Recap

Ten contestants entered the new Atlanta house over the course of opening day. Bam Margera replaced Sam Hyde on-site, laying out four house rules and pulling each fish aside for a one-on-one introduction. Victoria arrived first with a contraband vape and kratom; Jet and Ben rummaged her bags before she made it to the dorm. Bingo and Bongo arrived together as a single paired contestant.

1. Victoria's first-night meltdown

   After losing her vape and kratom and getting dogpiled by chat, Victoria spiraled into a long bathroom barricade, refused dinner, and slept in confessional.

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2. Bam's solo introductions

   Bam pulled each fish aside for a one-on-one introduction; James Drake's Alaska mountain story flagged him as the cast's professional actor.

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3. Bingo and Bongo win the detective job

   The Twins were assigned the season's first investigative job. Bongo misissued a $60 ticket past the limit, accused Landon by mistake, and then correctly nailed Victoria as the pokey-stick and vape thief.

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The season's first challenge sent each fish to scoop ice into a bucket and count the cubes. Landon won $30; Victoria took $20 for second. Bam threw the rest of the money on the floor for a free-for-all.

1. Landon wins the floor scramble

   Landon scrambled the loose bills off the floor before the rest of the cast read the moment.

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Bam unlocked the Jungle Room and gave each fish a sapling to babysit for four days. Leaf counts on Day 7 would determine elimination immunity. The challenge framed the dorm-versus-jungle-room split that defined the first week.

1. Bashir's plant kamikaze

   Bashir launched a sustained attack on the plants, destroying his own sapling and Anissa's after a manipulated three-way pact with JD and Landon collapsed.

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2. Police welfare check

   Police entered the house for an unannounced welfare check, briefly interrupting Day 4 challenges before clearing.

3. Head snips Victoria's leaves

   While Jet and Ben distracted Victoria with kratom advice, Head clipped leaves off her plant on his secret-mission job.

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4. Landon's trash-bag job

   Landon's parallel secret mission required him to dump a full trash bag into another contestant's luggage; Head discovered his own bag stuffed with garbage hours later.

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The boys' dorm and the girls' jungle room moved into open conflict over plant access. Bashir doubled down on sabotage; Anissa retaliated with tuna on his belongings. Victoria's bombing-run meltdown peaked overnight.

1. Bashir attacks more saplings; Anissa retaliates with tuna

   Bashir went after additional saplings until Anissa dumped tuna over his belongings.

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2. Bongo turns on Emma and Victoria during the bag hoard

   Bongo got visibly upset with Emma and Victoria during the day's bag-hoarding maneuver in the Jungle Room.

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3. Bashir crosses paths with Bam's wife

   Bashir met Bam's wife in the kitchen for a brief on-camera moment; TTS immediately spammed the room with slurs.

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4. Victoria's bombing-run meltdown peaks

   Victoria ran a multi-night bombing campaign on the boys' dorm and danced a fan-prompted kratom-mog routine on TTS in confessional.

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After multi-day demonetization issues, the YouTube stream was permanently shut down. The Twins helped debut Fishtank on Kick, introducing the show to new viewers.

1. Twins debut Fishtank on Kick

   Bingo and Bongo introduced themselves and the show to a fresh audience on the new platform.

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2. Landon reads his elimination poem

   Landon read his elimination poem aloud — a heartfelt original about his time cleaning up after everyone.

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3. Landon tries new food on Bam's quiz

   Bam quizzed Landon on every food he hadn't eaten, discovering he had lived on cheese fries, chicken nuggets, and grilled cheese.

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The Plant Care weigh-in concluded Day 7. Emma won by sneaking the room's decorative tree stump into her bag, instantly outweighing every legitimately-collected pile.

1. Emma sneaks the stump

   Emma hauled the Jungle Room's decorative stump to the scale in her bag, drawing fan outcry over the play.

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The returning Drunk Piece of Shit challenge offered $1,000 for the most authentic alcohol-fueled meltdown. Landon dominated from the first half hour and won, destroying part of the bar in the process.

1. Landon destroys part of the bar

   Landon's escalation through the early hours of the challenge cracked a section of the bar; he stayed in.

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The Computer/Game Room unlocked with Xbox 360s rigged for party chat with fans and a new call-center job. The boys claimed it as a no-girls-allowed clubhouse and barricaded the door against an hours-long retaliation from the girls.

1. Girls run an Anti-Boys STEM project

   Emma, Anissa, and the Twins ran a hours-long door-breaching project they branded as Anti-Boys STEM.

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2. JD's condom pocket and Gold Magikarp Discord surface

   Luggage raids turned up magnum condoms in JD's jeans and a Discord username (Gold Magikarp) that became a season-long meme.

