Thursday, September 25, 2014

The Singles Project Episode 1.07


This week’s episode of The Singles Project was a little bit of a shake up. We saw some things I did not expect and with Lee and Ericka now officially together, we only saw them together, so I will naturally discuss them…you guessed it…TOGETHER. Let’s jump right in…

Kerry
At the beginning of this episode, we see Kerry give in to peer pressure. (For the sake of not pulling back the curtain of reality TV magic, I’ll stick with the peer pressure story, but it’s entirely possible that dating this new guy was producer-engineered… But again I won’t dive deeply into that theory.) Last week we saw her friends pressuring her not to commit to Tripp so quickly and see what happens with some other guys, “play the field” as some would call it. In normal life, that’s how it works and that’s what people do. But when your every social and romantic move is caught on camera for a national television show for everyone to see, including your dates, it becomes a sticky situation. We see later what I’m talking about…

So Kerry goes on a date with a new guy, Alex. She says he’s more the type of guy her parents would want her to date… As soon as she said this, I knew the date was doomed…  They decide to order some food, and Alex seems to be very excited about Brussels sprouts. He goes on to say that they cure cancer… Clearly he is working for some special interest group or is highly invested in the sales of Brussels sprouts… Oh wait, never mind… apparently that was a joke… I don’t know about you, but my sides hurt from all the laughter… Kerry makes a comment about his table manners. She doesn’t like the fact that he’s holding the fork like “a caveman”. Knowing that this is going nowhere, she excuses herself to the bathroom and calls her friend. She wants to bolt, and neither her friend nor I blame her for that. Kerry returns to the table to make a horrifying excuse… Let me give you the gist of what she said… Basically, Kerry needs to shit a watermelon baby in a bathroom with better ventilation… Yeah, she more or less said that to her date at the dinner table.

Of course all of that is a lie, thankfully, and she goes outside to call Tripp. She admits up front that she is on a date with another guy. (She knows there’s no point in lying. He’ll just end up seeing it in a few days.) Tripp is upset that she is seeing someone else… And there it is. In anyone else’s life, they would have told a little white lie so as not to hurt Tripp and would not have felt guilty about keeping their options open. Furthermore, I think Tripp is being a little over-sensitive. They have gone on probably four dates, and they are not yet committed. He knows Kerry likes him, and her calling him while on a date with someone else should make him feel flattered. Kerry asks Tripp to accompany her to Brian’s birthday party, but he is reluctant and a little hurt.

Later at the birthday party, Kerry says she texted Tripp about coming with her, but he ignored her… But then in a moment of producer-engineered magic, Tripp shows up to the party and steals Kerry away from the table. Kerry says she thought he would never talk to her again, and they ask for each other’s forgiveness. He tells her to come with him to South Carolina on a plane to a lake house to meet his mother. He wants to do something spontaneous together. For once in her life, Kerry is speechless. I don’t think she saw that coming. But of course, we’re left in suspense and won’t find out what happens until next week.

Joey
This week we see Joey and Brian go out on a double date. Joey says the two of them are sitting “at the loser’s table”. They have both crashed and burned on the show. During the double date, the waiter mentions one of the menu items (obvious product placement) and says “Pino’s burger”. Of course, the two gay guys hear “penis burger”… I must admit I heard the same thing. I almost did a spit take… Joey is having a great time with his date, Ryan, but Brian is not. Joey invites his date to Brian’s birthday party, leaving Brian in an awkward position. He clearly does not like his date and does not want to invite her to his birthday party. So he awkwardly says he doesn’t want to invite her because he wants to be around the important people in his life on his birthday… nice save Brian…

Later, Joey goes out with another guy, Jack. The two of them seem to hit it off immediately. Joey calls Jack neurotic “in an adorable way”… Just like me… During the date, Joey talks positively and in depth about his date the previous night with Ryan. Jack doesn’t really want to hear about it, and I completely understand why. Why would you want to hear about how much your date liked spending a romantic evening with another person? I wanted to be there so I could kick Joey under the table to get him to shut up… Joey says he wants to go out with Jack again. That’s two great dates in a row after a slew of bad luck. Looks like things might be turning around for Joey.

