JZone

After watching the finale, it made me realize how much I wish Smurf was still around so she could have gotten her comeuppance too. I always felt like killing off Smurf with several seasons left was very premature and left a void in the show, but seeing how the finale played out just made me realize how much more powerful J's revenge would have been if Smurf was still around to get screwed over by him. Even though none of the uncles stepped up to help Julia, it was Smurf that went out of her way to destroy Julia's life in every way imaginable. It would have been so satisfying to see J pull the rug out from under Smurf in the finale and completely blind side her. Smurf was all about the power and the wealth and possessions. Imagine the show ending with J taking everything from under her, peacing out before she realizes what happened, and is left with absolutely nothing (including her boys, since they would either still meet the same fate they did in the finale, or as an alternate, would finally be free of Smurf's hold since J destroyed her empire). Anyway, I just wanted to put that out there. I did enjoy the finale though... It's just watching Smurf be an absolute monster to young Julia, who had so much potential, really made me want to see Smurf get what was coming to her. A quick bullet to the head (which she wanted) was too easy an out for the psycho.

Even though I felt like Tiffany deserved to be put in a tough situation this week after going rogue on her alliance and winning the HOH, I felt absolutely horrible for Claire. I have so much respect for how Claire handled getting blindsided like that. She really took it better than most would have been able to.

I agree that it's going to suck for the non-cookout members to realize their closest allies had their main allegiance to the cookout. However, it's been shown each week that the CO members are doing as much as they can to still keep their non-CO friends safe. Last week the entire cookout was gunning to get SB out, but when Ky won HOH he adamantly kept her safe. He never wavered on that once because she's his ally. When Britni went up, Azah was devastated and did whatever she could to try and save her, including voting against the rest of the CO. Derek F also wanted to win the veto to take her down. They did as much as they could to help their friend. I think the closest we got to someone "betraying" their closest friend/ally for the cookout was Hannah not encouraging DX to go for the roulette safety since it wouldn't be good for the CO if he won. Even then, it's not like she did much... he was already strongly leaning towards not playing because he really wanted to be eligible for next week's coin toss. She simply allowed him to think he's safe, knowing he's not. She then felt so bad about it that she wanted to get SB to nominate her instead of DX. My point being, I think the cookout members are doing everything they can to keep their closest friends safe, short of betraying/outing the CO itself. They aren't backstabbing them, or plotting against them, or taking pleasure in the wool being over their eyes. They're quite torn up about it and are willing to go against the grain of the cookout to keep them safe when they can. I think the non-co members will see this when they watch the season.

I'm by no means rooting for Jackson in this game, but I was pleased with him winning HOH since it means the "other side" will have to take a blow this week. It's going to be delicious. I'm not sure what Christie's sister did to her, but damn, Christie manifested some bad mojo on her life by constantly swearing on it to cover her lies lol. Nick's therapist strategy of nodding along sure backfired on him. It doesn't really work when you blindly nod in agreement to things that make you look bad 😄 Oh Jess.... what was that game play you attempted? Don't use that precious time before eviction to convince your allies not to join the other side of the house without you. Just spread some gossip to Analyse and Christie about Holly and Jackson. Y'know... the two people in the house they have made clear they are already gunning for. I really want to root for you (these's so few options left) but please give me something to work with here lol. All in all I think this will be an enjoyable week!

I found myself really frustrated with Jess this week. She was given the inside scoop of what the other side of the house was planning to do that would get her evicted within a few weeks, and she seemingly did nothing with it. Why would she not rally all the "outsiders" and convince them that they need to ban together against this plan? Nicole was very honest about being on the fence about what to do, so I'm sure if Jess would have talked to her, Kat, Jackson, and Holly about how they need to work together to get out Tommy, Christie, Sis and Nick, she could have swayed Nicole not to do that stupid 6 person alliance nonsense. Nicole knew she'd be the bottom of that alliance, so if Jess tried she surely could have convinced her it's better to go with the "outsiders" and make it 5 vs 4. Even when the other side's in power, they're gunning for Jackson and Holly so she's not in danger. She could just watch each side take each other out, and get further than 6th place, which is what she is now playing for. And she'd still have Kat and Jess as true allies that have her back, whereas Nick, Christie, Tommy, and Sis would not hesitate to dispose of her when convenient. Sorry for ranting, but it frustrates me when the house knows there's a big alliance that's picking them off, and rather than ban together, they just passively watch it happen. I don't get why Jess (or Jackson/Holly when they found out) wouldn't actively try to do something with this info rather than casually just passing it along. Maybe more happened that wasn't shown.

