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The Anonymous' Kacie Admits Not Being Her "Authentic Self" Ended Her Game Early
The podcast producer reveals that the digital personality part of the game wasn't part of her skill set.
Spoilers for the first three episodes of USA's The Anonymous!
One of the more fascinating aspects of The Anonymous, USA Network's new competition strategy show, is that the 12 contestants living together in a remote house in the middle of nowhere have to play both a social game and a digital persona game. For those who can be charming in person and digitally, The Anonymous is a psychological playground. But for those who struggle with one or the other, the road may be rough.
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Case in point: Kacie B. Mize. As the second contestant voted out of the house, she admitted to USA Insider that the isolation, the difficult mental game, and her disconnect from digital communication doomed her longevity.
Kacie confirms that not being herself = a weaker game
As a survivor of the first vote out of the game, Kacie admitted that she never felt confident regarding the game dynamics or what people really thought about her. And that bloomed into some paranoia.
"With the game, in general, you're forced to lie the entire time," she said. "So even if there is an alliance, you can't really trust them. So alliance-wise, I knew that was never happening. If I could, I would really have aligned with Xavier, and me and Nina got really close that last day. But those things just like never ended up happening for me."
Kacie also realized by the first Anonymous Mode session that hiding her real life, true self, and personality to win wasn't going to be easy to maintain.
"It's very hard for me not to be myself. It's pretty near impossible," she said. "So going in with all these big personalities, I wasn't really able to express my personality. Me and my wife met on a lesbian dating app, so I don't have any game at all. I'm very shy and I'm very bad at texting. And once I came in [the game] and was like, 'Oh God, we can't say anything about what we've done. I can't really be genuine, and now I have to text the whole time?' It really affected me. It had a toll, and I'm sure everyone will see that. I mean, I get pretty manic there."
In the end, she got the majority vote and was the second player sent home. Kacie said that she was definitely off her game when it likely mattered most.
"I was just really focused on myself and my mental health," she said of her last day in the game. "I definitely think I probably focused on the wrong things. I think I was more concerned about people not thinking that I was [a] threat, or figuring out who I was, rather than trying to figure out who the other people were."
When it came down to it, Kacie said she wasn't surprised.
"I knew once I was on the block there was a high chance of me going home," she said. "I don't think I could have done much to change the outcome, but it really helped me knowing that I got put up by one person. And I got eliminated by one person. It wasn't the whole house who put me up or the whole house who voted me out. It made me feel a lot better because I do get my feelings hurt. I felt like I was really misunderstood and everything, so that helps."
The Anonymous episodes repeat in primetime on USA Network throughout the week. New episodes premiere every Monday on USA Network at 11 p.m. ET/PT.
