PhilW

I don't think it really matters, because you know Whitney's sister watched every episode, and she probably despises Chris right now. If Whitney and Chris do get married, her sister won't give her blessing.

Neil Lane looked miserable to have to be in Iowa, and those rings looked really tacky. I don't think I was the only person who said that, but I'll take credit! Whitney made me nauseous with her rehearsed, insincere sales job. And what was really aggravating about it was that her supreme (manufacured) confidence about wanting to move to Iowa and marry Chris and have babies with him -- after having known him for about 7 weeks in real time -- was supposed to be the rational, preferable stance in the eyes of Chris and his family. Becca dodged a bullet. I thought it looked like a Pier 1 Imports store threw up on an Orvis store. I enjoyed the heart-to-heart talk Chris had with Becca in her hotel suite. You could see the gears in his head struggling to turn, trying to spit out thoughts.

The last time I had to pull out the dictionary was while watching this episode, because Kelsey uses so many big words.

Thank you..."crass" is a great adjective for Kaitlyn. That aspect of her personality is why I do not want her to be the Bachelorette.

I hadn't seen Ashley's ax-wielding until tonight...I guess I missed some of the camping group date when that occurred? But I agree, it was awesome...Chris looked genuinely terrified as he watched her chop wood.

Speaking of lipstick, I almost lost it when they showed the preview of the season finale, which showed Whitney still wearing that dumb fuchsia lipstick that most of the women have been wearing all season long.

I totally agree...I would loathe Kaitlyn as the next Bachelorette...she seems like the kind of woman who friend-zones every man she dates, and she's also the kind of person (and there are plenty of men like this, too) who thinks they could hack it as a standup comedian, so they feel the need to constantly crack (lame) jokes. The book definitely needs its own thread in this forum. Since the start of the season, I've thought she looks more like a young Courtney Thorne-Smith. She's very frustrating, because she's cute but so, so crazy.

Just when I thought the Bachelor universe couldn't get any weirder, Chris Harrison plugs his new romance novel out of left field. Oy vey! When this season first started, the two women I had the biggest crush on were Nikki and Samantha. Unfortunately, the two of them flew under the radar and never got any screen time because they're not crazy, slutty, controversial, etc. Tonight, apparently even the crew didn't know who they were, because the first time Nikki spoke, the on-screen graphic identified her as Samantha. My first thought was, what happened to Samantha's olive skin? Chris has gotten a lot of flack for being inconsiderate to various women, but I think he handled Ashley S's craziness (especially when she randomly interrupted his interview during the zombie date) in a polite and tactful way. Kelsey and the handkerchief / pocket square...I can't even. What is it with Britt and too-long hugs? Does she actually think that's endearing?

What a great decision that was...because there are so few eligible bachelors in her tiny hometown of CHICAGO. Who knows? They might have made a baby in the fantasy suite! And yet...five minutes earlier, she was still head-over-heels in love with Chris, and ready to marry him if asked. I'm not saying your analysis is wrong, but it's just silly how quickly the contestants snap out of their Stockholm Syndrome.

Whitney's reaction didn't surprise me at all. She doesn't really care about Chris. She doesn't care about the feelings of the other women. She's the Tracy Flick of The Bachelor.

Emily told each of her final 3 up-front that she would only use the fantasy suite for some private conversation with them, but they would not be allowed to spend the night because she didn't want to send the wrong message to her daughter. And Sean did basically the same thing, because he was a "born again" virgin. And in recent years, I think at least a couple of the leads sent one of their final 3 home before the fantasy suite, possibly because they didn't want to face the awkwardness of spending the night with someone they knew would not be in their final 2. But other than those cases, it's basically been assumed for years that all three of the fantasy suite nights include some kind of hooking up. There have been plenty of leaked details to back up those assumptions. Bachelor Bob was the first lead on either show to be rumored to score a hat trick, so to speak, but a hat trick in the fantasy suite has basically gone from being considered inappropriate to almost expected. I agree...it will be a lot easier for him in some bar in Des Moines to meet a woman who's a decent match for him and is willing to move to Arlington than it was on this show.

Wait, which is which? You need to be more specific. That's an interesting point that I don't see discussed much. Whitney has an actual career (and maybe a master's degree?) while I think Becca may be a college dropout...her job definitely doesn't require a degree, and she alluded in her own ABC bio to the fact that she hated school. Becca definitely is more of an intellectual equal for Chris.

