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Tag: Aaron

Bachelor in Paradise recap: Rodney and Logan aren’t ‘man’ enough for Eliza and Kate

November 2, 2022 /
Genevieve Parisi prepares to flee the beach on “Bachelor in Paradise.”
PHOTO CREDIT: All photos screen grabs

I’m feeling a bit like Genevieve Parisi near the end of Tuesday’s “Bachelor in Paradise,” frustrated and mentally exhausted, dragging her suitcase along, hellbent on escaping a toxic situation.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. “Paradise” is supposed to be the fun “Bachelor” show. We know the producers will manipulate situations to create drama — it’s not like they can help themselves — but it generally doesn’t ruin the naughty, flirty, goofy summertime vibe on the beach or quash the chances of people coupling up, like really coupling up.

But instead of Paradise, this season we’ve got a purgatory where the only imperative seems to be to cause as much chaos as possible, particularly if it means breaking people up.

So this week, after the dust had settled from the show’s “Love Island” ripoff “Casa Amor” twist, they parachuted in a cast member who’d already been sent home just to tempt Eliza away from Rodney. And it seems to be working beyond their wildest dreams.

I mean it’s bad enough that cast members come in with shopping lists of people they want to get with, either because they’ve met them at Stagecoach or slid into their DMs, but at least there were rules. If you didn’t get a rose you went home. If the man or woman of your dreams arrived after you’d already gone, too bad, sucks to be you.

Now, however, not getting a rose is meaningless because producers can bring people back at will to stir up crap. That’s how Justin Glaze ended up back on the beach, hell-bent on pursuing Eliza Isichei.

Rodney Mathews, you’ll recall, ended his romance with Lace after going on a date with Eliza and the two seemed to quickly become one of the “it” couples on the beach, or so we were led to believe.

Eliza Isichei gets cosy with Justin Glaze. Rodney who?

But Eliza was all smiles and giggles after Justin told her he had come back just to meet her, so much so that she apparently forgot all about telling Rodney she wanted to spend quality time with him and agreed to go on a date with Justin.

She was flattered to be pursued by two men, “pursued” being the operative word because when Rodney refused to forbid Eliza from going on the date she got all sullen and resentful, and decided Rodney didn’t care about her that much after all. And I’m sorry, what?

Have we travelled not only to Mexico but decades into the past where men were expected to lay down the law and women to obey?

Because, you know, Eliza could have just said no to Justin if she actually. wanted to nurture her relationship with Rodney instead of expecting him to make the decision for her.

Eliza later claimed her “yes” to Justin had been conditional on getting “clarification” from Rodney. And I’m sorry, what???

As Rodney insisted that Eliza was the only one he wanted and that he would do whatever he needed to do to prove that to her, Eliza continued to act like a sulky teenager. “I hope so,” she said before reluctantly giving Rodney a hug and then wandering back to Justin for a shameless smooching session. And at this point, I’d just like to see Eliza and Justin get the hell off the beach and to extend my condolences to Rodney for falling for someone so insecure and immature.

And if you’re thinking, well, Eliza’s only 26, Kate Gallivan — who’s 33 — also came down with a case of wanting a man to make decisions for her.

This happened after Hayden Markowitz hit the beach. You remember him: the guy who talked shit about Gabby and Rachel on their season, and used his dying dog, Rambo, to try to score sympathy points?

He was still blathering on about Rambo and about how a woman would be hard pressed to beat Rambo in his affections, except — IF YOU CARE ABOUT YOUR DOG SO MUCH WHY AREN’T YOU AT HOME TAKING CARE OF HIM INSTEAD OF IN FREAKIN’ MEXICO?

Shanae and Florence wisely gave Hayden a pass on his date card, but Kate said a part of her wanted to say yes to Hayden just to see how Logan would react. Would that be the part that was egged on by the producers perchance?

So she did say yes, in the hopes Logan would tell her not to go on the date. And are you serious? Logan had been on what, three dates at that point with three different women? So he told Kate she deserved to have the full Paradise experience just like he had.

But Logan had failed Kate’s “test.” “Every girl wants a guy that’s gonna fight for her,” she said.

By telling her what to do? Sorry, not this “girl.”

