Empress1

I did too. Very. Nobody asked her and even if they did, that’s a situation where a polite white lie is in order. And I’m mindful of the fact that a few of Emily’s friends called her self-absorbed at the beginning. I don’t know if she’s negative but I’ve never thought she was particularly nice. She and Brennan bring out the worst in each other - he can’t stand her. It’s painful watching Becca beg Austin to care about her. It’s good, I guess, that she (finally!) realized he cared more about how he looked on TV than he does about her.

I don’t like Laura; she gives me mean girl vibes. But she cleared Jeramey. “Go kick rocks with open-toed fucking shoes.” HA!

She cracked me up. “You’re lucky it wasn’t me … I could have told you [you were going to lose her over this] but you didn’t ask me!” I snorted. And she 100% didn’t buy that they just talked and he gave her a ride home, and he also lied to his mom when he said he came home and told Laura what happened right away. He’s a weasel. AD’s mom was so great! I loved her framing of when a relationship ends - just because a marriage or relationship ends before someone dies doesn’t make it a failure. Clay is probably like one relationship away from being ready, and I think he knows it. I did like how clearly AD communicated that she couldn’t date him if he said no at the altar (and I think he will, to be honest). Chelsea told Jimmy’s parents that they hadn’t had fights - girl, please! I have no idea how they got into the fight they got into - she expects him to never go out, at all? He showed his face for an hour at a birthday dinner. What is the problem? She should cringe watching that back. Jimmy needed to really call her bluff during that fight and end it, honestly. “You don’t want to be with someone like me? You get your wish. It’s over. Sorry it didn’t work out.”

Supposedly Amber, the other one Matt was interested in, was and remains in a relationship. She left the show before the proposals because she and her man agreed that she would. This season is a mess.

Sorry, typo. Austin and Becca were fighting.

Watching the Afterparty for this episode and apparently Austin and Emily fought (to the point if her threatening to leave) over him playing music while he was brushing his teeth. He notes that his dad and uncle are both Deaf so he may have been playing the music loudly. I was thinking “like literally Deaf or is he joking?” and then Keisha asked “are they clinically Deaf?” I was glad she asked! Keisha’s pretty good at this. (They are both clinically Deaf. Austin mentioned cochlear implants.) Also Emily has been tanning and has on bubblegum pink lipstick to match her dress, and it’s not a good look.

I’ve been the first person a guy has dated after his long term relationship ended, a few times, and it’s never gone well (it’s now something I screen for*), so it would give me tremendous pause to get engaged to someone who was two months out from a relationship in which he was engaged, owned property with her, and was raising her kid. He hasn’t done anything wrong if that’s the timeline, but I wouldn’t want to date him. And if Laura doesn’t know about this timing, that’s not cool. *I met a guy on an app who it turns out was TWO WEEKS post breakup from his ex of six years, who had a kid he’d been a stepparent to. They were still living in his place. I just point blank asked him if he was cheating, because TWO WEEKS, and they still live there?! He said no, they were moving out in another few weeks and then sent me a video of an empty room a couple weeks later, which I guess had been the kids? Chile … anyway, we never made it off the app.

A lot of stuff is coming out on social media about season 6, in addition to what @snarts posted about Jeramey. Grain of salt:

I would eviscerate someone who woke me up three hours before I had to get up, for any reason except a life-threatening emergency. I’m dead asleep, have to be up at five AM (which for me is really hard, even if I went to bed very early) and you’re trying to make out? Get off me! I have a friend who once wore two different shoes out of the house because he dressed in the dark because he got up much earlier than his wife and didn’t want to wake her. That to me is romantic, not a dude rousing me from REM trying to feel me up.

Laura said “Ain’t nothing open past 2 AM but legs!” HA! I know that’s right. I don’t like Laura either, but even without the location tracking, I’d tell him not to insult my intelligence by saying you were in a fucking parking lot until 5 AM. Exactly.

