Wanna hear about my busy day later on? Of course you do. So today at 5:30 I’m supposed to be recording this week’s podcast with “Bachelor” recapper Ali Barthwell from Vulture.com. That’ll go basically right up to when I go live with Ashley Spivey for our weekly IG live chat at 7:00, then around 8:30 I’m going on a buddy’s podcast to record the awesomeness that is “Cobra Kai.” That’ll be a good 4-5 straight hours of work. Imagine that? I guess that’s why they pay me the big bucks. Or not since, well, only one of those even makes any money. So yes, join me and Ashley tonight for our weekly IG Live chat at 8ET/5PT. We are back doing it on Tuesdays. So when we first started doing these during the pandemic, we started on Sundays. Then when Clayshia’s season started, we moved them to Wednesday nights, right? (I already forgot). And now we’re on Tuesdays. So just like how the NFL had games on every day of the week this season for the first time ever, maybe Ashley and I should be striving for doing that as well. That’s what COVID does to things. It messes them all up. I think we’re solid on Tuesday nights for the rest of the season though. Well, as long as people don’t start acting like assholes in the comments. Thanks again to everyone who joined last week. That was a great show and I’m so thankful Ashley is back. See you tonight!
Also, get your “Reader Emails” in for tomorrow as it’s a fairly low batch as we speak. Plenty of time to ask questions about anything, including last night’s episode. You know how I love statistics, right? Well, this show is very much a creature of habit. In the second episode of the season (which is the first episode the dates start), they’ve kinda run in patterns. For the longest time, the 2nd episode of the season would have two 1-on-1 dates, and 1 group date. From Ashley’s season up through Andi’s season, that’s the way it was done: two 1-on-1’s and 1 group date in the second episode. Then, starting with Chris Soules season, they changed it up and decided to go with two group dates and one 1-on-1 date in episode two. So in the last 12 seasons since Chris’ (Chris, Kaitlyn, Ben, JoJo, Nick, Rachel, Arie, Becca, Colton, Hannah, Peter, and Clare), only ONE time did they deviate, and go back to the two 1-on-1’s and 1 group date in episode 2, and that was Arie’s season, where Becca and Krystal got solo dates in ep 2. Does this mean anything whatsoever? No. I just thought I’d point it out. I mean, maybe we can watch to see if they’re going back to this two solos/one group in ep 2 going forward. But other than that, I don’t think it means too much.
Along the lines of statistics, did you see what @BachelorData posted over the weekend in regards to getting the first 1-on-1 date of the season? If this pattern shows us anything, it severely hurts any chance Bri has of being the final one. But hey, “Bachelorette” maybe?
Speaking of the final one, since I was asked about it so much on social media last night, let me address it again. I got a lot of “Are you not covering Matt’s spoilers this season” messages last night. Last week I posted the spoilers of what I knew. You can read that here. I’ll repeat again. I do not have any confirmation that Rachael is who Matt chose. None. I’ve heard non stop from people in the Cumming, GA area, that friends and family are all saying Rachael wins. Maybe she does end up winning. I’m just saying that’s not a confirmation to me.
I do not know who Matt chose. I know Rachael, Serena P., and Michelle Young (who hasn’t shown up yet), are in his final 4. I’m assuming Bri is the 4th one in his final four, but I don’t have confirmation of that. So right now, there’s a lot in the air. But I am not saying Rachael is Matt’s winner. Didn’t say it last week. Not saying it this week. That’s who I was told it was, but I’m told a lot of things every season. If/When I get confirmation of the winner, I’ll let you know. But I know there’s been plenty of people talking about it being Rachael, then people come to me asking if it’s true, and I laid out what I was told. Which is that none of the people that told me they “heard” it was Rachael have given me any proof or evidence whatsoever for me to run with it with any sort of confidence. We’ve got time. I’m working on finding out if it’s true or not.
We know from my spoiler before the season and then by the season promo last week that Heather Martin joins the show at some point later on, only to be sent home the same day. And by the looks of the promo, looks like she crashes the middle of a date. Did you hear the BS reason Robert Mills gave as to why/how this happened? This is what he said on his radio show last week:
“Robert Mills, an ABC executive, told Bachelor Recap co-host, Julia Cunningham she ‘did anything’ she could to get on Matt’s season.