In fact, Kate claimed Logan’s reaction was “like he didn’t care if I lived or died.” And I’m sorry, what????

Anyway, the date with Hayden was kind of a dud.

Hayden Markowitz and Kate Gallivan prepare to go zip-lining, to Hayden’s horror.

Their zip-lining adventure rattled Hayden and Kate wasn’t digging “this scared energy from him.” He not only admitted to talking crap about Rachel and Gabby, he doubled down and said he didn’t think they were there “for the right reasons.” And Kate decided Hayden’s “priorities are a little misaligned” after he confessed to spending six figures so Rambo could live up to another two years with his brain tumour.

And yet, the promo for next week shows Kate supposedly vacillating between Hayden and Logan because “Hayden has money,” so whose priorities are misaligned now?

Let’s chat about a few more questionable decisions we saw in these two episodes.

Victoria Fuller did what I think we all knew she would and, even though Alex Bordyukov seemed completely in tune with her desire to get hitched and start a family ASAP, she chose to give a rose to surfer dude Johnny DePhillipo. (Don’t worry, Alex is still around, saved by his “Bachelor in Paradise Australia” pal Florence Moerenhout.)

After Victoria and Johnny went on some kind of ceremonial date that involved a type of Mexican sweat lodge, they both confessed to feeling like they were falling in love with each other — a step removed from actually falling, perhaps, but maybe enough to bring the engagement that Victoria so very much wants. We’ll see.

And then there was Shanae Ankney, who got bounced by Logan for Kate after trying to “boom boom” with Tyler, who chose Brittany instead, and had now coupled up with Jacob Rapini, with whom she apparently shares an obsession with clean teeth.

But then the twins came along — yes, Joey and Justin Young, who made zero impression after getting sent home on Night 1 of Gabby’s and Rachel’s season, but we’re supposed to give a crap now, I guess.

Justin and Joey Young bring double something — trouble? ennui? — to the beach.

Shanae and Florence, who are 30 and 31, respectively, agreed to go on a double date with the twins, even though they’re only 24.

It seemed like Florence was just there to have fun, but Shanae claimed to have a “deep connection” with Joey that she hadn’t found with anyone else on the beach. I guess that’s what happens when you drink tequila out of someone’s belly button and turn them into a human burrito? Search me.

And finally, we had the hot mess that is the dysfunctional relationship of Genevieve and Aaron Clancy.

It would exhaust all of us if I tried to reproduce verbatim the tortuous, tearful arguments between these two, but basically Genevieve wanted to tell Aaron she was falling in love with him, but Aaron was too busy bro-ing out to give her 10 minutes for a chat. When Genevieve expressed her disappointment over this state of affairs Aaron accused her of gaslighting him and sorry, Aaron, not facts.

Perhaps the most perfect illustration of the disconnect was when Aaron, right in the middle of complaining to Johnny that Genevieve was gaslighting him, interrupted his own train of thought to point at the ocean and exclaim, “Look at that fatty rip current right here!”

Genevieve, meanwhile, had decided to leave Paradise and tried to tell Aaron she was going, except he wouldn’t commit to a conversation because “I’m thinking about myself and if it’s the right time for me. It’s not all about one person.”

I can only echo Genevieve here: “Are you fucking kidding me?”

Aaron finally granted Gen the conversation she wanted, but only after she was on her way out of the resort with her bags packed.

Aaron was still claiming to be the injured party, but he kind of half-assed apologized for making Genevieve unhappy, got all teary, and told her he was falling in love with her too and he didn’t want her to leave. And despite her earlier insight — “My gut is telling me we are not meant for each other” — Genevieve stayed.

Eliza, who had been reluctantly eavesdropping with Victoria, claimed “that’s how you know, too, when you care about each other when you start arguing like this.” And man, somebody has to talk to that woman about healthy male-female relationships.

So Aaron and Genevieve are back together for now and apparently so are a lot of other couples according to next Monday’s promo. But then something “heartbreaking” happens that has even Brandon and Serene crying.

So guess I’ll unpack my metaphorical suitcase and stay, even though I’m sure “Bachelor in Paradise” doesn’t love any of us.

