Initial Post
I wouldn't say Luke failed in as much as production didn't give proper instruction and thus booted him because he was ramping up to Fish Tank too quickly. Luke did exactly as he believed he was supposed to do as a plant in the know, I think, which is why he seemed to have left on good terms and come back understanding it was a bit of miscommunication from both sides.
As for him winning the prize (but seriously this time): Luke, in spirit, has been here since day one. He's a running joke and the ultimate starting point and undoing of one of those hell house participants and his arc within the entire show (Slimeball). He is also technically one of the OGs and him winning now would be somewhat similar to if Alexis or La'Ron showed back up like a new fish: they left before the going got tough but we have a prior connection to him which is more than what we can say for the new fish. He now has two weeks to either help turn FH2 into Fish Tank hell or simply ride the wave with production, hopefully until the end, because the audience will not be happy with anyone outside of Burt and MAYBE Binx winning the grand prize.
How this shakes out sits squarely on production's shoulders. They need to use Luke wisely.
OGs Winning the Prize
At this point Burt could crater post-Brandon. I can't speak for everyone but his horny hunting was hilarious and entertaining but interspersed with Burt trying to figure out what the fuck was up with the house, being a general oddball schizoaffective freak, then being a really game entertainer once learned he was live all the time: talking to viewers, getting gaslit by pretty much everyone, getting Frank Hassled in a different flavour to the rest of the house, Xavier, the gay dating show theory. I truly could go on and on. I can see why people were put off by him but as a viewer, he was entertaining as fuck. I also just find him thoroughly intriguing from a character lens: how do you take the promising young man Burt seemed to be and turn him into this? What went wrong?
Yelling about how he wants to PROTECT THE POCS AND QUEERS isn't entertaining to me. It feels like coming back after a midseason hiatus but Burt's writer changed and his character was needlessly assassinated. Fruitlessly chasing after Brandon was funny but now he's gone, even Burt begging production to keep him on board was entertaining (compared to Binx and Payton starting and stopping at 'it's fine you do this Brandon, I'm so sorry the world is so hard for you, let's hug box about it). Burt overtly being such a degenerate rather than him seeming like a lost/deranged lamb 80% of the time and then whipping you back into reality with a tongue lash, awkward hip thrust, a splurt session, or him trying to shove his cock down someone's pants made for a repetitive cycle, yes, but different things happened within that cycle and it was continuously influenced by shifting outside factors, like his ever evolving list of lust interests.
Right now he's trapped in a loop of SAVE THE POCS AND QUEERS, I DO PORN, SAVE THE POCS AND QUEERS, having everyone in the house hate him regardless, SAVE THE POCS AND QUEERS, DICK COCK PENIS, and I genuinely cannot tell how much of this is him re-programming his fucking brain to allow himself to be gaslit by this shit again and how much is him just being Burt but failing to engage because the new crop of contestants do not play ball like the old guard or Burt having nothing else to offer once the layer of paranoia wears off.
Binx is 50/50 and, yes, so far she's definitely the frontrunner for victor if all the new fish and Luke were eliminated from the pool. As a competitor so far she's playing as she should which is where Slimeball messed up this House, but I would be pissed off about her being flip-floppy on this particular topic, Sam SEETHING about it, and then Binx being handed the prize money at the end of all this even if she deserved it from a gameplay perspective. It would be a small miracle if she managed to chess game her way through this many contestants without a fucking doubt and, again, I can see why someone would say she deserved to win if she managed to pull it off.
But then I think about kids like Desmond who are pushed into the Hell House that is the pedophilic grooming ring that uses drag kids as one of its victim sources and how he doesn't get to suffer through that with the promise of some magical prize that'll make all that suffering worth it.
It's the sweet spot of moral compass meets detached reality show viewer meets the person watching a 19 year old wail and cry about a hulking hassling tower stealing her stuff and feeling bad about it.
Speaking of, Payton really plans to coast her way through Famous House and while it's a valid strategy from a game perspective, I guess you could argue kids younger than her have to coast through their abuse all the time, la di da, save the kids. I fully grasp how hypocritical of a hill this is to die on, trust me. But I'd like for Payton to be more involved... unfortunately I think more involvement for her is sticking with stronger/more annoying contestants. She is always the bridesmaid and she likes it that way. But she also wants to have her cake and eat it too.
The Other Contestants
The drag kid drama aside, Breezy is top tier villain material and basically the female Jeet and my new hate sink, though she might have a bigger set of balls on her and a better grasp on how to handle social situations which makes her ten times more dangerous. Considering she started mouthing off about this being an endurance test against G and his bullshit outbursts and STILL stuck around when Brandon left, whether or not this stayed as FH or became FT she could prove to be a fierce competitor.
Star could be interesting if she, like Payton (and the What Could Have Been? question of Smaack), added more layers to herself over the course of the next two weeks. But she's on the chopping block so she is going to have to act FAST. Considering she's a homebody and the mama bear, it is likely the competitors will keep her around because she's useful and, in their eyes, harmless as far as the competition goes. She's the oldest, seemingly the sweetest, and counts as a vote toward however the majority want off the show. I think I'd like to see her more in the Fish Tank environment but it's highly likely she would peace out; her staying in and of itself would be unexpected and thus somewhat entertaining for a time (similar to Payton).
Kevin is my favorite fish outside of Luke but content-wise he has provided nothing except reassurance that the entirety of the world isn't completely crazy, which I'm thankful for, but he's got such strong freeloader vibes I almost want him wandering around 'doing chores' with Jobe and chilling out. He could spring a surprise on us though, he's very untested. And while Kawan(/m?) is largely passive, he's got alright vibes and with the right nudging he might develop into a white horse variant of drunken Jobe; him winning the money wouldn't anger me as much and he did lose all that weight... That counts for something, right? Again, Fish Tank would be a better test for him and his endurance, I think.
The porn actress, Shelby I believe, has amazing simp potential but I pick her out from the crowd of simp options because she seemed very invested in those dog tags she found and the numbers on them and it felt reminiscent to FH!Burt of old. TURBO, Shelby. TURBO.
Other than that...
