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Tag: final three

An apple falls right out of the tree on ‘The Bachelorette’ hometowns

Nayte Olukoya, Joe Coleman, Rodney Mathews and Brandon Jones wait to learn their fate
on the hometowns episode of “The Bachelorette.” PHOTO CREDIT: Craig Sjodin/ABC

You could say the hometowns episode of “The Bachelorette” came down to an apple vs. a guy in orange shorts. Michelle Young tossed the man who will forever be known for dressing as an apple on Night 1 while the man who donned orange swim trunks on their date, the one we were meant to think she was having doubts about, maintained his frontrunner status.

I mean it’s hard to drum up drama when you have a final four that seems this benevolent, and not a mean brother or rude mother in the bunch among the families that Michelle met.

The closest we got to hometown conflict was when Nayte’s stepdad expressed doubt that Nayte was ready for an engagement, which set up the narrative that Michelle was “struggling” as she went into the rose ceremony with the fear that Nayte would break her heart.

But there was no way she was going to send the season’s frontrunner home; ditto for Brandon, since Michelle told him she was falling for him. And was she really going to ditch Joe after he threw her a prom?

So that left Rodney Mathews, the down-to-earth, good-natured fellow who wormed his way into viewers’ hearts.

I always figure you can tell a lot about a man by how he makes his exit. “I’m always gonna care about you, Michelle, like forever,” Rodney said. “You’re amazing Michelle, so thank you.” And he kissed her hand before he got into the SUV.

That’s class. And I don’t want to belabour the point, but like a lot of other people I’m wondering why we couldn’t have had Rodney for a Bachelor instead of Clayton Echard, whom ABC finally confirmed as its next male star.

While I had hoped we might get actual hometown dates this week, instead the men’s families came to Minneapolis.

First up was Brandon, who hails from Portland, Oregon.

Michelle gets a skateboarding lesson from Brandon Jones. My apologies for the crappy screen grabs,
but ABC’s photo selection for the episode was really paltry.

The less said about the skateboarding part of the date the better. Whatever skills Brandon had gained from skating with his whole family deserted him with Michelle around and yes, it did make him look 14.

Skating around Brandon’s mother Carmen, father David and brother Noah was way easier. Noah was playing the skeptic of the group, but Michelle told him she could 100 per cent see herself with Brandon. She won David over by talking fishing and basketball. And she assured Carmen she could see who Brandon really was “and that’s why Brandon is still here, because I truly love who that person is.”

Speaking of love, Michelle told Brandon, “After today it is very clear to me that I am falling for you.” Combine that with the fact there was so much goodbye smooching that they were still lip-locked as Michelle sat in the back of the van and Brandon seemed like a shoo-in for a rose.

Next it was Rodney’s turn to take Michelle spiritually if not physically to Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., but they picked apples and Rodney fed Michelle apples blindfolded, callbacks both to the first night and their one-on-one date.

Michelle was clearly the apple of Rodney Mathew’s eye during their hometown.

If you didn’t know any better it would be easy to think Rodney stood a real shot at a rose. Michelle leapt on him and kissed him and told him she missed him. She said Rodney could be the “best friend” her parents had told her she should end up with. We never heard Michelle say she was falling for him, however.

When his mom, Carrie, asked Michelle if she could create a life with Rodney outside “The Bachelorette,” the best Michelle could come up with was that Rodney was the type of person she’d want to be stuck in an airport with for five hours if their flight got cancelled.

So yeah, I get why Carrie was fearing the worst for her son with three other men in the running, but Rodney told her Michelle was worth the risk.

Perhaps Joe, on the other hand, already had a leg up, since he shared his hometown of Minneapolis with Michelle, but he had the best non-family date activity hands down. He took Michelle to prom at his old high school complete with fancy clothes, snacks, balloons, dancing, a photo booth, king and queen sashes and crowns and, with no chaperones, all the smooching they wanted.

The prom do-over that Joe Coleman (and production) planned made Michelle happy.

This was a callback to Michelle’s group date spoken-word poem in which she said she was the last picked for prom, as well as the fact Joe had never gone to one.

“You’ll always be first with me,” Joe told her.

“Joe really sees me and understands me,” Michelle said.

