S02.E34: Dangerous Engagements

[Spike]

Josh gives off a vibe like he just finished off the Clutter family.  And he’s just one state over.

[psychoticstate]

Lacey to Shane: You're trying to make me look dumb! 

I had no idea Lacey was a comedienne. 

She's pissed about the "unacceptable" proposal.  Wait until she hears the ring was only $500.

So Lizzy has a void on her 23-ish year old life? Finish school and get a good career, dummy. If you can't even write Daniel in prison because you're too busy with work and school, reproducing is not the answer for you.  

Cheryl is going to end up Bobbitting Josh in his sleep. 

[cooksdelight]

2 hours ago, LucyEth said:

Glorietta's mom is a little off.

No, she’s batshit crazy. Just like her daughter.

I swear, each week when I watch this show I want to shoot them all. And I don’t own a gun!

Lacey is showing her flab, even the boobs or fat ass can’t hide the stuff she didn’t have a doctor plump up for her. Gawd, woman, get a new wardrobe.

Cheryl is seriously scaring me. I’m glad her parents have her kids with them. They’d have a strong case for custody after watching her on this show.

[DNR]

4 hours ago, PityFree said:

 There is something wrong with you if you still want to get married to somebody who just slapped you across the face.

Get help, Shane.  That’s not the last time she’s going to pull that kind of crap.

That girl is a nutjob , obviously loves drama .  In this case the saying “ Never stick your d*ck in crazy” applies.   I laughed out loud when she called the friend weeping and breathless “ Shane proposed!”😭😭.... her friend should have hung up the phone 

i hate broads like this. Hate ‘em. John & Shane should move on from this Duck lipped drama queen

[DNR]

3 hours ago, not you again said:

That's what my former DIL looked like when she was a pain pill/heroin addict. Pain pills are constipating so there's a lot of bloating. That's where the belly comes from even though they're skinny as hell.

All the people on this show look like trashy meth addicts

[renatae]

9 hours ago, LucyEth said:

Why would Alex want to convert Glorietta's mother.  Don't know why she was yelling you will not convert me.  Just weird.  She hates him!🤯

At one point, she said, "I don't want to hear anything about your religion," probably because he started with something like "I did some research on Islam..."  She was completely batty. He might have been trying to tell her that he learned any children wouldn't have to be raised as Muslims. She would never know.

I did also feel that was staged, though. She was too over the top, and he was way too calm.

[DiamondGirl]

The look on the jeweler’s face when Shane said $500 was the best part of the show.

[renatae]

10 hours ago, PityFree said:

Shane just didn’t propose the right way????

She is fricking looney. She goes ballistic on him because she didn't like his proposal? And she didn't like his proposal because, what, it wasn't flowery enough? Yet she says he treats her like a queen, etc. Her notions are as childish and unrealistic as Glorietta and her grade school wedding picture book.

[Keywestclubkid]

51 minutes ago, renatae said:

She is fricking looney. She goes ballistic on him because she didn't like his proposal? And she didn't like his proposal because, what, it wasn't flowery enough? Yet she says he treats her like a queen, etc. Her notions are as childish and unrealistic as Glorietta and her grade school wedding picture book.

The fact that Lacey is still with someone else who is supposed to be paroled to her house who MIGHT be the father of her child isn't whats wrong... The fact that he didn't propose as good as the dude that shes cheating on him with is? WTF? Crying on the phone to your friend that its not fair that it wasn't as good then running out and physically assaulting the dude yea Shane you really picked a fucking winner there dude good luck on the future STD shes gonna give you..... oh wait apparently it was shane who gave Lacey a STD ...hahahahah. some Spoilers in the link below

https://allaboutthetea.com/2019/10/25/love-after-lockup-john-reveals-lacey-was-molested/

[Red Bridey]

Morning, cat on my lap, coffee and Love After Lockup...the perfect beginning to the day 😉

[Cammi]

I’m Bipolar II, and now that I’m older I can easily recognize symptoms in others. Especially Bipolar I’s. Cheryl was SO HAPPY at the pawn shop, then turned on a dime and was sullen over Josh looking at a speaker! Ready to start an argument over a speaker. Look, I hate arm chair psychologists, but it is very obvious that she has a mental illness and / or maybe the drugs are causing mood swings? Every time we see her and she cracks even a half smile, it doesn’t take much at all to set her off in the other direction. It just reminds me of when I was in my teens and hadn’t gone to any sort of therapy to learn about my illness, I wasn’t as bad as Cheryl, but I recognize the symptoms. Josh's homecoming she acts out and shows her bony ass and boy didn’t even get to eat HIS cake!  Cheryl is a grown woman and a mother acting this way, Josh should run.

I can’t believe this season I’m rooting more for the felons. And that includes crappy Daniel and Alex. Alex is actually well spoken. Probably even more so than Josh. And that’s saying a lot. Hell I'm even rooting for John and Shane! These women are sad levels of damaged and need to stop treating the prison system as their personal dating pool! The men in prison are a captive audience, but outside the walls it’s different. Poor Shane is just... not bright. Lacy will manipulate him. 

No comment on Vince and Amber. Fake fake fake. Me no care. 

[KateHearts]

Oh my lord, these people....

First of all, in what world does an inmate come out and is able to buy a diamond ring (at the "jewelers," aka pawn shop) that satisfies the most demanding woman? How does Cheryl complain about Josh "always talking about what HE wants" when she has been pushing HARD for a "proper proposal" and a $5k ring (with what money, I ask?) How does Lacey accept a proposal when she is already engaged to the guy who is coming to her house to ride out his parole the next day- then two seconds later blame guy #2 for upsetting her since his proposal wasn't as elaborate? How does Lizzy smugly skirt around Daniel's questions about the pregnancy test for ten minutes, say "I REALLY wasn't planning on getting pregnant right now..." (that's what protection is for, honey) and then suddenly get mad at Daniel for (reasonably, I might add) being relieved that there isn't a baby in their immediate future? Daniel plays video games all day, Lizzie knows he's sitting on his ass and not being proactive about his future- who will hire a guy with a 1980s razored haircut and teardrop tattoos?- but she is indignant that he is disappointed she isn't pregnant. 