You can watch next next Monday at 8 p.m. on Citytv. And you can comment here, visit my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter @realityeo

A tropical storm is the least of the drama on Bachelor in Paradise

September 22, 2021 /
The cast waits for a long-delayed rose ceremony on “Bachelor in Paradise.”
PHOTO CREDIT: All photos but screen grabs Craig Sjodin/ABC

On Tuesday’s “Bachelor in Paradise,” the word love was being spread around almost as liberally as Kenny and Mari were drizzling each other with sour cream at their all you can eat off each other taco buffet.

It was an episode steeped in both the ridiculous (see: tacos) and the sublime, when bonds were strengthened, at least one heart was (re)broken, new connections were formed, others jeopardized, and a tropical storm that supposedly threatened to pull couples apart turned out to be a tempest in a teapot.

It ended with a different kind of disturbance as Aaron and Ivan went toe to toe over Chelsea and all of Bachelor Nation was left asking the question “What the hell did Ivan get up to in the hotel?”

Before we get to that part, let’s rewind to the start of yet another action-packed instalment.

So OK, Kendall. Maybe we can all agree that coming back to the place where you met your ex-boyfriend of two years for, um, “closure,” especially when said boyfriend had moved on to someone else and was romancing that person right in front of your eyes, wasn’t such a great idea.

Kendall Long was still pining for Joe Amabile in Paradise.

Kendall sort of twigged to that reality after watching her ex, Joe, and his new love, Serena, having a smooch fest on the beach, but she wanted to take one last kick at the can because “I’m not letting Joe’s relationship with Serena get in the way of my happiness anymore.”

Am I the only one who thinks Kendall got in the way of her own happiness when she broke up with Joe?

Kendall told Joe she never stopped loving him, and he was kind and supportive, holding her as she cried, but he told her he’d come to Paradise “because I knew it was over between us.”

So Kendall went home in tears and Joe went back to Serena, who then comforted him for feeling bad about his ex. Age difference be damned, I really like these two together and I’m glad Kendall isn’t around anymore to try to muck things up.

The next day, guest host Lil Jon claimed he was about to “turn this place upside down,” but he just meant that two new cast members were arriving, so business as usual.

The newbies were Ed Waisbrot from the Clare and Tayshia “Bachelorette” season — who will forever be known as the dude who had a date with Chris Harrison when he got lost trying to find Tayshia’s room — and fellow Clayshia contestant Demar Jackson.

Ed Waisbrot and Demar Jackson up the abs and pecs quotient in Paradise.

They arrived shirtless and ripped. Aaron quipped that Ed’s legs looked like “two thick Christmas hams. They’re absolutely massive. They would feed a whole village of cannibals.”

After a brief tease during which we were meant to think that Demar might be a threat to Riley’s and Maurissa’s relationship — he was not — he and Ed settled on Chelsea and Natasha for their double date.

It feels like the dates this season are focused either on food or people getting naked (or in some cases both). In this instance, Ed and Demar stripped down to briefs so Chelsea and Natasha could paint them, both figuratively and literally, as in spreading paint on their semi-nude bodies.

Natasha was enjoying Ed’s piercing blue eyes, his sense of humour and his depth, and I guess we’ll take her word for that last part.

Luckily for her, Ed did not seem to have an attachment to Brendan Morais, the dude who did her wrong, unlike her previous date, Dr. Joe. So there was plenty of laughing and kissing and, as Natasha put it, “Hallelujah, the vibes are here!”

Natasha Parker took the measure of Ed Waisbrot and liked what she saw.

Next up, it was Kenny’s and Mari’s turn to go on a date. At first I thought it was a cooking class since the chef who greeted them handed them aprons, but it was more of a build-your-own taco feast using their naked bodies as plates.

Mari and Kenny took turns disrobing and, their genitals covered with giant, fake leaves, lying on a table while their bodies were topped with tortillas and fillings and sour cream, which they spread on each other’s legs, arms, chest and stomach.

What made it even weirder is that the chef stayed in the room while they slurped chicken and beef and guacamole off each other’s body parts.

Mari Pepin-Solis and Kenny Braasch before the clothes came off.

