'Average' Eastie guy finds looks win the women

When Larissa Meek kissed Brian Worth from East Boston during last night's "Average Joe: Hawaii" finale, there were real tears falling from her green eyes onto her delicate cheeks.

But, alas, they were not tears of joy. Sadly for our own "average Joe," who found love and good hair during the shooting of the NBC reality sequel, Larissa's tears were only tears of guilt. The former Miss Missouri was kissing Brian but dreaming of a future with the not-so-average hunk Gil Hyatt, a buff beach boy with blond hair. "I want to see if I can make this fantasy a reality," Larissa told Gil, her winner, who greeted the news with typical nonchalance. "I'm extremely excited," Gil said without changing his expression.

While he's clearly spent many hours at the gym working his abs, Gil has apparently been neglecting his smile muscle.

And so it was a victory of looks over personality, as Larissa fully succumbed to the charms of a pretty face.

Even though she told Brian he was "the most interesting person [she'd] ever met," even though they spent a magical day in Fenway Park meeting pitcher Tim Wakefield, even though she had clicked with his four best buddies, Larissa opted for a dull, pent-up dude with the magnetism of a piece of wood. Like Melana from the first "Average Joe," our girl led with her eyes, and not her heart.

"I'm broken up about it," Brian confessed after Larissa rejected him in an empty airport hangar. He thought he'd triumphed after taking her to his "favorite place in the whole world," Fenway Park. He thought he'd lured the bikini model into the world of substance. He thought he'd had her at "howaya."

But wait: Fabio, what are you doing in this story? Turns out the name of the romance-novel model emerged like a deus ex machina last night to determine the final shape of the romantic reality play. Yes, Fabio.

In the final moments of the telecast, frolicking on the beach together, Larissa confessed to Gil that her former boyfriend was none other than Fabio, whose face and chest have adorned the covers of countless book jackets. Nope, Gil was having none of that, and he summarily rejected the woman who had spent these many weeks rejecting other men for him.

Perhaps that made Brian feel just a little bit better.