-We can just get this out of the way immediately. Former podcast guest Manon Matthews absolutely nailed this Gabby impression:
Nailed every cadence, the sentence structure, and of course, the “yeahs.” I told you last week she says it A LOT. I asked @BachelorData if she could set her algorithm to that word to see how many times she says it an episode, since she can do it with other words. But apparently she can’t for that word. Someone would just have to watch and write down how many times she says it. Might be a task for me on a slow day. Because it’s probably even more than I think. I’d say minimum 25 times an episode.
-Zach got the first date of the season and it went about as well as you could for a first date. Basically, the opposite of how Rachel’s date with Jordan V. went last week. Karamo from “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” was the host, but lets face it, us old schoolers remember Karamo the most from the “Real World,” one of my favorite seasons in Philly. It’s amazing the career some people from that show have had outside of anyone who’s made a career out of the “Challenge.” We’ve had politicians, TV hosts, wives of celebrities, actors/actresses, etc. “Real World” was the original breeding ground for “influencer” life before influencing was a thing. Of course, “Real World” doesn’t really work in 2022 just because there’s so many shows similar and it’s not original. I guess that’s why MTV is rebooting it by bringing the old casts back together to film again. Every time I see they’re going to do that I get excited and think I’m going to watch since I saw the original season and wanna see what they’re like now. Then inevitably I never do. Anybody that has watched them reboot New York and New Orleans, are they any good? Am I missing out?
-They broke away from Rachel’s date briefly to show Gabby at the mansion for one reason and one reason only: to set the narrative for the episode that Gabby has a major insecurity about not feeling good enough to be loved. They drilled that into our heads about 841 times last episode to the point where you really either started feeling bad for Gabby, or were like, “Ok, this is overkill.” I felt bad that clearly production was behind the camera asking her questions that made her doubt herself constantly. So yeah, when the question behind the camera that we’re not seeing is someone inevitably asking Gabby, “Do you think this journey is gonna work for you,” and “Is your mom abandoning you make you feel less loved” and “Do you fear that you’ll walk out of this alone,” I guess anyone would start questioning whether they were worthy enough to be loved. Do I know those questions were asked specifically to her? No. But I’ve watched this show long enough and spoken to enough contestants to know, that’s exactly how they get you to talk about things. They chip away at your insecurities and make you start believing what they ask. Happens on every reality show.
-Zach and Rachel had a fake red carpet entrance and then ended up watching home videos and photos of themselves, which became very emotional. I’ve seen it every season, and it’s happening again this season. We know Zach is a front runner this season. And maybe he does win. But everyone that gets a good 1-on-1, EVERYONE just assume that person wins. Until the next guy gets one. No one could shut up about Nate last week because of his 1-on-1, and now this week it’s Erich. It’s the ol’ out-of-sight-out-of-mind thing. Consensus is “how could Zach not win after that date” because that’s what they just saw. Then Tino will get his 1-on-1 next week, and the consensus will shift to him. Just the way it works on this show. If you want or think a particular person to win, you can create any narrative you want in your own head to back that up. But only one person does. So when next week Tino is everyone’s favorite, just remember that at the end of the season. If Zach won, remember all the people that said it was gonna be Tino were dead wrong. And if Tino won, remember back to last night’s date where everyone was convince Zach won. Leads are allowed to have a great date with someone without it being declared their soulmate and a slam dunk winner of the season. Zach and Rachel had a GREAT date. Doesn’t mean he won. Doesn’t mean he didn’t either. Lets stop being so definitive on things like this.