We now have unlocked the mystery as to where Glorietta got her brains from.  Mama Glorietta was a little over the top with her satin baseball jacket and simpering voice- "He TOUCHED ME! He needs to STOP TOUCHING ME!!!"  I'm sorry, but putting his hand on your elbow doesn't warrant an order of protection.  She was armed for bear walking into that place. And Glorietta is now backing down on another of her original Important Points: she will elope rather than fulfill all of the requirements she has laid out in her Dream Wedding Book.

Did anyone notice that in the talking heads, Shane's eyebrow ring was on the right but in all the other footage it was on the left? Do they film some things in reverse? And I noticed he has a nose ring in some shots, doesn't in others.  He is so pitifully naive (i.e.,he finds Lacey "beautiful")- he really needs some time to, oh, I don't know- mature a bit? I also laughed when he said he needed to take her somewhere "really nice" for their proposal dinner- Max and Erma's- a chain somewhat akin to Red Robin.  Don't get me started on her attire, her voice, her over-the-top phony "ohhh, I'm so upset! I need to sort out my feelings!" and boo-hooing which quickly devolved to her calling Shane a piece of shit for who-knows-what and not only slapping him from her car window but then getting out, chasing after him only to slap him again. He must be totally perplexed.

Vince is just now getting the hint that Amber just isn't interested. I had to chuckle at her line: "it's hard when you're in prison and someone on the outside is GIVING YOU SUCH GOOD ADVICE to turn them down."  I think that should read "someone on the outside is SENDING YOU MONEY AND PROMISING TO SUPPORT YOU," don't you, Amber? And what's with the three of them all snuggling together on the park bench in Kathy's backyard?

[cooksdelight]

1 hour ago, Keywestclubkid said:

some Spoilers in the link below

This was the funniest thing I read:

Love After Lockup star John Slater....

No wonder these people are so over the top with their crafted storylines! They think they are stars! Bwahahahahahaha!!!

I laughed at most of what I watched last night, then I remembered some of these people have children who have to live with their parent and felt immediately sad.

[DanaMB]

Watching the ep now. Random thoughts. 
 

Lizzie and DanieL- That whole pregnancy test was fake. She could barely keep from laughing when he “found” it. Sadly, she’s probably serious about wanting a kid. Fucking idiot. The ex con is the voice of reason. 

Glorietta and Alex- Glorietta’s mom came off worse than the ex-con. Very irrational.

Cheryl and Josh- Like she’s going to eat all that food. “Don’t worry, it won’t be long.” Hahaha. I can’t help it, I just like the guy. Ignoring the whole bank robbery/ex-con thing. 😂

Shane and Lacey- The dumpster fire known as Lacey continues to burn bright. No tears at all every time she was “crying”. Fakety fake. And the way she was physical with him? He needs to leave her ass for good. 

Spoiler

If it’s true they’re actually married now, he has more of that to look forward to. Though with his history, she better dial it back. 

I want to make fun of the $500 ring but at least he wanted to buy it for her himself (unlike Cheryl.)

Edited October 26, 2019 by DanaMB

[hookedontv]

Am I the only one who wants Lacey arrested for assault? 

I’ve written this in other forums like 90 Day Fiancé: when “reality shows” first started (I’m talking old school, like “The Real World” on MTV) there was an absolute zero tolerance for any sort of violence or harassment. Hit, spit, slap, push anyone-automatic removal from the show. 

I really wish that was in place these days. If the tables were turned and Shane was throwing things at Lacey, shoving her, and slapping her, it would be a different story. I’m sick of this double standard where the woman gets a pass on abusing someone else. It drives me crazy and it’s not fair. 

And all these chicks - Cheryl, Lacey, Glorietta and her mom, etc. are certifiable.

End rant. For now.  

[DanaMB]

12 hours ago, LucyEth said:

Lacey is a terrible actress

I was thinking the same thing. Though how much acting talent do you need for porn...

[OnceSane]

8 hours ago, DNR said:

John & Shane should move on from this Duck lipped drama queen

I legit thought this said "dick lipped drama queen," and said, "Yup, that fits."

[sempervivum]

1 hour ago, Cammi said:

I can’t believe this season I’m rooting more for the felons.

Yep. Other than Amber, these jailbirds seem quite reasonable and at least somewhat self-aware.  Glo, Cheryl and Lacey are all so unpleasant; I thought Lizzie was the voice of reason at the start of this season, but it's clear she's just as delusional as the rest of them now.

Josh is weirdly hairless (his body, not his head).

Lacey should never wear back-baring clothing, because that's where you can really see how flabby and out of shape she is. Also, yellow is not her color.

[Mothra]

16 hours ago, PityFree said:

I am getting ready for tonight by watching the old episodes on WE while I eat dinner. (The show comes on at 7 pm my time.) 

 Earlier this week I was working from home and I needed some noise in the background, so I put on one of the first episodes. It was the one where Cheryl told us Josh had given her a baggie full of semen. Good times. I’d forgotten about that! Josh was leading her on about how quickly he wanted kids and marriage. He is pulling back now, but he is to blame for the fact that Cheryl already has a wedding gown.

Thank you for doing this retro research for the team.  My scorn for Cheryl was really getting out of hand, and I'd forgotten about the spooge baggie.  He really is a jerk.  I think while in jail, like the rest of these guys, he was desperate to leave prison life (and all that that entails) behind and land immediately in just the kind of stupid fantasy Cheryl has been yammering on about.  But when he got a load of Cheryl in the wild, among all the other better-looking and more interesting (and maybe better-earning) women he'd like to spooge with, he's backing off and gaslighting her (and us) into believing she's jumping the gun.

[Keywestclubkid]

I feel so bad because I forget that these are pretty much regular everyday middle of America people who really don’t have that much money or education and to them a $500 ring is expansive or going to a chain sit down restaurant is a “fancy” or “nice” restaurant. Watching so much reality tv where people go on lavish vacations and drop a thousand dollars on a trinket like it’s nothing kinda desensitizes you to that a little. So I apologize for making fun of that.  But still the trash box and freaking beyond crazy of most of these people is just sad lol 

Edited October 26, 2019 by Keywestclubkid

[Mothra]

1 hour ago, hookedontv said:

Am I the only one who wants Lacey arrested for assault? 

I’ve written this in other forums like 90 Day Fiancé: when “reality shows” first started (I’m talking old school, like “The Real World” on MTV) there was an absolute zero tolerance for any sort of violence or harassment. Hit, spit, slap, push anyone-automatic removal from the show. 

