We’re out of the pods and into the wild! The second chunk of episodes for Season 6 were a dip in quality overall — the tropical getaway scenes post-Chelsea/Jimmy meltdown were almost a total snooze — but things started to tick up by Episode 9. The logistics of real life and the complications of family/friend visits typically knock people off their game, and the cracks in the relationships — and people’s facades — start to show. And boy, do we have some massive cracks in this group.
Let’s go over each couple, once again ranked by likelihood of successful marriage to fully imploded.
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Johnny & Amy
These two remain the couple with the biggest likelihood of success. I recognize that they are likely being given a glowing edit — there has to be at least one seemingly functional couple for this show to work, and this season, that’s clearly Johnny & Amy. The two of them remain adorable and, from the viewers’ perspective, effortless in their interactions. We did get some interesting warning signs, specifically from Amy. She blatantly told Johnny that if her father doesn’t approve of their relationship, she could not marry him. And in what I think may be a first for this show, the couple is wrestling over the issue of birth control.
Amy is not on birth-control pills, because she doesn’t want to mess with her hormones. Johnny doesn’t want to rely on condoms, because they can fail and the two of them are not ready for parenthood yet. Truly, I find this whole scenario so interesting. As a gay man, this is not a conversation I have ever had, and I can’t tell you the last time I’ve heard this discussed on a TV show. I find it genuinely refreshing. I am confused how the concept of Johnny getting a vasectomy was even entertained. I get Amy not wanting to mess with her hormones, but their possible solution is that Johnny goes under the knife for an actual surgery? How is that logical? Also, they both want kids at some point — vasectomies CAN be reversed, but that’s a big risk to take for a problem for which there are ample solutions. I get that condoms CAN break, but the risk is very, very minimal, and they have worked for many couples for decades now — we homos got through the height of the AIDS epidemic using them, and that was quite literally life and death, kids. There are also IUDs and other non-hormonal options.
Regardless, I enjoy watching this couple, and I especially enjoyed the visit with Johnny’s family. That may have been one of the most endearing family visits in the history of this show. I really hope they work out.
Clay & AD
I am significantly less sold on the success of this couple. The only interesting scenes from the Dominican Republic vacation episodes in this chunk came from Clay & AD, as they struggled with Clay slipping into self-doubt when he starts to feel pressure. We saw this in the pods as well. He would implode when faced with uncertainty and then became extremely withdrawn. In the pods, he came out of that by essentially surrendering control to AD, which is — in my opinion — the correct move, because she generally seems to have it together. But I suspect there are only so many times that Clay is going to take the submissive role in this relationship, and we already started to see that in these episodes around the family visits.
The meeting with Clay’s mother and sister was interesting, and once I understood that he’s first-generation American born to an African father, it helped to explain his hang-ups around masculinity and projecting strength. But I’m sorry, he’s flat-out in the wrong when he said that his brand-new fiancee — with whom he is just establishing a relationship and is getting married in, like, three weeks — should be OK with him staying out late at night and sleeping somewhere else. It is not unreasonable to expect that he would be spending this time with her, and while I do get that he’s driving all over the state for his job, as his mother said: when you care about the person, you make the time.
My feeling at this point is that Clay is not actually ready for this level of commitment, especially not at this speed, and if they DO make it to the aisle, one of them will pull out. Which is a bummer. I like them both.
Jimmy & Chelsea
The fact that I think Jimmy and Chelsea are the third-strongest couple in this cohort is a damning statement, because these two are a mess. After their blowout in the Dominican Republic — caused by Jimmy’s interactions with the other women, especially AD, and Chelsea’s intense lack of self esteem — the two of them fully faked it for the rest of the trip. I was not in any way buying what they were selling. “We’re great!” “No complaints!” “We’re so solid.” No you are NOT. And all of that evaporated quickly when they got home, as told via a series of awkward interactions with each other’s friends.
There were numerous red-flag interactions and they eventually bubbled up into a fight in which Chelsea harangued Jimmy for not kissing her or saying “I love you” enough. And then, in one of the most cringe-inducing moments I’ve ever seen on this show, Jimmy said out loud that Chelsea initiated sex with him, but he didn’t even want to have sex with her.
Jimmy had a slew of excuses — he had to get up early for work, he bit the inside of his mouth — but from where I’m sitting, the situation here is blatantly obvious: Jimmy is not into Chelsea, but doesn’t want to look like the bad guy on national television. Well guess what, Mimi? That is not panning out for you.
The other interesting element to all of this is the Jessica Conundrum. There are two very different stories presented these episodes regarding Jimmy’s post-pod interactions with Jessica. According to Jimmy — via Chelsea — one of the other men showed Jimmy Jessica’s photo on social media and that was that. According to Jessica, who we saw meet up with Laura in a bar (sidebar: Laura is such a shit-stirrer), as soon as they were out of the pods Jimmy looked at her Insta profile and sent her a friend request. She hesitated to respond to it, and by the time she went back to it, Jimmy had rescinded the request and blocked her. I tend to believe Jessica here, because Jimmy has every reason to minimize his interest in her.
Bottom line, this will be messy at the reunion, and I do not think Jimmy and Chelsea will end up married. I don’t think they SHOULD marry, let me put it that way. He doesn’t seem that into her, and she is not emotionally equipped for this relationship. It’s Landmine City. It’s difficult to watch her navigating it.
Jeramey & Laura
I had high hopes for this couple in the pods, but at this point I think everyone involved should be assuming crash positions. I’m not sure if it’s OVER over by the end of Episode 9, but I don’t see any reality in which these two move forward.
