“Why is this guy so pale? Who has he killed? Who has he bitten in the neck?” Lete asked as a boat approached the Deal or No Deal Island season two players.
The boat was carrying a mysterious person dressed in black—a person so mysterious that an NBC press release revealed his identity in November. Another player, Storm, said later, “He looked like he died 100 years ago and is just coming back to haunt us.”
This silver-haired, exceedingly pale, possibly embalmed, tuxedo-clad person was, of course, Will Kirby, aka Dr. Will, age 52, winner of Big Brother 2 and loser of Big Brother 7. “I’m the best Big Brother player of all time,” he said, and I said, sure, Jan.
I honestly don’t know who did his makeup or if he was wearing makeup, but there was certainly a reason all the players said he looked like the Ghost of Reality TV past.
“Twenty years ago, I said I wasn’t going to compete again, unless I could compete against a group of incredibly talented individuals, and that’s not you guys.” He pulled out a dollar bill—the amount of money the players won in episode one—and waved at the players, screaming that “you all aren’t good at this.”
Also not good at math: Dr. Will, who was on BB7 in 2006, so if he decided 20 years ago not to compete, he broke that promise 18 years ago.
David, the golden god of Australian Survivor, told us, “he’s sort of obnoxious.” Sort of? Sure, Jan.
“I am a reality television show disrupter,” Will said. Indeed! For the most-recent example, check out The Traitors US season 2, episode 8.
I guess he’s here to prove Janelle wrong? We shall see. And the preview suggests Parvati’s going to go after him in the game. For now, here are the other highlights from the episode.
DONDI S2 E2: ‘Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way’ recap
The Black Widow and the Blacker Widow is what Phillip nicknamed his teammate, Parvati, and himself. It was a fun pairing because Phillip was so uncomfortable with everything, from wading through water to using their power. “This is some Huck Finn Bullshit out here,” he said in the jungle, while Parvati told us, “I thrive with a sweat mustache.”
Joe Manganiello, Jeff Probst protegee “Everyone’s in the water,” Joe said when, uh, everyone was in the water. Who thinks we need this kind of narration from hosts?!
Did David have to carry Goliath through water? David and Dickson kept up their father/son dynamic, pairing up and Dickson saying, “I wanted to be my island dad” and David saying, “it’s like take your son to work day.” When they arrived back with a briefcase, Dickson said, “Frickin’ David and Goliath right here baby.”
Snakes and rats ► The cases strewn about the jungle each had a little surprise: one was lashed under a dock; others had rats and crabs in them. Rock and Sydnee’s case was hanging from a tree, and Rock used a saw that I guess he was carrying around to cut the tree branch down. Sydnee saw a scorpion while he did that and Rock told us, “Not the time kiddo. Let’s pull ’em up,” and mimed pulling up pants so well I’ll bet he’ll be in a Huggies ad soon.
Biggest and smallest ► Parvati and Phillip collected the $1.5 million case, the highest-value case, one that “comes with a price,” Joe said. That price was Dr. Will—expensive! C.K. and La Shell and Rock and Sydnee had the lowest values, so they were all at risk of playing and going home.
Twist ► Deal or No Deal was played by C.K. and La Shell, who Parvati and Phillip chose to be the first team to play together.
Pure chaos ► Parvati wanted C.K. and La Shell to keep Sydnee if they won. “We gotta keep her around. She’s such a wildcard,” she David, and told us, “Sydnee is pure chaos.” As if to illustrate that point, we saw Sydnee in her yurt with M.G., saying, “Listen, I had a full reflection, like, out-of-body experience this morning, that I need to shut my fucking mouth. I was like, Sydney, just be quiet. Like, I told myself this,” she said, and then immediately asked M.G., “Also, why do you hate me today?”
Not a surprise ► Sydnee, in interviews, was crying, making it clear that she was going to be out. The only surprise there was that Parvati’s convincing failed. When it was time to choose a deal, Sydnee interrupted, took the stage, and said, “I just want to apologize to everybody sincerely. It is flat-out disrespectful.” She was talking about the previous night, not her current interruption of C.K. and La Shell’s game.
When the game resumed, they were offered $281,000, and took that deal, beating their $500 briefcase and sending Sydnee out—in defiance of Parvati.
FYI: No interview with Sydnee this week; she’s not available for interviews. But last week’s first out, Luke, defended Sydnee in our interview, and told me, “just don’t be too hard on the cast. There’s definitely some snakes, some people that are not the greatest. But there is some wonderful traits of people that weren’t shown on camera. At the end of the day, we’re all just people.”
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Andy Dehnart is a writer and TV critic who created reality blurred in 2000. His writing and reporting here has won an Excellence in Journalism award from NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists and an L.A. Press Club National A&E Journalism Award.
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