Matt’s 3rd week!

Okay guys, remember where we left off last week? We were in the middle of a rose ceremony and we had Sarah sit down and she was going to black out. She goes down and Matt takes her outside where she can relax and get some fresh air and the girls are super jealous about this! They are sitting down on the platform and are wondering what Sarah’s true intentions are. Theythink she may be milking it and wanting more one on one time with him. He does console her, but now we’re ready to keep the rose ceremony going!

As a recap, here’s where we are for roses:

Rose ceremony time!

1. Bri – first one on one and first outta the limo, I’m saying final 4
2. Lauren – group date rose
3. Sarah – second one on one date
4. Pieper – don’t think she got any screen time today, but good for her
5. Kit – I feel like Kit will be the villain once Queen Victoria goes home
6. Magi – Ethipian princess
7. Rachael – the one who kinda looks like Kendall Jenner
8. Abigail – she goes and adjusts her earing as she heads to him
9. Chelsea – the beautiful model
10. Jess – connected with him on the group date
11. Katie – she was pretty quiet tonight, she was the one who had the vibrator the first night but has toned things down quite a bit
12. Serena C – she wanted time with Matt but I don’t think she ever got it
13. Khaylah – NC girl i think
14. Mari – she’s the one who won MVB (Most valuable bride) for the losing team. I think Mari may be the darkhorse
15. MJ – she’s our commentator this season, our Wells if you will
16. Anna – the one who reminds me of Claire from Modern Family
17. Kaili – i don’t remember her
18. Final Rose goes to Queen Victoria

So going home is Marylynn who had the drama with Queen Victoria, who we know is only staying because the producers need her and need someone for us to complain about. I don’t know if any other meaningful girl went home or not, I can’t really tell who went home. So sorry if your favorite went home and I didn’t realize it.

First Date card: “Today is a surprise for everyone!”

1. Rachael
2. Bri
3. Lauren
4. Kit
5. Serena C
6. Victoria
7. Kaylah
8. Anna
9. Kylie
10. Katie

Kit tells us that she loves being uncomfortable, said by a 21 year old who is willing to step outta their comfort zone more. We walk into a theatre and we have Ashley I reading an erotic passage from a book, Harrison’s book evidently. He must need book sells here to really push his book on us. Also, we had Ashley I on this season when her and Jared were just on a month ago with Tayshia. Their group date is to write their love story and know that it’s gong to be read in a group session and also a live audience. But how is this live audience going to happen with Covid and why do we need a live audience for this?

Luckily the studio audience is just the rest of the house. So only us watching from home in our living rooms have to deal with this live, and no one had to quarantine for 2 weeks to deal with it. So let’s bring it on!

Poor Matt doesn’t get a drink to have to endure all of this. There’s lots of embarrassed laughter and some of these girls are lacking subtly. Some of these girls look as if they want to crawl under the table, which is what I absolutely want to as well. We don’t have the black modesty box to hide us from this, but luckily we have a bleep button. Katie’s was inappropriate but there was some laughter. Victoria’s was inappropriate enough that Harrison looked at Ashley I and seemed to maybe be embarrassed.

The girls seemed like they enjoyed themselves and didn’t want it to end, They said it was the best group date ever, but I just don’t see how it’s so cool, we do these dates that push the envelope but why? It’s not like people are talking about this stuff at the watercooler anymore.. It’s just become formulaic that we’re going to have at least 2 group dates that are going to be overly sexualized and add nothing to the whole Bachelorette experience. It’s not even shocking anymore, it’s predictable, so maybe we stop it and swing to the other side of the pendulum as that would get people talking.

Our Kardashian girl is starting to feel Matt and she felt really uncomfortable and he said he was shocked because she didn’t seem that uncomfortable. He also appreciated that her story was real and wasn’t too pushy. He then went in for a kiss and she is swooning.

He tells Bri that he really liked that she kept some mystery and intimate details with their relationship private. He really appreciated her story and how she alluded to their 1:1 date but also didn’t spell it all out for everyone.

Serena P gets the 1:1, who I don’t really know her, so I’ll be glad she can stand out.

Sarah is losing her shit already and it’s week 3. If she’s already lost it at this point, ain’t no way in hell is she going to be here for the long haul. She’s struggling that he’s going on group dates and hanging out with other girls. She wasn’t there when Serena got her date card and the girls are over her. She then finds them on the group date and comes around the corner to grab Matt when he’s talking to Katie.

She just talks about how hard this has been and needs to tell him how she’s doing and he laughs and hugs her. Then Katie comes to steal him back at the urging of the other girls on the group date, which just seals Katie’s fate, though let’s be honest she was probably never going far anyways. She comes in and Sarah is mortified she’s there. Katie goes over to the corner but is in clear eye and hearing distance so they’re now talking in code, but basically Matt is telling Sarah to calm the hell down and remember how great their 1:1 date was. He walks her out, kisses her and then goes back to Katie.

Sarah then goes to the girls to apologize for taking their time on the group date and she’s in tears and the girls are actually really mean and bullying her. Do I agree with how Sarah handled it, no, I don’t at all. But I don’t think the girls handled it. Sarah comes out to the camera and is talking and then Victoria comes and acts like a frenemy and again is bullying her more. Katie comes outside and Victoria leaves and Katie tells her how she feels about the situation, but I feel like she does it in a respectful way. She doesn’t bully her, but also doesn’t lie and say it was okay.

Rachael gets the group date rose and so now the girls are pissed at her and also at Sarah. Not all the girls got time with him so they’re pissed, but here’s the thing, Sarah was with him for maybe 5 mins, so those 4 girls who didn’t get time with him wouldn’t have all gotten time with him.

Matt comes to grab Serena for her date and he is going to talk about Sarah being at the group date, and as he’s looking around the couch he realizes she’s not there. The girls say she hasn’t made it downstairs. He asks Serena for 5 mins and goes upstairs to Sarah’s room and jumps on the bed and hugs her. She tells him that she had her bags packed and was ready to go home and he said “that would be a tragedy!” He doesn’t want her to go home and he’s happy to see her and always wants to see her and wants her to come to him. He cares about her and will keep reminding her of it. He knows the girls aren’t gonna be happy, but he just cares about her and their connection. He breaks the Bacheor protocol by saying he’d be willing to come by every day to talk to her and tell her that he’s thinking of her. He makes out with her and the girls are pissed. I feel like she is a lil bit different than some of our other needy girls, just for the mere fact that with how sick her Dad is, by her being on this show, she’s giving up a lot, more than most of them, so she’s going to need to know it’s worth it and he’s feeling her, or she should go home now. And I don’t think the girls realize how sick her dad is.

The girls who are all complaining about him and Sarah are girls that he’s not going to be with. They’re the fringe girls who are just here to stir up drama. Victoria, Anna, Katie, MJ. You know who’s not talking, Bri, Serena, Mari.

Serena and Matt are on horses for their date. Serena shows confidence and is willing to give him some crap but also gives him compliments and is able to talk to him about riding horses vs living in the city. She said she normally goes slower, but that’s not a luxury they have. Her Dad is not supportive of her going on the Bachelor. She said he’s had a linear life – job, career, marriage, kids – so if you veer off that it can be hard. He’s here for that and wanting to live unconventionally. Matt tells her that the feelings he already has for her are real, and then goes in for a kiss and a donkey comes up as they’re making out which kinda ruins the mood. They’re able to laugh about it though and pet the donkey and she’s the perfect person to have on this date, because some others would be too high maintenance for this.

At the night portion of the date they talk about past relationships, where he said he’s never been in love. She said she has, but is not a casual dater. He remembers the first time he saw her and that they could see a future with each other. She challenges him to challenge her and let her know if he doubts where she’s at because she likes him. She gets the rose and they celebrate by going into the hot tub that he made out with Bri in.

The girls are still pissed and want to start an angry mob and attack her.

Wow, again I don’t necessarily believe in the way that Sarah has handled some of this, but the extreme bullying and threatening that is going on is really alarming. It’s not like the Bachelor is known as being a real warm and loving place all the time, but when Kit says “I hope your connection with Matt is strong because your living situation is going to be horrible!” and other girls chime in and NO ONE defends Sarah, I’m livid. NO ONE deserves to be treated like that. It is a damn television show and the way they’re acting right now says more about their character than “winning” a season of the Bachelor says. This is classic bullying and it’s wrong, it is not entertaining at all. The real irony is in the fact on the group date how empowered they all felt and they kept throwing that word around. Well why then are you not respecting your fellow woman and building her up instead of tearing her down. When you can obviously tell someone is upset, it’s just cruel to keep going. I’ve never tolerated bullies before in my life, and I’m not going to start now. Even though I’ll never meet Sarah, she needs to know that someone is in her corner and she does not deserve to be treated this way. Now as a friend, I may pull her aside at some point and talk about how she can handle things differently in the future, but I hope these girls are ashamed watching this tonight and see what they really look like, because it is disgusting.

It’s the next morning and the group date is about to begin and some of the girls downstairs are pissed that Sarah hasn’t shown her face this morning. Why would she come down to be berated and bullied? She tried to talk to people individually last night and they shunned her. So she’s in her room on the couch we saw her and Matt on and she’s crying and in comes Katie. Katie gets more respect from me, because she asks how she’s doing and that it was painful to watch last night, and Katie didn’t say anything last night, she didn’t agree or disagree, but she’s realized her mistake and is saying something now. Sarah said she needs to leave and Katie said she can’t leave because of the girls. She needs to explore her relationship with Matt for both Sarah and Matt’s sake. Especially because he can’t wonder “what if.” She realizes she isn’t cut-out for this and needs to put her well-being first. And she opens up about her Dad being terminally ill and Katie starts crying and said she lost her Dad in 2012 and she needs to go home and be with him, Katie wasn’t able to say goodbye and she wishes she could. They hug it out.

Katie tells the girls that Sarah went home and has a very big family thing hanging over her, Victoria claps and then Katie throws down the gauntlet by saying “Everyone stay classy in this process because we don’t know our stories.”

Sarah has her bag packed and is in the SUV and is going to tell Matt she’s leaving. She knocks on her door and is taking deep breaths. He lets her come in. She’s sitting on the couch and is crying and apologizing. She said that all of the family things are weighing on her and that she feels completely alone here and has been attacked by so many of the women and I am THRILLED she said something. You all normally know I hate contestants talking about other contestants, but when she’s leaving because of the bullying, Matt needs to know that! He tells her he wants her here and he felt he dropped the ball when they first met because he didn’t say the right thing. He wants her to stay so badly and she said she’s prayed about it and she feels called to go be with them. She cries and you can tell how devastated he is by this, I just want to know what he’s thinking after seeing this tonight. He does tell her that her going home doesn’t mean that he’s going to stop thinking about her….long pause, or praying for her dad and thinking of her family. He also said that when she’s ready some guy is gonna be so lucky and he’s bummed it’s not him, but he’s learned a lot from her already about sacrificing and he’s going to miss her and she’s going to miss him too. He walks her out and she cries into him at the SUV and she gets in and just sobs as she drives off and he’s teary eyed watching her go. She knows she’s the best version of herself right now and he deserves the best. This makes me really sad for both Matt & Sarah, but I’m glad she’s getting out of that unhealthy environment!

