Koala

There is nothing wrong with living in a hotel if you're happy with it. Kat's entire excuse regarding her struggle with choreography/performance was that "not having a home" was so hard and exhausting on her. To quote her directly during this episode: "living in a hotel? That was so hard." My point was that she could have easily rectified the situation weeks ago by making the choice she has now chosen (moving in with a rookie roommate). In addition, I was also calling complete BS on her struggles regarding having a kitten (whom she seemed to have no problem with shipping to the Midwest at the first opportunity). I personally think she's fake and I feel that her excuses have zero merit; that's all.

All I know is, I'm side-eyeing everything about Kat's entire cat/homeless storyline. It isn't that hard to find an apartment complex that will allow you to have one, small cat. I would know. Just last week she said she would never part with her cat. This week, she's all bright-eyed and enthusiastic while telling Judy and Kelly that she shipped her cat to Minnesota (?) to go live with a "friend." Lol okay. She's now rooming with another rookie. Shouldn't she have been doing this from the start? Why did it take 5 weeks for her to figure this out? I'm sorry for those who like Kat, but she honestly screams huge phony to me. There's something about her that grates me to no end. I'd rather watch Meredith weeping in front of a camera than listen to Kat's babbling, and that's saying something.

For the most part this episode left me exhausted, and not in a good way. The fact that they spent 80% of the time taking turns 'educating' and obsessing over Lee was unpleasant and overwhelming. As other posters have mentioned, I really wish they had let Kenny and maybe one other person say their piece about (and to) Lee, and then moved on. Instead, it turned into a weird, mob-like frenzy of who could get the next word in about racism, African American history, and the civil war -- all topped with the cherry of Rachel saying she wanted him to "exit stage left so that [they could] take it back stage" (which sounded more like an invitation to fight rather than a history lesson). Look, we all get that Lee is and was an a-hole. Most viewers figured that out a month ago. Most of us also know that a lot of his tweets are misogynistic and/or racist. Many of us already disliked him before the Tell All. I don't like the guy, but 20 versus 1 is never a fair fight, and I didn't want nor need to see it on my television for 30 minutes. They succeeded in humiliating him, but if they were truly concerned about educating him on the error of his thinking, I think a lot of people missed the ball park. Yelling at a man in front of an audience on National TV to the point where he is about to cry, is not going to change his mind about anything. The only one who handled it with grace tonight was Kenny, and I could see him and Lee (hopefully) having a real dialogue about what happened off-screen, later down the road. Edited: Grammar

Bryan is just so smarmy! Rachel clearly adores him, but I have trouble taking anything he says seriously. Bryan: "When we peel back those layers, it's gonna be that [much] more special. Like, do you realize how it's gonna be?" Rachel: "...No." Bryan: "You don't, you don't; that's the thing, so --" Rachel: "Do you?" Bryan: "I can envision it." Rachel: "Okay." Bryan: "And it's magical." Groan.

Perhaps this has already been addressed and I just missed it, but is there a reason why none of the cast members who witnessed these events decided to step in before things turned ugly? It's great that a few of them are talking about how "concerned" they were in hindsight, but couldn't they have walked up to either Corinne or DeMario in the moment and said -- "hey, it looks like things are getting a bit out of control; come take a walk with me." Or if Corinne and DeMario were too inebriated to walk away from the situation, then the cast members should have put them to bed. Seriously. It seems almost hypocritical for cast members to whine about producers not doing anything (despite them relaying their concerns) when they had JUST as much power to intervene. There's a lot of shifting blame and finger pointing going on here.

Well, if I learned anything at all this episode, it's that Blake did have a "little bit of Whaboom" in him after all. That furious "whaboom" he did (hair and arms flailing about) was quite the spectacle.

I still adore Peter, Dean, Kenny (and others) as the right-reason front runners — but the wrong-reason viewer in me was inexplicably entertained by the argument between Lexi and DeMario: Rachel: "And how did you cut it off with her?" DeMario: "Face-to-face. I went over to her house; I explained to her that look, you and I are just going to—" Lexi: "on my father's grave...never, ever on my—both of my kittens sleeping in my house right now, on my brother and my dad, my father's grave... Last time he was in my house, he was f***ing me." Stay classy, ABC. Stay classy.

Rachel is such a breath of fresh air when it comes to being the Bachelorette. She appears to be articulate, coherent, intelligent, and knows how to roll with the punches (or, in her case, tickles). Her casting is a huge step up from the beautiful but glassy-eyed Joelle, and the energetic but painfully crass Kaitlyn. I hope think she'll do a good job of carrying this season. It's too early for me to pinpoint favorites amongst the men, but Bryan reminds me of Josh Murray and makes me feel a bit uncomfortable - despite him being physically attractive. I really like Peter, as well as the cherubic Dean.

I'm surprised they've announced it already. They've essentially spoiled the rest of the season, as we all know who Nick's two favorites are — and if one of them is the next Bachelorette, well... there you go.

