Sweet Home Alabama was two hours long on Friday night, and it needed to be – what a lot of drama! I’ve already heard from a bunch of readers who had a lot to say about Jeremiah, but I think we’d better start at the beginning.

The show picked up where we’d left off last week, with Jeremy and Landon arguing over what happened during the elimination. Most of the guys, including the country guys, weren’t very happy with Landon. Bubba had the most reasonable opinion on everything, saying that he respected Landon wanting to protect Paige but there were clearly some ulterior motives there.

I don’t think Paige was wrong in sending Jeremy home. She clearly has some trust issues surrounding people and their exes, and so she doesn’t want a guy around who’s going to be bragging about another girl or could possibly still have feelings for someone else. But I do think the only reason Landon told Paige about what Jeremy had said was because he could sense she was about to send him packing. It was to save his own butt, and that’s a pretty rotten move.

Getting Corny

The first date of the week went to Donny, the singer/songwriter from Nashville who was married not so very long ago. He was married to Whitney of Survivor fame, who left him for Keith. From what we’ve seen on Sweet Home Alabama, I’d say Whitney traded down. Keith seemed like a dolt on Survivor (and he was mean to the nerd, Cochran) but Donny seems like a really nice guy.

Paige and Donny went to a bar and made kettle corn together, and then he sang a song he’d written about her. I don’t know why I was surprised it was good. I mean, this is what the guy does for a living. But so does Dustin and, well, yeah…let’s just say I prefer Donny.

The song definitely meant a lot to Paige – she had tears in her eyes – but since she didn’t really kiss him afterwards, I wasn’t sure if she was feeling a big connection. This was Donny’s first date so he had a long way to go to catch up with some of the other guys who’ve had more time with Paige, and I wasn’t sure the song would be enough.

Animal Lovers

The next date went to Jeremiah, who’s the first guy to get a second date. First they spent the morning at a vet clinic, because Paige wanted to show him part of what she does for a living. It was really sweet, especially since on their first date Jeremiah showed Paige some of what he does, and you could tell they really bonded over their mutual love of animals.

Afterwards they went back to Dorgan’s Inn where Paige stays, and hung out drinking lemonade and lying in the hammock. I knew Paige was really smitten with Jeremiah, but I don’t think I realized how much – she told him she’s falling in love with him, and Jeremiah didn’t say anything back. It was so awkward, and we didn’t get to see them together much after that.

On her Twitter account, Paige said that she’d asked Jeremiah a lot of really intense questions while they were in the hammock. He was obviously rattled, and it’s hard to tell if that’s just because he’s nervous or what. If he weren’t on a show, would he still be acting like this? Would he be more comfortable falling in love with Paige if they had just met through friends or something, or would he be freaking out just as much?

When Jeremiah returned from his date he was in a bad mood. It was hard to tell why. Was he frustrated that he didn’t say more to Paige? Is it because he really likes her and hates seeing all the other guys still getting dates with her? Is it because things are moving too fast for him?

Work It Out

The next day, all the guys were scheduled to meet up with Paige at the gym and Jeremiah decided not to go. That’s when he started to annoy me. I get that this is a hard situation, and I think Jeremiah is really out of his comfort zone. But if you like Paige, you should suck it up and spend whatever time you can with her. Not going on the group outing was a sulky, babyish thing to do.

**Ed. Note: Jeremiah tweeted that he didn’t know Paige was going to be at the gym, and that it was a “bad time to just wanna take a nap.” So I take back my comments about it being sulky!

I never thought I’d say Big Shaun was growing on me, but he cracked me up the entire time the guys were at the gym. He just hung out, bouncing on an exercise ball and telling jokes. I much prefer him to Landon, who bench pressed Paige. Landon actually said “You’re my new dumbbell” to Paige. Oh gee, Mister, words every gal dreams of hearing! Barf. Maybe I’m weird, but I’m not impressed by that kind of thing.

