-Group date. Time to paint two strangers who look like they haven’t showered in a week and are glued to each other naked! Ok, maybe they didn’t have to paint them, but they needed to draw them. Whatever. The whole thing was just bizarro. I know this is a thing. We see this a lot. Especially on TV shows. And I’m sure in real, legit art classes this is definitely a thing. I just think for this show, it’s totally stupid, and only emphasizes this shows’ infatuation with sex themed dates. Like, is it possible to get a group date that doesn’t revolve around minimal clothing, talking about sex, seeing creepy nude couples, or anything like that? Apparently not. I know we were stuck in one location this season, but geez, production needs to broaden their horizons on activities to do. Because I know on Matt’s season, I highly doubt we’re getting a shit ton of group dates centered around sex, wrinkly un-showered couples, and women dodgeballing each other in only their bra and underwear.
-To start off the date, Bennett just started being Bennett by making up some lie about how he had to sit next to Tayshia, kicking Noah to a different seat. This basically just set up the storyline for the rest of the night that these two were butting heads the whole time in the house, so Tayshia needed to do something. When in reality, their “drama” was so small in the grand scheme of things, but production had to cook something up so it could lead to what we saw at the end of the episode. How long after this season ends do you think we’ll see Bennett and Noah joking about their “feud” on social media? I give it about a week or two. This “feud” was nothing, it’s silly, it’s totally producer driven, yet they milked it for as much as they can. Just by the edit last night, I can’t tell you how many frankenbites it seemed were being done in their feud. The whole thing almost seems made up. I’m looking forward to reading Sharleen’s “All the Pretty Pandas” column this week, because I bet she found quite a few instances where words didn’t match up with actions between these two.
-After drawing the hippie, unbathed, and unkept couple, they now had to blindfold themselves and create something out of Clay that represented their time with Tayshia. Someone made a pepperoni pizza which, I don’t know, doesn’t seem to have anything to do with their time with Tayshia, but whatever. Blake created a dick. Shocker. The guys seemed to hint at all Blake talks about is sex all day long, so none seemed to be surprised. Along those same lines, I’ll share something I’ve heard recently. Not gonna name names, but I just think it’s kinda funny. I’ve been told of 3 guys from Tayshia’s season who’ve either told friends or reach out to former alumni, asking how to deal with the amount of women sliding into their DM’s. One even said he can’t believe the amount of nudes he’s gotten from women in his inbox. I mean, maybe people watching don’t realize it, but it happens every season. Once you’re on this show, you become a rock star in people’s eyes just because, well, you’re on their favorite show. Just look at how many people glorified and felt sad for Eazy after he got sent home last night. Clearly have no clue what’s going on. Hell, even JoJo posted a tweet last night saying she loved Eazy, then she deleted it within 5 minutes of posting after her responses got flooded with “what about the allegations against him.” But yeah, kinda found that funny that 3 of Tayshia’s guys are already navigating how they’re going to handle all the ass being thrown their way. Should make for some interesting stories, I’m sure.
-Time for self portraits that each of the guys need to do. Not necessarily draw themselves, because after that first round of drawings, I don’t think we need any more dudes drawing stick figures thinking it looks like them. They just have to put together a canvas painting about themselves. Something revealing, something deep, and share that personal story with Tayshia. Riley’s was good. Talked about not having his mom around as a kid. Ivan’s was solid as well. Brendan, well, he thought outside the box, didn’t particularly draw anything and missed the assignment completely, but Tayshia liked it so I guess it worked. Ben here though was the big “winner.” He had a hard time coming up with anything. He did use his canvas for something that he showed us briefly. Looked like something a third grader would put together in art class. But his big reveal was excusing himself, then coming back in just a robe, taking it off, and “showing up” for Tayshia by standing in front of her naked. I guess by his story he told later this made more sense, but in the moment? Yeah, totally confused by all this.
-At the after party, some of the guys were shown getting their extra time with Tayshia. Riley talked about how his parents divorced at an early age, and his dad would say things that would drive a wedge between he and his mom’s relationship. But then come to find out later it wasn’t as bad as his dad made it out to be. We also quickly got Ivan talking to Tayshia as well. But you know how people love to read into the edits to justify their own narrative? It happened during this after party. I mean, anyone who wants Tayshia to end up with Zac can point to their wedding photo date and be all, “See. That’s totally foreshadowing. Because of that date, I bet they end up together.” Which hey, if that’s the way you want to read it, you most certainly can. But, you can also read into the edit of what happened at this after party, as we have Tayshia in an ITM saying, “I’m on the right path to find the person for me…” and the very next scene is her sitting down with Brendan. It’s all how you want to interpret it, and again, this is something that happens every season. Same thing with Peter last night. When the “spoiler” was in question all season, I heard people say he ends up with Madi because of this particular edit. Then someone else would say he ends up with Hannah Ann because of this. Well, only one of them could be right because as far as I know, in 40 seasons, no one’s ever chosen two people at the end. Call me crazy.