It should come as no surprise they worked up enough of an, er, appetite to head to the boom boom room at the end of the date. But first they had what passes for a deep conversation in Paradise, avowing that they were falling in love with each other — something 40-year-old Kenny claimed to have never said to anyone other than his dog. So good luck with that Mari.

Speaking of deep conversations, Maurissa was desperate to have one with Riley because, despite how happy she said he made her, she worried that he wasn’t expressing his feelings.

Riley got tongue-tied trying to explain how he felt about Maurissa because it reminded him of his difficult relationship with his father and how his father had messed things up with his wife and kids despite how much he wanted a family, which was what Riley wanted too.

Maurissa Gunn and Riley Christian made it falling in L-word official.

After shedding some tears, Riley told Maurissa he was falling in love with her and vice versa.

So that’s three couples who have used the L-word to date, including Mari and Kenny, and Joe and Serena.

For Tia, it was more about the V-word as she tried to choose between nice guy James and bad boy Blake. James led Tia away for some private time to get to know more about her and her Arkansas hometown, but she lamented that “sometimes you have to just listen to your vagina. Kissing Blake makes my vagina dance and tingle and feel really nice.” But when she kissed James, “I just don’t feel a tingle in my vagina.”

Then Tia directly addressed her vagina for help making the decision. To the best of my knowledge, her vagina did not answer back.

As it happens, her decision was delayed when two men with walkie talkies showed up as the cast was eating the next day and told them a dangerous tropical storm was bearing down on the resort in Mexico and they had to evacuate immediately.

Would they be safe? And even more importantly, would all the couples survive their supposed separation? I mean, we saw the men and women being loaded into separate vans, but surely they were all being taken to the same hotel.

Despite the dramatic footage of time-lapsed clouds and wind and rain and lightning, everybody was back after one commercial break, the couples strolling onto the beach hand in hand. So not even Mother Nature is immune from being manipulated to fit a plot line.

Lil Jon greeted the returnees and told them the postponed cocktail party would start in one hour.

Tia was still trying to decide between Blake and James, but it looked like her lady parts were losing their influence.

Tia decided that Blake wasn’t making enough of an effort to show her she was special — like where the hell was his piece of wood with a stoplight painted on it to represent her small one-stoplight town?

Blake insisted that Tia and their relationship was all he cared about, but he didn’t have an answer when Tia asked why he hadn’t sought her out for a real conversation since their date. “I’m a simple person,” was his lame response.

I suspect Tia’s vaginal dance floor is going to be closed until further notice.

And then there was Ivan, whose prospects weren’t looking good since Kendall left. “Sad boy summer” was Aaron’s pithy description.

Aaron himself was feeling confident about his connection with Chelsea. Sure, she went on a date with Demar, but she rewarded Aaron with kisses when he built a catwalk in the sand in honour of Chelsea being a model and strutted for her.

But suddenly Ivan was leading Chelsea to a beach bed, and they were flirting and laughing and kissing, and walking hand in hand to the bar.

Declaring Ivan a “little snakey bitch bag,” Aaron confronted him. The episode ended with them right up in each other’s faces and the words “To be continued.”

So I guess we’ll find out if any punches get thrown in next week’s three-hour episode and also what the words “Something happened at the hotel” mean in relation to Ivan.

You can watch Tuesday at 8 p.m. on  Citytv.com. And you can comment here, visit my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter @realityeo

It’s ‘total chaos here on the beach’ in Bachelor in Paradise

August 31, 2021 /
Cheer up Connor, somewhere out there is a woman who appreciates a man in a romper with a guitar. PHOTO CREDIT: All photos Craig Sjodin/ABC

Should we be surprised that on a dating show that’s more about lust than love so-called “relationships” were blowing up like firecrackers on the 4th of July/Canada Day/insert national holiday here on Monday’s “Bachelor in Paradise”?

That was a rhetorical question.

OK, it’s perhaps slightly surprising that so many imploded in such a relatively short period of time. But, on the other hand, these people have been hanging out for what? A week? That’s not enough time to start picking out the china pattern let alone declare dating exclusivity.

The cast members were still gossiping about Maurissa’s and Riley’s night in the boom boom room when Chris Conran and Chasen Nick, a.k.a. the Smoke Bros, a.k.a. Tweedledum and Tweedledee, arrived on the hunt for “smoke shows.”