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3. Jet's Golden alien reveal to the Twins

   Late-night, Jet pulled the Twins aside, used fluorescent oil and a UV light to demonstrate his blood, and told them he was an alien from the Golden People. He tasked them with finding his craft for him in their dreams.

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Production announced that the Day 11 elimination challenge would be a typing race, giving the house two days to practice. Skill assessments ran alongside the announcement, and Landon scored extremely low.

1. Audience-vote amputation mechanic

   An audience vote let fans pick one fish to have one hand zip-tied every twelve hours; JD was the first target.

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2. Skill assessments

   Word-chain recall, hand sequences, and finger touch tests ran across the house.

3. Landon's Wolf cut from visiting barber Jabbo

   Landon got a Wolf cut from visiting barber Jabbo and briefly took top Stoex from the Twins.

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The returning Cell challenge gave immunity to the last fish in the room. Bashir won by talking the entire field out and finishing alone at roughly 7am.

1. Bashir alone at 7am

   Most of the field walked out before dawn; Bashir held the room solo until the timer expired.

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2. Computer Lab dismantled

   Jet dismantled the Computer/Game Lab after contestants were caught using Xbox party chat to snitch elimination plans to fans.

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The Typists' Touch elimination challenge ran a typing race with sticky keys and loud failure noises. Bashir won immunity and the bullet, then used it on Anissa — a controversial call since she had already privately announced she was leaving.

1. Mr. Naked enters and is eliminated within 90 minutes

   Mr. Naked entered as the season's edgy-exhibitionist freeloader; production removed him within ninety minutes after a past confession about a child surfaced.

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2. Beth officially eliminated

   Production accelerated Beth's exit alongside the day's other moves.

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3. Anissa's Operation Cactus flood attempt

   Anissa tried to flood the kitchen as a sabotage attempt aimed at the basement servers; Maejok intercepted before water reached the floor.

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Carolina — James Drake's real-life girlfriend — entered as the Day 13 freeloader. Ben blindfolded James Drake for the reveal.

1. Designated Driver challenge — Bongo wins at 0.06 BAC

   Each contestant drank to get closest to 0.08 BAC. Most hovered at 0.02; Bongo won with 0.06.

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Bashir, Landon, and the Twins formalized the alliance — the Tardrike / Frosh Reich group that would hold for most of the rest of the season.

1. TTS Insults challenge — Bashir wins

   Everyone wrote the meanest possible TTS message about another contestant; Bashir's was the most scathing.

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2. Vance versus Bashir in the Arena

   The Day-6 bear-mace beef finally got a sanctioned match in the Arena.

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Emma stole Bashir's cowboy hat overnight and dropped it in a piss-toilet. By morning, Bashir had been ejected from his own room and a multi-pass melee broke out in the dorm.

1. Emma's hat-in-toilet stunt

   Emma swiped Bashir's cowboy hat off his bed and walked it to the bathroom; the hat was the trigger for the morning's brawl.

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2. Bashir's failed door-elimination attempt on Emma

   Bashir slammed the dorm door at Emma's exit attempt; she ducked under it and the move missed.

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3. Jet pisses a path through the dorm

   Jet walked a urine path through the dorm to break the Tardrike's fortress hold on the room.

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A thirteen-challenge bracket pitted the dorm team — Bashir, Landon, the Twins, and JD — against the jungle-room team — Emma, Blane, James Drake, and Laura — for group immunity. The Tardrike took it ten to six.

1. Impress Vance

   Each team got sixty seconds to land a verbal mog on visiting Vance.

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2. Chew-out Chat

   Each team roasted chat live without using slurs that would demonetize the feed.

3. Drive Bulk Crazy

   Each team had five minutes to bait Bulk into a confessional outburst.

4. Remove the Bird

   Catch and relocate the loose house parrot.

5. Stox Dump

   Each team strategically tanked a rival contestant's Stoex price for points.

6. Charisma Challenge

   JD and Landon went one-on-one in a riff-off round; Landon took the W.

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7. Human Tower

   Stack the team highest without falling; the Twins anchored the dorm tower.

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8. Act Like the Other Team

   Impressions round; Bashir's Emma was the cleanest hit.

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9. Blind Taste Test

   Identify a kitchen-pantry mixture by taste alone.

10. Decibel Challenge

    Loudest sustained scream measured by phone meter; the Twins shattered the room.

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11. Hide and Seek

    House-wide hide-and-seek; Bashir wedged under a kitchen counter for forty-five minutes.

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12. Rap Battle

    JD versus the Twins; Bingo's freestyle landed hardest.

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13. Memorization Game

    Photographic-recall test on a tray of objects.

