Mary: Welcome to Listen to Your Heart, a new Bachelor franchise show where a group of musically talented people go live in a house to find their perfect duet partner, and maybe love. Because Emily and I are social distancing along with the rest of the country, we’ve decided to recap this show because, well, why not! Join us, won’t you?

Welp, this sure was a show, and I hate to admit how much I actually enjoyed it. As anyone who listens to our podcast has probably picked up on, I’ve only dabbled in the franchises of Bach Nation--mostly to watch Nick Viall and Rachel’s seasons. Listen to Your Heart is weirdly trying to capitalize on two things that are always solid in ratings on network TV: romance and singing competitions. From what I can tell, this series is going to work like Bachelor in Paradise but with more singing. Each week, one gender will be in “power” and have fewer contestants. This week, there were more men than women, so the women got to distribute roses at the end of the episode, and four men--four!--went home. I felt relieved to see that four dudes were going home because, I have to be honest, I couldn’t keep up with them. The show introduces SO MANY people in the first twenty minutes or so that I found myself feeling very overwhelmed. I remember the important players in the episode, but that’s it. Just a lot of bland faces and A Star is Born references in that first 30 minutes or so. 

Emily: Yeah, this setup is really similar to the beginning of Bachelor in Paradise, but the thing about BiP is that you already know everyone coming in. So a quick little reminder of who they are is usually enough to cement them in their brain. We do not know these people at all because we’ve never seen them on the show before. It was a lot. I was trying to keep track in my notes of who everyone was at first, but eventually I just had to throw in the towel. And you could argue that on The Bachelor, you also have to meet a whole bunch of people at once, but the difference with that show is that you do have a central lead that is holding it all together. We don’t have that here. Right now our lead is A Star is Born references. To which I’m like… y’all remember how that movie ended, right? 

Mary: A few contestants stood out to me immediately. Namely, Mel! I love her purple hair and she seems friendly and cool. I’d like to be friends with her. I also really liked Ryan and Trevor, but mostly just because I thought they were cute. I felt horrible for the only two men of color who only got shown briefly, and largely playing background music for the rest of their housemates. Ugh. I want better for them. 

Emily: Mary and I watched this first episode together (while still social distancing, don’t worry), so she already knows we’re in agreement here. In our first impressions post, I professed my love for Mel, and I wasn’t disappointed when I saw her in the flesh. She’s super hot and cool, and clearly the best person on this show. Mary and I also agree that Ryan and Trevor are the hottest guys there. So we’ve already chosen the #BSG favs. Everyone else can go home. 

Mary: This is now a Mel appreciation blog. You’ve been warned. There seemed to be two big storylines this episode--one with Rudi being wild and scorned and one with Jamie being too hot and attracting too many dudes. Maybe we should talk about these plotlines one at a time? 

Emily: Sounds good to me. I will say that if Mel, Ryan, and Trevor have cemented themselves as our favorites thus far, Rudi has definitely become our collective least favorite. As Mary predicted, she’s just a lot of drama, as we’ll see in this episode and, I’m sure, future episodes. But Jamie arrives first so let’s start with her. 

Mary: On the first night, as everyone mingled together in the mansion, Jamie felt a connection with both Trevor and Ryan. And I mean, I get it! They’re both cute, and they both seemed genuinely nice to Jamie--who seemed hesitant to believe her luck because she’s had a hard time dating in the past (which I’m sure will come up later in the series). Jamie talks with Ryan for a while, then talks with Trevor for a while, and she likes them both. 

Emily: After night one, date cards start coming out. I’m pretty sure we’re going by BiP rules here, which means on weeks where the men are at risk of being eliminated, they’ll get date cards. So next week, when there are more women than men, they should be getting the date cards. Anyway, the first date card goes to Ryan, which is bad news for Trevor. This gives Ryan an opportunity to spend quality time with Jamie away from the mansion, something Trevor will not have the opportunity to do. I see you, Bachelor producers. 

Mary: Ryan and Jamie are whisked off to a recording studio, where they have to record a cover version of John Mayer’s “Gravity” with help from the song’s producer. It all overwhelms Jaime, who wasn’t expecting such an elaborate date. 

Emily: Also Jamie says John Mayer is not really the kind of music she normally sings. With so many different musical styles represented on this show, I wonder how often that’s going to come up.

