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'The Circle' Season 5: Fans find Shubham's second attempt at Circle 'desperate', ask him to 'relax'

This time around, Shubham 'Shooby' Goel found 'The Circle' to be much more challenging, whereas fans were shocked to see his strategies fail

MANCHESTER, UK: Shubham Goel, who rose to prominence as the top catfish hunter during the first season of 'The Circle', attempted to be a catfish himself this time around—and to spark a "revolution." It did not go well, and fans are concerned that he may have lost his game.

Shubham aced his first round of 'The Circle', despite his self-proclaimed dislike of social media. While he did not win, he finished second to Joey Sasso and quickly became a fan favorite. Shubham will get a second chance to win the grand prize this season. He's coming in as a catfish, a young Indian lady called Sasha, in a tactical shift. But, since Shubham's first game, the game has become significantly more strategic, a long cry from the naïve astonishment of Season 1.

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As he walked inside his new Circle flat, Shubham's worries were on full display. He prayed for a relatively easy character as the screen loaded his new profile. Still, it's easy to see why it appeared more advantageous to try catfishing in the first place. If he had returned as himself, perhaps people would have gone for him right away. This season, Shubham has limited control over his character. The game selected some personal facts for him (age and "single" relationship status), as well as photographs for his (well, Sasha's) profile picture. Shubham created his identity as a tech blogger in an attempt to fuse himself with Sasha, or "Shu-Sasha," which at least represents his own interests.

Catfishing proved to be a difficulty for him, just as Shubham said. After all, it's more difficult to speak up in fast-paced group conversations when you're always watching your back and keeping track of your bogus biography. When you factor in staying in character with each response, you can see the problem. Xanthi Perdikomatis and Brett Robinson, who started playing as "Jennifer" after being eliminated on Day One, were the ones to send "Sasha" packing. Shubham's response to charges that Sasha was a catfish by saying, "I’m not a fucking man!" seemed to have clinched the deal.

The bonds he witnessed building amongst the initial group of players reminded Shubham of how close the Season 1 cast grew, and he realized that if those bonds continued to strengthen, the newer players would be toast. Some found Sasha's rallying cry a little too... strong. The idea of purposefully voting off new players, along with some highly raw delivery, turned off a few players — while it did pique the interest of a handful of others. It eventually blew up in his face, thus terminating his tenure on the show. Nonetheless, Shubham believes the failed revolt was a "brilliant move," unlike the fans.

Some fans asked if he is okay given the amount of distress he displayed on the screen, "Shubham keeps sounding like he’s two seconds away from crying like is he good??" Another person shocked to see his plans backfire wrote, "I’m sorry but how is Shubham so incredibly bad at this game like why is he yelling “I’m not a fucking man!!” lmao like ok well now they all definitely know that you are." Another person added, "Shubham is coming across so desperate this season???? Can he relax Damn." Some fans were shocked to see how the runner-up of the inaugural season ended up in this mess, "I loved shubham the first season but this season hes grating on my nerves so bad i don’t know how he got to second place the first time because it does not feel like he understands people at all ahahaha."

Fans also felt blocking Bruno even after giving his word was a dumb move from him given how Bruno aka Billie-Jean Blackett called him out on their way out, "Shubham’s first wrong move was crossing Bruno - he should’ve kept his word now look he’s gone #karma I didn’t like his game this season he came on WAY TOO strong with strategy with ppl he had 2 minute convos with dumb!" A second person said, "Shubham really messed up bc bruno is literally tight w the 2x influencers… yet he chose a weak alliance." Another person added, "Shubham is once again on the WRONG side of the game with these weird moves. Acting like the snake that I remembered from the first season lmao." Some fans also didn't like how Shubham was behaving inside the circle, "Not Shubham cussing folks out in the circle." Fans also felt the shift in Shubham's behavior as they write, "Is it me or has Shubham turned into a complete prick? Loved him in Season 1 but now in Season 5 you can tell the fame and attention has gotten to his head. Happy to see him go."

The first eight episodes of Season 5 of ‘The Circle’ are now available on Netflix. Episodes 9 through 12 will be released on the platform on Wednesday, January 11, with the finale following on January 18 at 3 am ET.

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