Next week for some reason we’re bringing on 5 new girls, why?!? This doesn’t need to be a thing, but evidently will be. So we get more cattiness I guess.

Well, not a lot of love on this episode, but lots of drama and you know what, Matt didn’t do anything to tick me off, so let’s call it a win!

Until next week!

Matt’s First Dates!!!

Welcome back to week 2 of Matt’s journey! We’re in Pennsylvania which i don’t think I’d realized that’s where the resort is, but that makes sense to see the Fall colors we are and then we can see the girls in winter clothes instead of sweating like the guys did on Clare/Tayshia’s season.

They must’ve been telling the girls this would be like a sorority because they all kept saying it over and over again.

First one on one date goes to Bri “Love is an adventure.” First one on one date is normally a great sign and looking back at my notes she was the first girl outta the limo. Ladies and gents, let’s pay attention to Bri because she is going to make it real far! They get to go ATV riding and that would be a fun date. There are quite a few girls that are green with envy and really pissed they aren’t on the date. One of those girls is Anna and I was saying she’s the girl with the crazy eyes last week, but I’ve finally figured out she reminds me of the actress who plays Claire on Modern Family, particularly when Claire is acting a lil crazy:

Matt and Bri go mudding on the ATV and are both in cream and white. Well it gets worse because Matt asks if she trusts him, she says yes and he promptly goes in circles and ends up launching themselves onto the ground and capsizing the ATV. He makes me laugh because he said all he’s thinking about is Bri’s mom and how she is going to judge him because he puts her daughter at risk on the first date and he said he’ll do better. Then he does his best “Win a Date with Tad Hamilton” reference and takes his shirt off to chop wood for their hot tub that is wood burning. You know like all hot tubs are.

They do seem to be giggling and smiling with each other. They have the same sense of humor and can give each other a hard time, which I think is important. And there is certainly physical chemistry as they make out in the hot tub.

They talk about their lives and Bri was raised just her and her mom. It was the 2 of them against the world. She talked about she has a relationship with her Dad but he was absent her whole life. No one else around her had a relationship like she did. Matt tells her that it sounds a lot like his childhood, where his Dad wasn’t around when he needed him. So he found himself gravitating towards families with a Mom and Dad and siblings. Bri is able to finish his thought and says there are a lot of parallels between the 2 of them and how they were raised. She does say that her mom is pregnant right now and has a fiance and during quarantine she wondered where does she fit in? She said she is looking for her person who would be her family and Matt is LOVING it! Matt also gets credit because he said he wanted to do a toast and not a ‘cheers’ like they like to say on this show. Matt and Bri get a huge fireworks show that all the girls get to stand out on the porch and see the show as well.

1. Chelsea
2. Serena P
3. Abigail
4. Sydni
5. Illiana
6. Kristen
7. Lauren
8. Jessiana
9. Serena C
10. Kit
11. Kaili
12. Katie
13. MJ
14. Mari
15. Pieper
16. Rachael
17. Victoria

So one of the girls said there’s 18 girls on the date, but only 17 were read so one of us is wrong. Matt is too good for this show and doesn’t need to be on this show with these group dates. No way he remembers them all,, but good luck and godspeed Matt!

We’re doing a photo shoot and all the girls are in white wedding dresses. Talk about the most uncomfortable photo shoot ever. Matt is kissing some of these girls in-front of others. We literally just saw this date with Tayshia and Zac. But instead of a one on one, we get 18 brides and a few are bridezillas none moreso than Queen Victoria.

Harrison comes and grabs the photographer and Matt and said that some of these girls need to fight for their husband. Half the girls didn’t even get their photoshoot and are in tears.

We’re going to battle and ruin these dresses and the winning team gets time with Matt. The losing team has to go home. Matt is shocked by the violence he’s seeing on this field, you can tell he’s a novice to this. It’s basically a capture the flag/dodgeball/paintball/flag football type game. The gold team has to go home in their ruined dresses and the red team gets to stay! Mari is the MVB (most valuable bride) and even though she’s on the gold team she gets to stay.

Wow Lauren isn’t messing around at the beginning of the night portion of the date. She says that what she is looking for is a man of faith. Her Dad has told her that the success of his marriage with her mother has been that it was built on faith. And keeping God first. Someone is forgiving, kind, gives their spouse grace and gives themselves grace. He grew up a Christian and in the church and he wants to build a relationship off of that. Even though Lauren’s from Miami she has NC ties because she went to NC, he must be a Duke fan because he teases her about that. Matt has a fabulous laugh that you can tell is genuine and comes from deep inside him.

Jess tells us that she has dealt with quite a bit of infidelity in her relationships. So it’s hard for her to trust. Her parents have a great relationship and are rocks for each other and that is what she wants. He says he won’t be unfaithful to her as he’s dating over 30 women and he asks what will make her more comfortable and she says a kiss, which i guess is better than saying, don’t date 30 women.

Queen Victoria is here and super sparkly. With her eyeshadow and then her dress. She tells him that she’s insecure and is basically fishing for compliments in the way she is talking. She said she wants to know him better and keep getting deep with him, and it’s just so surface level. He’s obviously not feeling it because he said he’ll walk her back upstairs to the girls and she tells the camera she opened up so much and hasn’t opened up that much with a guy in a LONG time

Lauren gets the group date rose for opening up about her family and what she’s looking for in a relationship and with a guy! And Queen Victoria is pissed because she stood out on the date and stood out in her conversation with him. Queen Victoria is either a daughter to someone in the show, or daddy is paying ABC a bunch of money because the only one talking to her or even listening to her is a producer who’s wearing a mask and is listening because she is paid to do so.

The last one on one date is Sarah. She’s the one who is 24 and focused on her career for so long. They’re going up in a tiny plane and she is freaking out and of course they fly by the resort so all the girls can see them and get real jealous.

He said that the hardest thing for him is not taking to family. She said she texts or talks to her mom, dad and sister every day so it’s weird. He said he’s looking for his “emergency contact” the person that you put on your forms. He gives her a chance to open up about her family and is asking questions and she is doing long pauses and not making eye contact, but you can tell something is up.

She tells us in her interview that she doesn’t want to open up too much and scare him away. He tells us that he needs her to open up more. She’s struggling with being vulnerable and opening up.

She does open up at the night portion of the date but is struggling being a private person. She talks about family being everything to her. When she was in college they noticed behaviors in her Dad and he has ALS. He has so far surpassed doctors expectancies. She came home to San Diego to be a caregiver for her Dad. He said any time that he’s faced adversities in his life is his faith and he’s going to be praying for her and her Dad.

She tells him that she didn’t know if she should be here or not, but she felt called to be here. He’s honored she’s here and asks what can he do throughout this experience to show her that he could be someone she wants to be with. Her breath is taken away. She wants him to be as real as possible and life isn’t going to be plane rides, sunsets and dates like this. And this is one of the most real conversations we’ve ever had on this show, let alone on the first dates of the season and I am HERE for it! I’m falling for Matt James each more each week. He gives her the rose and they make out a little bit, then they get to go into a hot tub to celebrate and make out some more.

Cocktail party time!

Abigail grabs Matt first and they talk about how it seems like it’s been forever since she got the first impression rose and they talked. She misses him. And then they get into the cutest conversation ever and talk about how they’re going to do secret signals. And guys Abigail must be a Selection Series book fan! Remember how America and Prince Maxon have a secret signal of tugging on their ear, well that’s also Matt and Abigail’s signal and they love how subtle it is and that you need to be looking or you could miss it!

Matt’s having a great time laughing with people and enjoying life.

And of course we run into the wet blankets. We have the first girl, Marylynn who didn’t go on a date wonder what she did wrong and why is she here. He breaks out an orchid that he had hiding behind a couch because that is her favorite flower.

Victoria is PISSED that Marylynn got a flower and now she needs to ruin her happiness. Also, can we talk about Victoria’s dress for a second? It’s not the same dress as Drew Barrymore’s first prom in Never Been Kissed, but is kinda giving me those vibes

Queen Victoria decides to be the first one to break the cardinal rule in Bachelor world and comes in and tells Matt that her roommate used to be Marylynn but she manipulates situations and is straight up toxic. Now Matt is confused that they used to be roommates. We all know that Marylynn couldn’t handle Victoria and we know that Marylynn is in the right and Queen Victoria is in the wrong. Also Queen Victoria is able to have her positive attitude and wants to get rid of the toxicity.

Poor Matt is being manipulated and thinks that Queen Victoria is being bullied and isn’t here for that. But Matt wants to get to the bottom of this, which you know never works out. The girls are not seeing how Marylynn would attack Queen Victoria. Queen Victoria keeps going and telling all the girls all about how much of a bully Marylynn is and each group she goes to is shocked by this story and no one is taking her side, so she’s telling more and more people which is making her look worse and worse. READ THE ROOM QUEEN VICTORIA!

Marylynn does a great job staying calm and defending herself unfortunately Matt is confused and doesn’t know what to think and believe. It’s a “she said, she said.” and he doesn’t know who to believe. Marylynn went and had a conversation with Victoria and tried to be an adult and Victoria wouldn’t have it. She walked off and the girls are pissed Victoria brought up this drama tonight to Matt and wasted his time and now half the girls don’t get to talk to him.

Rose ceremony time!

1. Bri – first one on one and first outta the limo, I’m saying final 4
2. Lauren – group date rose
3. Sarah – second one on one date
4. Pieper – don’t think she got any screen time today, but good for her
5. Kit – I feel like Kit will be the villain once Queen Victoria goes home
6. Magi – Ethipian princess
7. Rachael – the one who kinda looks like Kendall Jenner
8. Abigail – she goes and adjusts her earing as she heads to him
9. Chelsea – the beautiful model
10. Jess – connected with him on the group date
11. Katie – she was pretty quiet tonight, she was the one who had the vibrator the first night but has toned things down quite a bit
12. Serena C – she wanted time with Matt but I don’t think she ever got it

Sarah gets real dizzy and is about to pass out enough where she goes off the top riser and Matt is to her not soon after the producer gets her to sit down. We get a medic to come over because she’s seeing stars and blacking out.

It looks like she’s still around next week, but this process may be too much for her. Too much unnecessary drama, looks like Producers have Victoria here again next week, but hopefully her obligatory contract is done after that because we know they aren’t ending up together!

Well, after 2 episodes, I’m still pro-Matt and he’s still on target to be my favorite Bachelor since Ben! Here’s hoping that continues!

Until next week!

