Beast Games S2 Book Club Week 6

hello everyone and welcome back to rhap's coverage of beast games season two i'm your host and with me today to talk about episode eight of beast games in our book club of beast games it's steven fishback the author how you doing hey nice to finally speak to just published authors you know rob is a soon to be published author but published best-selling you know like yeah club and i can't believe we invited rob i know it's sort of embarrassing yeah um but uh excited i've been listening to the podcasts obviously and excited to now get to contribute my own my own take on on uh on these games uh this was a great episode this was super fun i i loved it but i have a question for you out of the gate so you said last week i think it was last week maybe it was a previous week cardinal sin of a reality tv episode a non-elimination episode this episode a non-elimination episode where are you on that i mean i when i say cardinal sin of reality tv uh you know that's i think generally what people feel like uh like the audience will feel i'm not as attached to somebody needs to leave every episode obviously i watch big brother where like one person leaves per week after three episodes. So I'm, I'm personally kind of fine with it. I do think that these two episodes, they were all kind of building to one conclusion. And, and, and through that conclusion, there was still no eliminations. And so I, I, I personally liked it. I think there's a lot in here that were, that was really interesting. I think the family visits did have, uh, like meaning, um, it added to the story. I think that like the slow build of how much money was being taken is always really interesting to me. We get some really interesting like plays in terms of a lot of strategies. Yeah. And then it culminates in what appears to be some blackmail, which is very fun. Um, So I think this worked. What I will say is I think maybe it took too long to get here. But last week we talked about how against that episode the audience was. I think this episode, people are back on board, although they're still a little bit like, really? Still nobody's gone. Still nobody's eliminated. And I get that. But I do think that after these two episodes, I'm now so much more invested in this top 10. And that was one of the main things we talked about a couple of weeks ago, which was like, who even are these people? Now I know who these people are. well having this big morally defining moment and especially one that comes in the context of their lives outside of the show where they're like i'm doing this for my fiance or i'm doing this for my family and then like it just like everyone's relationship to each other suddenly becomes much more fractious where these people who are saying oh yeah we're together we've been riding since day one and i never really connected with that i was like okay okay sure you're together because i saw a scene of you guys saying you're together now those bonds are like really put to the test and it's so cool as each person steps out of the coffin like the way they wrestle with the news that nick told them that you know he took the 250 they're like because they all come out being like we're all going to do the 100 i know nick did the 100 like he's the moral guy and every one of them you can see them just like like august is the first person out and he's he's like no you didn't like i don't believe he doesn't he literally doesn't believe it until he gets to the box and sees the number on the screen i had this exact same thought there were a lot of moments in this episode where they had some great close-ups of a person's face as they reacted to news or as they were telling news. And I feel like despite the fact that reality television often puts people in situations where drama is happening, I feel like I rarely get a chance to like properly study somebody's reaction to something because it's all, it's, I mean, you know, and Steven, you know, this is, it's usually like, all right, uh, guys, can we, can we do that take again can you be a little more uh a little more energy that happened like once to me in my two seasons fair enough maybe less on survivor uh but um but like you know people reality shows often want like a big like what um and and that's it's very rarely like fun to really like study that kind of reaction but watching every individual as you said steven have this like because they couldn't hide the shock and the betrayal that they felt in their face but they were trying to most of the time and so you got to see them being like well i that's that's fine like it was it was so interesting to watch and they all had slightly different responses to it uh and and i i did i found it fascinating and not something you'd expect again to be able to dig into on a show called beast games how is beast games truly how is beast games the one competition reality show left where like morality still factors into it you know like this is like on a show like survivor or a show like big brother that million dollars is getting taken in a heartbeat right the first person out of the box is like that's all for me because those shows have now sort of adopted this sort of cutthroat mentality where it's a game we're just playing this game um and somehow beast games is really still in this real moral paradigm that i love that i find really compelling that i miss from survivor and even going into the reddit comment threads people were like oh my gosh like can you believe it was it uh uh brett took so much like what a what a like what a villain you know like how could nick have done this he gave his word like how is the truly how is beast game still got this kind of moral component to it that a lot of other shows have shed i think it's i think it's the money i think because at the end of the day big brother is not offering a million dollars to people big brother is offering like five thousand dollars to people and then they're like i'll give up my 5k to another player for a social some social credit in the game and it's like okay sure because it was five thousand dollars uh like on survivor they're like you know what jeff i'll give up my reward they can have the stale pizza uh you know it's like you nobody's really really that desperate for the stale pizza as much as you uh you know often want food in the same way that like that stale pizza is not going to change your life um and it's not going to change somebody else's life and so like you you're kind of forced to examine this in a way that shows like survivor and big brother don't force you to examine you know a lot of people when uh people at the end of a survivor talk about how much they need the money or the the jury asks them like what would you do with the money the audience is kind of like wow whatever because like the entire context of the show to that point has been about the game and now it's about finishing off the game but this is a show where uh you know 100 200 people can come in and like 10 to 20 of them could change their lives with the amount of money they could get throughout the entire thing, not just the very end prize. And, and that, that matters. Like, it's not just about winning. It's about coming away with life changing money. And you're all hoping to do that. And so I think the formula changes for how you approach. And I think that's probably closer, more closely aligned with like how survivor originally started when it was like a million