The game of The Circle moves quickly. To paraphrase another reality show, one minute you can be in, and the next, you’re out. That’s exactly what happened to Savannah Palacio, who had an eventful four episodes in the Circle, to say the least. She was made the first influencer alongside Terilisha and found herself in with the women (or those who were catfishing as women). But that all quickly soured when the “Girl Group” felt she had betrayed them by choosing to save “Trevor” from blocking. After the blocking, a comment from Terilisha was the first shot in a war of words between the two women. Influencers became enemies as they threw each other under the bus, putting them in the spotlight for the next elimination. And influencers Chloe Veitch and “Emily” (aka Jack Atkins) became Team Terilisha, sending Savannah out. Before she left, though, she dropped in on Courtney Revolution, who she wanted to most win The Circle. She gave him valuable intel on the women, as well as access to the mysterious “Inner Circle.” Read on to hear Savannah’s thoughts on her time in the game. And check out Parade.com throughout The Circle season 2 with the various players and catfishes alike. Why did you decide to come onto The Circle? Looking back on it, I think, “Why would I decide to stick myself in a room by myself for days on end? What was going through my mind.” We were in quarantine, so I was looking for a creative outlet; I was looking for something completely new, something that I hadn’t ever done before. To be honest, I have never really been a reality show watcher. It was never my dream to be on a reality TV show. But it was an opportunity that fell into my lap. I watched the first season of the show, and I thought it was something that I would be great at. So I decided to take a leap of faith, and I’m very glad I did. Being the first influencer came with a lot of power and the first chance to get blood on your hands and block someone. How do you look back at the opportunity? At the time, I was excited to be an influencer. I already knew, having watched the first season, what was next. But I was thrown off when we had to choose someone to save because they hadn’t done that before. So I was quickly re-evaluating my strategy, trying to get my numbers in order. I was very excited at the time, especially to be going into the influencer chat with Terilisha. She was my number one girl; I thought both of us were going to be on the same page. I knew that there was a chance that we wouldn’t be, but I knew that we were going to be able to come to a compromise. And coming out of the influencer chat, I really thought that we were fine up until the Circle Chat that followed Bryant’s exit video. Going back to the decision to save Trevor, what went into that choice? How much did you weigh saving him versus Chloe? With all due respect, I thought the girls would have seen what I was doing or would have at least been able to see the reasoning behind it. In my mind, I thought saving Trevor was saving the girls. I also thought that saving Trevor would solidify where I stood with him because I had previously expressed doubts about him to the girls. By not saving Chloe, not only was I concealing the girls’ alliance, but I was also making myself clear as to where I stood with Trevor. I didn’t have any doubts that Chloe would be going home because two of the four girls were influencers. I see now that they didn’t understand it at the time. But I thought what I was doing was best for me and my game and for everyone’s game at that time. Talk to me about Chloe. I noticed that when you went to Courtney, you told him to look out for Emily and Terilisha and left her out of it. Why was that? I knew Chloe was didn’t have positive feelings towards me. And I knew that when she was named as an influencer, that there was a possibility that she could be sending me home. Because she saw me as a threat and because I didn’t support her when she needed support. I decided to leave her out at the time because I saw bigger threats. Looking back, maybe I should have said something about her. But I didn’t really feel like she was a huge threat at the time. To me, her game was so obvious. It was so obvious that she was gonna flirt her way to the top. And I didn’t think anyone was gonna fall for it because I wasn’t falling for it. In that first influencer chat, we see a lot of talk between you and Terilisha before deciding to block Bryant. How long did that decision take, and what was the dynamic like between the two of you? The decision was not easy at all. It was the furthest thing from easy. We were there for hours, sitting and looking at those screens. I mean, I think we were. They don’t allow clocks, and there’s also little to no sunlight in Manchester [where we filmed]. But at the end of the decision, I thought we had reached a compromise. She wanted to save River. I wanted to save Courtney. We both collectively needed to save Chloe for our game. So, unfortunately, the only person left was Bryant. I’ve gotten to meet him now, and he’s so nice! And I feel I told him so many times, “I feel so bad for getting rid of you. Because I feel you are a genuinely good person.” I feel like everyone in the show is. But at the beginning, you see that kindness matters. It didn’t look on Terilisa and me to get rid of him. But that’s the name of the game. The next day, you and Terilisha begin your conflict, which stems from disagreements over what happened in the