When "Sweet Home Alabama" began season 3, few people probably would have expected New Yorker Shaun Bigos to go very far in the show, with his disrespectful talk of hillbillies and rednecks. But is there anyone who expected him to be the last city guy in the running?
Even Bigos himself admitted he didn't see that coming.
For the first time since the season began, eliminations didn't divide city and country sides as evenly as possible, and Paige Duke sent two city guys home Feb. 24. That leaves four country guys and Bigos as the lone city slicker after Joey Vida and Todd Doram were sent home.
Now lest you might be picturing a classic western gunfight scene for last man standing, and the theme from "Hang' Em High," the dueling banjos of "Deliverance" are probably more accurate.
Why? Because Bigos' secret to moving on to the next round -- camouflage, baby. It's all about the camouflage.
Bigos had a date with Duke this week, and she surprised him with an airboat ride in the Louisiana swamps. After getting his eyebrows waxed and visiting the tanning salon for the date, Bigos showed up in a suit, but changed into the full camos Duke had brought for him, much to her amusement.
They zipped around the swamp drinking wine from their bottles, stopping to watch some bald eagles and going to a remote part of swamp that was muddy to watch the sunset -- that smelled like, shall we say, fecal matter to paraphrase Bigos. Then after dark, Bigos caught a baby alligator for them to take turns holding.
As weird as all that sounds, it was actually very entertaining to watch, and the two seemed to have a good time, laughing through the stinky swamp sunset. And apparently chicks dig a guy in camouflage, or at least this one does.
Much to Landon Chase's chagrin, in particular.
Last week, Chase alienated the whole house by telling Duke that Jeremy Levesque had been skyping an ex-girlfriend right before the show started, causing her to send Levesque home in a last minute decision. The details weren't actually shown, but it had the feel of a man going a bit too far in his "protection," and many questioned his real motives in "snitching" out another contestant.
Now, Chase is jealous any time any guy goes on a date, but for Bigos to get a date, spend all day and half the night on it, then come back home in camouflage -- it was almost too much for him to bear.
So Chase put on his camouflage jacket and called Bigos out on the porch to talk "man to man." Alrighty. Apparently that entails trying to tell Bigos he would "die before I let Paige leave this house with a guy like you."
There's protective, there's overprotective and there's creepy. We've just moved from step two to step three, y'all. Seriously.
Bigos wasn't the least bit phased, and continued to bait Chase in the kitchen, till Chase finally told him, "Maybe you can go back out there in your camo and hide."
Which Bigos did. And which was the funniest segment of the season so far, with him popping his head up out of bushes and hiding behind potted plants to the amusement of all of his housemates.
Well, all except one.
Cowboy Shaun Smith, who had the first date of the season, finally got his second date and expressed his concerns that he might be too young or not as ready to start a family as the other guys since he's still getting his career going. But Duke assured him she was okay with that and yes, he got his second kiss of the season in.
Smith also had a couple of other notable moments in the show -- his frighteningly accurate impersonation of Bigos and the guys got together and gave him a framed photo of him with his horse, Credit Card, which had been stolen right before the show started and was found dead during the filming.
The other date of the episodes was with Doram, who finally got to put behind him his image as just a salesman dishing lines, but ultimately it was too late for him, as Duke sent him packing as well as New Jersey boy Vida.
You would think that with four country guys and one city boy left, the city guy would be the odd man out, but no one in the house has any love for Chase, despite Duke's admonishing them that they shouldn't give him a hard time for what he did to Levesque, as he was ultimately looking out for her interests.
Perhaps, but it looked more like he was looking out for his own.
Except for Chase, the guys in the house have come around for Bigos almost as much as he has come around for them, and when Bigos expressed his surprise that he was still in the house, Thompson told him it didn't surprise him at all. In a private conversation, the pair decided they actually had far more in common and were almost country and city versions of the same person.
That might be taking it a bit far, as Thompson has never trashed anyone and always taken the high road, to the point of being the most respected guy in the house.
And speaking of which, Thompson has earned so much respect that last week's eliminated city guy, Dustin Tavella, just released a video of a song paying homage to the cowboy, called "Do It Like Bubba," featuring Thompson as well as cast mates Smith, Austin Squires, Matt Beard helping the Philly guy "cowboy up."
We're down to just five guys, and the eliminations are getting more emotional and harder to bear each week. And from the looks of the previews, when Chase starts getting down on one knee, it looks like he might have a plan for ending things a bit early.
"Sweet Home Alabama" airs Friday nights on CMT at 9 p.m. ET. Subscribe for updates on all your favorite CMT shows.
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