Perhaps it was the wine, but I enjoyed this trainwreck debacle of an episode. I went from cringing (Corrine), to getting teary-eyed over the thought of Danielle finding her fiance dead from an overdose, to cringing again (Liz), to applauding Nick for not dealing with Liz's BS. Unlike past seasons (cough, cough JoJo; Ben; Kaitlyn; Chris) I actually watched the episode from start to finish without falling asleep or doing chores to amuse myself. Not to mention, there were little moments where Nick just felt ... real. Seeing him briefly get lost in the moment when he showed the ring he chose for Kaitlyn; having him talk about his vulnerability with Danielle; even seeing him get genuinely uncomfortable and embarrassed while Liz did her "break up skit," reminded me that at the end of the day, Nick is just a guy who got his heart broken twice on national television and had the sense to profit from the rejection. I'm excited for this season. It seems like a healthy mix of right/wrong reason contestants, and it's not as obvious as Ben and Lauren, or JoJo and Jordan were.

Maybe I'm just giving Jared the benefit of the doubt, but I feel as though he may have said something similar to what Ashley's narrating but... different. Basically I picture her pressuring him to explain why he's not into her. Jared, being the "nice" guy ("nice" is up for debate), probably didn't want to hurt her feelings by saying "because I don't find you attractive in a sexual or romantic way." So instead of being upfront and honest, he went ahead and made up a BS reason along the lines of: "You're just such a good friend that I'd never want to jeopardize our friendship by dating one another. If something went wrong, I wouldn't want to lose you as a friend." Ashley probably heard those words and in her mind, believed him to be professing some sort of deeper love (a la "he couldn't stand not having her in his life.") Ugh, it's just a train wreck all the way around.

I was genuinely excited during two points in this episode: 1) When Jared said he was contemplating leaving in the first ten minutes of the episode. 2) When Ashley didn't get a rose and was 'sent home.' Unfortunately, my excitement was short lived in both instances. I know the producers love juicy drama but the whole Jared/Ashley story line has run dry. Ashley's waterworks were mildly entertaining during Chris Soules' season, and I could tolerate them in BIP2, but at this point it's just become predictable and grating. Also I find it odd how she's always sobbing when talking about 'love,' and grinning maniacally when she's trashing other women (this time it's Caila; last season it was Clare; and before that it was Britt/Kelsey). It's okay to dislike other women who are "pursuing your guy," but her glee over disliking people is weird. Remember when she called Clare old and undesirable? (Clare was in her early 30s I think.) Even if it is all an act, you've got to have a couple of screws lose to agree to come off as such a lunatic on television.

I'm going to blame both Ashley and Jared for the mess that is their ... friendship? On/off again relationship? Whatever they want to call it. Jared knows what he's doing by stringing Ashley along and it's gotten old. I don't know what his excuse is, but he needs to put on his responsible big boy pants and tell Ashley how he feels, point blank-- no ifs, buts, or maybe's. Then he needs to stick by his word, even after filming. On the other hand, Ashley is a 28-year-old woman who should understand that being infatuated with someone does not make a relationship. It takes two to tango. No matter how badly you want a prince charming, and no matter how many mixed signals he sends you in real life, if he's rejecting a romantic relationship with you on national television then get some self respect, dry your eyes, and move on. I've witnessed more functional high school relationships in my life.

I think Caila's allure is that she's a breath of fresh air on these types of shows - physically and personality-wise. She doesn't plaster her face with a ton of makeup, or decorate her hair in obvious extensions, or sport long artificial nails, or "enhance" her eyes with spidery eyelash extensions. (There's nothing wrong with any of those things per-say, but the fact that she's so natural definitely stands out in a good way.) She's also genuinely sweet and doesn't seem to talk about other women behind their backs or say things like, "I'm prettier than ___" or "I'm sweeter than ____," or "she's so _______." Caila just comes across as a kind, all american, easygoing, girl-next-door. The twins are pretty in a bleached-blonde, heavily made up, Vegas type of way (extensions, faux nails, heavy eyeliner and all) but Caila is just... fresh. It's not something you can necessarily buy or pretend to be. I can see why the guys like her.

I wanted to love this first episode of BIP3 but all I felt was a mixture of horror, disgust, and sadness as I watched their first day/night unfold. I honestly wanted to give Chad the benefit of the doubt coming into this season because I found his snark on The Bachelorette to be entertaining, but seeing his immediate downward crash into an alcoholic, abusive, aggressive, belligerent mess was disturbing. I have no idea if it was set up by producers (and Lace), or if events just unfolded that way due to an excess of alcohol, but I just don't find it entertaining to watch a plastered man "who has nothing [in his life]" (his words) berating women, threatening men, joking about rape and murder (according to Daniel), passing out on the beach, blacking out, and crapping his pants (according to Vinny/Nick). It's not cute, it's not funny, it's not a joke; it's sad, upsetting, and for the sake of everyone (Chad included) I hope he quits reality TV until he gets his shit together. No pun intended.