The episode starts with the guys getting the 411 on the group date. One of the guys (IDK his name) calls out the following: Grant, Luke S, Mike, Jed, Jonathan, John Paul Jones, Dylan, and Luke P. I can't remember exactly what the card says but all I know is Miss J (yes! catwalk queen Miss J from America's Next Top Model and star of some of my very favorite gifs!!!!) is there and he brought some friends with him! I love love love Miss J and wish he'd be on the show every week!
The “talent” portion is a silly. There's a unicycle, someone playing the trumpet poorly, some juggling. Maybe some tap dancing. And Jed sings a romantic little diddy on the guitar.
Hannah Bananas is like a kid in a candy shop. Eye candy shop. The icing on the cake is when Luke P decides to shoot his shot two episodes into the season with a totally creepy and premature declaration of love. “Hannah, I can’t believe I’m saying this right now. This is pretty crazy because it’s so soon,” says Luke P, as the audience begins to whoop expectantly. “Hannah, I’m genuinely… beginning… to fall…in love with you.” Apparently, his talent is… bullshit. In a move that shocks no one, Hannah crowns Luke P as the winner of her Mr. Right Pageant.
Though Jed is disappointed, he’s keeping his eye on the prize. “There is a rose up for grabs,” he reminds us. “And that means more to me than a sash.” Mike the Man throws a little shade Luke P’s way when he offers the first “cheers” of the night at the cocktail party: “I want to give a cheers to people just being real,” he says. “Make sure that this is for the real reason — that this is love forever, not just 15 minutes.”
Luke P handles this constructive criticism about as well as you might expect: He annoys the guys further by stealing Hannah away from the group first. Once they’re alone, the Bachelorette quizzes him about how he could possibly be feeling anything close to love when they haven’t even known each other for 48 hours. Finally! Someone with half a brain!!! This was the point in the season where I started to like Hannah. A little. We got a glimpse of sanity and it was nice. “I am… starting… to fall in love with you,” Luke replies. But then she blew it with the following: “I asked for bold, and you’re bold!” she giggles. “He’s saying everything my heart needs him to say,” she tells us.
The other guys are definitely not ready to let Luke P off the hook. “You’ve had less than two hours with her,” says Mike. “In the history of man, I’ve never heard someone say ‘I think I’m starting to fall in love with you’ that fast.” Luke, the “good Christian boy” lets the dudes know that when he wants something, he gets it. "No matter what it takes.” In other words, he’ll do/say anything to “win” Hannah. Mike shrugs in disgust, a gesture that likely speaks for all of Bachelor Nation. At the end of the night, it’s Jed, not Luke, who takes home the date rose.
The next day, Hannah is wearing some kind of all-white jean outfit and picks up Tyler G in a helicopter. Because, this is the Bachelorette. The first one-on-one of the season goes pretty well (better than Hannah's one-on-one w/ Colton). The Bachelorette thinks this Tyler is a “stud” with his dark hair and blue eyes. “He feels like a Tim Tebow — but hotter.” They go mudding. Because, she's from Alabama.
After four-wheeling, the dirty duo cuddle on the couch and talk about, you know, the importance of “being real.” “You’ve gotta just reach out to the people you care about,” says Tyler, “and be genuine.” Hannah then outlines some vague goals for the future: having a family, being a “strong woman,” building a career that will “help people,” and doing “incredible things” with her “future husband.” Tyler G. claims to be pro-helping people and just keeps repeating how lucky he is to be with Hannah. It should not come as a surprise to anyone reading this that Tyler G. gets a date rose.
And then group date number 2 is upon us! With the exception of a couple of guys, this is basically the reject group. The Bachelorette greets Devin, Matteo, Daron, Connor J, Kevin, Dustin, Tyler C, Joey, Peter, and Garrett outside a shady looking warehouse in a sketchy part of LA where they are greeted by Los Angeles’s own Derby Dolls. “Get ready to get hit!” announces one of the Dolls. The majority of hits are coming from the floor, which is repeatedly slamming itself against everyone’s asses. This looked horribly painful and not fun at all. Team Bachelorette treats us to a montage of wipeouts set to Strauss’ “Blue Danube,” which added a comedic touch.
The post-Derby cocktail party takes place at what looks like a Pier One warehouse or a fancy storage unit. The cocktail party is chugging along when suddenly an SUV pulls up to the curb and out pops the season’s biggest reject (so far), Cam. The last we saw Mr. “ABC,” he was moping around the house playing the harmonica and wishing he’d been chosen for a date this week. Clearly, some helpful producer talked him into crashing the group date that he wasn’t “invited” to (air quotes are Cam’s, who does not know how air quotes work).
“This is a very Cam thing to do,” Cam informs us. Hannah does not look particularly happy to see Cam, but she lets him interrupt her one-on-one chat with Devin. All he wants is to make sure Hannah knows that he misses her and that he’s trying not to “over-Hannah-lyze” the situation when she’s out on dates with other guys.
