-With JacketGate behind us, Rodney’s turn for a 1-on-1. When you go all out on the group date and promote Top Gun, bring in two stars from the movie, and get to do all this cool stuff, to get this bullshit date that Rodney did? Yeah, that sucked. They never left the hotel and they played Truth or Dare. Look, we know Rodney doesn’t win this thing, but even if you didn’t, if you pay attention to the types of dates guys get, you’d know he didn’t win. Michelle doesn’t plan the dates nor does she pick the guys to go on them, but, producers know who Michelle is into the most, and those people usually get the best dates. This date? Yeah, not one of them. Not sure if Rodney picked up on that at any point during the date. Probably didn’t, but this was clear as day when producers give two shits about what kind of date you get, you should probably know where you stand in the pecking order.
-You know what also confused me? The blind taste test. So Michelle blindfolded Rodney and started feeding him food. Or was it the other way around? Shit, I had on the baseball game during this so I already forgot. I think it was her feeding him. Anyway, it didn’t matter who was being fed. It was what they were feeding. When you blindfold someone to see if they can guess the food, usually you have like different variations of the same food, right? Michelle blindfolds him and feeds him…French fries. And pizza. Like, he’s not supposed to know what those foods taste like? What kind of taste test is this? I remember in high school, I was so good at identifying French fries (I could easily still do it now), that we went to 4 different fast food places to get fries so I could test them out – McDonald’s, Burger King, Jack in the Box, and Carl’s Jr. I nailed it. So easy. I just had to laugh at Michelle feeding a grown man a French fry and asking him to identify what food that was.
-So for the Dare portion of their date, she dared him to streak across the hotel naked. I hope someday all of you find someone who looks at you the same way this show looks at guys getting butt ass naked during filming. To say they are OBSESSED with having guys get naked on this show would be an understatement. How many seasons in a row now is it where they have either a group date or a 1-on-1 date where some guy is forced to strip down and go naked somewhere? Not to mention what we had all summer with Kenny walking around in his banana hammock. And of course they do it on a date that’s in the hotel where the other guys could watch him run around with a pillow covering himself. This show really does scrape the bottom of the barrel literally every season.
-I guess the only redeeming part is on the night portion of the date, they gave us an important conversation between Rodney and Michelle about race. Rodney growing up with a single mother and Michelle telling a story about an ex who didn’t console her when she was called the n-word at the grocery store one day. This show has taken a ton of shit over the years and deservedly so. And even though we know the George Floyd incident along with being called out for being such a white show made them change some things, at least they did it. Whether you think it’s performative or not, these aren’t the types of conversations on dates we’d ever seen before 2020. Ever. It just didn’t happen on this show. So while some may think “too little, too late,” at least it’s happening. So some credit has to be given. After that embarrassment of a “dare” portion of their date, this at least made up for some of it.
-The final group date all centered around Jamie and his complete lack of self awareness. The guys are supposed to write a poem for Michelle and we see clips of all of them taking their time being vulnerable and opening themselves up while reading their poetry to her. Then Jamie gets up there and says he “lost his book” so he’s just gonna tell a story that went absolutely nowhere. Look, I know how this show works. The fact that every guy was separated and told to write a poem that they’d be reading later, but then Jamie says he “lost his book?” What does that even mean? You literally had nothing else to do all day but write a poem for Michelle. So what I’m trying to say is, I don’t know what the hell happened. But what we saw was no way the full story. Is it possible Jamie just decided, “While everyone else writes a poem, I’m gonna do something completely different to make sure I piss them all off,” I guess is possible, but I doubt it. He was either told not to or encouraged not to. Yes, ultimately it falls on him and that’s how he came across on the show looking like a moron for just telling a random story when everyone else did a poem. I’m just saying I’m sure there was more to it.
-No need to defend Jamie. The guy made numerous mistakes on his own during the show. A show that he self admittedly knew nothing about going in. And THAT’S the type of contestant that producers prey on. Will Jamie be able to speak on what happened some day? Maybe. But until then, all we can do is talk about what is shown, and that’s what he seems to have a hard time understanding. Yes, we know there’s probably more to the story Jamie. But since you can’t/won’t speak on it, you have to know that people are gonna have opinions, and probably not positive ones. No, you shouldn’t be called names and attacked. And no, no one should include any member of your family and friends in this. But just by the nature of this show, you’re going to get snarky, sarcastic responses to what we saw on TV. I’d just accept that and stop trying to fight it.
-Which then brings us to a whole separate issue regarding Jamie last night and that was what happened the previous week where he told Michelle her character was being brought into question after rumblings about her knowing Joe pre-show came up. Rick tells her none of the guys ever did that, she tells Rick it was Jamie who brought it up, so Rick, Nayte, and Casey pull Jamie aside for an explanation, and the wheels completely came off the wagon at this point. You all watched it. I can’t for the life of me begin to summarize how Jamie defended what he did because, well, I still don’t have the slightest clue what he was talking about. And since Jamie said on his IG stories he knows who he is and he can’t speak on anything that really happened, I guess we’re gonna get nowhere on this. What I do know is from what we were shown, Jamie got caught in a lie, the guys called him out on it, Michelle believed the guys, and she sent Jamie packing right then and there. Which is what we all needed at that point since Jamie needed to go. I believe he’s the first guy since Clint on Kaitlyn’s season to get the first 1-on-1 of the season and be gone by episode 3. I’m sure Jamie’s IG stories will be an entertaining watch throughout the rest of the season.
-Rose ceremony time. Martin, Rodney, and Brandon with the group date roses. Back to back group date roses for Brandon. First time that’s happened since Nikki got the same on Juan Pablo’s season. Michelle: “Funny thing about trust…makes or breaks relationship…built up, can come crushing down in one instance…my soulmate will be fully wholeheartedly able to trust…did I mention trust is very important you guys? You listening? Ok, just making sure. I’ll try not to just cancel cocktail parties the rest of the season too.”
Joe, Rick, Leroy, Nayte, Casey, Chris G., Chris S., Clayton, Olumide, and Romeo.
Tayshia: “Gentleman, this is the final rose of the evening. (Whispering to Michelle) When you’re ready.” Tayshia has changed the game everyone. She is not only doing something different than Chris Harrison at this moment, she’s even doing something different than what Kaitlyn does when there’s one rose left. Game changer. Lets see if she keeps it up all season.
Will gets the last rose.
So if you’re scoring at home, Mollique, Spencer, LT, and Peter are headed home. The second this happened is the first time I’d even thought about that 1-on-1 date where it was Michelle introducing a guy to her parents. I hadn’t thought about it since, I hadn’t mentioned or heard of where Peter placed since then, so I guess that’s why I never thought of it. But yeah, once I saw Peter get eliminated last night, obviously I knew that couldn’t be him on the 1-on-1 date and it took about 5 seconds to realize who it was. Onward and upward.
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