That's what makes this show so dumb....it goes without saying that many more than 30 women from the state of Iowa applied to ABC to be on the Bachelor in the past year...surely the producers could have picked an all-Iowa cast if being benevolent matchmakers and giving Chris good choices was really that important to them. All they care about is ratings. That's too bad, because (assuming Becca does end up finishing 2nd) I'd love to see Becca as the Bachelorette, to see how she would handle the experience with guys who are a better match for her than Chris. The pink lipstick did seem to go "viral," as if one woman brought a bunch of it and passed it around. Because it started with just one or two women on a certain episode...then suddenly two episodes later every woman left was wearing it. But I can't remember who wore it first.

Yep...Whitney's over-the-top enthusiasm for him, and willingness to please him and placate him is exactly why he wants to pick her...but eventually her Stockholm Syndrome will wear off and she'll get outta there. I do think that Whitney sincerely is willing to be that kind of Stepford wife for some doofus...but she would prefer he live in Chicago, not Arlington, Iowa. Was it just the ridiculous hot pink lipstick they continue to wear every episode, or something else?

Exactly...and he couldn't mask his disappointment. It was also interesting to see about 60 seconds of uninterrupted "conversation" between Chris and Becca, since we mostly just see 15-second sound bites between him and the women. It underscored how awkward he is. Chris' face during the virginity reveal rivaled Kaitlyn's face when she realized she was going home. "Why did I just sleep with that lunkhead in the fantasy suite?" Becca returning to the rose ceremony was the funniest Bachelor/ette moment I can recall. I actually thought the editors did a great job, keeping it suspenseful before and during Chris' conversation with Becca, if not after. None of these three really seem like a good match for Chris, for various reasons. Chris seems to have a serious perspiration problem...his face and hair were drenched throughout this episode, and every shirt he wore had massive sweat stains. It was hard to tell during the date with Kaitlyn what was a sweat stain and what was a monkey urine stain. I think Whitney singlehandedly cancelled out 50 years of the women's movement when she told Chris how ready she was to give up her career, move to Iowa, and have babies right away. It was really sweet how Chris introduced Kaitlyn to that local at the beginning of their date: "This is [one of] my [three] girlfriend." You could feel the love.

Exactly. My sister talked me into watching The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. I would never make that decision on my own.

ITM means "in the moment," the type of interview where Chris or one of the women is seen talking to the camera about their thoughts/feelings at that moment, in the middle of whatever activity is happening. During the zombie group date, when Ashley S. went super-crazy, she was seen walking over and interrupting Chris while he was taping an ITM, and they showed two different camera angles...one on Chris, and one of Ashley and Chris. Very meta, breaking the fourth wall. Because of their immediacy, they present ITMs as if they are more authentic than THs -- talking head interviews where the producers might sit a woman down for 30 minutes at a time, twice a day to tape her thoughts on 20 different topics, then pull sound bites as needed for the actual broadcast. However, there are a lot of situations where it seems implausible/contrived that Chris or one of the women would literally stop what they're doing to tape an ITM. For example, Chris Harrison announces there will no be cocktail party, and they're going immediately to the rose ceremony...except three of the women have enough free time to apparently tape ITMs between that moment and the rose ceremony. The Bachelor is best enjoyed if you turn off your brain. :-)

"blond"

A lot of viewers seem to be confused about this. Jade did not pose for Playboy magazine. She posed for playboy.com, or one of Playboy's various Internet properties that charge monthly subscription fees. Oftentimes, these photos and videos that are behind paywalls make their way all over the Internet, including Google's images and video search indices, and YouTube-esque free adult video-sharing web sites. Sometimes, Playboy or other producers of this content are OK with the leaks, because they attract potential future subscribers. The only "playmates" / centerfolds you see in Playboy magazine are the models hand-picked by Hugh Hefner and his discerning eyes. They put the A-List models in the magazine, and the D-List models online only. Not that I know anything about this topic. There's a hugely popular social networking site out there for the modeling industry. Aspiring models, freelance photographers, casting agents, etc. all have profiles, and they network with each other. Photographers offer to shoot models so they can both build their portfolios, agents seek out new talent, etc. Aside from uploading head shots or...uh, body shots, models can make clear in their profile whether or not they are willing to pose nude. It's super-easy these days for a Playboy casting agent to find new models. Again, not that I know anything about this topic.

