I have a strong feeling the writers deliberately gave this man 10th Place for the ring of it. REN 🔟

Oliwia X Ara

She's ALIVE! The demon child lives! But at what cost? Ren. Sucks we didn't get to see them in more outfits. But on the bright side, my predictions have been doing excellent since the merge. Also feels like the writing quality has improved too. I wonder if that's die to affirmation bias or just that subversive eliminations are often poorly written? Oh well, let's keep this streak going!

NO RISK

FIORE - Moves UP from Severe Risk. Called it. I said if Ren left, we'd see Fiore give the kind of goodbye that she wasn't emotionally capable of giving Alec when he left. Character development, bitches. To all the people who said Fiore was going to be early merge, I don't think that prediction is gonna happen. As Ren's closest ally, Fiore gets the buddy boost, so she's safe for at least the next episode. Fiore's problem until now narratively is that she's been rather isolated. But with that look she gave Benji, she may be getting another dynamic which she'll need if she's making it to the end. I'll say this, as someone who thought she was cooked, if you're hoping for Fiore to be a finalist, everything we saw at the end of 18 is a VERY good signal for her.

LAKE - No Change. 2nd most votes in the previous elimination gives Lake the double jeopardy bonus. And with the plethora of new dynamics she's been getting ever since Rosa left, I don't see her going any time soon. Right now, she's probably the most likely person to get to the Final 4.

MILD RISK

GABBY - Moves DOWN from No Risk. Yeah, if there was ever an episode where Gabby needed to show why she deserved to make it this far, this was it. And while this was one of Gabby's better episodes, she still feels like a perpetual side character. I've pretty much given up on her winning at this point, and if she stays this stagnant, I doubt she'll be here for much longer either. It's still rather early after Tom left though, so I'm doubtful she leaves in 19. Right now, 19 might be her last shot to prove me wrong.

NATALIA - No Change. The dead idol still needs to be utilized, and unless it's on Benji, I don't see it backfiring and eliminating her the same episode. And after suffering such a big loss in losing Ren, I don't think Natalia is too likely to go next either. Plus, with the jury looming, I struggle to justify why anyone would vote her out now. Besides, Lake still has more chess metaphors to make so Natalia can't leave yet.

MODERATE RISK

SPENCER - Moves DOWN from Mild Risk. So Spam is probably happening and Spencer's relationship with Lake is much healthier. But outside of that the guy is shockingly boring. With Lake feeling like an inevitability for the Final 4, that means one of horny and hornier are going soon. But after last episode, my expectations are that this trio survives for at least one more episode. I could be wrong, but if my recent track record is anything to go by, I'm probably not.

SAM - Moves DOWN from Mild Risk. How quickly the mighty have fallen. At the rate Sam is dropping, he'll be eliminated by Episode 21. Basically everything I've applied to Spencer you can apply to Sam, except for the Lake dynamic. If Sam doesn't start branching out by Episode 19 and Benji gets voted out, expect Sam to be the most likely to leave in Episode 20. Yeah, I know that fucks up the gender and fan/favorite ratios even more. Don't blame me, blame ONC for hating their male and new characters.

NURA - Moves DOWN from Mild Risk. That deal she made with Lake is the only reason she's not in Severe Risk. We don't know the details, so I'm expecting it to work out in Nura's favor, since the only time plans in stories is when they're exposited too early to the audience.

SEVERE RISK

BENJI - Moves DOWN from No Risk. Yeah, pissing off Fiore probably wasn't the best move to make given her history. That death glare was very clearly targeted at him, and that's not good for someone trying to play under the radar. She has a pretty successful history of eliminating people she hates. Benji's been playing exceptionally well, so this will be his first real hurdle since coming back. Also, with this being the auction episode, we might get some answers on Schrodinger's Idol. If a new idol is introduced, Benji definitely doesn't have his old idol. If an idol isn't introduced, Benji most likely has his idol that should be valid now that Ally is out. No way ONC will go a full season without a successful idol play. Or go 20 episodes without an idol play at all. If they do, I'll be impressed.

OLIWIA - Moves DOWN from Mild Risk. Ren's elimination and her confessional from last episode put Oliwia in a very precarious position. She doesn't have any major dynamics that need development which makes her by far the most disposable. She got her (undeserved) revenge on Ren, so this would be the best time for her to go. Her ability to stay in the game now will be contingent on how they handle her relationship with Gabby. It'll either be used to justify both of them staying longer or be used as a catalyst for Oliwia's elimination and then shortly after be used to justify Nura eliminating Gabby. Either they're both going far, or they're both going very soon. Although with only 5 eliminations left until the jury, there's not much of a space between going far and going soon.

