Ready To Love: Season 9/ Episode 2 “The Good, Bad and Freaky” – Episode Recap & Review

The second half of this season’s singles are introduced, and things are flipped with the men having the power and the ladies having to prove they’ve been listening.

Plot Recap

Season 9, featuring the 11^th cast of “Ready To Love,” continues to switch things up by not being at a mansion for once, but rather what appears to be a rooftop party. However, things remain aligned beyond the location with how the season started. This time, it is six women to 4 men, and with the men in the minority, they are given the power to decide who will be eliminated.

Of the women, you got Vanessa, who is a flight attendant, formerly married to a White man but wants someone more aligned with her culture and her being, or becoming, very Black focused. Alongside her is Patricia, Mya, Layllen, Patrice, and Rasheena. Many of the men find themselves drawn to Mya and Layllen, with Rasheena also standing out because she is quite feminine.

However, Patricia and Vanessa end up in the bottom two because they just don’t open up enough, and when they have to play the game to show how well they know the men, they don’t do well in that either.

This isn’t to say both women didn’t have someone interested in them. Jonathan seemed willing to work with Patricia, though he could see she had walls up. Also, Chaz, maybe because he is analytical and has a strong faith like Vanessa, liked her.

Yet, ultimately, the men found Patricia’s walls too high to climb, so she was eliminated. Though, what didn’t help is Lamar, who is a talker and a bit of a freak, didn’t like how closed off Patricia was. As for Alonzo? He was a vote against Vanessa since their small talk ran dry, but with Patricia not having a single man genuinely into her, she didn’t stand a chance.

Things to Note

1. Bottom 2 (Men): William and Lamar – with Lamar getting eliminated based on his attitude and sexual interests, because there has yet to be someone openly as freaky as him to make it to the end of a season
2. Bottom 2 (Women): Meika and Kosheia – I am pretty sure Kosheia sticks around because we see her and Alexis go at it in what seems to be an elimination lounge down the line. However, while Meika was well-liked amongst her group, because she has no interest in having more children, I wonder if that is a big enough deal breaker for enough men to eliminate her.

General Information

Network	OWN
Release Date	January 19, 2024
Director(s)	N/A
Writer(s)	N/A
Newly Noted Characters and Cast
Self	Vanessa
Self	Patricia
Self	Mya
Self	Layllen
Self	Patrice
Self	Rasheena
Self	Chaz
Self	Jonathan
Self	Alonzo
Self	Lamar

New Character Description(s)

Vanessa

Vanessa is a 35-year-old flight attendant who is 5’9, has no kids, and has only been married previously once.

Alonzo

Alonzo is a 35-year-old insurance adjuster who is 6’3.

Patricia

Patricia is a 35-year-old tech recruiter who recently relocated to Fort Worth, Texas, for her job.

Chaz

Chaz is a 37-year-old senior data analytics manager who has struggled with dating or the potential of having kids due to losing his first son.

Mya

Mya is a 30-year-old healthcare IT Consultant.

Layllen

Layllen is a 40-year-old cyber security consultant from Sierra Leone.

Jonathan

Jonathan is a 36-year-old recycling center owner, who is Nigerian, but born in the United States, who works with his family and is divorced with one child.

Lamar

Lamar is a 42-year-old DJ, and former coach, with a notable sexual appetite and one divorce behind him.

Patrice

Patrice is a 42-year-old transportation company owner whose company primarily focuses on celebrities. But, alongside her main business, she also invented a $30,000 machine that can help someone do 200 kegels in a minute. Lastly, she is a divorcee.

Rasheena

Rasheena is a 38-year-old salon owner who is high femme, divorced, and has two sons.

Review

On The Fence

Now You Know They Don’t Belong Here

I don’t know why they put on someone like Lamar and Patricia. Men who are too open sexually, if not straight-up freaky, almost always may turn on one woman but come off as a creep and not serious about the process to the others.

Then with Patricia, while I understand her not being into exploring too much and appreciate her conversation with Jonathan about the men she has been with not creating a safe space for her to be vulnerable, at the same time, I feel like she wasn’t ready for this show. Is she ready to love? Maybe. However, not with the pressure of elimination, having to spread herself around and impress a bunch of people while having the baggage she has.

It almost makes me miss when this show did, at least for one or two seasons, a casting special just so we could see what these people said to get on the show. Because, for nearly every season, I have been curious what the casting directors saw to make them think, “This person deserves to be on the show,” beyond what drama they could bring.

They Need To Take This Show Out Of The South

I don’t know if it is cheaper, or maybe Tommy doesn’t want to go north of the Mason-Dixon line, but the more we stay in the South, the more I find myself wondering about how Black men and women are in their 30s and beyond outside of the south. For with “Ready To Love” not having any real competition or peers, it is the definitive depiction of what it means to date as a Black person past 30.

So, as much as you can understand there is likely many who enjoy gender roles being traditional and things like that, I think we are way past due to see how dating for Black folk in California is, Detroit, Chicago, New York, heck in Portland maybe. Which isn’t to say I don’t appreciate a spotlight on southern Black culture and people, it is just, I feel like this show moves too fast for that dating culture of the South, and maybe that’s why it often stumbles?

Let Us Know Your Thoughts In The Comments:

1. Do you think “Ready To Love,” with it being around ten weeks, moves too fast for how courting is done in the South?

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