Paradise Hotel, August 27: One Down…

Another morning at Paradise, and Dave greets Tom, who says he had a horrible headache the night before. As Dave starts to reply, a tray of food is brought, and Tom takes it and leaves. Dave looks puzzled, and asks what’s going on – it’s breakfast in bed for the ladies. Tom’s taking no chances since it’s the ladies who get to decide which of the guys is going home; a little breakfast in bed can’t hurt! Tom surprises Holly and Tara with trays of food and flowers. Tara stretches and announces that she loves Paradise! Dave, ever the strategist, seems bemused. Tom delivers breakfast and a good-morning peck to Amy, and then goes to pick up Desiree’s tray of food.

Keith’s already up and talking to Desiree about Tom’s puzzling answer at the previous evening’s Pandora’s Box: that, instead of Desiree, Tom trusts Amy the most. Keith asks Desiree if Tom’s answer bothers her, and Desiree agrees that it really does. Tom arrives with Desiree’s breakfast, and Desiree confronts him about his answer. Tom discerns that Desiree’s especially upset that Tom trusts Amy more than her, which Tom says doesn’t mean that he doesn’t trust Desiree. Keith recaps the situation for Desiree – and maybe for Tom’s benefit just as much – that Desiree has got the support of three guys: Keith, Dave, and Tom. Tom further adds he know that he’s screwed without her support too.

Keith returns to his room and tells Tara that he was really mad the night before that Scott was given immunity. He felt that Amy ran the whole decision. Tara concurs, saying that Amy wanted Scott and Alex to be saved. Flashback to Amy’s pitch to the women that the Originals had had it rough and didn’t deserve to keep getting voted out. Keith tells Tara that he wants Amy to go; cut to Keith explaining that he and Amy have had it out for each other, and how he’d like nothing more than to see her evicted and walking up those stairs before he goes. Keith tells Tara he felt the game had been going well for them until now, and Tara says that she wished she had voted to give Tom immunity instead; that way they could still decide between Scott and Alex! Tara pounds the pillow in mock anger, and stays silent about the discussion she had with Desiree and Charla where they all decided that they wanted Alex gone over Scott.

Charla continues her relentless torment of Dave by announcing that she hasn’t had sex in two and a half months – that’s she’s gone from daily sex every day for three years to no sex whatsoever, and she’s going crazy. Dave comforts her with the fact that no one has had any sex since they’d been there (at least since then, right Dave?), and reminds her that she could have chosen to have sex with anyone there. With who? She asks. “With whomever you chose,” he replies, instinctively knowing that women are more likely to throw themselves at someone who uses the word whom correctly. Charla goes on to say that she hasn’t felt any love or any emotion from anyone there. After a pause, Dave tells her that that’s her own choice; he’s told her this before, and Charla rhetorically asks who she’s supposed to love at Paradise. Oh, what could Dave be thinking?… Dave deflects the love comment and stammers out that he “feels care about… my people. I care about people. It’s hard… to care about someone that doesn’t… want to feel anything for people here.” (Holy crap, Dave! Are you drunk? I’d have hoped that you’d have figured out that national TV is not the place where you want to spill your guts that you’re in love with Charla, to Charla!) “I care about you, Dave! You know that! You know you know that!” Charla says innocently, and Dave gets this sappy grin on his face.

Later that morning, Dave approaches the group and asks the men to join him in the bathroom. Alex yawns as Dave tells them that he has written a tribute song called “The Girls of Paradise” that he plans to sing for the ladies. Dave sings the song; Alex looks around at the other guys, Tom has no expression, and Scott has his head bowed. Their laughter is heard outside the door.

The guests go for a group excursion. They frolic on a small yacht and jump in the water to swim to the beach, where they’re handed towels, champagne is popped, and lunch is served. Amy asks Keith when he made his decision to kick out Zack, and Keith said it was from the time he got there. “It wasn’t before you got here?” asks Amy. “No,” said Keith. He tries to explain his strategy: He came in from the outside, assessed all the relationships, figured out what was going on, and made a decision that, like it or not, has essentially made him an important player in the game. He reiterates that it’s all about playing the game. Amy says that she understands, but that he ought to know that she’s never going to get over it, that she’s always going to hold it against him that he voted Zack off.

Everyone has fun on the beach, even Charla, who must be in a really good mood because Tara gives her a peck on the tip of her nose, and Keith also seems quite enamored with her. In fact, he’s even gotten her to go in the water. Indeed, she’s straddling him in the water. Dave notices, and confides to Holly that he feels guilty if he gets jealous, and he doesn’t want to. He’s not the kind of guy who grabs girls and holds them, and Holly tells him that not everyone is a natural flirt, but that all the people in Paradise flirt, and hints that anyone can flirt if they try.

