DAY 8 of WE tv’s Marriage Boot Camp, and Sean and Catherine finally show their asses!
Apparently, they save their ugly fighting for the bedroom, where the cameras won’t catch them – NOT! Didn’t these two meet on a reality show? Groan. They should know better.
The morning starts with Sean and Catherine having a nasty argument that has spilled over from the prior evening when Sean didn’t tell Ink to stop being mean to his wife.
“You are so delusional,” Catherine says.
“My wife is gone,” Sean yells. “This soulless person who doesn’t give a s**t about anything is here.” Ouch!
“You started it,” Catherine retorts, proving that at least behind closed doors, they’re normal.
“Okay, then we both hate each other,” Sean says. Wow. “Hate” is such a strong word.
“Leave me alone, I’m tired,” Sean says. “Get out of here.”
“The problem with trying to be a perfect couple is that you can only hold it together so long before you show cracks in the foundation,” says Marriage Boot Camp Director Jim Carrol, as he and Director Elizabeth Carroll watch and listen to it all in the control room.
Things aren’t a whole lot better down the hall. Althea and Benzino still begin their days bickering.
“You’re bipolar, you annoy me… I’m sick of you,” Althea says, and Benzino tosses it right back at her.
“I understand you. We’re sick of each other,” Benzino agrees.
Elizabeth is concerned the entire group is pretty volatile going into the next exercise, but they proceed anyway.
There’s a punching bag waiting in the boot camp room – it’s time for the paddle drill (you know, the one where Hank Baskett broke the paddle and it hit Jim in the face last season).
“It’s only in accepting ourselves that we’re able to love our partners unconditionally,” Elizabeth explains that they’re supposed to write everything they hate about themselves on the paddles. Then they get to beat the crap out of the punching bag.
“I like myself. I don’t care how anybody else feels about me,” Ink tells Elizabeth before they even get started.
Benzino is first. And it’s heavy.
“I hate that I never made it to my mother’s funeral!” Benzino says, referring to the fact his nephew shot him on the way to the funeral. Last week, he forgave the nephew for shooting him during a boot camp exercise.
“I hate being angry all the time,” Benzino says.
Althea’s up next.
“I hate that I get angry when I could just walk away. I hate that I’m not married,” Althea says. See, I’ve been saying that’s the problem from the beginning but nobody’s listening to me. If she had a ring, she’d stop being such a whiny-ass bitch.
“I hate that I’m not the person I used to be,” Sugar Bear says.
“I hate that I have rage. I hate that I’ve tried to hurt myself,” Catherine says. What??? She’s attempted suicide? Or was she a cutter? I think I missed that part.
“I hate not always trusting. I hate that I fear failure,” Sean is more worried about his image than his marriage.
When it’s Ink’s turn, he doesn’t want to play.
“I have accepted everything about me and I love me,” Ink says. “Why fix something that ain’t broke?”
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And don’t come to the Marriage Boot Camp,” Elizabeth says. Go Elizabeth! She actually looked pretty shocked at his disrespect. It’s probably the rudest I’ve seen a boot camper behave towards her.
“Ink doesn’t have a problem telling everybody else what’s wrong with them… it creates a distraction from his own pain,” Elizabeth says. “He needs this breakthrough if he and Sarah are going to make it.” The Marriage Boot Camp staff has a lot more faith in this butthead than I do.
“This is probably one of the drills that wasn’t meant for me,” Ink tells Elizabeth. I was SHOCKED she let him get away with it!
When Sundy’s up, it’s as intense as Benzino.
“This has to be exhausting. She’s reliving this experience over the past two days,” Sean says.
“I hate that people take advantage of me because I’m over-trusting,” Sarah says.
“Okay Ink, you’re up,” Elizabeth tells him, refusing to let him escape the drill. And he does it!
“I hate that I don’t give women a chance. I hate that I can’t trust. And I hate that I’m misjudged,” Ink says.
Just when you think he’s going to try to get something out of the exercise, he verbally attacks Jim and Elizabeth.