influencer meeting. What’s your side of how everything fell apart? it was just the non-transparency. I feel like my conversations with Courtney were extremely transparent. I feel like my conversations with Trevor were extremely transparent. In that influencer chat, I could tell she was withholding information from me. And I felt like I was honest with her. I told her the reason why I didn’t save Chloe. And it was because I didn’t need to let the guys know that the girls had it had an alliance. What would have happened if the guys had known? They would have known they would have formed their own alliance, and it would have been bad for our game. But I don’t think she believed me. She obviously had her own perspective because she’s in a completely different room. And we’re experiencing the same game in different ways. So coming out of the influencer chat, I had already felt some type of way. But it was when she tried to throw shade at me in the Circle Chat when we were divulging about Bryant. And that’s when I was like, “Oh, no, I need to say something.” At any point before your final conversation, did you debate chatting with her to clear the air? I did not feel the need to clear the air with her. In my eyes, there at that time–and I no longer feel like this about her–I had felt like there was no sense in reasoning with the unreasonable. She was going around and talking about me to multiple people. They came back to me and were telling me what she was saying. Of course, I always want to find a middle ground. I always want to compromise and somehow make amends with her. But I just didn’t really feel the need to do so. Then she ended up reaching out to me. And when I even tried to reach a compromise at that point, it wasn’t being met. At that point, I just washed my hands and said, “Whatever. I’m just going to keep going on with the game and hope that this doesn’t take me down.” Did it come as a surprise to you at all that you and Terilisha were ranked at the bottom in the second round, given everything that happened? No, not at all. I knew the repercussions of me defending myself. But at the same time, I knew that if I didn’t defend myself, the repercussions might be worse for me. And I definitely wasn’t going to let that happen without having everyone know the truth. Were you then surprised by your elimination at the hands of Chloe and Emily? I was a little shocked. I mean, you always want to believe what people tell you in those chats. But you don’t know who is formulating these messages behind the screen. You don’t ever really know how anyone else is feeling. You’re left in a room by yourself, trying to form all these ideas in your head. I tried thinking positively, but I knew that I was a big threat in the game at the end of the day because I had just come off being an influencer. I knew that there was a high chance of me going home, so I wasn’t too shocked. But I was disappointed because they said they wouldn’t send me home and then they did. To that point, Jack says in that influencer chat that if they kept you around, you would be loyal to him and Chloe. Is that true? Absolutely. My whole goal was to get the girl to the end. Even when it seems like that wasn’t my goal, it was still my goal. I wasn’t lying when I said I’m a woman of my word. I’m not gonna lie on a game show. Even though it is a game and people were lying about their identities and everything, my objective wasn’t to lie. My objective was to go into the game, find like-minded people, and ride it out until the end. I really did get along immensely with Emily. And I didn’t think I had any issues with Chloe. But of course, it was the same thing that happened to Terilisha and me in the influencer chat. You want to get rid of a strong person so that you can hopefully have an easier time making it to the end. Let’s talk about your visit to Courtney. Surprisingly, you tell him to gun for Emily over Terilisha. Why was that? The reason why I said that wasn’t anything personal towards Emily. As I said, I really liked her, and she was a friend of mine in the Circle. But Emily is very strong. I knew Emily was a catfish. And I knew there was a brain behind all of that blonde. I told Courtney that because I wanted him to trust Emily but to be wary of her because she was a smart player. She knew exactly what she was doing. Whereas with Terilisha, I felt like she was in her own demise. She was still continuing to speak about me. And when you go around In a competition like The Circle when you’re talking negatively about people too much, it can be your own downfall. We saw that with my performance. I decided to defend myself, and in doing so, I probably was my own worst enemy. Finally, I have to ask about the newest arrival on the season in the form of “Lance Bass” aka Lisa. Did you think he was the real deal during your time on the show? I knew that he was a catfish. First of all, I was like, “There is no way Lance Bass is gonna get paid enough to be on The Circle. He is a big-time celebrity!” I grew up watching Lance Bass and listening to his music with *NSYNC. And I know that he’s a hustler, and it would take some big bucks for him to get on The Circle. But I knew that it had to have been someone close enough to him to know him well enough to play him. So although we didn’t know who it was, I was so excited to be talking to someone who knew him really well. Next, read our chat with Bryant Wood, who was eliminated first on The Circle season 2.