Frankly, I think the issue is both of them. I was initially really drawn to Laura, but the more we see of her, the less I want to see. She seems controlling and, frankly, mean. The Hawaiian shirt thing seemed like a weird quirk before, but the more we see her in the real world, the more I’m convinced she is genuinely serious in her expectations that people look and act a certain way — and from what I see, that way is a totally homogenous, Insta-dictated vibe. How fucking dull.
I thought it was very telling in the meeting with her family that she shoved Jeramey right under the bus, highlighting their various fights and problems, and specifically bringing up DMs that Jeramey’s runner-up choice, Sarah Ann, sent to him after the pods, and the way he responded to it. See, Jeramey “hearted” the message, which Laura thought was too much; her SIL thought he should have just “liked” it. I sat there through that whole discussion thinking, “This is some straight-person nonsense right here.” Like, GROW UP. I hope Laura watches this and sees how Instagram/social media has consumed her life and her personality, because as a grown-ass woman, she should find this embarrassing. I am embarrassed for her watching these scenes.
But, listen, Jeramey is not blameless. Because it seems Jeramey is The Worst. At the end of Episode 9, Laura comes downstairs and Jeramey — sitting in the corner, wearing sunglasses inside, like could you be any more conspicuous/dramatic my dude — and she comes in hot. The night before Jeramey had gone out with Tha Boyz and ended up at some bar with — you guessed it! — Sarah Ann. Jeramey is not stupid, so he tried to throw down a cover by sharing his location with Laura’s phone, as a way of establishing “trust.” But something went wrong there, because Laura claims that his location didn’t match up with the story Jeramey told, which was that the two of them just sat talking in the parking lot of the bar until the wee hours of the morning. According to Laura, his location actually put him in a completely different area of the city — the area where she knows Sarah Ann’s apartment to be. Jeramey seemed stunned that Laura would know this, and basically shut up before further self incrimination, and the episode ended with a cliffhanger, Laura saying she wanted out. Unclear of the context for that — it may not even have been from that scene, the audio could have been taken from anywhere — but in my opinion, these two are crazy dysfunctional and should mutually call it quits. Neither seem emotionally ready for a real partnership, much less marriage.
Kenneth & Brittany
Speaking of calling it quits, that’s exactly what happened with Kenneth and Brittany in these episodes. This is not a surprise. I commented in my previous recap that the two of them seemed to have zero chemistry. They seemed to share similar beliefs and life goals, but the edit gave us no indication of romantic or sexual chemistry, and that was underlined in the absolutely agonizing sequence in the Dominican Republic with the two of them on a boat, sitting in silence.
Things actually got worse when they got back to the real world. I am always careful to acknowledge that we are only seeing what the edit is showing us, so it’s possible that certain behaviors were focused on, and other more forgiving footage was left on the cutting-room floor. But based on what we saw, as soon as Kenneth got his phone back, he was completely sucked into it. He used the excuse that he needed to check on his school (it is still mindblowing that this person is in a leadership position, he’s just so unassuming and milquetoast). We got several scenes of Brittany attempting to engage with Kenneth, who was totally oblivious to her as his gaze was focused on his phone. Again, I wonder if editing made this look worse than it actually was. But the result was clear: Brittany felt completely detached from Kenneth as soon as they were back home, and she worried about their relationship.
This hit a climax after Kenneth was out all day, returned after 1:30am, turned on all the lights in their bedroom, and tried to snuggle with Brittany when she had to be up at 5am the next day for work. Brittany asked if Kenneth thought that was respectful behavior — to anyone reading this, it is absolutely not acceptable behavior, no matter how long you have been a couple — and Kenneth seized on the opportunity to flip the whole situation back on Brittany.
This scene was brutal to watch, and I found myself stunned by the level of gaslighting I saw on the screen. Again: it is possible the edit skewed the events that actually happened. But from what we saw, Brittany raised the question of their nonexistent physical/sexual chemistry, and Kenneth threw it back in her face, saying that he absolutely felt that way about her (we have seen 0 evidence of that), and that if that’s how she feels, they should end the relationship, because he doesn’t want to be with someone who is not attracted to him. He tried to use the 1:30am snuggle request as defense, and acted as though it was out of pocket for Brittany to refuse his advances. That is actually crazy.
It’s so crazy, that it seems, frankly, deliberate on Kenneth’s part. Cards on the table: I don’t think Kenneth was ever into Brittany. I do think he went on this show with the hope of finding a wife. He clearly understands the social pressure for him to get married. But do I think that’s actually what he wants? I don’t know the man, I’m not going to make any assumptions about his life. But as someone who has sucked dick for 20-plus years, I have thoughts. Bottom line, Kenneth took what seemed like a genuine attempt by Brittany to express her (justified) concerns, and with shocking speed turned all their problems around on her, and ended there relationship in, apparently, minutes.
As a viewer I had whiplash from that scene, I can’t even imagine how Brittany felt. She was clearly emotional as a result, and Kenneth just sat there on his phone, gave her a half-assed hug you would give to someone with whom you just saw a movie — not someone to whom you were engaged to marry in a matter of weeks — and walked out for good, telling an unseen friend on the phone that he was “coming over.” That to me indicates premeditation. Again, I don’t think he ever intended to go through with this wedding. I don’t know if he just didn’t feel a vibe with Brittany. It’s possible. I’ve heard the theory that he could not get past their racial differences, and his behavior around AD and Clay does speak to something along those lines. But regardless of his reasons, the total lack of empathy exhibited by Kenneth in that break-up, and the way he flipped everything on Brittany, was genuinely difficult to watch.
Coming up: Will Amy’s dad approve of her engagement to Johnny? Will AD and Clay actually get married? Is this the end of Laura and Jeramey? And does Jimmy end up fucking Jessica, as Chelsea seems to be accusing him of doing in the preview? I don’t know if love is blind, but it is a MESS, and I’m here for it.
Did You Miss Our Previous Recap? You Can Find It Here:
