The Bachelor Week 8 Recap - Blog Posts

The Bachelor - Episode 8 Recap

WOW. QUICK TURN AROUND. We’re already onto the next episoderight after I posted the last recap. I thought about posting everything all at once, but that’s a lot of pressure. So I didn’t. You get it.

Anyways! Once again, we still have a Rose Ceremony to get through in Iowa to determine who the other three women with hometown dates will be.

Oh my God. Just kidding. Becca has a one-on-one date in Des Moines today. I can’t believe they’re putting us through this. Chris has a chill date with her at the loft he’s staying in. They have a detailed discussion about how Becca’s never been in love before, but that she really feels a strong connection with Chris. They feel strongly for each other but are excited to have more time to figure out their relationship. They watch the sunset from his rooftop and kiss a lot. Quick and painless.

In the hotel suite, the women are sitting around and talking about the Show Down Blow Down from the night before when Britt walks in. She tells the other girls that she has packed her bags and will most likely leave before the rose ceremony the next night. They are surprised because she has such a strong connection to let one rose blow it all.

Britt explains that it’s not as “petty” as just one rose, but rather that she had expressed that she could see herself as his wife and moving to Iowa. She starts to cry.  All the other women are just blankly looking at her because that is what you do on this show. You tell the guy you could envision being his wife and then maybe he doesn’t pick you first. And maybe he doesn’t pick you at all. Britt is just functioning from a delusional place about how this show works. It’s a cracked situation to be sure, but that’s the whole crux of the show. You open up to a man who has all the power and never know where you stand with him.

Britt feels the antagonism of the other women and continues to cry. She leaves the room to cry more, and the women essentially agree that if she really wants to leave, to just leave. Get out and save everyone the drama.

As the women gather in their Modest Ass Suite to assemble for the cocktail party and Rose Ceremony, Chrarrison enters to break the news that there will be no cocktail party. Britt is freaking out because she needed the cocktail party to tell Chris she was going home. Jade is worried because she needed the cocktail party to tell Chris that she did nude modeling. Whatever will happen?!

They assemble at a beautiful mansion for the cocktail party. Chris starts in on his speech about how he’s truly falling in love and believes in the process, but that the decisions he had to make this week were the hardest yet. And just then, Britt interrupts him to pull him aside to talk for “like two seconds.”

Here we go.

As soon as she leaves the room, the women are up in arms. Kaitlyn explains that Britt can’t stand the thought that he might reject her, so she wants for him to beg her to stay or to get the final word and leave before he can dump her. Preach, Kaitlyn! Even Whitney is upset by how selfish she’s being because they are all feeling the same emotions as her. Again, selfish in terms of the show, not real life. Never mistake this show for real life.

But don’t worry, Chris gets to actually shut Britt down all on his own. She is just trying to apologize and be so earnest with him about the other night, and she asks if he has anything to say in reply to her. He doesn’t really but she pushes. And finally he reveals that her behavior just confirmed things he’d heard from other women in the house about Britt being not the most honest person.

Britt then demands to know who said those things. “Was it Carly?” she asks.

“Does it matter?” Chris replies. Britt insists that it does, but Chris doesn’t budge. From that point on it’s all downhill. Britt is scrambling to get ground and a word in edgewise, but Chris plows through ending it all with. “The way Carly reacted was what I would want in my future. And the way you reacted disrespected myself and everyone around you, and that’s something that I don’t want for a wife.”

BOOM. Wow. So Chris still sent her home on his own terms, but he’s still rattled by the whole ordeal. Britt walks out and immediately starts uncontrollably sobbing and sits in the dirt and leaves. Carly is triumphant, but Britt feels so betrayed by Carly. We will be seeing more on that dynamic at the Women Tell All, mark my words.

But Britt, you can’t blame Carly for the way you threw a temper tantrum at Chris for not getting your way. At the end of the day, you dug your own grave on that one.

After composing himself, Chris comes back into the room to explain what happened. He says it was for the best and thanks the people who spoke up about Britt because it only confirmed the suspicions that he was already having.

Whitney gets the first rose (obviously), then Becca, and then Jade gets the final rose. Which means our dear Carly is going home. Carly ultimately got too caught up in the Britt Situation where she should have forged ahead with her relationship with Chris. But I stand by what I said that Carly deserves better than Chris Soules. I wish her the best and look forward to seeing her at the Women Tell All.

The women are sad to see her go. Carly is so upset to be back in the place she feels she always is, but she will overcome. If what you wanted was to feel wanted and like a priority, the Bachelor was not the place to go methinks.

With Carly sent on her way, we move into the Hometown Dates.

We start out in Shreveport (TRUE BLOOD!!!!), Louisiana with Becca. Becca is so beautiful it’s stupid. She is sweet, but is there anything there? We spent so much time focusing on everyone else that I don’t know much about Becca other than her being a virgin. Seems like a great way to generalize a woman’s personality: virgin. Cool. Modern. Feminist.