Mary: I bet it’s going to come up a lot. I get the feeling that these folks are very good at specific musical styles. They probably won’t be comfortable going out of their specialties.

Things on this date are kind of...awkward. Ryan seems comfortable, playing guitar and trying to encourage Jaime to sing her part of the song as they practice. However, Jamie just can’t get in the flow of things. She seems to struggle with the idea that they have a live band there, that they’re singing “Gravity,” that they have to record together on such short notice. If you’re pursuing music professionally isn’t this a huge opportunity you’d want to take advantage of? I didn’t get why she was so slow to warm up to the idea of meeting a big producer and recording in a studio. It seems like a musician’s dream. 

Emily: You know, if I had to choose one adjective to describe Jamie at this point in the show, it would be “hesitant.” Then again, she hasn’t been hesitant when it comes to making out with both Trevor and Ryan. Mad respect for that, girl, for bagging the two hottest dudes in the mansion. 

Mary: For sure--which, that whole dilemma of having two hot guys chasing you comes up later. The date seems to go okay, though, and the two record the song. I thought it went okay, anyway.

Emily: I thought the date went great. I felt like they had real chemistry, and by the end of the date, as much as I love Trevor I was rooting for this pairing. Together, they give off really sweet innocent young people vibes. So much so that I was kind of thinking they should have sung a duet to a High School Musical song rather than a John Mayer song. But I mean that in the nicest way. Ya girl loves HSM. 

Mary: Yessss, me too! I don’t think Listen to Your Heart will venture into HSM territory (mostly because Disney would probably never give them the rights), but ya girls can dream. Imagine it! I also think they gave off some ~romantic~ vibes, and I’m glad that it wasn’t just me. Judging them by how Jamie reacts to Ryan at the end of the episode, you’d think their date went horribly. Then again, it’s possible that Jamie’s just good at hiding her true feelings and faking having a good time. They’re in a pretty weird position being on the show (a position they signed up for, but still). It might be hard to be real and not just slap on a happy face for the camera.

Emily: Let’s get back to the mansion, where we’ve been cutting back to Trevor being jealous and sad that his girl is on a date with another girl during the whole John Mayer date. But something else is happening too. Storyline #2: Matt gets the second date card. 

Let’s roll back the tape and establish something before we get into this storyline. On night one, a few couples and triangles were set into place. Of course, Ryan likes Jamie, and Jamie also likes Trevor. We know this. Apparently, Brandon likes Savannah and Julia, although we don’t see much of this play out in this episode. Sheridan also likes Julia. I’m wondering if Julia is such a hot commodity because she chose to wear a sexy red dress on night one. I’m not saying Julia isn’t great. I’m just saying dudes are trash. And last but not least: Matt likes both Rudi and our girl Mel. In other words, our least fave and our fave. 

Mary: I do think it’s important to note that Julia is like, Bachelor level hot. Listen to Your Heart has refreshingly real looking people. Sure, they’re still very attractive, but they’re not the Instagram-filter, plastic surgery hot of a lot of recent Bachelor hopefuls. This isn’t a diss on the usual contestants for the franchise, but it does seem that Listen to Your Heart has had to balance finding hot people with finding talented people. Since this is a Mel appreciation blog, Mel’s a great example. Would a girl with purple hair be on The Bachelor? I don’t think so. But on Listen to Your Heart, she fits right in. 

Emily: So now that we’ve established who likes whom, let’s fast forward back to Matt getting the date card. Matt takes both Rudi and Mel aside, of course, to chat with them and decide who he’s going to take on the date. After Rudi’s chat with Matt, she’s, like, 1,000% sure she’s getting the date card. But of course, Matt asks Mel on the date instead. Rudi is furious and sad. She tells the other girls Matt straight up told her he was going to take her on the date. Did he, though?!?! 

Mary: He did NOT ask her on the date. He asked Rudi what kind of date she’d want to go on if they went on a date. He essentially interviewed Mel and Rudi to see who he wanted to take on the date--he didn’t immediately ask either of them to go with him. Rudi acted immature about the whole thing, and opted to save face and make Matt look bad instead of admitting he just didn’t want to go on a date with her at that time. 

Emily: Then we get this long clip of Rudi being depressed about not getting the date, but I DON’T CARE BECAUSE THIS IS A MEL APPRECIATION BLOG. 