dollars, right. You know, inflation happens and a million dollars isn't quite what it was, what it once was. Um, and, uh, and yeah, so I think, I think that, you know, that on top of the fact that of course it's like such a new format, um, and, and really tries hard to dig into these moments as well. I think this might be my favorite reality show right now. I mean, like, truly like i think like because that's the stuff i love is this sort of moral component the emotional component the human component against the structure of the game and i just don't see like i'm seeing this in other places as as much it's also just interesting someone like nick you have a whole trajectory where he down a million dollars like it you know whether or not he was considering taking it is another question but like you know he does turn down a million dollars then he has to like face his family and he's like oh these are the people i'm really playing for he has to confess to them that he's turned down a million dollars and then he's put into the exact same spot again and like again like has to like you know it's such a fascinating just like psychological human dilemma i wanted him to take the full amount i was just like if you're gonna take one dollar over a hundred thousand dollars and i listened to you and rob break down i thought you know you kind of laid it out he should either take 250 or a million and you know you nailed it he took 250 um but not for the reasons i wanted though right it was sort of like it was kind of like a hedge it's like well it's not too much it's a little not all but well the idea the idea for me is if you take 250 you then tell the next person you bring out i took 250 let's all take the full million the four of us um and uh and share it in that way but he didn't approach it like he was like sorry bro i took 250 yeah and it seemed like for him you'll go up there you'll see it's like i think they put the screws to to make a little bit more than they did to august certainly and of course a little different this is a guy um who's got a family you know versus like a young guy who you know what is money i've got my whole life ahead of me i'll make another million somewhere uh his wife has a lifetime supply starbucks at this point i think exactly exactly it's kind of sad that's worth a million dollars um depending on the drinks you get but but yeah like i i really just wanted him to like if you're gonna be the villain anyway you might as well just go all in and take it all but i think that for him there was really a moral calculus it's like i'm only a little bad if i take 250 but if i take the full million you know i wouldn't do that to them there's there's it's like everyone's kind of like and i always felt that way in survivor too like oh i i like lied and i swore a lie but i didn't swear a lie on my family member you know like the kind of like way you sort of like find your own sort of little little place of moral sanctity in a game of lying and deceit yeah uh so i really feel like nick messed this up i think that like if you were going to do a move like this you should have taken the million back when you had that option because nobody really blamed jt because all the people that would have blamed him were eliminated and everyone else was happy they took it that's definitely worse as a human thing to do um i and and i get that but it's like you know uh like you might as well i think if you're going to make that transgression you might as well just like completely decide to do it because in and i think it's interesting again it's at least these conversations because it's almost as though by putting an actual price on it, you're admitting that you are making a moral decision, that you think you deserve this much money and you think that everyone else deserves the amount that you left over. Whereas I think there's an argument to be made that if you just take the full million, you're doing so because it's a game. And it's like, I might as well just maximize my odds is a good chance I can use this as a bribe in the next game. People are going to be mad at me anyway. Like you're making a game calculation. Whereas when you take two 50 thinking like, this is how much I deserve. It's almost as though you're making a moral calculation, which feels worse somehow. That's interesting. Right. Like I deserve more than you rather than I'm just going to grab whatever's in front of me. That's really, that's very interesting. That's, that's, that's, that's yeah. So last season when they did this, had they already had the family visit or did they do a family visit last season i'm it i'm sure they did but i don't think it was as big and long of a family visit because it really puts so much stakes around this and it really seemed to be something that resonated for all of the contestants like you just met my kids and you're taking money out of their mouths every single one of them felt like after meeting my family you would do this yeah but it also had the impact of like well i just had to talk to my family about how i turned down a million dollars right yeah right yes it's such an interesting move um and he sort of has this like weird hedge again like it's a kind of like you know where he's not going to tell everybody he's just going to tell yeah six people but the other three are obviously going to find like immediately uh yeah so this this makes us and and the whole idea of this being anonymous also is a bit of a bust and that hasn't affected them so far because they've in both times they've done this they haven't split this money equally. So they haven't needed the anonymous factor to come into play. But like the idea that it could be anonymous is not actually really the case. Because there's two points of fact checking. There's the person who went before you who left a certain amount. And there's the person that goes after you who sees a certain amount. And so if you try to lie about the amount you saw and the amount you left, there's at least one person that's going to be able to contradict what you said. No, that's not true. When I got there, there was this much money. Or when I left, there was this much money. And that means that at the very least, you are in conflict with one other person in terms of one of you is lying about how much you took. Do you think it'd be better if they list like as you get up, you're like you see each person, like how much that they took? Or would that be worse? i i mean i think that like the uh illusion of anonymity i think is good because it gives people the idea that they might be able to get away with it like nick clearly thought he could but like the thing with what nick was doing too was that like he was like oh i'm only gonna tell my people but but by not telling the other people what you did you are throwing your people under the butt you're saying it wasn't me it was them which only further incentivizes them to rat you out knowing that it was you which they immediately do like that is instantly out there as expected and it only it only i feel like it all the worse that he tried to act like oh man i don know i don know what everyone else did Yeah When he pulled those people out But I like each person going up and obviously like you know, and not knowing who's done what, I think that's kind of a fun choice because like, then everyone is sort of figuring it out for themselves. If, if like you had like, Oh, August just took 83,000. Then Tyler would