S02: Week 2: August 30, 2020-September 5, 2020

[OnceSane]

Discuss Week 2 here!

[Bobcatkitten]

This better pick up quick cause I was bored last week. It's a lot of commitment to watch so many nights. And I get annoyed how they replay scenes - like they give a speech, go to commercial, come back and replay the speech. I can remember three minutes later guys!

[CindyBee]

The preview clip for tonight looks pretty good with Tre of all people calling James out on how he reacted to Moira returning from her date with Calvin so I'm optimistic that the next few episodes will be interesting.  

[TroopinFairy]

I liked James in the beginning but, his whole “I don’t really know If I like you if we don’t have sex” thing is just creepy.

Carrington, You are not that hot. And, you need to check your ego about yourself. I’m kinda hoping that Keirstan dumps him. 

Edited September 6, 2020 by TroopinFairy

[Stan39]

On behalf of Texas, Kierstan and Calvin are not Texans. 
 

And no way Calvin is 5’11”

Edited August 31, 2020 by Stan39
Correction

[Kleav]

If this is how James behaves on a TV show, imagine what a catch he is IRL. <shudder>

Edited August 31, 2020 by Kleav

[Canadian Girl]

1 hour ago, TroopinFairy said:

Carrington, You are not that hot. And, you need to check your ego about yourself. I’m kinda hoping that Kierstan dumps him. 

Carrington has zero zero zero appeal. He's like a cocky yet insecure immature teenage boy. I can't believe these adult women let him even converse with them, let alone pat their asses and stick his tongue down their throats. 

I'm surprised that Moira was able to sleep in the same bed as James that night. He was being really aggressive and argumentative and emotionally manipulative. Scary. 

[TroopinFairy]

Can we have an emergency re-coupling? James needs to go STAT! Holy possessiveness Batman!! Rock on Mackenzie for yelling at him. You can’t blame Moira for having feelings. I just noticed in this episode that Rachel and Keirstan were wearing the same dress on the re-coupling night. And, Moira is wearing the pink version for “Vegas” night. 

Edited August 31, 2020 by TroopinFairy

[Stan39]

Well this is boring. Watching James and Moira was just uncomfortable, and it doesn’t seem like any of the other couples are open to meeting new people (except Tre and Jasmine). I know they’ll do stuff to mix things up, but I’m not convinced it will work this season. They need somebody there who’s willing to flirt and talk to other people. 

[CindyBee]

So, so glad the producers got Moira her own bed on night two.   Crazy how James couldn't handle her being interested in another guy after like four days.   Thankfully Carrington and Jeremiah didn't become unhinged too.   Loved how Mackenzie called him out on how he was behaving. 

I'm surprised that Kiersten is sticking with Carrington for now.   Not sure if she's really interested in Caleb or not.  I would be and it seems like Justine is going to try to get to know him too.  Yay!

 

[Canadian Girl]

James = GASLIGHTER

Bullies you and then smirks at you saying "I can't understand what you're upset about. You're a real piece of work. I haven't done anything wrong. Name one thing I've done wrong." 

Fucking emotionally manipulative. Fuck that. 

[Ms Blue Jay]

I'm not even done this episode but this is, by far, one of the most awkward hours of reality television I have EVER seen.  And some of you may know I watch a looooooot of reality TV.  My god.

James is psychotic.  Has all of the classic signs of an abuser.  

Poor Moira.

[Ms Blue Jay]

25 minutes ago, Canadian Girl said:

James = GASLIGHTER

Bullies you and then smirks at you saying "I can't understand what you're upset about. You're a real piece of work. I haven't done anything wrong. Name one thing I've done wrong." 

Fucking emotionally manipulative. Fuck that. 

Oh my god my heart rate is going!!!!!!!  Getting so angry all over again.  He kept snarkily saying shit like "There's something wrong with this girl" to the other castmates.  WHAT.  AN.  ASSHOLE.

And he made her so uncomfortable in their first conversation and after that he was like "YOU'RE the one that's acting weird.  What did I do?  I did nothing".  AAAAHHHHHHHH omg asshole.