Mary: Mel and Matt’s date (listen to the alliteration of their names--so nice!) was…*sigh*...a sad old favorite of the Bach franchise. They had a “private backyard concert” featuring The Plain White T’s singing “Rhythm of Love.” Personally I would have loved if the show had gone full cheeseball and had them sing their most awful hit, “Hey There Delilah.” But we can’t always get what we want, can we? The concert seems...fine.

Emily: I just realized that every date on this show is probably going to be a horrible private concert date. This is the worst kind of date. I’m cringing in advance. 

Mary: I’m also worried that there’s going to be so many musical performances as dates on this show. Usually, I don’t hate a musical performance, but Bachelor shows have a talent for finding the most washed up, boring artists to feature.

Emily: It’s, at last, time for the first cocktail party/rose ceremony. Chris Harrison shows up at the beginning to explain to these contestants how it’s all going to go down. Then he turns to Trevor and pointedly asks him if he feels “the GRAVITY in the room.” Wow, Chris Harrison is a fucking diva who is here to stir up drama. 

Mary: I think you mean total icon of a host. I want a show that’s just Chris Harrison and Jeff Probst being dramatic and roasting people. 

Emily: Meanwhile, Sheridan and Julia’s love story has been slowly but surely blossoming. Sheridan takes Julia aside and plays her a love song that he says he wrote just for her but that he left unfinished so they could write it together. He definitely wrote this ahead of time before the show started, right?

Mary: I think that 100% Sheridan had written that song long before. It sounds like something he’d been working on. I really dislike Sheridan, and this “unfinished song” is a perfect example of why. It seems like something he thought would be really romantic, but it just makes him seem like a douchebag.

Emily: Also I’m pretty sure Sheridan thinks his long hair and hats mean he has a personality. It does not.

Mary: Aside from Sheridan’s last ditch effort at romancing Julia (which works--they smooch a bit), Rudi brings the drama as expected. By this point in the show, Rudi has told everyone who’d listen that Matt spurned her by asking her on a date and then taking Mel instead. Even though that’s not what happened at all. Rudi confronts Matt by taking him aside to talk, but it’s clear before they even sit down that she doesn’t really want to talk. Instead, Rudi shuts Matt down. When he says “You look beautiful tonight,” she says, “OK NO.” And it only gets more heated from there. Matt tries to explain that Rudi misinterpreted what happened, and that it was a miscommunication. He even says that he’s sorry if he worded what he said in a poor way, but Rudi is yelling at him, cutting him off and then crying. She says, “Out of all the guys, I was drawn to you and then you pull that shit on me.” Matt says he misunderstood what he was supposed to do with all the girls (which means...what?), and Rudi says, “So you do this with everyone then?!” 

Emily: I’m so over Rudi, which probably means she’ll be here all season. Thanks, ABC. 

Mary: Here’s a legitimate question: has Rudi ever seen a Bachelor show? Does she know that everyone dates one person? Does she know that this is the NAME OF THE GAME?! I’m genuinely confused that people don’t think you can pursue multiple people at once on this show that is literally about dating a ton of people. Matt goes off to lick his wounds and get a drink, while Rudi tells the first person who’ll listen that “it got so heated so fast.” Yes, Rudi. Because you started the conversation mad and arguing. 

Emily: At this point, Matt feels like he’s probably going to go home. Apparently he and Mel didn’t have a spark on their date, which… did you pick up on that? It looked like the date was going fine to me. Now apparently Mel is hitting it off with Gabe. Didn’t know this was even a thing. 

Mary: If you’re wondering who’s Gabe, you’re not alone. Although Gabe did get an intro package at the beginning of the show (he’s the very Christian guy from Houston), we haven’t seen him much. 

Emily: Some other things that happened during the cocktail party: Rudi starts hitting on a guy I wrote down in my notes as “Hot Touch” dude. I’m sure I know his name. I just don’t know that I need to remember it because (spoiler) he goes home. But just think… of what an annoying couple Rudi and Hot Touch dude could have been. 

Mary: His name is Michael Todd, which is the greatest tragedy to me because my fiancé’s name is Todd Michael, and I really do not like associating him with Hot Touch guy. I have NO IDEA how anyone was impressed by Hot Touch guy even for a moment. He’s so creepy and strange. Notably, earlier in the episode, he told someone they had pretty lips and then asked if they wanted to test out his lips. She quietly swerved and did not, in fact, test his lips out. 

