A few more thoughts. While watching the episode I was struck by Rachel's comments during the first group date, which made it appear that she was disappointed in how the date was going. She said they were great guys, but the conversations were a little mundane, but "for some reason we can't turn the corner" into romance. She said she's old-fashioned, wanting a man to make the first move and that she's "not getting the romantic aspects that I need and I want."
I don't remember any lead, Bach or Bach'ette, ever being that direct about not connecting with their suitors. It's possible that Rachel is just more direct (or more honest) than past leads but I wondered if there could be another reason. I looked at the men's ages, and at 25, Dean appeared quite a bit younger than Rachel, who was 31 when the show was filmed, but ironically, it was with Dean that she felt the most romantic connection. Fred is 27 and the rest were 30-32. Could it be something else?
I debated whether or not to write about this but I'm just going to go for it. In general during the first two episodes, race and interracial dating has been a non-issue. If it was discussed up to this point the producers have chosen not to show it, but I do find myself wondering if race was one of the reasons Rachel and her guys weren't connecting. Of the eight men on the date, five were white - Dean, Jack, Jonathan, Blake and Lucas. She connected with Dean but with the other four it just wasn't happening. Jonathan (the doctor) brought a doll to their one-on-one conversation and explained that many people wipe too hard. Blake spent his time complaining about Lucas, and Lucas spent his time being Whaboom. Jack tried to flirt with her but never went in for a kiss.
It's possible there was a lot more to each of these interactions than what was shown during the episode, but still, I'm wondering. Is it also possible that these white guys just didn't know how to be romantic with a black woman? Or, and I say this respectfully and with no intent to offend, is it possible that on some level they just aren't comfortable being romantic or initiating a kiss with her? Would they have behaved differently with a white woman? There's no way to know and I'm not looking for trouble. It'll be interesting to see how the rest of the season plays out.
Tuesday afternoon update: I've said many times now that gaining enough followers to make money shilling products on Instagram is now one of the main reasons for going on this show. With that in mind, I'm going to keep track of the numbers for some of the key players on Rachel's season. In a post dated February 1, written during Nick's season, Rachel had 41,100 followers. Today she has 540,000. Here are the numbers for some of her suitors:
Bryan 11,500
Peter 35,700
Eric 6,438
Jonathan 761
Kenny 8,147
Dean 18,400
Josiah 5,433
Blake E 6,551
Lucas/Whaboom 12,100
Also, Sharleen Joynt has posted her recap at Flare (read it here,) including a new top four: Peter, Bryan, Dean, Josiah
Original post:
I am against spoilers but I think I owe it to #Bachelornation to let you know @TheRachLindsay isn't engaged to Whaboom #TheBachelorette— Robert Mills (@Millsy11374) May 30, 2017
Breathe a sigh of relief, Rosebuds. ABC executive Robert Mills promises that Rachel is not engaged to Whaboom. In my post from yesterday I linked to an interesting story at The Hollywood Reporter (read it here) that lays out Lucas's history of going on reality shows, and it certainly looks like Blake is right - Whaboom isn't here for the right reasons. But wait... It was carefully not mentioned during last night's episode, but Blake was on one of those previous shows too, with Lucas. That may be the real source of their animosity, but I confess I had a perverse thought as I watched. What if Blake and Lucas are really playing an elaborate long con, secretly teaming up to create drama and tension and basking in the attention it brings. After all, the over-the-top weirdness is getting Lucas a lot of screen time, but complaining about it is getting *Blake* a lot of screen time too. Just a thought...
"Listen, I'm a pro wrestler, I know all about white dudes acting crazy." Kudos to Kenny for the quip of the night. Even though I'm so not into professional wrestling, Kenny's growing on me. He's definitely on my "could be the next Bachelor" list.
