Tag: The Bachelorette (Page 2 of 3)

A Bachelor is born and a final 4 picked on The Bachelorette

November 24, 2021 / Debra Yeo

Michelle Young gets milking lessons with Nayte, Rodney, Martin, Olu and Joe on “The Bachelorette.” PHOTO CREDIT: All photos but screen grabs Craig Sjodin/ABC

Michelle Young, who’s just the fourth Black lead in 43 combined “Bachelor” and “Bachelorette” seasons, picked her final four in Tuesday’s episode and they’re all men of colour for the first time in franchise history.

It’s just too bad that milestone is being overshadowed by the choice of yet another dull white guy as the next Bachelor.

The good news is that on Tuesday Bachelor Nation finally got its first clue as to why Clayton Echard got the call (still to be officially confirmed by ABC). The bad news is that either ABC is letting fifth graders make its casting decisions or it’s manipulating children.

The kids — four students who’d been taught by Michelle — had the task of choosing one of the remaining eight men for a one-on-one date and they picked Clayton.

No sense getting down on the kids. Clayton did build them a fort out of sheets, pillows and overturned furniture. And as student Luke said, “Clayton has really big muscles. He’d be really good at carrying the groceries in” — definitely a useful skill in a husband.

The kids were also perceptive about who didn’t deserve Miss Young’s time.

“I don’t really like Martin,” said Kelsey. “I don’t know how to explain it. He’s trying to show off. I don’t know if he’s the right one for Michelle and he wears too much cologne.”

Well, that’s bang on.

The kids, if it was indeed the kids, also planned one of the best dates we’ve seen all season, sending Michelle and Clayton to the Bell Museum of Natural History at the University of Minnesota for a real-life Night at the Museum — minus the exhibits that come to life.

Unfortunately for Clayton, fort-building skills and making up his own animal mating call weren’t enough to snag him a rose and a hometown date.

Clayton Echard and Michelle spent the evening in a natural history museum.

Let’s be honest though, that was a given. Sure, he earned the group date rose on last week’s episode, but with guys like Nayte, Joe, Brandon, Rick and Rodney in the running for hometowns Clayton had an insurmountable amount of catching up to do.

Michelle said he checked all the boxes as far as desirable qualities, but “giving out this rose means I’m ready to meet your family and I don’t feel that I’m able to get there with you in time.”

So what made the producers fall in love with him? His muscles? His earnest confession about being ready to settle down and have a family after five years of focusing on his job to the exclusion of all else?

They key moment in the campaign to win fans over to Clayton came after he’d been eliminated and he got letters from two of the kids urging him not to be sad that Miss Young didn’t choose him, which made him cry and vow he’d do whatever it takes to have a family of his own.

Thoughts: why only two letters, was the vote for Clayton not unanimous? (Ahmed, for instance, seemed partial to Rodney and his shaved nipples.)

These letters seemed about as genuine as the wishes that Michelle and Rick pulled out of a wish box on their date but, even if they were real, Luke and Kelsey wouldn’t have written them without guidance from production.

Jayleen and Kelsey, two members of the Bachelor selection committee.

“You will probably meet someone else and fall in love and have lots of kids and be a great dad,” wrote Kelsey, stopping just short of “And you’ll be the next Bachelor.” Just to hammer the point home, the end credits showed Jayleen, impressed that Clayton let her paint his fingernails red, telling a producer, “He’ll be the next Bachelor.”

Yeah, OK, we get it.

Time to move on to what the point of the season is supposed to be: Michelle finding a husband.

To that end, she took Rick, Rodney, Nayte, Joe, Martin and Olu on a farm date, ostensibly also picked by the kids, on which they milked cows, bottle fed calves, churned butter and shovelled shit.

But the real poop got flung around at the after-party. Martin — still pontificating about his “miscommunication” with Michelle over his sexist comment that Miami women were high maintenance — told Rick and Olu that Michelle had not been paying attention, which was “why she perceived everything a little bit incorrectly.”

“There’s a lot of things that have made me question what she really stands for, I guess,” Martin said. And then he mentioned Michelle’s group date poem, the one in which she shared her hurt at being the “token Black girl” at school, and said it showed there was “something deep inside her that maybe she hasn’t worked past and I think that’s immature.”

Michelle in one of her final conversations with Martin Gelbspan.

Martin, of course, despite his boast that he was brutally honest, didn’t share any of that BS with Michelle but just blah blahed about how she was an amazing woman and he wanted to introduce her to his family and friends.

But Olu spilled the tea — “I just want that right man for you,” he said and I believed him — and Michelle confronted Martin.

Martin at first denied the “immature” comment and then tried to spin it as being about the “difference between being insecure and having insecurities,” which doesn’t even make sense. And he kept talking over Michelle, then apologized for “maybe speaking over you” when she called him on it.

I doubt Martin would have got a hometown rose even if Olu hadn’t spoken up, but it was nice to see Michelle put him in his place before showing him the door.

The real Martin came out in the SUV of Shame. Michelle was making a mistake, he said, but “at this point I wouldn’t even care to give her a shot . . . like a woman like that does not deserve my time.”

Can’t wait to see you get your misogynistic ass handed to you at Men Tell All, dude.

Both butter and Michelle were putty in Nayte Olukoya’s hands.

In any event, the only man who was getting the rose on the group date was Nayte, and it wasn’t for his butter churning or the fact he put his back out on manure duty. He told Michelle he was “definitely, seriously, strongly falling for you” and she replied that she was “really tumbling down a hill so fast falling for you as well.”

So if he wasn’t before, Nayte is now the man to beat.

Next up was a one-on-one with Brandon, the main event of which was Michelle taking him to her childhood home while her parents were out.

Brandon Jones and Michelle before her parents “caught” them.

We’re supposed to believe that Michelle’s idea to hang out in her parents’ Jacuzzi, with Brandon in a borrowed pair of her dad’s trunks no less, was spontaneous and that it was a complete coincidence that her folks surprised them there mid-smooch. As if.

To be honest, I’ve always found Brandon’s intensity when it comes to wooing Michelle a little unsettling and, on Tuesday, he dialled it up to 11 by asking for her folks’ permission to marry her — like, bro, you didn’t even know yet if you were getting a hometown date!

The sentimentality continued at dinner, where Brandon talked about how much he wished Michelle could have met his late grandfather, who was his best friend, and gifted her a bracelet that his mom made for him to give Michelle “if I truly think that you’re the one.”

“Michelle Ann Young, I’m falling in love with you,” he declared.

Michelle handed over the rose, obviously, telling Brandon “I can see you being my best friend.”

She also said, “It’s very possible that I could fall in love with Brandon,” but she won’t and man, is he going to be crushed when he gets sent home.

All that was left to do was hand out the other two roses, which Michelle did after cancelling the cocktail party, a move that’s always supposed to come as a shock but never does.

Obviously her fellow Minnesotan Joe Coleman — of whom she said after the farm date, “Clearly Joe knows how to handle tests” — was a lock for a hometown. I figured it was between Rick and Rodney for the final rose and it was Rodney’s.

Despite how much Bachelor Nation loves Olu — and they’ve been lobbying for weeks for him as Bachelor instead of Clayton — he never had a one-on-one with Michelle, a clear indication he wasn’t her guy.

When Michelle said letting Rick and Olu go was her “most difficult goodbye yet,” you believed her.

On to hometowns — and will Michelle actually go to their hometowns? — and an assortment of skeptical family members.

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

Nayte gets one-on-one, Chris S gets bum’s rush on Bachelorette

November 17, 2021 / Debra Yeo

Did the producers have it in for Chris Sutton, fifth from right? He had the most ridiculous
costume on a Viking-themed group date. PHOTO CREDIT: All photos *Craig Sjodin*/ABC

Has there ever been a more perfect visual metaphor than Chris S dressed as a horse’s ass on Tuesday’s episode of “The Bachelorette”?

I’m hard pressed to think of one considering Chris spent his portion of the episode acting like a posterior.

Let’s review. Last week, Chris disrupted the cocktail party by telling Michelle Young that some guys, i.e. Nayte, thought they had it “in the bag,” primarily because Nayte commented that it wasn’t a question of if he got a one-on-one date but when.

Well, duh, Nayte was right: the first impression rose winner got Tuesday’s second one-on-one (Michelle’s fellow Minnesotan, Joe Coleman, got the first, more on that later).

The minute Chris realized that Nayte wasn’t on the group date card, he looked like he’d swallowed a lemon.

“I went out on a limb for her and told her the honest truth, which is what she wanted to hear and asked from everyone else in the house,” he told the producer-enabler on the other side of the camera, self-righteously tapping out his points with one of his fingers.

“Everything I said fell on deaf ears. The way things played out I feel like I got the short end of the stick.”

Well, he definitely got an end on the group date.

Chris, Casey, Rodney, Martin, Leroy, Rick, Clayton, Olu and Brandon met Michelle at the home of the Minnesota Vikings football team — yes, the group had relocated from Palm Springs to Michelle’s hometown of Minneapolis — where instead of the NFL Vikings they met three older dudes dressed up as ancient Vikings.

The date participants had to put on costumes and do things like yell really loudly, throw logs, eat disgusting fermented herring and arm wrestle. But all the guys except Chris got to dress more or less like Vikings; Chris, the least physically imposing man in the bunch, wore horse’s legs and hoofs with an inflatable horse rear end.

Chris Sutton in a tug of war with Casey Woods. Go ahead, try not to laugh at that silly image.

