S07.E09: Is Love Enough?

[HerkyJerky]

Concerns about rushing to the altar arise during meetings with loved ones. A hidden truth is revealed, shaking the foundation of a solid couple

[snarts]

So Tyler waits until two weeks before the wedding to tell Ashley he has three kids? and is trying to pretend that he was just the sperm donor?  There are pictures of him with the kids on Christmas morning.  He's also trash.

[SoMuchTV]

Full disclosure, I haven’t watched the whole episode yet so I could still be proven embarrassingly wrong, but…

I haven't especially been a fan of Hannah, or Nick, or Hannah&Nick, but I would totally watch a spinoff with Hannah, Nick, and Hannah’s brother Cade, with each act having a different combination of 2 or 3 of them interacting. 

[jabRI]

21 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

watch a spinoff with Hannah, Nick, and Hannah’s brother Cade

I don't remember his saying much at the restaurant, is there another brother?

[misokinesia]

44 minutes ago, jabRI said:

I don't remember his saying much at the restaurant, is there another brother?

Cade came over on his own to their apartment, before the restaurant scene - I actually don't remember if he was even at the restaurant?

[SoMuchTV]

1 hour ago, jabRI said:

I don't remember his saying much at the restaurant, is there another brother?

 

41 minutes ago, misokinesia said:

Cade came over on his own to their apartment, before the restaurant scene - I actually don't remember if he was even at the restaurant?

Right. I think the brother at the restaurant was quite a bit younger. Cade was, I’d say, not shy about speaking his mind. 

[DearEvette]

Wow.  This season went from everyone being super loved-up and 100% getting married while in Cabo with low drama to ... whatever Toxic hell this is.  LOL. This went from 0 -100 real quick!

At this point, Taylor and Garret are probably the least toxic and seem like they have a good chance of making it.  Yeah there is a curveball of him moving across the country... but it is about the only suspense in their relationship so far.  So right now I am predicting they are getting married.

This is where it gets hairy...

Ramses and Marissa.  They also seemed ok and then came the convo about the military.  This is actually a more nuanced conversation than I believe they had time to really delve into.  I could see it being a two things can be true: You can support the people who serve and understand that people decide to serve for various reasons and their commitment to it is to be lauded because it is not a simple thing to enlist to defend and potentially die for your country. But you can still have a lot of criticism for the military complex itself, the machine that is bigger than the people who serve.  Honestly it is not the convo you spring on people over drinks, it requires listening and the ability to articulate your meaning and drink tends to cloud that.  But they seemed to have worked on it between themselves.  But then comes her mother who was giving off such nasty energy.  My God, was she awful. 

I guess... we then have Tim and Alex.  I am still not sold on them, but his interaction with her family was just lovely. She still gives me a weird vibe so I can't root for them 100%.  I am lowkey hoping she redeems herself because her family is also very lovely. 

And then there is Nick and Hannah.  I honestly just dislike her flat out.  She is just mean.  I had to laugh on the one hand about her passive-aggressively trying to demean him about his lack of knowledge about stocks but on the other hand of being super impressed that he read ALL  of what looked like 20 books on his bookshelf.  To be clear this is not a dig at his reading preferences, but for her exclaiming at 20 books like that is a lot over a lifetime.

And WTF, my (former) golden couple Ashley and Tyler.  The Hell!  I am so confused.  Was he just a donor?  And if so, don't they just give up the sperm and keep it moving?  And if he wasn't just a donor but was involved with those kids' lives how the hell is this something you tell your fiance after you propose?  I am so severely disappointed in him.  They were my front runners.  I need to know more because he just sounds shady now.

And finally. super Yikes!  Monica and Stephen.  I... have no words.  I just wanna know how freaky he got in those texts.  Also her asking for him to venmo her money before he left... I think i laughed for 10 minutes. What a nightmare.

At this point, I don't even care who does or doesn't get married. I just want to get to the reunion to spill the tea.

[HerkyJerky]

3 hours ago, DearEvette said:

And finally. super Yikes!  Monica and Stephen.  I... have no words.  I just wanna know how freaky he got in those texts

He was casually joking about “pegging” with Monica, so I had to look that up and that dude is superfreaky (apologies to Rick James…)🤯🤬🙄

[Irlandesa]

6 hours ago, DearEvette said:

Ramses and Marissa.  They also seemed ok and then came the convo about the military.

I had a feeling about him.  It's okay for him to have feelings about US military intervention but if truly felt that judgmental about Marissa's choice to serve, shouldn't he have brought that up in the pods?  He gave off bad vibes.  It's almost like he wanted her to feel shame for serving in the military or like she owed him some kind of apology. 

But the real issue was related to their condom conversation.  Johnny and Amy had a similar issue, but at least it seemed like it was an issue they decided to solve together.  Ramses is like "I don't expect you to go on hormonal birth control" (yet clearly he did) and he had no plans on wearing condoms but also didn't want kids.  I love that Marissa threw it back on him and told him that she'd be willing to accept the consequences of unprotected sex instead of solving the no condom, no babies dilemma.

8 hours ago, misokinesia said:

Cade came over on his own to their apartment, before the restaurant scene - I actually don't remember if he was even at the restaurant?

He wasn't. Apparently, some people were worried his parents didn't accept his sexuality because he wasn't there and he posted on social media that they do--he just had to work during the dinner scene which is why he was filmed separately.

On 10/12/2024 at 9:08 AM, snarts said:

So Tyler waits until two weeks before the wedding to tell Ashley he has three kids? and is trying to pretend that he was just the sperm donor? 

