Were the Ladies of Leisure an Awful Alliance?

Battle of the Eras is a season full of alliances: Thee Vacation Alliance, Bananas Angels, and the Ladies of Leisure. While the first two seem to be running the game, the Ladies of Leisure just flew under the radar for the bulk of their time on the show.

The three-girl alliance included Michele, Olivia, and Nia, and as the name implies, they were more about relaxing than working. It seems like we didn’t see much of them for the first 9 episodes of the season, only to watch them fall apart on episodes 10 and 11.

Once the season turned into an individual competition, the Ladies of Leisure underperformed. Michele came in last during the Fire Away challenge, but Nia and Olivia were also in the bottom three. Then, all three girls were named targets going into the first female elimination. They all got disqualified from the Building Bridges challenge, with Nia doing the absolute worst. Eventually, Nia lost to Michele in the Arena.

Can we really call this trio a flop? Well, yes and no.

We didn’t see a lot of them during the team portion of the season. However, we saw that Eras 3 and 4 were heavily connected. Most of this was credited to the Vacation Alliance, but the Ladies of Leisure may have been the glue that kept the eras together. The three girls — and by extension, their love interests Theo, Kyland, and Devin — were working to keep their teams in tact. And really, the trio didn’t have many connections outside of Eras 3 and 4, so they didn’t feel too bad targeting players on Era 1 or Era 2.

Michele excelled at the social game on Survivor, and the Ladies of Leisure are very reminiscent of this. They’re low-key players, but they stick together. And clearly, Olivia and Nia were comfortable following this template.

Now that we’re at the individual portion of the game, the girls need to perform well in competitions, and this is where the partnership doesn’t work so well. These girls aren’t the strongest physical players, and this isn’t Survivor. The last-place girl will go into The Arena, and you can’t weasel your way out of that.

Hopefully, the remaining two girls are given more mental and strategy competitions in the future. All of their leisurely activities have given them plenty of time to work on their political games and get boyfriends, but the lack of physical activity could catch up with them.