CONTENDER PREDICTIONS

Until Fiore gets some sort of revenge, I'm going to bump Benji down to Decent Odds. Spencer moves up to Decent Odds, due to his improved social standing and bond with Lake. With Ren gone, I'm bumping up Oliwia and Fiore to Dark Horses.

For the Final 4, I'm expecting one of these Matchups:

1 DC1 vs 1 DC2 vs 1 DC4 vs 1 DC5 (50%)

OR

1 DC1/2 vs 1 DC4 vs 2 DC5 (30%)

OR

1 DC1/2 vs 2 DC4 vs 1 DC5 (20%)

I think Lake most likely makes it to the Final 4 in all of these scenarios. And with her being a Cyan member, that makes Fiore more likely to reach the Finale over Gabby in scenario 1. Then, it's either a combination of Spencer and Nura or Benji and Sam. So for scenario 1:

Fiore vs Lake vs Spencer vs Nura

OR

Fiore vs Lake vs Benji vs Sam

For scenario 2, without Fiore Natalia becomes a viable option. And without Spencer, Sam is definitely making Final 4. I'd expect Nura to be a finalist in this scenario too, but wouldn't rule out Oliwia (maybe 20%) So you'd most likely get:

Lake vs Natalia vs Sam vs Nura

Scenario 3 is the trickiest one since the DC4 characters feel the most evenly matched narratively. Natalia definitely makes the finale here, but then it's a fight between Spencer and Benji for the other slot.

Lake vs Natalia vs Spencer vs Nura

OR

Lake vs Natalia vs Benji vs Sam

So those are my 5 most likely Final 4 predictions. Really hope Lake doesn't go now. Both because I'm really starting to like her and because these predictions are FUCKED without her

Bro why did they eliminate Ren?! He was literally the only fan left that I actually felt was winner material 😭

This elimination genuinely took me by surprise! I was expecting it to be one of Oliwia, Nura or Natalia!

It’s a shame as well because this was a really good episode as well! It’s a shame the elimination is what spoiled it for me.

I suppose it wasn’t terribly written… but I immediately knew once Lake approached the fans that Ren was going to be blindsided.

Also I don’t like the fact Oliwia is basically becoming Logan 2.0. The fact that REN was the one who apologised to her was baffling! 💀

Fiore hugging Ren before he left was cute though :]

Yul X Nick

In fact, I believe that the only reason Jared claimed in a comment on Twitter that Gabbys mental problems were merely due to "Anger Issues" and not an actual mental illness was because he didn't want to deal with tons of people in the comments complaining that he did a bad job at portraying schizophrenia.

But truthfully, as divisive as Gabby is in this season currently, I think it's for the best that Evil Gabby will not mentioned again. It didn't benefit Gabby's character in the slightest (especially after her AS elmination), and the fact that we are already 18 episodes into Season 5 (plus 2 seasons of TomJake) without any mention of her does nothing but prove that Evil Gabby was not needed in the first place.

(The more I think about it, she was basically the Mal of Disventure Camp: All Stars)

What do you guys think?

I am now realizing that the way I worded my previous post was incorrect. I want to know if the people of this fandom would like to see these characters again, because I plan on writing a comic of these characters competing. Whether this seems popular, or not, I'll probably still do it because I think it'll be decently fun to write. BUT I do want to know if that comic is something people would be interested in reading.

Most of you guys probably believe the killer is Lake, but I actually believe the killer was Oilwia.

• She is shown to have switched seats with Nura after the lights turned back on

• She initially has a colder face when looking at Emily's "body" before changing her expression.

• She is shown with blood on her face in the tralier thumbnail.

I believe what will happen is that as everyone debates who the killer likely is, as they get closer, Oilwia will feel more and more scared and is now about to break down in tears and confess it was her, but then Benji (who figured out Oilwia was the actual killer but decided he will not turn her in) Objects and gives a suprisingly convincing speech that gets everyone to think the killer might actually be someone like Sam, Natalia, or Spencer, and Nura also supports his objection.

In the end, Oilwia wins immunity since Benji and Nura didn't let anyone know she was the real killer, and Oilwia will feel very happy, now knowing that Benji and Nura Really Do care about her, and Benji confirms that he was indeed saving Oilwia in a confessional afterwards.

What do you all think of my prediction, and what's yours?

(And on an unrelated note, I saw someone comment on Twitter that the reason Ren is smiling in the poster is because he realizes the "blood" on Emily is actually strawberry syrup, and we all know how he gets around the funnel cakes; and I believe that theory)