I love watching The Circle. The Netflix reality competition series—about a group of people who communicate exclusively through the titular social media app—is a fascinating look at how our lives revolve around and often depend on social media. But while the show’s concept is solid and its contestants are larger than life, it sometimes struggles to keep my interest. Watching people talk to a screen can only be so riveting. Thankfully, this season The Circle recognizes its own limitations, and in the latest batch of episodes, delivers a massive twist that shakes up the competition.

(Warning: Spoilers ahead.)

A shake-up like the one revealed in the new episodes isn’t always a guaranteed success—like the AI reveal from earlier this season that went nowhere. But in Episode 7, there is a “ride or die” twist that takes the show’s drama to a whole new, exciting level. It’s the best twist in The Circle’s history.

It starts as a secret, with players participating in a seemingly innocent compatibility test, where they answer fun questions like, “Would you rather fight 1 bear or 500 chickens?” and sick, mortifying ones like, “Would you rather find your parents’ sex tape or have your parents find your sex tape?” Based on their responses, The Circle pairs the eight remaining contestants together—Paul and Kyle (a catfish who is actually Caress), Lauren and Autumn, Myles and Olivia (a catfish who is actually Jordan), Quori-Tyler and Jordan—and they’re told they are each other’s ride-or-die. But it's at the end of Episode 7 that we discover the full extent of this: whoever is blocked in the next ratings, their........

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