Warning: There are light spoilers in this article.
One of the more primal dating competitions on television is Love In The Jungle, where people have animal names and grunt with animal noises in group settings in an eco-reserve in Colombia.
In this coming episode of discovery+’s Love in the Jungle, Monsters and Critics has a jump and the exclusive for this week’s brutal episode.
The pack will lose a Peacock but gain a Lion, and his real name is Ryan. And the episode will see a heart-crushing rejection at the token ceremony.
The Turtle (Jordan) banishes The Peacock (Stephanie), who politely gets her licks by slamming The Koala’s (Austin) choice of The Starfish (Paige).
Are you confused? Don’t be. It’s a game of who is left standing and joined in a love/lust combination that uses “token exchanges” for a night alone, and it has everyone guessing.
The Lion enters the pack
The show began with fourteen singles who were tired of modern dating. Instead, the show’s premise has them tap into their animal instincts.
The unique experiment demands a fresh approach to making connections based on animal kingdom mating rituals with little to no verbal communication until the one-on-one dates.
The Lion’s (Ryan) entrance makes a stir. Ryan is a guy from St. Louis, Missouri, a physical specimen and head-turner for the females.
But, he’s ready to shake it up and chooses the lion as his animal alt-ego because of the lion’s randy beast-like nature. He has had four significant relationships that went nowhere, and he’s ready to make something happen at age 36.
Meanwhile, this new “Lion” instantly gives Mikaela “Cali vibes,” and she says she loves it. In this coming episode, Mikaela will go on a one-on-one date with Ryan, who quickly decides she is not his match, despite having a solid connection to her when they were in silent mode in the group setting.
Sometimes, a love interest is “just not that into you.”
The Red Deer challenge
Additionally, this week the men participate in the most testosterone-laced mating ritual, the Red Deer challenge.
This competition is fashioned on the mating rituals of an aggressive animal that sees the male stag covering himself in mud to appear larger to other males to win the herd of females. The rutting males then use their nuzzles in a very overt sexual way as the team watches this racy nature stuff on film to clue them in to what they have to do.
The blindfolded women in the competition get the nuzzle challenge towards the end of this, and let’s say it’s pretty NSFW.
The whole point of this exercise is a disruption in the cast. The Alpha who will win this challenge earns the chance to take two females on a speaking date.
The twist is most of these people have coupled up or made some connection at this point, so two guys are about to be burned by the winner of this challenge.
This muddy challenge has an end game. Now that there are more men than women, one man will be sent packing from the group. And one established couple may have met their end.
Love in the Jungle streams Sundays on discovery+.