Lawson: I remember him being an early favourite to win the show on Sportsbet which I never understood personally. He was generically relatable but not unique enough to stick out to me. I don’t care for magic either, so I didn’t find much about him to be very entertaining. It is extremely sad what happened to his mother, but we didn’t get to learn about it all. I do wonder if the loss of his mother played a part in his attraction to Cat. Did he like the idea of having affection from a mature motherly figure? Was he really attracted to Cat, or did she fill in an empty space that he longed to fill? It is very uncomfortable watching him actively cheat on his partner and be a lot more open about it than Tully was. I suppose in a way they were separated briefly before the show, so they were probably a relationship on the rocks, but it doesn’t make the situation any better. I don’t think he is a horrible person; I think losing a parent so young must have really shaken him up and Cat would have really played with his emotions. I didn’t particularly enjoy watching him hang out with the older, boring and judgemental group with Sam, Sandra and Ryan. On his own, he wasn’t very interesting either, so other than the Clawson storyline I wasn’t too invested in whether he stayed or not.
Aisha: I remember her being one of my favourites from the series very early on up until her eviction. And she still was. I just remember her being a bigger character than what I ended up seeing her be. She was cute and very likeable and had an interesting story, but like a lot of others, the lack of airtime given to these housemates made it hard to truly understand her. Outside of her relationships with Travis and Skye (and Lawson a bit), there wasn’t anything else shown of her. I remember her argument with Lawson very well and have always attributed that to her eviction. But now, I don’t get why she slipped in popularity. Maybe the voters grew fatigued from voting for the two of them. Then again, looking at the other housemates, she probably just had less of a following than people like Skye, Priya, Ryan and David. She definitely got more votes than Cat, so I don’t know why they evicted her first. I think she became more of a victim of circumstance rather than the voting public turning on her. She was one of the more likeable figures on the cast despite being a quieter one in my opinion.
Cat: Here is the thing with Cat, in the beginning, both times I have watched this season now I really liked her. She was a normal everyday person who was very relatable and easy to root for. She was level-headed, easy-going and just decently likeable. I was super happy to see her voted the most saved the first time she faced eviction as an individual. I was happy to see that the voting audience wanted to reward an everyday person. I liked that she wanted to hang out with the younger crowd, and I felt she was one of the more complex personalities amongst the cast. Then she had to go crazy for a man eight years her junior who had a girlfriend on the outside and her popularity plummeted within a week. She was amongst the most popular housemates to then being almost evicted after Lisa. It is really sad that she unknowingly blew up her own potential in the game, but like Lawson, I can kind of see how this happened. Being a 31-year-old divorcee, she probably wanted some sense of stability, wanted to feel young and Lawson provided all of that. She more than likely saw in him what she longed for after recently losing it, just like Lawson. Had the series used vote to evict she would have been out the door A LOT earlier with a very large percentage of votes, I think. She like Tully had a fan base voting for her but it could only take her so far. And unlike Drew, she and Lawson didn’t have anything to combat the decrease in popularity. So, whilst I did personally like her, I can see why the public quickly turned on her. It does make me wonder why she was so okay flirting with Lawson in a temptress sort of way, especially when she took him to the Sanctuary and was happy to sleep in the bed with him. A lot of head-scratching and questionable decisions from her end. But who am I to really judge when I wasn’t the one in either of their situations?
Tom: He was there for how long? 16 days? Felt like no time at all. He got along with the boys and had a disagreement with Skye. Came across as judgmental and nominated Lina for being 25 and liking Spongebob. Well, I’m 22 and like Spongebob so shut up Tom. Who even are you?
Richard: I actually thought he was really cute in some sort of weird way. He got more airtime than Tom but not enough to have a long stay in the house. I liked that he got along with the people I liked, and I feel like maybe in a previous series or if he came in earlier, he could have been a fun housemate.