The Circle Recap: A Spicy Start (Season 4 Episode 1)

The Circle is back and it’s hotter than ever!

Season 4 Episode 1 is “A Spicy Start” to the social media game show where players compete in an online personality contest for a cash prize of $100,000.

Drama, diverse personalities, strategy, and genuine human connection are all a part of the package that’s unlike any reality competition out there. Contestants play as themselves or as catfish and learn about each other exclusively through The Circle‘s online platform. 

This new batch of players is spicing things up right out of the gate. Let’s recap!

ALERT! Spoilers ahead!

A Family Affair

The Circle Season 4 starts out with seven competitors. Five play as themselves and two as catfish. Frank, Yu Ling, Alyssa, Crissa, and Bru enter The Circle with their own identities while John and Parker take on the personas of their parents.

Frank: I’m going into The Circle as myself! Of course. Because look at me. 

Yu Ling: I’ll be going into The Circle as fun-size, firecracker Yu Ling ’cause honestly, I wouldn’t want to play anybody else.

Alyssa: My game plan is to go in as me!

Bru: I’m pretty popular online. I have 3.5 million followers. If I can be popular on social media, I think I can be popular in The Circle. 

Crissa: I don’t know how to play anybody besides myself.

John is a Jersey dude who loves his mama. His strategy is to win over the others with maternal mom vibes inspired by his very own mother:

John: The most popular person in every Italian family is the mom, and that’s why I’m going into The Circle as the matriarch, my mom Carol. 

John recognizes Bru from Tik Tok and is a fan—he must be one of those 3.5 million followers—but he’s got to keep up the mom act.

John: I can’t react, being John, to knowing who Bru is, because there is no way Carol would ever know Bru as Bru.

Parker, on the other hand, is unable to avoid these kind of missteps. This party girl is catfishing as her father, Paul.

Parker: The Circle is all about trust. If I saw a 21-year-old sorority girl, I definitely wouldn’t put trust in them, especially with my pictures. And that’s why I’m going in The Circle as a 56-year-old guy named Paul.

It gets extra interesting when John/Carol and Parker/Paul start interacting. Some red flags go up for John upon reading Parker/Paul’s profile.

John: I don’t trust this guy as far as I can throw him, mostly because I’m playing a similar character on the opposite end. 

Dude, if you only knew!

Parker sees the similarities, too. Both parents are over 50 and married with two kids. 

Parker: When talking to her, I’m gonna have to be very careful with my word choices, especially if she were to ask a question about the olden days. 

However, it is another player’s choice of words that throws her off. In the first full Circle Chat, Alyssa asks the others what the title of their memoir would be. 

Alyssa’s would be Wining and Whining, Bru incorporates his name into It’s a BRUtiful Life, body positive Frank takes the Titties and Tequila title, and Chinese-American Yu Ling comes up with the punny All That and Dim Sum. I’m genuinely impressed with some of these. 

Then there’s Parker posing as a 56-year-old father of two:

What is memoirs?

Congratulations, you just played yourself. 

First Impressions

With barely any time to make alliances, the players must rate each other so profiles and first impressions are all they really have to go on. Although, this is helped by a get-to-know-you mini game called “Been There Done That,” where the contestants confess to questions using thumbs up or thumbs down. 

Again, among the catfish, John/Carol fares much better than Parker/Paul with questions about sending nudes and playing hooky from work. The others begin to pick up on inconsistencies with Paul as well. Alyssa says he looks like a real estate broker—which he actually is!—despite Parker fudging the career field with “marriage therapist.”

And the proof is in the ratings. 

Momma Bear Carol places 2nd and becomes an influencer along with the very fabulous Frank who nabs first. Poor Paul comes in dead last. 

With interactions taking place after the ratings have been locked in, opinions and impressions could shift which may affect the influencers’ decision of who gets blocked. 

That person is not revealed on this first episode, however, as Top Influencer, Frank, alone, is tasked with choosing the next player to enter The Circle between two profiles. But, that’s not the only twist that sneaks in at the end.

2 Become 1

Two new players arrive who will catfish as one under the profile Frank chooses. Not just any two people though, this team consists of 2/5ths of the uber popular 90s pop group, the Spice Girls. That’s right, Melanie Brown also known as Scary Spice and Emma Bunton AKA Baby Spice have entered the chat!

This is such an epic twist but not totally unprecedented for The Circle. On Season 2, personal assistant to Lance Bass of the boy band NSYNC, catfished as her famous boss, and there have been a of couple instances where two people play as one person.

Season 3 brought in sisters Chanel and Ava playing as Ava, the younger of the siblings. This shook things up so much that contestant Michelle—playing as herself—was blocked and booted (not to mention, the first to go) after losing a battle over her own identity. The sisters continued on in the game as the ousted Michelle. 

All in all, it’s a super fun and interesting start to a super fun and interesting reality game show. I was hoping to see a trans, nonbinary, or disabled contestant this season. There’s still time though and more players to meet—maybe The Circle will up their representation even more, examining gender/sexuality norms and biases or highlighting issues of accessability. 

Circular Logic & Extras:

• Imagine you get kicked out of The Circle and you choose to go see Melanie and Emma’s catfish face-to-face only to find it is two of the freakin’ Spice Girls?! I would die!
• The younger players probably won’t even recognize them 😭
• So far I am rooting for Yu Ling and Frank. I was pretty surprised to see Yu Ling get sixth in the ranking. She’s so instantly likable; and just as she describes herself being a Millennial-Gen Z cusp—”relatable and hilarious.” It goes to show that what comes across on a computer screen is not always an accurate perception of real life.
• Yu Ling’s first outfit is giving Hot Dog on a Stick.
• John reacting to Alyssa being an assistant to a sex coach: “Put your feelings aside. Think with your head.” Yeah, your mom’s head, bro. Me thinks, this is gonna complicated for the momma’s boy. 
• Bru is brimming with dorky energy.
• There’s no one I really dislike yet. I’m sure that will change.
• “What is memoirs” tho.

What did you think of the premiere of The Circle Season 4? Who are you rooting for? Share your thoughts and predictions in the comments below!

The Circle streams four new episodes a week on Wednesdays on Netflix.

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