Premiere of Matt James Season

Welcome to 2021! A new Bachelor season is upon us and for the first time in a LONG time we have a brand new Bachelor that we’ve not seen on our TV screens before. We have Matt James! He’s 28 and the definition of tall, dark and handsome! He’s from NC but now works and lives in NYC. We would know him because he’s best friends with Tyler C who was on Hannah B’s season and the guy she should’ve chosen instead of the musician she chose who cheated on her right away. He comes from a mixed family, his dad is black and his mom is white. He’s a Christian and that is everything to him. He went to Wake Forest and played football. He was in a single family household and has trouble opening up and being vulnerable.

The hotel/resort he’s going to be quarantined at makes the LaQuinta resort that Clare and Tayshia were at look like a LaQuinta resort that you and I would stay at on the side of an interstate. Matt and these girls are gonna be spoiled and I’m thrilled that we are going to get a change in scenery because if I had to stare at the El Presidente suite and that fountain one more week I’d be done!

It’s time to meet some of the girls. Our intro packages are still in covid time, so not as exciting as normal, but we’re still able to meet a few and make some judgements 🙂

Alicia the ballerina is 24 and lives in NYC.

Abigail, 25 Portland, OR, tells us she was born completely deaf so if she takes out her cochlear implant she can’t hear. She actually looks a lot like Kelly the lawyer from Pilot Pete’s season.

Kristin, 27 is a lawyer from NJ. She also can let loose and wear fringe and enjoy a drink.

Magi, 32 is a pharmacist from Ethiopia who just came to the US 9 years ago.

Anna 24 is a copywriter from Chicago and at night is a bartender. She’s a combo of Hannah B and Crystal, she has the crazy eyes but is real cute, but is totally psycho.

Sarah is a tv broadcast who tells us “I’ve always been so career focused” FYI Sarah is 24 so she’s put in a lot of hard hours guys!

She took a step back to come home and be a caregiver for her dad who has ALS, which is really sweet, I just struggled with her saying she had been focused for years on a career.

Matt James may be one of our tallest Bachelor’s because he makes Chris Harrison look really really short. Harrison and him have the first heart to heart and Harrison said he’s going to meet the woman of his dreams and be engaged by the end of this. Matt is our first Black Bachelor and he talks about the pressure of pleasing everyone since he is part of an interracial relationship, he doesn’t want to piss anyone off.

Okay guys! Here we are! Limos are arriving, let’s go!

1. Bri – 24 – is gorgeous. She is in a green dress and tells him that she knows a lot about him and has heard nothing but great things. No silly gimmicks, she goes for the hug and he’s impressed and she went up high on my list of girls to keep an eye out for!
2. Rachael – 24 from GA – she’s wearing glass slippers and is excited they get to do this all together for the first time
3. Sarah – 24 – our broadcaster who was focused on her career. She talks about how she’s going to be homesick meeting friends and family but hopes home will eventually feel like it’s with him. For her being on camera so much for her career, I’m shocked she was as nervous as she was and didn’t really stand out much.
4. Jessenia – 27 – TX – I LOVE her Royal blue dress she’s wearing, it is a great color for her dark hair and her skin tone. She has a bright grin and is looking for a partner to be a rock for and she’ll be the same.
5. Chelsea – 28 – NY and is a runway model. Everything about her screams model and here because she’s a model, not for Matt at all. She has a shaved head that she is totally rocking the look for. The dress has all these cutouts and is cut down to here and the black modesty box is on high alert. She wants to make history with him since he’s the first Black bachelor.
6. Mari – 24 – MD in a silver or pale pink sparkly dress. She is excited to see where in the world they end up even though they can’t travel. Matt is feeling her, he said “you ever have a moment where you can’t say anything and are just tryin to be smooth? That was that moment!”
7. Magi – 27 – said she came all the way from Ethiopia to meet him, now not gonna lie, that seems like a stretch since she said she came here for pharmacy school, but tomato/tomato.
8. Carolyn – 30 – LA she has lavender from her mom’s garden as good luck
9. Sydney – 28 – TN tells him he’s the hottest human being she’s ever met.
10. Kristin – 27 – lawyer “the verdict is in and he’s guilty of being fine!”
11. Anna – 24 – Chicago – our crazy eye girl brings him a survival kit that has a stress ball, red flags and other things.
12. Khaylah – 28 – NC shows up in a pickup. She is from NC and he’s a NC boy and they look at the truck and remind him of home.
13. Serena – 24 – CA is a flight attendant. Who tripped and he caught her, but they both could giggle about it.
14. Serena P – 22 is from Canada, she brought a step stool to get on his level b/c she’s 5’2″ which is my height so I appreciate the point of reference for me
15. Alicia – 24 – ballerina does some ballet moves to him from the limo
16. Saneh – 25 – denver she has Goat slippers on and hopes he remember her.
17. Alana – 26 – does the lady and the tramp move to get a kiss from him
18. Kaili – 26 – Chicago comes up in a robe and a bra and underwear wheeling a dress rack. She hugs him first in her attire. Then she realizes she doesn’t know what to wear between the two dresses and asks him for his advice. He does the strapless.
19. Abigail – 25 – Oregon – she tells him right off the bat about her cochlear implant and that she’s going to read his lips a lot tonight, luckily he has beautiful lips and he melted my heart by saying he’ll annunciate for her.
20. Corrinne – 22 – CT – she’s here because it’s him
21. Marylynn – 28 – CA – everything in her life brought her here to him
22. Emani – 25 – NM – this is crazy
23. Lauren – 29 – FL – she doesn’t settle for anything in her life and she’s glad she hasn’t because then she wouldn’t be able to be on this journey with him
24. Pieper – 23 – OR – her dad always wanted her and her sister to keep their last name, which is James, so she’s thrilled to be meeting him!
25. MJ – 23 – OH drives up in a car that has pizza sign, but locks the backseat of the car and says “this is cheesy but the way to your heart is thru your stomach”
26. Katie – 29 – WA – comes out of the limo with something behind her back. She asks for a hug so he’s able to get a preview of what it is. She gives him a vibrator and he laughs and she takes it back and now it’s sitting on the table with all the girls.
27. Amber – 30 – CA – shows up on a bicycle built for 2
28. Kimberly – 28 – from Seattle brings a GIANT fish that she tries to throw at him like they do in the fish market and he drops it
29. Casandra – 25 – CA – Shows up in a jersey with “Mrs James” on it, but she’s in pads over her cocktail dress
30. Illeana – 25 – NYC – asks him if she can put his balls in her mouth and it’s meatballs
31. Kit – 21 – NYC shows up looking like a muppet and shows up in a really nice car, evidently it’s a Bentley
32. Victoria – 27 – from LA and she has a Tierra and brings him a crown, she also shows up being carried in by 4 guys on a throne.

Matt comes into the living room and starts off his journey by praying for all the girls and I am HERE FOR IT!

He is nervous but wants to be vulnerable but knows it will be a learning experience for all of them since he hasn’t been on the show yet. I don’t know, I feel like a lot of these girls are really acting and saying what they think Matt wants to hear. Which I know is part of this process, but I’m wanting it to be genuine.

Right now, I’m not buying what Rachel is selling. She teared up with Matt’s speech and talked about how hard it is to be vulnerable, but also the way she talked made it seem like she was recruit, so the producers found her on IG probably and wanted her to be a part of the show, which makes me think a producer has also coached her on what to say. I hope I’m wrong about her.

Matt tells us that he was part of the chess club. He’s playing a life-size game and the girl he’s playing has no idea how to play.

Mari comes and steals Matt and gives him a passport type thing that has her picture and facts about her. Like she’s from Puerto Rico. He asks her that’s going with the hurricane and her family. She’s opening up about how scary that has been coupled with earthquakes and aging parents and gets interrupted by the girl bringing a vibrator up and turning it on to get attention and it went over as well as you thought it would. Mari also used the word “pressure-full” She is a beauty queen and is NOT used to sharing time or attention and is not here for it.

Our NC girl grabs him and has a picnic in the back of the pickup with sweet tea and he’s pumped about that.

Kit brings a snow globe that has the NYC skyline and wants to make him feel more at home since she was born there. He says he doesn’t feel like a New Yorker and that’s all he said before Queen Victoria comes and says “Princess get outta here, the queen is here.” Unfortunately Queen Victoria takes herself out of the running to be Matt’s partner when she doesn’t understand the “drinking out of a fire hose” metaphor even after he explains it. She says she’d be the best fire hose for him to drink out of and he just agrees because it’s easier.

She goes back and steals him again even though other girls haven’t had time with him yet, so you can imagine how well that’s going over and she is bossing the girls around and just not making friends at all.

Bri talks to Matt and they have very similar backgrounds. Where she was raised by a single mom and her mom is Persian but looks white and her dad was black, but he bailed before she was born. She said she was real nervous getting out of the limo and can’t even remember what she said, and he remembered. First girl outta the limo, Bri is one to keep an eye out for people!

Abigail actually asks him how he’s doing. She tells him that his smile made her feel less nervous. He’s holding her hand and is actually holding both and is tryin to calm her down by saying he was nervous and he just wants her to feel comfortable and at ease around him. He appreciated how honest and upfront she was and she’s shocked he remembers. Both her and her sister are deaf. Her sister is a year and a half older and she followed in her footsteps. He tells her how gorgeous she is and she is not believing it, which makes me like her more and she needs to have more self-confidence in herself! He tells her he’s glad she’s here and then he goes in for the first real kiss of the season and they makeout for quite awhile!

Matt grabs the rose and takes it to Abigail! These two are sooooooo smiley around one another and really do seem quite comfortable with one another.

Rose ceremony time!

1. Abigail – First impression rose
2. Bri – not a shock with their shared background and first outta the limo
3. Rachael – I don’t know if I buy that she’s genuine or not, but hope she is for his sake
4. Chelsea – model with shaved head rocking it
5. Sarah – I forgot she was the broadcaster we’d met earlier in the episode that’s how memorable she is
6. MJ – the girl who will probably be most girls friend
7. Serena P
8. Kaylah – NC girl who showed up in a pickup
9. Kristin – lawyer
10. Kit – of course producers had Kit stay because she’s going to be the dramatic one once we lose Queen Victoria. She’s 21 she ain’t here for the right reasons at all
11. Magi – our girl who came from Ethiopia to meet him
12. Pieper- the girl who’s last name is already James
13. Mari – guess she doesn’t need to be angry she got interrupted by a vibrator
14. Illiana – unfortunate meatball joke
15. Jessenia – my girl in a royal blue dress i liked
16. Kailah – the lingerie girl who let him choose her dress
17. Marylynn – the one who was panicking in the interview that she was terrified she wasn’t going to get a rose but did
18. Serena C
19. Lauren
20. Sydney
21. Alana – wearing the same dress as Anna and they’re standing right in-front of one another
22. Katie – girl who brought the vibrator
23. Anna – crazy eye girl who’s wearing the same dress as Anna
24. Queen Victoria – because producers made him, we know she’s the token on the show for a couple episodes and will be out of here before we know it.

The ballerina is leaving and no one else that really stood out to me. Sorry girls that you had to do quarantine and Covid testing for one night where you didn’t even get one conversation with him. Hope it was worth it!

