A wild Galactic Storm turned 16 contestants into 17 in the latest episode and held the judging power in the latest minigame where contestants sent their spiciest screenshots. Coffee Cup and flip flop were the victors. The winning strategy?
“We just made stuff up,” flip flop confessed.
They weren’t the only ones to engage in sneaky collaborative efforts, but they were the most successful. Russian Party Vibe, who was surprised by some of the more adventurous escapades, claimed he had “zero spice in [his] DMs” and didn’t try to fake any. A man with principles.
We also heard some more introspective thoughts this episode, ruminating on exhaustion and real-life interactions. Crepe Cake and Honeycrisp reminisced over hugging their friends, and Honeycrisp noted that “people over text are different from people in person.” Joelle Maywhether shared similar sentiments about keeping up online. As frosh who made their Stanford friends over DMs, Snapchat, GroupMe and Zoom, we get it.
As classes start ramping up in intensity, let’s learn from Moscow Moo to choose ourselves first, and from Joelle and Honeycrisp to seek out genuine connections as best we can and to rest when we need to so we don’t burn out. No 20-unit course loads for us! And of course, we appreciate the dedication from Dragon of the Stressed doing their mascara at 11:58 PM for their video diary.
Day two of classes took its toll in other ways, with some contestants ghosting others. Whether they were just busy or didn’t want to respond, we may never know, but we hope it’s the former.
Fortunately, there are still plenty of new ties forming! On his very first day, Galactic Storm caught the attention of yes homo, whom he calls an “effervescent individual” — and it looks like his affection is returned! We were initially going to mourn the love triangle but this is too heartwarming. It is a little sad for Faire N. Hyte, who yes homo chose for the past two episodes, but he has some strong platonic love going on with Honeycrisp.
Taking a little detour here, but it hasn’t escaped our notice that Pineapple Princess chose Crepe Cake on Day 1, he chose her on Day 2, and now she chose him? This back-and-forth is hinting that maybe the timing just isn’t right.
So our favorite pairings might not all be working out. But famously wise marketing, social media and outreach lead Ari Gabriel ’23 predicted early on that we would see more friendships out of this, and that “those are just as valuable as romantic connections.”
With Crepe Cake and Pineapple Princess keeping up their banter, Russian Party Vibe having lots of “meaningful chats” and Galactic Storm already raving about how cool everyone is, we’re definitely rooting just as hard for these friendships.
Favorite “couples”
Michaela: Galactic Storm & yes homo. An immediate connection and writing haikus to each other? Is this real life?
Nicole: Pineapple Princess & Crepe Cake — an innovative French dessert I’m invested in!
Favorite quotes
Michaela: “Who’s my number one today? I’m my number one. Moscow Moo. And I hope you write that down!” —Moscow Moo
Nicole: “We did exchange some words about our feelings, which was really exciting for me as a Cancer.” —hotpot
Contact Nicole Tong at nwtong ‘at’ stanford.edu and Michaela Guo at mcguo ‘at’ stanford.edu.