The past week on The Bachelor: Where is Madison? Which of the three remaining women will be going home? What will go down at The Women Tell All? Will the drama FINALLY be put to rest? Plus, how will Peter react to seeing all of his exes together again? The drama continues (for now)…
We start this episode off in Gold Coast, Australia. Yes, we were here last week as well, but believe it or not, we are still here. We know where the other two women stand with Peter, but we are still in the dark about where Madison is at after their Fantasy Suite date took an expected turn. I say expected because we all knew he was going to be intimate with the other women and Madison expressed she wouldn’t be okay with that – if that were to be the case which notably, it was. Anyway, we see Peter talking to Chris Harrison about Madison and he begins telling him that he isn’t sure if he went about this week the right way and he honestly doesn’t know if Madison is going to show up to the Rose Ceremony tonight which he would understand but be deeply hurt by. Peter concludes by stating that he can see a future with all of these women… typical.
However, at the Rose Ceremony, Peter starts approaching Victoria F. and Hannah Ann and the girls are also starting to wonder where Madison is. To tell the truth, I’m sure they are excited and hopeful because they know Madison is the ultimate front runner. Yes, I said it, we all know it’s true – and then, Madison shows up! Didn’t see that one coming at all. In her discussion with Chris, she states that she doesn’t really know where she stands with Peter and she isn’t sure what that means moving forward for both of them, especially with the Rose Ceremony in their sights.
At the ceremony, Peter gives Hannah Ann the first rose and he offers the second one to Madison. She was hesitant at first but eventually said “yeah.” That’s a direct quote – just “yeah,” Madison? Peter asks if she is sure which had me laughing. This means that Victoria F. is finally going home. She didn’t even show any emotion when leaving. I mean, everyone copes in their own ways, but she is saying goodbye to someone she’s in love with. Peter explains to her how real everything was to him and how he was falling in love with her. Victoria, per usual, shuts him down saying she feels stupid and how she doesn’t really want to hear anything else about it because it is what it is. Peter (finally) says goodbye to Victoria F.
Next up, we have The Women Tell All. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this, the producers invite (most) of the women back to talk about their time on the show and confront one another and Peter one last time. It’s a lot of fighting and going back and forth between each other, honestly. I would like to add that I did watch this episode twice because I wasn’t sure how I wanted to recap it and The Women Tell All is typically more sporadic, so I tried my best to not jump around too much but still cover all that was important. Alright, so let’s get started.
We start with Victoria P. and Alayah. Sydney, who has had a past with Alleyah, begins by saying that she knew there was something “off” about her and said she came off extremely scripted during interactions. Lexi jumps in to add that she was treating it like a competition, similar to that of a pageant. Chris asked Alayah why she came back after not receiving a rose during the ceremony and Sydney jumps in, again, to give the reason that Alayah came back – it’s because she got on Reddit, this a reference to Alayah telling all the women about Victoria F.’s past with Chase Rice after her one-on-one date with Peter, and felt compelled to share personal information of Victoria F’s with the house. Alayah admits that she truly regrets telling the house about that because she knows that she should have kept quiet about what she saw when she went home. Now, something I have been confused about since it was brought up was if Alayah and Victoria P. were friends prior to the show and I can’t say I gained much clarification after watching this section of the tell-all. Shiann brought up a good point about how Victoria P. would talk poorly of Alayah one minute and then coddle her the next which made no sense to her and the other girls and came off superficial. Victoria P. explains that she understands where the women are coming from and it’s because she is “weird,” (again, direct quote here) but Savannah jumps in to clarify that it’s not being weird, it’s being fake. I couldn’t focus after that because all the girls started talking over each other with Chris Harrison ultimately shutting them down before we cut to the commercial break.
We start back off with the infamous Champagne Gate. Kelsey expresses that she went “balls to the walls” crazy when she heard that bottle pop to which Shiann felt like she should add that how Kelsey handled that was irrational, Kelsey agreed. She said she was justified in her emotions, but not in her actions. Now we discuss the Tammy and Kelsey issue. On the show, Tammy said that Kelsey cried excessively and she was concerned about her because emotionally she seemed to be all over the place. This is what led to Tammy confronting Peter and this is where she claimed that Kelsey had a drinking problem. Pill popping had been brought up as well but that was apparently brought up by Victoria P. Are we all remembering and following this? Now that we’re on the same page, Victoria P. discusses why she made this pill-popping claim against Kelsey and she explains that she said Kelsey had been acting out of character that night. Kelsey jumps in and says that she never claimed to be sober, I chuckled anyway. Victoria keeps going and begins to say that from a medical standpoint, as a nurse, but didn’t get to finish her sentence due to someone jumping in to state that she is in fact not a nurse, she is a dermatologist. I lost it laughing, again. These women are brutal. Also, I have done zero research looking into this and I don’t know what qualifications Victoria P. has as a dermatologist to assess other’s emotional states, but again, I don’t even know if that is what she does for a living. Kelsey tells Tammy that she was not okay with her going to Peter and saying all of those things about her because there are people out there who actually have those issues and it was disrespectful to make claims that Kelsey does when they are unfounded and based on personal opinion.