Matt has a good sense of humor, he asked for champagne glasses and before they got passed out he said he knows it’s been a long night, but everyone is going to put on their gym clothes and there’s a half marathon going on. I would LOVE to see that actually happen, that’d narrow this field down real easily for him. We’d have a shorter season than Clare and Dale that way!

Alright the promo has everything we come to love and expect for our Bachelor season. Right now I’m thinking Matt is too good to be the Bachelor. I am at this point putting him on my Ben Higgins pedestal, let’s hope he stays up there and doesn’t come toppling down!

I’ll see you all next Monday!

Tayshia’s Finale

Welcome back guys, we’ve made it to the end of Tayshia’s journey. In an unexpected season where we started with one Bachelorette and ended up with another, let’s see how this all plays out!

We start off with Ben & her in her hotel room. He tells her that he loves her and she asks him if down the road when she needs him and things get hard, will he be there or will he run away? He doesn’t really answer her question, he just says he loves her. She tells him that he can come to the rose ceremony, but she doesn’t know what she’s going to do yet and wishes he would’ve said something earlier.

She walks him to the door and he asks if he can hug her goodbye and she looks hesitant, but lets him. Then she grabs him and they make out a little bit so she can get the physical connection there and is going to lead with that side instead of her brain evidently.

Now rose ceremony time, we see Ivan then Zac join us. Then Ben comes up and says that Tayshia invited him to come to the rose ceremony. Ivan is shocked to see him and then they’re trying to grasp the fact that Brendan is not with us, but Ben is. Zac & Ivan are just floored

Tayshia picks up the rose, then puts it down. Then asks if she can talk to Ivan. He was not expecting her to say his name right now, so she grabs him to talk to him. I think he sees where this is going. She is talking about how they had some conversations and she was wanting to get some clarity. It seems like religion is something that they do not agree on. She is saying this is a roadblock and they need to say goodbye. I wonder if that is the case, or if it’s an easy excuse for Ben being here now. Would she have said this had it just been Zac and Ivan here? He is teary eyed and affected by this breakup and said he meant everything he said and she walks him to the reject limo. He gets in and drives away and she just stands there and watches him drive away with no tears at all. I don’t understand how she broke down so much saying goodbye to Blake and Riley, but has NO EMOTION for Ivan?!?

Ivan I think hits the nail on the head when he says “I think this is a lot harder than Tayshia imagined and I don’t know if she’ll end up with anyone.” This is what I’ve been getting from her. I think these 2 guys are guys that she knows she won’t actually marry in the future. They’re just someone she can date for a little while. She says when she gives Zac and Ben the roses that she is truly confident in them. REALLY?!? How are you fully confident in a guy who wasn’t here 2 hours ago? A guy you haven’t met his parents and a guy who you haven’t spent any significant alone time with?

We’ve got Tayshia with her family and she tells the family that Ben went home and he has shown back. The family is quite hesitant about this. The little brother says “This should be interesting.” She also says she met his family, but I’d be curious what they would think that Mom & Dad didn’t make an appearance in his hometown.

Dad asks why Ben and she just says that she’s liked him since the beginning. “I don’t want you to work so hard on getting on the same page,” is a very telling quote that Dad says and I don’t think that’s what either of these guys bring to the table. Tayshia and Ben never say that they like one another because of their sense of humor, or overcoming obstacles in their lives or their determination. Everything is just very surface level, and feelings. Give me a CONCRETE EXAMPLE!

Zac’s turn to meet the family! He gets it by telling them that the first time he saw Tayshia really light up was when she talked about her family. Tayshia talks about how excited Zac makes her feel. Again, no concrete reasons. Zac with talking to the Dad is able to give concrete examples of conversations that they’ve had. He talks about the example that the Dad gave to Tayshia and he knows the expectations are high and he is going to strive to meet those. He knows there will be challenges and then he doesn’t ask the Dad for permission to marry Tayshia but does talk about how he could propose to her in a few days and he’ll only do that if he sees it going the distance and he does.

We’ve got Tayshia journaling and then sitting at her table and there’s a knock at her door and she goes “UNNHUH, NO WAY.”

It ends up it’s her Dad and he comes and sits down. Poor Dad is sweating profusely. Seriously, does the El Presidente suite not have AC? I’m trying to focus on what he’s saying, but the sweat is distracting!

He said he’s been thinking about his time with the guys and he really doesn’t want Tayshia to make a mistake. He likes Zac and Ben is a good guy but they’re worried she’s settling. She is PISSED you can tell she is frustrated by this. He asks if she’s fully confident in her choice and she said she’s nervous because it’s a big step. And you can tell he wants his baby girl to run away! He knows this isn’t what she wants to hear, but he doesn’t want her to make a mistake. He probably kept his mouth quiet with the first marriage, he ain’t going to do that again. He doesn’t want her to take any steps back from where she was with her divorce.

We now have Tayshia and Zac hanging out under a tree behind a really loud stream/waterfall. The background noise is real loud so it’s hard to hear their convo. Zac feels good after meeting her family and he asks what she thinks of it. You can tell she’s not fully invested in this. Zac tells us that there is heaviness. Why is this poor guy in long sleeves, we need to not have light colored long sleeve shirts because there is SO MUCH SWEAT!

Tayshia and Zac are learning to dance like a first wedding dress and Tayshia is STRESSED out. I think it’s a combo of wanting to be a perfectionist with the dance and replaying her Dad’s convo.

We get their night portion of their date. She tells us she was feeling funky earlier in the day because she’s worried about all the things that could go wrong in the future. She’s used to people running away and not staying (AHEM BEN AHEM). His assurance to her is that he has had fun smiling and laughing with her. He tells us that today is an anniversary for him, he’s 9 years sober and his sobriety is the most important thing to him because it helps him not run away. If he proposes, he’s sticking around forever.

We now go to Ben telling us he’s going to propose to Tayshia today. We then see Tayshia in the same clothes she was in when she was talking to her Dad before we saw Zac’s date. She ends up breaking up with him because even though she cares about him, her heart is with someone else. He goes back to the whole “I love you” because that is all he really knows what to say. He hugs her and tells her he’s hoping she’s happy and wishes her the best and he drives away in the reject limo.

We now have Tayshia and Zac getting ready to propose. Why are we getting all ready when we know there’s going to be tons of sweat? Zac gets to meet Neil Lane who shows us the rings. Neil is getting even more face time here!

I don’t know how I feel about Tayshia’s final dress. I feel she’s had great choices of wardrobe and I don’t know, if this is the exact look I’d go for her here. WOW Tayshia said she’s questioning if she’s ever been in love until now and that is a red flag to me. In this environment which is unlike even a normal Bachelorette environment. Where your Dad just begged you to not do anything rash and you’re saying the right words but seem like you’re needing to convince yourself just as much as you’re needing to convince Harrison, something doesn’t seem right here.

We’ve got Zac walking towards her in the desert. We have them standing on a wooden dock with the random rug on it. In his engagement speech he talks about their fountain and how everything happens for a reason. He came to the desert to fall in love with her. He gives all these reasons he loves her and I don’t know if she is fighting herself to let her guard down, or what internal debate is going on, but something is happening.

She says “I know I told you I love you, BUT……” and then she takes a REALLY LONG pause and then said that she really really loves him.

He seems way more excited about this then she does. Right before he’s going to propose, he starts to break down and he has to whisper his proposal because he’ll cry if he talks in a full voice. She starts breaking down because he said he’s going to choose her forever. She does break out into a big grin and they’re crying, shaking and laughing. They get to climb into their fake taxi car from his hometown date.

And that’s a wrap on the season!?!? There’s no After the Final Rose and I am SO CONFUSED! Why is there no ATFR? That’s my favorite part of the season. We get no closure on Ivan and Brendan! Wow, they really needed that hour for Super Shopper Sweep? That is the most shocking ending to me!

Well, I’ll try and get over this. I wish Tayshia and Zac well. I think they’ll date awhile, hang out in NYC, but I am not expecting them to make it down the aisle, but hopefully I’m wrong!

I’ll see you guys in a couple weeks, back on Monday nights we’ve got Matt James as our Bachelor! I’ll be back then, but in the meantime, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Tayshia’s Fantasy Suite Dates

Welcome to Fantasy suite night!

Is anyone else over the fountain that we’ve seen a thousand times now? We do have the guys still sitting in their sitting room which is bizarre that they’re all going to hang out during this process because normally they are no where near each other and I think that’s a better way to be before you get engaged, then hanging out with the 2 guys she’s also dating. If we have a situation like we did with Colton on his fantasy suite where he hopped the fence for Cassie and then let the other 2 go (who I only realized as I was typing that was TAYSHIA!) the guys would know about. Whereas Tayshia and Hannah G didn’t know what was going on with Cassie.

It’s weird too because now they know where they line up in fantasy suite order and if windmilling is done, then they’ll know what order that happened in as well, where they normally wouldn’t.

For some reason we need a filler with Tayshia and JoJo having breakfast and talking about how she’s going on fantasy suite dates. I don’t know what the purpose of this is, unless JoJo had in her contract so many minutes she’d be on air this season and there really is nothing for ABC to show us, so they need to drag this out.

Ivan gets the first one on one date. Their date is going to be them in an ice bath in a horse trough and they are going to go for the world’s longest coldest kiss. We have Harrison here and Big Paulie who normally just grabs the luggage of the contestant when they’re cut and going home. We’ve never heard him talk before, we normally just see him quietly come in. And now he’s giving a commentary with Harrison while they’re kissing. He’s really moved up in the world, huh!?!?

Ivan & Tayshia both giggle when they first get in the ice bath and then they’re shaking but they kiss in this ice bath for 6:35. Poor Ivan, this is his date instead of hanging on a beach or heck even shopping in a local market of some small foreign town would be better than this!

In the night portion of the date Ivan is giddy that they broke a world’s record and then tells her that he started falling for her a few weeks ago, but he can now say that he has fallen for her and he’s sorry if he glossed over it. Tayshia is giddy and tells him that she has been falling for him as well. Then they make-out and decide to forego their individual rooms to go to the fantasy suite and have uninterrupted time the two of them. They get to go to this lil RV thing with champagne and donuts to hang out. This makes me feel better then them all going to fantasy suites in her El Presidente suite/room like I was originally worried about. Tayshia tells us that Ivan is literally everything, which means he’s not going to get chosen, because it’s going to be too easy.

We get the morning after where they’re hanging outside the RV again and rehash what they talked about the night before. Tayshia said they talked about religion and what their goals are and things you should know about someone before you’re engaged, which makes me happy she had that conversation. Ivan walks in to talk to Brendan and Zac and he is in different clothes than his PJs he was in when he walked away from Tayshia. Poor Brendan is toeing this line of being a good friend and torturing himself with asking Ivan for more details and finds out they didn’t sleep at all last night.