I’m thinking either the producers were having a laugh at Chris’s expense or trying to compound his humiliation so he’d go off the deep end. Having him arm wrestle the absolutely ripped Olu undoubtedly helped with that mission.

By the time the group segued to the after-party at the historic Semple Mansion, Chris was in full brood mode over the fact he didn’t get the one-on-one despite all the “good information” he’d given Michelle about Nayte. And he claimed he really wanted to talk to her about that but made no attempt to do so.

This was no doubt all part of the evil production plan, although Chris mouthed the word “Wow” when Michelle announced she was wrapping up the party despite not having spoken to Chris. (Clayton, who’d hulked his way into being declared a “true Viking” earlier in the day, got the date rose for telling Michelle about his admiration for his parents. As you know, Michelle is really into parents.)

Absurdly, despite having had a whole evening when he could have grabbed a few minutes of Michelle’s time, Chris decided to wait until the next day and interrupt her date with Nayte to say his piece.

Well, perhaps decided is the wrong word. He couldn’t have known where Michelle and Nayte were having dinner without production being on side, so whether he was goaded into living out his white saviour fantasy or was following a villain script (he is reportedly an aspiring actor) it obviously wasn’t entirely his idea.

Michelle and Nayte had been having a pretty deep discussion, with Michelle telling Nayte about a past relationship that was so toxic she couldn’t eat and thought she had a disease. They had just shared a kiss when Michelle looked over Nayte’s shoulder with a WTF expression on her face as Chris walked up to the table.

She agreed to step outside with Chris, who basically told her he was pissed she’d chosen Nayte over him, although he didn’t put it exactly like that.

“I came here to say I warned you and I don’t want you to make the wrong decision,” i.e. give a rose to Nayte, Chris told her.

With eloquence and far more patience than Chris deserved, Michelle told him she could make her own decisions.

“I do appreciate you wanting to look out for me but also, at the same time, I can speak for myself,” Michelle said. “And I want a man who’s going to stand and support me when I speak and not a man who’s going to speak for me.”

Also, “as a female of colour there’s a lot of situations where people speak for me and my voice isn’t heard.”

She made herself heard in this case. Telling Chris she didn’t see their “relationship” progressing, Michelle walked him as far as the top of the escalator and then returned to give Nayte the date rose, saying their chemistry “is undeniable, unlike anything that I’ve ever felt before.”

“I’m very crazy about Nayte,” Michelle said, adding that he was starting to feel like her person.

Nayte Olukoya cemented his frontrunner status after his date with Michelle.

Besides, Nayte had already been approved by people with way more cred than Chris: Michelle’s two best friends. They joined Michelle and Nayte earlier in the day on a boat ride on Lake Minnetonka (note: Michelle, as she has all season, did the driving) and asked him allegedly hard questions. The first question was clearly a plant from production: “Is there anyone here that you think could be here for the wrong reasons?”

That gave Nayte an opening to talk about Chris S and explain that he didn’t really think he had it in the bag; he was just confident because he knew “there’s something going on” with Michelle.

Michelle’s friends clearly agreed, gushing about Michelle’s and Nayte’s “amazing natural chemistry.”

“I love the way you guys look at each other,” said Allie.

Let’s backtrack a bit and talk about Joe, the season’s other frontrunner.

For their date, Michelle took him on a walk down memory lane — after they’d stopped by a Minnesota Twins game where she threw out the first pitch and kissed Joe for the Jumbotron — visiting her old high school, where they smooched while towering over her old locker, admired her photo in the trophy case and played one-on-one basketball in the gym (yeah, she beat him; in a dress, she pointed out).

“I feel like Joe would have been my crush in high school,” Michelle said.

The main event came over dinner where Joe told Michelle how a college football injury had led to a couple of operations, getting seven screws and a plate in his left foot, and anxiety, depression and thoughts of suicide when he couldn’t perform the same way on the basketball court and had to eventually quit the sport.

Michelle and Joe both shed tears.

“You give up so much for the sport that you love. To have something take you out of it before you’re ready to be taken out of it is a pain like not everyone will understand,” said Michelle, herself a former college basketball player.

Naturally Michelle gave Joe the date rose, saying her feelings for him had grown tremendously.

They finished the night with a smoochy Ferris wheel ride.

Joe Coleman was rewarded with a rose for opening up to Michelle on their date.

There were three roses already spoken for and five to give out going into the rose ceremony — yes, if you’re keeping track, we’re five for five in the rose ceremony to episode ratio.

The only thing you really need to know is that Martin had another bout of foot-in-mouth disease that I thought for sure was going to get his butt sent home.

First, he mentioned hearing Michelle give compliments to other men and wondering if she meant the ones she gave him.

“Do you think I would blow smoke up your ass?” asked Michelle. Uh, no.

Then Martin started yapping about women in Miami being high maintenance for allegedly expecting men to do everything for them.

Men, he said, don’t usually “go into a relationship saying ‘Hey, you’re gonna take care of me,'” which made Michelle laugh.

Excuse me, Martin, do you know any men?

And, then as the realization dawned that he was digging himself a hole, Martin told Michelle he knew she was different. Not exactly a convincing recovery.

Alas, he collected a rose along with Rick, Olu, Brandon and Rodney. Casey and Leroy went home.

I’m not entirely sure what next week will bring since the promo was about the rest of the season, but it looks like the other guys aren’t done targeting Nayte. Leave the Canadian guy alone, eh?

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

Chris S steps up as the new villain on The Bachelorette

November 10, 2021 / Debra Yeo

Michelle Young took 12 of the men on a slumber party group date, but they ended up sleeping on her. PHOTO CREDIT: All photos Craig Sjodin/ABC

Michelle Young wasn’t the only one who didn’t feel seen on Tuesday’s episode of “The Bachelorette.”

Apparently, Chris Sutton — who, let’s be honest, we haven’t paid attention to since his intro package in the season premiere — was missing his “look at me” moment. He rectified that with a self-serving speech at the cocktail party about how some of the other men thought they “have it in the bag” — it presumably meaning Michelle — and weren’t putting in the effort she deserves. And then he tried to throw Nayte Olukoya, one of the front-runners, under the bus.

Hey, Chris, we see you now, but it’s not a good look.

Chris actually said in his confessional: “I came in on my white horse and I saved her from the castle that she’s been stuck in.” First off, what the hell does that even mean? Second, I can’t think of anyone who needs saving less than Michelle, especially not by the likes of Chris.

I concur with Nayte: “What a dweeb.”

Alas, Chris S was still around after the rose ceremony. Michelle has done such a good job of weeding out the dudes who are there to cause drama: first Ryan, then Jamie and Peter. But Chris S got to stay. Maybe production asked her to stop dumping the trouble-makers? I don’t know.

Speaking of Jamie, Michelle’s first date was with Martin, who was described as being “very close” to Jamie, so the date narrative was whether Michelle could trust Martin.

Michelle and Martin Gelbspan hung out at the BMW Performance Center.

Personally, I’m not sure I’d trust a guy who tears the sleeves off his shirt, but that’s just me. Things seemed to go fine as Martin and Michelle spun around, literally, in BMW M3s at the BMW Performance Center near Palm Springs. Michelle outdrove Martin and that shouldn’t surprise you.

Martin started to skid when he and Michelle got into a tub to cool off with some champagne and Martin said he didn’t think Jamie was a bad person: “I still think he’s a hell of a man.” Michelle figured Martin was questioning her decision to send Jamie home. So was Martin next?

He course-corrected at dinner at the Rancho Mirage Observatory, explaining that he hadn’t learned how to express emotions growing up and was still working on his communication skills. I’m not sure what any of that had to do with his opinion of Jamie, but Michelle gave him the date rose.

It was on to the group date on which 12 of the men — Will, Chris S, Casey, Chris G, Leroy, Rodney, Olu, Brandon, Clayton, Joe, Romeo and Nayte — got to “surrender to love” by putting on PJs and attending a slumber party complete with cotton candy, popcorn, an ice cream sundae bar, mini spa treatments and giant teddy bears.

Michelle said it was all about “bonding and quality time,” but she didn’t count on the men being more interested in bonding with each other than with her.

By the time WWE stars the Bella Twins showed up to supervise the Ultimate Teddy Bear Takedown — in which the men beat the stuffing out of each other with their bears — Michelle was pissed.

The WWE’s Bella Twins helped the men turn their teddy bears from cuddly to cudgels.

She was so annoyed I’m not sure she took the time to appreciate the absurdity of pairing Brandon, who looks shall we say a little boyish, with Olumide, who Clayton said “looks like he ate three of Brandon for breakfast.” I mean, come on, we watched Olu do an exercise that looked like a pushup combined with a jumping jack.

Hosts Tayshia Adams and Kaitlyn Bristowe nearly fell off the couch when Olu took his shirt off. Brandon’s strategy of trying to dance out of reach could only work so long against that type of brawn.

So Olu’s team, which included Clayton, Casey, Romeo, Leroy and Nayte, won after-party time with Michelle. They were so busy jumping up and down together and playing with the streamers that fell from the ceiling they didn’t notice when Michelle left the building for a heart to heart with Kaitlyn.

Michelle explained that having the guys ignore her took her back emotionally to high school, when she was the “token black girl” who didn’t get asked out on dates. “I wasn’t seen,” said Michelle.

“I’m frustrated and hurt,” she added, struggling to hold back her tears. “In this situation I felt like one thing I wasn’t gonna have to worry about was not being seen.”

