'Love in the Wild' eliminates Theresa Trujillo and Skip Sullivan

Love in the Wild eliminated Theresa Trujillo and Skip Sullivan and determined its final two pairs during Wednesday night's seventh episode of the new NBC reality dating series, which features singles attempting to find love in the Costa Rican jungle.


"Theresa and I had a really good time on these adventures. I am attracted to her personality as much as her looks. She's just kind of a real genuinely nice person. We already plan on seeing each other in the future and we're going to do our best to make it work. I don't really see anything that will hold us back," Skip, a 30-year-old loan underwriter from Milton, MA, said after he was eliminated.

"I definitely think that meeting Skip has made this experience a thousand times better. He's very positive. He's super hot, funny -- we laugh together. I mean, I totally light up when I talk about Skip. He totally puts a smile on my face. I think we were both meant to meet each other. We absolutely adore each other, so I'm really falling for Skip," Theresa, a 24-year-old Hooters girl and real estate agent from San Jose, CA, said following her ouster.

Love in the Wild's seventh episode began following the eliminations of Brandee Dillehay, a 25-year-old mental health specialist from Nashville, TN, and her partner Benjamin Hooker, a 27-year-old MBA graduate from Charleston, SC, and Steele Dewald, a 24-year-old pro golfer from Scottsdale, AZ, and his partner Erica Scherle, a 24-year-old self-employed songwriter manager from Nashville, TN.

Love in the Wild host Darren McMullen then met with the remaining three single men and three single women -- who had become three strong couples -- who are looking for love while undertaking a series of adventurous activities in the hopes of winning luxurious rewards.


Darren explained that each man and woman who paired up during last week's episode at the season's sixth Couples' Choice Ceremony would remain partners for their seventh jungle adventure and later participate in an elimination ceremony very different from prior ceremonies.

The couples were required to swim out to a boat from the beach and once at the boat, one person from each couple had to locate the anchor rope at the front of boat, dive deep into the water and then untie a map.

Meanwhile, the other teammate was instructed to lower a paddleboard into the water and then begin retrieving five bags of coins. Each couple had to retrieve three bags of from three old buoys floating in the ocean, paddle to shore and then follow a path to an old pier where they would find a fourth bag.

From the Old Pier, the teams had to move into a mangrove swamp where they would discover the final bag of coins hanging from a tree. Afterwards, the couples were required to make their way to a local town, find a bar named Cocos and locate a local guy named Mambo, and then exchange their bags of coins for a secret phrase they must memorize and recite to Darren at the finish line.

Heather Pond, a 26-year-old public relations professional from Sonoma, CA, and Miles Haefner, a 28-year-old client services manager from Saint Louis Park, MN, were partners, while Samantha Woods, a 23-year-old wedding planner from Huntington Beach, CA, was ready to take on the next adventure with Mike Spiro, a 29-year-old commercial real estate broker from San Francisco, CA. In addition, Skip competed alongside Theresa.


Along the course, Skip and Theresa -- who had been in first place -- lost one of their bags of coins. The couple, extremely frustrated over their mistake, had to back-track and re-trace their steps in the hopes of finding the bag. However, they had little luck and allowed Mike and Samantha as well as Heather and Miles to catch up to them and finally surpass them. Skip and Theresa then decided to just give up and walk casually to the finish line.

It was then a close race to the finish between Mike and Samantha and Heather and Miles who both wanted to win very badly.

Mike and Samantha crossed the finish line in first place and carried all five bags of coins with them, winning a night alone together at the posh Oasis resort and a private sailing adventure. Although they finished first, they were not guaranteed immunity, but Darren told them they would receive an advantage at the upcoming Couples' Choice Ceremony.

Following Mike and Samantha were Heather and Miles and eventually Skip and Theresa. 

While Mike and Samantha -- who had remained a romantic couple dedicated to each other since the beginning of the season -- enjoyed their time at the Oasis and sailing, the two other couples spent time together strengthening their relationships and growing in love at their less plush cabins, or bungalows.


Later on, Love in the Wild's seventh Couples' Choice Ceremony commenced.

Darren explained to the three couples they would be participating in a dating game in which they would be asked a series of questions to determine how well they knew their partners. Each question would be worth one point and the most points a couple could accumulate in order to survive in the competition was five. The first two couples to reach five points by having their written answers match each other would move onto the next adventure and finale of Love in the Wild, while the third team would be eliminated.

For finishing the adventure in first place, Mike and Samantha received two bonus points to start with, while second-place finishers Miles and Heather got one point. Theresa and Skip unfortunately had to start the game off with zero points, a great disadvantage.

Darren asked the couples questions about their personal lives and journeys so far in the competition. Where the couples' first real kiss was, what their female partner's middle name was, and how many children the women would like to have were all examples of questions asked. Samantha and Mike collected five points the fastest, and it came down to Heather and Miles or Theresa and Skip.

Theresa made a mistake early on in the game when Darren asked which partner was more adventurous intimately. Rather than choosing herself or Skip, she wrote down "both" -- an answer that shocked Skip and frustrated him a bit, because she had a 50/50 chance of getting it right but chose otherwise.


The game soon ended at Darren's seventh question: "Ladies, which of your body parts does your partner like the best?" Miles and Skip both guessed correctly, as they wrote down their partner's "butt." The answer put Heather and Miles up to five points, allowing them to move on, but Theresa and Skip only accumulated four points total.

The two contestants, Theresa and Skip, then departed the competition as a couple, having actually found Love in the Wild.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski