This is the thread for the crap reality TV shows that you know no-one else watches but you want to talk about anyway

what happened last year = alex had a crisis of conscience and almost gave the game away, didn't, and won £150,000

haha

i had the thought that the circle could ask each trio to decide one from within themselves to go home (or one from the opposite team!) but that isn't organic enough. you're quite right that georgina is fickle and i think she could be flipped back. she doesn't have the game of a double-agent mind you

this is heading towards either delicious catharsis or the triumph of surprisingly pure evil though, it's cracking tv

The rapid unlocking of Sammie’s manic defences has been quite something! I think that despite his capacity to totally switch off from even the surface appearance of reasonable behaviour, he is so locked into his split character that he won’t make a mistake with the story.

I am massively impressed with (invisible editing aside) how instinct and intuition are winning through I’m this season! So many moments of an almost physical presentiment of something about to happen... I want Woody to win so much, and then to give all the money to Sammie’s cause.

lol that would be amazing

sammie is the mad queen

lol by what happened last year I meant what were the numbers in the last days (trying to intuit whether single, double or even treble block tonight). My guess is it'll be another auto and an influencer discussion for a second.

I thought Sammie was close to breaking cover over the motivation for his win and he's dropped the Sammie character completely in the rebels chat - he now *sounds* like an angry Scouse bloke in it, but whether either Paddy or Georgina are bright enough to pick up on that I doubt very much.

The way I think tonight's show will play out:

Woody will tell Ella Sammie is a catfish in a detective chat
Tim will tell Ella the first message was his to winkle out the second
Ella will make a very strong accusation Sammie is a catfish
James will go mental and try and over-reach Stage IV (it whatever he's at)
Georgina will break ranks after James makes it personal
*Possibly* James will slip up as Sammie
Sammie will come bottom in the first vote - TWE will put them bottom and Georgina will not put them first even if Paddy does - so if it's an automatic they'll go.
Without Sammie, Georgina has an opportunity to get back into TWE and will spill the beans on the rebels t do so, selling Paddy out in the process.

This is all weirdly reminiscent of BB 2008 (yes, I had to check which year it actually was) which had the Jungle Cats trying to break up what they called the Get Along Gang - because the JCs saw it as the GAG just playing it safe to stay in as long as possible. Of course that ultimately led to Fight Night, the police removing people from the house and arguably the start of the end for the show.

If we had had different people in the last 3 - Jan possibly, maybe Jack, I think definitely Sy - we would have seen it kick off around the dinner table in the final reveal when Sammie comes out. Ella still might.

Haha aah I remember Fight Night from BB5! Never has a tin tray been used so threateningly on TV before. What a mess that season was.

I can imagine poor Tim being absolutely crushed by the Sammie reveal at the table and not being able to look at him.

I think it’s likely that if there’s another ratings, Georgina and either Ella or Tim would be influencers, as Sammie will be buried now after this latest outburst. Georgina will definitely try to reinforce her bond with Ella as much as possible following whatever fallout occurs.

it's really sad about paddy. they got a gay disabled person on the circle, but he was an empty dickhead :(

(obviously his dickheadedness shaped by years of discrimination, but there's no grace or seemingly much in the way of wit or charm there. and he's from a place where wit and charm are prized above all!)

Tim will take the Sammie reveal the worst, but Woody will be devastated I reckon.

James has only really used Charlie as a tool against Tim, although Woody has asked about him a bit. I don't think anyone else apart from Jay has had a talk with James about Charlie that we've been shown?

Using the Grandpa Tim hashtag in last night's show is what will end up hurting the most when it comes out.

-_-

well, at least we know now that james a) won't win and b) has ruined his life

Ella telling Georgina that he was messaging COT bragging while the influencers were away has definitely turned her.

Irrelevant tbh because I think it's only public votes now which means Tim will win (although maybe Woody will get close).

James bottom because the world surely thinks he's a dick
Paddy next
Then Georgina for being easily led but almost with a good heart
Woody second
Tim wins

Woody's message from home was weird because it implied his parents were together but they split up 3 or 4 years ago iirc

is it really public votes? we need the catharsis of georgina turning on sammie

i kind of wanted ella to win the whole thing so i'm miffed

wonder what georgina said to win tim around

I didn't really take to Ella but there wasn't anything *wrong* with her.

I'm sure it's public votes. Or is that just the last three? Struggling to remember last year.

there's going to be one more blocking before the final four? C4 have a goddamn job on their hands if they want sammie to survive it though

idk, maybe they will just rate each other to decide the winner. last time it was marks out of 5 but that was a shit method. they should have to rank again

i guess marks out of 5 was a sort of torturous integrity test but the mechanics of it were so horrid

alex and dan quoting each other's tweets nowadays though - presumably alex did something nice with the money

Split is £70k on each other's ratings, £30k on public vote.

So... Georgina will win the ratings money as the only one one in both groups? Or more probably split it with Paddy?

Sammie votes P>G>W>T
Paddy votes S>G>T>W
Tim votes W>G>P>S
Woody votes T>G>P>S

Which makes the numbers

G 12
P 8
T 7
W 7
S 7

Georgina likely to vote P>T>W>S maybe based on Ella ruining it for Sammie. If she marks Paddy down because he's part of the scheme before it came to her (so for all she knows he could be Grima Wormtongue in the COT) then she keeps it all to herself. But that probably assumes too much of her.

Georgina absolutely does not deserve to win and her winning would be a victory for meanness. Hope Woody and Tim mark her the fuck down tbh

Sammie could also vote Georgina down having piggiebacked to the final lol

Making Paddy the winner, which is maybe even less palatable.

There could be one more blocking before the final final stage of course...

True, in which case it needs to be Sammie to change the outcome.

I don't think Georgina is mean, but I think she's very easily influenceable. Sammie and Paddy are definitely mean though. I still like Tim as a person even after the Thatcher reveal, but I'm much much less enthusiastic about him. Sadly I'm out tonight so I'll miss the final.

To be honest, I don't like Ella or Woody that much either, but at least they're not maniacal Napoleons.

I feel like Georgina would have bullied me at school, or at least reminds me too strongly of similar characters. I like Woody the best by far, but I don't love the message of him winning The Circle unless as I suggested before, he is overcome with admiration for Sammie's cause and donates the money to that. Tim would be a lovely winner I suppose - I liked when he said he was as poor as a church doormouse!

Sammie's blinkered frenzy shouldn't be rewarded, but also I find him a particularly tragic character and I am amazed he passed the screening for this process. I hope that the post-Circle therapy they apparently all get is of some great use to him.

This is too much for my heart. Poor Tim - I hope he's okay!