The Bachelor Recap: He did WHAT?!?

Okay, so here is your somewhat belated Bachelor post.  As an added bonus and an apology for being so late, I am going to include commentary about the After the Final Rose show.  So here we go.

First, a list of Ways that Watching the Bachelor Finale Can Be Ruined:

1. Include your brother, who has not watched the show much, thinks Brad is a tool, and sits on the couch flipping through an Us magazine the whole time whilst making snide remarks about the way Brad talks.

2. Feel as though your getting gypped because the episode is only 58 minutes long and does not include a shower scene with Brad.

3. Brad proves your brother right at the end of the show giving him five minutes’ worth of “told you so” commentary, which is followed by you wishing Brad hadn’t wasted everyone’s time.

 Chris Harrison quickly recaps this season.  Basically, Brad met 25 women and now there are two left.  I really think Chris Harrison has the easiest job in the world sometimes…but I’ve given Chris a pretty hard time.   So as we tune into see who is going home crying, I will try to keep the Chris jokes to a minimum if possible. Plus, I would hate to take out my bitterness toward Brad on Chris.  That’s like having a bad game of Guitar Hero and taking it out on your secretary at work.  It’s just uncool (the taking it out on your secretary, not Guitar Hero because it’s completely cool).

No shower scene this episode, but we do get a scene of Brad looking out over his deck pondering his future.  That’s when his two brothers and mom show up.  I think we should pause for a moment of silence in honor of the Brother who isn’t Chad.  He’s got two siblings who are chiseled, well-built, well-dressed millionaires, and he looks like the lead singer from Smashmouth.  That is him in the front of that picture.

Brad describes DeAnna as an independent woman.  Do you think that Brad takes all of his descriptions of these women from Destiny’s Child songs?  I, for one think Beyonce is a genius, but I would hope the guy in my life would come up with something on his own…Anyway, Chad makes lame joke that he is Brad, Mom tells DeAnna that she is just gonna call her DD because she can’t remember her name, or some such.  From what I could tell, the family time consisted of a champagne lunch, a stroll with Mama, and ended with Brad and his brothers jumping fully clothed into the pool.  During the Mama chat, DD tells Mama that she is falling in love with her son.  While DD is telling Mama that she is so in love, Brad is back at the pool with his brothers telling them how confused he is.  Hindsight is 20/20 and all but this should have raised the red flag.  All in all, it looked like the whole thing took about 20 minutes.  In fact, it probably took me longer to type this than their date did.  Brad tells DD that his family loved her “of course.” 

“Of course” and “at all” are Brad’s fall back phrases.  Throughout the seasons of the Bachelor, there have always been words and phrases  that are overused.  “Amazing,” ”connection,” “most dramatic rose ceremony ever” to name a few, but Brad’s “of course” and “at all” usage is off the charts.  I don’t know why it bugs me, but I suspect it has something to do with Brad wasting my time for months now.  Blech.

Date #2 is Jenni.  Jenni is all happy and cheerleader-y.  And the producer gives Smashmouth the sign so he can ask, “When do we get to meet this Jenni?” and the knock on the door would happen at that exact moment.  All of the Womacks have a nice, hearty laugh and it looked like the final scene on an episode of the Brady Bunch or something (nope, not bitter “at all”).  Brad hugs her and then proceeds to his constant fixing of hair before introducing her to his family.  Mama asks the awkward question of whether Jenni has told her son she loves him yet, to which Jenni says no and then starts into her machine gun laugh that she does when she’s nervous, or happy, or really just breathing.  It was then that Mama takes Jenni on the walk and gets down to business.  Mama says if Jenni marries Brad she will be marrying his family and that she’d tell Brad yes if he proposed.  Something like, “Yes, I love you, let’s go now!” Insert machine gun laugh here.  I am pretty sure the vases on the table were rattling.  The whimsical brothers had found a football by the time they got back out there, and Jenni shows off her catching ability.  I guess they were out of dry clothes for them to repeat the pool scene they had with DD.

Brad and Mama then go on a walk in which Brad tells Mama how confused he is, and how when he is with DD he thinks of Jenni and vice versa.  Red Flag #2.  Brad is worried that he is gonna break two hearts (of course, we know now that he will, but it isn’t his and the woman he doesn’t choose, it’s both of the girls).  Boooooo, Brad.