Literal laugh out loud. She is. I became aware of her when she posted a video about when a friend invites someone else to hang out without telling her and it made its way to Twitter. Her “oh!” reaction is a meme. People were talking shit about her being on the show, but Quinta got her start in Buzzfeed videos. Issa Rae started on YouTube. I loved that the FADE … administrator, or whoever, was mad at Janine for subjecting them to Tariq. Jacob vaping was pretty surprising! Jacob with the many multi-step carrot cookies.

I think I called him “unserious” on social media, and I stand by that. He just seems like he’s not out of his party/hookup phase yet, which is fine - but not when he’s engaged!

That man really just picked a fight for no reason, made no move to comfort her while she was crying, dumped her, made her hug him so there was “no beef,” and then got up and left her sobbing. “This isn’t gonna work. Bye!” That was insane. Brittany deserved better treatment than that. Kenneth being a villain was not in my bingo card, but here we are. I suspect that AD got in his head about race and he realized he didn’t want to marry a white woman, and he took the first exit he could find. Good guy to be around? Yes. Good husband? No. He cited Diddy as his relationship model, who was sued by his ex for cruelty and abuse, settled the case in A DAY so he very likely did some shit, and admitted to treating his other ex, Kim Porter (RIP), like shit. His father made him an accomplice to cheating and clay has said out loud that he’s not sure he can be faithful. He needs to work aaaaallllll that out before he tries being in a relationship, let alone a marriage. AD said she painted her nails with red flags and like … girl. He’s going to cheat on you. “You’re clingy and since we’re talking, I don’t want to have sex.” OUCH. But also … she is clingy and insecure as FUCK. As he said, working from home means working - just because he’s home doesn’t mean he can love on her all day. And it might be cute to playfully say “you didn’t kiss me today, I missed you!” and plant one on him, but that wasn’t what she did - she was legit mad! Had him out here counting kisses, like, what?! Amy and Johnny are the only ones I see it for, and I wondered why condoms weren’t mentioned. I wouldn’t get a vasectomy if I knew I wanted kids (a reversal isn’t guaranteed to work, from what I understand), and I also respect Amy’s decision not to take hormonal birth control. But it seemed like condoms were a pretty big omission. I think in a show-provided place.

Becca is 32, Austin is 31. Becca turned 32 during filming, so she and Austin were the same age when they married. And Becca’s health issues don’t seem to slow her down much - the sickest she’s been was whatever stomach ailment she had on the retreat. I think Becca’s neediness is in part due to knowing Austin doesn’t like her That Way and really wanting him to, and clinging to the hope that something might be there since he continually says he’ll “try,” but like … try to do what? Nobody wants pity attention. He does show her affection, which I think keeps her hope fires burning. Austin doesn’t seem lively or overly fun to me, and a party girl in her 20s like Emily doesn’t strike me as a match for him either. Austin seems nice and pleasant to be around, but not like a partier. I find Chloe to be kind of annoying with her therapy-speak.

Aside from the “identifying as a white woman/Black man” thing (y’all just are those things), I think Brittany handled the race topic very well. She didn’t shy away from it and asked what he needed to feel secure. When a man tells you he’s afraid he’ll hurt you, let you down, whatever, he is going to hurt you/let you down. When someone tries to warn you away from them, you should ALWAYS listen. Clay’s not ready.

As their dreamy vacation comes to an end, the couples have heart-to-hearts before returning to Charlotte and entering a new phase in their relationships.

Yeah, Jessica looks very high-maintenance.

I think she said things “got hot” but they didn’t have sex.

Especially when it comes to kids. You don’t want someone in your kid’s life who doesn’t want to be there. Kids/no kids is a fundamental compatibility issue and should be treated as such. I’m someone who likes to talk about the big compatibility issues very early - before the first date, in some cases, if we’re talking about apps (I screen out certain things).