Totally makes sense to me, as it did to the chastened men at the after-party.

It resonated especially with Olu, who teared up as he told Michelle that everything she said about feeling isolated as a Black woman reminded him of his four sisters and “me being that male figure in my sisters’ life, having to uplift them, tell them that (they’re) beautiful, you can do anything, the right guy will come to your life.”

It was a genuine moment, one that Michelle especially appreciated because of Olu showing emotion as a Black man. For the date rose to go to anybody but him would have been ridiculous.

(And on the topic of ridiculous, I’m with everyone else who’s commenting about the absurdity of Clayton apparently being chosen as the next Bachelor before Michelle’s season even aired. No offence to Clayton, but I’ve seen nothing to suggest he won’t be just another boring white dude in the lead. Olu deserved to be considered.)

Michelle said she got what she needed from the men, that things were back on track.

Then, for a palate cleanser, she went on a one-on-one with Rick that involved taking the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway to Mount San Jacinto State Park, where they walked around taking in the view and smelling trees.

And oh look, there’s a “wish box,” with instructions to read all the wishes inside before writing and leaving your own. What a coincidence that the first two were about finding “my soulmate” and “a love like my grandparents had,” and the third was “I wish my dad could see the man I’ve become.” Because it turns out Rick has some serious father issues. So good job whichever producer got rid of all the real wishes and put in the fake ones.

Michelle’s and Rick’s wish was “We wish to find love by having the hard conversations,” which sounds less like a wish than a decree for every single dinner portion of a one-on-one date.

And so, during dinner, they got down to it. Essentially, when Rick was 17 he found a text from another woman on his dad’s phone, told his mom about it and his parents split up three days after Christmas. Rick talked about his dad being depressed for about 10 years and calling Rick one day when he was at work and too busy to talk. After Rick called back later, his dad texted “I’m just trying to catch my breath” and was then found dead by a friend, which happened three years ago.

His father died “still blaming me because I blew a whistle unfortunately,” Rick said.

That is heavy stuff that Michelle would have to hear eventually, but planting a note so Rick would talk about it on camera definitely feels skeevy.

Nonetheless, Rick regained his good cheer, told Michelle he felt like he was falling in love with her and accepted the date rose, which she presented to her “little lettuce wrap,” a callback to his Night 1 silver platter getup.

Michelle and Rick Leach enjoy a private performance by Andy Grammer.

And then they got to dance and smooch to a musical artist that people have actually heard of — and not a country one at that — Andy Grammer.

Onward to the rose ceremony — and can I just point out we’re four for four as far as episodes ending with rose ceremonies? Wow.

After Chris S made his silly speech and then rudely butted in front of Brandon for alone time with Michelle, he served up Nayte as an example of one of the men who thought they had it in the bag, recounting Nayte’s comments after the group date card arrived.

OK, yes, Nayte did say, “I’m not stressing about when I get a one-on-one date. All I know is a one-on-one is coming. If it’s not today it’s gonna be another time.” And yes, perhaps he should have said that in his inside voice, but he’s right! He’s the first impression rose winner and likely headed to the finale (and no I haven’t read the spoilers, I don’t give a crap about them) so duh, of course he’s getting a one-on-one.

Does that equate to thinking he has “it in the bag”? I don’t think so.

Nayte was understandably perturbed when his alone time with Michelle was consumed with what Chris had said about him and her warning him that “I’m not this massive prize at the end of this.”

So Nayte confronted Chris and they had a loud, angry conversation, during which Chris S lied and said he gave up Nayte’s name because Michelle asked him for the facts.

Chris Sutton, who will heretofore be down as the Dweeb, doing his best to impress Michelle.

Dude! As if she could get a word in edgewise during your monologue when you were too busy trying to make yourself look good.

Chris also got into it with Olu, who suggested Chris might not get a rose because of “the shit you just pulled.”

Chris laughed to himself, boasting about how all the men hated him and when he got his rose he was going to say, “This one’s for you Olu and then I’m gonna wink at him.” And I don’t believe in violence, but I really, really felt like reaching through the TV screen and slapping the smirk off his face.

Perhaps for an aspiring actor like Chris, it’s better to be a villain than just another guy who’s destined to be group date fodder. Did ABC offer him a speaking role on a show or something?

Anyway, Chris S did indeed get a rose along with Brandon, Leroy, Joe, Rodney, Clayton, Casey and Nayte. Chris G, Will and Romeo got jettisoned.

Next week, Chris S moans about Michelle’s “infatuation” with Nayte; there’s a one-on-one with Joe; Michelle spends quality time with Nayte, and tells some unlucky fellow or fellows “Our relationship isn’t progressing forward” and “I can’t do this anymore.” Fingers crossed those words are directed at Chris.

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

Michelle shows the men who’s Top Gun on The Bachelorette

November 3, 2021 / Debra Yeo

Michelle Young with “Top Gun: Maverick” actors Glen Powell and Jay Ellis. We all know who the Top Gun is this season. Hint: it’s not the dudes. PHOTO CREDIT: All photos except screen grabs Craig Sjodin/ABC

Welcome to AP “Bachelorette.”

Your teacher for this advanced class is Michelle Young and she’s schooling all our asses on how to run a season.

For instance, if you find you’ve got a troublemaker in the bunch you don’t keep him hanging around so he can stir up more drama. You walk him to the elevator and send his butt home with nothing more than a polite “Have a good night.”

That’s how Jamie Skaar got his comeuppance on Tuesday’s episode.

To refresh your memory, Jamie caused a brouhaha at last week’s rose ceremony cocktail party by telling Michelle that unnamed men in the house were questioning her authenticity because of a rumour that she knew Joe Coleman before the season started. She did not, other than exchanging a couple of texts with him a few years ago. And the only man who seemed bothered by the possibility was Jamie himself.

Michelle got upset enough about Jamie’s revelation to cancel the rest of the cocktail party, which had the confused men wondering who’d been telling fibs about them. Jamie didn’t own up and probably would have kept his mouth shut indefinitely (or at least until “Men Tell All”) had Michelle not outed him to Rick, who told her that none of the men had been questioning her character.

When word got out at this week’s cocktail party that Jamie was “the rat,” to use Casey’s term, Jamie still wouldn’t fully own up, dancing around the question of what he’d actually told Michelle and then, bizarrely, suggesting he’d been worried about speculation by people watching the episode at home.

I’m with Nayte: “Why the fuck are we talking about episodes?”

Also, “Come on, man, you suck.”

Jamie Skaar just before Michelle Young gave him the heave-ho.

Which was essentially Michelle’s verdict on Jamie, although she put it more eloquently.

“I’m very hurt by you right now. I don’t trust you at this moment and I have to be done with it. I think it’s best that I walk you out tonight.”

Boom.

One wonders if she would have had more to say had she heard some of Jamie’s other on-camera pronouncements.

His arrogance going into the second group date was already galling, but when Brandon got the date rose instead of him, Jamie pulled a producer aside to complain that Brandon was “not even fucking close” to being in his league.

“I really felt like it would be a stronger group of guys. It was a nationwide search, where they at?” he sniped.

And then, “The challenging part with Michelle right now is she’s basically just in fucking spring break mode. It’s a little bit of a turnoff.”

You want to know what else is a turnoff? Men who act like they’re god’s gift to “Bachelorette”-hood.

Jamie wasn’t the only one stirring up crap on Tuesday.

Peter, the “pizzapreneur,” couldn’t shut his piehole on the first group date, which involved the men going through a bunch of “Top Gun” challenges in aid of promoting the “Top Gun: Maverick” movie.

That included a G-force simulator, one of those contraptions that spins you around really fast until you feel like puking (or so I imagine, thankfully never having been in one).

That scared the crap out of Will — a.k.a. Little Willy — who was apparently prone to motion sickness. Plus the men were supposed to tell Michelle how they felt about her while they were spinning around, which could be tough if you’re keeping your mouth closed so you don’t blow chunks.

But Will managed to tell Michelle he wanted to grow old with her in Spanish without barfing. That majorly pissed off Peter — a.k.a. Dough Boy — who told Michelle essentially the same thing in Italian.

So of course Peter and Will were paired up in the final challenge, which had the dudes “dog fighting,” or rather muscling each other off a mat with things that looked kind of like padded battering rams.

Jay Ellis confirms that “Dough Boy” Peter, right, got his ass kicked by Will in the dog fight.

Will dominated Peter and, given that and his puke-defying G-force ride, he was named the “Top Gun,” given a spiffy aviator jacket and got to drive around with Michelle in a vintage car from the new movie — although note that she did the driving.

That Peter would continue the feud at the cocktail party followed as naturally as cheese on pizza.

Peter was all “You’re a bully,” blah blah blah, and “See the cheques that I cash and then you call me a pizza boy” and “We’re gonna change lives one slice at a time” and really?

And then, because he’s a sore loser and a dick, Peter took Will’s new jacket and threw it in the pool, which made Will cry when he found out. But he didn’t snitch about it to Michelle because he didn’t want to ruin her mood (although how the hell her mood wasn’t already ruined by the noise of Peter and Will yelling at each other is beyond me).

Poor Will didn’t even get the date rose as consolation. That went to Martin because he’d taken a few minutes during the Top Gun exercises to pull Michelle aside and ask how she was feeling. So Martin got to dance and smooch with Michelle as a string quartet played “Take My Breath Away” — the big song from the 1986 “Top Gun” movie — while Will fished his soaking wet jacket out of the pool.

