Reality Steve

The Bachelorette 13 - Rachel

The “Bachelorette” Rachel Episode 3 Recap, My Appearance on Olivia’s Podcast, & DeMario’s Ex

Photo Credit: ABC

-I’m going to try really hard to cover Rachel’s date with Anthony. I mean, REALLY hard. There’s just one slight problem. There was absolutely ZERO entertainment value to the date. The fact that for the first time in 33 seasons that I can remember, a date card wasn’t read by the group so we could get an overreaction from everyone should pretty much tell you all you needed to know about Anthony’s date. When his date started was the first time we even knew (minus the spoilers) he was getting the 1-on-1 date. And considering they dedicated maybe 5 minutes of air time to the date itself, while mostly doing cut ins back at the mansion to set up Eric’s storyline for last night, you can see why this date had a whole bunch of nothing to it.

-The went on horseback down Rodeo Drive to shop for clothes, and boots, and eat cupcakes. Now, I’m sure that’s a woman’s dream to go shopping on Rodeo Drive, but on horseback? No thanks. When you get stuck on a crappy date like this, just know that you aren’t too long for the show. I’m not even sure exactly what went into the planning of this date considering there was such little substance to it. Anthony HAD to be thinking that this was some sort of joke, or possibly realized this didn’t bode well for his chances, right? Anthony actually seems like a good guy. I say it like that because the more I find out about some of these guys and see some of the things I see (most of which I can’t share), it’s just amazing to me the perception vs reality that happens on this show. Basically Anthony got zero airtime in the first two episodes, so it was even surprising to see him get a 1-on-1 so early. And then to have him on horseback riding around LA shopping? Zzzzzzzz. I think the horses were bored by it considering they let loose in one of the stores.

-Back at the house we saw our first kink in the Eric armor. He made what seemed to be a flippant comment to a group of guys asking if they thought Rachel was being real and taking this process seriously. Some producer…err…this really seemed to irk Iggy so he decided to call Eric out on it, even though Iggy had nothing to do with the conversation. Hence, producer manipulation. Eric raised his voice at Iggy, this popped everyone’s ears up, got Lee all high and mighty, and set up the rest of the episode for Eric’s sh**ty edit. Not that they edited him doing something he never did, because we clearly saw him get upset at Iggy then later at Lee. Just saying they are showing everyone this for a reason, which is to plant in our heads that seems to have a bit of a short fuse. The other thing? Did I hear correctly Eric say he’s never been in a relationship before? Or he’s never been in a serious one? Either way, kind of a red flag when you’re appearing on a REALITY DATING SHOW. Do we honestly think that a 31 year old successful attorney is interested in wasting her time with someone who’s never been in, or even had a serious relationship before? Totally bizarre. But then again, if I’ve said it once I’ve said it 1,000 times, this show isn’t about love or casting the 31 most perfect men for Rachel. It’s entertainment.

-Back to Anthony and Rachel’s date. What’s happening? Oh yeah, they’re now at a candlelit dinner overlooking LA. They talk about family, his upbringing, then get a private musical performance, they dance, make out, and she gives him the rose. Like I said, I tried really hard to come up with anything for this date. It’s just that absolutely nothing whatsoever happened. There was no unintentional comedy, no actual funny moments, nor was there even a hint of sexual chemistry between the two. Poor Anthony. Gets stuck with a silly horse date, the show spends most of their date showing us what’s going on back at the mansion, and he essentially gets ignored for the third episode in a row. The silver lining in all of this? Ummmm….errrr…..uhhhhh….when I think of one I’ll let you know. Right now, I’m having trouble grasping exactly what that is. When people ask you about your most memorable moment from last night’s episode, I think Anthony’s date might rank around 87th. Right before the final credits, and right after the opening credits.