Dave lays out in the sun, attractively swaddled from neck to ankles in white towels, and lifts himself up to watch Keith and Charla flirt. Again, he implores Holly to tell him what he’s supposed to say to Charla. Holly tells him directly and without hesitation that he can’t say anything, or he will look like an idiot. Looking for any possible loophole, Dave clarifies with Holly that he can’t say anything to either of them? “Yes, you’ll look like an idiot,” Holly confirms. “Just let it go. Act like it doesn’t bother you.” Charla wriggles on Keith’s lap and squeezes his neck, and Keith nibbles and bites her and holds his hands above her body. Dave dramatically breaks for the water so everyone knows he’s pissed.

Back at the hotel, Scott goes to see Dave to talk about his jealousy with the Charla-Keith situation, and tells Dave not to grill either Keith or Charla about it; like Holly, Scott tells him not to say anything.

Charla and Alex are in their room, and Charla calls Dave, who appears to be perched next to the phone waiting for it to ring. Like she was supposed to, she noticed that he was upset on the excursion – so she calls and tells Dave that she’s worried about him and wants to check to see if he’s okay, because she cares about him. “Okay,” says Dave curtly. They hang up. “Psycho,” mutters Charla. Alex says that Dave needs to loosen up, because he takes things very seriously. Charla says that it’s surprising, but who would have predicted when Dave came to Paradise, that the two of them would end up being friends.

Tom and Desiree are having drinks by the pool, and Desiree says that there are a lot of tight bonds among the guests. Tom notes that it would be practically impossible for them to be able to persuade the others to vote their way; they have no real power because they are both the newest. He hopes that the game throws them some really unexpected twists and turns, because without that, they are both out. Desiree tells Tom that he definitely has her back because she has his, and he says that they are going to help each other all the way to the end.

Back in their room, Alex tells Charla that because they’ve been at Paradise the longest and are the youngest of all the guests, they’ve learned the most – that you can’t take things personally, although people do. He also thinks that there have been people in the hotel who were really callous, but not now. Flashback to the moments that Alex must be less than proud of: him telling Amy that he wasn’t in the same league as the others, calling Charla boring, saying that male model Keith has the IQ of a peanut, that Holly shouldn’t do everything Scott tells her, that Scott shouldn’t do everything that Dave tells him, and that Dave shouldn’t act like a child all the time. Alex tells Charla that he hopes that everyone is a better person when they go back home after being at Paradise.

It’s sunset, and Alex asks Charla what she thinks is going to happen. She doesn’t know. Alex says he thinks it’s going to be either Keith, Tom, or him who’s going home – pretty astute, seeing as Scott can’t be voted out, and Dave doesn’t seem to have his head on the chopping block this week. Charla stares at the phone. Alex says that he’s never even asked her how she’s going to vote. Flashback to Charla telling Desiree and Tara that she won’t do anything to help Alex win the game because he’s been plotting against her for a long time. Alex tries to find out if she’d be even willing to discuss it by asking whether she likes people asking her about the vote-off – she doesn’t.

While the guys are eating, Keith receives an envelope – there will be a night of moonlight dancing so the men can show their devotion to the ladies. Tom states that he’s a dancing freak.

The guests arrive and the dancing begins. Scott slips effortlessly into pick-up mode, asking Holly if she believes in one-night stands and telling her that if he got hold of her she wouldn’t know what had hit her and he’d make her eyes roll back in her head. “My last boyfriend was 31,” she replies. (Huh?) Everyone dances, and Dave gets jealous as Keith dances around Charla.

Back at the hotel, Dave walks Charla to her room and acts upset. Charla asks if there’s anything he wants to talk about, but says there shouldn’t be, and Dave gets up to leave; Charla asks if he’s mad, but Dave won’t answer. He presses her to reassure him that their alliance is still tight, and she tells him to stop asking her that. She asks him if he trusts Keith, and he says he does, but he doesn’t trust anyone more than her. She seems exasperated with the way the conversation is going and tells him she wishes it wasn’t so hard between him and her – there’s always things he needs to “discuss” with her.

Meanwhile, Scott tells Keith that if Keith values his friendship with Dave, he should know when to back off with Charla. Keith brushes it off as Dave getting overly sensitive when he gets drunk, and that it’s his problem to deal with – that nothing is happening between him and Charla, and Dave’s blowing it out of proportion. Scott tells him that Dave is more fragile, and maybe Keith shouldn’t be acting the way he has been with Charla lately.