So Zac & her’s date is pouring paint all over their bodies while she’s in a white bikini. He doesn’t try and disguise at all where his eyes and attention are when the paint is constantly directed towards her chest. And then they just roll around and make out on this canvas and I feel like we’re already in the fantasy suite with these two. Of the 3 she has left, she has the most physical chemistry with Zac, which makes me think she’ll choose him, but only because I don’t think she actually wants to get married right now. I think she’s looking for fun because I don’t know if she’s completely over getting hurt in her marriage and isn’t ready to fully put herself out there yet, so I think that’s why she goes Zac.

Tayshia catches him in a lie when his Mom told her that he doesn’t want kids. He said oh no, he’s being honest now, but he was lying before when he said he didn’t want to be a dad. He wants to be a dad now and is willing to be her baby daddy for 5 kids. I don’t know, I WANT to like Zac, but I just have a weird feeling that he’s a good manipulator. He tells her that he loves her and she says “OH no! Because I love you too.” Exactly the reaction that you’d want to hear. They forego their rooms and go to the fantasy suite.

Their fantasy suite was in a little condo and in the morning we walk into them jumping and dancing on the bed while she’s in her robe, you know every day activity.

We get all the guys on the couch hanging out and it’s just so awkward because you can tell they’re all friends and want to be friends, but then they’re dating the same girl. Poor Brendan is feeling the pressure of this whole situation and wants to be a good friend but wants to be a good boyfriend and he just doesn’t need to be on reality tv. He’s too good for this show!

Brendan’s date is looking at engagement rings with NEIL LANE! Or as Brendan says “The Diamond guy!”

Why does Brendan have to look at engagement rings for his date, where’s his ice bath or canvas? Instead we get Neil Lane showing Tayshia all the bracelets and rings he HAND CRAFT makes. He just keeps mentioning it and Brendan bless his heart is just quietly taking it and is internally freaking out, but let’s be honest, he’s wondering what he’s got himself into. And Neil is trying to get Brendan to try on an engagement band and Brendan is just thinking about how when he proposes the next time it’s going to be for the last time.

Tayshia tells Brendan that he was the first one she felt a connection with and then feels like he hasn’t been as open lately and doesn’t know where he stands. Brendan said they were on the right path, but today showed to him that an engagement is a forever moment. It’s been challenging being on a dating show with other guys vying for her attention. Brendan gets choked up talking about how he wants a wife and children more than anything in this world and there’s a big part of him that’s still broken and needs to heal and grow and he needs to heal from his divorce still. Brendan tells her “You deserve a man who is complete and is healed from his past and unfortunately right now he’s not that man.”

I am applauding Brendan for being classy in this moment and I realize that Tayshia protects herself by putting up a guard and getting defensive and a little angry. She basically says to him that she wishes he would’ve said something earlier. When she gets him to the limo though, he hugs her and wishes her the best and that’s when she breaks down and starts crying. She tells us in her interview she thought she’d end up with him. He’s sad in his interview she’s sobbing watching him go away and I am sad he’s not going to be on my screen anymore.

We get more filler with Tayshia and Rachel Lindsay, who was our first black Bachelorette who has married her guy she chose, Bryan. As she’s talking to Rachel about the guys she talks about the 2 she has left, but Ben gets mentioned and with Ben getting mentioned I think we all know he’s showing up again. I mean we all saw it coming a million miles away last week but now it’s even more solidified.

Ben knocks on Harrison’s door and Ben tells him that he loves Tayshia and wants to tell her that he loves her because he didn’t get a chance to tell her that. He decided the way to express his love is in bowling shoes, skinny jeans and a white shirt that actually doesn’t have a weird neck, so that’s a win!

Tayshia is wearing a dress that looks fabulous on her but is something I could never ever wear because I do not have the same assets as her. Ben knocks on her door as she’s getting ready to go to the rose ceremony. She doesn’t seem thrilled to see him, she doesn’t seem super shocked to see him and even if she’s shocked she isn’t happy about seeing him. He hems and haws a little bit and talks about how he was blindsided and Ben you NEED to get to the point! He does drop that he’s in love with her and her immediate response is to roll her eyes. BEN READ THE ROOM!!!!! She tells him that she’s not alright and she needs a minute and walks away and that’s how the episode ends with her going into her bedroom and talking to a producer.

But the promo for tomorrow makes it look like Ben is in more scenes and Ivan is only in his rose ceremony clothes! So does Ivan get dumped and it’s Ben and Zac for the final 2?!? I’d go from the best final 4 to one of the worst final 2s with that combo. Ughhhhh I think it’s Zac’s to lose, but I’d still prefer to see Ivan tomorrow on my screen instead of a lot of Ben. Oh well, we’ll get the final end of this journey tomorrow night!

Tayshia’s Hometown Dates!

Night 2 this week and it’s “Hometowns” well it’s 2020’s version of Hometowns. We’re bringing the families into the Bachelor bubble. So have the parents been quarantining here for 2 weeks? Did they come in on the same flight as Harrison when he dropped his son off at college? This is weird because we’re having the 4 guys stay in their suite, normally once we go to Hometowns, these guys are separated and never around each other again, I wonder if they’ll stay in the suite for the rest of the time or when do they separate?

These guys are pumped to hear who’s on property for their hometowns! They are all emotional, and when you think of how long they’ve been in the Bachelor bubble this is a real long time to be away from family and not be able to talk to anyone. It’s even more bizarre than a “normal” Bachelor experience. You can also tell these 4 all genuinely like one another and actually probably will be bros after this whole experience. I mean they all went thru the craziness of Clare and then Tayshia, which is pretty remarkable when you think of it. We didn’t even need to bring in the 4 extra guys who came in late, they’re all gone now.

Brendan breaks down and tells the guys how important his big brother is, who is here for him. After Brendan’s dad passed his big brother took on the surrogate Dad role. Plus we have his sister-in-law and his niece.

When Tayshia sees Brendan she is GIDDY to see him. It’s been a long time since they had their one on one and you can tell how pumped she is to get some quality time with him and not worry about the other guys and their feelings.

He is going to do a fair thing, where maybe the carnies who’d set up that ferris wheel for Zac’s date and posed nude for the group date stayed on property and set this up. He said he’s ready to have fun but there’s just one thing missing. I think we all thought it was going to be Tayshia that’s missing. But he said it’s his niece that is missing. And his niece who’s probably 11 or so comes running down the sidewalk arms outstretched. And OMG Tayshia thinks this girl is running for a hug for her, they handle it well and do hug. But you can tell she’s running to Brendan and Brendan is SO EXCITED to see her! He lifts her up and it’s a huge bear hug that warms my heart!

They all play the fair games and are having a great time. Aliyah the niece is getting along well with Tayshia and you can tell Brendan is so caring and looking out for Aliyah. OMG they have a secret handshake! Which immediately made me think of the parent trap and the handshake Annie has with her butler Martin!

Brendan dances and is so goofy and sweet with his niece. He comes up with a handshake for Tayshia. He is showing his fun side which you know Tayshia is going to respond to. He tells us he only wants to propose one more time because he’s already done this once. Brendan is too good for us people. He shouldn’t be on this franchise and TV show, he’s too pure for this.

Just when I think I can’t love Brendan more he opens his mouth and I fall again. He thanks his brother for everything he’s done, but he said he feels he hasn’t said it in awhile and you can tell from his brother he’s heard it before which I LOVE that he didn’t wait for the cameras to say this.

Next “Hometown” is Zac and Tayshia. Zac shows her how to hail a taxi and they get in a taxi cutout and are going on the date in NYC. And honestly it’s a rip off of the 2 minute date from How I met your mother which was also located in NYC.

We meet Zac’s brother, Mom & Dad. They are all a smiley group as well. Can we please get some air conditioning for these people?!? There is more sweat here than in Cool Hand Luke. I do love Zac’s Dad, he is super sweet and says he’s from a small town so it’s hard for him to grasp this whole her dating 4 guys and he couldn’t be one of the 4, so it’s probably a good thing that he’s dating her son. The mom cries and loves her son and loves Tayshia. Tayshia had a great time with him and makes out with him.

Ivan gets the thrid date! Ivan brings her to a house and they are going to cook! We get a preview of what they’re going to make from his 4.5 year old niece who has a video of her cooking and she is SO sweet! Now Tayshia and him go to kitchen and are cooking and dancing around.

Tayshia is going to meet his parents and she is just the 2nd person to come home and meet the parents! Ivan’s mom and Tayshia could be in a family picture together because they are very well coordinated in their orange dresses. Ivan’s mom is THRILLED to see her baby! This is the longest they’ve gone in his 28 years of not talking to each other. You can tell he’s a Mama’s boy but not to the level of Peter. She’s also skeptical of this experience and I appreciate that about her. I am a fan of Ivan’s mom.

But I LOVE Ivan’s Dad!!! He is also on his second marriage and wants to make sure that she has reflected on it and learned. Ivan told us that his dad has had 2 heart attacks and cancer and if he gets covid it could be bad, so everybody on that crew better have been extra careful for Clarence’s sake!

We’re wrapping up the evening and Ivan is talking to his parents and talks about his niece’s video and the door opens and Tayshia’s mouth drops. And it’s Ivan’s brother surprising him and my heart melts. Ivan breaks down! He is so excited to see him, he’s crying, laughing a big combo with a giant hug.

I thought after all these years of watching this show that I was jaded and over it, but dang if Brendan’s niece and Ivan’s brother didn’t both get to me. I yelled at the TV “THE BROTHER!!!!!”

Ivan tells his brother that he is the most influential person in his life. Ivan says that he loves his Mom & Dad, but his brother is the most influential. You can tell his brother has been thru quite a lot, but I do hope he’s on the right track. The fact that he came and showed up to be here for Ivan gives me hope.

Ben gets the last date and they’re going rollerblading. If this were me rollerblading I would be on my butt. They stopped at a juice bar, went to boardwalk shops and there was a caricature of them and then they hang out at the pool that is their “beach.” Ben’s parents aren’t going to make it because his dad is a doctor and covid. But if they live in Venice they’re just around the corner compared to some of these other parents and Mom couldn’t come? We’re meeting his sister Madeline and family friend Antonia.

Ben’s sister tells us that he is guarded because he’s been hurt before. She wants the wall to be broken down. She tells us he’s sensitive which is interesting because he told Harrison earlier in the episode he doesn’t know how to handle his emotions.

Ben has such weird necks on his shirts, I just don’t get it. He has wider necks than I do on my shirts. I’m also really confused by this Antonia! She’s a family friend and I have no idea how old she is. If she’s young, does she have feelings for Ben? It seems weird that Ben said that Tayshia and Antonia are the same person. I think Antonia is the best friend who loves him but hasn’t had the guts to tell him and she just watches him go out with other girls and tries to be his wingman but prays he’ll open his eyes someday.

Antonia tells Ben that he loves Tayshia and he admits it to her, but then at the end of the night he has ample opportunity to tell her that fact and he hems and haws but doesn’t say the words and lets her walk away.