be pressured to take 83. Like I kind of liked that. There was, it's anonymous in the moment, but very easily fact-checked. Yeah. Once it's all over. Yeah. So Tyler, so august takes 83 000 because that's like what's left split nine ways tyler kind of makes a faint that he says he's going to take all of it i wanted him to do that i was like yes go tyler like because like because because you know i saw those little boys like i want them to have a nice nest egg tyler perhaps the smartest person in this entire challenge because tyler takes a full 100 000 and still gets the credit instead of you know cutting down by you know 10 12 15 whatever how many how many thousand uh almost 20 000 actually uh he gets in like an extra 20 000 and all he needs to do is be like oh damn guys sorry i didn't realize about the right i didn't even think about splitting nine ways that's on me uh and they're all like good good good job tyler you didn't take 250 i was like yeah yeah i did a good job and i got an extra 20k but i feel like he kept on even when he was like saying like yeah i i also did what i said i was going to do everyone's like man i did the moral thing i didn't know yeah yeah he didn't even need to make the excuse yeah yeah he really was chiming in there quite a bit just to make it clear that even though he got more than almost anybody this he did and he did you know he did take the moral thing and we did see his um you know his his kids jack takes the 81 000 again like when it's like some like young kid i'm like okay like that's not that big a sacrifice for you you know you don't like look your kids in the face and say oh you know sorry we can't you know afford whatever today right yes um and uh and i thought jack's reaction also to to nick was so was so good just the way that his face dropped um and then we get to brett uh who apparently is there like for hours as the sun comes up that was crazy i think that's that's funny that they just let him go i feel like you know different shot they're gonna move them along a little bit oh for sure yeah um and he also makes the calculation i'm gonna take 250 essentially leaving 250 left for his buddy uh which is so funny also like the way that people assume things so like uh nick kind of assumes wait till you get up there you're gonna want to take more and then most people don't uh you know august gets up there And he's like, most people are going to want to split, you know, divide by nine. And then Tyler comes up and he's like, I'm taking my hundred. And then Brett comes up and he's like, I'm going to take 250. And then my guy will take, you know, my friend will take the remaining 250 theoretically. But then what happens is his friend ends up getting the lowest amount of money. Yeah. Technically, when he splits it, you know, five or four ways, however many people were left. uh he only gets like 48 000 um but uh but brett decides to take 250 which was an interesting number because it was the same number that nick took and nick told him he took 250 yeah i'm sure that that cued it it's like well people are taking 250 so i'm gonna take 250 you know it's not my fault he i think even says i'm only doing this because like nick has already tarnished this pure game and now like i've got to get mine too um what a tough it's so interesting because like he comes out saying if you took one dollar more than you're supposed to you're a villain and then he kind of talks his way into taking this 250 i have a question so i personally i'm like very pro sob story generally i wanted more context for what brett is thinking about like you know we just see him agonizing but i want him being like well i've got my wife and you know something about them however i have seen on the beast games subreddit they do not want this like they don't want the sob story where are you does beast game like well is this the appropriate amount of sob story should there be more context or i'm like i'm generally anti sob story uh in the sense that if it's not there in the game yeah like it's not going to be as effective as uh as something that is there in the game so so when they bring the family in right and you're able to get those moments that's i think an appropriate amount of like giving the context we need when you need to like you know be like hey here's jeff here's some footage of his kids at home uh here's his whole story like it kind of worked for Jeff because he was the winner and because he had a very unique story. Um, but you know, a lot of people have similar stories, unfortunately, like, Hey, I struggled. Hey, you know, we don't have money or Hey, you know, we have had tragedies, traumas. Um, those are very compelling things, but like, you're not really here to watch those stories. You're here to watch how those stories impact people who are making decisions in this game right now. Right. And so to go too deeply into that, I think in a moment, I might be reaching too far. And, you know, that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be like digging into that stuff and trying to like root around a little bit. But I think like a full fledged like package. So like, for instance, in this in this spot, I think Brett talking out loud about like, that's what I wanted. my kids like you know my my my and i'm just making stuff up my boy like you know he i really want him to go to college or like you know whatever it is like him talking in that moment as opposed to like cut to him in a room talking about his family with footage and like all that stuff like i want to see the in the moment stuff that's happening it's going through his head that's what i want to and i feel like beast mr beast could could nudge it even like like what you know and maybe he does and We're just not saying it, but like, you know, what's going through your head now? Like, what does this money- Some people are going to be better at expressing than others, probably. And sometimes Mr. Beast does do that. He says like, what does this money represent to you or something? I just wanted that in this moment because like, because Brett is one of the characters we know the least, and yet he's making one of the biggest decisions in this challenge. Just a little nudge, you know, like, what does this money mean to you? Maybe he feels bad. He's like, he's like a billionaire. He's like, what is this? Yeah, just like, what's stopping you from taking everything? Right. What are you thinking about right now? You're right. Like, what's the counter argument? Like, why not take it all? That's also really interesting. Like, you know, that's just to like talk through it a little bit more. One thing I do really like about these games, though, is that they will let it go to sunup. Like, there's always that sense with this show that like, they're going to let it go as far as it needs to go. And like, they're going to like, they're not going to like, rein in the players. They're going to push them. They don't like, they don't have like a factory format of just how to make these shows, uh which is one of the things i think probably one of the reasons we are able to really appreciate this show uh is that we are such connoisseurs of reality television um and so uh and so in a weird way it's uh unique qualities are intriguing to us who have seen so much of the same thing over and over and over that when we see something unique it's kind of like oh um as opposed to somebody who has like, who has not, you know, spent their life and