Clint Gets The Boot, The Ashleys Are Back

Tuesday afternoon update: Reaction to Nick's return is all over the place. A couple of former Bachelorettes, Ali and Jillian (who was tweeting for US Weekly,) are thrilled:

Keep him around girl!!! This isnt about any damn rules it's about finding who's right!!! Rude/not rude. She’s gotta think bout herself #NICK

— Us Weekly (@usweekly) June 9, 2015

Heck yes @jillianharris !!!! Agreed!!!!! https://t.co/HkaXCb6JGb

— Ali Fedotowsky (@AliFedotowsky) June 9, 2015

Andi Dorfman, no surprise, is horrified:

One word.... RUN! Okay two... RUN FAST! 🙈 #TheBachelorette

— Andi Dorfman (@AndiDorfman) June 9, 2015

One more thing: Back in April, Allie Jones at Gawker attended the taping of the "rap battle" date. Happily, she lived to tell the tale; you can read it here.

Original Post:


Good morning, rosebuds, it was another weird night on The Bachelorette: Brokeback Bachelor is no more. Kaitlyn sent Clint packing and as usual, in my cynical way, I'm wondering if the whole thing was either a scripted set-up or an elaborate prank. Usually when someone is booted before a rose ceremony they proceed directly to the black vehicle of shame to be driven off into the night in floods of tears. Not this time. Kaitlyn took Clint's hand and led him back into the party so he could say good-bye to the guys, which was strange because it's not like he had bonded deeply with them, except for JJ. And what, exactly, got into JJ? Initially he said that he would defend Clint and probably know him for the rest of his life. Then he demanded an apology, not from Kaitlyn for booting his BFF but from Clint. Huh?

That was followed by a strange face-to-face encounter that I'm still scratching my head about. The former BFFs were nose-to-nose and saying mean things to each other, many of which were bleeped out, but the whole thing just looked off to me. At one point I wondered if it was like that scene in The Good Wife, where it looked as if Alicia and Kalinda were side-by-side in a bar, but it was really filmed separately and spliced together in the editing room. Clint got the last word as he walked out the door, saying "That tie goes really good with your shirt." Huh? Maybe ties were a topic of deep conversation during the bromance?

Anyway, Clint is gone but JJ is still there, apparently now friendless in the house, so much so that when Kaitlyn announced that they wouldn't have a rose ceremony, meaning everyone gets to stay, the guys reacted with... silence. Poor Kaitlyn had to remind them that "this is a good thing," which finally generated some excitement. One of the guys then explained that they were upset that JJ didn't get sent home, roseless.

Chris Harrison then announced that they were packing up and leaving the mansion forever, on a journey that will take them around the world, starting with New York City. This did generate some cheering, and was the moment we never got during Chris's season, as the women on that show had to pretend to be excited about going to South Dakota and Iowa.

There were a couple of group dates and a one-on-one in NYC but the big news was the return of some familiar faces from seasons past, both of the Ashleys from Chris's season, followed by, drum roll please, Nick. Yes, that Nick, from Andi's season last summer. In his blog this morning at Yahoo TV, Chris Harrison says that cast members from various seasons frequently become friends of one kind or another:

According to Kaitlyn before she was officially named the Bachelorette she had started talking with Nick. This might seem weird, but it happens all the time with people from different seasons. These people often look each other up and end up talking, sometimes meeting, and occasionally hooking up. So yes, Kaitlyn had some sort of friendship going with Nick before the season started. (You can read the entire post here.) 

Kaitlyn did say that she had never actually met Nick until that night and I admit that I never found Nick to be very appealing on Andi's show. He was especially unappealing when he slut-shamed her on the Men Tell All episode. Still, there's something there that Kaitlyn likes, obviously, so she decides to bring him into the house, a decision that's not popular with the original men and one that according to Harrison has major repercussions down the line: 

Kaitlyn really took a massive risk of losing everything by letting Nick stay. I’m not sure she even understands today what the full ramifications of her actions were that day. The ripple effect of that one decision will be something we talk about for quite some time. 

So here we are. At about 8.50 last night, with Kaitlyn and Chris still at the Aladdin theater, I realized that this was going to be another "to be continued..." night. We did get a "next week on The Bachelorette" tease, the best part of which was one of the guys saying "Kaitlyn can't handle the truth." Yikes. What's that about? Then at the very end, under the credits, it's Britt! Still with Brady and looking very much like a woman in love. Is it possible that Britt, who didn't get to be the Bachelorette, got the better end of the deal? Stay tuned, rosebuds and meet me back here next week, same Bach time, same Bach channel.