“Let’s clear something up. I’d be curious to know where that judged feeling comes from, cuz it’s not us,” Elizabeth tells him when he blames the directors for making him feel bad.
“I see that Ink is shutting down. I see him being the person that he initially said that he wasn’t,” Sundy says in the interview.
“I don’t care what you think, but I know how I feel,” Ink says. Wah wah wah – pull up your big girl panties, Ink!
“Dave, take my paddle before I hit you with it,” Ink says, but I think he’s joking. He just has a bad sense of appropriate timing.
After the exercise, Elizabeth tells the rest of the directors that Ink got mad at her.
“Naturally, he wants to be mad at whoever is making him feel,” Co-Director David Bishop says.
Ink won’t talk to Sarah about how he’s feeling, which isn’t doing much to help their relationship. But everybody is exhausted.
“If I cry one more f**king time, I’m gonna snap,” Sundy says.
“We really have to think about how we’re going to crack Sean and Catherine,” Elizabeth is concerned that Sean has grown as much as he can, and they won’t be able to help them save their marriage.
“Well, this will be interesting. Try to find out what’s going on behind the scenes,” Jim says as he and Elizabeth go to find Sean and Catherine for a one-on-one.
“Behind closed doors, we’re seeing his anger and frustration,” Elizabeth says.
“Are we in trouble?” Sean asks. He’s the goody-goody of the group.
Jim tells him they know they were fighting, and they don’t like being lied to.
“So can you tell us what’s happening?” Jim asks.
“She was getting into it with Ink the other day, and I stepped in and basically said let’s stop it,” Sean says. “I should have directed it more towards Ink…” but he didn’t.
“It’s like you’re saying to us, it’s no big deal,” Elizabeth says.
Sean says the problem is solved and it won’t happen again. Elizabeth calls them out for showing one face in boot camp and fighting behind closed doors.
“I felt like He was trying to be a good guy over being a good husband,” Catherine says.
“When she gets upset, she becomes very cold and distant,” Sean says. Well duh, she’s your wife and you didn’t take her side against Ink.
Sean hasn’t figured out how to tap into his empathy for Catherine.
“The thing is I take great pride in protecting and providing for my wife,” Sean says he was humiliated by Catherine calling him out on it in front of everyone. Poor guy. Catherine was probably embarrassed when he didn’t get her back.
It’s time for the next exercise, and Althea and Benzino are snarking at each other as it starts. He just wants to be left alone and she is, quite literally, poking at him.
“Here comes some more bulls**t,” Ink says as things begin.
“This exercise will either break or make our couples,” Jim says, as they have the campers start reading and burning their paddles.
“It sucks you feel that way about yourself,” Ink tells Sarah after she expresses everything she hates about herself to him. He says he doesn’t feel anything.
“When she cries you don’t feel anything?” Elizabeth asks.
“I want to hold her, but I don’t feel nothing,” Ink says. I wanted to reach through the screen and slap him.
“It seems he’s going back to the way he was,” Sarah worries he’s going to shut her out like he does everybody else.
“Personally, I don’t think it’s hurt her in any way,” Ink says. He says she understands why he has walls up. He says he doesn’t feel bad about anything he’s said or done to her.
“I don’t feel bad about anything,” Ink is definite.
“I’m going to call bulls**t,” Jim says. “I think you oughta be able to be man enough to express….” Ink cuts him off.
“This is my problem with you guys. You all are trying to make me feel something that I don’t feel,” Ink says. “Now, if you want me to lie to you and be fake with you, but I’m not going to do that because that’s not who I am.” Then he throws his paddle like a five-year-old and walks off. I think this is his impression of Althea.
“The child self is the place where the ‘I hates’ live,” Elizabeth tells the group.
“My child self comes out when I actually get angry,” June says.
“Tell that child shut up,” Elizabeth coaches.
“This exercise is designed to create understanding with each couple,” Elizabeth explains.
