Does anyone else feel sorry for Jared, Juliette, and Brandon on Siesta Key?
Jared seems to be dealing with a lot emotionally. Juliette is trying to convince everyone in the friend group that she’s not crazy and that Alex has been lying to everyone.
And poor Brandon just doesn’t seem to get that Amanda is a selfish user.
While they each had their own challenges in last night’s episode, they each also had some minor breakthroughs.
Jared and His Ex-wife Jessica
At the beginning of the episode, we see Jared out to lunch with his mom (Leisha), where he breaks the news to her that his ex-wife Jessica reached out to him on his birthday and is coming to town.
The first thing out of her mouth is “WHY?” and then she proceeds to remind him that they’re not good together and says, “I hope you’re smart enough not to go back to that.”
She reveals that Jessica cheated on Jared while he was deployed. Wow. We were wondering what happened. I guess now we know.
They were only married for two and a half months before Jared went on deployment. That’s not a lot of time to build a solid foundation that can survive a long-distance relationship.
The marriage lasted a year and a half. About a year of that was filing for and finalizing their divorce.
Later we see Jessica’s arrival from California, where Jared greets her with a bouquet of sunflowers, and they sit down to chat for a bit. She asks how his parents are doing, and he tells her about lunch with his mom and how she’s less than thrilled about Jessica’s visit to Siesta Key.
She says she told her mom, and she told her that “they shouldn’t drink together.” Ironically, a glass of wine Jared ordered for her is delivered by the waiter at that exact moment, and Jared tells her his mom was concerned about the drinking also.
As they continue chatting about their dating lives and other random things, we see them touching hands across the table. It sure doesn’t look like just a friendship to me and it piques my interest as to how things are going to go when Jessica meets Jared’s friends.
We’ll get back to them in a minute.
The Juliette and Alex saga continues
First, we see Chloe in the pool with Amanda discussing everything that happened with Juliette at Jared’s birthday party.
They rehash Juliette’s erratic behavior and outbursts over the last couple of months and conclude that they’re not sure whether to believe Juliette or not — when it comes to the current drama with Alex.
Chloe being her usual pot-stirring self, says to Amanda that she thinks Juliette’s “insecurities are coming out because she knows Alyssa is great.” and that she thinks Juliette is “making everything up about Alex calling/texting her and saying he still loves her.”
Amanda says she’s “done believing her,” and Chloe says she wants to talk to Juliette to see if she can figure things out.
Next, we see Chloe with Alex at the Crescent Club, cleaning up and getting ready for the grand re-opening. Chloe tells Alex that Juliette texted her that morning to see if she would meet up to talk and that they made plans to have lunch together the next day.
She then asks Alex about the pool incident with Juliette at Jared’s birthday party. He immediately gets defensive and says Juliette “was verbally attacking me” and “she is delusional.”
Chloe continues asking questions in an attempt to gather some new information and try to drag some truth out of him. She asks, “so… there’s no reason for her to be saying you’re still in love with her?”
He replies, “No, she was just taking everything we had out of context.”
Lies. All lies.
Chloe and Juliette’s Lunch Date
Surprisingly, Juliette hands her a gift bag with a new pair of sunglasses (to replace the ones she trashed) and apologizes again for her behavior at the party.
She desperately wants to prove to Chloe that she’s not “some psycho liar” and tells Chloe that “he literally told me he loved me two days ago.”
Chloe tells Juliette that Alex said he only replied to her a few times and that Juliette “just blows him up all the time.” She admits she did call Alex first — but that Alex reached out to her first.
The next day she called him, and that’s when they ended up talking on the phone for six hours. Chloe asks to see Juliette’s phone for proof of these conversations.
After looking at Juliette’s phone, she sees that it’s not all as one-sided as Alex has been saying. She says, “maybe I’ll ask him about it at the bar opening.”
At the bar opening, Chloe is talking to Alex about Juliette coming and tells him about the conversation they had at lunch. She tells him she saw proof of the calls and texts and that they have talked for hours more than once.
Alex admits he “talked too long” with Juliette but says he only did it to “calm her down and try to make her feel better.
Chloe seems irritated at this point and tells him he needs to tell Alyssa the truth. “If you really care about her (Alyssa) you need to stop with Juliette.”