Onwards!

I’ll be honest, I would have pegged Rodney — a.k.a. the guy who didn’t know a Granny Smith from a Delicious apple — as perpetual group date fodder, but he got the week’s one-on-one. Still, was this going to be one of those dates where the lead figures out she’s just not into a bro and sends him home?

Most of the activities seemed as friendly as they were romantic, like Rodney feeding Michelle different foods while she was blindfolded — there was a can of whipped cream involved, but it ended up on Rodney’s face rather than being sucked off his big toe, a la Riley and Maurissa on “Bachelor in Paradise.”

They also had to open giant boxes full of balls and balloons while handcuffed together in search of the key and, the most entertaining, Rodney got naked and streaked through the lobby with just a throw cushion covering his man bits, while hosts Tayshia Adams and Kaitlyn Bristowe and the other men watched, hooted and hollered.

Yes, we can attest that Rodney Mathews is as naked below the belt as above.

“It’s pretty bad when everyone sees you out in your birthday suit and it ain’t even your birthday,” said Rodney in perhaps the line of the season.

But another funny thing was that the more we saw of Michelle and Rodney together, the more adorable they were together. By the time they got to cuddling and smooching on Michelle’s bed, Rodney had definitely passed from the friend zone to the relationship zone, as Michelle put it.

They also bonded at dinner over their admiration for their moms: Rodney’s had to work three jobs to support him and his brother after his dad left when he was 6, while Michelle talked about her white mom standing up for her Black dad.

She also shared a story about having the N-word directed at her in a grocery store and her white boyfriend at the time essentially forcing her to justify why she was upset. “I just felt that same way with my ex,” said Rodney.

A tear rolled down Rodney’s cheek when Michelle told him, “I really do not see you as an underdog. I see your heart.”

But then she said she would “apple-lutely love it if you would accept this rose.” Hee.

Michelle got confessional on the second group date, featuring spoken word poet Rudy Francisco.

The one-on-one wasn’t Michelle’s only reference in the episode to the challenges of being Black or mixed race in a white-dominated world.

On the second group date, the men were introduced to spoken word poet Rudy Francisco and asked to write poems that focused on their own stories, which they performed in front of the non-date men.

Chris G from Halifax was so excited he looked like he was going to pass out, clutching Leroy for support and covering his mouth with his hand. “He’s the poet who got me hooked on spoken word,” Chris said excitedly.

None of the men embarrassed themselves, a nice change from the usual group date cringe — although Romeo, uh, “Romeo, Romeo, where’s your Juliet?”

But Jamie, who kept banging on about how there was no competition between him and the other men, ignored the assignment and just told some dumbass story about a girl getting lost in the woods and guided back to the path by her guardian angel. And . . . sorry, just dozed off there for a minute.

Michelle, meanwhile, shared heartfelt verse about being the “token black girl” at school who “got invited to all the big parties as long as I followed the basic white trends . . . I was never the girl invited to cute dates at the apple orchard in the fall. I was the girl picked last for prom but the first for basketball.”

She promised herself, she said at the end, to be a role model for “young brown girls.”

The men gave her a standing ovation, which like, duh.

At the cocktail party, Brandon, who is also mixed race, told Michelle how much her poem resonated with him, recalling that he too was a late romantic bloomer in school, and how he was told he wasn’t Black because of his light skin or that he had to choose a side.

Michelle told Brandon she was attracted to his mind although the attraction was also clearly physical given all the kissing they did. In his voice-over, Brandon said he was falling in love with Michelle.

Michelle also smooched Jamie, who looked over her shoulder at the camera, presumably to make sure his masterful kissing skills were being recorded for posterity. “I’m looking at a person who’s staring me back in the eyes and I can tell that she’s, like, captivated,” boasted Jamie in his confessional.

That kind of makes my stomach feel like Will’s must have felt on that G-force simulator.

Anyway, we’ve already covered the downfall of Jamie.

There was a rose ceremony. I feel the need to point out that this is the third rose ceremony in three episodes, none of the usual “To be continued” nonsense. I mean, I doubt Michelle got to sit in on the editing, but is she schooling the people who put the show together too?

Anyway, she gave roses to Joe, Rick, Leroy, Nayte, Casey, Chris G, Chris S, Clayton, Olu, Romeo and Will. Along with ones already bestowed on Martin, Rodney and Brandon, that leaves 14 men in the hunt for the final rose.

And oh yes, Peter was one of the men shown the door. Later Dough Boy!

But you know, villains are kind of like whack-a-mole. Yes, Michelle cleared out two of them this week but, according to the promo for next week, Chris S is going to step up as agitator in chief and get into a dust-up with Nayte.

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

One man’s cheat sheets get failing grade from Bachelorette

October 20, 2021 / Debra Yeo

Bachelorette Michelle Young and her suitors. PHOTO CREDIT: All photos Craig Sjodin/ABC

Michelle Young’s maiden voyage as Bachelorette included a dude who served himself up on a silver platter, but Michelle had another guy’s head on a platter after deciding he wasn’t there for the Right Reasons (yes, we have to capitalize those words).

Moral of the story: maybe don’t pack your crib notes on how to maximize your time on the show in your luggage, especially not in a red binder with the word “Bachelorette” spelled “Bachlorette” on the front.

By and large, the 30 men Michelle met on Night 1 seemed like affable fellows, which is perhaps why some drama needed to be stirred up over Ryan Fox, an environmental consultant from San Jose, Calif.

What a coincidence that co-hosts Kaitlyn Bristowe and Tayshia Adams surprised three of the men in their hotel rooms and then kicked them out while they snooped through their stuff.

Oh jackpot! There was Ryan’s binder with notes on topics like how to get a good edit, how to get more screen time and — dunh, dunh, dunh, dunnnnh — “how to make it seem like you’re super interested.” Oops.

Ryan Fox looking interested in Michelle before she red-flagged his ass.

Kaitlyn and Tayshia were concerned, but not enough to warn Michelle until after she’d been charmed by Ryan, who showed up with an ice cream truck and a cheesy line about serving up “two scoops of love.” It was working for Michelle, though.

Ryan had obviously studied well, since he told Michelle about how he coaches Special Olympics and that he connected with her because she’s “so giving.”

That first thing is definitely true, but once Michelle had been tipped off by Tayshia and Kaitlyn, and gone to Ryan’s room to inspect the documents for herself, the kindergarten teacher went into full on disciplinarian mode.

Ryan claimed most of his notes had been prepared by friends to help him figure the show out since he hadn’t watched more than two hours of “The Bachelorette” — a curious claim considering he took part in the “Bachelor Live on Stage” tour when it made a San Jose stop.

Whatever the reality, Michelle kicked him to the curb. When Ryan asked for another chance she told him sternly, “You need to respect that I’m going to choose to listen to my red flags.” Second guess Miss Young at your peril.

One down, 29 to go.

There was another man in the doghouse. That would be Joe Coleman, a real estate developer and fellow Minnesotan.

Joe Coleman made a good impression until Michelle remembered who he was.

Joe was looking forward to bonding with Michelle over their shared geographic location, love of basketball and biracial heritage, but Michelle — who is sharp as a tack — soon figured out he was the man who ghosted her when they exchanged DMs; when exactly, I don’t know.

Joe blamed it on the fact one of his properties was in George Floyd Square — that’s the Black man who was murdered by a white Minneapolis police officer in May 2020 — and that there were murders and shootings happening in the neighbourhood and he was feeling anxious.

Michelle countered that she was “a woman of colour living right there when George Floyd and all these different things are going on,” so would have understood if Joe had explained his anxiety.

She softened when he told her he’d had therapy to help with his poor communication skills — “Being a Black man talking about going to therapy, I want you to know that I see you” — but Joe had to wait until the very last rose to find out if he’d been reprieved.

Let’s be honest, though. It was pretty much a given that Joe would stay, if nothing else as a potential conduit for drama if the other men find out Michelle knew him before the show.

So let’s talk about the men who got good grades.

Michelle was taken with Canadian Nayte Olukoya.

The first impression rose winner was Nayte, a Winnipeg native living in Austin, Texas, with a great smile, an adorable dog and a mom who’s a teacher. But he also seemed uncomfortable with being a child of divorce, with his mom having uncoupled from not only his dad but his stepdad, “who’s my best friend.”

Michelle rewarded Nayte for pushing himself to be vulnerable — we’re going to hear that word a lot for the next couple of months — and sealed it with a long kiss that gave her sparks and butterflies, the first we saw her bestow.

For his part, Nayte said earlier that rather than butterflies he had “pigeons in my stomach.”

Sounds like Nayte is going to be accused of being a player and an actor later on, but I’m just going to put my fingers in my ears and go la, la, la, la, la.

Michelle also connected with Rick, who had the weirdest entrance hands down, disguising himself as a plate of food. Seriously, when a table was wheeled over to Michelle with a serving platter on it, she lifted the lid and screamed because there was Rick’s head on a bed of lettuce.

Michelle went back for a second helping of Rick Leach after he showed up disguised as dinner.

When Rick, a medical sales rep from Los Angeles, finally ditched the garnish he came off as a little, um, intense. He seemed very focused on finding the love of his life and the mother of his children. Fine, but it’s the first night and you spent most of it disguised as an entree.

Among the 23 men whom Michelle kept around were two firefighters: Daniel from Austin turned up in his bunker gear but on a toy firetruck; PJ from Houston drove up in the real deal, sirens blaring, and a slick suit and tie.