or career talking about these shows is like, oh, I can pick and choose. And a lot of this stuff feels pretty new and fresh to me regardless. And, you know, why would I pick this flashy one if it doesn't appeal to me? But yeah, I think that there's such a unique approach to how they make this show where they really go the extra mile and they really try to do something different. And I know, you know, And I think that does appeal to the, the beast games audience. I think that like, even the fact that this was a repeat of the previous seasons thing, I think was like, Oh, they did this already. Like people always want to see something kind of fresh. And I don't know if necessarily agree that they should always change things up, but you, you get that sense from the audience. They love the, the unique qualities that it has. Yeah. That's interesting. That's really interesting. Cause I love to see, I mean, I feel like it's a good, it's like a mix of new things, but also, some of like the classic moral dilemmas. Like to me, this is the heart of Beast Games. Same with like the, you know, the buzzer one. Like what, how much money are you willing to just like totally betray and ruin the lives of everybody around you? Just such an interesting dilemma. Corey, again, interestingly, takes the least amount, as you said. And then we get the Monica bribe where she sells for $500,000. Is this the right choice? I didn't think so. oh interesting i thought it was totally oh i'm so curious to hear what you have to say so yeah because i had i i had this thought process because i was like okay because i was thinking for cory at this point you got like about or i think i guess it was for um for brett there was like 500k left yeah i was like you know 500k is about 10 of the prize money you're one of 10 people you know that's kind of there's some value there right yeah um and then monica has a similar choice 500k she doesn't even need to bow out she doesn't necessarily tell anybody but my thought process was okay actually i think i'm turning this down because with the coin i think she is all but guaranteed to make top six uh there's a high chance that there's some kind of social strategy happening in the next challenge that was what happened last time there was a vote even if there isn't she's very unlikely to be targeted um a lot of people are gonna be mad at the people who took extra money which isn't going to be her she's gonna be looked at as the person they should have picked and she has the so she's basically guaranteed to make it to the top six where the coin comes into play at which point i am convinced that mr jimmy beast is going to offer her one million dollars yeah that's interesting yeah but there's just that uncertainty element right like yes like from our perspective she's definitely making it through but from her perspective she just talked to her dad he was like you've got to get something out of this she thinks i get five hundred thousand dollars i get like the appearance of you know i take nothing here i get the appearance of being really awesome and then i because i think it would be really hard for her to take nothing if she didn't have that cash in hand five hundred thousand dollars you know i think then she would probably feel a little foolish i mean even if she then just takes you know forty eight thousand dollars uh i think like the goodwill she has is still plenty enough to make to get to top six right um i agree with you in theory but like you just don't know like you have no idea what the next game is like it could be something where you know you something some you spin a dial you know spin a dial and suddenly you're out and you and normally i would say i'm in like normally i do think the equation if at around 500k like i said i think like that's value like i'm taking that probably this is one of the few situations i think for me personally where i would have been like i think i can roll the dice on this one i really think i can double my money right now um and and so i don't think i would have taken it there um especially because like you know even following august's logic later in the episode like theoretically mr beast should be offering her another bribe even before the next challenge starts and nobody's getting eliminated in this one yeah um so uh but she decides to take she decides to do something way more interesting than what i would have done well because that's the other aspect of this is that it's in front of nobody and all the other bribes are in front of somebody. So there's so much more social pressure and like opprobrium. If you take that, even a million dollar bribe because you're taking, you know, $5 million away from somebody else. And I just think that, yeah, I mean, I, I kind of like that. She gets to keep all of her social credit. And in fact, you have people coming up to her saying, you need to take that bribe. You know, you need to take that bribe now. So she has not just the social credit of having taken no money, but like people endorsing a decision she's already made. True. However, there's kind of a reckoning coming, right? Like, okay, so she decides to take the bribe, not take any money, and then hide the fact that she sold the coin so that she gets all the credit of still having the coin, having not sold the coin, all the credit of having not taken any money, like she's very selfless. And that goodwill should propel her forward easily into the top six. but once she gets there they're all gonna look at her right and say where's that coin flip time right yeah she's she's gonna be like oh oh man ah i guess i misplaced it so that's that's the danger right that she's and and the way that she has gone about it is so much worse they're gonna be so much more betrayed that she lied and pretended that she still had it right so there's there's a trade-off there uh and once again i feel like there's even a world where you could sell the coin for 500 then take zero and say listen guys when i saw that there was no money left i decided that you know people should have as much left as possible mr beast offered me she could even say 250 if she wanted uh however much money i decided to sell the coin instead of taking more money from the pot um you know it was only ever a 50 chance that we were going to be able to do it anyway uh double the money anyway um and i think that like people might not be um like in love with that but i think that like she can like get away with having sold it right because it is to their benefit like she didn't take any money like so she did money for herself but she also gave back to them basically and and the coin is not a guaranteed double up and no single person there feels like they're guaranteed the win at all at that point so and also i think like when you're there you're thinking like if i get five million dollars i'm very happy with five million dollars right you're not like exactly you're taking five million dollars away from someone who's already made just made five million dollars so you don't feel too bad for them at that point i'm feeling like her choice just gave me an extra 20k right in my pocket uh and the people who are really to blame in this moment are the people who took 250 who are taking the brunt of this blame So I think she can get away with that There was one other path though that I think she maybe has a shot with which or maybe had a shot with which is she's taken this 500, she's pretended she didn't. And