I agree with this so much.  On the shows we're watching today, though, it's mostly the women who are getting away with hitting the men, so imo it's almost worse than man hitting man or woman because it reinforces all kinds of stereotypes that it's OK for *anybody* to hit *anybody*.  I remember Real World, too, and any hint of violence was indeed a big deal--not only was the hitter thrown off the show, but there was lots of conversation among the other cast members about what had happened.  MTV of all entities took their responsibility seriously.

I don't think anyone would argue that a man hitting could cause more physical damage than a woman hitting--*in general*--but it seems that on 90DF, LAL, even Teen Mom, women hitting men is just not paid attention to at all, and that's wrong, wrong, wrong.  And I don't think that as a society we've become more tolerant of physical hitting--at least I hope we haven't.

[Kangatush]

59 minutes ago, Mothra said:

I agree with this so much.  On the shows we're watching today, though, it's mostly the women who are getting away with hitting the men, so imo it's almost worse than man hitting man or woman because it reinforces all kinds of stereotypes that it's OK for *anybody* to hit *anybody*.  I remember Real World, too, and any hint of violence was indeed a big deal--not only was the hitter thrown off the show, but there was lots of conversation among the other cast members about what had happened.  MTV of all entities took their responsibility seriously.

MTV ended up dropping the ball too.  On the Skeletons season of RW two girls full on assaulted another girl and zero was done, or said, about it.

Today if a girl puts her hands on anyone, it's unaddressed and ridiculous.

[Spike]

10 minutes ago, Kangatush said:

MTV ended up dropping the ball too.  On the Skeletons season of RW two girls full on assaulted another girl and zero was done, or said, about it.

Today if a girl puts her hands on anyone, it's unaddressed and ridiculous.

MTV allows some scuffling on The Challenge, but something like a sucker punch will get you booted. Last season someone body slammed someone else for throwing his pasta doggy bag out the bus window.

[Kangatush]

2 hours ago, Spike said:

MTV allows some scuffling on The Challenge, but something like a sucker punch will get you booted. Last season someone body slammed someone else for throwing his pasta doggy bag out the bus window.

Yes, but that was two men.  They still police the men vigilantly, it's the women who get a free pass.  

Lacey is just a nut bag.  You proposed wrong?  If you're in love, you don't need the perfect proposal.

[Spike]

1 hour ago, Kangatush said:

Yes, but that was two men.  They still police the men vigilantly, it's the women who get a free pass.  

Lacey is just a nut bag.  You proposed wrong?  If you're in love, you don't need the perfect proposal.

Plus he doesn’t know her well enough to go into any meaningful detail.  Um i love that you abandoned your kids to chase my prison dick.

[Kangatush]

4 hours ago, Spike said:

Plus he doesn’t know her well enough to go into any meaningful detail.  Um i love that you abandoned your kids to chase my prison dick.

I love that you've lied to me about major life things.

[cooksdelight]

That had to be just for the show. They need to stop trying so hard to create drama. These people opening their mouths to talk is drama enough.

[Jeanne222]

We've come a long way baby!  From The Brady Bunch to Love After Lockup!

Heck I remember when Lucy and Rickey had to sleep in twin beds on their show!I

Now we have Shane humping Lacey on prime time!!!

[RealReality]

On 10/25/2019 at 6:41 PM, LucyEth said:

Why would Alex want to convert Glorietta's mother.  Don't know why she was yelling you will not convert me.  Just weird.  She hates him!🤯

That was just the meth talking. 

[RealReality]

10 hours ago, Kangatush said:

Yes, but that was two men.  They still police the men vigilantly, it's the women who get a free pass.  

Lacey is just a nut bag.  You proposed wrong?  If you're in love, you don't need the perfect proposal.

She has some sort of personality disorder.  I have no idea what it's called.  But there must be some label for people who do shitty things and then cover it up by blaming the other person. 

Because Lacey has led Shane on....is now engaged to two guys.....and called her friend and immediately found a way to turn herself into a victim. 

There has to be some DSM manual type disorder.  

[Kangatush]

1 minute ago, RealReality said:

There has to be some DSM manual type disorder.  

Although some people are just assholes, without a diagnosis to fall back on.

[RealReality]

16 hours ago, hookedontv said:

Am I the only one who wants Lacey arrested for assault? 

I’ve written this in other forums like 90 Day Fiancé: when “reality shows” first started (I’m talking old school, like “The Real World” on MTV) there was an absolute zero tolerance for any sort of violence or harassment. Hit, spit, slap, push anyone-automatic removal from the show. 

I really wish that was in place these days. If the tables were turned and Shane was throwing things at Lacey, shoving her, and slapping her, it would be a different story. I’m sick of this double standard where the woman gets a pass on abusing someone else. It drives me crazy and it’s not fair. 

And all these chicks - Cheryl, Lacey, Glorietta and her mom, etc. are certifiable.

End rant. For now.  

I normally kinds let things slide, but Laceys behavior was flagrant.  She straight up slapped him in the face.  

She loves prison so much, maybe she needs to spend some time there. 

She apparently doesn't need to be around to raise her kids and like Lizzie from last year she can just sucker men from prison. 

3 minutes ago, Kangatush said:

Although some people are just assholes, without a diagnosis to fall back on.

I don't know, Im not sure just plain old asshole is a thing anymore ...everyone has the sprinkles of a personality disorder.  

Used to be asshole was a thing....now it's called oppositional defiant disorder, or narcassistic personality disorder.  

Edited October 27, 2019 by RealReality

[RealReality]

16 hours ago, KateHearts said:

Oh my lord, these people....

who will hire a guy with a 1980s razored haircut and teardrop tattoos?- but she is indignant that he is disappointed she isn't pregnant. 

Ummm, that's a tattoo of an upside down umbrella that caught all Daniels prison tears no one was there to wipe up.  

Obviously an employer will want to take a chance on Daniel once they hear the story.  

Real talk though - mechanic would be a good job for him.  Skilled, in demand.  No access to money or financial data.   Not too much responsibility or supervision.  Not a career that would frown on facial tatts. 

Edited October 27, 2019 by RealReality

[RealReality]

On 10/25/2019 at 7:12 PM, Maybeitsme said:

Glorietta and her mom are all about the drama. I can't believe anything they say is "real". Don't know what alexs  game is

The last thing Daniel and lizzy need is a baby. Hopefully they will be more careful in the future.  Neither of them have a job, right?