Michelle also kept two Chris’s: Chris Sutton, a self-described “southern gentleman” and commodities broker living in West Hollywood, who showed up looking like AC/DC’s Angus Young in a schoolboy suit; and Chris Gallant, a motivational speaker from Halifax.

Rodney Mathews should have asked Ryan if he had any cheat sheets on apple varieties.

Among the many teacher references Michelle (and we) had to endure, Clayton, a Missouri medical sales rep, invited Michelle to spank him with a ruler and scored a rose, and Rodney, a California sales rep, dressed up as an apple. Michelle passed him even though he failed her apple test, describing himself as a Granny Smith, a green apple, despite wearing a red costume.

What did the other successful suitors do? Pizzapreneur Peter fed Michelle cannoli and red wine; Romeo spoke French to her; Will spoke some other language; Pardeep told her his dopamine was on fire; Brandon J brought a bed with him and kissed her hand; Spencer showed up with two basketballs; Martin did a back flip; Leroy took a Polaroid of her; Jamie told her she smiles with her spirit. Don’t ask me what Alec and Casey and Mollique and Olu did, but LT wore his suit without any pants and still got a rose.

Hey, somebody’s got to populate the group dates.

So as Michelle said, “Cheers to really beginning the journey.”

You can tune in next Tuesday at 8 p.m. on Citytv, but please note I’ll be on the road next week celebrating a significant birthday and will not post a recap next Wednesday. You can comment here, visit my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter @realityeo

There’s life and love after Greg for Bachelorette Katie Thurston

August 10, 2021 / Debra Yeo

Katie Thurston on the season finale of “The Bachelorette.” PHOTO CREDIT: Craig Sjodin/ABC

SPOILER ALERT: If you don’t want to know the outcome of “The Bachelorette” season finale, stop reading right now.

Congratulations are in order after Monday’s “Bachelorette” season finale: oh sure, to Katie Thurston and her fiancé, but I was thinking more of the show’s producers, who pulled off yet another masterful bit of misdirection after last week’s shocker of an episode.

If you watched that brutal breakup between Katie and the man who many of us assumed was the holder of her heart, Greg Grippo, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Blake Moynes and Justin Glaze were destined for disappointment, that Katie couldn’t possibly get engaged to one of them when her “number one” had sent himself home.

But once we all took a breath, it was clear how unlikely it was that a) Katie would actually abandon her quest for love; b) that she and Greg would get back together, since she essentially accused him of gaslighting her on Instagram or c) that she would end up with no one, especially with three hours of finale air time to fill.

On Monday, not only did Katie choose one of the final two; she did it barely 40 minutes into the episode. Despite her insistence that she wouldn’t say “I love you” to anyone but the last man standing — a decision that seemed to have played a role in Greg’s departure — she spilled the L-word to Blake Moynes on their fantasy suite date, the first (and only) one she went on.

The only logical conclusion is that Katie didn’t love Greg after all; that if she truly did want to go home after he walked out on her it wasn’t because she couldn’t imagine carrying on without him but because his abandonment had shaken her faith in her own lovability. And that makes perfect sense to me.

But Katie did find love and she found it with Canadian contestant Blake, and they seemed just as smitten with each other on the “After the Final Rose” portion of the finale as during the proposal.

Katie and Blake on the “After the Final Rose” part of the finale. PHOTO CREDIT: Eric McCandless/ABC

For those who still think Katie picked him just so she could walk away engaged, I’d say you’re not giving her anywhere near enough credit. If Greg really had been “the one” for her I believe she would have left rather than pretend to have feelings for Blake or Justin. Just compare and contrast her reactions when first Greg then Blake said they loved her.

When Greg said it, she smiled at him and told him she loved looking at him. When Blake said it, she quickly broke her own rule about not using the L-word before the end and told him, “I fucking love you so much and I couldn’t be happier that you’re here.” Like “Greg who?”

And she kept saying it to Blake in the fantasy suite. And in case we didn’t get the point, Katie told co-host Kaitlyn Bristowe later, “My heart officially belongs to Blake.” (She also told her, ahem, that her night with Blake left her “plenty satisfied, many times.” Sex positive, indeed.)

Justin with co-hosts Kaitlyn Bristowe and Tayshia Adams. PHOTO CREDIT: Eric McCandless/ABC

Unfortunately, that meant no fantasy suite date for Justin. Katie let him down as gently as she could, but he was crushed. It was even more heartbreaking to see him struggling to hold back tears as he met Katie in the studio for the first time since their breakup. Katie reassured him that they’d had a real connection despite his feeling he’d ended up in the final two by default (although if we’re being honest, he had; Greg and Blake would have been final two I’m sure if Greg hadn’t vamoosed).

Luckily, the mood was lightened by a highlight reel of Justin’s facial expressions — he said he hadn’t been aware he was making them while, yes, making them. Plus, Justin has to be on the short list for next Bachelor after what we saw of him on Monday night.

But with one man left standing, the producers had to try to keep the drama going by pretending that maybe Blake wouldn’t propose.

If anyone stood a chance of derailing Katie’s and Blake’s cross-border relationship, it would have been Katie’s Aunt Lindsey. Katie called her a “tough cookie,” but she was kind of like Peter Weber’s mom Barb and Desiree Hartsock’s brother Nate rolled into one — in other words, terrifying.

“You’d better be secure as fuck coming in our family,” she told Blake, “because at the end of the day you’re here because we want you here, not because we need you here.”

She interrogated Blake on how he planned to handle marriage when it got hard. When he said he and Katie would do anything to make things right, Lindsey replied, “Yeah, that’s not how it works, I mean cute, but ultimately that’s not how anything works.

Luckily, Katie’s mom, Rhonda Lee, was more welcoming, crushing Blake with a hug when he walked in and tearing up as she told him how happy Katie seemed to be.

Nice try, producers, but a surly aunt didn’t deter Blake.

I won’t bore you with all the details, but Blake obligingly did several voice-overs expressing doubt about whether he was ready to propose. He even took a walk away from the table to frown and worriedly rub his hands together while co-host Tayshia Adams, filling in for an absent Neil Lane, was helping him choose an engagement ring.

There was one final fakeout during Blake’s proposal speech when he told Katie, “I can’t give you what you came here for” — long pause — “because you deserve a lot more than that.”

Yes, Blake proposed, no surprise despite producers’ best intentions. PHOTO CREDIT: Craig Sjodin/ABC

Of course he got down on one knee; of course he pulled out a honking big diamond ring. Katie simultaneously laughed and cried after she said yes. And then Tayshia and Kaitlyn came running over to help them celebrate, which made the whole thing more endearing. (Katie gave them heartfelt thanks on “ATFR,” telling them “I truly would not have gotten through this if it wasn’t for the support of you ladies.”)

But hold those warm and fuzzy thoughts because after the commercial break, Greg joined Kaitlyn and Tayshia in the studio and then Katie came out, pointedly walking past Greg without a hug or even a handshake, and it was a downer.

They rehashed the breakup with Katie chastising Greg for how he treated her.

Katie and Greg rehashed their breakup on the finale. PHOTO CREDIT: Eric McCandless/ABC

“You were never ready for an engagement,” she said. “You spoke down to me. You didn’t even bother to say goodbye. You say you love me, but I don’t even think you know what love is.” She also accused Greg of using her to get acting practice, and of being “a confident, cocky boy from Jersey who knows he’s hot shit” rather than the shy guy he portrayed on the show.

Greg was gaslighting her, she added, by making her feel “like I did something so horrible you had to leave.”

It just went on and on and on, extending past another commercial break.

The bottom line, I think, is that Katie felt if Greg had really loved her he would have stayed; and Greg felt if Katie had loved him she would have said something to convince him to stay, and I think they’re both right about that although I totally get why Katie felt disrespected.

The skirmish ended with them wishing each other, however insincerely, “nothing but the best.”

And then Blake and Katie reunited for their first time together in public as a couple.

Blake said he knew he was in love with Katie when they played hockey on their hometown date, which Kaitlyn said was “very Canadian” of him. Katie said that Blake coming back on “The Bachelorette” to be with her, and risking looking dumb if she turned him down, was “probably the most romantic thing somebody’s ever done.”

But Blake (or at least some producer) one-upped himself by having audience members stand up holding boomboxes John Cusack-style while the country song that Blake and Katie danced to on their first one-on-one played in the studio and they danced and kissed onstage.

Maybe Aunt Lindsey is right and things will go to hell in a hand basket for them, but they looked like a couple who were head over heels on Monday. Good luck to them, I say.

That’s a wrap on “Bachelorette,” but I’ll be back in this space next week for the premiere of “Bachelor in Paradise.”

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

A Bachelorette favourite leaves and overshadows ‘Men Tell All’

July 27, 2021 / Debra Yeo

Tayshia Adams and Kaitlyn Bristowe co-hosted an anticlimactic “Men Tell All” episode.
PHOTO CREDIT: All photos, Craig Sjodin/ABC

Forget the shenanigans of “The Men Tell All” — Cody who? Karl blah blah blah — the only thing of note that happened on Monday’s “Bachelorette” was that Michael Allio took himself out of the running and broke many, many hearts.

I should have seen it coming when the episode began with a time-wasting chat about hometowns between Katie and co-host Tayshia Adams, and Katie said she was excited about potentially choosing Michael and becoming an “instant mom” to his son. It’s called foreshadowing, folks. It’s like when the dudes who freak out that they’re not getting picked at the rose ceremony get their names called and the ones who yammer on about how confident they are that they’re staying get sent home.