I'm dying to know if they'll let him continue with the "sperm donor" story at the reunion even though there's a lot of evidence to suggest he was more than that. 

 

 

[Samwise979]

Am I just missing the part of the show where the couples actually have the fight and drama or is the editing this season weird? Tim and Alex fighting on vacation to the point he almost leaves. Monica discovering these texts. Ashley finding out Tyler has kids... how come they're only showing the aftermath conversations?!

[AnnieBananie]

I've never seen this show before (now I'm hooked), so I don't know what the expectation is - and I'm not looking for spoilers - but would it be realistic to expect Stephen and Monica to appear on the reunion? Because I MUST know what happened!

[DearEvette]

Oh yeah.  Unless one or both of them chicken out (a la Jackie from Season 4) they're part of the population that would be invited to the reunion.  I think Monica is a definite, I'll bet.  Stephen ... he doesn't come off so well.  He might not come or he might come to explain himself.

Leo and Brittany would also most likely be invited.

[MsVulcan]

Marissa's mom was so abrasive!

[Empress1]

On 10/13/2024 at 8:18 PM, DearEvette said:

Also her asking for him to venmo her money before he left... I think i laughed for 10 minutes.

I fell out, and then I felt really bad for her when she said she just felt “so sad.” Like if you really go into this with the intent to find your spouse, and you think you do, to have it blow up like that is really awful. It’s not about the kinks (though given her reaction, she wasn’t into whatever he was texting about), it’s about the cheating and how it all played out. She was gushing over him before so i bought her heartbreak.

On 10/14/2024 at 3:01 AM, Irlandesa said:

But the real issue was related to their condom conversation.  Johnny and Amy had a similar issue, but at least it seemed like it was an issue they decided to solve together.  Ramses is like "I don't expect you to go on hormonal birth control" (yet clearly he did) and he had no plans on wearing condoms

Yeah, that was foul. “Wearing condoms isn’t pleasurable,” well, neither is getting an IUD. Neither are the side effects from hormonal birth control for some women. The dismissive way he was speaking about it was gross to me - like, “I can’t be slightly inconvenienced so birth control is YOUR problem.” Also I hate his two rattail locs.

On 10/13/2024 at 8:18 PM, DearEvette said:

I could see it being a two things can be true: You can support the people who serve and understand that people decide to serve for various reasons and their commitment to it is to be lauded because it is not a simple thing to enlist to defend and potentially die for your country. But you can still have a lot of criticism for the military complex itself, the machine that is bigger than the people who serve.

He seems ashamed of her for it. She seemed to be pressing herself smaller for him, which I’m always wary of.

[Empress1]

On 10/17/2024 at 9:14 PM, MsVulcan said:

Marissa's mom was so abrasive!

She really was. I’m pro-pre-nup, but the way she was talking was really crass and inappropriate. It’s not her place to demand that of him.

[Alexander Pope]

Am I the only one who doesn't like Monica?  Clearly Stephen is a disaster, and also a blowhard, but she was constantly criticizing him, demanding flowers, and acting disdainful.  Then again maybe he deserved it.

 

Also: are we to assume that Ramses and Marissa have been having unprotected sex this whole time?  And does nobody use diaphragms anymore?

Marissa's mom is one of the most unappealing humans I have seen on reality TV and that is saying something.  Marissa is so aggressively cheerful and Mom just radiates negativity.

[NeenerNeener]

On 10/15/2024 at 12:52 AM, Samwise979 said:

Tim and Alex fighting on vacation to the point he almost leaves.

Somewhere I read that Tim always waited until the cameras weren't around to start fighting with Alex. I may have read it here, or at some article referenced here.

[DearEvette]

On 10/15/2024 at 5:31 PM, AnnieBananie said:

I've never seen this show before (now I'm hooked), so I don't know what the expectation is - and I'm not looking for spoilers - but would it be realistic to expect Stephen and Monica to appear on the reunion? Because I MUST know what happened!

It is looking like everyone will be there at the reunion. If Vanessa and Nick know what is good for them they will ask the right questions!!

[Meedis]

Wow....this show has more twists and turns.   I thought Ashley and Tyler were Ashford & Simpson Solid....then the sperm donor drama comes out of nowhere.    I was sure they were going to the altar but now I'm not certain...especially if Tyler is more than a sperm donor.

On the subject of siblings, why did Marissa's one brother almost look like a carbon copy of Ramses?

Marissa's Mom was a piece of work but it sounds like she's bitter from her life experiences and was projecting it on Ramses.    Talking about cutting it off if he hurts her...and then queue in the producers with the song "Cut you...cut you..I'm gonna cut you clean..."....LOL.   Where do they get these songs from?   Some are oddly catchy.   LOL.

But I have to give Ramses the evil side eye with the "I don't want to wear condoms" but I don't want us to have kids for 5 years, trying to put the responsibility of birth control all on Marissa.   And then making Marissa feel like shit for being in the army previously.   Maybe her Mom is right about him even if she was crass about it.   So I'm not sure about them making the altar.  If anyone should say no, it should be Marissa.   She really should've picked the other guy.

Call me crazy but Hannah and Nick are growing on me.  At least they seem to be selling their relationship a bit better this week.   Both sets of parents were pretty cool.    Maybe those crazy kids will make it to the altar.

Nothing much to say about Garrett and Taylor.   If he's willing to make the move, then they have a good shot at being on the altar.

I'm still dying to learn what almost drove Tim to leave Alex.   They seem to be going through the motions....but is it enough for the altar.