Susan and Emily are reunited this week for their one-on-one recap, and it feels so good. This episode had some ups and downs, some emotional conversations and some “teenage boy drama,” some art projects and some...haunted hotel rooms? Anyway, let’s get to it. 

Emily: At the top of the episode, Tayshia says she’s really needing advice right about now, so she called in one of her good friends to help her out. Do Tayshia and JoJo hang out IRL? Had they ever met before this? It’s fine if they haven’t, but don’t insult our intelligence. Just say, “JoJo was a former Bachelorette willing to quarantine, and she is one of the few people who can give me advice about what it’s like to be a Bachelorette.” 

Susan: I love that Tayshia brought out a full plate of pastries as if they were just gonna carb out together. 

Emily: They talk about how hard it is hurting people’s feelings, which I really felt on a deeply personal level. I hate hurting people’s feelings. Tayshia also talks about how she feels about getting engaged again, since it’s something she’s done already. Susan, I feel like this is something you and I can both relate to. Tayshia says, “I’ve gotten married. I’ve done all this. I’m not going to just get engaged because it feels right in the moment.”

Susan: Yes. Readers, as you probably know if you’ve read past recaps, Emily and I are both divorcees (gasp!). I can understand why Tayshia would be hesitant to get engaged again, especially in process with such a high rate of broken engagements. I do like that she probably won’t go into the final weeks with the “I HAVE to get engaged” mindset that a lot of leads seem to have.

Emily: Agreed. The whole “I have to get engaged” mentality is so weird to me. There are a whole lot of ways for a relationship to be successful and valuable without taking the plunge and getting married after only knowing each other for a few weeks. Take it from a divorcee. Anyway, back to the dudes.

Susan: Chris tells the men he has to leave the bubble to take his son to college, so JoJo is taking over Harrison duties for a while. I can’t believe it’s not Ben Higgins, but also I’m glad it’s not Ben Higgins.

Emily: Meanwhile, my husband was really sad it wasn’t Ben Higgins. Maybe it’s a Ben solidarity thing. (My husband is also Ben, if you’re new.)

Susan: The first date card is for Zac: “I’m looking for a man I can picture a future with.” 20 points to Zac.

Emily: So what does this mean? It ends up meaning a wedding photo shoot. Zac says, “When I look at Tayshia she’s a little shook. She’s having some thoughts.” After the “feeling the feels” comment last week and the use of the word “shook” this week, I can see Zac is really leaning in to the Gen Z/Zillennial lingo. Tayshia tells Zac that she is nervous about the whole wedding photo shoot thing, but she also tells Zac they should just let go and embrace it. 

Emily: They also do a little first dance together, which I thought was cute. Zac admits in an ITM that he’s starting to have real feelings for Tayshia. I mean, aren’t we all? Tayshia is wonderful. 

Susan: True. I am falling for her. They have some champagne in the grass, and Tayshia tells Zac she’s been married before, and Zac reveals that he has too. I’m all for how much we are normalizing divorce this season. What do you think, Emily?

Emily: Yes, this is a very different narrative from previous seasons where even being the CHILD of divorced parents might mean you’re incapable of love. In stark contrast, Tayshia is not only okay with the fact that Zac has been married before. She’s RELIEVED he’s been married before because it means he understands things about marriage and relationships that you might not really fully grasp if you haven’t been through it before. And he understands something of what she’s been through in her past because they’ve both been divorced. So divorced people aren’t “damaged goods?” Imagine. Finally this show is entering the 21st century. Kind of.

Susan: Wild, huh? It’s almost like divorced people…still deserve love? And are still human? For the record, when I found out my now-husband had been married before, I had the same reaction as Tayshia. I thought it was a positive, not a negative. Anyway, although Tayshia is anxious about being in a wedding dress and posing for fake wedding photos, Zac helps put her at ease once they get going. Of course, she looks stunning in every dress. They kiss for 2 points.

