After having the final say in who left each week, finally someone other than Mark made the decisions this week. Of course in one case it was less a decision than a problematic phobia, but it was still nice to see the women controlling the course of the show for a change.
Admittedly with only one episode left, it’s a little late to do anything about it now, but Age of Love really needs to cut down on their previews for later in the episode. At the top of the show voiceover guy will often spoil later events, only to try and hype up the suspense and uncertainty for the same events later on. For instance, tonight at the top of the show we learned that only two women would be left standing by the end of the episode. But then after it was made clear that three of them were to go to Australia, the final act break preview pondered whether or not Megan would be able to overcome her fear of flying. You already told us one of the remaining three will be gone by the end of the show, and unless there’s a sudden bear attack, it’s not going to be Amanda or Jen; Obviously Megan was not going to make the trip.
It was kind of odd that they showed the remaining women a tape of Jayanna taking Amanda to task with her own (somewhat skewed) version of what happened and why Mark sent her home. I guess they figured that with Jayanna gone, there really wasn’t anyone left to foment tension and hostility between the forties and the twenties and the producers hoped the video would stir up some new drama. If that was the intention, it didn’t really work. Jen was the only one who seemed to take it seriously and she had already kind of isolated herself from the others since Jayanna left.
The dates this week were kind of meh. With the exception of the tea date (both Megan and Mark seemed to be quite out of their element on that one), the dates themselves were fine, it’s just that, for there wasn’t a whole lot of excitement there. Yeah, it was fun to see Amanda and Maria in rather revealing outfits and to see Mark and Jen share a lights out ‘massage,’ but the actual dates were just kind of there.
It’s interesting to ponder who would have gone home this week had Maria not sent herself home. Assuming Mark wasn’t lying, Maria wasn’t the one Mark was going to send home. Based solely on how close Mark has seemed to each of them, it’s quite possible that Megan would have been the one to go this week, but if she wasn’t then at the end of this week’s episode, Mark probably had a pretty good idea of who he wanted to be with when the show was over.
Mark’s face fell when Amanda told him about that she knew about the ‘massages’ he shared with Jen. In past instances women who seemingly had a good connection with Mark were sent home after Mark found out (from Amanda) that they were talking about their relationships when he wasn’t around (Kelli told Amanda about kissing Mark and Jayanna told Amanda her relationship with Mark wasn’t special). If the pattern held, then it’s possible that Jen was the one he planned to send home this week. Or he could have been annoyed with Amanda for calling him out on it, and sent her home. Of course, even if he had planned to send one of them home, there’s no guarantee he won’t change his mind about them later, but knowing who he had planned to get rid of would help provide some insight into what will happen next week.
Even though I liked to see the dynamic changed as far as who was deciding on whether or not one of the women left, I was kind of disappointed as to who had left. I, like many people, have a natural tendency to root for the underdog so I was pulling for Megan and Maria to be the final two, if only because they were the long shots among the final four.
As for who will end up with Mark at the end of next week’s finale, I really have no idea. If one of Jen or Amanda had gone home this week, I would peg the other one as the favorite, but since they’re both still around, the favorite is not so obvious. As Jen worried about in the preview for next week, her age could be a factor for Mark’s family. If they do have a rough time with Jen being an older woman, it could influence his decision (of course, not knowing Mark’s relationship with his family, it’s hard to say if he would be less likely to choose someone they disapprove of, or if he would be more likely to choose Jen, just to be stubborn).
Next week’s the finale and all our questions should be answered. Will Jen and Amanda get along with Mark’s family? Who will Mark choose? Will the other Mark (the host) make a rare appearance to close out the season? We shall see.
