Bachelor Blog: I Love You Times Two (Week 9)

We began last night's episode with Ben recapping his feelings after the hometown dates. At this point (before any of the overnight dates) he thinks Caila is great but can she open up and really fall in love? Ben says Lauren is the closest he's come to love at first sight and that he has a school boy crush on her, but he wonders if she's too good for him. With JoJo, he says he is most like himself  and the most comfortable with her but after the way things were left with her brothers he's not feeling very confident that they would have her family's support. So with that, The Bachelor heads to Jamaica for some romantic and important one-on-one and over night dates.

Caila

Up first is Caila, who Ben says he has the deepest relationship with at this point. They meet near the river and take a romantic raft ride down stream. Unfortunately, Caila is all up in her head and the raft ride is weirdly quiet. Ben keeps trying to pull Caila in to conversation and sleuth out what's going on with her because she's just not herself. Caila recognizes that she's  blowing it but she's feeling really weird about the other girls. Up to this point she has focused as much as she can just on their relationship, but it's down to the wire and she's starting to consider his other relationships and it's throwing her off her game. This really frustrates Ben because he understands that it's hard but he wants her to be able to communicate with him.

Finally, after a weird day of chit chat, Ben and Caila have dinner and she gets out of her head long enough to explain to Ben why she is having a hard time and to tell him that she is in love with him. She tells him that in every relationship she has been in, something didn't feel right. This feels right with him and she is ready to be his wife.

Then came the super cheese again. While they're getting ready for their overnight, there are literally fireworks shooting off outside their window... innuendo much?

The next morning, they are super cute and she says that she feels that he loves her even though he can't say it. Uh-oh. So now we know that Caila is not one of the two girls he says "I love you" to tonight (as teased in the previews) which does not bode well for her chances at the end of this.

Turtle time with Lauren

Lauren

Going into Lauren's date, Ben need to reset because he just came off a really great date with Caila. He recognizes that he can't compare the relationships now and that he needs to just focus on Lauren. There will be time to sort his feeling out after the dates this week. And then I got super distracted because OMG SEA TURTLE BABIES!!! Ben and Lauren's date was to help release baby sea turtles to the sea and it was super cute. They went a little overboard with the metaphor here but whatever, they're in love and everything is sunshine and rainbows right now.

Ben talks to Lauren about his conversation with her sister last week and about how he cried because he thought about how great she was and that she's way too good for him. She responded by saying that she feels the exact same way about him, and that maybe it's good that they both feel the other is too good for them because it means they really value each other.

In the evening they go dancing and have a fun Jamaican date before the typical dinner and introduction of fantasy suite key. Lauren had told Ben that she was in love with him and that it wasn't a new thing, she had been in love with him for a while. And then at dinner it happened. Ben told Lauren that he's known he is in love with her for a while now too. She was surprised that he could say that but super, super happy. Then they made out and the camera fades away.

In the morning there is a really awkward shot of their clothes all over the room. More innuendo on the producers part, I think they really want to imply that Ben got busy with all the girls. He's telling her he loves her right and left and then he has to head out for another date.

What's funny is how they make it look like he wakes up with one girl, leaves, showers, and by afternoon is with another girl. I'm sure there is more time padded in here but it's a TV show and things have to move quickly!

JoJo

Ben takes JoJo to these amazing waterfalls and their date (in JoJo's mind) is all about "taking risks". The first risk is jumping off a small cliff into the rushing water. The second is to tell Ben she loves him. So yeah, all the girls started this week nervous to tell Ben that they love him and not knowing if they would get any reciprocation because they don't know where he is in his other relationships. JoJo explained to Ben that it's been hard for her to say "I love you" but that is how she feels, and he immediately said "JoJo, I love you too." The look on JoJo's face was priceless. She was so confused and asked him "Are you aloud to say that?" But then she was ecstatic.

Sidebar: So now Ben is also confused. He couldn't contain himself from telling both Lauren and JoJo that he's in love with each of them. He doesn't know what he's going to do, because he loves them both. But one thing is for sure Caila is going to get her heart broken at the end of this episode.

Okay back to JoJo. I'm feeling a little nervous for her. If she's not the one in the end, hopefully this doesn't break her. She was so guarded before and I think she really needed to hear from Ben that he loves her too in order to completely open up. But I also think it will be a much harder fall for her if he doesn't choose her in the end. Maybe it's worth it to fully open up and put yourself out there because if he does choose her it will be great, and without opening up he might never get to that point with her. But I'm just worried for her. I don't want to see her spiral backward and close herself off from finding love again.

Anyway, on the date they also addressed Ben's conversation with her brothers and she helped him feel better about it. She's confident that if she is the only girl in the picture, her family will support them 100%. There were a lot of "I love you's" coming out of Ben's mouth on this date too. Ben's a little bit of an "I love you" slut tonight.

And oh god, at this point there was still 40 MINUTES left in the episode! So uncomfortable.

Back to Caila

After several days of not seeing Ben, Caila wants to make sure that he's still thinking about their great date so she decided to go over and surprise him. Oh no.

Ben is reflecting and thinking about how hard it is going to be to let Caila go at the rose ceremony, and then she blindsides him and shows up at his place. She's all excited and cute and in love and then immediately knows something is wrong from his confused and less than excited reaction to her. He decides that the right thing to do is to just let her go then and there but it's still not easy for him.

Her initial reaction is a little bit of shock, and obvious hurt. She tells him that she really did love him and that she guesses she should just go. He walks her to the car and it's about to drive away when she stops the driver and jumps out. She wants some answers. In particular, did he know during their date that he was going to let her go? Because, hello? They spent the night together. It was actually really good that she did that, imagine if she hadn't let him answer her questions and had just left? She would have had to wait months (and watch everything unfold on TV) before getting a chance to get some closure. Hopefully this will help her move on sooner (and be ready to become the next Bachelorette... just saying...). They left things pretty amicably, but obviously she was devastated.

Rose Ceremony 

So after that, you would think the uncomfortableness would be over. But no. Because now we've got two girls who basically think in a week and a half they are getting engaged to Ben and that they have nothing to worry about. I'm sure both (before the rose ceremony) were thinking, he can't have possibly told anyone else he loves her, he loves me, I'm the one, etc.

JoJo arrives first and fills Chris Harrison in on the week. Then Lauren shows up and Chris must have felt like he was having deja vu, because she told him essentially the same story.... then both girls waited outside. They must have been waiting a while for Caila to show up because all of a sudden (it seemed) JoJo just starts talking to Lauren about how weird it is that there are only 2 roses, and where the hell is Caila? and arre you more nervous or less nervous with only 2 roses? And Lauren doesn't want to seem over confident but she knows that she'll get a rose and it was just really, really weird.

Finally, Ben shows up and tells them that Caila is already gone, he hands out the roses and then they all have a really awkward hug. Here is where both girls are feeling really comfortable with him but not with each other. You can see the cogs in their brains working to figure out why the other girl might be so confident. Lauren says that she doesn't think it's impossible to be in love with two people, so she's nervous that Ben is also in love with JoJo (as she should be).

Okay, I'm not 100% sure yet but my gut tells me that Ben is going to pick Lauren and JoJo is going to be really devastated. But then my mind says, wait? He says all these things about being the most comfortable with JoJo....Who knows, it really could go either way! And I love both girls, so regardless of who he chooses, he's getting someone good!

Next week is the Women Tell All, then in 2 weeks the ladies will meet Ben's family and he will get down on one knee to propose to one of the two women he is in love with! I'm queasy with anticipation!

Until next week everyone, only 2 more blogs in this round of Bachelor season!

Who will it be???

JoJo

Lauren