William, how do you annoy me? Let me count the ways.
1. The ideal of coolness being Tom Cruise in Cocktail
2. The use of the word "devil stick" as a verb`
3. Bragging about how easily you could insult your partner, Jen, if necessary
4. Equating the color yellow with "flair" (isn't that the color of insanity, anyway?)
5. Being the cocky bartender that, as Sam so beautifully pointed out, nobody wants to sit and watch
But it's not just me. You know you're not doing great in Beauty and the Geek when you're in the final four and your fellow geeks are turning against you. Nicole finally had her long-awaited "ta da!" moment when she called William out for talking shit about his partner behind her back. And even Dave, Mr. LARP, admitted that the Comic-Con crying William "rubs people the wrong way."
This was a pretty entertaining episode considering that this season has already had a good deal of partner bonding—it'll be hard to ramp it up even more over the remaining episodes—plus the inclusion of such unnecessary footage as Shay and Jasmine running away from a green "bee" on the patio.
In addition to Nicole finally having a defining moment, Sam was actually being likable in trying not to brag about his challenge win and giving Josh his bartender props. Plus, he was pretty funny in his observations on William and his impression of Nicole the Bartender.
Meanwhile it was more of Dave and Jasmine just being adorable as hell together and Josh submitting to the usual mothering by Shay. I was great to see him actually say something to her about what she meant to him right before they got eliminated, rather than just gamely surrender to her orders(but to be honest the bronzer did make him look a lot better). And he actually teased her, too, calling her by her full name, "Shalandra," in his adieu to hear, and she seemed to blush.
Or maybe our big emotional breakthrough was Jen informing William that if she saw him being kicked by someone on the sidewalk, she'd ask them to stop. To me, that was pretty kind of her.
Grade: B
Stray observations:
—I liked that Shay apologized to the bugs that she dropped.
—Did anybody else get the vaguest brief impression that real-life Sam might be gay? (And hope it was true because Plausible Real Life Gay Sam seems way more likable than Beauty Sam?)
—If I've learned anything from the beauties' challenges, it's that boys are better than girls at rockets and bugs.
—Competitive flair bartending, really? That sounds like the kind of thing your parents would not be that happy to tell their friends about.
—Nicole, enough with the hat.