-The next scenes are where the show completely went off the rails. The morning of the group date, a date card arrives and it’s from Zach saying he’s not feeling well, but he wants the women to explore London on their own and he’ll “see them soon.” Immediately this makes some women sad, some women start crying, and some start feeling stood up. Wait, huh? They think he’s just making this up and it’s all about them? Got it. Some true colors showing on this date. Lets make it all about yourselves ladies and not how Zach is feeling. There’s a part of me that believes because these cities are basically working on trade is the reason why the women still got to go out and show locations in London. These cities are basically getting a 2 hour commercial every week in the United States to feature their city. So with no dates the rest of the week, my guess is the show just couldn’t stay in the hotel and do nothing, which is why we see the group date board a double decker bus, do some sight seeing, etc.
-Oh yeah, all of them got dressed up for a night portion of the date hoping and praying Zach would show up for that so they could get a morsel of time with him there. No dice, ladies. Zach is missing that too. Which was a complete set up by production obviously. They knew by night time, or at least when the women started getting ready, that Zach wasn’t gonna be able to make the nighttime portion. Yet all of them got dressed up, their hopes were sky high because, you know, why would they POSSIBLY make us get dressed up for a date that Zach won’t be attending. Short answer: because they don’t care about you and are making a TV show and trying to accomplish the most dramatic moments as possible. And what’s better than seeing 9 women get disappointed a second time in 10 minutes? Sorry ladies. Maybe you can play charades by yourself. Or Pictionary. Whatever you decide, it won’t be with Zach since he’s stuck in his room blowing his nose and watching Love Island UK.
-As we know Zach not only cancelled the group date, but cancelled the 1-on-1 scheduled with Charity (which we know she gets next week in Estonia), but the thing that wasn’t addressed at all last night was what I heard in that one of the women also got COVID. Couple things here: 1) I don’t know who it was and 2) it’s still possible it gets covered next week. If not, then I hope I find out at some point who it was and relay how exactly it was handled. A lot of people have questions about last night and how everything was handled with Zach. Yes, he isolated, but did all the women get tested? Why weren’t the women kept separated from each other? How did Gabi not get it considering she was kissing him less than 48 hrs after he before he tested positive. Well, I don’t think that means Gabi is 100% getting it. Or maybe she is the one who did. I just don’t know yet. But there have been people who have lived with a boyfriend/girlfriend, spouse, etc and one of the parties got it, no isolating was done, and the other person never got it. So it’s not a guarantee Gabi got it. Do I think they were all tested in London after Zach tested positive? Absolutely. Why wouldn’t they be? But for those that want to know the whole procedure and how it was handled, I don’t think we’re gonna get that answer. But finding out which woman did test positive I hope I find out, or, it’s addressed next week. I can’t imagine how it’s not.
-I think the other biggest storyline last night was, after finding out Zach tested positive for COVID, one woman got to put together a gift basket, go to Zach’s room and talk to him outside his door – something we all got to watch Kaity do. Now, is it possible that other women got to do that and it wasn’t shown? Sure. I don’t know if they did or didn’t. But what I do know is what was shown last night, and that was we ONLY got to see Kaity do it, which means producers wanted you to see that for a reason. Even if it was to fill more time on an episode that only had one date, still. It’s Kaity. The only woman he asked after a date this season to spend the night with him. Christina didn’t get that treatment, Aly didn’t get that, Brooklyn and Kat didn’t get that last week in the Bahamas, and Gabi didn’t get it last night. I wonder why? That was a VERY telling scene last night. Reminded me of when Susie got to send a note to Clayton to meet her at the Bell Tower, and it was strictly just to tell him she was falling in love with him. No one else got to get that extra time, and as far as we know, no one else did last night either except Kaity. Interesting.
-The cocktail party (and also the rose ceremony for that matter), was some of the most awkward, uncomfortable, and incredibly goofy television this show has ever produced – and I loved every second of it. Charity and Kat were the first two women to separately get time with him on the Zoom ipad on the couch, and the first thing that both of them said was, no, not asking how he’s feeling or concerned in the least bit about his well being. Nope. It was, “I can’t see myself on the screen” and they were worried how they looked. I would expect nothing less ladies. Keep it up. I think the Greer conversation where she compared her getting COVID and it affecting her sales job was kind of blown out of proportion. I think they just needed to create the illusion that she might be going home at the rose ceremony because that was really a whole lot of nothing. I don’t think Zach was chastising her, but she certainly took it that way. Although I am curious as to why the first impression rose recipient doesn’t get a 1-on-1 in the first 6 episodes, since Charity and Ariel get it next week. I don’t believe that’s happened since Olivia on Ben’s season, and she ended up on a 2-on-1 in episode 7. Ryan Park on Ashley’s season also suffered the same fate, finally got that 1-on-1 in the episode before hometowns and got sent home. But interesting to see what happens with Greer and what the reasoning is and how she exits the show.
-The virtual cocktail party had me sold. I want to see ALL rose ceremonies like this til the end of time. Kaity not knowing what to do with the rose. Virtual hugs. Virtual kisses. It was everything I thought I wanted in a rose ceremony and more. Everyone standing looking at a screen, and the first thing out of Zach’s mouth was, “Can everyone hear me?” So awesome. If only everyone else could’ve been on a Zoom themselves, and someone people’s mics are too loud, someone starts speaking while their mic is muted, or someone masturbating in the background not thinking their camera is on, Jeffery Toobin style. Ok, maybe not that, but that’s certainly one of my biggest memories from the pandemic. Toobin torpedoing his career because he just HAD to be getting off at the time of an important meeting and not knowing his camera was on. Good one.
Anyway, Gabi is the only one safe with a rose. Kaity, Charity, Aly, Kat, Brooklyn, Jess, and Ariel receive roses, and that ends our streak of 3 straight weeks where the final 4 women all received their roses consecutively. We know Gabi was safe, and we were off to a great start with Kaity and Charity getting the first two roses, but then Ariel getting hers second to last unfortunately brings the 3 week run to an end.
“Ladies, Zach. It’s the final rose tonight. When you’re ready. If we implement this Zoom thing til the end of time, I could be out of a job soon. I guess that’s ok, since I still have Rooms-to-Go, ESPN, the Holiday Baking Championship, and any other reality show like The Proposal or that surfing reality show last summer that I’m always on call for.”
Greer gets the last rose. The previews weren’t for next weeks episode, although some clips were from Estonia like Charity and Ariel’s 1-on-1. But it was more about covering things that happen the rest of the season. There wasn’t anything in there too outrageous and nothing we hadn’t really seen before, outside of a couple clips. Nothing earth shattering though.
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