Every single player from The Circle season 2, ranked

The Circle season 2 player: Lee/River

Lee Swift is one of the oldest players to have ever competed in The Circle, and one of its most charming. Starstruck at the thought of playing against Lance Bass, genuinely attached to his Cardashian alliance mates, and emotionally invested despite his best efforts, Lee has turned out to be one of the best players this season.

I always feel strange rooting for contestants that play as catfish and make it so close to the end of a game that, at least initially, started out as being focused on authenticity. But much like Season 1’s Seaburn/Rebecca, Lee/River has somehow wormed his way into my heart. He may be pretending to be a much younger man with a different name, but so much of the personality Lee exhibits as River just feels genuine, it’s easy to forget that he’s not actually who he says he is.

It also probably helps that several of the season’s other catfish – Deleesa/Trevor and Jack/Emily – were telling much more manipulative lies than Lee did. At least he just pretended to be younger – and more follically blessed than he actually was – his falsehoods didn’t feel as hurtful as some of the other contestants.