Mid-bracket, JD received a love letter from real-life girlfriend Ash that called out him kissing Laura's neck the prior night. The breakdown that opened here would land his Day 16 self-elimination.

1. Bashir's mog-JD clip-fest

   Bashir cut a clip-fest of mog-JD moments after the letter, escalating the social pressure.

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2. Ash relays follow-up messages

   Ash sent follow-up letters and indirect messages, deepening JD's anxiety into the next morning.

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3. The house paints each other

   A forced-art closer had each fish paint a takedown portrait of one peer; Bashir's piss-bottle-portrait of Emma won.

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The Room Wars finale tally confirmed the Tardrike — Bashir, Landon, and the Twins — winning the bracket ten to six for group immunity.

1. Never Die Living rehearsal

   The cast read through their assigned characters before the next day's full performance.

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Alex B entered as freeloader, returning to Fishtank as the Season 3 Monkey King. He went into Bert mode on arrival and never came out.

1. Dinner and a Show: Alex B hijacks the Tuesday format

   The Tuesday Dinner and a Show format got hijacked by Alex B's freeloader energy.

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2. James Drake impersonates Alex B

   James Drake wore Alex B's clothes and walked like him; the impression landed as a perfect performance.

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3. James Drake pushes Alex B

   James Drake pushed Alex B during a heated confrontation over a race-traitor comment.

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4. Bam meets Alex B

   Bam met Alex B for the first time on Day 17.

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Alex B's energy ran the dorm all day. The Twins took a formal Monkey King protégé ceremony.

1. Alex B as Sheriff

   Alex B was assigned the Sheriff job role for the day; he tried to send James Drake to jail for a marketplace dispute.

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2. Landon mogs Alex B

   Landon's wigger-tiger persona paired with Alex B's Bert-mode obliviousness for a clean one-on-one verbal mog.

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3. Laura attempts to eliminate Emma with a water attack

   Laura tried to eliminate Emma with a water attack; Emma countered.

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Alex Stein and Clayton entered as freeloaders. The Fishtank Triathlon — smoke a full pack, chug two gallons of milk, eat a plate of meat — wrapped the day with Landon and James Drake's team winning.

1. Triathlon mechanics

   Smoke a full pack, chug two gallons of milk, eat a plate of meat.

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2. Bashir negotiates the prize-money allotments

   Bashir leveraged his immunity-bracket position into a favorable payout division.

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Four new freeloaders entered between 2 a.m. and dawn. Vimp arrived first; Suzi and Duan'ay entered as a duo; Letty came in last as the returning Season 2 freeloader.

1. Vimp enters as Binx's best friend

   Vimp finally got her shot after losing the Beth slot earlier in the season.

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2. Suzi and Duan'ay enter as a duo

   Suzi entered as a Mongolian wrestler-style character with Duan'ay as her partner.

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3. Letty enters last

   Letty's return as the Season 2 freeloader settled her into a production-mediator role for the rest of the season.

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4. Twins meet Suzi and bond

   Bingo and Bongo's initial bonding with Suzi set up the Day 23 Capture Suzi challenge.

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Jet announced the Candy Challenge — the multi-day candy-collection arc that would run through the Day 23 elimination.

1. Bam gets a Fishtank tattoo

   Bam's tattoo kicked off a recurring Famous House 3 subplot.

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2. The house sings an Easter carol

   An Easter carol set piece closed the day before the holiday weekend.

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The house ran a full Easter Sunday block — a house-wide egg hunt, a mock-formal Proclamation, and a reskinned Tuesday dinner for the holiday.

1. Easter Egg Hunt

   A house-wide egg hunt with bonus prizes hidden inside select eggs.

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2. Easter Proclamation

   The Twins delivered a mock-formal Easter address from confessional.

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3. Easter Dinner

   The formal Tuesday dinner format was reskinned for the holiday.

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The Candy Challenge culminated in a Capture Suzi round. James Drake forfeited position to bait Bashir into a wrestling match; Bashir submitted James Drake with a snapper-roll and took the Mog-off W. James Drake had kicked down Bashir's half-broken bedroom door earlier in the day.

1. Capture Suzi

   Protect Suzi for points; James Drake forfeited to take Bashir out of contention.

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2. Bashir and James Drake wrestle for the candy

   Bashir submitted James Drake with a snapper-roll and took the candy pot.

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3. Mog-off — Bashir takes the W

   A house-wide mog tournament wrapped with Bashir on top.

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4. James Drake kicks down Bashir's door

   James Drake's kick split Bashir's already-half-broken door; Bashir slammed it back into his head and the fight ignited.

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The multi-day candy arc resolved with Bashir's stash holding the final count. Kimmee entered as a quietly-competent bird-call freeloader.