[Canadian Girl]

Just now, Ms Blue Jay said:

Oh my god my heart rate is going!!!!!!!  Getting so angry all over again.  He kept snarkily saying shit like "There's something wrong with this girl" to the other castmates.  WHAT.  AN.  ASSHOLE.

And he made her so uncomfortable in their first conversation and after that he was like "YOU'RE the one that's acting weird.  What did I do?  I did nothing".  AAAAHHHHHHHH omg asshole.

And does it all with a huge grin!! So he's not only being mean, but also disguising the meanness with "I'm just joking around, you're the one overreacting". 

[Canadian Girl]

I can't figure out if MacKenzie is hot and beautiful or an ugly misshapen alien spawn!! 

Those shots of her in the black one piece bathing suit when she's yelling at James, her body seems so odd, with her tiny frame and tiny face and huge boobs. 

[Dewey Decimate]

MacKenzie's one piece was taking me back to the 80s. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not, but hell YES to her telling aggro-smiley James what for.

I liked how Jeremiah reacted to the new dates - if he wants a chance to stick with Rachel, that's the best way to go.

I feel like poor Justine will always be the "break glass in case of emergency" pick to show a little attention to when a dude is worried about going home.

Kiersten seems like the one woman there simply as a stereotypical cardboard cutout with no real possibility of a connection. As eye candy, I get it, but my ideal set-up would be having a new girl added, then a re-coupling followed by the immediate vote-out of a whole couple. Let's cull James, Carrington, and Kiersten in one shot. The new guys seem cool enough. 

Edited August 31, 2020 by Dewey Decimate
apostrophes are good

[Shadow Wave]

Matthew Hoffman: "Let's see if she's more Calvin inclined."

[Ms Blue Jay]

The Bug Spray guy is doing very well on this show.

[mertensia]

3 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

I'm not even done this episode but this is, by far, one of the most awkward hours of reality television I have EVER seen.  And some of you may know I watch a looooooot of reality TV.  My god.

James is psychotic.  Has all of the classic signs of an abuser.  

Poor Moira.

Yes, but good for Moira for backing off instead of going into "it's so romantic!" mode. She didn't quite know how to verbalize what she was feeling but she had the backbone to retreat.

Also, is it my imagination or does James have more tattooes than he used to?

Also, Rachel really rocks that bright orange swimsuit.

[DoYouLikeMutton]

I think the first seed of trouble between Moira and James was planted when James had the "are you sure you're on-board with having sex" talk with Moira.  That opened her eyes WIDE.  Enter stage left is a nice, clean-cut, non-threatening new guy, Calvin.  The perfect storm.

[Suzysite]

I agree that James was being pushy and cluelessly obnoxious, but I wanted to shake Moira for just shutting down and not telling him, with words, why she was upset.  He clearly didn't get it and she wasn't helping the situation.   Yell at him or something, but don't just go all silent and expect him to "read your mood".    Yeah I don't like him either, but don't make people guess what you're thinking. 

[DoYouLikeMutton]

8 minutes ago, Suzysite said:

I agree that James was being pushy and cluelessly obnoxious, but I wanted to shake Moira for just shutting down and not telling him, with words, why she was upset.  He clearly didn't get it and she wasn't helping the situation.   Yell at him or something, but don't just go all silent and expect him to "read your mood".    Yeah I don't like him either, but don't make people guess what you're thinking. 

I have to agree with this too.   The  ol' silent treatment never helps anyone, especially a bunch of people who don't even know each other.   I thought James tried to open up the lines of communication the following morning in the kitchen.  I don't think he's 100% at fault.

[snarts]

49 minutes ago, Suzysite said:

I agree that James was being pushy and cluelessly obnoxious, but I wanted to shake Moira for just shutting down and not telling him, with words, why she was upset.  He clearly didn't get it and she wasn't helping the situation.   Yell at him or something, but don't just go all silent and expect him to "read your mood".    Yeah I don't like him either, but don't make people guess what you're thinking. 