Dave explains to the camera that when he first met Charla, he had a crush on her, but she obviously had no similar feelings for him. He says she’s intelligent and beautiful, and, swallowing to keep from tearing up, he says he feels stupid for picking someone to like that is essentially unavailable, at least to him. Poor Dave.

Dave comes out from talking with Charla in his room and talks to Tom in the pool. Tom immediately tells him that he’s glad to be going to battle with him and Keith, and tells him that they’re his boys, his best friends – they’ve been honest to him, and the only reason he’s still here is because of them. Cut to Tom telling the camera that Dave’s a goofball and that there’s no one at Paradise he can trust 100 percent. In the pool, he continues, telling Dave that he trusts both Keith and him – that Dave has never given him a reason not to trust him. Flashback to Keith telling Dave soon after Tom arrived that Tom wasn’t that smart. Anyway, Tom thanks Dave for reassuring him that he’s been safe in the game, and Dave shakes his hand goodnight and leaves. To the camera, Tom says that he would be really upset if he had to leave the game because he’s been playing it 800 percent.

Keith and Dave clear the air – Keith says that he and Charla are just friends; they’ve roomed together and have related to each other, and that’s all there is between them. Dave apologizes, and Keith tells him he has no reason to be sorry. Dave almost doesn’t, but then decides to tell Keith it’s the physical aspect of their flirting that bugs him the most. Keith says it was just dancing, that Charla knew Dave was watching, and Keith’s sorry, but he doesn’t feel he was doing anything wrong.

Unconcerned by the dramas unfolding around them, Tara and Alex make out and snuggle in bed.

The next morning, the guys each receive an envelope, which tells them to pack their bags because one of them will be leaving Paradise forever. Charla jokes with Dave that he’s outta there… Dave’s pretty sure he’s staying, but that comment makes him just a bit nervous.

Tara and Charla are hanging out in the hotel room, and Tara tells Charla that she and Alex were cuddling the night before, and all she could think was, “Sayonara!” Charla laughs, but Tara says it made her feel horrible to lay in his arms and know that he was going home. Charla sees her hesitation, and reminds Tara that she has to be prepared to say her vote to evict Alex out loud. “You’ll do it, right, Tara?” asks Charla; Tara doesn’t answer.

Alex, Holly, and Amy are also hanging around their room. The vote-off is on Alex’s mind too, and he tells Holly and Amy that he and Tara talked about trust. “Do you think she trusts you?” asks Amy. Alex hopes so, because they need to trust each other because once Keith is gone, she’s got nothing.

Charla and Dave are also discussing the vote-off. Dave is concerned that Tara’s newfound crush on Alex might influence her vote, although instead of Keith, Dave thinks that Tom would be voted off. Charla asks Dave what he thinks Tara’s going to do, and he refuses to speculate, but he does say that the reason behind every move he makes is to protect his and Charla’s interests.

Dave explains to the camera that Tara has been fooling around with Alex lately, and there’s a possibility that she might change her vote at the last minute. Dave also mentions that Desiree, being the newest, is the least predictable, and he’s not completely sure that she’s going to vote the way that Dave would like.

Alex tells the camera that it’s going to be Tom, Keith, or him going home, with an equal chance for it to be any of them. He hopes that it will be Keith, but he’s not sure. He thinks that Desiree is the swing vote.

Keith explains to the camera that he has no choice but to trust Tara – he’s put his faith in her from the beginning. If she betrays him, he’s going home.

The guests arrive for the elimination, and host Amanda arrives. Amanda reminds the guests that the ladies have used their power to protect Scott from elimination, and calls Scott over to her side. She asks him how it feels to be safe, and he says it feels pretty good, but he acknowledges that the game is getting tougher and emotions are running high.

Before the women vote, Amanda allows the men give an optional final plea to the women. Dave takes this opportunity to sing the song that he wrote, “The Girls of Paradise.” The girls giggle, embarrassed, and Dave starts to sing. Fortunately, the producers back Dave with some music and touching videos, thus reducing the cringe factor somewhat:

The other guys chime in on the last line, and the girls clap and laugh good-naturedly.

Now it’s time to find out which of the guys is being sent home: Dave, Keith, Alex, or Tom. Amanda asks Charla who she wants to leave Paradise: Alex. Holly’s choice: Keith. Why? It would be the best move for her, even though he’s been a good roommate. Which man would Desiree like to see leave? She loves them all: Dave’s had her back since she arrived, Keith has pampered her, and she’s getting close to Tom, so she has to go for Alex because of her stronger bonds with Dave, Keith, and Tom. Amy’s vote is next: No surprise, she votes for Keith – he wants her out, she wants him out. The votes are tied between Alex and Keith, and it comes down to Tara’s vote. Amanda points out that she’s been getting along well with Alex, flashbacks remind us of her alliance with Keith. She’s free to choose any of the men except Scott – which one does she choose? Tara tells Alex that they get along great and their personalities and senses of humor are so similar it’s scary. She tells Keith that she feels they’ve been getting closer lately too. She says her decision isn’t personal, so she has to send Alex home. Tara looks sad once she says the words, Alex looks bummed, Amy looks upset, and Charla’s hiding a big smile.