-We get to the final group date of the episode, and that’s mud wrestling. But first, the 8 guys – Jack, Dean, Kenny, Brady, Bryce, Eric, Adam, and Lee – all get to meet 4 of Rachel’s friends from last season. Jasmine, Raven, Corinne, and Alexis show up tooooo…help out? No, pretty much it was to get their first dibs in on Rachel’s guys for Paradise, who will no doubt ghost them the second Paradise is over. Have at it ladies! Jack is already down in Paradise filming. And I’m sure Dean will be on it at some point, if he’s not part of the original cast. I can definitely see others from this date showing up in Paradise as well. Filming just started Saturday, so more information will be coming in the following weeks. On the bus ride over, Bryce tells Raven if there was one guy who they didn’t think was there for Rachel, it was Eric. Lee jumped on that train as well which set up the last 15 minutes or so of the episode. More on that in a minute, as we get to this completely backwards date. Sorry, but I think I’d much rather see Alexis, Raven, Jasmine and Corinne mud wrestling each other.

-In this battle of meatheads in mud, it’s set up tournament style with no real explanation of the rules. I can tell you it was basically just voted on by the women in attendance and that’s how the winner of each match was determined. If it wasn’t, then Kenny would’ve wiped the mat with every single one of those jabroni’s. In round 1, Bryce beat Brady, Dean beat Eric, Lee beat Adam, and Kenny swallowed Jack whole. In the semis, Kenny squished Lee and Bryce beat Dean. In the finals, because the crowd was told specifically to whoop it up for Bryce, he ended up beating Kenny. Afterwards when Rachel talked to her girls, she wanted to know which ones they liked the best. Adam and Dean were two favorites (people already seem to be shipping Raven and Dean for Paradise. Not sure I see that one), but Raven also reveals to Rachel the things she was hearing about Eric, told to her by Bryce and Lee. Now we have the final 15-20 minutes of the show all about, well, I’m still a little unsure of.

-It almost seems like it was obvious, but when you think about it, I don’t think it was still clear. What exactly was Eric so mad at? That other people were talking about him? That Rachel wasn’t paying him enough attention? That other people are talking about WHY he’s so mad? We all understand the microscope you’re under when you go on this show and how stressful it can be if you’re clueless to what you’re getting into. For a guy like Eric who admittedly has never been in a relationship or even a serious one, and now he’s fending off 30 other guys for one girl, yeah, I can see where he’s a little on edge. But there’s no doubt the producers did what they could to exploit that by constantly asking guys to question him and push his buttons. Iggy seemed to do it openly but in a more respectful way. I think Iggy realized he didn’t have a date that week so it’s why he took advantage of the situation to try and throw someone else under the bus. Lee is a whole other story…

-I’m pretty sure we get Lee’s act by now. He went on the show to be the sh** stirrer. Isn’t the first one and won’t be the last one. Whereas Iggy came right out, pulled Eric aside and told him what he did, Lee is a snake and made sure to let us know he enjoyed selling Eric out to Rachel. And it worked. The show got to Eric last night as we saw him go off on Lee telling him to keep his name out of his mouth. But screamed it at a decibel level that probably shouldn’t be heard on this show and is not going to sit well with the audience. So is Lee a rat for doing it and basking in Eric’s misery? Absolutely. Eric also could’ve handled himself better. If you listen to the podcast I did with Olivia today, we talk about how producers will be relentless when they see prey that they can just feast on. Clearly we could see what was going on here with Eric and the guys. It was quite obvious what was happening in that they had a guy who wasn’t prepared for all this, and producers found other guys to start a full on assault of his character to get him off his game. The ironic thing in all this? Rachel listened to DeMario’s wacko ex when she warned her about him and kicked him off the show, yet, her best friends from last season and come on and mention some questionable things Eric may have said and she gave him the group date rose. Kind of a head scratcher. The episode ends with Eric screaming at Lee, which will be continued next week. We certainly haven’t seen the last of Lee and his antics. And judging by his tweets, he has zero legs to stand on in any argument he makes.

In two weeks (remember, no new episode next week due to the NBA Finals, regardless of it Golden St sweeps and the series ends Friday) we’ll get the conclusion of this fight, along with Bryce, Brady, and Diggy getting eliminated at the rose ceremony, before they head on off to South Carolina for episode four. Dean gets his 1-on-1, there’s the Spelling Bee group date, and Jack gets sent home during his 1-on-1.

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