Was Jisela Right? Does Aneesa Play a Shady Game?

On the most recent episode of All Stars, we saw a friendship crumble. Aneesa and Jisela have been close since they filmed Battle of the Sexes in 2002. They’ve appeared on Instagram Live together and Jisela revealed Aneesa has met her family. They have a real life relationship; one that extends beyond a TV show.

Then, a TV show came in the middle of the relationship. When Jisela was sent straight into elimination with Eric, she had a strong opinion on the guy going against them. She felt it was “unfair” for previous elimination winners to see another Arena (possibly a move to keep Alton safe.” She also felt Derrick should be safe because he was the second place male on the Rib Page Pass challenge. So, this narrowed the selection to Yes or Darrell.

Yet Eric asked to face Nehemiah. At deliberation, it seemed like Yes was going into elimination at first. Then, votes shifted toward Nehemiah. Aneesa could have forced a tie or solidified Nehemiah’s position in elimination. She sealed Nehemiah’s fate.

Later, Jisela confronted Aneesa and called her snake in the game. Aneesa says she’s seldom played a sneaky game and she doesn’t stab friends in the back.

Double Agents didn’t paint an amazing picture of Aneesa, but was she really shady? She was loyal to Tori, and we even saw Cory praising her loyalty. It seems like she does have some moral guidelines in the game.

However, this doesn’t necessarily translate to the All Stars game. Aneesa has played a main series Challenge very recently. The game is much more cutthroat than it was in 2005. Aneesa views progress in the game differently than Jisela, and she likely knows what it takes to get to the final. Perhaps she knew Jisela would be tethered to Big Easy. If Easy wanted Nehemiah, that might have been Jisela’s best option to advance. Clearly something worked, because Jisela and Easy remain in the game.

But let’s not let Aneesa off the hook too easily. She was a bit stubborn about elimination. If anyone wanted to say her name, she threatened to sit in the sand and refuse to participate. While this is likely just a game move to avoid elimination, it is also a poor display of sportsmanship. This might be the type of “dirty” gameplay Jisela is alluding to.

Objectively, Aneesa’s vote doesn’t look too shady. On the other hand, her mentality is a display of entitlement. Jisela’s emotions aren’t unfounded, but the viewers likely don’t have the whole picture. A lot must have happened off camera. After all, production is smart. They knew giving Aneesa the last vote would make good TV. So, there has to be a reason she got to say the final name.