 

32 minutes ago, DoYouLikeMutton said:

I have to agree with this too.   The  ol' silent treatment never helps anyone, especially a bunch of people who don't even know each other.   I thought James tried to open up the lines of communication the following morning in the kitchen.  I don't think he's 100% at fault.

To be fair, not everyone is comfortable with confrontation and people who've faced mental abuse in the past tend to shut down.  In the real world, Moira would've stopped seeing James when she first noticed the red flags. She likely would've ghosted him and chances are he would've just written her off as having issues.

Unfortunately, they're stuck and she can't avoid him.  She tried to explain and deescalate the situation but he got defensive and a little hostile, so she stopped, shut down and is avoiding.  His reaction is likely amplified because he's getting dumped in front of the other guys & viewing public.  It's a toxic combination.

[waving feather]

Both Moira and James annoyed me. He can't calm down. He's like an annoying chihuahua yapping non-stop without trying to listen to the other party. Give her some space, dude! What turned me off more wasn't even this episode but the previous one where he was pressuring her to have sex. I think Moira was turned off by that too and started to retreat from him. Moira is also a horrible communicator. He's right that she couldn't even look at him while they were talking. She was just sulking like a big baby. For her age, she is quite immature at handling conflict.

[Ms Blue Jay]

A lot of young women are socialized to not be assertive.  They're socialized to constantly smile, be sweet, be nice, don't say "No", don't assert yourself, don't be a bitch, don't get angry, etc.  A lot of young women have problems being assertive.  I'd say it's quite normal for her age, actually , not abnormal.  

Men like James totally prey on this behaviour.  He was gaslighting Moira and definitely being emotionally manipulative.

Anyways hopefully Moira learns from this experience and tries to gain some tools to be more assertive in future situations.  

[Canadian Girl]

3 hours ago, Suzysite said:

I agree that James was being pushy and cluelessly obnoxious, but I wanted to shake Moira for just shutting down and not telling him, with words, why she was upset.  He clearly didn't get it and she wasn't helping the situation.   Yell at him or something, but don't just go all silent and expect him to "read your mood".    Yeah I don't like him either, but don't make people guess what you're thinking. 

I felt the same. I wanted so badly to reach through the screen and put the words in her mouth that she needed to say to him. Even just "I don't like the way you're speaking to me" would have been a start. MacKenzie rocks. 

[waving feather]

17 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

A lot of young women have problems being assertive.  I'd say it's quite normal for her age, actually , not abnormal.  

Moira is 28, though, so a full grown adult and one of the older ones in the cast. Mackenzie, on the other hand, is only 24 but she was able to articulate to James exactly why he was being out of line. Hope Moira watches this back and realizes sometimes keeping quiet will only give the other party more chances to say manipulative and nasty things and escalate them. She needed to shut him down in a firm and non-sulky way.

[CindyBee]

12 hours ago, Dewey Decimate said:

I feel like poor Justine will always be the "break glass in case of emergency" pick to show a little attention to when a dude is worried about going home.

Being Caleb's 3rd choice is better than being with Tre IMHO so I hope she makes the switch. 

[fishcakes]

James is such a scary creep. He was already flipping out before Moira came back from the date. Then he really lost it when she wouldn't tell him every single detail and commit to still being affectionate with him in front of everyone. When Caleb and Calvin came to the house, he had that scary grin and was all, "they're cool guys! HEH HEH HEH! Aren't they cool guys? Moira! Moira! Aren't they cool?" I don't blame her for shutting down. If she'd even mildly replied, "yeah, they're cool," he probably would have started stabbing her and saying, "I'm not doing anything wrong! I'm not doing anything wrong!" the whole time.

Kierstan went on two dates and even Carrington handled it better than James did. Tre was like, "bro, do the exact opposite of what you're doing." And Mackenzie was great. Aside from shutting James down, she seems like she's been a really good friend to all the other women. Anyway, I don't see any way that James doesn't go next. There's an extra guy so there will be another recoupling before they bring in more women, and there's certainly no woman there now who's going to choose James.

I like a little bit of drama, but this was just ugh.

