Each week, Deal or No Deal Island host, game master, and executive producer Joe Manganiello will weigh in with Entertainment Weekly regarding the latest events on the island. This week, he reacts to CK being caught cheating, a head-scratching selection, Parvati and Phillip starting to separate, that cliffhanger ending, and more.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Okay, obviously we need to start with CK being caught looking into the box to pick out Lete’s coin. Walk us through how that all went down and your reaction when you realized exactly what had happened.

JOE MANGANIELLO: CK and Lete formed an alliance, but Lete had made it clear through her actions so far in the competition that she was going to play an honest, straightforward game while on the island. For example, something you didn’t see was that back during the sandcastle challenge, Lete went straight for the highest value, $4 million case, and on top of that, was the first one to successfully remove it from the sand. She then doubled back and helped a bunch of the guests dig up theirs — including Rock, who she tried to save from elimination once we were back on the dock. There has been nothing but straight-forward play on her part. 

CK, on the other hand, decided not to use her turn to jump for a high-value case to protect Lete. She instead used her jump to try and hurt Dickson, who, by the way, had the opportunity to eliminate CK, but instead sent Storm packing when he beat the Banker. 

Then, to try and make up for it, CK cheated in order to pick Lete’s coin so that she would hopefully then jump for a high value case in order to protect CK. That then got negated, and Lete was left with the realization that she was most likely going to drop in the picking order to a spot where she would be in danger of not having a high-value case left to save her. 

What was your big takeaway from the selections players made in terms of whom to jump for in the excursion — thereby either protecting or targeting certain people?

CK’s moral code was revealed. She chose a misguided resentment against Dickson over continuing her alliance with Lete. And if we’ve learned anything from the past couple of weeks, Dickson is not to be trifled with. We witnessed the break-up of Phillip and Parvati as an excursion couple. Parvati’s head for strategy was on display. In saving Dr. Will, she ensured that he stay in the game for another week as a shield in front of her. But the big head-scratcher for me in hindsight was David jumping for Phillip. That left Parvati open to the possibility of elimination, had La Shell not had the Banker’s Bust Case. But, then again, I don’t know if Lete jumps for David if he jumped for Parvati. So I’m going to chalk that up to David’s overall plan to fly under the radar by not overtly throwing his alliance in the rest of the group’s faces. 

 What do you make of the Parvati and Phillip split, which started during last week’s excursion, and then fully blew up this week with Parvati’s comment about bullying and CK revealing that Phillip was part of the plan to take out Maria-Grace?

We’ve tracked Phillip observing Parvati’s manipulation of the other players throughout the season so far, but now when we saw her try to manipulate him, he was ready for her, coiled like a snake. In fact, he carried that same energy into the Temple and bit CK with what was maybe the line of the series so far… whew! I don’t think he goes there with CK if he’s not harboring that frustration with Parvati. 

Joe! That cliffhanger with no elimination! What are you doing to us making us wait a week to see what happens?! At least give us a little tease on what to expect next week.

We’re giving you a week to catch your breath and get ready for what is A) maybe my favorite moment of the season so far, and B) the most creative verbal pummeling I’ve ever witnessed, which is saying a lot, considering I had a front row seat for last season’s “Rumble in the Jungle” between Kim, Claudia, and Boston Rob that brought down a massive, 150-foot tree. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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