The tough cookie at the family meet-and-greet was meant to be Joe’s sister-in-law, Hanna, but once again the family was putty in Michelle’s hands.

She told Hanna Joe was her “little slice of home away from home” and Hanna decided that Michelle had the kind of strength and energy that Joe needed in his life. Although she also said, “I hope this works out because we will see her in the grocery store.”

The last supposed obstacle was that Joe hadn’t told Michelle how he felt about her yet, but he rectified that: “I am falling in love with you and I feel like you’re that special person for me.”

Finally, it was the turn of Nayte, a Winnipeg native who now calls Austin, Texas home.

Nayte Olukoya put on the orange swim trunks that Michelle said she liked for their date.

The paddleboarding was an entertaining enough diversion for Michelle, but the main event was meeting Nayte’s mom Leanna and stepdad Charles, who were divorced but had come together just to support Nayte — or Nathaniel, as they called him.

Nayte had warned Michelle that his family wasn’t into talking about emotions — “no heart to hearts, no I love you’s” — so it was pretty remarkable to watch Nayte and Charles do both those things, apparently for the first time ever.

Charles, who had come into Nayte’s life when he was in Grade 9, told Nayte what an amazing journey it had been to watch him “grow up to be you.”

“Never doubt that I’m proud of you . . . never, ever, ever doubt that I love you and never doubt that I’m here for you,” Charles said.

Nayte thanked him for everything.

“I’m gonna have a family one day and I want to be who you were to me for them,” said Nayte, with tears in his eyes.

“You’ll be even better than me,” Charles replied.

If nothing else ever comes of Nayte meeting Michelle, that’s a moment to treasure right there.

But for purposes of plot development, the important conversation was between Michelle and Charles when she asked if Nayte was ready for an engagement and Charles replied, “I don’t know if he’s gonna get to that point.”

Then again, who knows if that answer actually had anything to do with Michelle’s question, given the magic of editing, although Nayte himself told his mom he wasn’t quite there yet.

The day of the rose ceremony, Michelle had an extraneous visit from her former “Bachelor” mates Bri Springs and Serena Pitt, which boiled down to Michelle telling them it was going to be tough to send one of her final four home since they were “the best guys I’ve met in my entire life.” And maybe she’d get her heart broken at the end. Well, duh.

When the time came, Michelle handed roses to Brandon, Nayte and Joe and you know the rest.

Next week it’s back to a Monday night schedule with “Men Tell All.” ABC also promoted Clayton’s “Bachelor” season for the first time, which starts Jan. 3. My assessment, based on the clips, is that they’ve brought on some mean girls to compensate for what would otherwise be the deadly dullness of the season.

You can tune in next Monday at 9 p.m. on Citytv. And you can comment here, visit my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter @realityeo

No ‘I love you’ means no rose as the Bachelorette picks her final 3

The “Bachelorette” final four had to recreate their hometowns at La Quinta Resort in Palm Springs, including this New York City backdrop for Zac Clark. PHOTO CREDIT: All photos Craig Sjodin/ABC

If your heart wasn’t melting watching the “hometowns” episode of “The Bachelorette” on Tuesday night it’s possible you don’t have one.

This was one of the sweetest, most emotional hometown episodes we’ve ever seen — without anyone going near an actual hometown.

There were no obnoxious siblings, no overbearing parents, no taxidermy collections, no fake autopsies: just four nice guys with nice families who seemed to really, really love them, which just made it all the more heartwrenching when Tayshia Adams had to send one man home.

The mood was set in the early minutes of the show when host Chris Harrison arrived to tell the finalists which of their family members had made the trip to La Quinta Resort in Palm Springs, Calif., and they got teary-eyed (except Ben, who apparently doesn’t cry) and all hugged each other.

Tayshia has talked about what a great group of guys she has and now that she’s got rid of dead weight like Bennett and Noah I couldn’t agree with her more.

Normally, Tayshia would have travelled to each of the men’s hometowns to meet their families. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, the families had to come to her, not just showing up, but quarantining and taking who knows how many COVID tests at the resort.

And the suitors had to create little slices of their hometowns at La Quinta, which to be honest felt kind of refreshing compared to the show and tells we usually get.