Damn. Just when I thought this horrible season might start turning around. I guess I didn't manifest hard enough to prevent this worst case scenario 🙄 The second Christie gave her first DR at the start of the veto comp, I knew either her, Tommy, or Nick won. Girl's been a blubbering mess every second since she was merely nominated for America's field trip, and has not had moment of screen time where she wasn't sobbing inconsolably since becoming the third nominee. Then they show her giving her talking head about how important this veto is, and she's bright eyed and nothing but smiles and laughter... What shit episode.

It's really not that deep. Why are there terms and conditions around how someone can make a dedication to a person they love and miss dearly? Tyler just won a high stakes competition by the skin of his teeth. Letting out a quick verbal fist pump is pretty low on the celebratory scale. Was he suppose to show zero emotion after that close win? As for the "somber moment", I don't think it was shown to be somber. He simple stated this was for his dad. He wasn't crying or being dramatic or trying to garner sympathy. He literally just made a single statement. There was nothing to believe that Tyler and Swaggy's bond over both of them losing their father was anything less than genuine. But competitively they were on opposite sides of the house. Having this bond doesn't mean that they have to sacrifice game play to keep each other safe when they aren't even aligned together. And second, Tyler's NOT using this brief declaration as some ploy to stay safe. He literally made the comment and that was it. As I said, there was nothing strategic or manipulative about it. He misses his father. (Plus, there was no need to use something like that to stay safe, since he has the veto and is guaranteed safety already). I'm not trying to make this come across as an attack. This post just really rubbed me the wrong way. I have nothing against Tyler and think he's playing the strongest game, but I was actually rooting for the other side of the house during OTEV just to shake things up and keep the game more interesting. I groaned when RS gave him the answer. I get that you don't like Tyler, and that's fair. But when you write a rant, bullet points and all, about him making a one-off statement dedicating a competition win to his late father, it comes across very petty, IMO. I'm sorry.

Zero sympathy for her. Zero. She has no one to blame but herself when she's left an emotional and financial wreck when he inevitably leaves her high and dry. There's been at least a dozen serious red flags about this guy, and she still keeps him around. She's basically giving a psychopath the green light to treat her however he wants, since she believes whatever BS lie he feeds her. It's probably such a joke to him at this point. He literally brought his side chick to their Vegas vacation, paraded her in front of Amber, and then banged her (twice) behind Amber's back. All this guy has to do is say it was Jeff, and he's good to go till his next scandal is exposed.

Just some random thoughts... I felt honestly happy to see Maci making a nice, healthy home-cooked meal for her family. I'm so used to seeing take-out bags and containers on this show, so that was nice. Both Catelynn and Amber had emotional moments where they had to step away to compose themselves, and neither Tyler nor Matt went after them or made any attempts to comfort them. I rolled my eyes when Amber was talking about her relationship with Gary, and how after 7 years she still didn't really know him and how she has trust issues with Matt because of him. Girl, please. First of all, you rightly have trust issues with Matt because he has lied to you more times than can be counted about some pretty major things. And he's cheated on you multiple times. Gary's no saint, but you're the one who was in jail for beating on him. You physically and emotionally berated that man constantly, while he tolerated it better than a lot of people would have. But sure, blame him for your trust issues with Matt so you can continue rationalizing why you are with this conman. For all her faults, Farrah has drive. Whether or not her businesses will succeed is yet to be determined, but she is truly putting her all into them and trying to make things happen. Amber and Cate/Ty have been talking for YEARS about wanting to start these various facilities, but have not made a single step towards actually making it happen. They aren't taking courses, networking, volunteering, looking for related job opportunities, etc. Nothing but talk. They truly have no idea how much work goes into things. Have any of them had an actual job? Genuinely wondering...

