Another weird episode of The Bachelor. It started where we left off last week, with "Taylor returns to confront Nick," which added absolutely nothing to the show, and ate up time that could have been used later in the episode. (Show us why the volleyball date was such a disaster, show us who got the group date rose...) Contestants have "come back" after being eliminated before, in one fashion or another and it never works out well for them. In this instance it was almost certainly producer-driven. How else would Taylor have known where Nick and Corinne were, and how would she have gotten there? She sure didn't walk there all the way from the swamp, oops sorry, I meant the Bayou. Other thoughts:
We saw Corinne in this episode but it wasn't totally The Corinne Show, as the past couple of episodes have seemed to be. I loved this, from Raven: "I'm sure Corinne would be an amazing volleyball player if she wasn't drunk," but having said that, the heavy drinking really isn't attractive or funny. (When Ellen asked her about it, Corinne said she wasn't drinking to black-out level. Great.) It's hard to know what's really going on with Corinne. Is she really a mean girl? A bitch? Too young/immature/stupid to know how she's coming across? Is she playing a long game, to get famous, make money and possibly be The Bachelorette? No way to know for sure and probably all of the above to one degree or another, but I also think that a lot of her obnoxious behavior, and certainly a lot of the middle-of-the-day sleeping, was a result of drinking.
What really happened on the group date? Why did the women hate the game so much and why were they crying? Presumably there was a lot to the story that got left on the editing room floor, and word on the street in Bachelor Nation is that the game was a competition and the losing team (Danielle M, Vanessa and Jasmine) was supposed to go back to the hotel. The "losers" cried so much that Nick relented and kept them on the date, which in turn upset the winning team. This is pretty standard Bachelor stuff, so why not show it this time? What we did see was such a mishmash that it didn't make any sense.
Nick was in Take No Prisoners mode on the St. Thomas dates, sending Jasmine home from the group date then both Whitney and Danielle L from the two-on-one. I feel sympathy for Jasmine, it can't be easy to have to watch all the other women getting dates and time with Nick, but still. Jasmine, Jasmine, Jasmine, you really can't choke The Bachelor. I've said before that being The Bachelor means having to date and pretend to like women that you don't really care about, because otherwise there's no show, and Nick is really bad at it. Just watch his face, with Jasmine, with Whitney, even with Danielle L., who he had a "connection" with earlier in the process. In all three cases, his face tells the story - Nick is over it and those girls are out of here.
The two-on-one date struck me as both strange and unnecessary. One two-on-one date is now traditional and every season has one, but I don't ever remember a second two-on-one. As Danielle L pointed out, there wasn't any conflict between herself and Whitney, and producers could just as easily given either of them a one-on-one date followed by a regular rose ceremony, with the same end result - both going home roseless. This date reminded me of the Ashley I/Kelsey date in Chris's season. In both cases, the Bach and two women were transported to a remote location where a completely out-of-place bedish couchy thing had been placed. Clearly there was nothing planned for either date except having the women sit there waiting to be told their fate. Two years ago Ashley and Kelsey both got left in the Badlands, this time Whitney was left on the beach (memories of Olivia) while Nick and Danielle escaped in the helicopter. Nick hadn't actually given Danielle the rose, however, and her reprieve was only temporary. Later that evening Danielle was gone too, for a total of six women eliminated in one episode. (Three at the end of the New Orleans date and three in St. Thomas.)
Good Morning, America had another Bach segment Tuesday morning but it wasn't a former Bach'ette this time. Nick himself was on the show with not one, not two but three former Bachelors, Andrew Firestone, Jason Mesnick and Ben Higgins. Andrew is now married to a woman he didn't meet on the show and they have three kids. Jason famously dumped fiancee Melissa and took up with runner-up Molly, to whom he is still married. And Ben is officially still with Lauren, notwithstanding rumors in Bachelor Nation that they've actually parted ways.
If you've ever wondered how much stuff these women actually pack to be on the show, or how much money they spend, Eonline has a fun article with some fun details. For the women, in particular, going on this show isn't something you just do. It takes preparation. Read the article here.
We're down to six contestants, one of whom is probably engaged to Nick and one of whom will probably be the next Bachelorette. The show almost always picks the person who comes in second, third or fourth to be the star of the next show. They broke the pattern with Nick, however, and it could happen again. Ashley I? Caila? Amanda S? We'll see.
Finally, how's everyone doing on Instagram? As of Wednesday afternoon:
Nick 972,000
Vanessa 257,000
Corinne 246,000
Danielle M 101,000
Kristina 94,300
Raven 166,000
Rachel 56,900
Meet me back here next week, Rosebuds, same Bach time, same Bach channel.
No comments:
Post a Comment