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I feel like a good person deserving of nice things, so why do I feel as if these contestants on The Trust would chew me out if I were ever on the show? It has been frustrating to see this group try to weigh each other’s deservingness throughout this game. It was never the key determinant for making it to the end of the road. Several of them even confused a person’s deservingness of money with one’s need for it, which ultimately got one of the nicest people out of the Trust. If anything, this show has shown that deservingness is a flimsy means to determine whether anyone should win on a game show predicated on greed and deceit. We need something more tangible to know who to root for. Being able to lie well never let us down, did it?
At least good guy Gaspare finally wins me over by telling one of the show’s biggest lies before it ends. Realizing that he doesn’t have to reveal that he, too, voted Lindsey out of the Trust alongside Tolú, he denies casting a vote and leaves the team to assume that, ultimately, it was Lindsey’s vote for Tolú that was blocked and thus, she, unfortunately, had to leave. If there’s anyone who has been “reformed” (oh, we’ll get to this) in this game, it’s Gaspare!
Five people are left in the house after Lindsey’s exit: Gaspare, Brian, Jake, Julie, and Tolú. Brian is eager to welcome Tolú back into the “herd” as an uninspiring Jake celebrates that “the end of the rainbow” is near. All Tolú has to do is lay low and feign some gratitude that she is welcomed into an alliance that she never wanted to be a part of.
Julie has now fully ingratiated herself into the group of white men. She says she is inspired by Brian’s willingness to trust others; to do right by him, she takes him aside to let him know that she took the offer the day they both went on their day trip. Moved to show how great of a person she’s become, she also ends up telling the rest of the group as well. Brian shows some disappointment, while Gaspare and Jake share the same feeling that she was shady for accepting the offer. Tolú doesn’t take issue with it other than that Julie continuously had the chance to come clean but lied to her consistently afterward. She expects a nice dinner at the end of the game, a perfect answer in juxtaposition to the men, eyebrows furrowed, struggling to process their feelings.
By the next morning, the team has 36 hours to either solidify their alliance or act on all the little sideswipes they accounted for about each person. Tolú strategically goes to Julie and Brian, her two biggest advocates, to curry favor and remind them of their goodness and growth.
Brooke meets the group by the swimming pool. They are told that the total prize amount currently sits at $268,000, or $53,000 per person. Brooke tells them that there is one more test before the final voting ceremony: Each of them will enter the Vault one by one. The offer in the Vault is the most tantalizing that it’s ever been: Each contestant will name an amount up to $25,000 that they would like to take from the Trust. They don’t have to bid at all, but if they bid the highest number, it’s theirs to keep. Only one person will receive the money, and no one else will know unless they tell the team. At this point, the strategy is either to bid the full $25,000 or not bid at all; throwing in an arbitrary number would raise too many eyebrows among a team that is so concerned about being upstanding players. They will be consumed with needless questions: Why now? Why that specific amount? Why do it? And lord knows we don’t need another scene of these guys talking in circles.
This final offer makes Jake, Julie, Brian, and Gaspare squirm, but ultimately, none of them take it. Jake specifically worries about Tolú, who he notes has no experience in the Vault. His condescension is like a million needle pricks to the side; human beings have all experienced temptation, not to mention his buddy Gaspare also hasn’t been in the Vault.
In these final moments in the Vault with Brooke, we hear what is at stake for most of these team members. Julie doesn’t want to repeat the patterns of her old ways, Gaspare wants to be a good example to his children and students, and Brian wants to do what is right for Rooster. A lot of the deliberation of their deservingness happens privately and only in front of Brooke. We have been witnesses to very few actual open conversations about it with each other. It makes their motives feel shallow compared to the ones on a show like The Circle, where contestants come in with stories of disabilities, loss, and isolation, then strategically garner sympathy and bond through honest, open conversations with each other.
Ultimately the only person to take the offer in the Vault is Tolú, who bids to take $25,000 from the Trust; she always showed she would. She has always made it clear that she is here to claim her stake before the possibility of disappointing anyone in the house. The only people who ever get to be disappointed in her is her family. As a child of immigrants, I, too, understand a moral compass ruled by whether my parents would be proud of what I do. But beyond that, Tolú has never pretended not to be interested in the money. Second to Winnie, her game has been the most transparent one of this group.
Tolú decides to keep her secret to the very end. By the time the last person has left the Vault, the team hugs and congratulates each other for (presumably) not taking the offer. “We did the right thing,” Jake coos at Julie as she beams. Julie revels in her redemption arc and practically asks for a parade, a celebration, and a red carpet. She calls Tolú and herself “reformed tricksters” for choosing integrity and loyalty over themselves, and it is then that I realize that Julie was never playing a cunning game. She is a fool to love and cares deeply about being liked. But sure, Tolú is a reformed trickster, too! She plays along.
It appears that Tolú genuinely respects Brian. They share a private conversation where Brian confides in how this experience has been tough on him. Tolú tells him that she wishes she had approached the game more with his mentality. I do believe her. She will do what she can to win money, and she wishes she could have played like a lamb. For the record, these two truths can exist without affecting her integrity.
At the final voting ceremony, Brooke shares that this one is a little different: Each contestant will be given envelopes that contain cards with everyone’s names on it, except their own, as well as one card that says “Share.” After some time alone to deliberate, they’ll all bring their envelopes to the Cliff’s Edge and share their votes out loud with each other.
With one final conversation around their dining table, Brian says it has been an honor and a privilege. It should have stopped there, but Julie thanks the boys for letting people make mistakes in this experience (they didn’t do anything but antagonize and strong-arm her). Gaspare says he’s been shown that people need chances to fix themselves (no one in here needs to be fixed).
We get glimpses into each person’s deliberation process and see that there are still suspicions, but this show is as simple (derogatory) as it gets: In a team of upstanding men, a “reformed trickster,” and a woman who wants as much money as possible, it’s inevitable that they will all vote to share.
The real shock settles in when they all stand in a row at Cliff’s Edge, the same way they showed up to the experience, and Brooke shares that they are very close to their $243,000. Whaaat, $243,000? Looks like someone indeed took money from the Vault! In their collective shock and anger (with Tolú playing along), Jake throws out some choice words about how he would never take more money than he deserves, and Julie expresses that she doesn’t feel safe anymore after she just learned not to live life in survival mode. She also says that at this point, everyone here is deserving because, over time, she got to know and respect them (our early ousted contestant Juelz must be watching this bewildered). Tolú feigns surprise that money was taken out of the pot up until the very end.
Shocked, enraged, or not, they ultimately all vote to share the pot. Five people walk away splitting $243,000 in addition to Brian with his extra $30,000, Tolú with her additional $25,000, and Julie with $15,000. The show ends with an anticlimactic whimper; none of the contestants have to share how much is in their individual pots and can keep lying until the very end, which Tolú very well does when Gaspare hugs and asks her if she took the final offer. They all share some lessons about being a genuine person and how trust can be built up and down, but I’ve tuned out by this point. Brian gets to adopt a new baby Rooster, Tolú is free, and I don’t have to think about my own integrity ever again.
The Vault
• This show should have let Brooke Baldwin, a seasoned journalist at CNN, lean more into her skills. She’s our omniscient host who knows every person’s voting and Vault history as well as their reasons for being here, but she hardly scrutinized each person’s thoughts and motives beyond asking them what was going on in the house and how they were feeling about it. I would have loved for Brooke to catch them in some contradictions or covering up their lies. This is how Julie got to come out relatively unscathed and control her own redemption arc. Let a journalist act on her instigating, nosy instincts!
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