Bachelorette Blog: Calling It Like It Is (Week 2)

Happy Tuesday that feels like a Monday everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day holiday, capped off with Bachelorette goodness. This week was the first week of dates for JoJo. She had two group dates and just one one-on-one. There's a lot to cover, and I've got quite a few notes on Chad (who was the "star" of the week), so let's get down to it.

Group Date - "Let's Heat Things Up" 

Luke, Grant, Will, Evan, Daniel, Vinny, Ali, James F., Wells and Robby

For the first group date, the guys come out of the mansion to see a limo on fire. Then a fire truck pulls up and JoJo hops out in fireman gear to put it out. Which was pretty cool actually. She takes them all to a fire academy where they compete to win some extra time with her. The full 10 guys compete by doing some basic fire school physical training in full gear and then the top 3 get to compete in a race to "save" JoJo from a would be burning building (since this is just a game the building was not really on fire). So Grant is actually a fire fighter in real life, so starting out he's got a good shot at winning!

During the competition, poor little Wells is not looking so great. He's a thin guy and looks like the heat and all that gear is going to make him pass out. You can tell that the instructor is worried about him (and fire fighters are all about safety so they took this pretty seriously). They gave him some water and called over a medic to make sure he was okay. At first all the guys felt kind of bad for him but then JoJo paid him a little more attention and they were over it.

Grant, Wells and Luke were deemed the top 3 (although I think Wells was included for pity sake) and Luke actually gave Grant a run for his money but in the end Grant pulled out a win. Whew. That would have been super embarrassing for him if he hadn't won. All the guys who didn't win were sad, whiny, bitches. Boo hoo.

As the winner, on the evening portion of the date Grant got to have uninterrupted time with JoJo. But the interactions that stood out were with Wells and Luke. Wells is super cute and really funny. He made light of the fact that he kind of benefited out of being so bad at the challenge but it was really endearing. With Luke you could tell right away that JoJo is in to him. Immediately her body language changed. She was holding his hand and stroking his hair. She wanted to know about his past relationships and took him out to the balcony to make out. So that went well for Luke. In the end though, Wells got the date rose.

Meanwhile back at the mansion...

Okay these guy are bro-ing out more than I expected. Last week I got the sense that this group of guys is the jealous type and I wasn't sure they would bond the way other seasons of guys have. This was just absurd though. The country singer (I think that's James T.) lead the group in "writing" a song that basically only consisted of the name JoJo. It was the worst and they wouldn't shut up. It almost makes me side with Chad but not quite. I'll get to Chad in a little bit.

One-On-One - "Love is Full of Choices"

Derek

Derek (originally from Iowa but living in Florida - have to shout out to my Iowa), got the first one-on-one of the season. This was a kind of choose your own adventure date. The date destination was based on a series of choices that Derek and JoJo had to make together. First, they had to choose Sky or Sea (they chose Sky), North or South (they chose North), which took them to San Francisco where they had to decide Golden Gate or Lombard Street. They chose Golden Gate and had a nice picnic overlooking the bridge. Kind of a fun concept for a date.

Derek is really sweet but has had his heart broken in the past and has closed himself off. JoJo related to this and helped him open up about the fact that in his last relationship he thought he was ready to get married and then he found out that his girlfriend was cheating on him. JoJo was happy that he could open up to her and rewarded him with the rose.

Honestly, I didn't see a huge connection here yet but he's really nice and it seems like they could have something down the road.

Group Date - "Prove Your Love to Me & The Nation"

Jordan, Christian, Nick, James T., Alex and Chad

For the second group date, JoJo brought the men to ESPN to compete in a game called Bachelor Nation with the Sports Nation hosts. They performed some silly challenges, one of which was proposing to JoJo. Most of the guys played along and had fun with it but Chad decided they were all being fake because none of them could possibly be in love with her yet. When told that it was just supposed to be a fun game, he said "oh so you think this is all a game?" He's a little over the top. When it came time to propose, he simply asked "Will you marry me?" and JoJo was like "That's it? Aren't you supposed to tell me what you love about me?" And he told her she was being a little naggy. That didn't go over well.

