Umut whimpers, Umut howls, Umut has to go. The “stars” act unnecessarily silly in the course of the examination – however above all, Ariel’s need for recognition blocks something from creating for the higher within the camp.
The older ones and small automotive drivers amongst us who nonetheless know what “stick-shift cars” sound like in all probability nonetheless do not forget that excessive, annoying whirring noise. The over-revving noise of an engine the place the motive force merely would not wish to shift into the subsequent gear. In precisely the identical method – screaming, inefficient, and in addition surprisingly relieved of heartbreak and enjoyable – the crew of our favourite TV camper van is at present rumbling into the second week in Australia. Or, as person named D-Jay aptly put it on X below the hashtag #IBES2026: “What a rubbish troupe.”
Since it isn’t simply the transmission that suffers when nobody shifts up a gear: Let’s rapidly summarize day 9 and analyze the rationale for the present distress.
Who with whom, in useless: At the start there’s a large RTL reconciliation cinema, staged by Eva, the snuggle sufferer is Samira, the lady whose husband Eva – not the one one – went to mattress with. The maximally “artful” opening picture. Eva approaches Samira, who’s sitting there on the campfire: “Samira, is there anything on your mind?” – Samira: “Hey? Why are you talking to me now?” At about that stage it goes on, then solely with two folks. Eva, the cheater, explains to Samira, the cheated individual, that she has to permit the ache, that mourning the connection lasts two years, and that she is aware of this from expertise. But Samira has to beat her anger. “Resentment from within is not nice.” A pregnant pause, a deep look via false eyelashes: “You’re so much more than that…” Samira on the jungle telephone: “The whole situation is so sick. I don’t want any wisdom from Eva.”
At least the truth neighborhood finds out that Serkan, additionally a “reality star” by occupation and shortly to be Samira’s ex-husband, has not but paid any upkeep for the 2 young children.
That, no joke, was one of many higher tales.
Who towards whom: All ladies towards Eva – and in addition a bit towards Patrick. Instigated by deadly injection Ariel, gratefully absorbed by arch enemy Samira, executed by Simone Ballack, farmer Patrick is requested whether or not he truly thinks it is okay if his supposedly beloved girlfriend, who’s ready within the kinfolk’ resort on the sting of the jungle, has to observe on the display how Eva continuously flirts with him. The accused, largely remoted within the camp, is definitely searching for him (an ally within the actuality clique), however to this point has been very innocent. At the top of the episode, she is joined by Mirja du Mont, who will not be solely more and more skinny but additionally thin-skinned, and who snaps at Eva as a result of she was standing in her method within the bathe fully unnecessarily. Ariel in the course of the showdown on the camp website, in her deep, ruthless method, in entrance of the assembled camp inmates: “Patrick is a taken man. If there weren’t cameras everywhere here, he would have fucked Eva long ago!”
The examination: It was referred to as “Genöhle Cave” and consisted of the duty of placing eleven colourful stars, every “broken” into 5 items, again collectively like a puzzle. Six examinees have been wanted, everybody wished it. Ariel, Eva and Gil, who have been in week one, had a break, as did Hubert and Hardy. The others needed to squeeze right into a slender however not very darkish cave, lined up subsequent to one another, their heads protruding of the bottom, their arms popping out of holes subsequent to their heads, they needed to put on protecting goggles and endure common showers of cockroaches, mealworms and ants from above. Eleven stars in eleven minutes. Sounds straightforward? It was the identical for Simone Ballack. She had put collectively the 2 stars that lay in her visual view in only a few minutes. Two stars. They have been the one ones left. Everyone else did not put the star collectively from 5 totally different items. “I can’t do the puzzle,” Mirja du Mont saved shouting. Stephen, Patrick, Samira, everyone seems to be determined. Except Umut: he screamed and whimpered and cried and complained. Non-stop. This might be the extent on which he will get alongside so properly with Ariel.