Susan: At dinner, Tayshia wants to get to know Zac better, and he opens up about his past. After graduating from college, Zac had surgery to remove a brain tumor. As a result of the surgery, he was introduced to pain medication. He got married at 23, but he had developed a problem with drinking and using drugs. After getting arrested for driving under the influence, his wife left him. He is deliberate in saying that she did nothing wrong. Next, he says that for the next 8 months, his drug use got worse, and he was in a hopeless place. He hit a low point after stealing a check from his dad and spent 4.5 months in rehab. He is now on the board of that rehab facility. Zac gets 5 points for opening up.

Emily: I loved how naturally this came up as part of their conversation. It didn’t feel like he was forcing a sob story or creating an intimate moment when it was awkward to do so. A lot of times with these moments of opening up (as we’ll see on the art date), it feels really stilted, like, “oh I guess this is the time where I share my story or risk going home.” That’s not what was happening here. It’s clear these two share a deep connection. Even Tayshia says they have a connection she can’t explain. The words she uses is that they’re “drawn to each other.”

Susan: I was really thankful to see this show give airtime to such an important and misunderstood issue. The Bachelor franchise is famous for barely scratching the surface of—or completely ignoring—serious topics (last week’s episode excluded). This conversation really surprised me in the best way. 

Emily: Agreed. And on that note, we have more dates to get to. How is there still so much show left? 

Susan: The group date card arrives, and it’s for Spencer, Ivan, Ed, Blake, Brendan, Riley, Demar, Bennett, Ben and Noah. It says, “Express yourself.” 

Emily: This means Eazy is getting the next one-on-one date. We have kind of avoided talking about this up until now, but I think it’s something important we need to bring up and be aware of when we’re discussing Eazy and his 1-on-1 time. Because while the show is giving Eazy a very positive edit, it seems like this is irresponsible on their part. The Bachelor/ette producers have been made very aware of certain allegations of sexual assault. We don’t need to go into it in detail, but I just want to put it out there for anyone who didn’t know about this yet, because I do think it’s something you should consider when watching this man’s arc on the show. Anyway, that’s all I wanted to say.

Susan: Thanks for bringing this up, Emily. The more I read about it, the more I’m baffled by his glowing edit. 

Emily: Back to happier things. Tayshia and Zac’s cute date.

Susan: Tayshia gives Zac the rose (10 points) and tells him she thinks he’s incredible. I’m here for Zac and Tayshia, y’all. Zac says, “If I know that I’m a miracle, then who’s to tell me that I can’t come on a national TV show in the middle of a pandemic and find love?” Hard to argue with that. As Eric from Rachel’s season would say: It’s miracle season.

Emily: Tayshia also says she’s falling for Zac. Do we give points for the lead saying this not to the contestant’s face? It seems like we should. I’m going to say 5 points. 

It’s clear that Zac can’t believe his luck. He probably never thought he was going to be a frontrunner when Claire was the Bachelorette. Because contestants pick up on these things and they know who are contenders (Dale) and who aren’t (everyone else). But suddenly in walks Tayshia. And she’s gorgeous and smart and kind and she… likes him? The whole show has turned around for him. And why shouldn’t it? He seems like a good dude. Despite his use of “I could care less.” Yes, I’m still harping on that. 

And now it’s time for the next date.

Susan: When the men arrive in some other room of the resort for their group date, they see a pair of nude models and immediately assume they will have to get naked because, let’s face it, that’s what they’ve had to do on most dates this season.

Emily: Truly, they’re probably all at the point where they think “going on a date” means getting naked. It’s going to be interesting when they get out into the real world and date normal people.

But no, this is not a naked date. This is an art date. The nude models are there for them to draw (badly). As they all sit down to start art class, Noah tries to sit next to Tayshia, and Bennett makes Noah move because Bennett says it’s his seat. Bennett is making total dick moves left and right. This was the Bennett I expected to get when I first drafted him on my team. The privileged, rich Harvard bully Bennett has finally come out to play. It’s not pretty.

