Well today will not be a full recap of last night’s episode due to the fact I’m on the road, in a hotel in NY where the people next to me have been loud as shit every night for the last 4 nights, and I’m ready to get out of here. I want to thank everyone who sent condolences to me these last few days due to my aunt’s passing last week. Been a rough couple days but I made it through, got to see all my relatives who live in NY (we were the only ones who moved west), got to see hundreds and hundreds of people flock to my aunt’s viewing and mass the last couple days, so I knew how much she meant to people. Just due to that, I really don’t feel like breaking down every scene from last night’s episode, but I do wanna touch on a few things for sure, because some things really did stick out to me last night. Kind of an infuriating episode if you ask me as I’ll explain later. Very, very bizarre happenings and tons of producer manipulation, per usual.
Don’t forget to get your “Reader Emails” in for this week as we’re pretty low right now. Granted, I don’t have as much time to put together tomorrow’s column, but it will be up and I’ll get in as many as I can. No worries. Next week we are back to normal since my next scheduled trip isn’t until first weekend of March Madness for my annual Vegas trip, and that’s the week the “Bachelor” ends and “Bachelorette” begins filming. Yup. 4 years in a row now I’ll be in Vegas for the first few nights of “Bachelorette” filming.
One thing I did do before leaving this past weekend was already record Thursday’s podcast guest. Another old schooler as Chelsea Wanstrath is my guest this week. Chelsea finished 2nd on Matt Grant’s season of the “Bachelor” back in 2008 to Shayne Llamas. This interview is literally 12 years in the making. Back in 2008, before my site had gotten as big as its gotten now, Chelsea was the first contestant I was ever gonna do an interview with. At the time, Matt picking Shayne Llamas was kind of a big deal. Not many understood it. Shayne was 22, an actress, and clearly might’ve been the first “not here for the right reasons” girl. Well, Chelsea was convinced she won. She shares some really good stories in regards to her final days in Barbados from overnights on. Stuff I don’t know if she’s ever told publicly before. And if she did, it was over 10 years ago. Can’t wait for you to hear some of the tea that she spills from her season, so check that out when Podcast #166 drops on Thursday. You’re gonna love Chelsea.
I guess I shouldn’t be the least bit surprised that they continued the ChampagneGate feud from last week into the beginning of the episode. Really accomplished nothing to be honest, although, we did get Hannah Ann creating a new word for the English language. Fiasco is now called a “fanasco” according to her, so there’s that. Hannah Ann says she’d never steal champagne, Kelsey tells her it wasn’t even about the champagne even though, well, that whole night she MADE IT about the champagne. But as I said last week, that whole convo was ridiculous because Kelsey was right. It wasn’t bullying. It was her being upset in the moment and calling Hannah Ann names she should’ve. If it was a champagne bottle that you allegedly didn’t care about, then calling someone a bitch and a princess over it was kind of an overreaction, don’t you think? They were both wrong for how they acted, and now hopefully we can put this stupid argument behind us. I know I’m ready for it. And I’m pretty sure they are too as they continue to poke fun at it on social media.
Victoria’s daytime portion of her date was about as generic as you could get. A whole bunch of nothing, not a whole hell of a lot of deep conversation, yet the person the date can’t stop gushing about how great the date is. Using phrases like “didn’t expect to feel this comfortable,” “best date ever,” etc. This coming from the same woman who told us already this season that A) a guy had never taken care of her before and B) had never bought her flowers before. Sooooo yeah, it doesn’t take much to knock Victoria off her feet at all. You could Combo Meal her at Taco Bell and she might fall in love with you judging from her past. My God, what if a guy, I don’t know, opened a door for her? Walked on the street part of the sidewalk as they held hands? Has she experienced ANY of this? Man, she really has had it rough in life, no?
The night portion of her date is where Victoria starts to get a bit more serious. She opens up to him about her past, how her mom succumbed to addiction, she and her sister lived in and out of foster homes, didn’t know where their next meal was coming from sometimes, etc. All very depressing to say the least. Look, it basically is a given that if you have a tragic backstory on this show, not only will you inevitably tell the lead about it, but you’ll do it and say you’ve never felt so close to someone to open up like that. At this point, it’s almost like if you DON’T open up about something tragic in your life, or some down periods that you overcame, it’s like you’re looked at as someone having no depth. It’s a highly unfair expectation to live up to on this show. And lets make no mistake about it: I don’t care how big of a secret past you have, how much you don’t feel like telling it, and how much you’d rather curl up in a ball to never have to tell it, this show will make you. And then you’ll be applauded for it in the end. Soooo, yay Victoria?