Edited August 31, 2020 by fishcakes

[CindyBee]

38 minutes ago, fishcakes said:

Anyway, I don't see any way that James doesn't go next. There's an extra guy so there will be another recoupling before they bring in more women, and there's certainly no woman there now who's going to choose James.

James should just drop out now and save us all from having to watch him anymore.  And you know he's going to keep making comments about Moira to Bug Spray guy and Caleb.

And even if they did bring in an extra girl before the next recoupling, no way she's going to be interested in James after this actions the past few days.

 

[LakeGal]

I didn't like the way James was grabbing at Bug Boy's shoulders and arms.  Moira had told him Bug Boy was buff.  It was like James was checking him out.  

[Ms Blue Jay]

I don't even know Bug Boy's real name!

Edited:  Oohhhhhh.  Calvin.   Thanks all.  The Caleb/Calvin names sounding alike was really tripping me up.

Edited August 31, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[Ms Blue Jay]

6 hours ago, waving feather said:

Moira is 28, though, so a full grown adult and one of the older ones in the cast. Mackenzie, on the other hand, is only 24 but she was able to articulate to James exactly why he was being out of line. Hope Moira watches this back and realizes sometimes keeping quiet will only give the other party more chances to say manipulative and nasty things and escalate them. She needed to shut him down in a firm and non-sulky way.

Trust me, I get where you're coming from.  But I meet so many Moiras rather than Mackenzies.  I myself was a Moira.  I don't really blame women for not learning these tools when nobody shakes them by the shoulders and says "EDUCATE YOURSELF!"  The only way is to find yourself in a bad situation and to learn the hard way.  Up until then, maybe life is okay for a lot of pretty young women who aren't really met with a lot of adversity. Not everyone has perfect parents who treat their little girls to be completely assertive and able to completely able to articulate their feelings at all times.

I had a young colleague who always blew me away with how confrontation came so easy to her.  People at work would try to scream at her for something and she very calmly handled them.  I asked her, how?  Why?  Well she grew up in Russia and she said she worked at a Russian nightclub so she had seen all matters of life and people had done all sorts of things in that club and she'd witness it.  LOL.  Dealing with morons in Canada is nothing to her.

Not everyone gets that kind of education.

Edited August 31, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[waving feather]

1 hour ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Not everyone gets that kind of education.

Fair enough. Moira in general is a more quiet and reserved person, that combined with the fact that she said she has only had one boyfriend that she dated for a long time... perhaps it is the lack of experience in handling men. Especially overbearing men. Hopefully she sits him down in the future to tell him to they can only be "friends" and end it there, for her own peace of mind in the villa so the lines are clear. 

It gives good drama and diversity but I find it's always tough for people who have very little dating experience to be on Love Island.

I miss Kaitlynn. She brought the drama and low key manipulative so it would have been interesting to watch her. She's always giving good advices to the girls as well. I liked what she told Moira when she was opening up to her and Mackenzie about James.

[fishcakes]

6 hours ago, CindyBee said:

And even if they did bring in an extra girl before the next recoupling, no way she's going to be interested in James after this actions the past few days.

That's true; I forgot the new people are watching the show before they join. I was thinking the only way he'd stand a chance is if they brought in some new women before the next recoupling, but since they've seen him in action, he's done. As he should be.

2 hours ago, LakeGal said:

I didn't like the way James was grabbing at Bug Boy's shoulders and arms.  Moira had told him Bug Boy was buff.  It was like James was checking him out.  

Ha ha, is that what he was doing? I thought that whole, "I like your shirt!" thing was strange, but it didn't even occur to me that he was feeling Calvin up. God, what a freak.

2 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Trust me, I get where you're coming from.  But I meet so many Moiras rather than Mackenzies.  I myself was a Moira.  I don't really blame women for not learning these tools when nobody shakes them by the shoulders and says "EDUCATE YOURSELF!"  The only way is to find yourself in a bad situation and to learn the hard way.

Yes, and you can't underestimate how scary it is when you're not a naturally assertive person, as Moira seems not to be, and you're confronted with someone who seems unhinged but also just wants you to know how much he liiiiikes you. It was easier for Mackenzie to yell at him because she had no fear that he'd spend the next three years driving past her house once a week.