Cheryl just seems crazier each episode and lives such a dismal life, ugh is she ever in a good mood or happy? Ever? I know Josh is an asshole but jeez. To think I felt sorry for her 

I'm crossing my fingers, but Daniel seemed to think that if he didn't have a baby with Lizzy in six months she would leave him.  

He is so desperate for her, that I think he would ignore his better judgement.  

I really, really, really hope I'm proven wrong.  But I won't be shocked if and when they happily announce a pregnancy.  I will also not be surprised when they defensively and angrily respond to anyone who points out that they can neither afford a baby nor have the emotional skillset to raise a baby.  

That poor child would end up raised by Teri.  Best case scenario would be for adoption. 

[JenE4]

Lizzy is trying to talk Daniel into having a baby?! Sure. He has no job and has been in jail since he was a teen. Trying to get him to knock you up seems like a good life choice.

It says a lot about this show that Alex—a man with tattooed drool or cum dribble—is the most rational person who has ever been cast. 

Cheryl, while holding $6 in cash, asks how much the ring costs. $5,000 might be slightly out of budget. Hell, you wouldn’t be able to even get that portable Bluetooth speaker for $6. But if Cheryl doesn’t get a $5000 ring from a man freshly out of prison with no job, then that means he really doesn’t love her. If you loved her, Josh, you’d rob another bank to get that ring—or at least rob the pawn shop. What is wrong with these people?!?

What the hell just happened to Lacey? Okay, I can understand that it seemed manipulative to propose to keep her from seeing John. But she lost her damn mind hitting and swearing at Shane and the second he says it’s over, SHE flips out on how HE is treating HER?!? No wonder why she can only date incarcerated men. It’s for their own physical safety.

[Cammi]

5 hours ago, RealReality said:

She has some sort of personality disorder.  I have no idea what it's called.  But there must be some label for people who do shitty things and then cover it up by blaming the other person. 

Because Lacey has led Shane on....is now engaged to two guys.....and called her friend and immediately found a way to turn herself into a victim. 

There has to be some DSM manual type disorder.  

She was straight up gaslighting Shane and purposely picked a stupid fight because John is being released. And you KNOW even though she may not want John, she wants that prison dick she waited for at least once. She’s a manipulative whore with kids she could care less about. 

[dsteele]

23 hours ago, KateHearts said:

Did anyone notice that in the talking heads, Shane's eyebrow ring was on the right but in all the other footage it was on the left? Do they film some things in reverse?

YES!!!! Drove me crazy at first until I rewound and saw some closeups that confirmed it. Can't imagine why the producers did it. FYI, you can flip the footage horizontally (or even upside down) in post-production. Sometimes it helps cover mistakes or improves composition but this made no sense.

Special note to Lacey: SIDEBOOB in a family restaurant? Maybe not the best choice.

[KateHearts]

Glorietta: "I didn't expect this PIT FIRE!!"

Lizzie: "we're going to make great parents; you know we are."

Cheryl: "we go out looking for an engagement ring and you want to buy a speaker."

Lacey: "I'm SO PISSED OFF!!!!"

TV gold, I tell ya.

[hookedontv]

2 hours ago, JenE4 said:

It says a lot about this show that Alex—a man with tattooed drool or cum dribble—is the most rational person who has ever been cast. 

Dead.

[cooksdelight]

Lacey is bipolar. I’ve seen it too many times in someone I know personally and when she runs out of her meds and hasn’t gotten her prescription refilled yet, it’s the same behavior. 

[sempervivum]

8 hours ago, RealReality said:

Real talk though - mechanic would be a good job for him.  Skilled, in demand.  No access to money or financial data.   Not too much responsibility or supervision.  Not a career that would frown on facial tatts. 

Maybe, assuming he actually has some skills as a mechanic. But we found out in this episode that he doesn't even have a high school degree, so I'm not sure how an employer would feel about that, combined with his prison record.

[Pepper Mostly]

Well, we all said "who could be whackier than Glorietta?" And the universe gifted us with Mama Glorietta. Holy shit. That level of crazy, wow. "DON'T TOUCH ME!!". Girl. He brushed your elbow. "Let's talk" "DON'T TALK TO ME. I DON'T WANT YOU TO CONVERT ME". I was genuinely trying to figure out what she was on about. The minute he said the word Islam she went right off the rails. Glorietta is as nutty as an Almond Joy but her mother is the whole damn tree. 

[Spike]

1 hour ago, sempervivum said:

Maybe, assuming he actually has some skills as a mechanic. But we found out in this episode that he doesn't even have a high school degree, so I'm not sure how an employer would feel about that, combined with his prison record.

I wouldn’t want a meth head working on my car.  Maybe he can do oil changes at jiffy lube.  Most cars have computers nowadays and his IQ seems to be around 70.

[KateHearts]

4 hours ago, cooksdelight said:

Lacey is bipolar. I’ve seen it too many times in someone I know personally and when she runs out of her meds and hasn’t gotten her prescription refilled yet, it’s the same behavior. 

I won't go so far as to diagnose her, but she can step aside with her boob flashing, crocodile tears, baby voice and over the top theatrics.  She has a reason for doing all this: either she is truly unstable/mentally ill; she thinks these TV antics will make her famous; or she's just so stupid that that ex-cons are the only marriage pool she can draw from.  Listening to her talk for thirty seconds, I'm inclined to think so- she's incredibly vapid, superficial and selfish.  So my vote is for a little bit of #2 and #3.  If she is truly mentally ill, she needs someone to take over custody of her kids and a therapist to keep her medicated and accountable for her irresponsible behaviors.  

No matter what the etiology, she's insufferable.

[Jade Foxx]

On 10/26/2019 at 11:49 PM, RealReality said:

I normally kinds let things slide, but Laceys behavior was flagrant.  She straight up slapped him in the face.  

Who would have guessed the malicious wounder didn’t react with physical violence when nutjob Lacey assaulted him. She’s all famewhore,  psychosis, and utterly disgusting. ( her kids will see this one day)

Edited October 30, 2019 by Jade Foxx

[Unsinn]

Good grief, where to begin...

Cheryl and Josh:

It wouldn’t matter whom the guy, Cheryl would chase him off.  She’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. With all her clingy, whining, pouting hysteria, she’s a bottomless pit of need and insecurity.  She’s unable to understand that the very behaviour she displays (constantly, unendingly, ad nauseum) is the very same behaviour that will guarantee any man not a masochist will, perhaps after expending considerable good will, take to his heels. It also guarantees that men who have considerable character flaws such as anger and impulse control, may react violently (for the record: not in any way stating that is in any way an “acceptable” response).

