William and Jen had to stay. This much is clear but the reasons why depend on whether you're a strategist or a sentimental fool (or both.) Despite the continued domineering presence of Sam and Nicole this season, the one thing that's seemed fair is that each of the couples that have been sent home didn't seem to go before their time. Continuing this pattern, Natalie and John clearly were successful as a team and didn't seem to have any problems communicating with anybody else in the game. When it came time for David and Jasmine and Sam and Nicole to choose which couple was going home, it was obviously going to be William and Jen. Either it was because they'd be much weaker competitors than Natalie and John, or maybe because as David pointed out, they actually still do really need the experiment, in fact more than anyone else. Either way, same results: William acted like a whiny little baby.
Other than William, I don't know if a contestant on Beauty and the Geek so wholly failed to grasp the point of the show other than Cecille in season three. His unabashed distaste for Jen just because she reminds him of girls who used to tease him in high school is just a wee bit disturbing. Thank god this kid isn't in high school anymore because he seems like the type who the teachers should be monitoring for writing poetry with disturbingly violent imagery.
After the teams' fun jaunt to Mexico, it seems clear that David and Jasmine or Joshua and Shay should win the competition–both teams have come far from their first encounter, seem to put effort into the partnership, make for good TV and actually seem really fun. You'd have to have a heart of stone not to be touched by Jasmine rewarding Dave's drunken acrobatic derring-do with a couple of smooches, or Joshua's willing excitement to learn the salsa with Shay.
As for Sam and Nicole: come on already, they need to go. My biggest problem now isn't even, once again, a.) why are they here? b.) are they real? c.) what's their relationship like one on one? It's just that they fail to bring anything new to the show either in terms of growth or even drama. I was almost convinced they'd get sent home tonight due to what I perceived as foreshadowing in the form of Sam's cockiness at the top of the episode, but maybe it's just going to be a big snowball of hubris that will engulf him in one of the remaining installments.
Grade: B+
Stray observations:
—Another Sam line that I frankly don't believe wasn't scripted: his interest in learning "The history of the parties…the history of spring break in Mexico."
—Speaking of which, the español in this episode was so Sesame Street that it seemed like everyone–beauties, geeks, hosts–could have benefited from a vocabulary challenge.
—Damn you Dave, how did you get to be so….well…cute and charming? Yeah, I said it.