The numbers are dwindling inside the Battle of the Eras house, but Rachel is staying strong for Era 1. The last remaining Road Ruler has been through a lot this season, but as the final gets closer, she’s still trying to make political moves.
On episode 15, Rachel tried to make a last-minute deal with Jordan. She proposed that Jordan would be her “number two guy” (behind Bananas) while she would become Jordan’s “number two girl” (behind Tori). Jordan accepted the offer, but really, there’s not a lot of time left in the game to take advantage of this truce.
More than anyone else, Rachel has been swapping alliances this season. She started out with close friends on her team; specifically, she aligned with Tina and Darrell. Once Era 1 dissolved, she became a prominent figure in the “Bananas’ Angels” alliance — to the point that she was receiving recognition as the central figure of the group.
This move was surprising but understandable. After all, this is a social game and you need allies to get through it. Rachel is a strong player, so it only seems natural for her to want to work with other strong girls who can protect her. As the game progressed, this alliance became Rachel’s main group.
There isn’t a problem until you look at Rachel’s side deals. We know she’s friends with Josh, and they worked together this season. But any sloppiness with this alliance gets attributed to Josh, who even became one of “Rachel’s Angels” toward the end of the run this season. We also saw Rachel approach other people about creating alliances this season. Specifically, she singled out Cory and Tori.
These alliances never really came to fruition, though her deal with Tori was more of a proposal than a real agreement. However, Cory does have reason to feel wronged by Rachel. She asked to work with him, but the one time she could have protected him she prioritized Bananas. We also can’t ignore the fact that Rachel had a close friendship with Cara Maria on All Stars 4, and they remained close coming into Season 40. Then, Cara found herself on the outside of Bananas’ Angels and she was left to work with other outsiders rather than Rachel.
Rachel has made some questionable moves this season but hasn’t had to deal with the repercussions yet. Now that we’re close to the final, Cory and Cara Maria have defaulted to partners, and they have every reason to take a swing at Rachel. So, she feels the need to seek more safety by aligning with Jordan.
Compared to other people this season, Rachel has played one of the more aggressive social games. There’s no denying that it’s helped her so far, but it’s not without its flaws. This could bite her in the ass at the eleventh hour, which would really stink for her because she had a much harder journey than other people this season.
Unlike most people in the game, Rachel had to rely on making allies this season, so it’s no surprise she ended up working with born-again rookie Aviv and Gen 4 outsider Jenny. Most of the other competitors arrived on this season with their friends and they didn’t have to work to build trust with new people. In her final attempt, she’s relying on Jordan, which could get complicated. Rachel knows Jordan will prioritize Tori, but selfishly, Rachel will want to remove Tori from the game. If she does this, it could complicate things for Jordan.
Hopefully, Rachel’s strategy gets her to the end because it’s really impressive that she can navigate the game this well after taking a 12-year hiatus from the main series.
Stop Being Polite 