Cheryl has has several opportunities to outwit, outplay and outmaneuver her “opponent”, Josh’s mother, Tina.  At least from what has been shown on TV, Josh has made it known: Cheryl is his choice (atm). Josh’s mother could gnash her teeth, roll her eyes, flail around, mutter every curse and cite innuendo like an old hag casting curses over a bubbling cauldron, accuse Cheryl of having designs on her “man” (why isn’t her problem with her “man”?) but she’d be a toothless tiger if Cheryl had put on her prettiest, most accommodating, sweetest face, all smiles and oozing support for Josh, building friendly bridges with his family, showing interest in meeting and speaking with everyone.  

If Cheryl had spent the effort wooing everyone, and after a leisurely amount of time she then announced, “oh, dear! Josh, sweetheart, we’ve forgotten all about that stupid tire!  It’s bald, and we’ve totally forgotten about getting it fixed and look at the time!”

His whole family would have probably been eager to help them get the tire fixed and Josh “back” in time for his ankle monitor check-in.  Instead Cheryl was sucking the driver’s seat up her a** after making a show of hauling Josh away from his family reunion after an absence of six years, pouting and hurt because Josh was refusing to play the “fill me up, reassure me” game.  She then just couldn’t help herself and unwisely upped the ante by throwing down the gauntlet and ask if Josh thought they should break up, transparently hoping for apologies (his, !!!) and professions of continued love and devotion.  To Cheryl’s stony-faced but shocked surprise, Josh in fact admitted he would end their relationship even if he added some weak caveats of lukewarm uncertainty.

Everyone has a sour puss in their family, a “Tina”,  one who never likes whomever their kid (no matter how long an adult) is currently with (dating or married).  The rest of the family is used to a “Tina”, her prune face and bitter tongue, always b*tching, always dissatisfied, always pouring poison about... someone, but especially about anyone who gets too close for her comfort to someone she considers “hers”.

Cheryl lost her opportunity of making Tina the apparent “liar” by appearing just as “bad” as Tina was telling everyone. Cheryl lived up to all the “bad press” by appearing aloof and disinterested and dragging Josh off.  Cheryl cldnt even wait to get Josh completely away from the family (some got to witness some of her I’m feeling insecure, time to go; my way, right now repertoire), and Josh got another helping of caustic and needy tantrums and being “reminded” every 10 minutes how much she sacrificed for him - which she did of her own free will, and is treating like both a down payment on ownership of Josh and a perpetual pass for her neurotic, controlling, isolating behaviour.  No one is weakening that relationship faster than Cheryl herself.

in fairness, Josh did lead her on, but for all her fascination with serial killers (romanticizing danger, violence and being a victim, an odd fascination for someone with an alleged prior unhappy relationship/marriage involving domestic abuse) Cheryl seems blissfully ignorant that scamming outsiders is what inmates do.  They have nothing but time, and the majority of their friends, and even sometimes their families, fall back and fall away when they’re incarcerated.  Women like Cheryl (and men like Vince) volunteer to get involved.  And while inmates are doing time, those on the outside make them their sole focus, and vice versa.  Once freed, the same inmates willing to devote every waking moment to thoughts of their pen pals suddenly have  options, and no longer want to spend hours each day building up the personal fantasies of others.  

Few men fantasize about dream weddings, few men are terribly concerned with all the dizzying details of a wedding.  Many, however madly in love with the bride, have the attitude of “tell me what to wear, where to be and what time, and I’ll be there.”  Their eyes glaze over at talk about table decorations and china patterns. The ring is their big project until the wedding itself.

Like most inmates, after discussing everything that’s music to Cheryl’s ears ad infinitum (even that Cheryl gave the warning sign of needing even more and Josh seek a break from her incessant neediness even while in prison; citing the lie he told just to get in a hand ball game, and the consequences - not of the lie, which provided a temporary reprieve, but of the missed call, which caused her to “cry like a baby died”: warning, warning, warning!) in all the detail her needy, hyper-attentive soul desired, Josh has fallen back on the realities of his lack of a job and money, and with the weight of restitution for the money he stole from the bank, Josh has a long way to go before being able to buy really anything.  However, after having soothed Cheryl for years with promises (and she obviously not being too conversant with financial realties and “needs versus wants/desires” herself, having put an incarcerated felon pen pal over her kids) Cheryl is sincerely hurt when he reasonably declines going into $5k debt for an engagement ring he cannot afford (still jobless and with aforementioned long list of serious financial obligations), but then segues into techie fanboy drooling over a set of speakers.  

The speed at which he goes through the motions of looking over the rings, agreeing with her choice, admiring it for a nanosecond or two, knowing the importance of the symbolism for her, concluding they cannot afford it - which is a mature decision, understandable and yet still (another) disappointment for Cheryl.  For her, it’s yet another a delay in a series of delays since his release, after years of “when I get out...” which had become the bread and butter of her very Soul - he gives her shoulder a bit of a sympathetic squeeze and then like a squirrel on meth turns and squeals “oooo, shiny!  Speakers!”  It’s a knock to Cheryl’s fragile ego, rampant insecurity and uncertainty that she fears she knows that, given any choice, and a way to do it, Josh wld happily stride out of that store with those speakers under his arm, and the latest of Cheryl’s “dream rings” left behind him, still in its case, further delaying the purchase of the all-important, highly symbolic, chosen-together, “serious” engagement ring.

Cheryl is undoubtedly a handful, but Josh does show stunning insensitivity to someone who has, whatever her own failings, prioritized him and both his needs and his desires.  He cannot be so oblivious that he is completely unaware that such actions feed Cheryl’s rampant insecurity; yes, she’s neurotic and demanding.  However, he knows she’s hanging on to every morsel of reassurance and “interpreting” and parsing his every word and action since his attention is no longer focused with laser-intensity on her and the future to which he once agreed.  It may even be his tactic of getting her to “pull the trigger”.  By picking at her fears (While pretending it’s inadvertent and unintentional), he could get her to end the relationship, allowing him to have “clean hands” and protest it’s what she wanted when he couldn’t produce all she wanted on an unreasonable timeline. 