It’s rose ceremony time!

This is such a great final 4! She can’t go wrong with who she chooses for her final 3. I think if I were her I’d send Ben home, but I don’t think she’s going to do that. I think she has such a physical attraction to him he’s going to continue on and it’s probably going to be Ivan that goes home and that makes me real sad.

1. IVAN!!!! I’m shocked he got the first rose! Good job Tayshia!
2. Zac – he’s her bad boy that she’s trying to reform. I did love his parents and brother though, so he’s endeared himself to me more.
3. BRENDAN!!!! Him and his niece get the rose!

I’m floored Ben is going home! I honestly thought he was staying because of their physical attraction, but maybe his parents not coming was a point against him. Tayshia tells him that they’re not really on the same page and don’t want the same thing and Ben doesn’t believe it, but he also doesn’t do a great job of articulating his feelings again. He said he’s heartbroken but he’ll be okay and idk she looks angry more than anything. He gets in the car and she’s pissed because he didn’t show any emotion. He is completely blindsided and had no idea he was going to go home, but he still loves her and wishes he would’ve said something. Please don’t have him come back, we’ve done that already this season with Bennett. We have one week left, Ben ride off into the sunset with Antonia and call it good.

Alright guys, we got Monday and Tuesday next week for Fantasy suite and Finale! Let’s all rest up, we got 3 amazing guys left but you know we got drama and tears galore to look forward to!

Tayshia’s Men Tell All

All is right in the world guys, we’ve got Bachelorette back on Monday night! We are going to go from 8 to 4, plus it looks like we get the Men Tell All, as well! So buckle up friends, it’s gonna be a dramatic night!

We start the night off by Tayshia greeting Harrison at her door. How in the world is he back so soon? He dropped his son off at college and cried at the end when he hugged him….but how is he here with Tayshia if he is supposed to quarantine after dropping off his son? There’s NO WAY he was gone for a day and has been quarantining for 2 weeks. So do rules not apply to Harrison?!?

Blake gets to go on his one on one date. Blake is SO into her and she is not into him at all. We’re going to watch this guy get his heart crushed and I just feel for him. They get the date that we have every season where we’re going to do some new age thing and see what their energy is like. This date was Peter & Kelly’s date and we know it didn’t work for them on the show, but they’re dating now, so it worked out okay for them in the end! The lady wants them to “disrobe” and Blake’s eyes get real big and he goes “excuse me” and of course for some reason they need to be in their bathing suits for this and then she needs to straddle him so they can breathe and look into each others eyes. Forget the fact that this lady is here and there’s a cameraman and a boom operator and producers all over. Tayshia is basically going to break up with him while sitting on his lap, which would be a first for us! She manages to not do that, but Blake is not picking up what she’s laying down. She’s trying to gently break it to him and he’s not seeing it and is trying to convince her to keep him around.

She finally gets it out that she wishes they had more time, but they don’t and they aren’t going to get there. He of course is a gentleman and handles it so well. Then she odes the thing I HATE where she walks him to the reject car and she starts bawling and he has to comfort her. She has a BREAKDOWN, where she can’t stand up she’s crying so much. She is ugly crying here, and she doesn’t regret sending him home, she just doesn’t want to hurt him. Plus she knows she has to do this over and over again this week.

Tayshia is changed into something comfy and comes to the house. The guys are all surprised to see her and she sits down on the couch and tells the guys she needs to talk to them. She starts crying again and is not sitting by the right guys here. Ben does not know how to handle tears, Noah grabs a paper towel for her to wipe her tears, but no one is comforting her here. She tells the guys that she sent Blake home because they weren’t on the same page. She tells us how hard this is and she doesn’t want to hurt anyone. She then looks at Riley and asks if she can talk to him. All the guys eyes are HUGE!

Riley is going to get dumped and we all see it, but you can tell unlike Blake, this guy can see it coming from a thousand miles away. I do appreciate him defending himself though. He wants to know why in the world did he get drug thru this whole process. Why did he put himself out there on National TV last week, telling a story he doesn’t want the word to know to just get dumped a week later. Questions I want the answers to as well Riley, because you were not treated fairly! She tries to use the line about how he should’ve opened up earlier and I’m sorry but it’s not like some of these other guys opened up much sooner than him. He is hurt, he’s going to love again some day, but right now he’s hurt by her.

Even though he tells her off a little bit, he still ends up forgiving her and hugging her and he drives off and she has another breakdown. This one doesn’t take her to her knees, this time she leans over at the waist. I don’t know which one means she’s in more pain, but again it’s because she doesn’t like hurting their feelings.

We’re at the cocktail party time! And in walks Bennett. All the guys stand up and shake his hand but Zach and Noah are the ones who are the least happy to see him. Bennett said he doesn’t want to be written off as a Harvard D-bag, and he’s here because he loves Tayshia and she invited him to the cocktail party.

Except, we’re not going to have a cocktail party, we’re going straight to the rose ceremony! We’ve got 6 guys and 4 roses!

1. Ben has a rose from last week
2. Zac C gets the rose which isn’t a shock with how their dates have gone lately.
3. Ivan – I’m PUMPED Ivan got a rose, he’s a sneaky darkhorse that snuck in there and I am all for it, his smile makes me swoon!
4. Brendan – his cute little mock turtleneck get another week!

That means going home are Noah and Bennett! This means it’s the final 4 I was rooting for, I can’t really remember the last time this happened!

She thanks Noah and Bennett but she doesn’t even walk them out, she just lets them say goodbye to her in-front of the guys.

Okay, so now we’re going to the Men Tell All. No studio audience, which I’m more than okay with as I generally hate the audience reactions. We get Harrison and the fellas in the studio and it’s going to be like nothing we’ve ever seen before.

We don’t get the guys introduced to us and I NEED the intro, because some of these guys don’t look familiar to me at all, I need help ABC!

Chasen is not here to defend himself against Ed and Ed is still upset he used the same adjectives to describe Clare and Tayshia. Demar speaks for the first time all season and I thought it was Eazy, so I’m glad ABC gave me his name. Demar attempts to defend Chasen, but no one is having it. Demar is using this as his audition for Bachelor in Paradise, which good for him I guess.

Now we get to hear Bennett and Noah fighting each other because we haven’t seen this for the past couple weeks. It’s the same song and dance. WOAH Noah goes after Kenny the boy band manager and now I’m angry! Don’t go after Kenny, that’s where I draw the line! Kenny is pissed because Noah stirred the pot. Yes, Noah and Bennett both stirred the pot and are both obnoxious and no one is going to be friends.

The guys get to see that Ed and Harrison got to share some wine together and they are all cracking up. Ed said he was disappointed for a second, but then realized he got to hang with Harrison. We also get to see an outtake of Blake’s date and this just shows they have NOTHING to work with to show us anything else with this season. We see Blake waxes Kenny.

We get Yosef to come out and join us. Remember he was the douchebag with Clare. And the guys are NOT thrilled to see him. He called her the oldest Bachelorette and is ashamed to be associated with her and then interrupts her and if looks could kill, he’d be dead from Riley, Blake and Ed.

I don’t know why Yosef came on this show, he just keeps digging himself into a grave. He has not done himself any favors here at all. RILEY FOR THE WIN! Riley warns all women to look out for him. Yosef got all of these guys united into hating him. Harrison is begging him to help himself and said he should apologize to Clare, but he refuses to. He even said if his daughter acted like Clare, he’d want a man to speak to her the way he spoke to Clare, his poor daughter! If that’s how she thinks a man should speak and act towards her, I feel for her.

Tayshia comes out and is able to pull off this silver velvet number which looks incredible on her and I can’t imagine ever being able to pull this off. She tries to tell us that it wasn’t planned that she was going to be the Bachelorette. I’ve seen some tweets where people are able to go back to the day she got on the property to the day she started filming and how it doesn’t add up when she also talked about needing to quarantine. Things weren’t adding up, and as we know for some reason this show wants us to think it’s super real all the time and will force us into that disillusion. I don’t know the full story, but I’m saying that this isn’t the full truth either, and honestly I don’t care enough, but I know some people do, so they can keep pushing for the real truth if they want.

Blake gets to be the guy on the Men Tell All where he is not over the breakup and has been going over it over and over again and is wondering if he had more time would it have been different. He can now remember the good times. He is a sweaty mess and can we get the guy some powder or a towel or something?!? He’s already been thru a lot, can we make sure he looks good right now!

We now get to go over the Riley breakup again. This guy deserves to keep his dignity, so I’m sorry we have to watch this all over again. He looks like this is the worst thing in the world for him and I want it to stop, for his sake. I’m just glad that we didn’t have to watch him pouring out his heart about his past, they at least gave him that. He’s tried to block it out and didn’t want to relive it, but he’s going to relive it again with all of us.

Tayshia asks if she can hug him, and he goes and sits next to her and he’s emotional. He wishes that he would’ve opened up sooner and tells her that he fell for her hard and he was so heartbroken that he just wallowed for the first week. He wishes he would’ve opened up more, but he appreciates the journey and wouldn’t change anything. She knows he’s incredible and she doesn’t want his past to hold him back. His past isn’t the reason she broke up with him, and he said thats a huge weight off his shoulder and is so emotional.

We get Bloopers and there are a ton of Bloopers of Clare and well the Bloopers were okay, but not as great as they normally are, but with 2020 what do you expect? Tomorrow night we get the hometown dates! We also get 2 nights next week for the season finale! I’ll see you all tomorrow for Hometown dates!

Tayshia’s Final 7ish!

Hello friends!

We are back and back is the 2 on 1 date, that is manufactured for drama. Bennett is digging himself a grave and Tayshia is pissed that he is questioning her integrity. I don’t think she’s using that phrase the way she thinks it means. Bennett said that she isn’t going to end up with Noah, which I think we can all see so he’s just speaking the words us as the audience are all thinking. He said all the things that he’d told Noah to her and she has no poker face and is NOT having this convo and he is somehow missing all the cues. Tayshia tells Noah they’ve been on a rollercoaster and I don’t know if that’s the way you want a relationship to be described, remember when she said it was so easy with Ivan, wouldn’t you rather that than the rollercoaster? Noah spends all his time talking about Bennett and not about Tayshia and his relationship, then he randomly pretends to cry and she falls for it hook line and sinker. SEND THEM BOTH HOME!!!

She doesn’t, she just sends Bennett home because he’s condescending. Noah gets told she doesn’t think he’ll be ready for marriage at the end of the show. She tells Bennett he is not getting the rose and says goodbye to him. Then comes in and chastises Noah and tells him not to smile and this isn’t a victory for him, she’s not giving him the rose now, he needs to see if he’ll get one at the rose ceremony. After of course Noah inhaled a whole pack of Tic Tacs because he thought they’d celebrate his victory with a makeout party.

Instead they’re all going to the cocktail party before the rose ceremony:

Riley decides to step up his game by giving her dessert and making her smile with a “happy anniversary” cake. I think I should like Riley, but I just can’t get behind him completely for some reason.