Brendan Morais, Tayshia and his niece Aliyah play some carnival games on their “hometown” date.

Brendan started things off with a recreation of a small-town carnival, the kind of thing he’d attend in his hometown of Milford, Mass. And if that idea wasn’t adorable enough he had his niece Aliyah join him and Tayshia to play games like ring toss, win stuffed animals, eat popsicles, dance, ride toy horses, cavort in a bouncy castle and show off their secret handshake.

So the date was already screaming “keeper!” Then Brendan upped the ante with an emotional reunion with his big brother Daniel, whom he told Harrison was “the closet thing I had to a father after my father passed.”

“I feel like I haven’t told you enough, or at least in a long time, how much you mean to me,” Brendan told his bro. I mean, is that heartwarming or what?

The good feelings just kept flowing, with Tayshia getting encouragement from Daniel and his wife Christi that Brendan was ready to get married. At the end of it all, Tayshia declared, “I really am falling in love with him. I truly feel like Brendan could be my husband.”

After that date, us too. But there were three more dates to go.

Tayshia and Zac ride a “cab” on their hometown date.

Zac Clark, whose hometown is listed as Haddonfield, N.J., took Tayshia to “New York,” where they walked around in a cardboard taxi (once Zac had taught Tayshia how to hail one), ate bagels and pizza, then took in a view of the “Hudson River.”

Tayshia later met Zac’s parents, Douglas and Beatrice, and his brother Matt.

“They saved my life,” Zac said. “They believed in me when I had a pretty gnarly drug addiction that could have taken me out at any time.”

Matt was a little skeptical, though. He asked Tayshia point blank how her feelings for Zac compared to the other three guys and she didn’t answer him — which Matt pointed out — although she did say she was falling in love with Zac.

But Douglas and Beatrice were on board.

“I haven’t seen him smile that much in a long time,” Douglas told Tayshia, “and that’s something that’s really making me happy.”

Zac’s smile also came up in an emotional chat with his mom. “I would not be alive if it wasn’t for your strength,” Zac told her. “So nothing means more than for you to see me happy tonight and see me smiling and see me at peace.”

So I think we’re all agreed: another keeper, right?

Ivan and Tayshia do some Filipino cooking on their hometown date.

Next up was Ivan Hall, who instead of taking Tayshia to a hometown, took her to a kitchen where they made Filipino “lumpia,” or spring rolls, coached via video by Ivan’s adorable niece Kehlani.

Ivan and Tayshia were cooking in more ways than one in that kitchen as they laughed and kissed and danced. Then Tayshia met Ivan’s father Clarence and his mother, whose name I don’t think we got.

Mom was skeptical given how fast everything was happening but told Ivan she’d welcome Tayshia with open arms if he chose to be with her. Clarence bonded with Tayshia over the fact they both had marriages that didn’t work out (Ivan’s mom is his second wife) and both married young; Clarence at 24, Tayshia at 25.

 “I’m really impressed with the young lady,” Clarence said. “She and Ivan could be a good match.”

There was one more family member for Tayshia to impress. Ivan’s brother Gabriel, the one he told Tayshia about who’d done time in jail, made a surprise appearance, which had Ivan in tears. Then Gabriel teared up talking to Tayshia about how loyal Ivan had been to him. Like I said, it was an emotional night.

By the time the date was done, Tayshia had passed muster with the fam and Ivan said he was falling in love with Tayshia.

Ben and Tayshia rollerbladed to the “boardwalk” at “Venice Beach” on their date.

Last but not least, Ben took Tayshia to “Venice Beach,” even though he was raised in Indiana. Things seemed to be going great. Tayshia said she was smitten with Ben and he said he’d never been happier. Ben’s parents weren’t able to make it to La Quinta because of the pandemic, but Ben’s sister Madeline, the one he told Tayshia saved his life, was there along with close family friend Antonia, and they both seemed delighted with Tayshia.

Tayshia, who earlier in the episode expressed unease about not knowing how Ben felt about her, asked for and received assurance from Madeline that Ben wasn’t “hiding” anything. It’s too bad Tayshia couldn’t have overheard Ben’s conversation with Antonia because Ben admitted to Antonia that he was in love with Tayshia.

