A Former ‘Bachelor’ Producer’s Controversial Memoir & Post-‘Love Island’ Drama

It’s week two of “Love Is Blind” Boston, and the couples are… mostly floundering. In a real twist, Rob and Michaella are quickly emerging as potentially the only good match of the season. Meanwhile, tension is brewing for the rest of the couples. John is out here drinking unpasteurized milk and doing his own research, Blake can’t stop putting his foot in his mouth, Aneha won’t let Cam’s nonexistent ear piercing go, and Wilnie can’t stop needling Wilson about Malaine. But at least Netflix music supervisors have The Mighty Mighty Bosstones on hand to welcome us to Boston!

Episode 6 of “The Traitors” brings us up to speed with a flurry of activity: a murder! A mission! A round table! And many, many ill-fated attempts by Victor to make Fruitgate happen. In this episode, we see what happens when a contestant with all the unearned confidence of a white man tries to bend the castle to his will – and discovers that he has, inexplicably, zero credibility with his fellow castle guests. Victor might be right, and he might be the only person marshaling “real” evidence, but that doesn’t do much if everyone else just wants to vote on vibes. Can anything stop these Traitors now?

In episodes 4 and 5, the love chains have been winnowed down to triangles and couples, before heading off to Mexico. The women are busy trying to convince their male suitors to choose them, while the men are mostly trying to decide between the two types of women: Hot ones or deep ones? Dimes or battle-axes? Balkans or non-Balkans? “That” or “It”? Thank god for Jax and Stew, our unintentional comedy darlings. We thank you both for your service.

The pods have touched down in Boston! And we had so much to say about the first drop of episodes, that we had to split our recap into two parts. In part 1 we get into all of the various love chains that form in the pods and the cast of standout characters that populate them – Morrey, the peacocking toxic masculinity mascot; Stew, the rent-a-Kennedy; Jax, who wears a Moncler puffer in an edgy way; Diana, the old soul who has heard of Frank Sinatra despite being younger than 38; and so many more. (Plus Scott, who seems to have a connection with zero women but who still gets a bit of screentime to do overt misogyny and tell his dates that astrology is satanic.)

This week, “The Traitors: New Blood” is back on the air – but we’re down to one new episode. And it’s a relatively uneventful one, with barely a round table or murder to speak of. Instead, most of the episode is spent on the antics of the three Traitors as they try to commit a murder in plain sight. The mechanism: throwing a “cursed” apple to a Faithful on the murder shortlist, and having them successfully catch it. It’s a wildly conspicuous act, especially in a game fueled by paranoia and mob justice, and all three of the Traitors manage to incriminate themselves by the end of the night – especially Joe. Can he wriggle his way out of this jam?