Susan: After they present terribly rendered drawings of the models, the men are blindfolded and asked to mold something from clay that represents their time with Tayshia. Isn’t that hard enough without a blindfold? Bennett says blindfolds are sexy and uses this time to surprise-make out with Tayshia. Technically he gets 2 points, but I did not like this.

Emily: No, we like consent. We do not like dick moves, Bennett.

Surprising no one, the clay sculptures these men come up with are not great. Blake makes a dick, and like honestly, someone had to do it, so 2 points to Blake for taking one for the team. Spencer makes pizza because pizza is universally loved. True. I think I was eating pizza while I watched this episode, actually. 2 points to Spencer for knowing my heart. 

Bennett gets no points for sculpting a home for Tayshia in the Hamptons because we don’t like Bennett anymore. Noah asks Bennett how you spell “PRIVILEGE” and then he proceeds to spell “privilege” aloud. Honestly, I don’t know if Noah got it right because “privilege” is one of those words that I’ve always had trouble spelling myself, and I couldn’t imagine trying to spell it out on the fly, so I’m going to give Noah 1 point for attempting to spell “PRIVILEGE” and also 2 points for requesting Bennett to check his privilege. 

Susan: Next, the men are told to create self portraits that reveal something about themselves. The men heard “be vulnerable,” and they delivered. Blake talks about growing up in a troubled household. Riley addresses his strained relationship with his mom. The men were so supportive of each other after this too. Brendan told Riley his story was beautiful, and I wanted to hug everyone. We stan men emotionally supporting men!

Emily: Yes, Riley shared a sob story, and it was a good one, so we’re giving Riley 5 points. I don’t really remember Blake’s at all, so we’re just giving him 3 points. I don’t know this man. Sorry to this man.

Susan: And Ben. Sweet Ben. He gets fully naked and says he’s going to share all of himself with her. 3 points for the bold nude move.

Emily: It looks like Ben had an actual self portrait, but then after everyone else got really emotional and vulnerable, he realized his wasn’t going to have the same impact. So what does he do? He… gets naked. He tells Tayshia that he talks a big game but it’s difficult for him to express his emotions. So he takes off his clothes and “lets his guard down” because “what you see is only a small part of who I am.” This makes… no sense.

Sure, we can give him points, but I really didn’t like this. Not to diminish what Ben shares later in the episode, but this was a weird move. It was like sending someone a dick pick, but in real life. And again, much like Bennett’s kiss, this was a move that was unsolicited. Somehow, it moves Tayshia to tears. She tells her producers, “This is what happens when you start dating real men.” If I were this man, I would be concerned if a woman saw my dick and her first thought was to cry about it. But who knows?

Susan: Ha! True—Tayshia did immediately cry. Yeah, this was definitely a weird choice. I made the same face Blake did which was like, should I laugh? Is it a joke? I was entertained by the fact that it seemed like he just panicked and then got naked. Imagine doing that the next time you get really anxious. Just strip wherever you are. Was it the best move of the day? No. But I think he meant well, even if it resulted in him standing in the middle of the room holding his junk.

Back in another room of the resort, the second one-on-one date card arrives for Eazy (20 points). On the group date, Bennett and Noah take passive-aggressive jabs at each other, and it’s lame.

Emily: Yeah, this Bennett/Noah drama is so forced and not entertaining at all. As for the serious contenders, the first person we see get 1-on-1 time with Tayshia is Riley. He tells Tayshia more about his family history. He lived with his dad growing up and his father really built a wedge between Riley and his mother. 

We also see 1-on-1 time with Brendan just as a reminder that he’s here and that Tayshia is still really into him. They make out for 2 points. 

Most importantly (because he gets the rose), Tayshia spends 1-on-1 time with Ben where he opens up about his eating disorder and how it’s taken him a long time to come to a healthy place with himself and his body. This contextualizes his nude appearance a little bit, and I am glad to hear a man opening up about having an eating disorder. However, I maintain that getting naked is a weird move. And it still made me feel icky. 