[Stan39]

Good god it doesn’t take much for Moira to fall for a guy. She did the same thing with James. She flipped out when James said he liked to cuddle and now Calvin is great because he likes women who don’t wear makeup. I realize time is short, but maybe don’t fall so fast again for another strange guy you just met?

Mackenzie got upset over those kisses? Have fun with that, future Mr. Mackenzie. 
 

How is Johnny not sick of Cely’s laugh?

[CindyBee]

If the right girl is in Casa Amour, Connor is def walking away from Mackenzie.

 

[Stan39]

Mackenzie aplogizing, “I’m sorry for how you feel, but now here are five things you did wrong to me.”

[Canadian Girl]

MacKenzie on communicating: You must tell me what you are thinking and feeling. No not like that. 

[Canadian Girl]

18 minutes ago, Stan39 said:

Good god it doesn’t take much for Moira to fall for a guy. She did the same thing with James. She flipped out when James said he liked to cuddle and now Calvin is great because he likes women who don’t wear makeup.

If Calvin says he likes to travel she'll be hearing wedding bells!! 

[Stan39]

2 minutes ago, Canadian Girl said:

MacKenzie on communicating: You must tell me what you are thinking and feeling. No not like that. 

Honestly, Mackenzie crying is just as manipulative as James. Connor had a legitimate issue to bring up, and wanted to talk not to get an apology but mainly just to improve communication, and yet she turned it on him and made him apologize to her. 

[CindyBee]

Why Moira, why are talking to him!??!    Did she hurt her brain instead of her knee?!?

[Stan39]

3 minutes ago, CindyBee said:

Why Moira, why are talking to him!??!    Did she hurt her brain instead of her knee?!?

I think James told her he likes cuddling AND girls who don’t wear makeup and it was just too much to resist. 

[CindyBee]

Kierstin being with Carrington is the biggest Huh? so far this season!

[Stan39]

10 minutes ago, CindyBee said:

Kierstin being with Carrington is the biggest Huh? so far this season!

I’m from Austin and Kierstan is well known. She’s not into Carrington, she just wants to be famous and on this show. Either she wants to be on until the end, or she’s waiting for her “moment” to do something controversial that will put the spotlight on her. She’s smart, she realizes it’s not smart to go crazy this early and lose. 
 

Every. Season. After recoupling the gender that just picked decides NOW is the time to throw a wrench in the relationship. I guess it’s good that both James and Jeremiah revealed their honest selves, but it’s no coincidence they’re the ones leaving. 
 

Why was bug spray guy fake crying when the guys left? He barely knew either of them. 

[CindyBee]

Hopefully Lauren is true to her words and really does step on some toes as we need some new drama now that James is gone.

See lots of "I voted Johnny" on Twitter but also alot of "Connor 2020" post so Mackenzie could be having another meltdown sooner than later.

[Suzysite]

I voted for Connor to go on that date, just to see miss ducklips' head explode. She's the worst

[TroopinFairy]

Bye James! I won’t miss your creepy ass.

What is Mackenzie’s problem. It was a party game and they were pecks. Mackenzie seems like one of those girls who just thrives on drama. She’s also manipulative and is probably used to getting what she wants. She’s too territorial about Connor. These would be red flags if I was Connor. 

LMAO! Carrington thinks that he was going to be a wolf at the villa. Get over yourself already!

Eh about Lauren. Maybe she’ll get Cely to stop giggling at everything.

Edited September 1, 2020 by TroopinFairy

[Refresh]

As a pale person with lots of freckles, I’m concerned about the large irregular spot on Calvin’s chest. 
 

Bye James. Don’t let the door hit ya. Maybe you can get an Instagram sponsorship from an anti nail biting nail polish company.  

[mertensia]

What a royal douchebag James is. Mispronouncing Moira repeatedly. Good riddance.

How did making an announcement goof up Moira's knee?

@Stan39 I just gotta know how exactly Kierstan is well-known in Austin.

Also, "power couple"? On this show, Lauren?

 

Edited September 1, 2020 by mertensia