-We knew the Nehemiah “Undercover Brother” thing was happening because they teased it during Zach’s ATFR (remember, Charity’s season started filming about 8 days before Zach’s finale aired), but honestly, it kinda fell flat. The disguise was half assed by production. I would’ve rather have seen them put him in a makeup chair for 4 or 5 hrs and really make his identity unrecognizable rather than throw a wig, mustache, and glasses on him and say, “Here, this’ll totally fool them.” It just looked very low budget.
-The other reason it didn’t work? And I guess this is a credit to Charity’s guys, but, NONE OF THEM SAID ANYTHING. I’m sure production thought somebody was gonna put their foot in their mouth big time and frankly it never happened. Watching Brayden, if anything, I thought he just acted over anxious and giddy that a girl kissed him. He was like an excited high school kid so happy he got a girl under the bleachers to tongue him. I don’t think he said anything remotely cocky at all, but maybe that was just me. He wasn’t saying they had the best connection, he didn’t put any of the other guys down, he just kept literally wetting himself over a girl kissing him. If anything, it was almost endearing how excited he was.
-This show has to have a “villain” every season, and maybe Brayden does get a little a cockier as the season goes on, but for a first episode “villain” that was about as tame as we’ve ever seen one. Really think about it. Is anything that Brayden said last night really THAT bad? No, it wasn’t. We can clearly see by the previews he’s the guy all season the guys don’t like. Looks like Aaron B. has the biggest problem with him, which culminates in Charity sending him home during the group date after party in Washington. But in terms of level of villainy on this show, Brayden isn’t even in the top 10 at this point. Like I said, maybe he gets way worse, but, just being cocky shouldn’t make someone some hated villain. I don’t know. Seemed forced last night because we always have to find someone to dislike. As for Brayden’s earrings in future episodes, well, that’s another story. Hate on those all you want because I’m not sure exactly what he’s going for there. Those earrings will join the likes of Tierra’s eyebrows any moment now having their own Twitter account I’m sure.
-So one of the things they changed up from past season was showing the guys intro videos as they were meeting Charity, rather than play them all before the guys arrived in the limos. Different touch, and seemed to work better actually. 7 guys ultimately got intro videos, including her final four. 3 of the first 5 guys shown out of the limo were in her final 4: Aaron B., Joey, and Xavier. Chris S., Brayden, and Caleb B. were the next 3 to get videos during entrances, and then Dotun was saved for last out of the limo and also had the video intro. That basically stuck to the plan of making sure guys who are relevant to this season got prime intro spots out of the limo. You either gotta be in the first group or the very end. And all four of her final 4 were shown their full entrance. Without spoilers, it really wouldn’t have been hard to figure out her final four just based on limo entrances alone.
-Joey was the first to grab her in the cocktail party but, ummmmm, exactly what was Joey looking at when he was sitting down with her. He kept looking straight ahead like he was facing a camera perched on a tripod, while Charity was sitting to his left the whole time. It looked incredibly awkward. He’s definitely gonna be a fan favorite this season as you can see, but that first exchange was just…weird. It’s like he was posing for his senior high school photo or something the whole time he was sitting down.
-One thing I noticed at the cocktail party? We only saw Charity have significant talks with 7 guys: Joey, James, Xavier, John B., Spencer, Aaron B., and Brayden. The only two she didn’t kiss of those 7 were Planet Spencer and James. Why Planet Spencer you ask? Ummmm, did you watch that last night? Probably a good idea he’s gone next episode. I don’t wanna go too hard on the guy because he seemingly had a rough first night, but, this was not the environment for him to say the least. Best he be leaving us next week.
-Obviously in only 80 minutes of TV time, you can only focus on so many guys in night 1, but it really felt lopsided last night. They purposely left Dotun out, even though we heard his doubts he’d even get a rose, so they made sure to show him – just not with Charity. Joey, Aaron, and Xavier I’d say were the winners of episode 1. Also a winner? Backflips. Cool deal bro. You know what jumping all over the mansion got you? A bus ticket home after about 12 hrs. Sorry dude.
Today I’m gonna hopefully spend a little more time going over the season preview to see if there’s anything major in there that gives us any clues to future happenings this season. But even the season preview flat out showed Charity on final rose ceremony day literally saying (and I’m paraphrasing here) that she’d found the love of her life. Of course, it was then followed by her saying you shouldn’t be sending someone home that you love, so yeah, I’m sure final rose ceremony day is rough. I think most women leads have had a hard time letting a guy go when they’ve had to on final rose ceremony day. But as mentioned in the spoilers yesterday, don’t expect some crazy, wonky ending. From everything I’ve been told, it’s pretty standard – 3 overnights, one eliminated, 2 guys meet family and have last dates, 2 guys on final rose ceremony day, she dumps one and gets engaged to the other. Now just the important part. You know, the names of who goes where. All we know is Aaron didn’t win but made it to overnights. And safe to say Dotun makes final 3 as well. I’m at about 95% that Xavier is that third man in Fiji based on that kissing in the water shot. I hope to find this all out in the next few weeks.
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