It would seem Alayah’s blunder wasn’t in trying to pretend she didn’t know Victoria P was doing the show, but in attempting to outsmart production. Producers do NOT look upon this lightly, as evidenced by how aggressively they’re painting Alayah the villain. Let’s be clear: the mistake is in getting caught. No doubt have countless contestants pulled a Jed and come on with a boyfriend/girlfriend in the background. But get caught and you WILL be punished on national television.



I cannot stress enough how disappointed I was in how Peter handled things in this episode. It bugged me that he couldn’t take Sydney’s words about nameless “fake” women for the vent sesh that it was. I HATED that he put Sydney on the spot and asked her to name names IN FRONT OF EVERYONE. I loathed how he insinuated a woman being “fake” could somehow be Jed-esque; this wasn’t about Alayah pretending to be single when she wasn’t. (In fact, Alayah’s attempted lie didn’t even have anything to do with her connection to Peter at all, so what does it matter?) Note how very different Peter’s actions have been than Hannah’s “stay in your lane” motto: Peter is encouraging his women to do just the opposite, which speaks volumes about his ability to read the women, or at least his confidence in his ability to read them. Hannah’s “stay in your lane” thing had to do with Luke P, the very person Hannah ended up figuring out ON HER OWN. (She was right to tell her men to mind their business.) Meanwhile, the real liar, the person she could have used a warning about, was quietly living amongst his friends, the other guys in the house. In short, where were Peter’s words of “warning” about Jed?

Oh, I’m not done: I loathed when Peter told Alayah, “It’s not just one or two girls that have brought stuff up. It’s been multiple people who have brought stuff up.” There is a HUGE difference between people bringing something up on their own and having been expressly asked for an opinion about someone. I couldn’t stand how he sat Alayah down for a second time to accuse her about Victoria P’s claim yet didn’t actually listen to her defense. Above all, I disliked how righteous he became throughout all this. He said, “I want people that want to be here and for one reason.” It’s only Episode 3, so again, around 1.5 weeks of filming. Is he claiming he went on Hannah’s season solely to meet Hannah, with no slight curiosity about what the experience of this show would entail? That by Episode 3 he was there 100% SOLELY to become engaged to Hannah? Give me a break. OF COURSE ALL OF THE WOMEN HERE ARE NOT ONLY THERE FOR HIM. They would be insane to feel that way this early. All they require to not be there for the “Wrong Reasons” is to be legitimately single and to maintain an open mind.

Finally, I want to talk about Alayah’s “fake”-ness. I’m writing this at a restaurant that turns into a co-working space during weekdays. It’s nearing the end of the work day and I can hear the restaurant staff populating the space, preparing for the evening ahead. I can hear the hostess chatting with her co-workers, venting about her boyfriend. Then, I hear her calling customers on the phone to confirm their reservations. When she does the latter, she goes into a different mode, her voice goes up an octave, and it’s still her but… different. It’s less relaxed, less real, more “on”.

Does that make her fake?

We all have different versions of ourselves we put out there for different circumstances. I’m not going to talk to someone I’ve just met with the same level of familiarity I use with someone I know well. I won’t speak to the conductor of an opera I’m in with the same casualness and tone I use for my girlfriends. Do these varying degrees make me “fake”, that I’m not the same person across the board?

Someone being performative doesn’t mean they’re consciously trying to manipulate. Everyone puts on a bit of a mask when they’re meeting new people, when they’re in work mode, when they’re in new or high-pressure situations. Alayah’s biggest crime is having a pageant-y personality, something that may grate some on people if it’s something they’re not used to. But a pageant-y personality does NOT mean that person is fake, two-faced, manipulative, or a bitch.

That’s it for Episode 3! Let me know your observations in the comments below.

As always, my frontrunners based on this episode can be found over at Flare.







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