With apologies for the crap quality, ABC didn’t make any photos
of Chasen, left, and Chris available so you’re stuck with this screen grab off my TV.

Despite the fact Chris was barely a blip on Clare Crawley’s “Bachelorette” season, he and Chasen became fast friends, and Chasen’s not the only one that Chris made an impression on. He was on Jessenia Cruz’s list of men she wanted to meet in Paradise, which had lots of people perplexed until a couple of enterprising Twitter users posted a photo of Jessenia and Chris together, looking very friendly, which was apparently taken in May.

That probably also explains why Chris was laser-focused on Jessenia when he and Chasen landed arm-in-arm on the beach with a double date card. Despite Ivan Hall’s insistence that Jessenia only had eyes for him, she agreed to a date with Chris while Chasen settled on Deandra, who’d been paired with Karl.

And it wasn’t just any date the foursome went on; it was one of those cringey sex play dates. In this case, an “intimacy guru” had the women lie down while Chris and Chasen straddled them and blew on their bodies. And then they recreated positions from the “Kama Sutra,” I shit you not.

Apparently Deandra and Jessenia found all this less awkward than everyone watching at home. Before too long, Jessenia and Chris were kissing while sharing strawberries, despite Jessenia continuing to claim that she had a “great” connection with Ivan.

Back at the beach, Jessenia explained to Ivan that their connection was based on him filling boxes, but she had a “spark” with Chris that was lacking with Ivan. Cue Ivan’s sad, lonely walk on the beach and the end of his romance with Jessenia . . . for now.

Karl, meanwhile, tried to woo Deandra back by giving her a Pandora bracelet that he’d bought in Miami, but whatever impression he made with the gift was overshadowed by Chasen acting like a dick. Look, Karl has never been my favourite person, but surely Chasen could have let him have 10 minutes to talk to Deandra without continually interrupting and whining about how he wanted to finish his date.

Men weren’t the only ones behaving like boors.

Demi Burnett finally got to justify her time on the show by doing what she swore to do her first day on the beach: stealing a man.

Mari and Kenny in the proverbial “happier times.”

It all started when Chasen showed some interest in Mari and she decided to tell Kenny, with whom she’d been hanging out since Day 1, that she wanted to date other people — or more precisely that she wanted to “nurture and grow” her relationship with Kenny, but only until someone else asked her on a date.

Can you blame Kenny for thinking that Mari no longer wanted to be exclusive?

When Mari confided in Demi that she might have just fucked things up with Kenny, Demi took advantage of the rift. It wasn’t long before Demi and Kenny were literally sucking face and also, in Kenny’s case, biting lips.

Was it kind of a bitch move on Demi’s part? Sure. But why on earth would Mari tell Kenny she wanted to date someone else when such a date was, at best, days away and, at worst, a purely hypothetical prospect?

Later, Demi plied Kenny with a chocolate cake in honour of his 40th birthday, which he’d celebrated in quarantine, and a piñata full of condoms, interrupting a group discussion about sex and preventing us from learning just how Tre ended up getting laid in a cemetery.

Mari threw the cake in the fire, berated Demi for betraying her and then tried to talk things out with Kenny, but he said they should go their separate ways and his way took him to the boom boom room with Demi.

Like the infomercials say: But wait, there’s more!

Mere moments after Aaron boasted to pals Tre and James about his strong connection with Tammy, Tammy strolled over to a beach bed with Aaron’s “mortal enemy” Thomas and, in full view of Aaron and his friends, straddled and smooched Thomas.

And I haven’t even talked about sad Connor.

Maurissa and Connor before the force that is Riley swept her away.

Connor started his day dressed in his best short set and/or romper and with the hope that he could win Maurissa back by taking her on a DIY date that night. But Maurissa, rather than fess up that she was now with Riley, gave Connor a non-committal “we’ll see.” It was Tahzjuan who told Connor that Riley and Maurissa had spent the night in the boom boom room.

All the drama was apparently too much for Tahz, who screamed into the void and later complained she couldn’t pee or poop.

“It’s total chaos here on the beach tonight,” was how Serena Pitt put it.