‘She felt for sure this was her husband and basically did anything she could to get there and track him down,’ Robert said.
If you buy any of that, I’ve got some land to sell you. Like making it seem Heather controlled how and when she was gonna show up? They really want us to buy this? This show controls who shows up and when, not the other way around. I don’t know who reached out to who, but don’t for a second think that Heather dictated anything in regards to her appearance on the show. Hey, maybe she did reach out to production through a particular person to let them know she was into Matt. That happens a lot. But production didn’t shoot her down, Heather booked her own ticket, and just showed up on set. C’mon. We’re not morons. They arranged everything, AND, from the second she got on a plane to go out there, they knew what her fate would be when she showed up. Don’t let them try and tell you otherwise.
This was a funny tweet that made the rounds after last week’s premiere. Someone noticed a girl from this season once helped her out of a really sticky situation. Read the whole Twitter thread to know who she’s talking about:
a girl i knew in college is gonna be on the bachelor and one time after an alumni event she took a subway w/ me & a man all the way in the wrong direction bc he was trying to cheat on his wife w/ me and i was too dull to notice. so anyways i think she should win
— sydney battle (@SydneyBattle) January 2, 2021
Kristin deserves a Good Samaritan Award for rescuing that poor woman from the creepiness of a married man. Who would’ve thunk that? A married man chasing after a single college girl? That never happens! Maybe Kristin doesn’t last long on this show, but she’ll be forever remembered for her bravery and heroism on that fateful night whenever it was. We salute you Kristin for standing up to the creepy, pervy married men of the world.

rob22
January 12, 2021 at 12:10 PM
For those wondering about the “heart” game… which isn’t many of you, I’m sure. What they were playing was a boy scout game called capture the flag. Or should I say, a very loose version of capture the flag. Each team has a flag (heart) they hide on their side of a line dividing the two sides. When I say “Hide”, it still has to be easily visible (lots of complaints can occur on what easily visible means). But anyway, you have to cross into the other teams territory to get their flag (or heart in this case) and bring it back to your side to win. But, once you’re in your opponents territory, you can be “caught” and put in a time out/jail. I won’t go into the details of that. But basically you can’t just walk unimpeded into the other territory and grab the flag. I assume that the “paint” was a way of catching opponents, but it was very unclear how since it seemed that everyone was nailing everyone with paint in a total free for all. And I didn’t see a jail/time out spot. But anyway, this was some sort of lame version of the game anyway. It’s actually super fun with a lot of strategy among players who play often. There are always some who are geniuses at the game. We actually had one guy who had the supernatural ability to get to the flag without being seen (even though you KNEW you had to really be on the lookout for him). It was spooky how good he was. I was not one of those who was even remotely good at the game. But, of course, this version was very stupid and even knowing the game it was hard to see what they were really doing. Certainly just grabbing the flag/heart and running unimpeded to the other side is not something that actually happens That is, unless most of your team is in jail & there’s nobody to stop them. So, there’s that. And there is a strategy of essentially overwhelming the other side by everyone attacking at once (once you know where the flag is) with the idea that they can’t catch everyone (this is make or break. If it works, you win, if it doesn’t work, everyone’s in jail & you lose). I’m sure that’s much more than anyone wanted to know, assuming anyone cared at all. So, cheers!
tiggertamer
January 12, 2021 at 10:33 PM
@rob22, I always appreciate your thoughtful and well-written comments. In this case, I enjoyed the explanation of Capture the Flag. I also appreciated your COVID-19 comments in a previous post.
Regarding Victoria, I think Steve’s take on her personality (disorder) is pretty accurate. And, though I don’t generally care much about fashion, I think Victoria’s level of fashion impairment warrants a comment. In addition to some highly questionable fashion choices, Victoria appears to be unaware of her bra, perhaps thinking it somehow becomes invisible when she puts it on. I hope someone close to her becomes concerned enough about this fashion impairment to help her. This should be a relatively easy fix; she does not have to live like this.