He says, “you’re right. I forgot, I’m dealing with an immature, spiteful little girl,” and tells her he will come clean to Alyssa before Juliette shows up.
Alex Tells Alyssa More Partial Truths
Alex finally admits that he’s been talking to Juliette a little more than he owned up to before. He tells her “a few weeks ago…. It started off small, but one time, we stayed up talking for six hours.”
Obviously, she’s pissed and asks why he didn’t just tell her this before. He makes some comment about wanting to tell her the whole truth before Juliette showed up.
She calls that “sketchy” and says, “I’m not a dumb*ss. That’s got to end.” She tells him all she wants is for him to be real and honest.
He apologizes and says, “it won’t happen again. Don’t worry. She is out of the picture” She accepts his apology.
I feel bad for Alyssa. I don’t think she has any idea what she’s gotten into with Alex.
Jessica Meets Jared’s Friends
Jared introduces Jessica to everyone, and then the girls and guys quickly split up. The guys go to the bar to get shots, and the girls start chit-chatting with Jessica.
After asking a few questions about their relationship, Chloe brings up Jared’s PTSD and how he “came back from deployment a completely different person.”
Jessica looked confused like she had no idea about the PTSD. Amanda chimed in and said, “you could tell he’d been through a lot.” Maybe it’s not PTSD, after all… maybe Jared just had a broken heart?
Now that we’re on the topic of Amanda…
Brandon, Amanda and JJ’s Love Triangle
Early on in the episode, Chloe asks Amanda about JJ. Amanda says she can’t help herself; she “just gravitates toward him” and then reminds Chloe that she is still pissed off at Brandon for going to the Rebella party.
Meanwhile, Brandon is out surfing with Garrett, and they’re talking about Amanda. Brandon says, “I like her and care about her a lot, but I don’t really know what I’m dealing with.” Says he sees JJ everywhere they go and that he’s “got to find out what’s going on.”
Brandon and Amanda walk into the Crescent Club together, but Amanda quickly breaks off to do her own thing.
Brandon walks up to Madisson at the bar and says, ”just wanted to bury the hatchet with things” and admits it was out of character for him to act the way he did with Ish. “Emotions were fresh.” He apologizes.
Madisson mentions Amanda and also apologizes for her initial reaction to the two of them dating. She asks what is going on with the two of them, and he says, “Everywhere I go, I see JJ. I feel like I’m getting played.”
Next, we see Amanda with JJ across the bar. JJ asks her about coming with Brandon and tells her, “I’m not going to be anybody’s side-piece.” She says, “Neither am I” and he asks “So, what are you going to do about it?”
A few minutes later. Brandon walks up to JJ and asks him what his intentions are with Amanda. He tells Brandon that he’s “going to pursue her no matter what” and says “she’s my girl.”
Amanda walks into this conversation as its happening and says, “I’m no one’s girl. I think you both need to know that I don’t belong to either of you.”
Brandon is frustrated and says, “so, you’re just playing both of us?” To which she replies, “I’m not playing anybody.”
Brandon says, “you guys have fun. I’m done.” And he walks off.
All I have to say about Amanda is that she likes to have her cake and eat it, too. Hopefully, Brandon is done with her now.
Jared and Jessica Have a Heart-to-Heart
At the end of the episode, we see Jared and Jessica having a heart-to-heart. She asks him about the PTSD and his emotional state.
He explains that much of it had to do with the failing marriage and him falling into a deep depression. She tries to console him and tells him she’s sorry for not being there more when he needed her, emotionally.
They share a tearful moment and agree that maybe they shouldn’t communicate so often anymore.
I feel for Jared because I think there’s a lot more to his story than we know. He is a man after all, and most men don’t like to talk about things like being cheated on, heartbreaks, etc.
Most men I know push that kind of stuff way down deep and will never talk about it until someone practically pulls it out of them.
I think much of what Jared’s friends think was PTSD when he came back from deployment, was probably just him being severely depressed.
Will Jared ever find love in Siesta Key? I hope so. It seems like it may be the only thing that can snap him out of his current mental state and bring him a little happiness.
Siesta Key is always full of surprises. We can’t wait to see what next week has in store…
Siesta Key airs on Tuesdays at 8/7c on MTV.