Serena managed to avoid the chaos herself, for now anyway.

Sorry, Joe, but you never will be able to live those tights down, especially with those socks.

She and Joe went on a date, which involved having dinner in the middle of a wrestling ring and then putting on capes and pretending to fight until they laid down on the mat and started kissing. Joe said he was “100 per cent in” on Serena and if ex Kendall came to Paradise it wouldn’t matter because “there’s nothing romantic there anymore.” That’s going to be put to the test soon.

Noah and Abigail are still a thing, but we saw also saw a promo of Abigail crying.

And Brendan finally kissed Natasha, but only after Natasha gave him a back massage and, as kisses went, it was pretty tepid. Definitely no lip biting going on there.

The episode ended with the cast preparing for the rose ceremony and Aaron confronting Thomas about being disrespectful by making out with Tammy in front of him, but it was just a conversation, nothing physical. The last we saw was Tammy walking over, possibly to referee, and the ever popular “To be continued.”

There’s another episode tomorrow night. Besides more Aaron, Tammy and Thomas drama and the arrival of Kendall, the promo showed ex-Bachelorette Becca Kufrin and her friend Tia Booth hitting the beach and Tia hitting on Kenny.

It will air at 8 p.m. on ABC. If you want to watch via Citytv, you’ll have to catch it on demand or at Citytv.com.

 You can comment here, visit my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter @realityeo

Mud gets slung, and wrestled in, on The Bachelorette

June 15, 2021 /
Co-hosts Tayshia Adams, Kaitlyn Bristowe and Bachelorette Katie Thurston oversee yet another potentially violent group date on “The Bachelorette.” PHOTO CREDIT: All photos, Craig Sjodin/ABC

Hey y’all, someone’s not here for the right reasons on Katie Thurston’s season of “The Bachelorette.” It might just be the producers.

Monday’s episode was a smorgasbord of the kind of drama that has little to do with Katie actually falling in love with and marrying someone, and everything to do with keeping ratings and social media mentions up.

There was a group date that seemed designed to make the virgin among the contestants as uncomfortable as possible; another group date that paired two men with a beef in a physical confrontation; and the grand finale was a contestant sowing so much doubt in Katie’s mind about whether the other men were there for the right reasons she was left shaking and crying.

Sure, she managed to deepen some connections in between the drama, but the cocktail party turned into a shit show and the rose ceremony was delayed until next episode.

Karl, centre, on the first, sex-themed group date with Justin, left, and Quartney.

At the centre of the brouhaha was Karl Smith, a motivational speaker from Florida. The word on the net is that Karl might be in this thing to gain social media followers and that could be true, but casting doesn’t happen in a vacuum. If Karl is indeed the type of jackass who’d prey on a woman’s insecurities just to get reality TV famous, you think producers didn’t know that going in?

I’ll be honest: I was ready to give Karl the benefit of the doubt after the first bit of tension between him and other men early in the episode, especially given the franchise’s shoddy record with its Black contestants, but by the end, yeah, he just seemed like a jerk.

Next week, we’re promised, the drama continues, with more antagonism between Karl and everyone else in the house, and bad blood between Aaron and Thomas. In the meantime, here’s what was up on Monday.

‘The Greatest Lover of All Time’

Much has been made of the fact that Katie is “sex positive,” so it was inevitable there would be a group date that involved the men talking about sex. It was also inevitable that Mike, the San Diego gym owner who’s saving it for marriage, would be on that date.

Guided by actor, comedian and podcaster Heather McDonald, Christian, Garrett, Tre, Quartney, James, Justin, Thomas, Connor B., Karl and Mike had to answer sex questions — stuff like their favourite sex positions (Mike’s answer was a question mark), a woman’s largest sex organ (nope, not the vagina, the brain) and what piece of clothing increases her chances of having an orgasm (really? socks?).

Tre demonstrated what he’d like to do with Katie using puppets. The safe word was “peaches.”

And then they had to do presentations on what made each of them the greatest lover. It was more about innuendo than raunch, unless you consider hand puppets making out triple X-rated.

When it was Mike’s turn, he read Katie a composition that climaxed with the line “I would wait another 31 years to have sex if it was what proved to you that I would sacrifice everything for you to feel loved and secure.”