Michael himself was pumped about Katie meeting his parents, but then he made his daily video call to his little boy, James, and James said, “Maybe Daddy left because he don’t want to see me.” And Michael was crying and a producer was hugging him.

If Michael had stayed after that, then he wouldn’t be the man we’ve all grown to admire so much. He made the trek to Katie’s suite — thanks to those of you who pointed out she was wearing a special shade of breakup blue — and told her, “I’m not leaving because of you, I’m leaving because my son needs his dad.”

Katie, with tears rolling down her cheeks, said, “I want to beg you to stay. I just know that’s not an option.”

And they exchanged a couple of long hugs and a kiss and Michael was gone.

Who knows if Katie would have ended up with Michael had he stayed? She did say she saw them going to the end. But at “Men Tell All,” she made it clear there’d be no second chances.

Fan favourite Michael Allio with Tayshia and Kaitlyn on “Men Tell All.”

Michael had told Tayshia and co-host Kaitlyn Bristowe that he’d “100 per cent” be willing to take another shot with Katie because he still felt the same way about her. But Katie had moved on: “I have nothing but love and respect for Michael, but ultimately I could not dwell on the past,” she said. “My ending is ultimately how everything was supposed to happen.”

So Michael for Bachelor then? It could happen, but only if he was allowed to bring his son along. To me, it seemed like Andrew Spencer got more of a Bachelor edit on “Men Tell All.”

After revisiting his exit from the show — with nothing but good things to say about Katie — Andrew told Tayshia and Kaitlyn, “I’m still waiting for someone to just, you know, pick me for me, pick me for 100 per cent me.”

There was a definite potential Bachelor vibe around Andrew Spencer on “Men Tell All.”

Tayshia brought up the conversation that Andrew and Katie had on their one-on-one date about interracial relationships, saying “You were so courageous for talking about that.”

“Me being a Black man, I’m not afraid of shouldering or having to bear that,” Andrew replied.

Was Tayshia laying the groundwork for a Bachelor season in which Andrew would be dating white women again? Perhaps. She also told him, “You said you want to be chosen and you will.”

I honestly half expected her to introduce him as the next Bachelor at that point.

The one fly in the ointment are problematic tweets of Andrew’s that have surfaced. One post I saw described them as “misogynistic, fatphobic or racially insensitive.” So nothing’s in the bag just yet.

As for the rest of “The Men Tell All,” holy filler Batman!

I love Kaitlyn and Jason Tartick as a couple, but why were we watching a video of then getting engaged, which had nothing to do with Katie’s season? That segment about the men trash-talking each other on the stupid bash ball date? Waste of time. And revisiting the ridiculous WOWO challenge? Really?

I’m not going to talk about Aaron’s feud with Cody. I couldn’t even remember who Cody was until I was reminded in the highlight reel and I couldn’t give a crap why he was on the show.

As for Karl? Same old, same old. He now claims that when he told Katie that multiple men weren’t there for the right reasons he was really talking about Thomas but didn’t want to rat him out by naming him. Whatever dude.

The one notable thing about Karl’s time in the spotlight is that it gave Brendan more screen time than he had the entire season. Karl said Brendan, who’s Canadian, “only showed up for a free ticket to the United States so he could have free beer for the whole trip.” Brendan called Karl a snake and a scumbag. Karl told Brendan to shut the fuck up. Brendan accused Karl of spreading “fake news.” At one point they stood toe to toe as if things were going to get physical. They did not, we moved on.

There was some chat about Thomas and whether he was actually a “bad guy,” and then the talk moved to Hunter, who admitted that yes, he told a fib when he said he didn’t have a top four list, but he wasn’t lying about falling in love with Katie and . . . does anyone else find this tedious?

Speaking of villain Thomas, he wasn’t there in person but appeared on a video call and seemed like he was still campaigning to be the Bachelor. He apologized for taking attention away from Katie and the “amazing guys in the room,” and he said his life had been “transformed” by his time with Katie, without explaining what that meant. Yawn.

And finally, let’s talk about Connor, a.k.a. the Cat. Did some random woman really pop up in the audience to tell Connor he couldn’t possibly be a “bad kisser”?

Connor kisses a woman named Tara to the surprise of Tayshia and Kaitlyn.

Even if she wasn’t a production plant, somebody must have known what she was going to do before she did it. It’s reality TV in name only, people.

The woman, who was named Tara, was invited onstage to kiss Connor and she told Tayshia and Kaitlyn it was an 11. And then they smooched again, as Andrew yelled “You’re a tiger! You’re a tiger!” at Connor, and Connor plucked a rose from the bouquet on the table and gave it to her.

Honestly, that’s the most interesting thing that happened on “Men Tell All” aside from the fact that there was a live audience in attendance, a lot smaller one than in the before times but still.

Let’s finish with Connor’s latest song, which ended with the catchy lyrics, “Katie, we’re lucky you gave all of us half a chance / But the guys on this season have got me believing in bromance.”

Next week, it’s back to the drama when I presume we’ll finally see the hometown dates, and Greg seems to be freaking out and Katie asks someone to book her a flight home.

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

The Bachelorette brings cuddles, risqué art and a final 4 surprise

July 20, 2021 / Debra Yeo

This date with Michael, Blake, Andrew and Justin (and artist Jacqueline Secor) was supposedly inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe. It felt more like “Sex and the City.” PHOTO CREDIT: All photos, Craig Sjodin/ABC

Well, whaddaya know? “The Bachelorette” can still surprise us. Monday’s episode was about an hour and 40 minutes of “yeah, duh” followed by 20 minutes of WTF when a favourite got sent home, then appeared to come back but went home for real in the end.

First for the “yeah, duh” part. Katie Thurston had seven fellows still hanging around when the episode began, but two of these things were not like the others. Mike the Virgin and Brendan hadn’t had one-on-one dates. In fact, Brendan hadn’t even talked to her at the rose ceremony or the group date before that but, bless him, he was chatting with the other guys about hometowns as if he had a chance in hell of getting one.

His already flimsy hopes became even sketchier when Greg became the first dude to get a second one-on-one (more on that later). And when the episode’s other one-on-one went to Mike (more on that later too), Brendan asked the question that all of Bachelor Nation had been asking week after week: “Why am I still here?”

Give him points for going straight to the source by heading to Katie’s suite. I think in his mind he was going to tell Katie how much he wanted her to meet his family and drink beer with his dad and she’d be all “That sounds awesome!” In actual fact, Katie was still drying off after her date with Greg (yes, I’ll explain) and looked like even she couldn’t remember who Brendan was when he knocked on her door (after an emergency swipe of lip balm).

Since you might be wondering who Brendan is, this is him in a previous episode with Katie.

Bottom line: Katie gave Brendan the standard you’re-a-great-guy-but speech and sent him home on the spot. He departed with minimal fuss, stopping to say goodbye to fellow Canadian Blake Moynes first.

Now back to Katie and Greg.

All you really need to know is that they showed up wearing a similar shade of green shirt, just like on their first one-on-one way back at the beginning of the season when they wore matching plaid shirts over hoodies.

Other things to know: they threw large fish at each other in an approximation of what happens at the famous Pike Place Market in Seattle, Katie’s hometown. They also shucked oysters together, badly, and shared a bubble-gum kiss in honour of the famous Seattle Gum Wall, which I have to say is kind of gross (the real wall, not necessarily what Katie and Greg were doing).

Katie and Greg blow bubbles in front of an imitation of the Seattle Gum Wall.

I don’t get the people who tweet that they don’t think Greg is that into Katie because, if so, he has me fooled.

There was talk of Greg’s difficulty with the “Bachelorette” process, the fact he sometimes felt insecure and that Katie sometimes worried that he’d leave, but he told her, “I honestly feel like the luckiest guy in the world. You just amaze me in every way. If we do move forward into next week I am really excited to show my family the girl I’m falling in love with.”

“I hope you know how I feel,” answered Katie before handing over the rose and a guaranteed hometown date.

To complete the Seattle theme, Greg and Katie kissed — and kissed and kissed — and got soaking wet under torrents of fake rain. “I think that I’ve found the love of my life,” Greg said in his voice-over.

“Flowery with a twist”

For the final group date of the season, Katie took Michael, Justin, Andrew and Blake to an “art exhibit,” but all the canvases were of flowers that looked like lady parts, or “flowers that aren’t just flowers,” in Justin’s words. “Flowery with a twist,” was how Blake put it.

Although it wasn’t stated in the episode, the paintings were supposedly an homage to Georgia O’Keeffe, the famous artist who made her home in New Mexico, where the season is being filmed. Truth be told, they reminded me of that “Sex and the City” episode in which Charlotte is invited to sit for an artist who paints vaginas. But I digress.

Michael and Andrew ponder art and life on the group date.

The guys had to make their own art: Michael sculpted a replica of Katie’s butt; Justin painted a rose and what looked like little ghost people; Andrew painted, um, sushi, except one of the pieces had teeth and a tongue; and Blake painted something that apparently was so dirty it had to be blacked out.

With that bit of silliness over, it was on to the after-party and, with only four guys on the date, everybody got conversation and kisses.

Blake told Katie that he wasn’t in love with her, “but the way that we’re going it’s fucking inevitable.”