Amanda sends everyone to stand with the women except Alex. Alex has been here for a long time, he was one of the originals. A video montage of the Best of Alex moments starts, beginning with his arrival at Paradise, hooking up with the various girls, campaigning for king, hosting the toga party, and experiencing drunk and scary fun. For his final words, Alex tells Tara that he doesn’t take it personally, that it’s only a game, she’s a great person and they had a lot of fun; he tells Amy they’ve had each other’s back from the beginning and they’ll meet up in Arizona; he tells Desiree he respects her honesty and bluntness; Holly’s a great and beautiful girl; and finally he tells Charla he knows it’s not personal and it’s all part of the game, but reminds everyone that she’s not as innocent as she seems. He wishes everybody the best of luck and tells them they’re great people; it’s been a once-in-a-lifetime experience and he did it without getting any eviction safeties or excursions, it was all him, all the way – and instructs everyone that they should have fun with the rest of the game. Amanda asks what he’s going to miss most in Paradise: just the chance to laze around, doing whatever he wanted all day, eating, swimming, drinking, sleeping. Now, back to the real world; he gets his bags and checks out of Paradise.

Alex tells the camera that Tara surprised him a little with her vote, because they’d gotten along well with each other; that there were other people (Charla) who had never opened up to other people or done anything and that people like that (Charla) should let loose, relax, and go with the flow.

After the vote, Desiree and Tom discuss what happened. Desiree says that tonight she realized something: that she doesn’t trust Charla and Tara. Tom says that she got sucked into their decision (flashback to Desiree promising Charla that she wouldn’t tell anyone whether she was going to vote off Alex or Scott). Desiree says that she liked Alex; she tears up, and says that she was upset about Alex but she’s over it now. But Charla is constantly in her ear, talking about the game and strategy because Charla’s been here so long it’s all she talks about. Tom tells Desiree straight out that he doesn’t like Dave; that people laugh at him (flashback to Tom telling Dave he was happy to be battling alongside Dave and Keith, and how they were his best friends at Paradise). Desiree tells Tom that Keith and Tara were tight, and Tom says that however tight Keith and Tara are, Dave and Charla are ten times tighter.

Charla explains her strategy to the camera: She says that if Tom and Desiree were smart, it would benefit them to ally with Scott and Holly because she thinks they’d get further in the game that way.

Also to the camera, Tara says she hopes that Tom and Desiree are telling the truth and won’t go against them, because if they try to ally with Scott and Holly, they’re going down.

Charla, Keith, and Tara congratulate themselves on finally being in a position of power – that they wouldn’t want to be in anyone else’s position in the game right now. Charla says she likes it.

Amy tells Desiree in the bathroom that she wants to send Charla home, and that Desiree should keep her eyes and ears open. Desiree tells Amy that Charla’s making moves to solidify her position with Tom, that that’s her agenda, and if it comes down to it, Desiree promises to send Charla and Tara home before Amy. Amy says they’re trying to suck her into what they have, and Desiree tells Amy it’s not going to work.

Amy, Holly, and Scott talk about how Tara used Alex and acted like she cared for him. Scott says that Alex had a premonition that he would be going, but that Tara gave him a bit of hope, and all along she knew she was going to sidestep Alex and go with Keith. Scott says it’s terrible when a girl screws you over like that. Amy says it’s just like what Keith did – to befriend Zack and then stab him in the back.

Tara tells the camera that Alex had it coming: he lied, he cheated, he stole, and boom – now he’s out. She has no sympathy for liars, stealers, and cheaters.

Amy tells the camera that this has been no Paradise for her – that she has come to realize that Zack is her Paradise. Uh oh, what’s this? A limo pulls up to Paradise – it’s Zack! He’s told to meet everyone in the Grand Salon. Dave spots the new arrival and says that someone’s coming… shocked expressions all around as they realize that Zack is back!

Next week on Paradise: Zack’s back with revenge on his mind, promising to jump Keith with fifty guys. And there’s more: All the previously evicted guests are back too! They’ve been watching from home, and things get so out of control that some of the guests want to quit.

Anne Rogers is an editor from Champaign, Illinois, who can be reached at razzmattazzz@surfbest.net.

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