The rest of the men are not pleased to hear that Vanilla Ice has entered the building. “That’s a stalker boyfriend vibe right there,” notes Daron. Tyler C is so annoyed he follows Cam out into the parking lot … when he probably could have been using that time to talk to Hannah. “The guys are a little beside themselves,” Tyler C mumbles passive-aggressively. "We’re all fighting for time” (soooo.....why aren't you inside chatting it up with Hannah???). Cam politely makes it clear that he does not give a rip about anything but spending time with Hannah, so Tyler slinks back to the World Market warehouse.
Suddenly, it’s like that scene in Airplane! when everyone lines up to slap the hysterical passenger. First, here comes Garrett — another guy who could be talking to Hannah instead of yelling at some other bro about how he hasn’t talked to Hannah. “I don’t really appreciate that, dude,” says Garrett. “You’re not sorry, dude… You stepped on our toes and you stepped on her toes a little bit, too.” And now here’s Kevin, who chirps at Cam for crossing the invisible “boundaries” that help maintain a civilized order in the Bachelorette universe. “Cam’s a piece of s—,” he tells the other guys. Chill out, everyone! Cam didn’t get the date rose — he’s not even eligible this week. Instead, it goes to Dustin.
And now we're at the cocktail party already? And is Hannah crying before it even begins. I think she's a bit tipsy at this point. I'm serious. She sounds a little slurr-y. Like a drunk sorority girl at last call.
“I wanna be real with you,” she tells the guys through her tears. As she talks, her sniffles become more prominent, so Mike asks someone to get her a tissue. (Devin hands her an old-fashioned handkerchief instead which is AWESOME!!! A real man always has a hankie with him!!!! Kudos to Mike the Man for recognizing Hannah's needs and Kudos to Devin for being a Boy Scout!). “I’m so sorry,” Hannah continues. “I’m just overwhelmed with emotions about how lucky I am. [sniff] And it’s also scary. And it’s hard to make decisions [sniff] when I don’t know all you that well [sniff] as I want to.”
After she pulls it together, the one-on-one chats begin. Connor J, who didn’t get a date this week, moves in first. “I thought about you a lot this week,” Hannah tells him, and they smooch. Is it just me or does he have a little speech impediment? Kevin suggests that he and Hannah purge their inner anguish by unleashing a primal scream upon the heavens above the mansion.
“That was awesome!” says Hannah giddily. And this is when things get weird. Right in the middle of her convo with Kevin, in walks Cam. "I’ve actually got something planned for all three of us,” he announces. Wait. What???
I have nothing against chicken nuggets, but this was so cringeworthy. The three of them, sitting in the middle of candles and rose petals shaped into a heart and some honey mustard sauce. For some reason, Kevin agrees to bring the tray of nuggets inside while Cam and Hannah enjoy their driveway picnic — but he’s pretty salty about it. “What he was doing was control freakish and weird,” he huffs. Once his rival is back inside, Kevin lets him know exactly what he thinks about his fast food-themed tomfoolery and flips the nuggets in Cam's face.
And then things get even weirder. What in the holy hell is going on in the next room? It looks like Luke P has asked production to set up some kind of makeshift massage table in the little green sitting room. “You’ll learn, I’m really good with my hands,” he tells Hannah. (at that point I threw up in my mouth a little). The "massage" turns into a full-fledged make-out session and at some point the zipper of Hannah's dress is down.
“He’s so hot,” purrs Hannah. “It’s like, can we just skip the main course and go to the dessert?” Poor Jed walks into this hormonal hot mess just as Hannah’s about to rub oil on a shirtless Luke P. I totally saw this happening. If you remember my recap of the first episode, I said we'd be seeing more of Luke P shirtless.
“It’s not what it looks like, I promise,” chuckles Luke. Jed mutters something about how the awkward encounter is “not super appealing” and shuffles off, embarrassed. The Bachelorette is completely mortified. “F—, f—, f—, f—, f—, f—, f— me,” as she drops a series of F-bombs. “I don’t know what to do.”
Hannah eventually works up the courage to talk to Jed, and he handles himself like a gentleman. He graciously brushes the whole thing off and puts her at ease. “There’s a lot of dudes in here that are after you,” he says. “Isn’t that weird?” Honestly. I think he's too good for Hannah Bananas.
And then we get right to the rose ceremony. Joining Jed, Tyler G and Dustin in the Circle of Safety this week are Tyler C, Garrett, Devin, Connor S, Luke P, Dylan, Luke S, Mike, Peter, Kevin, Jonathan, Joey, Matteo, John Paul Jones, Grant, and Cam (What. The. Hell????). A couple of guys who's names I don't know are voted off the island.
The evening ends with two final douche moves. First, Cam makes a toast to “Hannah Ayala.” (“That’s my last name,” he explains to the confused Bachelorette.) And once the guys disperse, Luke P sneaks off and crashes the Bachelorette’s confessional or whatever you want to call it.
“I’m coming to talk to you,” he announces. Just listen to listen to this load of crap he lays on Hannah while she's sitting on his lap: “I felt like everything in time stopped when I was looking in your eyes for the first time.” Girl. If someone has to say things like, “everything I’m telling you is 100% real” and “you can trust me,” run. Run far and run fast. IDK if she's buying what Luke’s selling but she's definitely into "dessert."