Onto the last one-on-one dates, where the women get to cook for their man.  Usually, this is done at the Bachelor pad, but this year ABC decided to use some sort of Model Apartments type setting.  Seriously, the outside of the building looked like the one they use on “Blind Date” when they get all sauced and end up at some random hot tub.  That’s what the building reminded me of, and if it’s too obscure a reference, just move on…

DD has made lasagna and is lighting candles and says that she wants to end up with a guy who she can eat dinner with.  Umm, okay.  Dinner was spent with DD smiling sweetly and telling Brad she loves him.  Brad complimented her cooking and telling her that she’s everything he’s ever looked for in a wife and mother.  DD says that where the dishes go is very important to her…I know, it seemed pretty random to me too.  On the couch in the model apartment, DD continued to pour out her heart and blink a lot.  The whole time Brad looked kinda nauseous.  Red Flag #3.

Back to the Blind Date house for his one-on-one with Jenni.  Jenni has made some sort dish that requires chop sticks.  I think she must have poked herself in the eye with one of them too, because she cried – A LOT!  Jenni broke down at the dinner table and then Brad comforted her and told her not to be sorry – at all, at all.  Don’t be sorry at all.  I am telling you he uses that phrase all the time.  For every one of Jenni’s tears, Brad said “at all.”  I am not even kidding.  Jenni then just decided it was time to say everything she’s ever had in her head about Brad.  At one point she even pulled out her diary and read it to him.  “Dear diary- today I met Brad and he is super-cute.  I love him.  I love everything about him.  I will love you forever, even if you choose the other girl.  If you take a chance on me (Think Andy Bernard!) I will do whatever it takes to make you happy.”  Oh, sweetie…I don’t think there has ever been more snot on a final date.  Brad reassured her that the crying was fine and then excused himself to see if the ABC staff had stocked the model apartment with some Pepto.  Seriously, during both of the last two one-on-one dates, he looked like he was fixing to vomit.

And with only a 58-minute show, they wasted five minutes of it with Brad buying an engagement ring…a ring he is probably auctioning on eBay right now.  Brad then put on his khaki suit and headed on over to the state park in front of the ocean where they set up a pedestal for him to stand on.  Every year, it’s this moment that you wait for.  Who is gonna get out of the first limo, because that is the girl who is gonna get kicked to the curb…Of course this year is different, but the first time through I didn’t know that.  Aaaaaaand Jenni gets out.  Chris Harrison greets her and then escorts her to the steps where he leaves.  I am thinking that Chris Harrison must have a pretty good idea what an executioner feels like.  Jenni is all nerves and smiley-faced.  And I felt so bad for her right then.  Brad tells her how wonderful she is, how beautiful she is, and thanks for the free haircut, but he needs more and he can’t get it from Jenni.  Goodbye, Jenni. 

I thought Jenni took it pretty well.  She tells him that she feels embarrassed about telling him how she felt. Brad tells her not to be embarrassed “at all” (AARGH!).  Then they hug and he walks her to the limo.  Jenni wishes him happiness and then gets in the car.  Good for her.  Then she cries in the limo.  I hope they at least give her a xanax.

Next up, DD’s turn.  The first time I watched this, I felt like DD was getting the rose but no ring.  Brad just seemed too confused.  I did NOT expect him to break up with her too.  That means this dude has broken up with 25 people in like four weeks.  That is probably some sort of record, don’t you think?

Anyway, DD absolutely was must-see television during the breakup.  He starts off telling her all the things he loved about her and how perfect she was.  And then he did the cruelest thing he does which is to tell her prior to breaking up with her that he had just said goodbye to Jenni.  As he saw the relieved smile come over her face, he had a mini-anxiety attack where he stepped down off the pedestal and tugged at his tie while she stood up there ALONE and putting on her bitch face (which is a GREAT bitch face, by the way).  I thought she was gonna stab him in the neck with her eyeliner pencil or something.  By the time he got back up on the pedestal to finish his thought, DD had gone from sweet and relieved to dark and bitchy.  Where Jenni was all huggy and crying, DD was not about to hug this guy.  She asked if she was just a friend and Brad says “Not at all.”  Of course he did.  Brad: I hope you know that I care about you. DD: No, I don’t.  I thought I did but I don’t.

Then she told him that it was breakups like this why she didn’t wear her heart on her sleeve.  Really, DD? Breakups like this one?  As in, every time a guy I really love invites me to a State park to stand on a pedestal and then tells me I can’t have that rose that’s sitting right there, it just hurts me so much?  Because that seems odd to me.  I don’t know, it just does.  Maybe that happens in Georgia a lot…I don’t know.