In the end, the top 3 in the power ranking were 1. James 2. Chad (they thought he was being genuine) and 3. Alex. 

During the evening portion of the date, the most notable interactions were between JoJo and James (he read her a letter he had written to her and made her cry), and Chad. It turns out Chad's last relationship was 4 years ago and he hasn't really dated anyone seriously since because he's been working. It's clear that providing and being financially stable is something that is important to Chad. He feels like being secure financially is something he needs in order to be ready to get married. I kind of get this, it's a total guy thing. My husband had a similar issue when we were dating, basically he wanted to know that he had his shit together so he could support us. We also learned that Chad's mom recently passed away from illness and that he inherited a puppy from her that he loves. This interaction went surprisingly well. However, when Chad didn't get the date rose (James got it), he was upset and said "I don't know what more I could have done to get the rose" so that made me question his sincerity on most of what he said to JoJo.

Okay, so here are some more notes on Chad before we get in to the cocktail party.

He is definitely not making many friends in the house. Right off the bat he gives a toast that basically says eff you all I'm going to get the girl. His behavior is super weird, including his love affair with his protein shakes and attaching his suit case to a weight belt and doing pull ups on the patio. He did however befriend Daniel (ugg) and they agreed that women should "stay away from nice guys" because they are just being fake. He thinks he's just calling it like it is and being honest but there's a difference between being honest and being a jack ass. I will say that he does have some valid points. He's there to see if he has a connection with JoJo and he's just going to be himself. which he should. And the guys are being a little sensitive and should not spend their time worrying about him. That being said, he's an odd duck and I think he's generally a douche. For JoJo's part, she's as mystified by him as everyone else, but she finds it intriguing and wants to figure him out. Alex on the other hand really, really hates Chad. To the point that he's probably going to shoot himself in the foot by focusing too much on him.

Cocktail Party & Rose Ceremony

Right as JoJo is walking in, Chad is outside "getting some air" and has a brief conversation with her. They really don't talk about anything but then they walk in together and it immediately changes the mood of all the other guys. In particular Alex is pissed. Chase is the first to grab her because he didn't get a date with her this week and they have a cute little mini date by the fire place where he makes it snow.

Meanwhile Chad is eating like crazy which brings me to the WTF moment of the week. Why were they so obsessed with how much Chad was eating? Who cares if he is hungry. It was bizarre how much time they spent on this. I will say it was pretty weird that he brought cheese to the rose ceremony.

Aside from the excessive eating, Chad gained creeper status by interrupting JoJo's time with other guys THREE TIMES! Pretty much every time she turned around, there was Chad wanting time with her. But it wasn't even like he was making the most of his time by asking her questions or trying to make out or something. He just made idle chit chat and it was super weird. Even JoJo thought it was weird but like I said she's trying to figure him out. She already knows that the guys don't like him, and she can see that he's not very comfortable hanging out with all the guys in the house but she's still interested.

Alex totally called Chad out on being a creeper and told him JoJo was probably starting to get annoyed, and then Chad lost his shit on the mini marine and we got to see the more volatile side of Chad.

In the end, JoJo decided to keep Chad around and I'm not all that surprised. But we'll see a double dose of his crazy next week with two episodes. It looks like Chad is going to remain the focus for a little bit and that things will come to head next week, including some physical violence! He's going to pick a fight with Evan which isn't even fair! He should just leave that tiny, nerdy, penis doctor alone!

So far, it seems like there has been an awful lot of man drama and not enough connecting with JoJo. So it's still hard to say who will stick around long term. Here are the guys I like so far, but again it's really hard to tell.

Wells, Luke, Jordan - yeah, I don't even know right now. This is a weird season. 

Leaving us this week: 

Brandon, Will and James S. who was the "Bachelor Superfan" and had the best commentary, he will be missed.

Looking forward to TWO episodes and lots of drama in the week to come! Until next week everyone!