Next, we take a quick turn to the Mykenna and Tammy drama. Tammy starts by saying that she had previously expressed to Mykenna (prior to the drama we saw) that she didn’t like her. Ouch, but I get it. Anyway, Tammy says that Mykenna is always putting on a show and after this, Maurissa jumps in and says that Mykenna is literally a meme. I laughed watching this entire thing because it is so true. Mykenna is a walking, talking meme. Mykenna whips around and tells her she went home on night one and she doesn’t know anything. I’m sorry, Mykenna, but how are you going to sit there and praise love wins and be kind, but treat someone like that? Sit down. Kiarra jumps in and says she is a nanny, she knows childish behavior, and that’s exactly how Mykenna was acting. True, I agree. Mykenna says that Tammy owes her an apology and if I’m being entirely honest, I think that they both owe each other an apology at this point. They go back and forth with each other for a while literally saying the same things they said to each other on the show, so I find this annoying to bring up again and don’t feel as though I really need to elaborate beyond that. I didn’t think anything really got resolved here, but Chris Harrison cut that off real quick and said if he didn’t, they would bicker for hours (are we surprised?)
Chris pulls Kelsey on stage to the hot seat so that we can recap Kelsey’s entire duration on the show. Kelsey gets pretty emotional watching the recap, especially her departure after hometowns. Kelsey says that it was hard for her because she said she saw a future with Peter and she tells Chris that she was in shock because she didn’t think she was going home that night. Chris asks her if she misses Peter and she says that she does because she learned a lot about herself from being with him. Now, to one topic I love, we are back to Champagne Gate. She says that when it happened her first thought was “what does my makeup look like?” Honestly, it would have been mine too. Chris brings up how emotional Kelsey was on the show and Kelsey expresses how grateful she was that Peter was comfortable and appreciated how emotional she was as opposed to others on the show *cough Tammy cough.* Chris has a special surprise for Kelsey. – the suprise is Ashley I., a previous Bachelor contestant and Bachelor in Paradise contestant, who was an infamous crier. If you don’t know who she is, just google “Ashley I. crying” and the photos that pop up will give you an idea of who this woman is. Anyway, she was here to tell Kelsey that she appreciates how emotional she was on the show because she represented women like herself and gives her a huge bottle of champagne in solidarity. My favorite part about this was that Tammy was rolling her eyes the entire time this was happening which really topped it all off.
Next in the hot seat, we have Victoria F. We recap Victoria F’s time on the show and this is where she finally gets emotional. Victoria tells Chris that she didn’t realize how much Peter cared about her and because she couldn’t get out of her own way, it cost both of them. Victoria reiterates that Peter was the one good thing she was able to have and she thought it was easier to not have him at all, then to be all in and lose him at the end. She tells us that she was truly in love with him and that she also regrets a lot of the ways she acted on the show. Chris brings up how they had a lot of serious conversations, especially the conversation that referenced the claim that she broke up a number of marriages, that came up during her hometown date. Victoria expresses that those accusations were not true. She says that she should have handled that better and then goes on to say that she could have handled the whole season better. Honestly, good for Victoria for owning that her actions on the show were not okay. Victoria F. is one of the girls that I have picked on the most this season and I was genuinely surprised that she came into this open minded and took responsibility for her actions, it’s a good note for her to end on – for once.
Peter comes out on stage next to talk to the women and Chris begins by asking Peter that when he became The Bachelor if any part of him knew what he was getting into. Sorry for interrupting, Chris, but if I knew my season was going to go like this, I would have turned back around. This season was terrible. Peter says that he will never be able to have an experience like this again. I mean, I would hope not Peter, you aged like ten years from being on this show for one season. Kelsey tells him that she’s thankful for him because she was able to learn more about herself through her relationship with him and she recognizes how valuable the entire experience was no matter how it ended. Victoria F. comes up on stage next with Peter and Chris. Victoria F. thanks Peter for being patient with her and apologizes for putting him through everything she did. Peter responds with love stating that he is patient and he wasn’t going to just give up on her when their relationship got more difficult. They both agreed that they learned a lot from each other and they are able to take away a lot from this experience which is equally as important as them finding their own love outside of each other in the future.
Lastly, they show bloopers from the season which are usually pretty funny, you should definitely check them out if you haven’t seen them already. I wasn’t as impressed with them this season as I usually am. Honestly, my whole mood of this season could be summed up with disappointed, but not surprised. I know we’re not done yet, but for now, that is my mood. Also, I’m going to address the elephant in the room, being where were Natasha and Kelley? I did a little research, and what I mean by a “little” was I got on Twitter one night and saw that Kelley wasn’t invited to attend The Women Tell All because she was bad talking the producers for making her look bad – I mean, she’s not wrong but moving on. I guess Natasha had prior arrangements and that is why she could attend so nothing exciting there.
Usually, The Women Tell All ends there, but this episode was different. Now, I know I poke fun at the contestants and give my honest opinion on them but trust me, I’m also aware that the producers can shape a lot of the show to make certain people look bad – so I want to bring up something serious. Rachel Lindsay, a prior Bachelor contestant who was the Bachelorette after her time on the Bachelor, is on stage with Chris Harrison discussing something that has never really been addressed on the show before. No one really talks about what happens after the contestants leave the show. Persistent and extensive online harassment is something that always happens among a number of contestants when they go back to their lives – it is something that gets talked about a little bit, but we don’t see it firsthand. Well, Rachel pulled up some of the messages that the contestants received this season and I’m not going to put the messages on here because they are truly terrible. What I will say is that there is a difference between criticism and hatred. People have become so comfortable with posting these claims and awful statements on the internet and I applaud her for bringing attention to that because as much as we all love to make fun of these ladies, they are still human beings at the end of the day who don’t deserve an onslaught of hatred based on their television personas. To end on a positive note, just keep in mind that these women are real people and there is more to them than what we see on the show. Be kind.
Who will Peter end up with? Will we finally find out who Peter’s mom is crying about? Will there be a proposal? This is the most dramatic season ever. Stay tuned for this week’s incoming recap of the two-night season finale of The Bachelor.