Remember at the end of last episode when Amber was trying to articulate why she was so scared to marry Matt, and she started to say something about how things could go wrong after they get married and Matt could run off and cheat (or something to that effect). And Matt so calmly laughed it off and told her she has nothing to worry about and acted as though just the thought of that is absurd because she's his everything (or whatever BS lines he fed her). He played the completely supportive and loving fiance role to a tee, knowing he recently cheated on her multiple times with Tiffany - twice in the flesh, plus his sexting. He really has no conscious. The sad thing is, if/when this shit show of a relationship finally comes to an end, Amber is going to be an emotional wreck. Meanwhile, you just know Matt's gonna walk away from this without so much of a second thought. Reading all these texts to Tiffany just shows how little he cares about Amber. Not only is he having sex with another woman, but he's putting out feelers for a relationship with her (the whole "proposing" and flirting thing), despite being engaged. This is just a game to him at this point.

What is wrong with Amber? Seriously. Is she that afraid to be single that she's going to stick with this loser no matter what crap he pulls? Just off the top of my head, this guy... -has 9 kids with 6 or 7 women. He then lied to Amber about the number of kids he has, and only came clean when Gary provided the paper work. -does not pay child support for the litter of kids he has and has(had) open cases against him -had a restraining order against him from an ex -multiple exes have come forward with statements about Matt conning them before abandoning them, and calling him out as a piece of trash -his grown son said he was a dead-beat dad to him, who also lied about having a drug addiction -tried to pick up other teen mom co-stars on twitter before reeling Amber in. -cheated on Amber twice that we know of - once where Amber tweeted about it, and now with a single mom cancer patient. I'm sure there's more, but that's what comes to my mind in this moment. Amber could walk in on Matt having sex with another woman in their bed, and he would spew off some bullshit excuse and she would eat it up. Then call anyone who dares question his bullshit as "haters". The fact that she has a daughter being exposed to all this is disgusting. Leah should be her number 1 priority, no questions. Yet, here she is putting her need to have a man and not be alone above the well being of her innocent daughter. I pray Gary finds a resolution to this mess that puts Leah in the best situation possible.

I'm genuinely curious if Matt could be classified as a psychopath. There is a psychopathy checklist that I put in the spoilers beneath for anyone who'd like to take a peak, and it's scary how much it represents what we know of Matt. Here is a quote from a Doctor of Psychology from psychcentral.com "Psychopaths, in general, have a hard time forming real emotional attachments with others. Instead, they form artificial, shallow relationships designed to be manipulated in a way that most benefits the psychopath. People are seen as pawns to be used to forward the psychopath’s goals. Psychopaths rarely feel guilt regarding any of their behaviors, no matter how much they hurt others. But psychopaths can often be seen by others as being charming and trustworthy, holding steady, normal jobs. Some even have families and seemingly-loving relationships with a partner." I've wondered this about Matt for a long time, based on his ability to constantly lie and manipulate Amber, on top of all the other women who have come forth sharing their similar stories about him. However, the last episode made it impossible to ignore. A few things that really jumped out was the fact that he actually said that he's done with Amber but was going to continue to pretend to love her. Also, the fact that he blatantly lied about her daughter wanting them to get married. That's beyond low. He was willing to lie to the "love of his life" about her 8 year old daughter being OK with them eloping, and then deny an 8 year old from being a part of her mom's wedding. Disgusting. Lastly, the way he pushed Amber to agree to elope was hard to watch. How could anyone in their right mind be comfortable marrying someone who is repeatedly saying they're scared and aren't sure about this. He says that he loves Amber more than anything and that they are soulmates, but he is literally trying to force her into something serious that she is blatantly uncomfortable with. Then he actually spins it around on Amber and make her feel like she was the bad guy in the situation, and she should be the one apologizing and seeking forgiveness. I honestly think he is a legitimate psychopath. It's actually scary watching him in action.