Of the male line-up of LAL characters (double entendre entirely intended), Josh seems to get somewhat of a pass with the viewers because he appears the most attractive, put-together, feasible.  He speaks clearly, can be understood, no visible tats (none, mercifully, on his face, neck or hands), not imbued by the correctional system, clean-cut and seemingly reasonable... helping to make Cheryl, in all her batsh*t compulsive, needy, clingy hysteria, all the more unsympathetic to viewers.

Glorietta and Alex:

What was that scene with Glorietta’s mother? Is there not enough air time on an already crazy show that even the side, “bit players” feel they need to amp up their crazy (and bigoted) to the nth degree and completely show their a**, guaranteeing their air time, often looking more “off” than the paroled felons?

Alex played that slick; all seeming openness, trying to simply have a reasonable conversation. This is not a rare situation. Even within religions, there are sects and degrees of observance that can cause outsized reactions, even derail an engagement.

Glorietta is her own special brand of crazy (a 12 year old fantasizing about her dream wedding with her scrapbook and giggly threats/jus’ jokin’/narrowed eyes/not really in the body of an adult woman grimly determined to see it all through even in the most inauspicious of circumstances) but her mother shows Glorietta came by crazy honestly. From the get-go (with the weak excuse of the dogs she hauled along - for protection?) Tammy refused even the most basic of social niceties (the refusal of a handshake upon greeting; “I have dog on me.”  Would have “I’m a b*tch with distemper” been too pointed?)

It’s really not that unusual that a parent have concerns, even an adult child, marrying “outside the Faith”.  Some are sincere, some are hypocritical.

Tammy went into full hysteria mode, as if confronted by a vampire immune to sunlight, unable to exchange even the most banal of introductions.  It’s hard to buy that she’s such a devout Catholic, as Glorietta is either a) divorced, or b) had a child out of wedlock, neither of which is cool with Roman Catholicism.  

If Glorietta is divorced, she would require an annulment to be able to remarry within the Roman Catholic Church (whether or not her first husband was a Catholic himself and also whether or not they were “married in the Church”).  If it was known she was planning not only to remarry, but remarry a non-Catholic, a Muslim, and raise any future children of that union as non-Catholics, an annulment would certainly not be granted, nor any priest perform the wedding.  Glorietta wld have the stark choices, if she married Alex, of converting to Islam (becoming a “second generation” of converting not out of religious conviction but for someone else which no sincere Muslim cleric would consider) or becoming a non-communicant member of her own Church (Roman Catholicism, according to Glorietta herself).  For anyone who takes their faith in any way seriously, who practices it and believes in its tenets, that status, those prohibitions, are both humiliating and unbearable. 

Annulments are expensive and very time-consuming to get, requiring a canonical investigation.  Glorietta is absolutely free to marry civilly, in a mosque, in a parking lot by Elvis if she so chooses, but both Glorietta and Tammy have, each in their own ways, made religion an issue, when really, their own pasts negate it.

Tammy sounds more like an evangelical, ”charismatic” Christian than a Roman Catholic (though Catholicism does have its charismatic sects; churches and congregations that have adopted practices more common to Fundamentalists and Pentecostal faiths than traditional, orthodox Catholicism). Roman Catholics are also, as a rule, specific.  They will ask if someone is Catholic, while Tammy uses the more Protestant umbrella term of “Christian”.  She mentions the “Christian Family”, which is weirdly formal, like saying “the Anglican Communion” or “Holy Mother Church”.

Again, Alex played it smart. Like Cheryl should have been with Josh’s family, Alex was all “hail fellow, well met” affability with Glorietta’s family and friends.  Even if Alex thinks Tammy is a drooling lunatic, he greeted her at the “engagement party” all willingness to communicate.  While Tammy “told the camera” that whatever Glorietta’s choices, she would support her and be in her life, it certainly didn’t play as a conciliatory mother declaring her love and support of her (adult) child, come what may, but more of a steely declaration that she would involve herself in Glorietta’s marriage to keep a close eye on both.  

Tammy then made herself the focus of all attention by acting as if she was going to get “Muslim cooties”, shrieking as if confronted by a Djinn and she wasn’t going to let him “try to convert“ her.  Is her faith so weak that even politely listening to someone else could cast some kind of compelling, overwhelming “spell”?  It’s not religion that has caused her daughter to be (allegedly) willing to raise her children Muslim, but her determination to marry a man she barely knows who himself barely practices a faith (drinking alcohol, sex outside of marriage, eating non-halal food, not facing Mecca and praying 5x a day...) he himself converted not out of religious conviction but “for” another.

Kacey and John... and Shane: 

Poor Shane. You kinda get the feeling he may have taken a blow or two to the head growing up, maybe fell off the swing set or got clocked by a Power Ranger toy or one of the Old School heavy Tonka trucks.  He’s been living the dream, with a living sex doll, all extreme features, flexibility and cloying, babykins voice.  He can’t even process her father’s warning, that Kacey has been on this merry-go-round before, and what makes him (Shane) think Kacey will be faithful to him (Shane)?  It doesn’t even compute for poor Shane that Kacey’s own father is basically saying his “daughter is a wh*re, incapable of fidelity, she will treat you as she has treated others, leaving you behind when her attention is attracted by someone else.”  All poor Shane could do was babble out, his manners deserting him after such a paternal revelation about the woman of his adolescent dreams, and let the poor man know what he (the Dad) already knew: that he and Kacey had already knocked boots.

I almost expected the Dad to go full-throttle and wearily reply, “Son, who hasn’t ‘spent the night’ with Kacey?  She’s seen more a** than a rental car!”

Shane buys a nice ring (for the princely sum of 500 US$), and bless his provincial a**, thinks he’s chosen a nice place to ask his dream girl to be his wife.  While hardly the stuff of Harlequin novels, Shane is all sincerity. He really does believe he’s the Good Guy (comparatively, of felons) who’s going to sweep Kacey off her feet, be the man of her dreams, step into her life and home, be her Knight in Shining Track Suit, be a father to her kids, prove himself to her father... and seemingly displace the Bad Guy about whom Kacey kept him in the dark and undoubtedly did not complimentary depict (hence his confusion about her “confusion”).

And then, after Kacey melts and goes gooey, she needs to make a phone call... and has a completely unbelievable attack of conscience, complete with choking, snot-clogged sobs, manicured and bedazzled talons held dramatically - but gently, no mussing of the warpaint/make-up! - to her tear-stained face.  Suddenly, Kacey, who had so recently concluded that she “needed it, wanted it, was ready” and rode Shane like the Lone Ranger rode Silver with a “hi ho!” (Actually, that particular line might have been Shane’s...) over her long-term high school sweetheart/fiancé, gets the guilts. 

