Reba may have been right all along. The bartender from Spearfish, South Dakota, went home early on in season 2 of Fox’s reality dating series Farmer Wants a Wife. But before she left Brandon’s farm, she had some blunt words for Joy, one of his other daters.
Reba called Joy from ‘Farmer Wants a Wife’ ‘inauthentic’
In a memorable moment from the show’s Feb. 15 episode, Reba called out Joy, one of her rivals for Brandon’s affections, for being “inauthentic.” (One of Reba’s complaints about Joy? She smiled too much.)
“Like come on, like you think you’re genuine?” Reba asked Joy, who had just told Brandon that she considered herself “very sweet.”
“Like, I just can’t stand inauthenticity,” Reba said.
Reba’s dislike of Joy was so strong that she eventually decided to self-eliminate. After watching Joy “[shove] herself down his throat all the time” and “throw herself at him in front of other women,” she decided it was time to go home.
Joy told Brandon she didn’t ‘feel anything’
Was Reba just jealous of Joy? Or did she see something in her that Brandon couldn’t spot? Later developments suggested that Reba might have been right in feeling there was something off about her Farmer Wants a Wife rival. During an awkward solo date, Joy seemed disinterested in Brandon and barely reacted to his story of his parent’s divorce and how it affected his view of relationships.
“I just feel like I’m immune to everything,” she said. “Me and my sister both, we don’t feel anything.”
That confession understandably threw Brandon for a loop. Joy later revealed that being diagnosed with epilepsy at age 12 affected the way she interacts with other people. But perhaps Brandon – who says he wears his heart on his sleeve – should have taken that strange date as a sign things weren’t meant to be for him and Joy.
In episode 10, Brandon had to eliminate one of the three women who remained on his farm. But before he could decide to send home Joy, Grace, or Emerson, Joy took matters into her own hands.
“I don’t know if I’m ready to take you home to my family,” Joy told Brandon, adding that she didn’t feel they had a strong enough connection for her to continue in the process.
Brandon was stunned.
“I’m somewhat in shock. I didn’t see this coming,” he said. He wondered if he should not have spent so much time trying to win over Joy and instead focused on one of his other daters – “maybe Reba or Annelyse, who did seem like they want to be here.”
Jennifer Nettles asks Brandon if Reba was right about Joy
Did Joy really have second thoughts about Brandon so late in the game? Or had she been pretending the whole time? It’s hard to say, but it’s safe to say that Reba feels vindicated. After Joy went home, Reba shared a meme from Mean Girls on her Instagram Story that appeared to be a nod to Joy: “That’s why her hair is so big. It’s full of secrets.”
Reba’s no longer in the running for Brandon’s heart, but she will be back in a future episode of Farmer Wants a Wife Season 2. In a teaser, the farmers and some of their daters, including Reba, sit down to hash out the season’s drama.
“Do you feel that Reba might have been right about Joy’s intentions,” host Jennifer Nettles asks Brandon, who laughs in response.
Farmer Wants a Wife airs Thursdays at TK p.m. ET/PT on Fox. Episodes stream the next day on Hulu.
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