Yes, and that could be a telling sign, but it could also could just be selective editing. And Jade's father basically gave Chris his unsolicited blessing (at least Chris wasn't shown seeking the blessing), when he basically told Chris that he would welcome him as a son-in-law as long as he makes Jade happy. Of course, that blessing didn't help Jade's chances.

I think the tension between Whitney and her (I'm assuming older?) sister is simply that for the past 10 years, the sister has also been like a surrogate mother for Whitney, and that clashing of roles erupts occasionally. Becca's family, on the other hand...their comments about her were just weird and inexplicable. They were talking about her like she's an asexual leper, rather than just a virgin without much dating experience.

I couldn't help but search Google for Jade's video, and you really can see everything, even her breast implant scars. I think Chris knew Jade was wrong for him (or at least his stated intention of finding a woman ready to marry) when Jade's brother shrugged and said, "She might want to do the whole married thing." Britt's final, unsuccessful sit-down with Chris reminded me of an episode of The Apprentice when Donald Trump was so exasperated with the excuses and last-minute pleas of the guy Trump wanted to fire, he just threw up his hands and said to the guy, "Isn't it over?" Britt had already dug her own grave, the decision was made, and that whole conversation was just pointless. The sequence where Chris H announced there would be no cocktail party was great because Britt, acting very anxious, said, "The train is moving!"...except they managed to stop the train long enough for Britt and someone else to both tape talking-head interviews to offer their reaction to the train moving unexpectedly. I missed about 30 seconds where Kaitlyn was explaining how her family is somehow unconventional. What was it, other than living most of the year in Canada but wintering in Arizona? (Or do they actually winter in Arizona, or was that just a cover story to hide the fact that Chris can't travel to Canada because of his DUI?) Can someone fill me in? Whitney really creeped me out, and I think creeped Chris out, with her "virginal" wine that she was saving for The One. She also has a terrible poker face. When she's angry, she doesn't just look angry; she looks ugly-angry. Becca's whole hometown date was cringeworthy for me, but especially the ferris wheel and her reaction to it. She really seems like a 15-year-old girl trapped in a 25-year-old woman's body. I agree...all of this time-shifting the producers are doing, moving rose ceremonies to the beginning of episodes and splitting a single "week's" dates across two episodes has me totally confused. Was that really his own bachelor pad, or just where he was staying while they were filming in Des Moines? I think Becca said the latter. Considering they had already spoiled who three of the Final 4 were before tonight, the fact that the fourth got the first rose at the rose ceremony was also annoying. Where's the drama in that?

It seemed really out of left field that Britt would suddenly flip out and try to guilt-trip Chris into giving her a rose, turning the tables on him with talk about how she wasn't sure she wanted to bring him to her hometown to meet her father if she wasn't his No. 1 choice. Then it occurred to me that if all she really wants is to be the next Bachelorette, and there has been plenty of evidence that is what she's after, it was probably just a calculated move. She knows that to be considered as the next lead, you have to finish in the Final 4...they've been doing this reject-casting thing for years now, and that's been the one thing they have in common. If she finishes 6th or 5th, it's over. Nah...Lindzi (from Ben's season) was a suburb-of-Seattle, prim and proper, Junior League kind of horse girl, not a rural, muddy boots kind of horse girl. She would be just as bad a match for Chris as any of the women he has had to choose from. Haha...yes, those were basically Chris's exact words to Andi, and I don't think he was joking. Don't know about you, but I saw a commercial for eHarmony last night during the show. As a guy, that's acceptable to me, but I get a little embarassed by the onslaught of Revlon, Olay, etc. commercials. The audience for this show must be 90% women. Becca seems very nice, reasonably smart, with no hidden agenda, but she also seems pretty sheltered and naive. That actually would make her perfect for what Chris is expecting of a wife in Arlington.

I can see a guy like Chris needing a night in the Fantasy Suite to reassess Britt's worthiness. That is the only logical reason why Chris would be keeping her around at this point.

You're assuming that Chris is tactful, and also smart enough to think on his feet. Nope and nope.