I know we already snarked on Amber being so busy that she has to "stay in bed all day" (I snorted when I heart Matt say that), but how about Matt's comment that they've literally only eaten take-out for the past month because that's how busy they've been. Are you kidding me? Even if Amber is working like crazy day in and day out on her online boutique (please), she seriously can't take half an hour to make a simple dinner. Or better yet, why isn't MATT making dinner. What's keeping him so busy that they only had time for take out for at least a month? Amber spent all that money and went through surgical procedures to loose weight, and she turns right around and literally stays in bed all day and eats take out. I'm glad that she seems to be acknowledging her rightful doubts about Matt. I agree with those who feel like she doesn't want to admit she was wrong about him, after defending him so vigorously and being so adamant that they would make it. I also think she feels like she will have nothing without him, since she doesn't seem to have many close people in her life. Add the fact that Matt knows when to say the right things to her, he's probably good at roping her back in when she starts to come to her senses. I think Amber probably laps it up because she wants so badly to believe the lies he's telling her. But it's very telling that just the thought of officially committing to him forever through marriage causes her to nearly have a panic attack. She knows deep down what's up. I genuinely hope she finds the strength to follow her gut on this one and not marry him.

A moment that sort of stuck out to me was when Michael asked Farrah if she loves Simon. And Farrah gave one of her typical "wtf?" responses about not needing to concern herself with that right now. But the fact that she simply couldn't say yes sort of speaks volumes. I mean, their relationship is clearly not normal, anyone can tell you that. I'm still trying to figure out if they have a mutual arrangement where he's getting paid to appear as her bf (sort of like how she sought someone out so she could be on couples therary), or if he puts up with her to be on tv and get perks (i.e. trips to Hawaii) and she's too conceited to realize that he's just tolerating her. Regardless, this is the woman who paid an absurd amount of money for her own engagement ring, and then got legitimately pissed that Simon wouldn't propose to her with it. She was practically trying to force him on one knee, but she doesn't even love the guy? It just shows how sad Farrah really is. She has this need to be so superficially "perfect" - from the breast implants, butt implants, lip injections, teeth veneers, chin reduction, always having her hair formally done with pounds of makeup and a fancy dress. She likes to let everyone know that she's super successful with everything she does (even if she has to lie, like saying her "sex tape" sold for a million, or needing to have the most expensive ring in the shop), she still refuses to admit to filming a porn because she wants people to believe that she's some big celeb like Kim K who had a sex tape leaked, she talks down to everyone like they are beneath her, etc. And now she wants to be married, because she sees that as a success to have a man. Even though they can't stand each other and she doesn't even love him, it's still better in her mind to have someone to call her husband, rather than be single like an "ugly girl". She will never be happy. I wish she could get real professional help, because mentally she is very unwell.

I completely agree. The fact that he still has children under 10 means he was still doing this in his mid to late 30s! And as you mentioned, he wasn't even upfront about it. He told Amber that he only had 2 kids. And when Gary revealed he had 7, he reluctantly admitted it with a bunch of BS about how he's changed and most are grown now so they don't count. And then we find out he's still lying to her because it's actually 9 kids, since two more women proved paternity. I get that having nine kids that you don't care for is not something you want to lead with when you first meet someone. But he and Amber were living together and engaged and she was still in the dark. That's alarming. You are going to make this man a step father to your child? I mentioned before that it doesn't even seem like they have much fun together, from what we see. Amber admitted to not having friends, and she doesn't seem very close with her family. She doesn't have custody of Leah, she doesn't have a job, and she isn't in school. It's sad that she's this lonely that she will cling to this guy for dear life. I remember shortly before Matt spontaneously popped in the picture out of nowhere (as her live in bf!), Amber was devastated to find out Gary was having a child with Kristina because it meant that things were really over between them. Up till then she had been clinging to hope that they might work things out, and that was a huge blow that confirmed how alone she was. Then Matt comes schmoozing along telling her all the things she wants to hear (and omitted a boat load of things she wouldn't) and here we are.