This season of “The Bachelor” has flown by, and the speed makes it feel like Grant Ellis has made little to no connection with any of the women. This week, only seven women traveled to Scotland with Ellis, and next week’s episode is hometowns.
It is hard to even remember some of the women from this season because it feels like they were present one minute and gone the next. Additionally, some of Ellis’ choices, especially after this week’s Rose Ceremony, are questionable at best.
This week’s episode started with Juliana Pasquarosa getting the first one-on-one. She and Ellis flew to a castle in a helicopter, tried on traditional Scottish outfits and participated in a ballroom dance.
At the dinner portion of the date, Pasquarosa opened up to Ellis about her experience as a child with a family member struggling with addiction. It was an emotional conversation, as Ellis could empathize with her experience.
Pasquarosa is an extremely well-spoken woman who appears very emotionally intelligent. Oftentimes in reality shows, some of the contestants seem like they are exaggerating their personalities to get more screen time or more fans, but Pasquarosa is not one of these contestants.
Another prime example of Pasquarosa being more herself than other contestants in seasons past is how she greeted Ellis at the beginning of her date — it seems to be a trend in “The Bachelor” franchise for the women to run and jump into the man’s arms in a dramatic embrace.
The show has overdone this greeting to an extreme extent — it does not seem plausible that every woman on the show would wake up and choose to jump into a man’s arms every time she sees him. Pasquarosa simply walking to him and hugging him was a lot more natural, making it seem like their connection is also more natural than others.
The group date this week included Alexe Godin, Carolina Quixano, Dina Lupancu, Sarafiena Watkins and Zoe McGrady. The five women and Ellis attended a Highland Fair, during which they were immersed in Scottish culture in a fun-filled setting. What should have been a calm and eventless group date turned into drama with Quixano — of course.
Quixano’s first strike during the date was a woman participating in the Highland Fair asking what her name was, and Quixano responded with, “Why don’t you guess?” Such a rude remark to someone actively working with “The Bachelor” to create a fun environment for the women was a very quick way for Quixano to show her true colors. Even though the woman was a fortune teller and Quixano may have been telling a joke, her delivery was still a little too snarky.
During one portion of the group date, all the women were playing a game with Ellis, except Quixano, who was sitting alone and most likely looking miserable on purpose. Ellis went over to check on her, which resulted in a long private conversation that left the other four women with barely any time to speak to Ellis.
The drama came to a head during the night portion of the group date, with Lupancu surprisingly calling out Quixano first. In last week’s episode, Lupancu was the only woman who defended Quixano, so it surprised many fans to see her switch up this week.
The term “damsel in distress” was used extensively to describe Quixano during the group date, and all four other women shared the same sentiment that Quixano took time with Ellis away from them purposefully. This argument seemingly lasted the entire night, ended with no real resolution and Ellis questioned Quixano after Lupancu shared her grievances with him.
The second one-on-one of the week was with Litia Garr, making it her second one-on-one with Ellis. The pair explored the streets of Scotland and talked with some of the locals, a classic see how the locals live date that the franchise loves.
The day portion of their date was uneventful, but the same cannot be said for the night portion. As they were discussing hometown dates, Ellis asked how she felt her hometown would go if she got one. Garr expressed a little anxiety about it, saying she comes from a very conservative place.
Then Garr shared a piece of information that absolutely nobody, including Ellis, expected. She told Ellis she grew up in a devoutly Mormon family and that she has never dated outside the Mormon religion.
This feels like something that should have been shared far earlier in their connection instead of springing it on Ellis right before hometowns, especially with Garr having never dated outside her religion.
Garr also told Grant she felt strongly about raising children in a religious household, saying she always wanted her children to know they were loved by God. Ellis agreed, expressing his faith has always been an important part of his life.
Ellis opened up to Garr more about his childhood, telling her how he often ate dinner alone in his room. He became quite emotional, and though Garr was comforting him, it seemed a bit odd that she kept repeating the phrase, “You’re perfect.”
It was a sweet thing to say, but not very applicable in the context. Ellis was crying over his relationship with his father and his desire to raise a child in a healthy household — this doesn’t seem like a scenario in which someone needs to hear he’s perfect.
There were no roses given out during any of the dates, so four were handed out at the Rose Ceremony. With no cocktail party, the women went straight into the lineup to find out who was making it to hometowns.
Before Ellis could come out, however, Quixano pulled Lupancu upstairs, apologizing for how things went down between them, saying she wanted to clear the air before they potentially never saw one another again. They shared a hug and an “I love you,” which is odd considering they were at each other’s throats mere days before, and then went back to join the rest of the women.
If there is one thing “The Bachelor” fans know for a fact, it’s that the franchise loves to keep the drama as long as possible. Because of this, many viewers were confident Quixano would make it to hometowns.
Ellis gave his first two roses to Garr and Pasquarosa, which were both no-brainers. His next rose went to Lupancu, and his final rose to McGrady.
Maybe it’s because of how short the season has felt, but Ellis’ only two connections that feel genuine and serious are Garr and Pasquarosa, so the last two roses given out in this week’s episode would have been surprising regardless of the recipient.
However, because McGrady was the only contestant to not get a one-on-one during the season, it did not seem particularly likely she would make it to hometowns. Many viewers were shocked that Godin went home, as she and Ellis hit it off from night one.
The preview for hometowns set it up to be a dramatic episode, with it looking like Pasquarosa’s dad will be the classic overprotecting Papa Bear of the season. Ironically enough, many fans are saying Pasquarosa looks a lot like former Bachelorette Rachel Recchia, who also had a very protective and foreboding father.
The preview also showed the clip of Ellis before the proposal that viewers have seen before — his internal conflict regarding who he will choose between the two women. It’s hard to believe his fiance would stay with him after seeing that clip air, but only time will tell.