But DD bucks up, tells him he’ll regret his decision and then she and her gold dress that made her butt look huge got back in the car and went back to the Blind Date house.  What a downer.  Usually, no matter how bad you feel for the first girl who leaves, you at least get the happy ending.  The twirling around and the kissing and “I love you too.”  This time the last segment of the show was the second girl crying in the limo, Brad sitting alone staring at an engagement ring while sitting in the State Park.  He looked pathetic, but it was pretty hard to feel sorry for the guy…Nope, I felt sorry for DD who we see carrying her shoes down the hall in silence as she shuts herself back into the model apartment.

Fast Forward to After the Final Rose:

If I had been Brad, I would have sent Chad out there instead.  In an effort to help us feel like this show is not a complete waste of time, Trista and Ryan (along with their baby Max) as well as Byron and Mary (who are still together but have been engaged longer now than Pam and Roy were on The Office).  But it’s like ABC wants us to know “See? It’s not a waste of time, I promise…these things do work out like 8% of the time.”  Mary says that they’re getting married in November.  But this show aired on November 20th so I guess she means November of 2008?  I don’t know, but since Mary was the famous “my eggs are rotting” girl she better get cracking.

I’m not gonna recap the whole show.  It was pretty predictable.  The girls were pissed.  Brad admitted he has some commitment issues, but confirmed that he isn’t gay.  DD (who wore a garbage bag to the show) even told him that since he isn’t with anyone still, she would have taken him back…I didn’t see that coming but Brad stuck to his guns. That boy is not going to be tied down.  Hmmm.

I would love to end this by swearing off the Bachelor forever, but that would just be a lie.  I’ll watch again this spring.  It’s an addiction, I guess.  I could have worse problems.

The Bachelor Recap: The Forego Card

Nothing can make this blogger’s heart sing like these three words: Exotic Overnight Dates.  If you missed last week, “the sexiest bachelor ever” sent Sheena home and kept Bettina, Jenni, and DeAnna in the running for whose breakup gets to be covered by OK! Magazine.  Again, as I said last week, I think that this is a two woman race between DeAnna and Jenni, and Brad wanted the satisfaction of knowing that Bettina’s overly judgmental father was choking on his sauvignon blanc when that bar-owner shut the door to the fantasy suite with nothing but his daughter and a 6-pack of Trojans behind it.

Of course, as soon as I got excited about it, I noticed that we were given only 45 minutes to enjoy the episode because of that new Samantha Who? show that ABC has decided we should all like.  Not biting, ABC!  Give me my full hour at least.  I am pretty sure that this lack of time is why we didn’t get a shower scene this week. We also got no Chris Harrison (WHAT??!) I know, he just did the voice over.  Anyway, to Cabo San Lucas we go…

 First Date: Jenni to Swim with the Dolphins

Brad starts out by saying he was excited to spend the entire day and ENTIRE NIGHT with Jenni.  And thus begins both Jenni and Brad each saying that the whole day was foreplay before they “do it” that night without actually saying it.  Of the three, Jenni definitely got the coolest date.  You should also remember that the only successful couple in this show’s history, Trista and Ryan, got to go swimming with the dolphins…and they just became parents.  I am just saying.  Favorite quote of this date has to be from Jenni, who explained that what she loved was that “It was just so personal, I mean, it was just me and Brad.”  Now, I am gonna give Jenni the benefit of the doubt and say that her quote was shortened up and it used to say, “It was just me and Brad.  And the dolphins.  And the dolphin trainers.  And the camera crew.”  But somehow I doubt that’s the case.  I think it says something when you think your date is private and there are actually 600 other people present.  Could it be love?  Let’s see.

Post – dolphin glass of wine included the conversation about what Jenni really wanted to happen between the two of them, and she said that she was hard-put to really say how she was feeling.  It gave Brad doubt. (Okay, sure.)  Retire to the romantical dinner for two.

Quick aside: This is always the dinner where the Bachelor(ette) always has to pull what I call the “forego” card, which is where the two of them are given the option of staying at the same room by the airport motel they’ve been staying in by themselves, or they can hit up the penthouse suite.  Every time the card is worded the same – Dear (insert couple’s name):  I hope that you are enjoying your stay at (insert descriptive adjective and place where they are).  Should you choose to forego your individual rooms, please use this key to stay as a couple in our exotic fantasy suite.  Love, Chris – and every time except for the rarest of circumstances does the couple choose the Radisson by the Southwest Ticket Counter.  The true humor lies in the fact that every single person who has ever been on this show after the first season knows that card is coming, but for some unfathomable reason always tries to act surprised when the card makes its appearance.  Please.  You know it’s coming, you know you’re gonna hit up the suite, so please don’t treat the viewing public as mouth-breathing idiots who don’t know what’s fixing to happen…