As they canoe through the bayou, Becca warns Chris that this is the first time she’s ever brought someone home to meet her family. Chris gets very nervous. Becca assures him that he’ll be fine because her feelings for him are real.

“Even though I’ve never been in love before, I’m assuming it starts with the feelings I’m feeling right now,” Becca tells us. She seems like she has a lot of depth.

Becca’s big Louisiana family welcomes Chris with open arms. I can tell right away that Becca’s older sister Katie is going to be trouble.

To wit, Katie pulls Chris aside right away to shoot straight about his feelings for her sister. She starts the conversation by saying how surprised she was that Becca let him touch her knee.

“Becca’s not an intimate person by any means,” she explains. Oh, ok. Cool, cool. Seems like something that is definitely your place to share.

Chris sits down with Becca’s mom next, and she reiterates a lot of the same feelings that Katie impressed upon Chris. The whole conversation can be summed up in her mom’s parting words of, “Don’t break my daughter’s heart. Be sweet. Be tender.” Gross. Bye!

Meanwhile, Becca and Katie are talking about how Chris doesn’t yet know that she’s waiting until marriage to have sex. They come to the decision that waiting until the Fantasy Suite would be a good moment to share her decision with him, and that if all else, they can use the Fantasy Suite to just have some quality time and order room service.

“But the sugar donut is all the treat you’ll be having tonight,” Katie jokes of what Becca might say to Chris in the most disgusting way possible to say “no sex for you.” So odd.

Then it’s time for Chris to leave, and Becca doesn’t want him to go. As they’re kissing good-bye, Chris whispers, “Can I tell you a secret? You’re coming with me.” Why is this whole date tinged with creepiness?

They go to the State Fair to ride the Ferris Wheel. They make out a ton. Becca thinks she’s officially falling in love. The end.

Next up we’re in Chicago for Whitney’s hometown date. They are claiming to be in Chicago, but it’s really some outlying suburb. Instead of giving Chris a tour of the city, she is giving him a tour of her life.

“So what do you say we go make a baby?” she winks. Normally I’d groan and be sick to my stomach but I find Whitney’s exuberance to be genuine and contagious? What’s happening to me?

Chris is blown away to see how passionate Whitney is about her job and how smart she is. She shows him all the parts of how they do what they do at the fertility clinic. She even shows Chris the “Man Room” where they get the male specimen. It’s all very tongue in cheek and they are giggling the whole time. It is high comedy.

Before they go see Whitney’s family at a cool apartment downtown, Chris makes sure to ask Whitney which member of her family he should ask to get their blessing in marriage. It’s actually a really nice gesture. Whitney tells him she’d like him to ask her older sister.

They head inside to meet her family. It’s her older sister Kimberly, her brother-in-law, her Uncle Johnny, and her adorable grandma. There’s someone else there too that was not introduced to us, so that’s weird.

Uncle Johnny and Chris talk together, and Chris seems much more passionate about Whitney and who she is than he was with Becca. Uncle Johnny describes her as a perfect combination of vulnerable yet strong. Chris loves that.

Then we see Kimberly and Whitney having a very real discussion that’s not at all rehearsed. They are arguing, really, about whether or not Kimberly will give Chris her blessing to propose to Whitney. Whitney wants a proposal from him, but Kimberly is not willing to give her blessing with three other women still in the competition. She doesn’t feel comfortable with that, but Whitney wouldn’t feel comfortable saying yes to him without her permission.

Whitney is really emotional and completely understands why Kimberly is so protective with both their parents being gone at a relatively early age. And Kimberly explains to Chris her feelings exactly when he does ask. She explains that she doesn’t want her sister to be one of four, she wants her to be the One to guarantee that he could take care of her the way she does, the way their mom did.

“I want that for her, so call me when you have that for her,” Kimberly says. I think that’s a fair compromise. Whitney is upset to hear that’s the way the conversation went, but Chris tells her that he’s ok with that.

Then to reveal to Chris that she’s fallen in love with him, she shows him a bottle of wine. She bought it in Napa a few years ago, and it was very expensive. But she bought it and told herself that she would share it with the man she wanted to marry. So they share it together. Chris kisses the crap out of her to show his appreciation for that. Whitney feels great about where they are and great about where they could be once the show ends. Me too, frankly. I’ve said it from day one: Whitney makes sense for Chris.

Next up is Kaitlyn in Phoenix, Arizona. Her family is from Alberta, Canada but winter in Arizona, so that’s where they’ll be meeting. How very posh!

She meets Chris is a dirty back alley and man is he worried about that HA HA HA! But they move right into a cool recording studio. So they AREN’T having their date in an alley. Hoo. That was rich. They are going to be laying down some sweet rap tracks. I would rather strangle myself with a live eel than watch this. But here I am.

Watching them recall different things they did so they can write a “rap” hurts me in my soul. Kaitlyn is having a blast because he takes it so seriously. One of the lines is “family means everything and so does an engagement ring.” I WANT TO DIE. I can only imagine the twisting of disgust in the pit of the producer’s stomach that is helping them record. Chris is SO bad at rapping and they are RUINING this art form.