While at the gym, Paige arranged to go on a “triangle date” with Dustin and Joey. The idea came from a joke Dustin made, but even a shared date with Paige is better than no date at all.

Back at the house that night, things got pretty bad with Jeremiah. A few people have commented on last week’s blog post to say that they think producers and editors made Jeremiah look bad. I have to disagree – that was his behavior, and while editing does play some role in how people on the show are portrayed it doesn’t change what Jeremiah did or said. I think Jeremiah knew he got out of control, lost his temper, and was embarrassed by his behavior. Apparently he’d had three glasses of whiskey, and that obviously was a factor.

The gist of it is that Jeremiah had a few drinks and stayed up late, mouthing off to a bunch of the guys and also letting them get under his skin. In particular, he was bickering a lot with Little Cowboy Shaun. Next thing you knew, Jeremiah was across the kitchen trying to hit Shaun and the other guys had to pull them apart.

Now, obviously I don’t know Jeremiah and my opinions on this are just a girl who likes TV and writes a blog. So take it all with a grain of salt. (AKA, please don’t send me hate mail!) I think Jeremiah is a good guy. I don’t think he’s a jerk. But I do think he was acting like one that night.

Jeremiah seems to be a pretty big introvert. And I get that, because I’m kind of an introvert too. I love being around people and I’m really social, but I NEED down time, I need alone time, I need to just chill and recharge or I get cranky. If you’re an introvert, I think it would be really hard to live in a house with a bunch of guys. Guys who are also dating the girl you’re currently really worked up about. Guys who are also having drinks and are trying to get under your skin a little, because that’s what guys do. I think Jeremiah’s probably not really cut out for a show like this, and so the whole situation is really difficult on him. But there’s nothing he can do about it. He can’t leave, not if he really likes Paige. So he just needs to suck it up and deal with it as best he can. But that night, he clearly lost it.

Thin Ice, Baby

For the “triangle date”, Paige took Dustin and Joey skating. They each got to spend time alone with her, and the two dates couldn’t have been more different. Dustin seems like a total sweetheart – just a really nice, genuine guy. But he and Paige were definitely in the friend zone. And Joey, that seems like a total physical connection. First of all, Joey on the ice was hilarious. I don’t think his skates were tied up right, and he kept sliding around and falling like Bambi. How had he never skated before? He’s from New Jersey! First he didn’t know how to ride a bike, and now he’d never been on skates before? Where did this guy’s childhood go?

One of the funniest parts of the whole episode was Bubba teaching Big Shaun how to rope a pretend bull. Has hell frozen over? Last week I was sure I didn’t buy Shaun’s whole changed attitude, but this week it actually seemed like it might be legit. Even Jeremiah took part in the roping lesson and cracked a few smiles, so I suppose his mood had improved.

I was sure Jeremiah would try to talk to Paige before the elimination so he could apologize for not going to the gym, but we didn’t see the two of them talk at all. I still really like Jeremiah, so I hope this week was just a roadblock for them and not a game changer.

Boyd pulled Big Shaun aside first, and even though he acted as intimidating as possible, he was delivering the news that Paige wants a date with him. Good thing Boyd isn’t in charge of these decisions, or I think Big Shaun would have been sent back to New York long ago. I’m interested to see how this date goes.

First Paige sent Dustin home, which wasn’t much of a surprise since their date gave off a clear friend vibe. But I wasn’t sure who the other guy would be. I thought it might be Landon since Paige was so close to eliminating him last week, or maybe Todd, who isn’t making the greatest impression on me. Instead, she sent Donny home. I guess writing a girl a song doesn’t work that well after all. Donny cried. A lot. Maybe he was still upset about his divorce? It seemed like he had a lot of emotions happening.

OK, that’s it for this week, folks! What did y’all think of the mega-sized episode? I know you have opinions (especially on Jeremiah!) so get down to the comments section and share them!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Couchtime/~3/W8OSf-hCkms/sweet-home-alabama-love-songs.html