Okay.  Sorry.  Cue romantical date for two for Jenni and Brad.  Brad continues the wink-wink interviewing by saying there’s nothing he would like more than to continue his date with Jenni to the room to “get to know her in that way.”    Jenni tells Brad that it’s hard for her to tell him how she feels, but “it’s much easier for me to show it.”  Hee.  And then Jenni made Bachelor History.  No, really.  She didn’t play the game where she acts like she doesn’t know what’s coming.  And after promising the Bachelor she’ll show him how she feels, Jenni straight up asks for the Forego card.  Didn’t wait for him to present it over dinner or folded into a dinner roll, or through some sort of magic trick.  She simply said that she knew he had it on him and to give it.  Thank you, Jenni.  In the words of the immortal Bette Middler, “Did you ever know that you’re my hero?”  Amazing.  And they cut to Jenni explaining the birds and the bees of hooking up.  I won’t bore you with the details but the speech starts with, “When a man and a woman are very attracted to one another…”  Yeah.  So they make out and then Brad shuts the door.  What?  This isn’t Skinemax, people. 

Date Two: Bettina for a Day on the High Seas

Brad tells Bettina that this is no ordinary boat, it was used in the America’s Cup Race.  That’s when Bettina’s hamster wheel in her head started turning and she was trying to figure out what exactly the America’s Cup Race is.  They even got to open up the main sail.  Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of champagne.  Bettina talks about how attracted she is to Brad, and you can almost see her dad taking his heart pill and calling the ex-husband to offer him money to come back.  Meanwhile, Bettina and Brad are walking hand in hand on Lover’s Beach while Bettina continues to profess her attraction.  Still no on-camera kissing…which should be a red flag.

Romantic dinner for two: Bettina says that her family only judged Brad because they thought he didn’t like her as much as Bettina liked him…Well, they should have just sent Brad a note after appetizers asking him to check “Yes” or “No.”  It’s simple, really.  Brad tries to make Bettina say that she wouldn’t leave her hometown to move to Austin and hang out at his bars for a living.  She doesn’t give him the easy way out and says she absolutely would. 

Not following the example set by Jenni, Bettina acted surprised at the Forego card.  She says yes and they go get in the hot tub…Brad exacts the revenge he wants as there is a make-out scene in the hot tub complete with several cut-away shots and the Do Not Disturb sign on the door.  Lesson for future fathers on this show: If your daughter reaches the final four, don’t piss him off, or you will be facing the business end of a revenge hook-up.

Date Three: DeAnna for some dunebuggy racing.

Here would be my thoughts if I was DeAnna – So Jenni swims with the dolphins, and Bettina takes a boat trip that ends on Lover’s Beach.  They both get to spend the majority of their dates with you having your shirt off and lookin’ all sexy.  Then my date is going to be us taking separate cars around a sand track where you not only wear your shirt, but you also sport some goggles?  No thank you.  But give that Southern girl some credit.  She took it like a champ and even kicked Brad’s ass on the dune buggy.  Good for her.

And they did get 10 seconds of beach time that was filmed…DeAnna tries to explain how normal couples do spend the nite together, wake up together, etc. and she was looking forward to that with Brad.  Southern Baptists everywhere just put DeAnna on their prayer lists.  At dinner, DeAnna drops the “I’m falling in love with you” card.  Wow.  Brad made out with her and then told her she was perfect.  Cue the forego card.  DeAnna didn’t act surprised like Bettina but still read the note aloud before accepting.

This fantasy suite included a swimming pool.  Brad interviewed about DeAnna using the words like touching, and soulmate, and love…Red flag.  They would edit that out if it was really DeAnna who won.  However, they’ve also showed Jenni as the front runner from day one, which has never won.  I just am stumped.  Dammit, ABC Editors!

Anyway, you know what happens next.  Bettina hits the road, in a blue ’80s prom dress, and the showdown is set between Jenni, the Phoenix Suns Dancer, and DeAnna the Southern Belle who tells it like it is.  The only thing worthy of more commentary is that I hope that whichever of the two of them he picks tells him that the Don Johnson on Miami Vice suit has GOT TO GO!! Seriously, Brad, you are better than that.

Next week- Women Tell All…How will Hillary explain her meltdown?  Will Sheena cry some more?  Whee!