they're all like, you should sell the coin now. You should sell the coin. And at this point, I was like, the only way out of this for her to get anywhere clean out of this is that she has to pretend that at some point after taking no money mr beast came up to her privately and she sold the coin like everyone wanted her to and now it's gone right there was a separate bribe at night and he took me out you know whatever let's make up anything yeah i think that was the only way unfortunately for her as we'll talk about in just a second i think uh either jim or august or both kind of messed this up for yeah she tells jim as as you know she like that she finds a private moment to tell jim do you want to do you want to talk through the other the other choices first or do you want to uh i don't think there's much left here jim takes what's left for him katie and hannah split the money what's funny what's funny to me about that though is that they dig up katie and at the same time yeah they are fully all in on the fact that nobody can distinguish like these two are not relevant to the story even while they were filming they're like whatever we'll just dig up katie and hannah I think that's also part of why I think they fully expected there to be no money left. They were like, Oh, they're just digging us all up at once now. Like there must be no money left. And then when they got there and there was like still a good 60 K left, it was like genuinely, you know, if you're last and you were expecting hoping for a hundred and you got 60, I wouldn't be that mad. Yeah. I'd be kind of like very last person. Yeah, truly, truly. I just thought it was so funny that way. They just kind of like yada, yada. And Katie and Hannah, like you're one unit whatever yeah uh so monica gives this whole sob story this whole performance about like i went there and i just couldn't take any money for you guys and uh this is this is phenomenal television like uh like this is i mean this is kind of this this is like johnny fairplay levels of just like full on acting performance. I feel like you just don't get this kind of stuff on modern reality shows nowadays. Right. Cause it's like such real stakes that like to sell it, you have to like really go deep into like your most pathological instincts. Yeah. Like this is not like, Oh, I'm a faithful guys. I promise. Oh, it really sucks that somebody died. This is like, I just took $500,000. My life has just changed. Yeah. I'm going to pretend I didn't. And I'm going to pretend I didn't for like a very selfless reason. And you're all going to be so grateful to me that I did this. Nick gets in trouble. Brett gets in trouble as expected. You know, classic stuff as well. I think from, from the both of them in terms of like the explanation, Nick explaining to Corey, you know, I just would have, I would have hated myself forever if I had not taken that money and not taken that opportunity, you know, after not getting the million, after not getting the island i i would have hated myself forever not getting this too he says to the person he he took that from as though that man also has not experienced all of those losses right right right but i will say i kind of i mean i think nick is right like he had to take oh yeah yeah i just i just feel like when explaining to the person you took it from i don't think there's any level of like my family to understand where i'm coming from couldn't do that to my family i could do it to your family but not to my family yeah it's just like look i'm so sorry i know what i just took took from you right uh and it was just it was just the the situation that i had the opportunity to do it uh i always say there's no right way to break up with somebody you know like no matter what you say in a breakup the person you're breaking up with is going to be mad at you i can't believe he said it that way he should have said it a different way there's only less bad you steal $220,000 from someone you know there's there's no justification that's going to be the perfect justification which is genuine why I feel like you shouldn't really even try uh like just just apologize like just apologize just I'm so sorry yeah that's I's all I can say and then be like can you believe he was apologizing just man up just own up to what you did yeah um anyway the um so then we have this so so yes then um monica tells jim this like secret is just like burning up inside of her she has to tell somebody who better than jim i i will say the second she was like i i've got something to tell i was like don't tell jim yeah this jim guy can't hold a secret are you kidding me um but i had the same thought you did that Jim very well might have said something or implied something to August. Yeah. This scene was so compelling to me because they, again, they have this closeup of Monica's face as she's explaining that she came away with $500,000. And I was literally, it was like I was watching a scene from a movie where like she was nominated for an Academy Award. Not in the sense that she was acting, but in the sense that I was able to see like every nuance of emotion on her face. It was so compelling to me that she was, you could see that she was like, she was smiling, trying to signal like, this is a good, I'm trying to say, this is a good thing, but I'm hoping that you think it's the same. And I'm actually very, very fearful that you're going to reject me and be mad at me about this, but I'm, but I'm trying to signal like, Hey, this may be good. And then the relief on her face when he's like, yes, that's so good. It was, I just really enjoyed watching this scene. Well, it's funny. And she's just so emotionally complex and Jim's like, yeah, you're rich. Let's go, you know, and it's like, oh, I'm so proud of you, babe. I feel like maybe he even realized like this by like yelling, oh, you're rich. You know, maybe made him look a little bit like a gold digger. And now, you know, he's like, but I'm just so you just did such a good job. I'm so proud. I love. Yeah. How quickly he goes from like, man, she's so selfless. I knew she would take zero dollars. That's why I love her so much to like, whoa, she completely manipulated every. She's so rich, though, bro. That's why I love Monica. She's so rich. Yeah. but it really did. You know, it's interesting. Like they really do seem to care for each other. I mean, like they seem to really appreciate, obviously we can understand why Jim appreciates Monica. And there must be good reasons why Monica appreciates Jim too. Maybe someday we'll find it out. I don't know. So throughout all of this, they are making extremely ominous cuts to August. Like at every corner, when she's telling him they're cutting out to August, like on the couch, And I'm like, why do they keep cutting to August? And again, in most reality shows, this would just be misdirect. It would be like in the traders when they're doing a murder in plain sight. It's like, oh, we're going to show somebody walking through a hallway that's next to the room. And this is really from like 15 minutes later, but we're going to act like, oh. But this was actually foreshadowing for the eventual reveal that August knows. And so before we talk about that, there's one last thing to really mention here, which is that they are moving cities to Riyadh, uh, into Lamborghinis. Yeah. Into all these cars. And, uh, I, I was kind of out on this part. I was like, well, this, you didn't like the as paid for by the