'The Circle' Season 5: Chaz Lawery and Raven Sutton reign as top influencers twice in a row
Spoilers for 'The Circle' Season 5
MANCHESTER, UNITED KINGDOM: Netflix's ‘The Circle’ is all about creating connections, real or fake. Since the contestants of the reality show never meet face-to-face, they must present their best self or fabricated persona in an entertaining game of social media tactics. Contestants on the game show compete to become the most-liked "influencer" to win the grand prize. All participants must stay in the same venue without being able to communicate with anyone outside or with each other, apart from the internal group social media network.
Participants can only interact with each other through the platform known as the "Circle", relying on their selection of profile pictures to stand in for themselves. If they become popular enough, they are labeled as "influencers", granting them the ability to "block" the other players, forcing them to exit the game and eventually uncovering who is real and who isn't. In Season 5, viewers saw participants from all walks of life enter the show, including the ASL performer and deaf social worker Raven Sutton as well as social media influencer Chaz Lawery. The two players formed a strong connection with other participants and were able to win the top two spots on the ranking twice.
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Chaz was focused on taking notes about each player to play out his strategy well, while Raven was looking forward to finding a connection and being her truest self. And their ambitions truly set them apart from the others as both started striking up alliances with other players. Chaz was sure to bring his high energy and took the initiative to make Sam Carmona comfortable. The two even ended up being “series husband and wife” as Chaz, who identifies as gay, immediately hit it off with Sam after he learned she was bi-sexual. To gain her complete trust, he even told her that Bruno (secretly the catfish Billie Jean-Blakett) was interested in her. The car detailer also impressed other players like Tom Houghton and Marvin Achi with his charismatic virtual persona and won himself their votes.
On the other hand, Raven’s go-getter attitude and her ability to not be phased by the challenges impressed most of the players. She even ended up sparking a budding romance with fellow player Marvin and definitely won his vote. Raven also didn't let things affect her negatively, especially when Xanthi Perdikomatis and Brett Robinson anonymously took a jab at the disability advocate by creating a rather hurtful dating profile that said that Raven “had difficulty being loyal.” The ASL performer’s confidence did not falter even after the public humiliation, which ended up winning her the favor as a top-rated player for the second time.
But being placed on the top of the list came with some cons for the two. During the first voting segment, the two were unaware that they were the influencers and picked a contestant to block, hoping that the influencer would be someone else. But as the voting commenced for a second round, ‘The Circle’ revealed the popularity poll well in advance and instructed the pair to make a well-thought-out decision before blocking a player. It resulted in double the tension for the two as the pair struggled to make a choice.
Catch Raven and Chaz in ‘The Circle’ streaming on Netflix.