He was all set to tell Tayshia, too, but he clammed up when they were alone together and she asked him how he felt.

When Ben walked into the rose ceremony it was with the idea that it might be too late to tell Tayshia he loved her. But we’ve seen instances where an inability to clearly express feelings was used as a red herring just to make viewers think that person wasn’t getting a rose, so it was hard to tell if Ben had really blown it.

Honestly? I had no idea who Tayshia would send home. She seemed to have strong feelings for all four and had also had deep conversations with all of them about real stuff, whether it was Brendan’s previous marriage, Zac’s former drug addiction, Ivan’s experiences with racism or Ben’s suicide attempts.

This season has certainly had its share of silliness, but it’s also had some of the most meaningful interactions I can recall. Maybe being quarantined during a pandemic was a reminder for at least some of the men of what was really important in their lives.

Unfortunately for Ben, he never got the chance to tell Tayshia how he felt. Would it have made a difference? We might never know. Tayshia did say that she couldn’t keep putting energy into pulling things out of Ben so perhaps a declaration would have been too little too late.

In any event, Ben put his walls right back up after Tayshia rejected him, brushing it off with “I’ll be all right. I’m always all right.”

“He couldn’t give me one ounce of emotion,” said an upset Tayshia after he left.

But Ben clearly wasn’t all right. “I’m still in love with her,” he said, looking stricken in the back of the SUV. “I’m not sure how I’m supposed to fall out of love with her.”

For Ben’s sake I hope he figures it out and that he’s got that therapist who helped him after his suicide attempts on speed dial.

Tayshia is moving on, with fantasy suite dates and maybe a proposal next week.

(Update: it sounds like Ben is going to be back next week to ask Tayshia to give him another chance. I’m skeptical it will work, but it will be good for the drama.)

It airs Monday and Tuesday at 8 p.m. on Citytv.

Feel like chatting about “Bachelorette”? You can comment here (no spam please) or come visit my Facebook page. You can also follow me on Twitter @realityeo

Shedding tears for a clown on ‘Canada’s Drag Race’

“Drag Race” legend Michelle Visage with Canadian judges Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman,
Brooke Lynn Hytes and Stacey McKenzie. ALL PHOTOS: Bell Media

SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU DON’T KNOW WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED ON “CANADA’S DRAG RACE” EPISODE 9, STOP NOW, COME BACK LATER.

There’s a certain irony to the fact that Canada’s favourite drag clown was eliminated from “Canada’s Drag Race” after another contestant clowned around in the lip sync.

Look, I’m as shocked as many of you. I prescreened the episode right up until the end of the lip sync (I never find out who won until the episode airs); I wrote almost an entire post based on the assumption that Rita Baga lost because I couldn’t imagine Jimbo getting sent home. Not only am I sorry to see Jimbo go, I had to start my whole friggin’ post over from scratch.

Jimbo’s crown threatened to fall off during the lip sync while Rita Baga had to tear off her long skirt.

I wasn’t jumping up and down over either lip sync performance, to be honest, but Rita seemed to get the judges onside by playing for comic effect. She tore off her long, tight skirt mid-song with the help of scissors stashed in her bodice; she made fun of the awkwardness of the foam ice on her dress; she slid across the stage on her butt.

Jimbo, on the other hand, was going for sultry and sexy, but was hampered by her gown and the giant crown of Christmas paraphernalia on her head. By the end of Tegan and Sara’s “Closer” she could only use one arm at a time because the other was keeping the crown from falling off.

So here we are: the top three are Rita, Priyanka and Scarlett BoBo. Is it the top three I envisioned? No, I would have figured Jimbo, Priyanka, and either Rita or Lemon, but you know, I’m not mad about this.

Jimbo is talented as hell and, once the pandemic releases its grip on the entertainment industry, she’s going to be in high demand.

Let’s backtrack to how we ended up with a couple of ice queens battling it out for the last spot in the top three.

The episode began with a victory for Rita, her first in a mini-challenge, after the top four queens did screen tests singing comedic versions of “O Canada,” coached by comedian Sabrina Jaleez. Rita and Jimbo were definitely the funniest.