Ink walking out hurts Sarah, so David follows him to talk one-on-one. He boohoos to David that he feels judged by Jim.
“I honestly don’t think that Sarah should stay with Ink. He’s an a**hole,” June says in the interview.
Mama June says she’s able to let things go when she puts her paddle in the fire but she’s very worried Sugar Bear will return to old bad habits.
“I hate that my dad left and that my mom made him leave,” Catherine says. Wow, we keep learning more about her.
“If I could have been your father, I would have told you how pretty you are every day and I would never leave you,” Sean says. He knows how to play the game but I doubt his sincerity. I’ve come to think he’s a fake, pompous ass.
Catherine hates her insecurity.
“We’re a team and I don’t ever want you to feel alone. It’s just not acceptable,” Sean says.
Sarah leaves the group to go talk to Ink, interrupting his conversation with David. But he doesn’t make her leave.
“I love you. I want to have a child with you but I don’t know. All I need is for one person to understand me,” Ink says.
“How do I understand you if you don’t talk to me?” Sarah asks.
“What percentage of your heart can you give her today?” David asks. At the beginning of Marriage Boot Camp, Ink wasn’t willing to fully commit.
“You don’t trust anybody so you don’t trust me,” Sarah says.
Ink says he can only give her 30 percent of his heart. Sarah should dump him. He’s a mess. But back to the group – I’m sick of Ink.
“I hate I’m not married,” Althea says. Yep, that’s her problem. But if I were Benzino, I wouldn’t give that bitch a ring, and I’d be asking for a DNA test when the baby is born.
“I don’t feel good that you feel all those things that you hate. I wish for you to be happy. I wish for the baby to be happy,” Benzino says.
Althea and Benzino seem to have the most therapeutic hug and coordinated response to the exercise, but I don’t believe a word that comes out of her mouth. She’s nothing but a trashy gold-digger with bad birth control practices.
“When we work together, we can move mountains,” Benzino says. Really? Cuz when you had to pull those rocks up the hill together, you kinda sucked.
“I feel like you don’t really know me,” Sundy is crying as she talks to Cedric. I feel like she doesn’t want to give him a chance.
“I do know you. The only thing I didn’t know is that you was molested,” Cedric argues.
“We did get married, but I did it for all the wrong reasons,” Sundy says. “I think I was too young.” What a hurtful thing to say to your spouse!
When the exercise ends, all the paddles (except Ink’s) are burning. And it’s time for a visit from the Wicked Witch, Judge Lynn Toler. I just don’t get anything positive out of her evaluations. And I hope they get rid of her next season. One Divorce Court episode will be enough, thank you very much.
“She doesn’t have a ton of positive things to say ever,” Sean says.
“I think you all have understanding, but you don’t have peace,” the judge says. She reminds them Jim and Elizabeth only have two days left to save their relationships.
Toler calls Althea out for literally picking at Benzino, physically trying to get his attention. For once, I agree with her. Althea was being awful.
“If you’re going to be with him, you need to forgive him,” Toler tells June. “You need to take Jim and Elizabeth’s tools and make it into a relationship.”
She busts Catherine and Sean for hiding their fights.
“If you look for disrespect and disdain and being discarded everywhere you go, that’s what you’ll find,” she tells Ink. “True strength is saying they don’t like nothing about me, and you feel good.”
“I don’t want whoever was in the seventh grade running any more of your life,” Toler says. Valid point. That’s seemed a little ridiculous to me. My first boyfriend dumped me because I wasn’t Jewish, and his mother didn’t want me to go to his bar mitzvah as his date (true story). I have not let that ruin my life (although I’m still a little bitter lol).
“When is it going to get better? WHEN, Jim?” Catherine asks the director as they’re walking back into the mansion.
This season of “Marriage Boot Camp” is almost over, and several of these couples are still in serious trouble. Teasers show it’s going to get intense in the mansion next week. Personally, I’m starting to think Sean, Althea, and Ink are just a waste of everybody else’s time.
However, spare a though for some of the folks in these wedding photo fails.