1. Bashir's stash holds

   The final candy count broke Bashir's way.

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2. Say-the-Meanest-Things challenge

   A final mean-comment challenge wrapped the candy arc; Bashir again landed the most scathing line.

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3. Kimmee enters as freeloader

   Kimmee entered with a bird-call talent and a quieter footprint than the rest of the week's wave.

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4. Bongo crashes out after a near-elimination scare

   Bongo broke down in confessional after almost being eliminated in the candy round.

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Bliccy entered as the Season 2 returning fan favorite. Landon re-entered after his Day 23 elimination. Kimmee and Suzi exited on scheduled cameo wraps.

1. Kimmee and Suzi exit

   Both freeloaders walked on scheduled wraps inside the same day.

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2. Bliccy enters as Season 2 returning

   Bliccy's schizophrenic-energy presence bonded with the Twins immediately.

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3. Landon re-enters

   Landon returned as a freeloader-style entry after his elimination the prior night.

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Vimp betrayed Bashir on Day 25 — the first crack in their alliance. Bashir started mistrusting her after Suzi-related friction earlier in the week.

1. Steel Panther play a private set

   Bam's hair-metal friends Steel Panther played a private set in the house, including a Wipers-on-the-Bus cover and Bliccy's cousin-head song.

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2. Tag challenge

   A house-wide game of tag ran as the day's structured competition.

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House-wide Jeopardy ran as the day's structured competition. Burt came out to James Drake during their forced date, and Letty pranked Burt by stealing his goo.

1. Jeopardy with Twins, James Drake, and Bashir

   A house-wide trivia round drew the Twins, James Drake, and Bashir into competition.

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2. Burt comes out to James Drake on their forced date

   Burt came out as gay during their forced date; James Drake handled it with grace.

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3. Letty steals Burt's goo

   Letty pranked Burt by stealing a batch of his goo off the line.

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WIRED magazine interviewed the Fishtank contestants — a major mainstream-press feature that production referenced for the rest of the season. The Insult Drill and the Katamari challenge ran alongside.

1. James Drake versus Burt confrontation

   James Drake and Burt had a physical confrontation that didn't fully resolve.

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2. Katamari challenge

   A fish-tank reskin of the rolling-ball video game ran as the day's structured competition.

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3. James Drake learns internet slang

   Bashir ran a tutorial on internet slang after Letty's quiz exposed James Drake's complete unfamiliarity.

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Jet announced the season would be extended three days because the goo wasn't done. Bongo relayed the extension to the house, and an audience poll backed the move.

1. Bongo relays the extension to the house

   Bongo carried Jet's pitch to the rest of the cast and confirmed the three-day plan.

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2. Audience polls 70 percent to extend

   An on-site poll asked the audience whether to extend; seventy percent backed the move to Day 33.

Bam offered Burt a role on his next project during a formal Famous House 3 interview.

1. Ben endorses the Twins

   Ben formally endorsed the Twins as the season's emotional MVPs, setting up their eventual final-three placement.

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The finale opened with a thirty-nine-challenge marathon between James Drake and the Twins. The odd number guaranteed no tie before the goo-wrestling capper. James Drake built a lead through the late challenges.

1. Hurt Burt

   Each player tried to make Burt cry or give up; first to break him scored the round.

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2. Rug Burn Yourself

   Whoever inflicted the most aggressive self-inflicted carpet burn won the round.

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3. Biggest Physical Difference

   Twins shaved their heads in four minutes; James Drake reshaped his look on the same clock.

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4. Undo the Difference

   A restoration challenge to match each player's starting appearance.

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5. Caffeine Drinking

   Whoever drank the most caffeine in the allotted window scored the round.

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6. Handstand

   Longest sustained headstand scored the round; a mid-event consult set the safety cutoff.

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7. Trauma Dump Story

   Each player told the most personally devastating story they had on the clock.

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8. Insult the Fans

   Each player roasted chat live without using slurs that would demonetize the feed.

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9. Skater Creation

   Bam judged a build-a-skater round; each player designed a fish-tank original.

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10. Tag the Wall

    A graffiti round inside the house; most readable tag scored.

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11. Best Kiss

    Each player kissed a chosen object or partner; production scored presentation.

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12. Spit Take

    Each player delivered the funniest scripted spit-take on a setup line.

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13. Upside Down Dodgeball

    Players were inverted in harnesses and played dodgeball from upside-down position.

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James Drake and the Twins met in a baby pool of the goo Burt and Bashir had produced over the prior week. After a sustained match, James Drake pinned both Twins for the Season 5 win.

1. Alex B slaps Landon

   Alex B and Landon clashed in the late hours of the finale; Alex B landed an open-hand slap that closed their season-long rivalry.

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