What precisely is the issue with the IBES Class of 2026? In quick, it’s the lack of actual sympathetic figures (apart from Hubert Fella, who has solely performed a supporting position to this point) the shortage of emotions that don’t appear fully calculated. The absence of these typical jungle camp moments by which candidates shock themselves, the opposite campers, and the viewers. A change turns into noticeable. People do issues they by no means did. Gain insights that you just would not anticipate. Overcome your fears, develop past your self. There is a scarcity of heaviness in addition to lightness, of enjoyable in addition to drama (not: drama). There is definitely a scarcity of all the things past poses, low cost calculations and sayings. And that brings us to those that give their face to the distress of this season: Ariel and Gil.
Difference gamers: Every season IBES has and wishes the one individual (typically two) who brings dynamism to the camp with their eccentricities. That units issues in movement as a result of she is totally different. Young fashions with fragile personalities like Sarah Knappik, Gisele Opppermann or Larissa Marolt (when Heidi Klum’s ProSieben “girls” have been nonetheless wished “at RTL”). Or “reality” grenades like Edith Stehfest and Sam Dylan final yr. Without them, issues rapidly turn into boring.
This yr, the little Swiss Ariel instantly took over this position. And since then, I have not given it again for a second. The solely factor she shares with Gil Ofarim – the principle position as a “sinner on the path to purification” – is that she bites into him like a terrier daily. With at all times the identical phrases. Gil Ofarim on Day 9: “Let it go, Ariel! Find someone else for your airtime. I’m tired of you.” A sentence that solely triggers an Ariel to chew even tougher.
Prime-Time-Ariel: Ariel does all the things she will daily to at all times be within the image and on air. And she additionally will get this favor from the creators of the jungle camp – greater than is sweet for the camp. This time, for instance, the Swiss plague abruptly started to assert that it believed the earth was flat. Also: “Mr. Armstrong, he was never on the moon. That’s bullshit.” Hardy: “Are you kidding us?” – “I know that from TikTok.” Mirja: “That must be a bad joke.” Hubert: “Ask Mr. TikTok that.”
The distinction: All of those “difference players” within the story of the jungle camp, to make use of soccer presenter language, as unusual as these characters behaved, as panicked as they have been in exams, as overwhelmed in conversations: regardless of their flaws, they at all times had one thing, a tick, a peculiarity that made them at the least a contact likeable. Human. Ariel is having none of it. She is similar day after day: similar calculating, similar improper, similar egomaniacal, similar narcissistic, similar mendacity, similar self-righteous, similar presumptuous, loud and annoying. Just seeing how she might hardly stand the truth that others have been going to the jungle check and that she would not play a job for at the least quarter-hour drove her loopy. And after all it led to her fully glorifying her personal position, reinterpreting her failure in eight out of 9 checks: “The six of them are worse than me alone!” Before she began – airtime, child! – “insulting” everybody within the camp out of nowhere (Sonja Zietlow).
It will definitely be attention-grabbing when a documentary comes out at some point by which consultants have analyzed all the things that is improper with Ariel. Emotionally and mentally.
Prominently ignored: Simone Ballack in regards to the lack of decency and work-shyness of the “Reality” faction, Hubert Fella about his gentle coronary heart (“I’m the crybaby of Germany!”); Mirja and the “Toilet Paper Gate”, in addition to the eerie, greasy musical duet by Farmer Patrick and the “flirty” Eva.
Best line within the episode: “Only RTL’s morning magazines were delivered faster than the toilet paper rolls in the camp” (Jan Köppen).
Best saying on the web: “Ariel opens the flap so wide that you can turn an A380 around inside.” (User named “Bob” on X)
A saying from the occasions of “well-groomed gentlemanly wit”: “Maybe Mirja is in such a bad mood because of her period.” (submitted in 2026 by: Eva Benetatou)
Who needed to go: Even although many within the camp guessed Stephen. The threatening phrase “maybe” went to Eva and Umut. Had to go, to the astonishment of many: oh-my-god-a-spider-umut.
Last phrases: Umut: “I am hurt and disappointed”. Patrick: “I saw you in the finale…” Eva: “Thanks!”
The subsequent episode is obtainable at the moment at 8:15 p.m. on RTL and RTL+
https://www.welt.de/iconist/trends/article697e789ba7dd3fc6705560a2/dschungelcamp-2026-die-erde-ist-keine-scheibe-wie-ariel-glaubt-das-camp-dafuer-aber-sehr-flach.html