call me ishmael

Ah but you are forgetting the crucial thing in bachelor world: you must be “vunnerable.” Of course, Kendall and Joe could still have “feelings” for each other. But they COULD’NT MAKE IT WORK! 😭😭. By coming back, she could get hurt again. 🤯 But Pieps and Brendan came in figuring they wouldn’t play the game and would manipulate people for followers. So they weren’t “vunnerable” and took advantage of the fact that Natasha was. Chris and Alana wanted the followers but were simply inept about it do they didn’t get screen time. This show doesn’t need love so much as it needs vulnerability. The only way to escape that is to assume the role of producer stand-in and become everyone’s wise friend.

I agree that this one was pretty good. Although i thought that the A plot had a lot of issues. As people had noticed the idea that you could sidestep the curse by rushing the wedding (i guess all the previous brides died while sleeping?) was a bit lame. Not to mention that the whole thing depended on the men marrying the first women who they fell in love with (this isn’t reality tv guys). But then in the end it wasn’t clear whether they broke the curse because they outwitted it or because the father’s spirit fought it off because he was protecting his daughter. And Aunt Ruby had known about this all her life and never mentioned it? Oh, well. I didn’t like the idea that August was afraid. But do we think that was him or the house texting with his phone to trap Luke?

OMG. They can’t really be running it for that long can they?? Maybe they are keeping all these people on the island till they are old enough for the new senior bachelor?

Yes. But next week DWTS preempts Monday again.

I know. I was joking.

Am i the only person thinking that the fact that they are only showing one episode of these people this week is the first sign in decades that ABC cares about its viewers?

One of the things that i find interesting about these two (Alana and Chris are just less competent) is that they organize their lives so that they can be within the bachelor bubble and make money off of their “fame” within the bubble yet forget that that means they are constantly being observed. i realize that this is true of some actually famous people who resent being famous. But they tend to be famous for doing something—even if it for being in movies or tv where publicity is a constant thing. But these people are really “barely famous” for being part of a television space which operates on the lack of privacy. They also violated the pretense that the bachelor cares about them. They got burned not only because they were dumb and cruel in their actions but because they tried to play the producers. And they paid for that. But the whole narrative of “I watched it back and now see that i said nasty things” speaks to how much the bubble makes them ignore that they are interacting with real people. And being observed like rats in a maze.

Maybe they will let him fall a lot in practice so he can know how it feels.

Byron certainly killed that plot line. But your point about Lyta is a good one. Not only was she REALLY Team Vorlon but she ended up being abused by notKosh. Her getting all caught up with Byron makes a ton of sense.

I thought this one was much better although the only reason for the roadie cliffhanger was to get a separate plot line for Susan. But i enjoyed the sweet sixteen plot line especially August being high and Zoe figuring it out before everyone else. The two Lukes was a bit heavy handed though.

Yeah but it wasn’t much. This one was played too much for solemn significance. Even that could have been done in a more humorous way since he was such a sleaze.

Now that I’ve made myself finish this, I’d say it’s my least favorite episode. I’ll pass on the inability to count to 6 and the unnecessary cliffhanger. It was just so ponderous. Most of the other episodes had humor. This one was like an entire episode of Luke’s mood when he is thinking about his mother. If it was the first episode i watched i doubt that there would be a second.

I definitely got that impression as well.

I think that Demi crashed them because she was still upset about Brandon.

It was clearly producers’ choice. Either of the tattletales would have been better because neither of them could eat up the screen in this setting. With producers’ choice i can feel my “little gray cells” (as Poirot would say) dying every second she is talking on screen.

You mean she doesn’t act as if she is in middle school?

Yes i agree with that. But that is sort of my point. They never really explain how she becomes a watchmaker. Susan may have pyrotechnic abilities but they aren’t linked with a particular quality of good and evil or the particular logic. I really think that rhey needed to better explain who/what she was and what if anything linked her to the house.

This is why I’m frustrated. She was a teenager when she started so it’s unlikely she came over in the 19c. Was she a descendant? Were they demons who possessed people? Did a watchmaker find her because she wanted to kill her friend? They started off acting as if the problem was the house. But it was never clear if it was her, the house, or if somehow was joined to the house through a spirit. At the risk of saying something absurd given the show we are talking about: this episode just didn’t make sense...

I know that you are trying to give them the benefit of the doubt but I don’t think that they are going as a “witness.” They probably underestimate the nature of social media but they know that they will stand out in the crowd and probably think it will increase their chances. Especially if they think that “deep down” everyone secretly wants to be with someone with their values.

Thanks. But what about all the watchmaker stuff? It sounded like it was a particular type (person, demon?) who came to the US in the 19c and had to operate in a rigid fashion or they would blow up. And there was the blue light in the eyes. The comparison to Susan is an interesting one. But the agency discussed the watchmakers on a scale of increasing evil i thought.

Okay so this one was a bit unclear to me. Are we to assume that the householder got possessed by a demon when she was a teenager? Or was she a watchmaker in a more direct way. They didn’t give any real sense that there was possession. But then how did she suddenly become a demon when she committed her first murder?

I expect to skip it. But if true i hope all the women demand that he commit to them starting the first episode.

I thought that we were supposed to think that since he got her to kiss him back that he had broken out of the friendzone.

The Lurkers Guide was fabulous. It was one of the only sites that actually made the show better because it was there.

The category of “celebrity” is a fairly capacious one.