The “Bachelor” Peter – Episode 2 Recap, Madison’s Week, Vegas Update & More

-The group date begins on what would essentially be episode #3. It’s being put on by Revolve and the 8 women on this date must be squealing like school girls once they get to Academy LA and most are meeting their future boss, Raissa Gerona, the Chief Brand Officer for Revolve. Do you know how many of these women post show will have #Revolve #ad on their IG posts now? Like, all of them. I’m surprised Revolve just doesn’t become the corporate sponsor for this show. Every single one of them was realizing the potential that came with this date, and whaddya know, someone who’s already modeled for Revolve in the past ends up “winning” the date. Imagine that? It’s like it was pre-planned or something. That NEVER happens on this show. Until it happens again in 2 episodes with Victoria F’s 1-on-1 date.

-One glaring narrative from this group date is something I got the most emails on, and that was Victoria F.’s incessant crying and insecurity about not wanting to be there, not feeling like she’s being noticed, not feeling confident and continuously saying she’s never gonna be the girl who is the center of attention. This came as a surprise to most people considering what I reported about her pre-Bachelor life back in October. Here’s the thing, just because she’s saying all that and acting that way doesn’t mean it’s true. I don’t buy it. I’ve heard too many specific examples to where the Victoria on TV last night doesn’t make sense from what I’ve been told, and what I’ve actually seen. Words and actions are two completely different things. She talks about not being confident and her insecurities, then she walks on stage in front of an audience in lingerie (which no one else wore), gestured towards Peter, brings him up on stage, and makes out with him. Sorry, not buying it.

-The Hannah Ann and Kelsey feud continued on this date once it was over. Hannah Ann beat Victoria F. in the “finals” of this modeling show which then sent Victoria F. into even more of a tailspin, but because they’d already established before the last rose ceremony that Kelsey didn’t like Hannah Ann, they needed to continue that narrative. And since we all know that this show and its contestants never let sleeping dogs lie, Hannah Ann pulls Peter aside to tell him she feels Kelsey was bullying her. I know bullying is a thing now. We all do. There is some serious online bullying that happens to contestants quite a bit that I’ve pointed out over the last couple years. But Hannah Ann saying she was bullied by Kelsey is doing a complete disservice to those that are actually victims of bullying. Lets not lump these two together. Did she curse at her? Yes. Does she not like her? Yes. Did she call her a princess? Yes. I guess we all have our different definitions of what bullying truly is, and I just don’t see what Kelsey did as bullying. Bullying to me is repeated behavior, over and over and over again directed at an individual to try and intimidate and/or harm them. That’s not what happened here. Kelsey flew off the handle at someone who she thought stole her champagne bottle. From the time of ChampagneGate to this date was only 2 days in real time. How much could she have been attacking her? So the tattle telling by Hannah Ann here was kinda ridiculous.

-Then Peter joins in the fray by playing good cop, pulling Kelsey over to the side after giving Victoria F. the group date rose, and tell her that Hannah Ann came to him saying she felt Kelsey was bullying her. Kelsey responds by saying “She can turn it on…she’s trying to play the victim card.” Kelsey tells him Hannah Ann knew that was her champagne bottle. Peter says Hannah Ann says she didn’t. So we’re basically getting nowhere with that – in the moment at least. Clearly we know (and they know) now it was a producer set up. Both Kelsey and Hannah Ann in this situation were wrong in different aspects. Kelsey was wrong for getting that upset over something so stupid as to a champagne bottle that easily could’ve been handled better (I’m guessing being drunk played a role in her behavior). But Hannah Ann was also run to tattle tale to Peter with claims of bullying on Kelsey’s part. Kelsey was out of line, over the top, and quite bitchy to Hannah Ann over a clear miscommunication (and producer set up), but she wasn’t bullying her.

-I think the biggest things to take from the Kelsey/Hannah Ann feud is that 1) they are clearly over it since it was over 3 months ago now and they’re fine on social media and 2) how manipulative this show can be. Look, we know how much they intervene to create situations that aren’t there. This was a prime example. But this is a production team that season in and season out, even though they love speaking about women empowerment and they love when their show is representative of today’s culture, repeatedly pits women against each other on purpose for the sake of drama. They thrive off women hating on other women on this show. Because if they didn’t, they wouldn’t have an audience. This is not happening organically. Or sure, there have been contestants over the years that just didn’t vibe with others. You’ll always get that with numerous women in the house. But I’m talking about production directly trying to get women to talk shit about another women to create drama and succeeding. It happens every season, and ChampagneGate is one of the most glaring examples ever. Kelsey’s feelings towards Hannah Ann in that moment were 100% founded upon a lie set up by production by letting Hannah Ann open a champagne bottle that she had no idea had any significance to anyone else in the house. Let that sink in.