ash

this was such a nothing burger episode i fear i don't even wanna do a recap for it 😭😭😭😭 but istg if y'all vote melanie and sincere as most compatible couple tonight im gonna be irritated. i love melanie down but pleaseeee get her OUT of this situation. idk what kind of spell sincere has that whole villa under but it's sickening watching them admit what he's doing to her is terrible and STILL encourage her to go back to him like NOOOOO.....

and you know it's especially crazy when at the public execution-style dumping, the casa girls who have barely known melanie are clocking the toxicity and melanie even agreed with them and said they're true friends for telling her that.

hateeee to say bye to swiftie princess jen but at least she can go celebrate the big news (taylor swift married)

ALSO that taykarma hit immediately bye byeee gal and amora :)

i was kind of expecting more clips to be shown then only three to be honest. it felt like it ended a little too early. they should've added a wholesome brinity yearning compilation in between kenzie's video and sincere's second video honestly. but either way, i'm sooo glad they showed corbin and kc's conversation where they called the casa girls "college" and the villa girls "high school." and ofc i have to point out the irony of the casa girls giggling and smirking throughout all this while the villa girls are (for the most part) acting a lot more mature.

every time the men speak At All this season i feel like this:

and that includes bryce too. the way he keeps trying to play both sides on all of the arguments is getting to me like brother pls shut up.

anyways back on track...

KENZIE'S VIDEO. the way for a split second i was like "damn, why didn't they play the clips of her with dylan and gal?" but that whole situation happened literally yesterday. i do really wish they included the part of her and corbin's kiss in the bedrooms where she said not to tell anyone though because that was shady as hell. besides that, i'm glad we got to see her explaining herself and apologizing to both corbin and caleb. i feel like it really shows the difference in maturity levels between the boys and the girls 'cause the way kenzie acknowledged she was in the wrong, apologized, and didn't try to argue or anything. ALSO notice how she explored connections without talking shit or demeaning either of them at all. she may be moving like sinister but she's beating the allegations a little bit!! not completely though, because part of me feels as though she's trying to save face with both the islanders and also america. so she's still in the doghouse for me right now, but we'll see.

one really silly moment from that: when corbingpt shook his head at kenzie saying "kissing is like shaking hands" like brother please. i knowwww you're not judging mister "can i get a kiss?"

ai has horrible memory though, he's never beating the allegations

SINCERE VIDEO PART TWO: i'm so glad they waited to show us this because if they showed me this on tuesday night i think i genuinely would've had to like.... go on a midnight run or something idk. sinister is so evil beyond belief because how are you gonna apologize for disrespecting melanie like that and then in the same breath try to turn it around on her for her.... (checks notes) having a conversation? the whole thing with mela and corbin was not anywhere near the same situation. she only kissed him during challenges and actually REFUSED to kiss him when he asked outside of a challenge. mind you they just played a whole (nauseating) kiss compilation between sinister and amora and none of them were part of a challenge.

i'm sooo proud of melanie for standing up for herself this episode and even calling out the whole villa for defending that man's actions solely because he picked her. she's exactly right with "being chosen is not a prize" because he only picks her because he knows he can do whatever the fuck he wants and she'll still come back to him. i reallyyyyy hope that this is either the end of melcere OR she pulls a serena and is extra strict with him for the remainder of the season. ideally i want her out of that situation though because she literally looks so drained and over it all. like get her out of that villa and into a spa retreat or something!!!

OKAY AFTERMATH TIME: aniya and mela's friendship is genuinely my favorite on the show so far. but at the same time i need aniya to stop enabling sincere's behavior and telling mela to keep trying with him. i feel like this is when they need trinity to step in and be the voice of reason. speaking of trinity, she was so quiet this episode it's kind of scaring me. curious if production is cutting out conversations or if she's really just been minding her business. anyways, i appreciated aniya showing maturity and apologizing to kc for standing up and getting in his face, i feel like that was really big of her and also yet another example of the girls being more mature than the boys.

aniya and carl's little moment on the couch was my favorite part of the episode i think. they're just so adorable together, i love them. carl's understanding of the whole situation is soooo sweet, "you put your heart out there, you're all good" exactly! she put her heart on the line and it didn't work out but it's okay now because she's onto bigger and better things. also carl catching and releasing that moth into the air during bedtime was so sweet.

need them to start giving zach and kayda less screentime because i truly cannot keep watching kayda act like she's mad at zach while hugging and kissing all over him. girl you're supposed to be the new hampshire grim reaper.

the way people keep telling sincere that what he's doing is shitty and then they turn around and tell melanie he's such a good guy and to keep trying to make it work with him. i don't even blame her for going back to him all this time 'cause i probably would too if i was her. and she's probably gonna do it again this time and get her heart broken again. it genuinely hurts to watch like honestly how do we vote her out of the villa tomorrow night just to get her out of this cycle?

aniya and kc's final conversation was sweet but it was reallyyyy fucking funny to me how kc didn't look at her once. also when he pulled her and she said "grandma's coming!" i giggled, that was funny as fuck. though, same with kenzie, i'm not entirely sure if i believe kc's words. i feel like he's also remembering he's on camera and he's trying to save face. i wouldn't be surprised if production pulled him aside and told him to do damage control honestly.

ending this with i think the owl in soul ties when mela went to sleep there was the universe telling her to leave that man. the universe is literally SCREAMING at her to get wise and break the cycle. the olivia rodrigo song (the grudge) playing during melcere's final conversation in the episode was a little too on the nose as well, it sent a shiver down my spine honestly.

oh, and also, beautiful lesbian scammer princess amora looked beautiful as always tonight god bless.