Week 2
Right out of the gate I’m disappointed. Not with Matt, he’s fine—but coming off of last season I feel like there wasn’t a clear and exaggerated villain. They gave the men more of an opportunity to present authentically, without perseverating too much on the petty boy-drama. Yes, Bennet was a pretentious D, but he did that all on his own as a reflection of his personality. With Victoria, I have no doubt she’s genuinely a garbage person and either she has gifted herself the role to claim the spotlight or producers have, but either way it’s just way too much. It’s like watching an off, off Broadway audition where the director gives his niece a two-minute slot because his sister begged him to, while she’s on leave from her in-patient treatment facility for delusions of grandeur, much like the one Trump will enter sometime next week.
The second thing that’s hard for me to swallow is Matt’s unabashed relationship to his faith—not because he’s Christian, live and let live is my motto—but the Bachelor franchise has always tip-toed around this for years, for good reason—it can be a tricky thing to address and can quickly become exclusive. My hope is they have vetted all these women beforehand, since this would be a dealbreaker in the end. If suddenly his future wife reveals herself as an atheist during Fantasy Suites, this whole dance will have been a colossal waste of time.
Moving on to the recap!
Bri got the first one-on-one. She opened up her mother getting pregnant and raising her at 13! They bonded over both being raised by single moms.
If the group date feels like deju vu, don’t adjust your screen, we already saw this date. My only guess as to why they kept the Craigslist photographer on retainer for Matt’s season is because his eccentricity sparked a deeper bond between Tayshia and Zac, so maybe producers were hoping to recreate this magic again. This time though, they went balls deep with the wedding photoshoot, with 18 women lined up in the rain like some sort of tragic polygamy offering for Matt. Just when the humiliation factor was already peaking, Chris Harrison decides to split them into teams to battle it out channeling the Hunger Games while ruining some perfectly decent dresses. The girls need to donate the wreckage to Victoria, because she’ll need to save all her money towards some much needed therapy after this.
Matt gives Lauren the group date and they bond over their ridiculously attractive genetics and their love of Jesus.
The next one-on-one goes to camera-ready Sarah. She’s plucked from a sea of crop-tops to sport her own in style on a high flying date with Matt.
Pete the Pilot gets the official snub when he isn’t asked to fly the couple around for the day, but as we know Peter has been busy getting dumped again by yet another girl from his season (I think this is his 4th failed relationship in a year… I’ve lost count).
Sarah’s description of brushing her dad’s hair now that he has ALS and comparing it to him brushing her hair before school had me in tears. Giving up her career to be a caregiver is a noble, selfless thing and speaks volumes about Sarah’s character. I speak for everyone when I say to Matt, please don’t waste a minute of her time here. Her time with her dad is too precious.
The only thing worse than Victoria’s dress is her identifying herself as an “empath”. No, girl no. Victoria is everything that’s wrong with youth these days—she’s so used to spreading her toxicity from behind a screen on social media that she doesn’t know how to relate to humans. Her particular brand of terrible, like Trump, is impossible to stomach because their narcissism and inability to look inward makes their very presence enraging. I know she will have to stick around for a few episodes to follow the script, but I will likely be fast-forwarding her sections from here on out. Don’t worry guys, Twitter gave her the royal shakedown she deserved.
During the rose ceremony Sarah seems like she’s moments from fainting and steps away to seek medical attention. In the end, they leave us hanging. In the teasers for next week, we see that Victory will continue her reign of terror throughout the house for at least another episode. Ugh. I’m not here for it.