Quite a few thoughts to get to from last night, so here we go:
-On Spencer’s 1-on-1, I realized something. The day portion of basically any 1-on-1 (especially if it’s your first one of the season), we rarely get to see any interaction between the two people. Yes, they got a scenic helicopter ride to Twelve Apostles, but at no point do us as the audience, see these two really connecting at all over anything that nothing more than surface level. Doesn’t mean they didn’t do something cool. We just hear both of them in ITM’s say how great the date is going and all I see is two people barely talking, not learning anything about each other, just doing some fun activity. It’s very much like a first date with someone you barely know. The activity you’re doing gives you this false sense of security that you actually are getting to know this person, when in reality, you’re not. I’m aware that the day portion of the day is many hrs and we’re barely seeing any of it. I just find it funny how it’s really the night portion of every date where we really get to know if these two are compatible.
-Spencer tells Jenn about how he was recently engaged and 2 weeks before the wedding, his fiancé called it off. This was something I mentioned the day the contestants were announced and figured it would be part of his story. One thing he didn’t share with Jenn (at least that we saw), is that he was once 300 lbs. He shared that on IG I wanna say last week. And I don’t know the timeline of everything, but it’s possible that stemmed from the end of his engagement. It’s possible he did tell her that it just wasn’t shown in the conversation, but if you wanna hear him talk about it, I believe it’s still on his IG. Also, is it possible to secure a 1-on-1 date on this show if you DON’T have a tragic backstory? Either a broken engagement/marriage, someone cheated on you, you overcame an illness, etc? Because really, it seems like if you don’t have any sad story to tell, it makes you “boring.” Which isn’t the case, but within the context of this show, when everyone else DOES seem to have a story, you come across as forgettable if you don’t have something tragic to share.
-During Spencer’s date, they made sure to show us what was going on back at the hotel since it was the theme of the episode, and that was Devin vs Sam M, and Thomas to a certain extent. But mostly the first two. Sam M. called Devin an “ankle biter” and specifically said, “Devin isn’t worth a second of my breath and energy.” To which Sam M. then proceeded to waste every bit of breath and energy on Devin ALL EPISODE LONG. Like, an alarming amount to where in just one episode, however you want to define “villain” on this show, it switched from Devin to Sam M. in one week. And even calling Devin a villain last week is debatable since there were plenty of people who defended him. Last night, if this were a prize fight, in my opinion Devin won in TKO. It wasn’t even close. To me, anyone who watched last nights episode and thought Sam M. came off great is either A) a relative (since we know they’ve been chirpy online) or B) just thinks he’s hot and doesn’t want to get on his bad side. Because he came across about as poorly as one can on this show, and that’s saying something.
-Lets first start by talking about how he and Thomas N. treated Sam N. after Sam N. declared he was falling in love with Jenn during the stripping group date. Actually, let me clarify something about the stripping date. We all know how much this show loves to put men in thongs or underwear on this show. It’s like clockwork every season. Without fail, they’ll always be at least one group date to make the men dress up in as little as possible. This is not the same as having a pool party on the Bachelor with the women who are all in bikinis. At least to me it isn’t. The men’s dates are done to embarrass and humiliate them. I know the show tries to make it as some sort of “Hey, we wanna see who can get vulnerable and go with the flow” kinda deal, but we all know that isn’t what they care about. It’s to embarrass and humiliate. They’re not putting women on dates to specifically have them in skimpy clothing or barely anything at all. A hot tub or a pool date is not the show trying to embarrass the women. I’m guessing if you asked any woman who was cast before they head on the show if they expect to be in a bathing suit at some point during the season, they’d all say yes. And most, if not all, wouldn’t have an issue with it. But the men? They’re not all going in thinking they full expect to be in their underwear or a thong at some point. Well, maybe now they should since it happens every season. I’m not saying we NEED to embarrass women on the show. It’s the opposite. How about we just not have gratuitous underwear “events” every single season? Is that too much to ask? Good Lord, this show is obsessed with it.
-Anyway, as I was saying, Sam M. and Thomas N. had such an issue with Sam N. telling Jenn he was falling in love with her on the group date. Why? If you think that’s over-the-top, great. Let him deal with the consequences. If their relationship with Jenn is so much better they don’t need to say that to her so early, then let him bury himself. We all know that Sam N. has never had a girlfriend and never been in love before. We also know after last night he told Jenn he doesn’t even know how to hold a woman’s hand. Clearly he’s naïve and inexperienced with women, so the show made sure to tell him to say that on stage to make it 10x worse. We all know someone in production probably got in his ear and gave him the ol’ “you know, you should tell Jenn how you really feel. All these other guys are advancing their relationships with her, and if you don’t tell her how you feel, you’re probably going home” type of deal. It happens all the time. So they took advantage of arguably the most naïve guy on the cast. Great. Then to have Sam M. and Thomas N. pounce on him to make him feel any worse was a low blow by them. What’s their deal? What do they care how out of line they thought it was? If it was so bad, that’s a negative for him. Just worry about yourself. But of course, we can’t do that on this show.
-And you can say what you want about Devin, he’s loud, he’s brash, he’s overconfident, but in this case when he came to Sam N.’s defense, he was 100% in the right. Sam M. and Thomas N. were the bullies on the playground, and Devin came to the defense of the kid being bullied. I don’t see how anyone could’ve taken it any other way. Sam M. and Thomas N. were being assholes to Sam N. for no other reason than just to be assholes, and Devin stepped in and told Sam N. he doesn’t have to apologize for anything. Did this quiet matters? Of course not. It just made Sam M. hate Devin more for some bizarre reason. Like I can’t wrap my head around how mad Sam M. got because Sam N. declared he was falling in love with Jenn. Yes, it’s ridiculous. And yes, probably forced by a producer to say it. But Sam M. couldn’t have handled it any worse than he did and he comes across as a complete alpha male bully.