Ryan shows up to Brian’s birthday party, and Kerry and Tabasum fawn over him. Joey and Ryan excuse themselves from the dinner table to go talk in private. Joey tells Ryan he went out for lunch with “a friend”, which was really his date with Jack… Uh oh… This might be a problem. Like I said before, that is a harmless white lie than any normal person in this situation would tell, but with all of this being televised, that white lie has the potential to bite Joey in the ass. I hope Ryan is understanding for Joey’s sake.

Tabasum
Tabasum is still seeing Alex. Their first two dates went very well, and for the third date Alex has invited her to his home in New Jersey. Tabasum seemed a little concerned about that choice. It’s only the third date, and inviting a date to your home usually means he wants one thing. Tabasum is smart. She is giving him he benefit of the doubt that he will not try anything slick, and she made sure to book a return car service for the evening. Things start off well, and it turns into a romantic evening. Tabasum says she misses cuddling and kissing, and she hasn’t had sex in a long time… It was at this moment that I saw something different in Alex… He seems quite drunk, and he starts talking about sex. This is obviously a turn off for Tabasum. You can see on her face that she is quickly realizing Alex could be the sleazy guy she was hoping he wasn’t. Alex tries to get comfortable on the couch, and Tabasum knows that he wants to have sex. He asks her to stay, but she decides to leave. Tabasum says she does not have sex before monogamy… Patti Stanger would be proud… I want to take this opportunity to say I have the utmost respect for Tabasum in this situation. I imagine a lot of women would have seen this as a moment to solidify their name and become famous and remembered by doing something big and slutty on television, but Tabasum holds fast to her beliefs and self-respect. She is a strong and respectable woman. Good for you, Tabasum!

She decides to give Alex another shot, and she sees him again, this time in a public place. She wants to have serious talk in order to get to know each other instead of kissing and flirting. She asks Alex if he wants to be in a serious relationship. Alex responds, “For the most part I want to have fun…”. Now Tabasum has his number. She knows exactly what Alex is and how he plays his game. Alex is the type of guy who at first is suave and debonair in order to lure the woman in. He acts respectable and like a gentleman. As soon as he feels the woman really falling for it, he changes and starts moving in for what he really wants, sex. I don’t know if he ever really liked or respected Tabasum. And if he didn’t, he has seriously bad taste. I like to call guys like Alex “the eternal frat douche”. They will always have that frat boy, oversexed mentality until it’s too late and they end up alone, or until someone like Tabasum makes them realize that they’re missing out on something great. Thankfully, Tabasum is an intelligent woman who can see through his BS. She calls him “a douche” and says she is done.

Lee and Ericka
This is the first week Lee and Ericka are officially together. So naturally, we don’t see them much this episode. They are a success story of the show, and the episode focuses on the other singles. We see them spend their day at the beach. Ericka uses the word “boyfriend” and smiles a lot while saying it. They go back to a beach home and relax in the pool. Lee says he would go “off the grid” for Ericka any day, and he wants her to stop thinking so much. She brings up how Lee said he is falling in love with her, and she wants to know if that is true or if he was saying that in the heat of the moment. Lee points out that this is an example of Ericka over-thinking. They talk about going to Brian’s birthday dinner, but they decide to stay where they are and be with each other.

Brian
This week’s episode coincided with Brian’s birthday. Poor guy… All he got to show for it was a lousy double date with Joey, a small dinner party, and about 5 minutes of actual screen time…

Next week is the season finale. Will Lee and Ericka make this work? Will Kerry go with Tripp to South Carolina? Who will Joey pick to get serious with, Ryan or Jack? And will Tabasum and Brian find the love they deserve? We’ll have to watch next week to find out. 

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