-We opened with Katie having a girl chat with Kaitlyn and Tayshia. They ask her who she’s into. She thanks Tayshia for introducing her to Blake. Semantics, but ok. Then they ask about Greg, Katie blushes and says, “Greg’s a given.” We are heading down a road with Greg after 6 episodes of a pretty solid edit where they are just begging you to think he’s the frontrunner. Hell, most unspoiled people are convinced it’s Greg. Oh boy. However, the main point of this convo is Katie wants to give the guys a challenge this week – no masturbating. They need to “withhold self care.” “Hand shakes with themselves are off limits.” I guess this is what they mean by a sex positive season. Yes, it’s been known throughout the years that since basically these guys are fighting for one woman, and there isn’t a hell of a lot chances to release that, yeah, it happens a lot in the showers. Well, Katie wants them to cool it for a week because production wanted to steal a storyline from “Seinfeld.” The guys will be on the honor system.
-This proved to be quite the letdown because, well, maybe I’m wrong here because I’ll admit, I had the MLB HR Derby on the other TV for all 2 hours. While there wasn’t sound on the Derby and I had the sound on “Bachelorette,” I probably missed a few things. But didn’t only two guys “report” back to Katie and tell her how they did in the challenge, Andrew and Blake? Or was there another? They just made such a big deal of it in the beginning of the show, Kaitlyn goes in to tell the guys and she’s laughing about the whole thing, then, we really only find out how a few even did in the contest. Just seemed like a hell of a lot of hype for not much payoff whatsoever. Womp womp. That’s probably the same sound all those guys’ junk made when they heard that was the challenge for the week as well. Operation WoWo (Week Off, Whack Off) was a dud. Sorry. Also, Connor seemed to have a bunch of euphemisms for it, one being “Friday Night Lights.” Wait, WHAT? How dare you disgrace the name of Tim Riggins, Matt Saracen, Coach Taylor and the group by calling in that. There’s no way that’s what it’s called. I’ve heard guy humor for years. Never heard it called that. Punching your clown? Yes. Friday Night Lights? Uhhhh, no. Stop that right now. Never call it that again.
-They show a conversation before the first 1-on-1 of Hunter talking with James I believe, saying he thinks him, Greg, and Connor are totally top 4. A little later on we see James, Aaron, and Brendan talking about this and call out Hunter for being a super fan. Apparently they say he knows the history, reads all about the show, and now he’s already picking out a final four with 12 guys left. This became a running storyline for the night because, well, of course it did. Again, just like last week, this seems like a forced storyline. In the history of the show, you don’t think guys have ever sat around discussing who they think were getting hometown dates? Please. If Hunter thought he was gonna get one, I guess I don’t see why that’s a big deal he expressed it. Him being wrong is on him. Why would that bother other guys? If anything, you’d think they’d just be like, “Ok dude. Whatever. We’ll see.” Just seems like they had no real drama to this episode so they made it about that. Because that’s certainly not a big deal. Call me crazy.
-Justin’s 1-on-1 was a wedding photo shoot with Franco. For those with short term memory, let me refresh it for you. We literally saw this exact same type of date last summer with Franco, Tayshia, and Zac. Zac had the old school tux, Tayshia in the wedding dress, and Franco shooting the pics. Difference was it wasn’t 118 degrees in New Mexico like it was in La Quinta. And I don’t believe Zac and Tayshia had to write vows to each other which, I’m sorry, that was incredibly awkward. I know it’s a TV show, but the show didn’t make it a joke or have fun with it. They legit wanted Justin and Katie to write vows to each other on their first date ever. Both made it generic as possible saying phrases like “find love,” “trust you with my heart,” etc. It was definitely cringey to say the least. The one thing about this date though that stood out to me was in the season promo after the first episode, we got Katie saying this while in the wedding dress (it’s cued up to the part):
Yet last night, we never saw her say that. There were so many things in that promo if you watch it all the way through that were never shown. Then again, that happens every season. Hence the reason I just don’t feel the need to spend time on breaking down scene by scene. I’ll leave that to others.
-Over dinner, Katie opens up yet again this season about something major in her family life. Definitely credit to Katie this season for probably opening up more than any lead in recent memory. To share that 1) you were sexually assaulted – something her own mother didn’t even know and 2) last night sharing that her dad that died was not her biological father, and now her real dad wants to be a part of her life. I mean, pretty heavy stuff. She only found out the dad that raised her wasn’t biological shortly before he died. I think she obviously likes Justin, but, I think you can see that she was never going to pick him. He got the rose, he’ll be getting a hometown, but I can’t imagine anyone out there thinks they have this unbelievable connection. They don’t.