Just as her Dad predicted:  from John-John-John, Kacey went to Shane-Shane-Shane, as easily as switching partners in a square dance, without missing a step... and things came to an unsurprising conclusion: Shane was all in.  He proposed, and suddenly, Kacey, what she has of a conscience faintly stirring...  is comparing proposals... and upset with... Shane?

Never mind that Shane hasn’t known Kacey long enough to rhapsodize on about her, her kids, their past and their future, to woo and dazzle her with evocations of their past and promises tailored to her dreams of the future.  Poor Shane is making the mistakes of the young, inexperienced and naïve: he’s all sincerity. With their shared history, John had enough to make his case to a sympathetic, at the very least, “audience” (Kacey, an eager volunteer, lover of “bad boys”).  

Kacey has gotten tangled in her own net, and oozing guilt from every pore - and the D Day of John’s parole time to her home rapidly dawning - frantically tries to shift responsibility: she told Shane she was “confused” (so much for the declaration she made above), she “can’t accept” his ring, but doesn’t want him to “be mad” (keep hedging those bets!),

Besides, to crown it all, Shane’s inexperienced 21 year old a** couldn’t put in as slick and polished as performance (proposal) as a more... practiced... player (John)!  C’mon, Shane, what kind of proposal was that for a fantasy cam girl?  At a chain restaurant?  No violins, no Hallmark sentiments, no soft-focus film montage overlaid with romantic, “meaningful” music? (Even from someone Kacey herself so recently described to her father as “having treated [her] like sh*t”.)  Kacey has high expectations, she’s high maintenance.  She “has a thing for bad boys”, but has higher aspirations, and her father’s concern for her small children has allowed her to pursue her fantasy life generally unfettered. 

Kacey does not play unjustly aggrieved and innocent victim well... it’s not even a matter of chewing scenery... it’s a creature feature of a woman bursting with fillers, fake boobs making a dash for freedom from beneath a flimsy, mustard-yellow sundress whose pattern clashes with her large tats (and those making-a-break-for-it tatas), not forgetting her generous gluteus maxi-maximus peeking from the short hem as Kacey throws herself into her Big Scene... on that chain restaurant parking lot (one works with what one has; besides, clock’s-a-tickin’ with Dad at home watching the kids - as usual - and John due to parole to her house on the morning...)

And... she strikes him.  Uh uh, no Ma’am, Miss Kacey Kama Sutra of Camera Sexual Calisthenics, that’s assault.  It is in no way a reasonable response to someone buying into your bullsh*t.

Lizzy and Daniel:

Playing with the results of a pregnancy test when you know neither of you are employed, your relationship is not on firm terrain, there’s still lots of secrets?  Cute.  Grow up and be thankful an innocent life was not begun because you two emotional juveniles cannot even be a**ed to play at adulthood and responsibility even long enough to do the minimums and buy (and use) a box of condoms.

I still can’t buy that pool hall scene. Most ppl who don’t want to be contacted by former friends/associates change their number.  At the very least, they block unwanted contacts.  Addicts are encouraged to cut off all their friends and associates from their “past lives”, their “using days” of active addiction.  Their parole, and absolutely their sobriety, usually depend on a “that was then, this is now” demarcation and separation, the more absolute, the better.

Yet, one of Lizzy’s old drug-drug running buddies still has her number, or has the number of a user still in contact, and thus can contact Lizzy on the spot.  While their drugs of choice do encourage paranoia, they’re savvy enough to see the cast’s and their friends’ mics - visible with their battery packs at the small of their backs - but confuse them for undercover “wires”, for which great pains are taken to remain hidden?   They also seem blind to the camera crew filming the cast and their friends playing pool, and with cameras and gear far larger and “involved” than cell phones.  

Drug dealers and users usually have “communities” of their own: they know who sells what, who works for whom, whom the buyers are, who “owes”, who’s losing ground (in addiction), who’s desperate enough to do anything (mule, pay off their debts in exchange for a variety of “services”, who’s been arrested and why, who’s likely to flip, make a deal, sell someone out... they know Lizzy’s story... and for all his puffing up and posturing, they know whom Daniel is, too.  Both have undergone threat assessment.  That’s the “price of doing business”.

Vince and Amber:

Amber, seriously, why are you even entertaining a continued relationship to a man in whom you cannot even fake an interest, on any level?  You already know the deal, confirmed when you got out:  it was a “mutual use”.  Vince entertained you and softened your prison stay through emotional and financial support.  Face to face, in Real Life, there’s nary an ounce of chemistry, much less a scintilla of giddy infatuation.  Nada. Zippo. It’s an echoing  chasm of the dearth of feeling.

On Vince’s part, by his own account, he cast his net wide (10 inmate pen pals), and yet somehow, Amber, who shows so very little interest even in Vince as a human being with whom she cannot endure a conversation of any real duration or depth, not even about generalities; much less about more personal subjects, even about likes and dislikes appear to cause offense, was... the “winner”?

Maybe it’s just me, but while I “get” that some men like strip joints, I’d think it’d be an odd venue for a straight woman to want to basically celebrate her “coming home” party with friends.  Unless they’re hoping for that Magic Fantasy of a Threesome with two women, I can’t think most men wld enjoy watching their girlfriend - especially one who shies from his most casual touch - being happily draped and fawned over by nearly-naked women.

It is one thing to write and chat on the phone, to have commissary bank, to spin tales... it’s quite another to be able to get intimate with an effective stranger, to sleep with him/her, marry him/her, spend the rest of your life... the games fall away, it’s Reality Time. 

Amber doesn’t trust Tony, though as he cleverly called her out that she willingly accepted his proposal.  She talked a medium-good show with her friend Kathy that she’s uncertain, unsure, of her feelings for Tony and his level of honesty with her, still, she seems to be holding back... still apparently intrigued by Tony and what mystery he may be withholding, especially if it’s something to her benefit.  Kathy - who is Puppy’s mother (did Vince’s adoption fall through, or is that dimwit now somehow the “father” of both Amber and Puppy, one of whom he plans to marry?) - appears to know the score (vis-à-vis the true nature, and more importantly, what plans those two might have for a shared future together) of the Amber-Puppy relationship, but wisely drops back to let Amber come to her own conclusions and make her own decisions. Kathy seems pretty wise to the ways of prison life and the world, and knows Amber is anything but Little Bo Peep herself.

