Joey flirting with Madison post meet/greet while still engaging with Monica seems clear as day to me. He didn't expect that news to come up at the reunion.
Definitely not trying to give him a "redemption arc". He's one of the worst dudes ever to be on the show. Just felt he definitely took notice of all the talk about him.
I do believe that Alex got off on winning Madison over Mason in the pods. I 100% agree with you that Madison speaking for Meg was fucked up. However, Alex and Mason confronting Madison over talking to two people in the pods very differently was fucking stupid imo. If we're going to question folks over that, then the show shouldn't exist.
I do think Dave got away with making everything about this creepy off-camera dude. While also not recognizing the fact that he was slut shaming Lauren for weeks. He should have just been open about not wanting to be with her from the jump.
Ok, full thoughts on the season/couples after the reunion.. First off, I really thought (hoped?) that with more time, the LIB production and the Lachey's would get better at dealing with the right topics at the reunion. That has not been the case at all and it’s a huge detriment to the show. The production is terrible, the way they cut the conversations together, the constant breaking into other gags they want to run, it’s just bad all around. My wife watches a lot of Bravo shows, and not only is Andy Cohen the best at reunions, they also give the reunions more runway. I don't know why Netflix doesn't want to push the reunion into 2 episodes to better let the topics breathe. That said, the Lachey's are terrible at hosting, so maybe that's a huge reason on why. There is zero strong pushback to people showing terrible behavior or bad choices and they do a terrible job holding people accountable in the moment. Maybe its not what the show wants to be, but limiting the conversation lessons the show in my opinion. One last note before I get into the couples... we had 3 guys on the show this season that had very clear political/social views that they were not willing to share/express. Listen, its a free country and people can have whatever beliefs they want, but if you are going to have your views and then go on TV, you should be willing to express them. On to the couples... Taylor & Daniel - good for them and I am happy things are going well. They were quite boring, but I tend to find that interesting sometimes on this show. The moment their families seemed to form a bond I knew it was set. Ben & Sara - Ben was a walking red flag, and I actually feel like Sara knew this for a good portion of time but stuck around to the wedding. Shocked she was willing to entertain the relationship after the wedding, but it seems that Ben is very good at saying the right thing. Him trying to claim that he thought they were "broken up" the night before the Nashville move is insane. I wont re-hash what's been said about Bens beliefs, but obviously it was an issue. Lauren & Dave - We have talked a lot about them, but I did feel bad for Dave at the reunion, even if everything was his own fault. I can imagine that dealing with an entire friend group poisoned towards Lauren would make it incredibly hard. That said, he's a giant pushover and needs to find a way to become more assertive in his life. Hilarious to me that his sisters primary concern with going on the show was Dave being viewed as a bad person, and it became a self fulfilling prophecy because of her. Amazingly great TV. He did look crushed at the reunion to admit that he was wrong, and I do think he likely feels like Lauren is the one that got away. Nice that it came full circle to bite him in the ass. Virginia & Devin - dude is a loser, and I don't say that in a mean way. I know plenty of guys like him, that will never leave the shadow of their hometown and just meddle around it their whole lives. Again, he very clearly strongly disagreed with Virginias political/social views and its hilarious to think they could just look past it. His mom seems like she controls his life/thoughts, so none of this is shocking. Did some stuff go down at the wedding? Joey & Monica - this has to be one of the strangest couples on the show, at least from what I can remember. They really seemed to hit it off in the pods, there never seemed to be a giant red flag between them, it just never seemed to work. Joey is a very strange person and I don't know that Monica is quite on his level. She does need to find a way to separate her life from her sister, as I think its a huge red flag from a dating perspective. The Joey/Monica/Madison situation is also strange, but who knows where the truth it.
I think the whole Madison, Mason, Meg, and Alex thing comes down to multiple things can be true. Mason thought with his dick before his heart and instantly regretted that decision. If he really felt that strongly about Meg, they would have made it work, IMO. Meg is way out there and seems like she’d be A LOT to handle. Alex definitely gets off on being the one Madison “chose” and we now know his reputation is terrible. And Madison clearly has some issues she needs to address.
Just popping in to say Mason is a boss. Dude seemed very genuine. I also think Daniel knew what Taylor looked like
I could be mis-remembering, but this season definitely seemed to leave out important footage more often than in previous seasons. The episodes seemed to be skipping ahead in time so frequently that we were missing key exchanges/events. I really noticed it when Dave and Lauren were having one of their larger conversations and they referenced him having been gone for a week. They didn't show anything related to that and I feel like that would have been better context. I don't know, it feels like 25+ minute lead up time to each of the weddings could be better used time with more life footage.
If joey had gone first and been the first to say no, would he have ridden his long board back out of the ceremony?
Between Devin going on ET saying that he didn't get addicted to ibuprofen and Joey saying that he turned down the show/didn't want to get married. I don't know who is a bigger loser scumbag.