But that was child’s play compared to the maxi-challenge, creating three looks for a “snow ball,” the final one made from scratch: “Executive Holiday Party Realness,” “Apres the Apres Ski Icy Walk of Shame” and “Ice Queen Eleganza.” And the queens were walking the runway in front of legendary “RuPaul’s Drag Race” judge Michelle Visage. Cue the nerves.

As the queens prepped their outfits, much was made of the the fact that Scarlett didn’t know how to sew. You might have figured she was headed for the bottom, which was of course the point of all those references to her lack of sewing skills, but you would be wrong. Scarlett finally won a maxi-challenge. Talk about peaking at the right time!

The judges described Scarlett BoBo’s look as “rocker white walker.”

The judges were gagging for Scarlett’s ice queen look of silver hot pants and bra festooned with faux pearls, and silver and faux fur cape. It definitely wasn’t the bet sewing job, but the judges focused instead on Scarlett’s “rocker white walker” vibe. And I have to say her makeup was spectacular.

Also, her “Icy Walk of Shame” snow bunny outfit was adorable and she looked like a proper boss in her “Executive Holiday Party Realness” suit.

Personally, I preferred Priyanka’s runway overall. I know, I know, she risked Michelle Visage’s wrath by wearing a bodysuit “with stuff stuck on it” for her Ice Queen look with a paper skirt (did she learn nothing from the paper “knight” costumes in Episode 4?), but her hair and makeup were fabulous. And I loved, loved, loved the Christmas tree executive suit and the slutty morning-after-the-party look of a sweater (or was it a parka, as Michelle said) belted with a maple leaf.

Priyanka said she loves Christmas. We never would have guessed.

What didn’t I love? Everything Rita wore. Her long executive blazer was boring. The hideous nylon track suit and mullet for her walk of shame? Sure, Michelle Visage found her hilarious and called her runway “performance art,” but I didn’t get it. And I appreciate the work that went into sewing her Ice Queen gown, but it wasn’t flattering. Brooke was dead right about it needing a waist.

And what of Jimbo? To her face, the judges were mostly complimentary except that Brooke found her crown awkward and Michelle had an issue with her makeup. Privately, Brooke said she was really disappointed in Jimbo and that she had gotten too comfortable. I confess I was underwhelmed by all three of her outfits and I can’t even put my finger on why. Just didn’t love them.

Jimbo does her “Icy Walk of Shame” in a romper, moon boots and very fuzzy coat.

Every “Drag Race” episode has what you could call a teachable moment. This week’s saw the judges holding up photos of each queen as a little boy and asking them what they’d tell their younger selves.

Every queen was in tears. Every message was a variation on believing in yourself and being true to yourself. Every message also touched on past pain, whether it was Priyanka telling young Mark, “You’re gonna have a really hard time growing up because people are gonna be really mean to you”; or Scarlett, who earlier talked about watching her alcoholic stepfather beat her mother, telling young Matty that “no matter how hard it gets to keep pushing through.”

But the main takeaway for me was that these are real people with real feelings, just as on any reality competition. So if you’re cyberbullying any of these queens because you’re pissed that they won a lip sync and your favourite went home — or any of the judges because you didn’t like their comments — give your head a shake and get the fuck over yourself.

Jimbo leaves ’em laughing as she exits “Canada’s Drag Race.”

As far as exits go, Jimbo put on a great show. She dropped to her knees, screamed “Whyyyyyyyy?” and then face-planted on the stage and crawled away. The judges laughed so hard I think they might have peed themselves a little. It was a fitting farewell for a clown.

Backstage, Jimbo was proud of herself for making final four. “Drag is all around us,” she said. “It’s the costume, the character that you put on in the morning to face the world, and anyone that can fearlessly self-express and share that in the world should be commended.” And then she smeared red lipstick all around her mouth and laughed maniacally.

I can’t believe it, but next week is the finale. The top three queens have to rewrite and remix RuPaul’s “U Wear It Well.” All 12 contestants return, so expect some shade. And most important, Canada’s first Drag Superstar will be crowned. Until then . . .

Catch the “Canada’s Drag Race” finale Thursday at 9 p.m. on Crave.

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