Emily: Also happening on cocktail party night: Trevor tries desperately to win back Jamie’s affections. He takes her aside and plays her a song, which I guess works for her. This is basically a show full of Jeds. They make out. I’m sitting here conflicted because I like Trevor, but I also like Ryan and I want both of them to stay. But they’re both after the same girl. Clearly Jamie is having the same dilemma as I am because she starts crying about the fact that the two hottest dudes in the house are into her. Times are tough. 

Mary: The rose ceremony is pretty short and sweet. Roses are handed out and, for the most part, I felt like I didn’t know enough about individuals or the connections they’d made to judge whether anything was surprising or not. 

Emily: Savannah chooses first, and she chooses to wear a stunning green dress. Oh, and also she picks Brandon. Mel picks Gabe (again, can we see this relationship, please?). 

Mary: Am I happy that another person of color moved on in the show? Yes, absolutely. Does this decision make little sense to me based on what we’ve been shown? Also yes. Whatever Mel wants she should get. She’s a queen.

Emily: Agreed. Bekah picks Danny, I think. Who are these people? Bri picks Chris. Again, who? Cheyenne picks Matt. Didn’t know Cheyenne was even in the mix, but I guess Matt didn’t have anything to worry about. 

Mary: Have we even seen them interact during this episode?! Cheyenne seems like a very quiet, shy girl, and I think I could potentially like her a lot. I’m also glad Matt’s getting a second chance. He doesn’t suck. Out of our two plotlines for the episode, Jamie gets to choose first, and she chooses...Trevor. I mean, I like Trevor, but I was really rooting for Ryan after that sweet date! Ryan looks heartbroken, and things are looking grim for him.

Emily: I also liked Ryan better with Jamie, but I am glad Trevor is staying. I don’t know if anyone else was going to pick him. It seems like Jamie thinks both Ryan and Trevor are sweet guys, but she’s more interested in having sex with Trevor. 

Mary: Julia picks Sheridan after he “wrote” that song for her. His mouth is too big and I don’t like him. Hats are not a personality. 

Emily: Damn straight. Rudi is last to pick, and I feel like the show is really trying to make us think she’s going to pick “Hot Touch” guy, but in a surprise twist, she picks Ryan. This is the best possible scenario. I didn’t really think Rudi would pick “Hot Touch” guy because he’s annoying as hell, but I was very scared Ryan would go home. So happy both our guys will be staying for next week! So this means Josh, Jack, Michael Todd (“Hot Touch” guy), and Russell go home. 

Mary: I’m shocked at how much I enjoyed this show, and how much I’m looking forward to next week’s episode. It’s cheesy and silly, completely full of puns and bad music, but I think that the cast has an awkwardness that makes it endearing. Sure, they’re all super attractive, but not in a completely unrealistic way. It feels like this cast isn’t trained for the camera in the same way the pageant girls of The Bachelor proper are, and that’s refreshing. I also like seeing a mixed bag of men and women, which is maybe why I like BIP. As the Bach expert, what did you think Emily? And how does this compare to The Bachelor Pad?

Emily: Well, I don’t know if I’m The Bachelor expert, but I do watch a lot of The Bachelor. I really hate musicians, so that’s going to be a tough sell for me, but I love dating shows where there are men and women dating multiple people. Love Island, Are You the One, Bachelor in Paradise, and, yes, Bachelor Pad. Bachelor Pad is actually more like Love Island than it is like this show, because there’s money involved at the end for the winner of the show. I don’t think there’s any sort of “winner” at the end of the show. Like, there are no record deals or anything on the line. Just people’s hearts (har har). I think adding that prize at the end would create a lot more “showmances,” which is what I think we see a lot on Love Island and Bachelor Pad. Not saying it doesn’t happen on the other shows, because clearly it does. There just isn’t as much of a reason for it. I’m sort of glad there is no prize at the end of this. What do you think?

Mary: That just makes me wonder if they’ll get to propose Neil Lane style at the end of the season. The series isn’t clear so far about what’s in it for the participants except exposure to the world and, I guess, love. I’m excited for a fun time more than anything, which I guess is what all these folks are here for as well. 

Join us next week as we continue on this roller coaster journey with Listen to Your Heart!