Susan: I do think this was another really important moment in Bachelor-dom because this show is pretty obsessed with body image. I don’t recall anyone ever talking about bulimia on the show before, and I certainly don’t think we’ve ever heard a male contestant talk about an eating disorder. He gets 5 points for this. Tayshia gives the group date rose to Ben (10 points), and leaves the group with an ominous warning: “Noah and Bennett, there’s something going on between you two, and I’m gonna get to the bottom of it, one way or another.

Emily: Once again, Bennett says, “I’m not on the Babysitter, I’m on the Bachelorette” and I really want to know what this show is. 10/10 would watch, especially if Bennett is NOT on it, as he so claims. 

Susan: Time for Eazy’s one-on-one. So they’re going...ghost hunting. At...the resort. The producers are really running out of things to do because they seriously took the time to put a creepy doll in a hotel room for this. 

Emily: Yeah like… this is just the hotel? Y’all have been here for literal weeks. It’s not suddenly haunted. 

Susan: Tayshia arrives to dinner in the brightest dress ever, and Eazy is ready to lay down some feelings. He tells Tayshia he feels like he’s falling in love with her, and I swear she is almost frowning in response to it. He gets 10 points for this, which is good because he isn’t gonna get rose points…

Emily: She walks him out and tells him that he’s a great guy and that he deserves everything. But as I said earlier, evidence seems to point to the contrary, and I don’t really like that ABC is pushing this narrative on me that Eazy is this good guy. As Eazy drive away, Tayshia says, “I feel so bad. I don’t like hurting people.” Meanwhile, Eazy is stunned. He says, “What just happened? It went from great to goodbye in no time. I thought this was who I was supposed to end up with and this would be the love of my life and it would be great.” Then he cries for 2 points. I’m relieved to see him go. 

Moving on.

Susan: JoJo tells the men there will still be a cocktail party, but first, there’s going to be a 2-on-1 between Bennett and Noah because Tayshia can’t keep both of them. 10 points to each guy. Bennett is already over-confident. Observe:

Emily: First thing on the 2-on1, Bennett has a gift for Noah. I didn’t take notes on everything that was in this box, because this is just another chance for Bennett to be a giant a-hole. And I’m kind of done with it. I do remember one of the gifts was a pair of socks with mustaches all over them because the only place you should be wearing mustaches is on your feet, according to Bennett. He also says a string of condescending things to Noah. Some of Bennett’s “greatest hits” from this speech: “I did not have emotional intelligence at your age.” And also: “I’m not trying to belittle you. I’m literally trying to love you up.”

Susan: Bennett does a super privileged-white-guy thing and says, “I’m not talking down to you” while talking down to someone. The last time someone brought up emotional intelligence on this show, it didn’t go well for them. I don’t think this time will either. (But we love Taylor Nolan, for the record.) 

Emily: Yes, for the record, Taylor Nolan actually has a degree in psychology. I’m not sure what Bennett studied at Harvard, but I don’t think it was psychology. 

Susan: I’m starting to think Bennett actually went somewhere like Harvard College of Greater Northeast Pennsylvania and not the Harvard. Tayshia is giving serious did-I-really-get-a-bikini-wax-for-this-shit? energy. She notices the box and asks what’s in it…cue suspenseful music

Team I Just Met My Husband (Emily)

Riley: 5
Ivan:
Demar:
Bennett: 12
Ed:
Spencer: 2

Last Week Total: 364
This Episode Total: 19
Total: 383

Team Reckless on Instagram (Susan)

Blake: 5
Eazy: 32
Ben: 18
Brendan: 2
Zac: 42
Noah: 13

Last Week Total: 136
This Episode Total: 112
Total: 248

Susan’s team had a good week, but we’ve still got lots of drama ahead. Can she take the lead next week?!