Peter and Copper go on a date with Rachel and there were lots of sparks between the two humans, but the best part of the date for me was, of course, Copper. I cringed when I saw him walking around on his injured leg but it didn't seem to be bothering him, and Peter entered into the spirit of things at the Doggie playdate. Copper also got lots of Twitter love:
Me running into Peter's arms #TheBachelorette pic.twitter.com/uDfqNoR1xa— Michelle Collins (@michcoll) May 30, 2017
photo credit: Michael Yada/ABC
DeMario did not get a lot of Twitter love, in fact Bach Nation was dumping on him pretty hard as his sordid little story played out. We had a clue that he wasn't here for the right reasons in Episode 1, when one of Rachel's friends tried to warn her about him, but Rachel didn't listen, choosing instead to give him a chance. Big mistake Rachel. Big mistake. As usual when the show pulls a stunt like this, I see the hidden hand of producers, in making sure Lexi was able to speak to Rachel, that a camera was right there to film it all and in letting DeMario come back the next day. And Chris Harrison's blog is up at Yahoo, in which he specifically makes a point of saying that he had never met Lexi before in his life, which is a pretty good indication that he and other producers had indeed met and talked to her at length before she was ever allowed to appear on camera.
Will Rachel let DeMario come back on the show? My guess? No. Not only is she in total "take no BS" mode but the remaining men would probably break out in a riot. At this point, I don't even see DeMario on BIP. (You can read more about DeMario in an interview with Glamour magazine that was done the day before filming began. Read it here.)
photo credit: ABC
What was Kareen Abdul Jabbar doing on the Bachelor? He explains at The Hollywood Reporter:
Five
months ago, I wrote an article for The Hollywood Reporter titled
“How the Bachelor and Bachelorette Franchise Are Damaging Romance in America.”
I said this: “As entertaining as these shows are (and they really are
compelling fun), there is an insidious darkness beneath the fairy tale pabulum
they are serving up.” On the plus side, I called them “entertaining” and
“compelling fun.” But I also objected that “The real crime is the lack of
intellectual and appearance diversity, which leaves the contestants as
interchangeable as Mr. Potato Head parts.” Mostly, I complained that by
limiting themselves to only one specific body and intellectual type, they were
promoting a form of romance porn that created a superficial fantasy ideal that
inevitably would lead to dating disappointment for viewers influenced by the
shows. I also observed that African-American contestants, though always a part
of the dating scrum, were predictably cut loose after an appropriately polite
"we don't see color" period of time. I didn't think anyone was to
blame or that there was a racist conspiracy. It was just a consistent
occurrence that reflected contestants' comfort zone.
After my article appeared — and while Viall’s Bachelor season was being broadcast with Rachel still in the mix — the producers of The Bachelor/Bachelorette franchise called me up to tell me that the upcoming Bachelorette would feature a black woman. There were three black women among the remaining contestants, and though the producers wouldn’t reveal whom it would be, clearly Rachel had been a standout. They then asked me if I would like to come on the show and run the men through some basketball drills that would reveal some of their character traits to Rachel. As a fan of the shows, I naturally agreed. (Read the article here.)
So who got roses this week and who was sent home brokenhearted? We don't know because the dreaded "To Be Continued" card popped up right as Rachel was about to speak to DeMario. Very annoying and Bach Nation was not happy on Twitter but we should all probably just get over it. I'm thinking that TBC is the new default, with every episode ending with some kind of suspense and rose ceremonies taking place at the beginning of the following week.
In my previous post I said that Whaboom has 15 Instagram followers, but it looks like he has more than one account, or perhaps there are already some parody accounts popping up, because I found another Insta account (Lucas.Yancey) that looks like it's probably now his primary feed, and it currently has 12,000 followers. I also found an account for DeMario (demariojackson_) that has 3,569 followers. Here's his most recent post:
He posted this Monday night, just as the show was airing, clearly trying to pretend that none of the bad stuff happened. Obviously he can't spoil a major plot point of the episode, but really, DeMario? #RachelLovesD? You're kidding, right?
In other Bach franchise news, Ben and Lauren broke up, leaving four franchise couples who are engaged but not yet married: Kaitlyn and Shawn, JoJo and Jordan, Carly and Evan, and Nick and Vanessa. I've said that I expected Nick and Vanessa to be done by June 1, which is two days from now but at least publicly they appear to be hanging on. Stay tuned.
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