like Riyadh, what an amazing city as paid for by the Riyadh tourism board. Not only is that, does that feel like a little, like what are we doing here? But it also just like kind of added some bulk to this episode that I didn't think was necessary. Um, especially because like they then get to the room with the phones and then they like took the time to dump out the money and like flashback to scenes from this very episode reminding us of like how much ever and i was like i just spent like 50 minutes watching this i don't need like a five minute recap of how much money they have and what just happened and like 10 people yeah this was a that was a little bit slow and like now they're dumping at this yeah yeah yeah yeah that was that was my it's because like i was really starting to feel the length there and i was really just like i was ready to get into the next thing yeah um and i felt like they kept stalling um so that was a little uh a little frustrating for me but then we got to the thing and this was this was phenomenal uh i don't know how how they lucked into this um but the fact that it turns out august so here's what they say here's what august says he says i've been thinking and mr beast always offers a bribe for the coin before the challenge. And then all of a sudden there's a gap. So my thought is that Monica took some money and he went from that, which is like a feasible theory to she's a scummy player. I'm going to blackmail her to get her vote. I was like, there is way too much certainty for that train of logic in my opinion. Like you cannot be that certain that she definitely did this that you're making moral judgments on her without knowing having some kind of evidence that is more than just like i'm pretty sure he would have given her a bribe you know i kind of and the way that he approached it with her where he says like you know jim basically told me i really think that some maybe like when cameras were off jim kind of like hey i think i think guess what you know like some a little hint was passed but don't tell anybody don't don't even say it on camera you know some some little hint was passed from from jim to august here and and like maybe if you want to give him as much credit as possible you could say that he kind of suspected it based on you know expecting a bribe and then talked to jim and jim inadvertently kind of confirmed it by you know i noticed when jim was in confessional before the scene where she tells jim about having taken the 500 that jim says man cory got the worst end of this he got the least amount of money and i was like oh she's told him by now because if she hadn't told him he would have said monica got the least amount of money right um and so he could have even said like oh the work person i feel the worst about is cory he got the least amount of money uh and that could have been another thing that august is like oh interesting that you're saying that right it is possible that he truly just pieced it together without jim saying anything and then and then he's just saying jim told me as a way to kind of put the right i mean i think get her to admit it in that world jim like again like inadvertently maybe confirms it but he's really certain and we have not seen him play this sort of like aggressive uh social game to this point i mean if i'm being honest my biggest fear here was that like i think either jim told him or slipped up or there's like some production shenanigans i don't think so i feel like they're not gonna like sabotage monica like that i mean no no it's because this is this is this has happened in shows before where like production essentially accidentally let something and then it cannot be part of the story and so august is forced to come up with some like nonsense reason for why he knows the thing um so when he said jim told me i was very much like okay good because he was way too certain but that just could be a bluff right that just could be a bluff exactly him basically told me as a way to like get her like pressure her to uh to say something um yeah i feel like the little booths with the red phones i think it's such a cool setup like the way that this feels like very you know spy movie from the 70s you know sort of yeah yeah jack being like the people used to use these what on earth is this box um so i thought this was a great i think that um you know we talked about cliffhangers uh a couple episodes ago and in my opinion this is this is exactly the right kind of cliffhanger yeah um because we are seeing something that is exciting that feels in some ways a conclusion to what we had seen in this episode while in many other ways is promising something very exciting and entertaining in the next episode i'm excited to come back and watch how this plays out as august plans to blackmail uh monica and theoretically jim for their votes um and how that works because again now she can't claim that she uh took the bribe at a later date august will always have this holding over her head uh she can vote for august to come in and now august is guaranteed top six and if she ever tries to claim you know anything other than i sold it when i did he can rat her out and he has no incentive not to because that's now one or two people out from the top six that people are targeting um this is very bad news for monica yeah well but also she can just say you're wrong you know i mean although i guess then they're like where's the coin show me the coin right um but that's the biggest thing is she can try to defend herself by saying that's not true but at the end of the day she has like the she has anti-evidence she has evidence against her in the fact that she doesn't have the coin yeah well so what do you think so we talked about a little bit cliff cliffhangers or you guys you and rob talked about cliffhangers previously how you felt um you know you don't love the cliffhangers in in the season so far i am not as out on them as you are because i it does make me want to watch the next episode and i agree with you guys that it kind of leads to an anti-climax you're like okay so it was you know jt who took the million or or whatever right like oh okay so they eliminated i don't even remember the girl's name casey casey katie katie um seeing this kind of point yeah no no for sure but like i want to know you know like the way they leave it like oh my god they did well oh my god who who pushed the buzzer so like even though the start of the next episode is weaker it definitely propels me into wanting to watch it but i agree with you that this is a more compelling way to do that because you're not just promising a result you're like being promised a whole meal Like it's not just like, exactly. Here's dessert. It's like, this is going to be a real substantive thing that's about to happen. Yeah. Cause, cause I think there's, there's basically two methods of watching something. There's, there's binging something where you have the next episode available to you immediately. And then there's like, I have to wait a week. Right. And so when people are binging, you want to get them to click the next episode and not exit out of the app. And so I think both cliffhangers function, both kinds of cliffhangers function pretty well for that, for that, Like I need to see who they eliminated or I need to see how he's going to blackmail this woman. Right. Whereas when you are watching it week to week when it like oh I really want to see who they eliminate Oh but I