-Time for the group date with Franco and Wells Adams. I guess it’s official now: Ben Higgins has passed the Bachelor Lifetime Contract to Wells Adams. How many consecutive seasons has he appeared in? And we know he’s got a big role down in Paradise, so just add that to the list. There was no point whatsoever in having Franco and Wells on this date. None. Yes, it’s a competition date like we see every season, and usually it’s called by Chris Harrison and Fred Willard. Well, Fred is no longer with us, and Chris is, ummmmm, not of this show anymore and never will be ever again even to talk about it in any capacity. But it’s not like we got a bunch of Wells and Franco play-by-play either. Just dumb. I get they love bringing alumni back to host dates, but geez, they really do nothing. Hell, JoJo and Tayshia came and hosted a date on Matt’s season and they got left on the editing room floor.
-Has every competition date this show has ever had resulted in someone getting injured? If it’s not every one, I’d say it’s at least 80% of them. And what exactly do you expect when you just make up a game of, “Ok, run around on this field, there will be a basketball hoop on each end, try and score, and the defenders can maul you in any way they want.” Just off the top of my head: Clay broke his finger in the football game on JoJo’s season, Luke P. injured the other Luke in the rugby game on Hannah’s season, Ames got a concussion on the muy thai fighting on Ashley’s season, and geez, even Brooks broke a finger on the dodgeball date in Desiree’s season. It’s like this is exactly what they want to happen, so lets not be surprised when it does. But we can just disregard any future ambulance scenes from early season previews from now on. Basically means nothing other than the filmed a scene of an ambulance moving with its sirens on.
-Even though Hunter wasn’t the guy who injured Michael momentarily, he did have a tackle in the game that made the other guys comment about how aggressive he was being. They made sure to show us this to set up essentially the rest of Hunter’s narrative for the episode. Hunter certainly seemed to puff his chest a bit this episode constantly talking about his connection with Katie, shading the other guys, and overall just throwing out a persona that we hadn’t seen yet. Not sure if a producer told him to lean into that, but it seemed like every ITM of his was him telling us how great he and Katie were together, no one else has what they have, and he doesn’t care about anyone else. Not sure how well versed Hunter is in this show’s history, but the people that talk about themselves a lot in ITM’s immediately feel the wrath of the audience. Hunter was no different last night. Did he really say anything that offensive? Not even close. But when people make it sound like they think they’re in the lead, or are better than others there, it’s an immediate turn off to the audience. I mean, “There’s no one else like me here,” granted could be taken out of context since it was the only sentence we hear him say in an ITM, it doesn’t come off great. And with Thomas gone, they had to have someone take the role of the guy who would annoy the other guys. Hunter seems to be the new target of attacks now.
-At the after party, they only show us 4 of the 13 guys getting any time with Katie, which means that those are your only possibilities of who can get the group date rose. Michael A. was up first since he was plowed by Justin in the football/basketball/tackle-anything-and-anyone game. Tells Katie that yesterday was his wife’s birthday, she feels bad, and he asks to kiss her again. I know there’s this groundswell of support right now for Michael being the next “Bachelor.” I mean, they haven’t even started filming Michelle’s season yet, so, I’m not sure we should immediately assume they’ve started interviewing guys yet. Also, Michael would definitely be a choice that comes with a different set of rules. We know that no matter how old the Bachelor is, the age of the women always remains in the 24-28 range. They’ve done it for 25 seasons in a row now so there’s no reason to question it. And now you’re looking at a single dad that isn’t gonna move from Ohio. They did it with Jason, so it’s been a while since they went that route, but just understand it wouldn’t be like any other season. Are they willing to do that again? I’m not sure.
-Connor got time next and played the ukulele for her? I think? Is that what it was? Hell if I know. I was too distracted by the fact that this is the 5th episode, and if there’s one thing we’ve learned about Connor is that he absolutely, positively refuses to button the top 4 buttons on any shirt he owns. It’s like the buttons are scared of going in the hole so he obliges them. I believe this guy teaches cycling classes in Nashville as his job. Are we next gonna see him wearing his biker shorts on a date? Maybe his little head set where he fires up all the guys with his overabundance of energy at 6am? Don’t get me wrong, I love my Peloton and all the instructors in it, but frankly, sometimes you just wanna punch them in the face for how excited and with such ease they can bike up a mountain at 60-70 resistance as I’m coming to a slow death. Screw you and your enthusiasm Connor.
-Hunter is up next and it’s during this time with her where we see the ITM of him saying “There’s no one like me here.” Again, we have no idea in what context that line came out. But they showed it for a reason, and that was to formulate his “character” for the episode. He tells Katie he’s never introduced his kids to a woman, but wants Katie to meet them so he brought pictures. Yeah, not the same, but I get what he was trying to do. Katie loved it, they make out, and I’m sure Aaron is off somewhere getting pissed off again. First Cody, then Thomas, now Hunter. It’s so obvious that producers go to Aaron to set off their narrative on guys they don’t want the audience to like. It’s almost like you could script what production is telling Aaron. “Hey man, what do you think about how aggressive Hunter was on the date today? Does that bother you?” And so on and so forth. Aaron takes that ball and just runs with it every time like he’s Derrick Henry.
-Greg is the last one we see get time with Katie and she tells him he has “Resting Sad Face.” Greg is this season’s got the early date, hard seeing her connect with others guy. We see someone like him every season. It’s inevitable. Now, how much he lets that affect him we don’t know. Everyone is convinced Greg leaves the show towards the end. I haven’t heard either way if he does. But knowing how tricky promos can be, I don’t base anything off those. Sometimes things they show are clear, and sometimes they show things out of context. Maybe he does leave. Maybe he doesn’t. I just think it’s too early to assume that based on a promo. Anyway, Hunter gets the group date rose which I’m sure will have Aaron stewing for God knows how long.