Zac comes and shows her the pictures of their pretend weddings last week and she looks at them with as much enthusiasm as she did last week when they took the pictures.

All we see are her and Ben making out by a fountain and it’s dark and for a second I thought it was Bennett and realized it was Ben.

Ivan gets 2 seconds of airtime which makes me sad. WE NEED MORE IVAN!

Then Brendan comes and talks to her and I kinda forgot about him because he really had zero airtime last week, or maybe it just seemed like zero airtime with the stupid drama we had to deal with.

Rose ceremony time!

1. Zac from his one on one date
2. Ben from the group date, remember when he got naked for his self-portrait and that somehow ended with him getting a rose
3. Brendan – okay him getting the first rose in the ceremony has to be a good sign!
4. Riley – maybe I’ll get to know him more this week, but I don’t know
5. Blake – kinda surprising, he’s gonna get cut here at some point
6. Ivan – YES! He’s my real #1!
7. FINAL ROSE: Noah – the producers want him around to cause drama which is ridiculous!

So we say goodbye to Demar (no idea who he is), Spencer who came outta the limo and Tayshia thought he was the most attractive guy ever, he got the first impression rose from her and then we never saw him again and then Ed is going home, Harrison isn’t here to save him this week since he’s still helping his son move into college. Speaking of JoJo didn’t come out and tell us it was the Final rose, we had to figure it out ourselves!

JoJo tells us that next week is hometown week, and Tayshia will be meeting the families! WHAT DOES THIS MEAN!?!? Will the families be coming to the resort or will it be a Zoom meeting?

Ben gets the first one on one date and JoJo supposedly set up a scavenger hunt for them to find an oasis. Of course Ben needs to take off his pants for some reason they both need to climb into the fountain instead of just Tayshia in her shorts. But of course Tayshia loves that he’s getting naked again. At the night portion Tayshia tells him she thinks he’s too perfect and him pretending to be humble doesn’t seem genuine. Since his stunt last week Ben has moved over to my suspicious list. I do agree with Tayshia, part of me thinks he’s putting on an act, and I don’t know if I buy what he’s selling. And now I feel like a jerk because Ben tells us that in 2018 he went thru a real hard time where everything in his life changed and he was in a bad way, enough where he evidently had a suicide attempt, but it wasn’t successful. Luckily his sister saved him, but he’s never told her she saved him. I PRAY that he told her before this show aired tonight, because she doesn’t deserve to find out when all of America finds out. I do always find it weird when they’re like “I’ve never told anyone this before….” and then you realize it’s on NETWORK TV – Millions of people know about this now! Ben gets the rose and she’s going to meet his family.

Group date is:

1. Brendan
2. Zac
3. Ivan
4. Riley
5. Noah

They are going to have a lie detector test, supposedly, but with Jojo being the one to administer this I’m going to say it’s not a real lie detector test as it takes lots of studying to actually read a polygraph test. So what this is, are questions that the producers/psychologists asked the guys during the screening process and know the answers to, hence how they can light up the different colored light bulbs.

All the guys are going to be the in the room as the lie detector is administered. Tayshia gets the first test. Her questions are all really boring “Are you in love with someone, is your husband in this group?”

Ivan passes his lie detector. Noah gets some orange and green ones. Brendan gets orange when it comes to is he ready to meet her family and does he want to her to meet his family. Zac said he has cheated and she’s pissed, but again how is that all that surprising based on what we learned about his past last week? Tayshia says “once a cheater always a cheater.” Riley does okay with his lie detector as well. So basically Ivan should get the rose because he’s the only one who passed with flying colors.

At the after party, Zac and Tayshia are talking and Tayshia is pissed that he cheated. He then tells us that he cheated on his 6th grade girlfriend………I don’t know if I buy that’s the only time he cheated. He tells her that he hated today because he didn’t want to say he’s falling in love with her in-front of all the guys, she then tells him she’s falling in love with him and then they makeout.

Tayshia tells Noah that his answers in the lie detector makes her feel better about him.

Poor Ivan is sweating his butt off in the desert heat. He tells her that he’s falling for her and she makes out with him.

Tayshia confronts Brendan about the hesitation on meeting of the families. He said he’s hesitant because he’s already been thru the proposal and wedding before and he doesn’t want to bring them out for a dog and pony show and it makes me fall for Brendan more. You can tell he cares for her and he is NOT here for Tv.

Riley has info that he keeps secret and doesn’t tell anyone, but know he needs to before his family comes here. He is cryin and Riley, I know I don’t completely ship you, but I am BEGGING you to not say anything to Tayshia. You keep your secrets kind sir, I don’t need to know them. I don’t need you to open up to just get sent home, which I think we all know is going to happen and I don’t want you to be embarrassed by opening up.

He tells us the story. He was named after his Dad and when he was a kid he loved his dad, they went to baseball games. But as he got older they had a falling out. He found out that he stole from his mother. He was put in the middle of the two of his parents because of what they were saying. He changed his name because he needed a fresh start, his mom was in the courthouse with him when he changed it. He thinks of his father every day. He just wants a loving family, and Tayshia, please get him a damn rose, I don’t care if it’s a pity rose, get that man a rose!!! Riley, I am a fan of ours now, you won me over in the last hour and a half, I’m sorry I wasn’t fully on board before this.

Tayshia ends up not giving the rose at the group date, she’s going to wait until the rose ceremony and the guys are so bummed.

Tayshia comes home from her group date and Bennett is lurking in the dark. She doesn’t scream bloody murder like I would. She takes it in stride and lets him come into her room to talk. They must’ve not had enough room on the bus for him to jump on with the other 3 guys who got kicked out earlier in the episode. We know he didn’t go anywhere, because remember the wrestling date when they were worried if they’d have to go to the hospital for an injury they’d be kicked out because they’d be leaving the bubble. Therefore, the producers set this all up! Bennett comes in and tells her their goodbye was weird and he said he loves her. She is shook. Yet she also holds his hand that is resting on his knee, so she’s giving him some mixed signals here if she’s going to kick him out. She tells him she wasn’t playing on saying goodbye to him that night, and now she’s confused. TAYSHIA GO WITH YOUR GUT! Bennet’s vibe and words right now are the right words, but the way he’s saying it are like he’s he’s trying to hypnotize her, I’m not liking this vibe at all.

She wants the night to process this and the group date where she just didn’t hand out a rose. He kisses her cheek, she asks for a hug and then he leans in for a kiss and she stops him and tells him nice try. She’s conflicted because she’s never had a guy show up for her like this and that’s attractive. She doesn’t know what to do!

And that’s all for tonight’s episode. Next week we’re on Monday and Tuesday! There is LOTS of tears and we get a men tell all, that is socially distant, but looks like we still yell at each other, so we got that going for us! I still don’t know what hometowns look like, there was no preview of that, so I really will have to tune in next week to see what happens there!

So rest up guys, we got LOTS of drama and tears next week!

Tayshia’s Final 12

Welcome back friends!

We start the episode off with tons of filler, which just gives us a clue that nothing must happen on this episode. For some reason we have JoJo come and talk to Tayshia and give advice, they’re talking but it’s obvious they aren’t friends and haven’t talked before. We then get filler of the guys sitting around the room talking and Harrison comes into the room and says he doesn’t have a date card because he’s going to leave and take his son to college, but don’t worry, we all know how important the host is to drop off the date cards and let us know when there is one rose remaining and just be around in-case Tayshia needs to chat, so JoJo will be stepping in for Harrison!

She drops off the date card and it has Zac’s name and he gets the one on one date!

They get the date where they are going to dress up in wedding gowns and tuxes and pretend to be getting married. Tayshia talks about how she’s been married before and done wedding pix before, but Zac better give her happy memories now. Tayshia is obviously all up in her head and not wanting to play princess but ABC is making her do it. Zac doesn’t ask her what’s up even though I’m yelling at him to do so. Brendan would ask and she’d open up to him, come on ZAC! She asks how he is, but he is not asking her. Tayshia said she doesn’t want a veil, Zac said he’s not going to make her do anything she doesn’t want to, while the photographer is forcing the veil into her scalp!

I WANT to like Zac, because I know he’s going to make it far. I want to not see Nick Viall in him. We find out that Zac has been married before, he was only married for a year and she likes the fact that he’s been married before because he’ll do better the second time. You can tell he didn’t know she was married before, and he is thinking and analyzing something and she tries and calls him out, but he comes back with some lame line about how she’s breathtaking and he just has to do a double-take every now and then………yeah okay Zac, let’s be honest here!

We’re to the night portion of the date. Zac loses me at first because he refers to himself in the 3rd person. Talks about how he has a great home life. Then talks about how when he was is in college he wasn’t feeling great, so he went to the doctor, found out he had brain cancer, he had surgery the next day and then got addicted to drugs, and also was partying oh yeah and in the midst of this got married. Obviously he wasn’t great husband material at this point. His wife left him. He was in a bad way with drugs, alcohol, got arrested with a DUI, stole his dad’s check and he was going to cash it. A bank teller called his dad before he could cash the check, and his dad brought him home. He went to rehab and now works at the rehab place. She tells him he had a wild ride and he said it was the best ride. He gets a rose and then there is a random county fair ferris wheel that is set up on the hotel property and they ride it.

1. Spencer
2. Ivan
3. Ed
4. Blake
5. Brendan
6. Riley
7. Demarco
8. Bennett
9. Ben
10. Noah

So our group date is talking about art and how we’re going to create oursleves. We have a random couple that are holding one another and are naked and we’re at the point where I am like these people had to quarantine to be sketched and not even really get their 15 mins of fame. These guys are trying to draw them. Bennett steals the seat next to Tayshia and kicks Noah outta the seat. You can actually tell that Tayshia is over Bennet and I’m pretty sure Bennet isn’t a huge fan of Tayshia either. He does go in for a kiss as they are wearing blindfolds and playing with clay to bring up their relationship with Tayshia. and well they aren’t artists and Blake decides to make a penis, obviously that’s a winner.

Then we get self portraits and Brendan and Ivan show me why I love them and their my favorites. Brendan makes a picture frame and said there’s room for someone else. Ivan has puzzle pieces and talks about all his dad has gone thru and with him being older he worries he won’t be around for the last puzzle piece that Tayshia comes and puts in and it’s wife, kids and a future. Bennett throws a jab at Noah by saying Noah asked him how to spell privilege. Ben’s self portrait is him taking off his clothes and saying he’s going to give it all to Tayshia, she’s hot and bothered and I don’t know why this just happened.

Tayshia breaks down for some reason and has to run away because of how raw and vulnerable the guys are.

We get to the night portion of the date and it’s more of the same that we’ve seen all season from the guys. We do find out that Ben had an eating disorder for 15 years. He found out that girls don’t like the fat kid. He had bulimia for years and his sister was the only one who knew about it. he feels comfortable now with the people he works with, and is healthy. Tayshia goes in for a kiss, that’s how she replies…..I mean words would’ve been good here, but guess she’ll just go for making out. Ben gets the rose!