have to wait a week So I not going to be thinking about it the whole week You know like it gets me to want to watch in that moment But then by the time you get around to watching the next episode you probably even forgotten about it has no, no impact on your ability to watch the next episode. Totally. Whereas next week, when, when I start up yet, I'm going to be like, oh boy, here we go. He's going to blackmail Monica. Uh, so that's that I always try to phrase it as like, um, a bad cliffhanger feels like something's being taken away from you and a good cliffhanger feels like you're being promised something exciting um oh i like that that's really good that's really good because i do feel that now right it's and and i i do think it's like how much it's not just like learning what happened it's like getting to see it all play out like for both of the other two you're just like okay you're just like learning a name like who who pushed the buzzer whose heart gets shattered but here we're gonna get to watch it all develop and see this like back and forth and how it plays out. And I think that is really exciting. And it's going to be exciting when it happens too. Yeah. Yeah. So I thought this was a very good ending to this episode. And I was, you know, there is a little bit of worry with this one where it's like, you know, you can promise something exciting, but if the audience feels like, you know, I've gone two episodes and I still haven't seen an elimination, they might still feel a little annoyed. But I do think that for the most part, I have seen a much more positive reaction to this episode. And I think that the frustration people had about the previous episode has subsided. I've even seen some people be like, you know what? Having seen both, it kind of worked. It kind of worked. So you can't go in the comments week to week. It's like people just like, this is the worst show in the history of TV. Exactly. And then like, oh, but it's so good. I love it now. I mean, it's like week to week. It's so hard to make an informed judgment. But I do think like this week, even if there was no elimination, there was a lot of like, choices there was a lot of character choices whereas last week with the family stuff maybe there was emotion there but like nobody was really choosing very much yeah like last week i think was necessary for the season in the sense that it built it helped build uh create the building blocks for what was to come and i think in an ideal world those blocks would have been built a little more like steadily throughout the season so i didn't need it i need like a whole chunk of one episode to do so um but i do think that like at least the show kind of delivered on the promise of you know why it was important to bring in those people why it was important to spend so much time on this challenge because it was interesting and i do even though this was a repeat of last time i do just find it so compelling to watch like just here's 10 people they can share a million dollars yeah if they choose to and and so far in two seasons they haven't been able to and they were all so sure like every single person said we're all just going to do it you know and the fact that it went immediately wrong was amazing and they chose the person they thought was the most moral and even so i wonder what do you think taryn what if they choose monica is is everyone just picking the 100k like what happens in that world where they choose monica as i think monica takes 100k she goes to jim he takes 100k i think they go to katie and hannah 100k who seemed like they would probably take 100k um and then i think it just probably goes down from there i don't think because then it's like all that you're left with are the people maybe maybe if they choose brett in the middle he still takes a bit more i don't know though because like i think brett like brett comes out like really rattled by the fact that nick has done this you know i can't believe it you know I feel like if everybody in front of them had taken a hundred K, the pressure is really high there to not take more than a hundred K. I mean, especially when like, I agree you're really taking it out of Corey's hands or whatever. Yeah. It's really interesting. Like had Monica been the first one, it might've been just been a much more boring episode. Like somehow it all went right. And Monica is obviously like a pretty villainous character at this point, but I think in particular, because she would have been offered the $500,000 bribe, whether or not she takes it, I think it gives her the confidence to just be like, I'll take 100k. Like, I've got plenty more money on the table, right? You know, whether it's I take this 500 now, or I take 100 from this pool, and then can sell the coin later. Like, she's not as desperate to take the money while she can, because she has more options available to her, which sort of like incentivizes her to more readily stick to the plan um and now that we have gotten to this next challenge which is similar very similar seemingly to what they did last season where they're going to be voting people into the top six with the ability to bribe people for their vote um it really accentuates the flaw i think in the way that nick operated in the game uh the previous the money situation because as i think maybe even somebody maybe august like pointed out like for an extra $150,000, he basically eliminated himself. Right. Although like maybe, but yes, but now he also has more leverage. But it's not enough. I don't think it's enough. That's what I'm saying. It's 150. If he had taken the full million, then he could have actually bribed someone. You need a majority of votes to go through and you only have 150 and everyone else still got 60. Like in many ways, by giving them a decent amount left, you've bribe-proofed them and you don't have enough to offer. Whereas if you had just taken the whole thing, you could wait until like the last offering and then be like, listen, I'm going to give you each $200,000 or whatever. At which point they might genuinely be like, oh, maybe, right? Or like, you know, if he had just taken the hundred, he probably would have immediately had this, still had the social credit. Yes, for sure. To just whisk right through. So yeah, and he's only got that. He takes a hundred, he's down 150, but he's guaranteed top six, right? Like he had the numbers, Tim and his group had the numbers to easily go top six. So I think you can definitively say this was, this is quite a blunder from Nick, even though he does come out with an extra one 50, which is not interesting. So how many people are going to be, so it's top six. It's next, next episode is down to the top six. That's fun. Yeah. So four people will be left over. They will be eliminated by not having been voted through. So what's interesting about this next challenge is that like the amount of votes you need to go through lowers every time somebody goes through. So you kind of have more of a chance as, especially like if you're a majority group, say you have six of the 10, you know, you use those six votes to send one person in. Now you have five out of nine, use those five votes to send someone in. Now it's a tie. Now you don't have the majority anymore. So who gets to go in first is right. You know, there's some interesting stuff with how that works. So let's talk about who you think, like, let's make our predictions for next week. who are the top six who's