Last night's reveal was one of the most shocking yet on The Masked Singer season 4. No one was even close to getting NFL star Mark Sanchez as the person under the mask, so how did the clues fit him?
Baby Alien was without a doubt the cutest costume we've seen so far. The shows first puppet costume played well in a year where another baby alien, of The Mandalorian fame, has become beloved by fans everywhere. The costume itself made it more difficult for fans to guess, by completely obscuring the height and build of the wearer. However, the costume was complicated for Sanchez, too. The costume involved having to sing while also operating a puppet, which the football star said required training on its own.
The clue packages were so full of red herrings that fans and judges drifted far in different directions. Sanchez told EW he didn't think anyone was likely to guess him. He even admits that some of the clues threw him off as well. This makes me feel a little better, as this was my first incorrect The Masked Singer prediction in all four seasons. The first clue package for Baby Alien included a horseshoe, which made Sanchez (and everyone else) think of the Indianapolis Colts, a team he never played for. It was most likely meant to represent the Denver Broncos or even the USC Trojans (trojan horse). Sanchez did play for both teams, but neither of those teams uses a horseshoe as a logo. The same goes for an actual horse seen in the second clue package.
Some other clues were either very clever red herrings or just wildly misinterpreted. The ninja turtle clues led many to actors from the movies and led people like me to actors who had voiced a TMNT character. Turns out he just wore a TMNT costume for Halloween one year, as seen above. A vampire stake had many looking for vampire links, leading them to Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Seth Green or Buffy's real-life husband, Freddie Prinze Jr. However, upon closer examination, the stake was made of cheese (a cheese stake). Cheesesteak, when combined with the cracked Liberty Bell, was a clear reference to his time on the Philadephia Eagles. The Friends and other NYC-heavy clues pointed to his time on the Jets. The parade clues, which many linked to the Ferris Bueller's Day Off clue, actually were about the Rose Parade, as Sanchez helped steer USC to a Rose Bowl win in 2009.
The biggest things that threw many people off were the Broadway and Tony award show clues. The Tony clue made sense literally, as he was surprisingly enough a guest presenter at the Tony Awards. However, this clue, combined with Baby Alien saying that back when he was the cream of the crop circle, he was in the theater every week, led people to look for a child actor. Turns out a former professor of his at USC had encouraged him to take in live theater. This was something he took seriously once he got to NYC, after being drafted into the NFL by the Jets. He became a regular, seeing every Broadway show that he could. Combining all these crazy clues with the inability to see much of the performer in the costume (and the great fake accent Sanchez managed to put on), it is no surprise that none of us guessed this one right. Hold on Masked Singer fans, because it appears the clues just keep getting harder.
The Masked Singer airs Wednesdays at 8 pm ET on Fox
Source: EW