Michael worried throughout the episode whether Katie would fit in with his son, James, and his former in-laws, whom he “takes care of,” but she reassured him, “If it’s us in the end, that’s all that matters and we’ll figure it out as we go,” and also that every rose she gave Michael was also a rose for James. “I can assure you that no one can love you like I can,” Michael told her.

Justin gave Katie a painting of butterflies and a blue rose, and she said she felt “110 per cent myself” with him.

Andrew recreated his and Katie’s one-on-one date with strings of lights and a suspended pink envelope. The note inside said, “I’m falling for you.” And Andrew added, “I really am.” Based on the way Katie kissed him after he said it you might have thought she was falling for him too. But it was Michael who got the date rose and the second guaranteed hometown.

“At some point every boy has to move on”

You might wonder what the point was of Mike getting a one-on-one date when it was certain that he didn’t stand a chance of getting a hometown rose. All became clear when a woman known as “Cuddle Queen Jean” greeted Katie and Mike in the woods and guided them into various poses that involved bodily contact. Would producers pass up the chance to make the season’s token virgin do something that might make him uncomfortable? Yeah, duh.

Sorry, ABC had no photos of Mike and Katie on the cuddle date. You’ll have to settle for this one.

Indeed, both Mike and Katie seemed rather uncomfortable given all the nervous laughter when they first began hugging and spooning, but then Mike relaxed because Katie is “a nurturer and man, do I love nurturers! She reminds me of my mom.”

Yes, that’s correct, Mike putting his body next to Katie’s put him in mind of his mom’s cuddles.

“Katie’s a better cuddler, there’s no question about it,” said Mike. “My mom’s gonna hate me for saying that, but at some point every boy has to move on.”

Mike even whispered “You remind me of my mom” to Katie while he was lying behind her with his arms around her. To Katie’s credit, she didn’t run off screaming right away, but she did let Mike go before they made it as far as dinner.

I have to say Mike was very gracious in his exit. “I’m bummed I don’t get to experience life with you. It doesn’t mean I’m not gonna be rooting for you,” he said.

“She knows what husband she’s looking for . . . it’s not me”

With Mike and Brendan gone, and Greg and Michael already in possession of roses, it seemed obvious that Blake and Andrew would make up the rest of the final four. Sure, Katie liked Justin, but his one-on-one had come late in the game, and she and Andrew seemed to have bonded over their difficult childhoods.

Greg, Michael, Justin, Andrew and Blake at the rose ceremony.

I actually expected Andrew to get the first rose at the ceremony, but it went to Blake and then Katie gave the final rose to . . . Justin?

With tears rolling down both their cheeks, Katie told Andrew she was building stronger connections with the other men “and you deserve more than what I can give you.”

“It’s bittersweet, but just know that I will forever hold you dear to my heart,” Andrew told her.

It kind of makes it worse when the men are so damn nice despite getting their hearts stomped on.

In the SUV of Shame, Andrew said, “She knows what husband she’s looking for and who that’s gonna be, it’s not me so . . .” wiping away tears.

Katie was a crying mess and, since there were still about 15 minutes left in the episode and she was telling some faceless producer that she wasn’t fully confident about the decision she’d made, it seemed obvious Andrew was going to return.

And return he did, knocking on Katie’s door the next day and telling her he came back so they could part with smiles instead of tears. As they hugged goodbye yet again, Andrew gave her an envelope and told her to open it when he was gone. Inside was a note that read: “If you change your mind . . . I’ll be waiting.”

Cue Katie running down the hall, following Andrew down the stairs and leaping into his arms when she caught up to him, as dramatic music swelled. And she asked him if he wanted to stay a little longer and he said . . . no.

“I want my future wife to choose me and I wasn’t chosen so I had to say no,” he explained.

In other words, no matter what the card said he wasn’t actually waiting for her, so the whole thing was a production trick. At least he and Katie got in one last smooch before he was driven away for good.

Katie, still wiping away a few tears, concluded, “This journey just wasn’t for us at the end of it.”

But given the fact the Twitter campaign has already begun to make Andrew the next Bachelor, his journey might just be beginning.

Next week, we get hometowns and Men Tell All in one episode.

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

CORRECTION: Man, this is embarrassing. I totally did not realize until I read someone else’s recap that Blake’s painting had been blacked out by ABC and he didn’t just paint a black square and say it was about sex. What can I say, I’m out of practice with my black bars, especially when they cover a whole freakin’ canvas.

The cat doesn’t come back and it’s a drag on The Bachelorette

July 13, 2021 / Debra Yeo

Katie Thurston delivers the bad news to the men still vying for roses on Monday’s “Bachelorette”:
No cocktail party for you! PHOTO CREDIT: All photos, *Craig Sjodin*/ABC

I can understand if Monday’s “Bachelorette” episode made you feel like spitting up a hairball: there was a pointless masturbation challenge; there was one of those lame fake wedding dates; there was a drag queen group date that was conspicuously short on drag; there was more House vs. Hunter drama; then Katie Thurston sent Connor the Cat home early and the other men were as bereft as she was (well, except for Blake).

And then we ended up with a top seven, just a couple of weeks from hometowns, that had everyone going “Huh?” Katie sees a future with Mike the Virgin and Brendan the Hair Quiff?

Well, no, of course she doesn’t. It was just a process of elimination. She told the fellows at the rose ceremony she had no more time for man drama and since Aaron, Tre and James had all stirred up shit by whinging about Hunter, they were marked for elimination. She also ditched the target of the conflict, a.k.a. Hunter, but no big loss there.

The irony is that while everyone on the House Un-Fraternal Activities Committee was worrying about whether Hunter was there for the right reasons, no one was paying attention to Blake, who stole deeper into frontrunner territory with a “Say Anything”-style visit to Katie’s suite while everyone else was still drying their tears over Connor’s exit.

Look out Greg and Michael and Andrew.

The episode began with an odd time waster in which Katie dispatched co-host Kaitlyn Bristowe to tell the remaining 11 men to lay off the “self-love” for a week, which Katie bizarrely described as a “fun challenge” dubbed Operation WOWO.

I have questions. Isn’t a sex-positive Bachelorette telling her suitors not to masturbate a little off brand? How would she know if anyone cheats? Would the camera operators stake out the bedrooms and bathrooms? And doesn’t a challenge imply some kind of reward? What was the point of them avoiding “solo hockey,” as Connor put it?

Ok, I’ve wasted enough brain cells on that topic. Next!

Katie’s first one-on-one date was with Justin Glaze, he of the hyper expressive face (and problematic teenage tweets, from what I read Monday night).

Katie and Justin on their fake wedding day.

The plot line going into the date was that Katie didn’t know if there was a spark between her and Justin or if they were just friends. And what better way to find out than with a fake wedding?

“Bachelor Nation photographer” Franco Lacosta oversaw the faux nuptials, which included the donning of wedding apparel, the reciting of vows they wrote themselves, cake, and lots and lots of kissing, so I guess that answers the question about the spark.

Later, Katie confessed to Justin that the fake walk up the aisle (well, the space between the trees) was tough for her not only because her dad was dead but because he wasn’t her biological father, a secret her mother had kept from her, and now she was struggling to form a relationship with the man she didn’t know while mourning the one who raised her. Yeah, this woman has been through some stuff.

Justin said he wanted to support Katie (what the hell else would he say really?) and there was more kissing, and then dancing and kissing as a musician named MAX sang a song called “Butterflies.” All I know is it wasn’t country music, so bonus points there.

Drag queens *Monet X Change* and Shea Coulee with Katie and the group date guys.

Time for the group date. All that Blake, Andrew, Michael, Greg, Aaron, Mike, Brendan, James, Tre and Hunter knew going in was that it was about “queen” Katie looking for her “king.” But no Brendan, there was no medieval theme. Instead, two “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” winners, Shea Coulee and Monet X Change, were there. But the men weren’t being asked to put on drag — more’s the pity, Michael was game — but to “throw shade” at each other in a so-called Great Royal Debate.

The date was obviously designed to allow the other men to insult Hunter, but they mostly just got mushy with Katie. Greg even wrote a poem. At least Aaron kind of got it, taking a swipe at Hunter’s short stature by calling him a leprechaun and telling him he couldn’t add Katie’s “heart of gold” to his pot.

Clearly, these guys have never watched a minute of “Drag Race.” Also, Blake said he’d never met a drag queen before and didn’t know if he “should be checking them out.”

Mike, Andrew, Hunter, Blake and Tre take part in the “Great Royal Debate.”

Hunter claimed to be falling in love with Katie. That somewhat contradicted what he told Shea earlier when she asked if he was in love with Katie and he said he was “not in a place where I’ve been able to explore that.”

Hunter’s other offence in the eyes of his fellow contestants was that he told Greg he thought he, Greg and Connor would make Katie’s top four and then denied making a top four list. Like even writing that out, as much as I haven’t been a fan of Hunter’s, really guys? That’s what you’re obsessing over?

Katie warned the men at the after-party to spend their time improving their connections with her, but instead James, Aaron and Tre bad-mouthed Hunter and Hunter was unable to defend himself to her satisfaction. Katie was distressed enough by the drama to throw up, and she cut the party short and didn’t give out a rose.

Co-host Kaitlyn Bristowe and her fiancé Jason Tartick had a double date with Katie and Connor.

Then dear sweet math teacher Connor, the guy who dressed up like a cat on Night 1, got a one-on-one date, but it was clear he was in danger of getting tossed like yesterday’s kitty litter since Katie was already friend-zoning him.

It would come down, she said, to his kiss.

