I remember when the hometown date episode, for the longest time, would always have at least 1 of the 4 hometowns be so bizarre and random. Either something they did during the day, or they basically showed the family in a more comedic light. Not because the family was funny necessarily. Just that the show was taking subtle shots at them to make that hometown look not as serious. And usually those people ended up going home. Then at a certain point, they just dropped that narrative all together. I can’t remember the last time we got a hometown date where the audience walked away from it saying, “Good Lord that family is weird.” Now it seems like all of them are normal and there really isn’t any comedic value to the hometowns. Maybe that’s a good thing and the way it should be, but the vibes of these have definitely shifted to a more serious tone that’s for sure. Last night was no exception.
First things first, I wanted to see if this show was gonna continue its pattern of showing the hometown dates out of the order they were filmed – and boy did they ever. The order of filming went like this:
Marcus (April 26th)
Jeremy (April 28th)
Devin (April 30th)
Jonathon (May 2nd)
And obviously the order it was shown in last night was: Devin, Jeremy, Jonathon, & Marcus. @BachelorData has your breakdown on how it’s worked on the “Bachelorette” the last 10 years or so on filming order vs TV order. Filming is usually done logistically as it normally goes east to west since the rose ceremony is usually on the west coast at the mansion or an LA hotel. Jenn’s was differently since their last stop before hometowns was Seattle, and since his hometown was in Tacoma, they knocked his out first, then they went west to east with Jeremy (CT), Devin (TX), and Jonathon (CA).
Here are a few of my thoughts on each guy’s hometown date:
Devin
A couple things to mention on this hometown. First off, I understand that his Run Club is a big part of his life, but did we really need to do this during a relaxing hometown date. Jenn can say how much she loved it, but inside, she was dying. Zero chance you wanna do something this active on a hometown date. Who wants to run? Ever? Especially on a TV show when it’s about getting to know your partner. Running? Seriously? They were a sweaty mess after the fact? Great façade Jenn put on trying to pretend she was remotely interested in doing that, but c’mon. She was miserable having to run in Houston during the spring. I don’t know what the weather was like that day because I wasn’t there, but I’ll take one giant guess: a hot, muggy, humid mess. Hope Jenn had her OUAI shampoo with her on this date to deal with her frizzies. Just a guess.
Here’s something that hit me last night. I could be way off on this and we’ll know in a couple weeks, but there might’ve been a piece to the puzzle we got last night. Remember in the season opening preview, in fact, the first minutes of the show in episode 1 showed Jenn standing on the altar on final rose ceremony day telling someone (Devin, because of the white jacket), that “I can’t let you propose to me?” Well after Devin was the only guy last night to tell Jenn he was in love with her, maybe that scene is Jenn saying “I can’t let you propose to me…until I tell you that I love you.” Something along those lines. It was such a big deal for Devin to say it last night, and Jenn has worried all season about not being loved, I really think that could be the thing she completes than sentence with. And Devin didn’t say, “I think I’m falling in love with you,” or “I can see myself falling in love with you,” he said, “I love you, Jenn.” That’s a big step. Especially when no other guy said it. So remember this paragraph come finale night. Or not.
