Spoilers ahead for the second episode of Fox's Labor of Love.
The second episode of Fox's Labor of Love was somehow even wilder than the first, despite the absence of a mobile sperm unit. (I for one am still not quite over that.) The first half of the hour sent Kristy Katzmann, host Kristin Davis, and the 13 remaining hopeful dads-to-be on a camping trip that would give the guys some one-on-one time with Kristy... and also put them on the receiving end of a prank involving a bear suit. Frankly, after the camping trip, I'm ready for some of the guys to start quitting on Kristy.
For one thing, Kristy and Kristin Davis sprung the camping trip on the guys, none of whom were dressed for it or particularly excited about it. In fact, Budge Collinson was about ready to leave when they arrived at the camping ground, and I was on board with it. The episode revealed that Kristin Davis was going to send -- and I kid you not -- a man in a bear suit out at Kristy and her various suitors during their one-on-one time.
Kristy decided that the "drill" would reveal which guys have the potential to be strong and protective fathers, which meant using their lessons from the park rangers to scare away the bear they didn't know was fake. This would be 100% laughable if the bear drill was happening in broad daylight, but Kristy pulled the guys aside to talk at night, where the only close light came from a campfire, and the person in the bear suit was a shockingly believable growler.
Predictably, some of the guys rose to the occasion to protect Kristy from the bear, while others saw through the ruse pretty quickly and others weren't inclined to jump between Kristy and the bear. Trent Broach got my laugh-out-loud moment of the night when he told the camera this:
You know, when it comes to bears, you don't have to be faster than the bear. You just gotta be faster than Kristy.
Trent isn't exactly the smoothest guy trying to win Kristy's heart, and he's not my favorite, but this line really resonated with me. These men don't know Kristy and have barely spent any time with Kristy. They're competing with other men in bizarre situations, and to win means to father children with this woman they barely know beyond her name and appearance. I can't blame Trent for being Team Trent when it comes to a bear.
The bear prank was also pretty mean, in my book. Kristy was shrieking with laughter every time the guys fell for the bear, and despite the contrivance of the situation that probably should have clued more of them into the fact that it was a fake, I can see how the darkness and growling would have been scary. Come on, Kristy! They just want to make a baby.
If this bear situation happened on a season of The Bachelorette, I probably wouldn't be rooting for some of the guys to give up and leave. After all, the goal of Bachelor Nation is nominally to wind up engaged, but that's hardly a requirement, and the stakes are pretty low when it's just a dating competition. If anything, the crazy melodrama is part of the appeal of Bachelor Nation. Labor of Love is Kristy auditioning men to father her children, but they also have to look at her as the potential mother of their children.
Surely they're not all so delighted with what Kristy and Labor of Love have put them through that they're all set on building a family together, right? I don't even mean this as a knock on Kristy. The stakes are so high on Labor of Love with literal plans for making a baby, unlike Bachelor Nation shows where kids are a possibility down the line. If Kristy doesn't see a future with some of these guys, they logically shouldn't all see a future with her. Suspending disbelief would be easier if some of them weren't on board after the bear episode.
Kristy was the only one there who wasn't taking it seriously, and they don't have to take what she's throwing at them if they're not 100% into it. Admittedly, I am decidedly not a middle-aged man who signed on to a Fox reality series because I want to make a baby ASAP, so I might not be the most qualified person to step into the guys' shoes. Still, I would love to see some of them at least seriously consider packing up and leaving, because this is the rest of their lives and a baby at stake.
That said, this is a show that started with a mobile sperm unit and then continued with a fake bear attack, so I should probably try to drop any serious expectations and just hope for more Trent one-liners for the foreseeable future. New episodes of Labor of Love air on Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on Fox. If you're still in the market for more viewing options, be sure to check out our 2020 summer premiere schedule.
