‘Temptation Island’s Brion Whitley Is a Master Manipulator -

Netflix’s iteration of Temptation Island is a veritable who’s who of those who are constantly shamed on those “Are We Dating the Same Guy?” Facebook groups. One that rises to the top as the King of the Dregs of Society has to be Brion Whitley. Brion lassoed girlfriend Shanté Glover into the Temptation Island experience so he can prove that he’s able to be platonic friends with women. The problem is that in order to be friends with women, you have to respect women, so Brion falls flat on his intention for the show almost immediately. But was that really his intention? He talks out of both sides of his mouth, one minute saying he wants to explore polyamory and another insisting that whoever he ends up with has to be a Christian because he takes his faith incredibly seriously. The biggest red flag about Brion is that he can never explicitly say what his intentions are, and that’s because his intentions are gross and would repel anyone.

Three’s a Crowd

Night camera of Brion looking for the cameras outside the bathroom on Temptation Island — Image via Netflix

Throughout Brion’s time at the house, he demonstrates many shades of manipulation. Of course, he is initially charming and the life of the party. It’s what reels women in, and it’s why reserved and demure Shanté adores him. With an affinity for group sex and infidelity, Brion can’t help but wonder out loud if he’s not cut out for monogamy and should opt for polyamory instead. The problem is, polyamory still requires respecting women, and Brion can’t even handle respecting one woman at the moment, let alone multiple. Polyamory has a strong emphasis on boundaries, and Brion thinks boundaries are negotiable. It takes very little persuasion from housemates Alex Zamora and Courtney Randolph to have a threesome in his bathroom.

At the same time, Brion is using spiritual bypassing to project impossible standards onto Shanté that he cannot meet himself, and also to portray an image of piety. He often calls Shanté such “a good person” and a “good girl” because she looks past his transgressions time after time. That’s not forgiveness; it’s unyielding subservience at her expense. She’s sacrificed herself and her needs just so he can feel better about himself, and he has completely dismantled her capacity to protect herself through manipulation.

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Spiritual Bypassing and the Fallacy of Being a “Good Girl”

Brion projects those standards onto other women as well, insisting that they should be Christian should they become his girlfriend. During his date with Angel Vic, she asks him how he can reconcile his faith with the fact that he is so fixated on threesomes and juggling multiple women. During his confessional, Brion lamented that she was asking deep questions because it was “offputting.” Angel, being the queen that she is, said in her own confessional, “I’m not here to judge…but he’s honestly always contradicting himself. You want a godly woman, but you like threesomes. You love your woman, but you don’t open up to her. How do you sound right now? Dumb.” Brion’s idea of the Holy Trinity isn’t the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; it’s a ménage à trois. When Brion was first broadcasting his issues with Shanté, he kept saying “she’s such a good person, such a good girl” and that’s exactly why she can’t satisfy his sexual desires. He can’t reconcile how a girl can be a good person and have a healthy sexual appetite, but then expects women to believe he’s a good person with desires.

Brion later has an unsettling interchange with Amiah Brooks, who he insisted was his friend that he flirts with throughout the show. He invited her into his room to journal, but then started unpacking his issues with Shanté. He then invited Amiah into his bed to talk some more. Amiah hated the optics of the whole situation, and insisted that they talk outside of the bedroom. Brion refused, and as Amiah walked out of the room, he called her “weird.” Amiah isn’t Brion’s therapist, and therapy tends not to happen under the covers in an intimate setting. Brion was offended by Amiah and Angel because they called his manipulative tendencies into question in a tactful but firm way.

Brion is so good at manipulation that Shanté is able to come up with excuses for him in an entirely different villa without having to talk to him, and it’s unsettling to watch. When she saw his threesome play out during the bonfire, people kept saying she “took it really well” because she didn’t have a reaction. That’s not “taking it well,” that’s a broken woman feeling defeated. She immediately started doing damage control on his behalf, acting as his publicist and telling her housemates that he only did it given the setting of Temptation Island, that he never would have done it beyond this context.

During the final bonfire with host Mark L. Walberg, Shanté was reticent to say her decision to go home with Brion. He knew after cheating on her that she would forgive him, and so did she. She wasn’t tearful because she didn’t know what to do, she was tearful because she knew how terrible it looked that she wanted to go home with him. Shanté said during her final remarks that she was “choosing herself” and followed that up by saying she was choosing him. Brion didn’t have to do any groveling or change at all in order to get her to do this, and that’s because he has exploited her so much throughout their relationship that he doesn’t even have to lift a finger anymore; she just chooses him every time. And that, right there, is a master manipulator.

Temptation Island is available to stream in the U.S. on Netlfix.