going through august i would have said i would have said monica easily right i think i think monica i think monica's going through i don't think i think she still will i because because i think i think that i mean the only thing they can do is allow this i think august was already in a good position to go through so i think that with the blackmail he will likely be able to make it through yeah without monica being exposed i think monica goes through yeah um you know cory will probably for sure cory gory i think yeah got a good i mean he's got a good shot but he also doesn't have as many connect like right he doesn't have allies but i think bad for him people well yeah well because here's the thing too it's like um in many ways nick and brett are two of the most important votes um because they're probably going to be there the whole time right and at the end of who they like that's a really good point exactly so at the end of the game they're going to be two of the five votes to send the last person in that's um so you know brett's gonna obviously be trying to get cory through uh nick is going to be trying to get you know jack and uh and august and tyler through um so i do feel like it's i think it's going to be i think hannah and katie are gonna have a tough time here tyler i think is a likely one um yeah if i had to pick four people to not be there i would say katie hannah nick and and um and brett are they gonna be the ones who don't make it i think those are the obvious picks there might be some like trickery do you think they eliminate katie and hannah at one point they're like okay you two you two are yours out we're not you're not you're not relevant to this anymore it's like I think, I think this is, I think they're going to just going to be left behind because, because like their only real allies are Monica and Jim. I think Monica is leaving early. I don't think she's going to be sticking around voting a lot. Yeah. So yeah. Is there any world where Nick is able to bribe his way out of this? I mean, there is a world, right? He could, he could easily team up with Brett and be like, well, we'll vote for each other. uh and actually i don't remember if you can vote i'm assuming you can't vote for yourself actually nothing about it but um uh because then everyone notices myself in the top uh but we'll vote for each other and then at that point he only needs one more vote to tie right if you only if there's uh four votes total out of the top five that uh that you know you can't vote for yourself um right uh yeah because he'd be one vote not voting that way so then he can just bribe one person make it a tie i don't know how the tiebreaker works maybe it's the outside people which would be bad right uh but it's it's like it's it's feasible it's it's not super likely but it's definitely possible with with some money like brett i'll give you fifty thousand dollars and you know katie i'll give you fifty thousand dollars you guys aren't making it out of here go vote for me we saw the the guy who i think who flipped the coin last season like pull off some uh no no no i'm sorry jc the coin this season um yeah yeah yeah i remember the coin flipper i don't remember his name um i believe it was him that like pulled off some some trickery in the vote where like he was able to he kind of like pulled a little bit of a siree where he like wasted some votes here or there and and got like a small plurality uh to make it through so like you know it's there's there's some things you can do yeah well that's exciting i'm excited i feel like this was a very good episode last season the the voting stuff and i thought i did enjoy this one um and i'm excited i'm excited to see what happens with with the blackmail and with the votes uh and with this final group of people where i now have like a much better sense of who they are and like rooting interests and what a what a move by monica i'm compelled steven yeah so last i think last week you and rob did a snake draft for the winner you picked monica first is that right i believe i did yeah yeah that's good and then i think like i'm concerned after that i mean he picked like um jim after that right like that was i believe he picked tyler and jim tyler and jim right yes i tyler's got a lot of heat i gotta say i think tyler's got in a good spot too um we're seeing a lot of august yeah i mean monica tyler august are probably my top three right now i mean nick definitely would have been in there uh but but no I don't. Yeah. I mean, at this point, I think you can kind of Nick spread from the options. I think like, honestly, even Corey, I feel like just hasn't been present enough for him to like come out of a win as a winner. All of a sudden, I think you can cut out Katie and Hannah pretty easily. And just there you're you've chopped four people, you know, Nick not looking great. Nick Quinn would be very I would love a Nick Quinn. like some some would be very come back yeah he's been one of my favorites all season long um great character i hope they bring him back uh for for season two or seasons three you know if they bring people back um yeah all right uh who's your top pick then give it give me one yeah i think it's gotta be monica right right now as the top she's gonna be exposed surely though at the final six right um monica or maybe tyler you're kind of on board with the top two picks yeah i mean august too is like you know we just see him coming out so so hard here where where what about you i'm i'm much lower on monica now yeah um you know obviously august is having this moment but like this is a moment for august right like so it's hard to know if that really means the moments going right into the end you know you need that momentum going right into the uh but it does it does change week to week so much i mean like literally an episode ago nick seemed to be you know in the power position i think i'll stick with monica i think she will be exposed but if she manages to get there with jim anyway it's two of six and what we saw last time was that you could target people but not super easily um so uh i think i think they still and she's just very talented at a lot of these skill games which i think the final few games are likely to be is there a world where the final two are jim and monica and jim takes a dive for monica that would be i jim takes that's a bit of narrative right like jim keeps saying i'm gonna like take a dive for monica i mean there's kind of no point at that point like right i think jim taking a dive so she can make it to the top two at the final three makes more sense than like we both made it here like why bother taking a dive one of us should just win right yeah but for love um what about for love listen maybe if she's got a love is true it doesn't matter who wins they're sharing the money anyway he's in like a different state than he is maybe you know lower lower income tax whatever or lower city taxes maybe he lives in new york city maybe maybe i mean it's actually it's not a bad point that's that's a lot of trust steven um all right well that was a fun fun episode fun fun chat here steven anything else you wanted to bring up no this is great um yeah where can people find your book uh taranarmstrong.com uh find it there steven stevenfishback.com for escape yep okay there you go all right This was a pleasure, Taryn. Talk to you next week. As always. And yeah, we'll be back next week for episode nine. Wow. See all of you then. Bye.