Is Olivia Smart for Working Against Horacio?

This week we saw the Ride or Dies dream team start to come undone. Olivia and Horacio have different alliances on Battle for a New Champion, and it feels like Olivia is starting to stray from the pairing.

First, Olivia disclosed her feelings to Nurys — who’s now dating Horacio. While this new coupling might mean Olivia and Horacio aren’t as close as they were on Ride or Dies, this shouldn’t really hurt Olivia’s game. As it stands, Olivia is working with her Ride or Dies teammates, and that should include Nurys and Horacio.

However, the lack of closeness is a shock to Olivia. For a few months (during Ride or Dies) Horacio was her only real ally. This season, he’s not talking to her. Olivia didn’t even know Horacio was going to be on the season until he showed up at the airport. (Some rumored context: Horacio was committed to a soccer competition prior to the show, and doing The Challenge meant declining that competition, so doing this season wasn’t an easy choice.)

The biggest struggle here is actually Horacio, who seems to be working with a bunch of people who weren’t on Ride or Dies. As it stands, his closest allies seem to be Kyland and Zara.

Despite this, Horacio insists he will never say Olivia’s name. But, she has a lot of allies, and saying their names isn’t out of the question. This means Olivia’s game isn’t at an immediate risk, but she doesn’t appear to be confident in that position because she doesn’t seem to have much communication with Horacio.

Later, Olivia spoke with Jay and it seemed like she was toying with the idea of betraying Horacio, which would probably be a bad move, but it’s hard to blame her. Olivia has a lot of allies this season, but her alliance was very predictable. Working with the Ride or Dies group meant having a lot of numbers and skating through the game fairly easily. Horacio’s decision to stray from this group is more surprising. He could have had numbers, and he still does, but he will be on the chopping block much sooner because he’s working with a smaller group.

For “Ride or Dies” this duo would benefit from a little communication, but it’s hard to fault Olivia for feeling like Horacio has abandoned her. It feels like the tension may soon come to a head, though at this rate, so few people have gone home this season that the Olivia/ Horacio drama could just be used to fill time.