Before she leaves the guys she said “Noah and Bennet there is something going on between you guys and I’ll get to the bottom of it.”

We get Eazy and her doing ghost-hunting for their date and WOW we are desperate for dates. It’s a bad imitation of a Blair Witch project and I just can’t with this date. Supposedly the La Quinta is haunted….the night portion of the date has Eazy telling her that he’s falling in love with her. Have they even had a conversation for him to say this?!? And then Tayshia is smiling as she grabs the rose and then tells him that she can’t give him the rose because she’s not where he is and doesn’t know if she can get there!

MAN! More filler as the guys are eating breakfast talking about if they think they may or may not get a rose. This episode has had way more filler than normal, is it because we don’t have the map that tells us where they’re traveling and the lead telling us xxxxxxxxxxxxx city is the best place to fall in love!

JoJo comes in and said we’re gonna have a chat. Noah checks himself out in the mirror and JoJo calls him out on it. JoJo said we’re gonna have a cocktail party, but first we’re going to have an impromptu 2 on 1 date! With Bennett and Noah (shocker).

With how confident Bennett is to see Tayshia and have this time, we know that he’s going home for sure. I’m actually expecting both to be sent home and then no cocktail party because everyone else stays for another week. Dear Lord, Bennett brings Noah a gift because he’s supposedly a peacemaker and had no idea there was tension. I can’t handle his self-righteous attitude and seems like he’s better than Noah. He has a bandana which is a friendship gift. He has a book for emotional intelligence because Noah is deficient in 3 of those ways and gives him moustache socks because that’s the only place you should wear a moustache. Bennett said he is not belittling him, he’s trying to love him to be his best version. Noah then said he’s been acting, I know he means he’s been himself, but when he says acting, it makes me cringe.

Tayshia finally comes in and sits in-between the guys. She likes both of them and has feelings for both. She’s frustrated and over the petty drama and wants to get to the bottom of it. They go back and forth and Tayshia is over it and frustrated. Then we get a to be continued and that is so lame because of all the filler we had this episode, there is no reason this 2 on 1 couldn’t be resolved and we couldn’t have a rose ceremony.

I’m so confused, we have what 3 weeks left and we have a hell of a lot guys left. We gotta eliminate a lot of guys in a short amount of time! And the way they’re dragging this out, makes me think we must not have a lot of drama or good things waiting us in the next 3 weeks. Next week they do a lie detector and Zac said he cheated, well based on what we learned in tonight’s episode I’m gonna guess he cheated while he was on drugs and an alcoholic. Brendan freaks out about the time frame to propose. And Riley breaks down. Here’s hoping next week is better, because I gotta say I was pretty underwhelmed with tonight’s episode.

Tayshia “Dares the guys to tell the Truth”

Harrison comes to the courtyard and tells us that the guys who didn’t go on the group date get the chance to write a love song for Tayshia and whoever writes the best song will get one on one time with her. We’ve seen this date a thousand times over the years, but normally we get a celebritytohel p them with their lyrics or something. Not so much this year, this year they’re on their own and maybe they’re auditioning for the “Listen to your Heart” spinoff, why don’t we have that couple from that show help us out since they were on last episode.

These guys will not be getting any record deals any time soon. We’ve got Bennett rapping for some reason. We have other guys playing musical instruments like my 1 year old niece would. Ivan plays the move of having her come up on stage and he raps and he’s the one who got the one on one time with her. The other guys who were on this group date really got screwed out, because when they wrote their songs they were on their own and the only time they got with her on this date is when they are singing her a song, so what they all spent maybe 10 mins total with her. Poor guys! They probably wish they were on the wrestling date because they’d had spent more time with her.

Ivan comes over to her suite to hang out and she’s already gone for the wine before he comes. She said he is pretty shy and not the guy she’s normally go for. She wants to see if he can have fun and let loose. They play the floor is lava and use cushions to go from one room to another and then she hits him with feather pillow (there was only one feather pillow so obviously that wasn’t a plant), and then they play Twister and bocce ball. They seem to enjoy one another. I’m a fan of Ivan for sure. They also have the world’s largest ice cream sundae that has evidently not been in the freezer in a long time because it’s melting all over!

Date card is here and it’s for

1. Zac
2. Kenny
3. DeMarcus
4. Bennett
5. Riley
6. Blake

Okay good, so the guys who had to write the songs didn’t get screwed outta a group date, they will get an actual group date. So there was no real purpose of the singing songs, she could’ve/should’ve just given the one on one date to Ivan, but didn’t for some reason.

Ivan tells us that his dad is old, he’s 73 so he’s the age of most people’s grandparents. Ivan talks about his younger brother who is a year and half younger than him. He got into drugs and he spent time in prison and Ivan felt horrible about it and took responsibility of it. He also gets teary talking about how his brother’s girlfriend was pregnant right before he went into prison, so Ivan has become like a second dad to his niece and will always be there for her. Wow, then he brings up George Floyd and the BLM movement and this is one of the most in-depth conversations we’ve had on the show. He then asks how this has affected her this year and she breaks down. I’m happy that ABC is showing this conversation and shows the struggles that they have gone through coming from mixed households and all that they’ve gone through. This was just such a REAL conversation where I think they both forgot they were on a dating show for a second and we just watched two humans bond and connect. She tells him how safe she feels and how she’s feeling something with him she never expected to and all the words she’s saying are showing me that he’s a great guy and she should listen to what she’s saying and this could be a real thing. We then watch home videos of them and what a normal date-night.

Group date we get Sydney and Becca (our Bachelorette from 2 years ago – remember that horrible Arie breakup and now she’s broken up with Garrett from her season as the Bachelorette). We get the guys split up into teams and they need to do a scavenger hunt with all these random dares, which includes chugging gross smoothies and going up to Harrison as he’s eating lunch and getting his John Hancock on a butt cheek, then we hear some weird noises coming out of them over a loudspeaker and i’m just very thankful that they rented out the La Quinta because the sounds coming out of them are not family friendly. They then have to eat a habanero pepper and then they propose for some reason right after that, idk why we needed that. Is it practice for in 3 weeks when one may propose?!?

We’re at the night portion of the date and Bennett grabbed her first. He asks how her day went and her favorite part was the proposal and he talked about how he proposed before when he was younger and was going to get married, but it stopped him because he can’t remember his parents ever being happy in their marriage and has seen bad marriages and relationships, but somehow that pepper opened his eyes and he know realizes he could have a good engagement with her. He’s smiley around the other guys but not as cocky as he been.

Blake’s time with her surprises her with how much of a teddy bear he is. She wanted dirty laundry wondering what his exes would say and he said he has good relationships with his exes.

Tayshia wants Zac to open up more and I want to like Zac but I just can’t get past the Nick Vaill of it all and feel like I’ve seen him on this show 5 times already because of Nick. Tayshia likes him, so I need to get on board with this guy because he’s going to be around for awhile and it’s not his fault he reminds me of Nick, but he does and Zac gets the group date rose.

Ben is the one who goes and sneks to her room, we knew this was going to happen at some point, but there is a twist! Ed is wanting to go and talk to Tayshia too!

We’ve not had this before! We have both guys marching to her room and Ed knocks on the door and Harrison answers. He said it’s 2:30 and he’s still dressed and hair and makeup on, so obviously he knew Ed was coming. OKAY PRODUCERS THAT IS MEAN! I’m not a huge fan of Ed, but that seems uncalled for, and how does Ed now know where her room is, it’s the El Presidente suite where Clare was too and all they’re doing is hanging out on the grounds, he should know where her room is. But Ed goes in for a night-cap with Harrison and Ben gets to go hang with Tayshia.

Ben apologizes for not spending time with her and talking about how bad his plan was to try and wait until the last minute. She whines at him that she wanted him to make a move. I think they like each other, but I don’t know, it’s not as easy going as it was with Ivan. It seems a little too melodramatic and forced, but I do like Ben! I just think she’s treating him a little too harshly and playing a game with him. As they’re making out there is a knock at the door and we think it’s Ed, but it’s Ben that ordered room service with champagne and strawberries.

Rose ceremony time and one of the guys said it’s only Tayshia’s 2nd rose ceremony which is just insane! I feel like this should be her 3rd or 4th. Don’t worry the dusty rose is here, Ed gets the honor of wearing it this week!

Ben is the first to grab her and he has a very uncomfortable fashion faux paus he is wearing some of the tightest khaki pants and it’s not great.

Noah breaks cardinal rule #1 with his one on one time with Tayshia by talking about how he’s taking lots of heat from the guys and then said that the guys are rolling their eyes and think Tayshia gave the rose to Noah to just spice things up and get the other guys going……….COME ON! Tayshia, be smarter than this! She’s falling for it hook line and sinker though and is believing him. He is saying that the guys think Tayshia wants to stir drama when obviously there is one person stirring the pot here and that’s Noah. When she asks for specific names he hems and haws and won’t be direct and just said it’s the guys who don’t handle confrontation well.

Tayshia is pissed and storms into the room and brings them all into one room. She brings up that her integrity is being questioned and the guys are all so confused at where she’s coming from. Tayshia, read the room, these guys have NO IDEA what you’re talking about. She storms out and said she’ll see them at the rose ceremony.

The guys then try and figure out who the last one to talk to her was and then they figure out it’s Noah and the guys want to know what happened. I really wish Tayshia was eavesdropping on the other side of the door. Because Noah admits that he knows the guys didn’t say this exactly, but they’ve inadvertently hinted at it. Yet, he told Tayshia this is EXACTLY what the guys are saying. Bennett spitting straight fire by saying Noah owes Tayshia and all the guys an apology and I actually agree with him.

Rose ceremony time. Tayshia doesn’t even give a speech, we just go straight to handing out roses.

1. Noah – has the rose from last week’s group date
2. Ivan – got the ‘one on one’ date rose
3. Zac – got the group date rose tonight
4. Ben – sneaking to her room paid off
5. Eazy – i hope eazy fights Noah next week
6. Riley – he’s just so smooth
7. Brendan – he’s for sure my #1 choice
8. Bennett – i grew to actually like Bennett in the last couple weeks, i don’t think they’ll end up together, but i do like him.
9. Blake – after being a teddy bear this week, not surprising
10. Demar – i don’t really know him
11. Spencer – remember when he was our villain?
12. FINAL ROSE: ED?!? The dusty rose jacket and quality time with Harrison must’ve worked out!

Going home I’m so sad, is my nerd Jordan & Kenny the boy band director, did I see them with her, no, but for some reason I really liked them and was rooting for them! Also going home is Chasen and Joe, who I am okay with leaving.

I think Noah & Bennett get a 2 on 1 date next week, Zac gets a 1 on 1 and then there’s a group date. So looks like LOTS of drama! We can be thankful for Tayshia and that we have a Bachelorette season this year and hey we went a whole episode with no mention of Clare or Dale, a true Thanksgiving miracle!