because they were afraid A would win...which was NOT LOYAL! So contestant B won probably because of that decision. So any hopes of the finale ending in a triumphant lesson on the beauty of relationships and loyalty went out the window in favor of self preservation. But it's a game, right? It was also kinda stupid how different contestants would talk about their "higher purpose" for entering the competition claiming aspirations to inform and educate society on what it means to be a decent person...but I didn't buy it. They were there for that 100K !!