Here's What I Think: Bachelor Sean Week 7 - Hometown Dates

It was hometown night on The Bachelor last night and let me just say I'm pretty annoyed that AshLee is still hanging on. Although I'm not surprised that he thought things were over with Des I'm not sure I can stand one more week of AshLee analyzing every moment of their time together. Here we go:

AshLee "adores" Sean.

AshLee: One thing that bodes well for AshLee is that she lives in Texas and so does Sean, doing the long distance thing for a little bit would be a lot easier when you can just hop in the car and drive a couple hours. AshLee brought Sean on a little picnic before taking him to her family home to meet her parents, who are really lovely people. It's no wonder she's such a nice girl with strong values coming from a home like that. Also, I feel like we hadn't heard as much detail about her childhood until this week, maybe we did and I just missed it but having been in 5 foster homes in 1 year does make her abandonment issues more understandable. I've said it before, AshLee is great but I just don't see her with Sean. And it seemed pretty clear on their date that Sean was shocked (and uncomfortable) hearing how strong AshLee's feeling are for him. When she was telling her parents about the Polar Plunge, I don't think he had any idea the depth of the symbolism that it held for her. (She finds symbolism is every interaction with him, bleh) You could see it on his face that it was hard for him to hear that story. It also seemed from his conversation with her parents that he's not going to propose to AshLee. I could be reading him totally wrong but the interactions with the other girls parents were much more pointed and I don't think he is in love with AshLee. Which is why I didn't think she would get a rose this week, until I saw the interaction between Sean and Des' family. What surprised me at the rose ceremony was that Sean was torn between Catherine and Des and that AshLee was a given for him. Makes me wonder.

Catherine and Sean smooch it up in Seattle.

Catherine: The beginning of this date when it was just the two of them was super cute. They have a great time together and you can totally see why they click. Catherine was pretty impressive with her one handed fish catch too. It was nice to see her talking about her family and giving him pointers on how to fit in. Her family on the other hand was a bit of a surprise, they were much more skeptical than I think Catherine thought they would be and for once not because they didn't trust the Bachelor. It seemed like they were more skeptical of Catherine and of her actually being able to settle down with Sean at the end of this. You don't normally see that dynamic on a hometown date, usually the family is worried about their daughter/sister getting hurt in the end, Catherine's family acted like she might not choose to be with him in the end which made me sad. Catherine seems to like Sean a lot and has a pretty realistic view on how things could turn out and I like that. I do think that it was good for her family to let Sean know about Catherine's ambition because it's something he'll need to understand if they end up together, but I don't think it's fair of them to assume things wont work out.
I know that this hometown date wasn't the smoothest, but I do think that Sean has really strong feelings for Catherine which is why I was so surprised that he was struggling to choose between her and Des. However, I think he knew he would be sending Des home and the struggle really came from not wanting to hurt her (more on that in Des' section).

Lindsay  putting Sean through basic training to meet her family

Lindsay: My favorite. I love Lindsay and Sean together and I want him to pick her. She knows what she wants and it aligns with his goals. Of all the hometown dates, I think this one went the best because I feel like Lindsay is probably in his top two so he was more genuine in wanting to ask her parents blessing and it went well because her family was very receptive to the situation and his relationship with Lindsay. It was really cute that he was so nervous to meet Lindsay's dad, who is a two star general. I like that they're so lovey in front of her family and it was clear that they were a couple which isn't always the case. They held hands and sat close, all of that body language says a lot and her family could tell that this was something real, I think that made it easier for them to give their blessing and also because they completely trust Lindsay and her judgement. They have a really strong family and it reminds me of the kind of relationship we saw that Sean has with his family when he went on his hometown date with Emily last time around. I just really like these two. No surprise he wants to keep Lindsay around another week!

Making dinner for Des' family.

Des: I think Des really overestimated her connection with Sean. They did have great one-on-one time before the family portion of the date, but even then it didn't seem as strong as Lindsay or Catherine's. It didn't seem as natural, most of their conversations on camera seem awkward lately, but I think on paper Sean thinks Des is an awesome match for him so he wanted to make it work. However, I really think he couldn't get past his interaction with her family. I thought it was kind of funny that they hardly showed his conversations with her parents, because those seemed to go well. The show wanted to focus mostly on the train wreck that was his confrontation with her brother. I don't think there has ever been a more skeptical or confrontational family member on a home town date before. I think he just wanted to protect his sister because he could tell that she was in love with Sean and he didn't think Sean loved her back, but he totally went about it in the wrong way. It wasn't the best way to leave a date which is why Des felt the need to pull Sean aside before the rose ceremony to apologize. I don't think Sean would have been as torn if she hadn't done that. He said himself that he assumed he would be sending Des home but after she pulled him aside he felt bad about it because he knew he was going to hurt her. And she was hurt, I think going in to hometowns Des thought she was going to win the whole thing and I think she blames her brother for turning Sean against her. I'm not saying that her brother didn't probably contribute to the decision - as Sean said, if he ended up with Des there would always be tension between him and her brother - but I don't think that was the only reason or she would still be there.

Des' crazy brother.

Oh yeah and we have a mystery solved! The "ex-boyfriend" who comes to win Des over was an actor that Des brought in to play a joke on Sean. Kind of saw that coming, the acting wasn't that great. But kind of funny that she was able to get him back for the prank he played on her on their first date.

And that's that! I'm looking forward to hearing what Sean has to say tonight in his interview with Chris, sounds like Des' brother sealed her fate and that Sean is pretty pissed about how things went down with Tierra so this should be an interesting night!