Besides a rogue neck pillow, Homestays have been a success so far – but that’s about to change.
We’re heading to Adelaide and the Southern Highlands to hang out with Alissa and Bec’s families, and Chris’ many cows.
Bring on the walkouts, interrogations and judgmental farm animals.
Alissa and David’s Homestay
Sorry, I didn’t realise we were dealing with an Adelaide A-lister!
David is a little worried about being mobbed by whatever the Alissa equivalent of Beliebers are, but otherwise he’s down to live adjacent to South Australian royalty.
Despite Alissa being a #BigDeal in her hometown, they plan to live in Sydney for a few years before moving to Adelaide to start a family.
Alissa’s mum has … thoughts.
“I would hate that,” she says.
She’s worried about Alissa’s biological clock and has no problem telling her that.
“I don’t think you have a couple of years to wait,” she says.
Alissa starts to spiral.
That continues into the rest of the trip, as she second-guesses having to move and give up being the face of Australia’s fifth-busiest airport.
She catches her besties up on what’s going on and they call her out.
Firstly, for spiralling.
Secondly, for taking David’s sacrifices for granted.
They can see she’s self-sabotaging a good thing and encourage her to breathe, recognise how good David is for her and take everything one day at a time.
Bec and Danny’s Homestay
Despite not having her face plastered on posters at the airport, Bec is also excited to show Danny what’s so great about Adelaide.
Starting with her non-human “daughter”, Coco.
Bec can’t imagine her life without Danny now, so she’s hoping he loves the city enough to move here.
They join Bec’s family for lunch and it’s off to a good start, as he says he can see himself in Adelaide.
But then Bec explains her L-bomb, but “Danny doesn’t love me back”.
Right on cue, dad Lee pulls him for a private chat … mostly about Bec making him his favourite pie.
OK, didn’t see that coming, but sure!
Later, Bec tries to discuss whether there is pressure on their relationship, but we all know Danny is incapable of serious chats.
Instead, he deflects with jokes about the (admittedly, rather distracting) flight path.
She sees it as his defence mechanism, distracting him from sharing his real feelings.
“I know he loves me already,” Bec tells cameras.
They end their trip with a romantic wine around the fire, where Danny thanks Bec for her hospitality.
She’s holding out hope for an “I love you”, but instead gets a joke about her cousin that even she, whose own bad joke ruined Retreat Week, thinks is too far.
She tells Danny her family liked him so much, they didn’t even feel the need to interrogate him.
“I think obviously cause [her cousin] Danielle fancied me, she didn’t wanna,” he replies.
It goes down like Bec is Rachel and we’re back at night one of Retreat.
“Who’s gonna get crucified in the edit? Thanks Bec, really, thanks for that,” Danny says.
In the EDIT? Scandalous!
It’s a brutal reality check. Bec now worries if he’s even into her at all.
She thinks his jokes diminish their relationship, which he reckons is a bit rich coming from her after the Couples Retreat.
They get absolutely nowhere, so instead an emotional Bec storms off, leaving Danny to wonder how much a last-minute flight out of Adelaide costs.
Chris and Sam’s Homestay
Back in Sydney, Chris and Sam are beginning a deeply uncomfortable, silent road trip.
Seriously, why are we not masking the awkwardness with a good playlist?!
Sam wants to have some “tough conversations”, but Chris just wants to move on and get back to having fun.
They arrive and the awkwardness continue as Chris shows a very tall Sam to his very small bunk bed.
In an effort to avoid talking, Chris introduces Sam to his cows.
It works, I guess, if you prefer excruciating silence to uncomfy conversations.
Turns out, it’s the horses that get the couple chatting again.
Sam says he’s really hurt about Chris writing “leave” at the Commitment Ceremony.
“[The experts] did hold a mirror up to my face and they actually made me realise, I’ve got a lot of work to do,” Chris admits.
He wants to clear the energy and move on.
A win for equine therapy!
… Ah, crap.
Sam wakes up the next day to discover Chris has gone out without him, leaving him with no one but animals (and cameras) to talk to.
Chris will come to regret that, as it’s given Sam a lot of time to write in his journal.
He’s jotted down a long list of questions and he’d like to run through them.
From “do you accept full responsibility for your defensiveness and the aggression I felt from you last week?” to “do you realise my awkwardness and silence towards you was a direct result of your behaviour, not me being cold for no reason?” it’s a lot.
And Chris wonders why they’re going over it for the 200th time.
He’s extremely icked out by the journal interrogation
Chris gives an unconvincing answer to whether he still has feelings for him, so Sam calls it and they officially break up.
“I really thought Chris would fight for me a bit,” he reacts.
Instead, he rolls his suitcase down the driveway, never to be seen again.
Just kidding. There’s a Dinner Party tomorrow.
Battle lines will be drawn as Chris and Sam debrief with the group, plus Danny says something else that draws lots of gasps.
Hopefully this time, he leaves Bec’s cousin out of it.