Whether it was seeing the two self-proclaimed “awful people” getting handsy with each other while their unsuspecting spouses sat at the dinner table in the next room, hearing Dean continually disparaging his wife Tracey Jewel’s appearance or cringing as Ryan Gallagher had a permanent reminder of his cheating partner Davina inked onto his body, it just felt like the villainous duo just couldn’t get any worse.
And then the homestays rolled around.
For those who missed it, last night the “grooms” took their “brides” home to get a taste of their lifestyle, away from the televised experiment.
And that includes Ryan, who has been forced to take Davina – who openly told him she doesn’t think she did anything wrong in her clandestine hook-ups with Dean – to meet his parents on his mother’s birthday.
It was awkward TV at it’s very best as a defiant Davina dropped Ryan such gems as “it is what it is really”, “I can’t help what I felt” and “I’m not a people pleaser like that” when he questioned why she’d led him down the garden path without considering his feelings at the end of it.
At the complete opposite side of the spectrum, meanwhile, was Dean who is desperately trying to make it up to his Tracey albeit still playing the victim. The 39-year-old (yes, he’s 39, not 14) pulled out his biggest guns (or should that be “gunz”?), taking her for a skateboarding lesson before dazzling her with his “skillz” as a rapper (FYI, he goes by the moniker Visionz – yep, Visions with a z – in the “hip hop community”.)
“I’ve got to dig myself out of this situation somehow,” he said with a completely straight face as he attempted to make good with Tracey, who is still to hear the half of what really happened between her “husband” and the Instagram model behind closed doors.
Sadly, it appears his romantic gestures (gesturez?) are working. Not only is he still in apparent possession of his manhood, but Tracey is warming up again to her errant husband.
“Dean is the type of person that you love to hate and hate to love,” she says of her refusal to walk away from the current most hated man in Australia.
And this is where, despite the fact that not a single person appeared to consider his feelings when the affair was unfolding, Ryan has proven to be the only winner in this whole ugly scenario.
Because not only has he been granted an ugly peep into the type of person his “wife” is, but he’s not buying what she’s selling in the aftermath.
“It’s awkward, you’re never going to forget it – you can forgive but you can’t forget,” the only seemingly sane person said of the betrayal that has scandalised viewers nationwide.
And while he’s being forced – thanks to a no-doubt iron-clad reality TV contract – to continue in his “marriage” for another week, it looks like that will be end of the road for the affable tradie who isn’t giving an inch in the face of Davina’s excuses – which all boil down to “I’m here for me”.
“I know you’re here for you,” he told her bluntly. “That’s why you’re not going to get anywhere with anyone, because you’re only here for your self.”
Now that is a winning retort. And I have a feeling it won’t be the last one he’ll deliver before the week is out.