Um, yay? Katie bought it, even wiping tears from her eyes, and it won Mike the trophy. But it was Thomas with whom she exchanged steamy smooches at the after-party and who got the date rose. Mike and Connor, who got a redo on his Night 1 kiss, sans cat costume this time, were given honourable mentions.

‘We did make out while he was sitting on a toilet’

First impression rose winner and fan favourite Greg Grippo also got the first one-on-one date, which involved pitching a tent (a real tent, get your mind out of the sex date), turning a bucket into a makeshift toilet, on which Greg sat while he and Katie kissed, and fishing in a river.

Greg and Katie, after they traded a seat on a “toilet” bucket for a log.

The rustic activities — they wore his and hers plaid shirts over hoodies, for gawd’s sake — stirred up lots of emotions in Katie because they reminded her of stuff she used to do with her dad, who died in 2012.

She picked Greg for the meaningful date because “I wanted someone here who I see this going far with,” she said, cementing Greg’s frontrunner status. But a couple of things bothered me. When Katie was struggling to hold back tears as she talked about her father, why didn’t Greg reach out and comfort her? And why did he wait until later at dinner to tell her he’d lost his own father two years before and also had fond memories of them fishing together? Is there some emotional blockage going on or am I reading too much into it?

Once Greg did open up, he couldn’t hold back tears of his own, for which he kept apologizing. But he and Katie ended the evening with fireworks, smooches and mutual admiration.

Katie’s Big Buckle Brawl

This group date started with co-hosts Tayshia Adams and Kaitlyn Bristowe sneaking into the men’s quarters while they were sleeping, waking them up by banging a pot and a cheese grater (?) with spoons and forcing the participants outside in whatever they had on. It appeared no one was sleeping commando.

And then John, Andrew S, Kyle, Josh, Aaron, Brendan, Hunter and Cody had to put on cowboy outfits and then take their shirts off again to mud wrestle each other, so why not just stay in their underwear?

Aaron is declared the winner in his mud-wrestling match with Cody.

The main event was Aaron vs. Cody. We already learned on Night 1 that Aaron had some kind of beef with Cody, whom he knew from San Diego, and obviously the producers knew that too or they would never have been put on the date together.

Their wrestling match was strenuous enough that Katie noticed the tension between them and, after Aaron won the Big Buckle and got to hang out with her alone, she asked him what was up.

It was something about unspecified social media posts, Cody wanting “to become famous” and handling unspecified situations in a “malicious” way, according to Aaron. When Katie confronted Cody and he denied everything Aaron had said, she decided Cody was the one telling fibs and sent him home.

While Katie was off on her own brooding over Cody’s untrustworthiness at the after-party, Andrew made his move and brought her a glass of champagne. And then they bonded over the fact they both grew up poor, sealing their connection with kisses and the date rose. Better luck next time Aaron and Hunter, despite your handwritten letter.

‘I don’t know how tonight could be ruined’

The minute Katie uttered those words you just knew the cocktail party before the rose ceremony was going to hell in a hand basket.

First Karl mused to the other gents seemingly out of the blue that maybe Cody wasn’t the only dude who wasn’t there for the right reasons. Then he told Katie “there are some people who don’t have the best intentions,” but he wouldn’t give her names or examples, and had the nerve to tell her not to “stress about that.” As fucking if.

Of course she stressed. She stressed enough to give the men a teary speech telling them “if you are not here for me, if you are not here for an engagement, then get the fuck out.”

“I don’t know who is here for the wrong reasons, but from what I’ve been told there are multiple people I should be looking out for,” she added.

She even pulled Aaron aside, thinking that after he threw Cody under the bus he could out the other rats, but he was flummoxed. In the meantime, Karl confessed to the other men that he was the one who had sent Katie into a tailspin. “I heard some stuff circulating around,” he said vaguely. “I don’t know specifics 100 per cent.”

Perhaps that’s because there are no “specifics”? As far as I can tell he flat out lied when he claimed he only brought it up because Kate asked him about it first.

Things ended with the rest of the men rightfully pissed off and Katie in a room by herself crying. And we’ll have to wait till next week to see how it’s resolved and who’s getting roses.

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