They have fun with it though. I’m glad someone enjoyed that experience.

We finally get to her family and they are SUPER Canadian. We meet Kaitlyn’s mom, step-dad, dad, step-mom, and her sister. Chris then explains how glad he is that even though her parents are divorced, they’ve found a way to make family work.

“It definitely shows me that even in an unconventional family, there’s still a lot of love and support,” he says.

And then I paused Hulu so I could scream at the TV: UNCONVENTIONAL? UNCONVENTIONAL? OH, WOW, YES  DIVORCED AND REMARRIED PARENTS, HOW F***ING UNCONVENTIONAL! HOW RARE AND SPECIAL! OH AND WOW THEY STILL MANAGE TO LOVE EVEN THOUGH SOMEONE’S PARENTS ARE DIVORCED WHAT A F***ING SHOCK, YOU DULLARD PIECE OF HUMAN GARBAGE.

Nothing, and I mean nothing, on this show makes me more enraged than the implication that children of divorce are somehow less capable of relationships. It drives me up the wall and statements like the one Chris just made are the root of all that. What an absolute, small-minded, piece of shit person thinks that divorced and remarried parents is unconventional in 2015? I don’t even know that we’d call Whitney’s family “unconventional” because THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS UNCONVENTIONAL FAMILIES. THERE’S JUST PEOPLE WHO LOVE EACH OTHER AND MAYBE THEY’RE RELATED AND MAYBE THEY’RE NOT BUT JESUS CHRIST, BACHELOR, THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS NORMAL.

Anyhoodle, back to the date. The date starts off very well because Kaitlyn’s “unconventional” family is so warm and welcoming. Her mom is especially thrilled to have Chris there.

Kaitlyn’s mom pulls her aside to chat about the standard mom concerns that even though Kaitlyn is falling in love, she has to be careful because he could break her heart.

As they leave the house, Kaitlyn sets Chris up to see something. She’s very nervous about being so vulnerable. Chris turns around to see a digital billboard lit up that says “Kaitlyn <3 Chris”. Remember when he did that for Andi last season with a plane? It’s a way of letting her guard down to tell him she loves him and to still be cute. It’s fine, I guess.

In Gary, Nebraska, the dark cloud hanging over Jade is both figurative and literal. She really wants to tell Chris about her modeling for Playboy, and is also worried her family might break it to him first. They get straight into the family visit portion.

As Chris talks with Jade’s dad and then her brothers, they are all hinting towards a secret that Jade has. Chris is starting to get worried because they are all not so subtly hinting about how she is a “wild mustang” and a “free spirit”. Her brother Zack is also just concerned about Jade’s willingness to move to Iowa.

“I feel like she’s a hot mustang, but I don’t know about a wild side,” Chris says as he tries his hand at a joke. Again, stop.

After the family date, Jade and Chris have a chat about how Chris doesn’t understand why they keep referring to this wild side he hasn’t seen. Jade takes this opportunity to tell Chris about her modeling for Playboy. She feels like she’s been harshly judged in the past, but explains that she was just going through a time of being free and taking chances at new opportunities. She then comes clean and tells him that she posed nude for the magazine.

Chris is speechless and graceless in handling this. Jade asks to show him some pictures and he just shrugs that if it’s going to make her feel better, then sure. He’s very uncomfortable and feels very strange about it.

He’s being super judgmental of her and everything she’s showing him.

“Jade seemed like a very innocent, somewhat shy girl. I would never have expected something like this to be a part of her past,” Chris tells the cameras. Ok. Sure. Surprising is fine, but I still feel like he’s being really condescending towards her in the interviews. He tells her to feel fine about it, but I don’t think he means it.

“I know you for who you are as a person, and I respect you,” he tells her. And yes, he should listen to that. She is a person not just someone who posed nude. I don’t love Playboy because it is strictly and specifically for the male gaze, but Jade is an adult woman who can make her own decisions about what to do with her body. Prizing “innocence” is such a lie, so I hope he doesn’t let this color how he views her though I know he probably will.

For the rose ceremony this week, everyone gathers in Dubuque, Iowa. The Iowa Tourism Board really won the lottery with this whole dog and pony show. Chris calls Whitney first because now that Brit is gone, we can all agree that she is the front-runner in this thing. Then he calls Kaitlyn, and lastly he calls Becca.

Which means that Jade is going home. Is it necessarily because of what she shared with him this week? No, probably not. But did that color that big dumb goon’s perspective of what was already a relationship not advancing quickly enough? Certainly.

Jade is upset to be leaving, but once again, I have to urge her to see the forest through the trees that she deserves way better than that guy. She’s beautiful and quiet but astute and she deserves great love not some farmer whose face is currently the color of my favorite boots.

Oh wow. This week has been a roller coaster of emotions for me and for the contestants. I’m excited to move towards the Fantasy Suite dates to see if anyone pulls ahead farther than Whitney. And frankly, who among these remaining women could be the next Bachelorette? I don’t know if I have seen her yet.

UNTIL THEN, JOURNEYERS! AU REVOIR!