Viewers seem safe in their intuitions that Amber has far more of a relationship with “Puppy” than her “fiancé”, Tony.  She continues to display both surprise, dismay and even impatience that a man whose marriage proposal she accepted - and which she has yet to retract, deny or definitively end - does such mundane things as follow her into a bedroom or continue to engage in the most basic of signs of affection.

C’mon, Amber, take your gains/profits and ‘fess up to Tony.  Relax at Kathy’s, get a job, and the two of you await “Puppy’s” own homecoming.  Time to get off the Tony gravy train.  Whatever his shortcomings and whatever he’s “hiding”, it’s still not right for you to suck up everything he’s willing to buy you when you have no interest in the one thing he wants you to accept: him.

Vince, time to accept the Sun comes up in the East, Dude.  Amber may have accepted your jail proposal, but quit with all that you “clicked on a deeper level”.  You cast your net, and Amber reeled you in. (Out of 10 inmates? Really?)  You each “saw” what you wanted to see, and fulfilled one another’s needs with steel, glass and barbed wire “safely” between you; again a “mutual use”: you “played” one another.  It’s past time to cut the net and move on.  Show some dignity.  That girl’s not only not in love with you, she doesn’t even like you.  Bluntly put: there is no future with you and Amber, Tony; there isn’t any “Tony and Amber”, period.

Vince convinced himself Amber was “deep” and on his wavelength (whatever that really means to/for Vince, and there’s no telling). Amber, who’s given every sign of being at the very least primary sexually-attracted to women, convinced herself she cld absorb all the goodies Vince has to offer and yet either be able to stay on the gravy train and somehow either fake her way through or maybe even adjust/adapt to Vince’s romantic expectations... or somehow slip the (Vince’s) “net” entirely.

One thing all the “outsiders” on LAL seem unable to accept.  Every one of them apparently was ready to drive their parolee to the nearest “altar” (Justice of the Peace, Drive-Thru venue...) to get married.   (The exception being Kacey, who acquired a new Felon Love before Felon Fiancé made parole, but immediate marriage was her original plan.)  Whatever their pre-parole promises, once released, marriage falls further and further down the list of their compelling priorities, even if a few at least solidified the seriousness of their intentions with a ring (while, in opposition, one - Tony - took off like Sea Biscuit from the starting gate; only returning to the “certainty”  of his love for his determined, erstwhile abandoned, bride Angela when re-incarcerated and facing major time.)

LAL is a dance of the “outsiders”, “bills” in handle, trying to make all those penitentiary promises into glorious, exciting reality.  Meanwhile, the parolees have new timelines and new agendas, their priorities completely changed.  Two steps forward, three steps back, ‘round and ‘round they go, sometimes cloying, sometimes demanding, sometimes seductive, sometimes scary.

It’s had to occur to the parolees, on whatever subconscious or visceral level, that by leaping into marriage with their pen pal fiancées (fiancé, for Vince), they’d only be unnecessarily exchanging one lock-up/lockdown for another.  

Though I don’t credit Oyster Brain Tony with much frontal lobe activity at all, it would seem apparent by his actions that he prefers prison over the tenacious Angela.  To him, she’s much easier to “love” with all that steel and concrete between them.  One can only hope she has the self-respect to truly say “enough”.

Edited October 28, 2019 by Unsinn

[cooksdelight]

4 hours ago, Jade Foxx said:

Who would have guessed the malicious wounder didn’t react with physical violence when nutjob Lacey assaulted him. Shes’s all famewhore,  psychosis, and utterly disgusting. ( her kids will see this one day)

Or her kids will grow up to be just like her, if that’s all they have to go by when learning behavior traits.

[RealReality]

1 hour ago, cooksdelight said:

Or her kids will grow up to be just like her, if that’s all they have to go by when learning behavior traits.

I vaguely remember hearing that she already had her young daughter with pictures all over social media.  Lacey is absolutely the sort who'd pimp out her tween kid to some old, rich weirdo.

I hope Lacey's dad stays healthy because he is the only one who will maybe save her children from a bad end.

[cooksdelight]

1 hour ago, RealReality said:

vaguely remember hearing that she already had her young daughter with pictures all over social media.

Yes, I posted that. Disgusting.

[Empress1]

On 10/27/2019 at 7:29 AM, JenE4 said:

Cheryl, while holding $6 in cash, asks how much the ring costs. $5,000 might be slightly out of budget. Hell, you wouldn’t be able to even get that portable Bluetooth speaker for $6. But if Cheryl doesn’t get a $5000 ring from a man freshly out of prison with no job, then that means he really doesn’t love her. If you loved her, Josh, you’d rob another bank to get that ring—or at least rob the pawn shop. What is wrong with these people?!?

I don't understand these women who have desires for a fairy tale life with these men who are minutes out of prison. Josh is FIVE DAYS OUT. I found it refreshing (I know!) when he said he was "fuckin' broke." Of course he is! Not only does he not have a job, he owes like 85 grand! It's very hard for felons to find decent jobs with the kind of incomes that will support a white picket fence life. Daniel has no education or training (I commend him for wanting to be a mechanic, but I wondered if he has skills in that area) and a prison record going back to his early teens, and Lizzy thinks she and Daniel could handle a baby? How? With what? 

19 hours ago, KateHearts said:

she's just so stupid that that ex-cons are the only marriage pool she can draw from. 

Water finds its own level. Why would a nice, stable guy with a good job want to be with Lacey? What does she bring to the table? She's porn-star hot, I guess, but that gets old fast since she clearly has nothing else going on. (She's going to age horribly, and probably get more and more work done to try to combat it.) Being her friend must be exhausting. You could hear it in her friend's voice when she said Lacey had to decide. Shane looks like a fool proposing to someone who is already engaged.

6 hours ago, Unsinn said:

Amber, seriously, why are you even entertaining a continued relationship to a man in whom you cannot even fake an interest, on any level?

She's insulting my intelligence at this point. I don't know if she's a lesbian or not (I think she is), but whatever she is, she has no interest in Vince. She doesn't even like him platonically. There's nothing about them that says "couple." There's nothing about them that says "friendly colleagues." Amber needs to just tell Vince directly that it's not happening and move on - is she trying to get him to buy her more stuff?