[Ant.]

24. Justin

I find him pretty much ‘meh’. I can appreciate that they utilised a character who literally said like, one line (or two) before the TDDDDI special.

Who would’ve thought the silent guy who got eliminated fourth in TDI would become one of the major antagonists of the following seasons? Definitely not me. Sadly I just didn’t find him too intriguing as an antagonist. Once Courtney stepped in he took a backseat, especially since his looks and charm, his main tool for manipulation, stopped working on people at that point.

His 'manipulation' was weak, at that, in my opinion. He only really effectively used manipulation to guilt Gwen into throwing the next challenge for her team (which was bull**** if you ask me, Trent chose to throw the challenges, Gwen was fully against it - sure the Grips didn't 'believe' Gwen's version of the story but Gwen was not responsible for Trent's actions) and using Beth and Lindsay for votes, and that strategy stopped when they stopped finding him attractive.

And that's when I realise Justin is not as good as a villain as I remember. He sounded too cocky and arrogant in regards to his abilities and strategy, but his strategy was relying on two team members in an alliance and barely putting effort into challenges. Sure, he organised a "guys' alliance", but Duncan practically took hold of it and orchestrated LeShawna's elimination himself. And after that? Justin was eliminated.

Despite being a bad gameplayer, he was at least interesting, and it was good to see his character be developed in such a way that has barely been replicated when early cuts have returned for other seasons (see: Cody just being Cody in TDWT; Tyler and Noah not doing anything noteworthy or having any growth in TDWT; Sam literally just being... there in TDAS).

Justin is a character I ranked over some characters I arguably like more by virtue of him being more developed and 'interesting' than the others. I certainly like Justin, but I don't hold a high opinion of him.