We’re getting close to the finish line on Season 1 of The Anonymous, but DANI still has plenty of tricks up her virtual sleeve. In the latest episode, we had plot twists, questionable strategies, and an unfathomable number of lies.
Last week, Marcel got spared from elimination, but this week, the players weren’t so lucky. It was back to business as usual, and one of the strongest players got the axe. As the season finale approaches, every minute counts and there’s no room for error. Here’s what went down in The Anonymous Episode 9, “Silent Mode.”
Jack’s last stand
When we last left off in Episode 8, DANI left us on a cliffhanger, teasing that either Lilly, Bismah, or Jack would be going home. With Jack dominating the game, it seemed the walls were closing in on Lilly or Bismah. However, DANI dropped the bombshell that Jack had been chosen by The Anonymous to exit the competition. Shocker!
In a flashback, we see that Victoria won the power of The Anonymous for a second time. Wisely, she chose to send home the biggest threat remaining in the game. All of a sudden, the girl who arrived late to the game became a serious contender to win the whole thing.
Back at the dial, Jack had a visceral reaction to his game coming to an end. He might be the first person to seem genuinely upset about their elimination. He played one hell of a game, and his passion for it could be felt through the screen.
When Jack shared that he had been playing as Flamingo and Football, the reactions across the board were priceless. Everybody looked shocked, but Fyre Fest Andy looked like he had just seen a ghost. It finally dawned on him that Jack had been playing him since Day 1.
“It’s a mixed emotion how I feel now knowing that his first handle was football,” Andy admitted in a confessional. “But I actually admire him more because he was terrorizing me every day. He was my best pal in the game. He was so smart to play it that way.”
Who’s the next target?
Before Jack’s tears could dry, the remaining players were spiraling about who was behind the elimination. Out of everyone, Andy had the hardest time coping. He struggled with it so much that he became suspicious of anyone who didn’t feel as strongly about it as he did. For example, Dillian didn’t seem to care about Jack going home, which made Andy extra suspicious. Target locked.
Elsewhere in the house, a few other players started talking about Nina. Marcel, Victoria, and Christopher all theorized that she could be working in the shadows. In actuality, she’s only been behind one elimination, and that one wound up getting blocked anyway.
Either way, Christopher spilled to his allies what Jack mentioned to him earlier in the game. He said that Nina could be the daughter of one of the greatest reality TV gamers ever, which spooked everyone. Rightfully so. It’s officially an open secret there’s more to Nina than what meets the eye. Luckily for her, time is running up this season, and there were a few other players with bigger targets on their backs.
Dillian enters “silent mode”
With suspicions running higher than ever, DANI sent the players back into Anonymous Mode. Then, she teased that only two people would be up for elimination. That turned out to be a lie, but more on that later.
In the chat, the players immediately started targeting Victoria and Christopher. Most people have been wanting the couple out of the game for the last four episodes. If only two people will be up for elimination this week, that math seems simple, right? Wrong. Andy threw a wrench in all of it by throwing out Dillian’s name.
Once Dillian’s name got put into the chat, it seemed like everyone latched on. Suddenly, Andy, Bismah, and Christopher all nominated him for elimination under the guise of their secret handles. In a desperate attempt to win The Anonymous, Dillian also threw a vote for himself as Popsicle.
Chris voted for Lilly, but the rest of the remaining votes went to him. He didn’t care. He said wasn’t interested in trying to outstrategize anyone. Instead, he just wanted to be used as a “pawn” all the way to the finish line. It’s a plan that’s so crazy that it just might work.
Once DANI confirmed that the two at-risk payers were Dillian and Chris, Dillian decided to take a new approach to his IRL gameplay. Silent mode: activated. He vowed not to speak to anyone in the house for the rest of the day, and he stuck to that.
At one point, Nina came up to try to check on him. He just stared at her with a blank expression. According to Dillian, he wanted to let everyone know exactly what it could feel like without him in the house. He calls it silent mode, but most of us know this as the silent treatment.
Another day, another face-off
In the back half of the episode, DANI summoned the players for another face-off, and that’s when things started to go off the rails. In a twist, DANI revealed that the four safe players would be playing face-off this time. Two of the boxes had safety inside, and the other two would be up for elimination. Crunch the numbers, and that means there will be four people up for elimination. Fooled again by our old pal DANI.
Meanwhile, Fyre Fest Andy could hardly handle the news. He was still reeling from Jack’s elimination. Under his breath, he uttered, “This is twisted.”
Even though DANI switched up the stakes for the face-off, the segment still was just as uninteresting to watch as the last three times they played it. This time, everyone wanted the green box. First, it went to Andy, then Nina, and then Bismah. Bad move, that was the at-risk box. Whoops.
By the end of the game, Marcel and Bismah wound up with the unlucky boxes. They joined Dillian and Chris on the chopping block. Then, DANI dropped the bizarre little bit of information that this game would be a deciding factor in the upcoming finale. Will it be interesting to watch on their fifth attempt? We’ll see.
A big risk with little reward
Fortunately, Dillian recognized there was a lull in entertainment this week. At the end of the face-off, he broke his vow of silence with an epic takedown of the entire cast. Give him an Emmy for this one.
“Today, I didn’t say anything at all because I wanted to see how the house would feel without my voice,” Dillian began. “I was bored out of my mind.”
According to Dillian, the day without his voice was the most “stale” thing he had ever witnessed. Despite the shade, the rest of the cast just sat there and let him continue.
He added, “Surface-level conversations? Dusty, crusty, and all I’m going to say is if you become The Anonymous and vote me out, good luck because I feel like it will be the longest days of your life.”
Mic drop! Now, does he have a point? Yes. Is this a smart strategy for getting spared by The Anonymous? Absolutely not.
Andy predicted this silent mode stunt would be the final nail in Dillian’s coffin. He said no one wants “that kind of behavior” in the finale. Speak for yourself, Andy. We’d be grateful to see Dillian read everyone again.
Meanwhile, Dillian felt confident that since he voted for himself in Anonymous Mode, he would become The Anonymous. A few minutes later, we saw that was not the case. The results of the test revealed that he was, once again, not The Anonymous. Someone out there knows he is Popsicle.
At the end of the episode, we learn that either Andy or Nina won the power this round. If it’s Andy, then we know Dillian’s time is up. If Nina won, then the next elimination could go in any direction. We’ll find out next week.
The Anonymous continues on USA Network on Monday nights at 11/10c. Stream it the next day on Peacock.
TELL US – WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE ANONYMOUS EPISODE 9? WERE YOU SURPRISED TO SEE VICTORIA ELIMINATE JACK? DO YOU THINK DILLIAN GOING INTO “SILENT MODE” WAS A BAD MOVE?