Trevor called her on it too. He was like, well, that sucks for Jimmy. Clay talks a lot about how he needs what AD brings/does, but nothing about what he can do for her aside from telling her she needs to work out, which was really rude. I don’t like him. Chelsea and Jimmy are both annoying. She’s really needy, and I think part of that is feeling that Jimmy’s not that into her. Jimmy is just kind of tactless and clearly not that into her. It was so gross. AD was graceful about it but it was really gross. Chelsea said she made an uncomfortable situation more comfortable… comfortable for who, Chels? Probably not AD.

I really need for the people doing the dumping to stop talking about how hard it is for them. It’s like when you’re being laid off and your boss or HR says how hard it is on them - you still have income, shut up. I’m also not sure how I feel about Laura hugging Sarah when Sarah just got dumped for her (there’s something about Laura I don’t like). Jimmy turned and looked at the camera when he saw Chelsea and I just thought “ouch.” He said she’s gorgeous; he doesn’t mean it. (Jimmy is … very average-looking.) He keeps saying how happy he is and how gorgeous she is, and “not that it matters!” like 75 times. He’s trying to convince himself. Why is he talking about Jessica?! At length! Shut up! So cringe. I don’t see it at all. Jessica looks more like Megan Fox than Chelsea does.

Jessica was right telling Jimmy she can’t know how he feels unless he says it (she has nothing to go on but his words!), and when she said she wasn’t going to beg him. I felt bad for her when Laura was telling her she needed to leave; it didn’t seem kind coming from Laura for some reason. Jessica wasn’t giving Jimmy anything in their last conversation, and good for her, although “you ruined this for me” is a bit much. There’s always a risk that you will fall for someone who doesn’t feel the same way. That’s life. Kenneth and his bride … I don’t see it. I did like when she replied “all the time” when he said “God is good.” That’s the right answer. 😀 Jimmy must be very charming when he talks because I don’t see … much, with him. He’s not particularly attractive (though I know they don’t know that) and he’s not a particularly engaging conversationalist, and he’s kind of wishy-washy. Clay and AD … kind of rooting for them because I like her, but they’re giving Paige and Chris from Married at First Sight, which is not a good thing. He doesn’t seem serious. He was all about himself and her looks when they met. “I’m gonna need to be babied” gave me the ick.

He would not and should not. He seems very confident in his looks and presentation. You could tell Brennan was having a hard time with the earrings thing - he kept asking if Michael was joking about wearing Chloe’s earrings. He isn’t, and the right woman for Michael would be like “sure, wear my earrings, they look good on you.” I wouldn’t ask this. Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answer to and all that. She already knows he’s not attracted to her, and I’m not sure what would be gained by her hearing, like, “your acne turns me off.” I think Austin is too nice a guy to say something like that, which is why he’ll give her the generic “you deserve someone who feels the same way you do” brush-off, which is about as kind as she can hope for - and she does deserve that. She seems very into Austin but being with someone who doesn’t feel the same way you do is really depressing, and at this point it’s not going to get better.

Ugh. Reminds me a little of when Claire Danes had a kid and decided her character on Homeland needed to be a mother, even though her character Carrie was the last person who should parent (she ended up giving custody to her sister). Marty at least will be a good dad (I assume he will be; while Gemma miscarried, I don’t think this show would go there with an abortion) but I just … don’t see the point. Even if she weren’t an employee, it’s too messy. I’m on the older end of the millennial generation and I hate offices with games and shit (though free snacks are cool). I just want to do my job and go home, in a reasonable amount of time. I work primarily remotely so it’s not an issue, but to me, work/life balance means I have a life outside of work that I have enough time to pursue, not that I spend all my time at work playing air hockey.

Jeramey (that spelling is killing me) and his Henley shirts made me laugh. I like Henley shirts on men. I literally said “DRAG HIM” when AD immediately called Matthew on his shit when they got into the pod. She looked great in the pink crop top and black jeans. Body was - odying. I can’t lie: Clay being like “who’s Matthew - wait, THAT dude?” had me rolling.