‘The Circle’ Was a Lot Harder for ‘Shooby’ This Time Around

This post contains spoilers for The Circle Season 5.

Let’s get this out of the way up front: Yes, Shubam Goel—aka “Shooby,” aka The Circle Season 1’s most dedicated catfish hunter—is still in touch with his in-show BFF, Joey Sasso. “We actually kicked it a couple weeks ago in New York,” Goel said during a recent interview with The Daily Beast, tied to his return for Season 5. “We had some good grub… went to the ice skating rink.” He later shared that he’d recently hung out with fellow Circle alums Courtney Revolution, Daniel Cusimano, and Jack Atkins.

Goel aced his first cycle through The Circle, even in spite of his self-proclaimed distaste for social media. While he did not win, he came in as a close second behind Sasso and became a fan favorite. This season, Goel is getting a second chance to take home the big prize. In a strategy switch-up, he’s coming in as a catfish: a young Indian woman named Sasha. But the game has gotten far more strategic since Goel’s first time playing, a far cry from the innocent bewilderment of Season 1.

Although Goel believes the contestants this season played a sincere game, he faced an uphill battle this time around. “The profiles were a lot more layered this time,” he said. “It felt like each person had a lot of different things like they were getting out there. But I will say, this season as a whole? It reminds me a lot of Season 1. I think a lot of people, especially the originals, had deep, strong connections.”

Goel’s nerves were on full display as he wandered into his new Circle apartment. As the screen loaded his new profile, he humorously begged for a mercifully easy character. “I genuinely didn't think I'd be that great at catfishing,” he told The Daily Beast. “You know, I'm a catfish hunter—not the catfish itself.”

Still, it’s not hard to guess why it seemed more advantageous to try catfishing anyway. “If I came back as myself … I just think that maybe people might have been gunning for me right off the bat,” he said.

Goel only had so much control over his character this season, however. The game chose certain biographical details (age and a “single” relationship status) for him, as well as photos for his (well, Sasha’s) profile picture. In an effort to merge himself with Sasha and become, as he calls it, “Shu-Sasha,” Goel made his character a tech blogger—which at least reflects his own interests.

Just like Goel guessed it would be, catfishing proved to be a challenge for him. It’s harder to speak up in fast-paced group chats, after all, when you’re constantly watching your back and keeping track of your fake biography. Add in making sure you stay in character with each reply, and you begin to see the dilemma. In Goel/Sasha’s case, he said, “I think the toughest thing was just the gender difference… just catfishing as a girl my age, there’s obviously a lot of differences.”

Brett Robinson and Xanthi Perdikomatis, who began playing together as “Jennifer” after their elimination on Day One, wound up being the ones to send “Sasha” packing. Apparently, it was a certain outburst—in which Goel responded to accusations that Sasha was a catfish by writing, “I’m not a fucking man!”—that sealed it.

“I wanted the people to see that Sasha was a leader, and she was ready to unite, to the end,” Goel said. This led “Sasha” to try leading a revolution—new players versus old.

“The way I saw it, when I came in there, I felt like the original [players] were running this thing,” he said. “Every rating, every move, every point of this season was being driven by the OG’s.”

The bonds he saw forming between the first set of players reminded Goel of how tight the Season 1 cast became—so he knew that if those relationships continued to deepen, the newer players would be toast. “I felt like I knew where the puck was going,” he said. “So I felt like there was a pivotal moment where the newbies could really start to rally the troops, and we could change where this game was going.”

Sasha’s rallying cry proved a bit… intense for some people. The proposition of intentionally voting out new players, combined with some extremely unvarnished delivery, put a few players off—even if it did intrigue a couple others. Ultimately, it blew up in his face, ending his run on the show.

Nevertheless, Goel maintains that the failed revolution was a “brilliant move.”

“There's always ‘shoulda, coulda, woulda,’” he said. “Maybe if I said something in a different way. … There were a lot of layers all the players were dealing with in that game. Some people had connections with the originals. Some people didn't know how they felt about other newbies in the revolution.

“Maybe in another universe, somewhere else, it did work.”

Either way, “Sasha” left the game with no regrets—not in the first season, and not now. Instead, he found himself once again reflecting on the genuine relationships players were able to form in-game. “When you’re in there, you don’t have anything else,” he said. “And the connections you make are so pure. I think the coolest thing is, like, coming out of The Circle, those relationships translate to the real world.”