And no matter how hard date buddies Kaitlyn Bristowe and Jason Tartick were rooting for Connor, Katie wasn’t feeling it. She went to Connor’s room later, in jeans and a hoodie rather than her dinner dress, and told him that no matter how “great of a man” he was there was something missing in their kiss.

And Connor, struggling to hold back his own tears, kept telling Katie it was OK, that it was worth it to have met her.

What was more extraordinary were the reactions of the other 10 men when Connor went to say goodbye. They lined up to hug him; Michael kissed him on the cheek; Greg and Brendan and Hunter wiped away tears; Tre out and out cried.

Their genuine affection for Connor was a nice antidote to all the sniping.

Blake shows Monet X Change and Shea Coulee his strut.

But leave it to Blake Moynes to turn all that sadness to his advantage. As Katie sat in her suite still crying about Connor, she heard music outside. It was Blake doing his best John Cusack, holding some kind of speaker over his head blasting “Memorize You” by Laine Hardy, the song they danced to on their date.

He was there to cheer her up, he said, and judging from the amount of smooching they did in the hallway, in her suite and on her balcony I doubt she was thinking about Connor anymore by the time they were through. As Katie said in her voice-over, “When I’m with Blake I don’t think about anything else except him and I, I’m in trouble.”

I’m pretty sure Blake failed the Operation WOWO challenge when he got back to his room.

By rose ceremony time, Katie wasn’t messin’. She showed up just long enough to tell the guys she already knew what she wanted to do and there’d be no cocktail party.

Except there was another one of those fakeouts when Katie picked up the first rose, and after an inordinately long pause, called Hunter’s name, but instead of handing it to him asked him to go outside for a chat.

Hunter claimed to be “on fire with emotions” for Katie, but Katie didn’t seem particularly impressed. She gave her six roses to Blake, Andrew, Greg, Michael, Mike and Brendan and, of course, Justin already had one, which left Aaron, James, Tre and Hunter out in the cold.

Next week, we’ll presumably get our top four unless we have another one of those “To be continued” cliffhangers.

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

Hunter smash, Blake smooch, Greg cry on ‘The Bachelorette’

July 6, 2021 / Debra Yeo

Josh, James, Hunter, Brendan, Michael and Quartney take the field for a Bash Ball Battle
on “The Bachelorette.” PHOTO CREDIT: All photos, Craig Sjodin/ABC

Monday’s episode was a perfect representation of the dual personality of the “Bachelor/Bachelorette” franchise, a show that claims to be all about love but so often revels in the baser aspects of human nature.

On the one hand, we had men on the group date playing in a ridiculous made-up sporting event designed to stoke their aggression to the point of physical injury. On the other, we had the antithesis of toxic masculinity when, at the after-party, Michael told the other men about his late wife and his story moved Greg to tears.

That the two frontrunners shared such a lovely human moment made the ongoing aggressiveness of Hunter — who seemed to transfer his win-at-all-costs attitude from the bash ball field to the pursuit of Katie Thurston — all the more annoying. But I’m also aware that I’m supposed to feel this way, thanks to the master manipulators behind the producing curtain.

After all, “The Bachelorette” abhors a vacuum and somebody had to take the place of villain Thomas, sent packing last week, and of Karl before him. Hunter, come on down.

Hunter’s elevation to new public enemy No. 1 by the “Bachelorette” house un-fraternal activities committee was good news for one Canadian: it distracted the guys from hating on Blake Moynes, who made his official debut as a contestant and promptly got the week’s first one-on-one date.

And he made such a good impression on the date that he went from guy who came in late just to piss everyone else off to serious contender. It’s not like there isn’t a precedent for that. I’m sure you’ll recall that Nick Viall went from hated latecomer to runner-up on Kaitlyn Bristowe’s season.

Katie lays one on Blake Moynes as Laine Hardy provides background noise.

Of course it’s possible that Katie just wants to practise some sex positivity on Blake since they were practically rolling in literal hay while doing some horizontal smooching on the day part of the date, indicating some hot and heavy chemistry. But she did say at the end of the night — after yet another country singer got his however many minutes of fame while being completely ignored by the Bachelorette and her paramour — that she could picture herself “walking away with Blake at the end of this.”

The obligatory deep thoughts part of the date had Blake asking Katie why she was so open about being sex positive — a question that I’m sure he thought of all by himself and not because some producer wrote it on a cue card for him.

Katie told him about being date-raped 10 years ago, although she didn’t use that term, and how she developed an unhealthy relationship with sex; one she only began to turn around with the onset of the #MeToo movement.

Blake made the right expressions of sympathy and understanding. There was more conversation, but we didn’t get to hear it. Had to fit in the rose hand-over and the slow dancing and smooching.

On to the group date.

Katie, being a good sport, pretended that 12 dudes were going to play a game called “bash ball” in tribute to her volleyball-playing days and not because the producers wanted them to actually bash each other. More bizarrely, the training and game were overseen by two “athletic legends,” “Bachelorette”/”Bachelor in Paradise” alum Wells Adams and resident franchise photographer Franco Lacosta.

I don’t feel so bad now about not being able to identify the sport in last week’s promo since it was a combination of rugby and basketball — played in wrestling singlets?

Here’s Hunter during bash ball, not hitting anyone, though Quartney and Connor are down.

The segment was edited to make it look like it was all Hunter’s fault that the guys were thumping the crap out of each other, but it was Justin who hit Michael from behind, knocking the wind out of him, leading to the medics being called and prompting Katie to end the game. Mind you, Justin did feel “terrible” about it and apologized.

Hunter, on the other hand, said on camera, “Personally I love the aggression level, I’m not gonna lie. I was laying hits left and right, but I’m here for it. Yeah. I love that.”

During the after-party, Hunter was more focused on laying cards on the table, or more precisely photos of his children. He told Katie he’d never introduced his son and daughter to a woman but wanted her to be the first.

“That is like the sweetest picture I’ve ever seen,” Katie cooed about a photo of Hunter lifting his daughter into the air, and then she kissed him.

Cute as the photo might have been, it’s hard to believe there wasn’t some producer intervention involved in Hunter beating Michael and Greg to the date rose, particularly since there were already rumblings from Aaron and others about disliking him.

Poor Michael, besides being physically injured, had just endured marking his late wife’s birthday without his family for support, although he assured Katie he was comforted by the fact he and Katie had something special. Seems more rose-worthy to me.

And when Michael told the other men his story, Greg hugged Michael with tears streaming down his cheeks. “I had no idea and he walks around with a smile every single day,” Greg said later, still in tears. “And knowing how I’ve just worried about the smallest things, he just puts life into perspective.”

Michael’s exhortation not to waste the finite time available encouraged Greg to tell Katie he was “completely crazy” about her. “As hard as it is, you are so worth it. I just know in my heart that you are.”

But sure, give Hunter the date rose.

“I don’t know what she sees in him,” said a disappointed Greg. Honestly, that makes two of us.

Yes, I wish I had a photo of Katie and Andrew on their date too,
but you’ll have to make do with a picture from last week.

Next up, Andrew S, the faux Duke of Hastings, got a one-on-one date but left his fake British accent behind. For one thing, he was rattled by the fact Katie was leading him into the woods in the dark. When Katie put a plug into a socket I thought there was going to be a mini carnival like in Matt James’ season but no, the “Bachelorette” budget was only good enough from some icicle lights and pink envelopes containing silly suggestions like “Show me your signature dance moves” and “Imitate the sound of an animal in the wild.”

Amid the silliness there was time for smooching, which checked the chemistry box, and Katie and Andrew delved further into their shared backgrounds as children of divorce and, in Andrew’s case, an absentee father who did some jail time.

So they were agreed they wanted the opposite of a broken family, a “forever kind of love,” but there was a potential deal-breaker for Andrew as a Black man dating a white woman: would Katie feel the same way as his ex, who worried about having strangers ask questions about her biracial children?

“I think our love could be so beautiful and our children would be just as beautiful as that love,” Katie said. “All I want is to have a beautiful family regardless of how they look.”

That answer made Andrew happy. The next stop was the hot tub and a rose and “seeing” themselves falling in love with each other as opposed to actually doing it.

And then something really unexpected happened: the episode ended with a rose ceremony rather than a “To be continued” bumping it to the following week. Not that there wasn’t some drama.

Hunter once again wore the blame. With his rose on his lapel, he had visions of hometowns dancing in his head, not to mention the one-on-one he had yet to receive. He spirited Katie away for some stargazing, champagne and strawberries, and you know what happens when men with roses take time with the Bachelorette before the rose ceremony: the men without roses get pissed.

James interrupted Hunter’s monologue so he could tell Katie he had feelings for her (like, duh?) and she rewarded his boldness with a kiss. Then James, Aaron and Tre teamed up to berate Hunter for being greedy.

Hunter’s response? “Guess what? I’m focused on Katie, I don’t give a shit what they think.” Thanks Captain Obvious.

Katie gave roses to Greg, Aaron, Michael, Connor, James, Justin, Mike , Brendan and Tre, cutting Andrew M, Josh and Quartney loose. The other guys showed their appreciation for Quartney by applauding him as he left.

It seems a safe bet there will be more Hunter drama next week, although the end-of-episode promo was of the “coming this season” variety with clips of various people crying and being confused and Katie threatening to go home, so yes, “the drama continues.”

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

Tag: The Bachelorette (Page 2 of 3)

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Hunter smash, Blake smooch, Greg cry on ‘The Bachelorette’

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