-Lets first start off talking about how last night’s episode affected 3 people’s Instagram following last night: Brendan’s, Pieper’s, and Natasha’s. And well, it’s pretty much what you’d expect. As of this morning, here is the roughly 12 hours after effects of each person’s follower count since the episode ended last night:
Brendan’s lost 30k followers, Pieper has lost less than 4k, and Natasha has gained 72k – all deserved.
-Now for those who feel I can’t be objective covering this show, here’s a prime example of how I can be. Natasha doesn’t like me. I’ve never said a word about her really positive or negative. She wasn’t much of a factor to me on Peter’s season, and while I covered it, she was just kinda there and I never really talked about her. But she made it clear on the podcast they did after everything went down a few months ago she doesn’t like me and trashed me pretty good. Threw in some statements that were factually incorrect as well and was clear she never listened to any of my podcasts or really read anything I ever wrote. Just went off what people relayed to her. She’s BFF’s with Victoria Fuller so of course she’s not gonna like me as it’s basically hate by association. I get it. I don’t agree with it, but I expect her to defend her friend. However with that said, you won’t find me saying one bad thing on how Natasha handled anything last night as I felt she went about everything as well as any contestant has handled confrontation on this show before.
-The best thing Natasha did last night was go to Pieper and have her tell her side of the story. She could’ve shit talked Pieper to the others, she could’ve went off hearsay, she could’ve made assumptions, etc. She went straight to the source, sat her down face-to-face and said, “Tell me about you and Brendan’s relationship.” And everything that came out of Pieper’s mouth was seemingly the truth, which in turn, made everything that Brendan had previously told Natasha total bullshit. Which I think a lot of people could see regardless since we knew so much already before Pieper arrived. But Pieper’s story to Natasha just verbally confirmed it for Natasha and everyone watching at home. Brendan was full of it. He downplayed his relationship with Pieper to Natasha and was basically just waiting until Pieper got down there so they could ride off together.
-The question then becomes, “Why?” I think if you saw most people’s reaction on social media last night, it was centered around the same thing. If you guys were both good before the show, and basically admitted to already being a couple pre-show, why even come on the show in the first place? Just date each other and never come on. I think the answer of, “they want clout, they want more followers, they want to be on TV” is such an easy answer to give, I don’t know if I want to believe that’s all it was. We’ve seen what it’s done to their follower count. Their edit last night makes them one of the most despised couples ever. Nobody seems to care about them and want them off the show now, so was a couple episodes on TV really worth it? I guess you’ll have to ask them. But judging by the way they’re coming across on their IG after last night, they don’t seem to give a shit.
-Brendan posts an IG pic with the caption “here for the wrong reasons,” and Pieper posts and IG story that’s basically “sorry, not sorry.” So clearly they don’t care what you think. I’ve posted pics of them together post show, they’ve been seen numerous other times, they were together yesterday in Boston, etc. Those pics on Pieper’s IG yesterday were taken by Brendan. Like, these two have done nothing to hide the fact they’ve been together since the second they left Mexico. Again, the whole thing really doesn’t make sense to me. Unless ABC money whipped both of them to play their storyline out on BIP, I still don’t see the benefit of doing what they did. It was a horribly thought out plan that was executed even worse, if that’s possible. They weren’t gonna get over on production, plenty of people knew they were already dating, Brendan admits to it last night (even though he tried to cover his mic up while doing it), and it was just a bad look overall for both of them.
-But here we are, yet again, with someone (or two people in this instance) getting a brutal edit and now the comments start in. Look, I think they looked like idiots last night. Brendan clearly used Natasha, Pieper came in knowing exactly what she was doing, then the both of them really made things worse by talking about their plan thinking they weren’t miked up. You all saw it. It was cringe worthy how bad they looked. And yeah, judging by their social media, they don’t seem to give a crap either because they’re thinking is, “We have each other, who cares what others think.” And that’s fine. If that’s the way they want to handle all this, so be it. But have you SEEN some of the anger and vitriol being spewed towards them? Like, why do strangers who don’t even know them care so much? If you tweeted, posted, or wrote a comment on either one of their IG accounts last night calling them names, or were physically bothered by what they did last night, I think you need to readjust your priorities in life.
-Yes, they look horrible in what they did last night. But why does it bother you so much? I thought they looked terrible last night. Worse than any two people could possibly come across maybe ever in this shows history. But I’m not losing sleep over it. I’m not venting my frustration about them on their IG page. I’m not calling them names or wishing horrible things to happen to them. I say they looked horrible, and I move on. I’ll never speak to or hang out with Brendan and/or Pieper in my life. Why would I have any sort of visceral reaction towards what I saw last night? Hell, if Natasha was my best friend in the whole world, I’d still be like, “Damn, those two did you dirty. Oh well.” Like, I don’t understand getting so worked up by what Brendan and Pieper did. They suck, they’ll leave the show soon, they clearly don’t give a shit what fans think, so why are people wasting their time getting mad to them? They certainly don’t care about you so why do you care so much about them? Just let them be. They came on a show, thought they’d pull one over on everyone, they failed miserably, and now they’re living their life post show. Let them be. Who cares what they do? Just reading some of the tweets and the comments on their IG it makes you wonder what kind of lives these people lead to get THAT upset at two strangers on a TV show.
-Again it comes to being critical and being able to criticize what you saw happen on TV, but compartmentalize it enough to where it doesn’t affect you. And judging by what some people wrote, that’s obviously not something that a lot of people are able to do. If you called Brendan and/or Pieper a name publicly last night, or wrote on their IG how mad you were at them for what they did to Natasha, I’m sorry, you’ve got issues. That’s more on you than them. I think they already know what they did. It’s not like they watched that last night and realized, “Oh wow, we did that?” Clearly they lived it. Your opinion isn’t going to make them feel any worse about it, so, just lay off these contestants. You do realize the best reaction to either of them is just pay them no attention, right? You reacting is exactly what they want. But if no one talks about/to them and they get no engagement on IG and kinda just disappear and become irrelevant, THAT’S the best way to get back at them. So as I seemingly tell people every season when it comes to this show no matter what the season, what the situation is, or who’s involved – take a deep breath, save your hate takes, don’t hit send, and go live your life. Quit caring so much about people that don’t give a crap about you. Just unfollow and never think about them again.
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