If you didn't watch ABC's The Bachelor on Monday, January 18th, here's what you missed.
We are still in Los Angeles. The scene opens with some of the girls talking about the mean girl, Olivia, and how she said she spent $40,000 on clothes. Everyone is also waiting for the first date card.
Chris comes out and mentions the heaviness in the room. He announces there will be three dates- 2 one on one dates, and one group date.
The first date goes to... Lauren B. "The sky's the limit." She's a flight attendant, and ironically, for their date, they get to fly in a bi-plane.
"I have a good view on my left, and a good view on my right," as he gives her a kiss.
They fly over the Bachelor mansion, stirring up jealousy in all of the other girls.
"Not super into situations I've never been in before," says Lauren, as they fly out to a deserted place, but she says she is trying to trust Ben. When they land in the middle of nowhere land, they find a hot tub, and of course, we have to zoom in on the "Jacuzzi" brand name. Thanks sponsors! A little kissing in the hot tub, and then the obligatory romantic dinner.
Back at the mansion:
The group date card reads,"Love is the goal. Ben."
This group date will consist of Amanda, Haley, Jennifer, Shushanna, Leah, Amber, Lauren H., Olivia, Jami, Rachel, Lace and Emily. After the reactions by the girls who were picked, and of course, those who were not, we have to go back to check in on Lauren and Ben.
After Lauren explains to Ben that she is extremely picky about her guys and that her dad is the reason she is so picky, she gets a rose, and a surprise, private concert in a barn by Lucy Angel.
Now we're taken to the group date at Los Angeles' Memorial Coliseum. Ben wants to see how the women work as a team. Alex Morgan and Kelly O'Hara, who are US National Team champions, teach the girls how to play soccer. Most of the girls don't have any soccer skills.
Back at the mansion. Jubilee is concerned that Ben won't pay attention to her because she's not one of the "good" girls or the "happy" girls.
At the stadium, Chris Harrison announces that the girls will be split up into teams. Good news? After party. Bad news? Losing team goes back to the mansion to "ice sore muscles, and bruised egos. The Stars(in blue) are competing against the red and white Stripes. Go, America. Lace doesn't know that the goalie can use their hands to pick up the ball, so the Stars get the first score of the game. The Stripes get back on it, though,and get ahead. The game is tied 3-3 as the clock runs out, and despite the Stars valiant effort, and an injured Rachel, the Stripes kick it in for the win.
Olivia sweeps Ben away to be the first to get alone time. Everyone dislikes Olivia, and they waste no time talking smack about her fat toes, fake boobs and bad breath. When Olivia comes back from her time with Ben, though, Jami fills her in on what the girls have been talking about. Although, Olivia has to guess what it is that they said. Was it her cankles? She feels pretty insecure about those. When Jami tells her it was her toes, Olivia states, "Perfection is so lame."
Meanwhile, back at the mansion, the next date card comes. "Love is in the air." In spite of Jubilee's doubts, she ends up being the one to get the one on one date. She lives up to her name, as she is overjoyed when she hears her name.
The group date rose goes to Amber "who took the time to get to know me better." Olivia is sad that she doesn't get the rose, but understands that he couldn't give one to her again. Things are okay, though, because she saw the sign that it's meant to be when Ben uses her thigh to push himself up when he got up from the couch.
Jubilee is still in shock as she get ready for her date. She doesn't think she is Ben's type. She fears she will be socially awkward on the date. She's "deathly afraid of heights" as the helicopter comes to pick them up. All of the other girls seem to think she's not appreciative of her date. They are super offended when she jokes,"Does anyone else want to go on my date?"
"The ride was really scary at first, but Ben's hand on my leg kind of helped." They land at Cal-a-Vie health spa. They feed each other caviar, but Jubilee ends up spitting hers out. She's more of a hot dog kind of girl.
She relaxes a little more when he laughs at her "white boy" comment. Ben tells her that she has opened up to him more than anyone else. She opens up to Ben about why she hasn't gone back to Haiti- the reason being that her whole family died except for her, and that has left her a lot of guilt. Ben pries, "What kind of guilt?"
"I'm just the only surviving person that I know of with my bloodline."
Of course, Ben can't leave her without a rose after that. He loves her different layers, and "can see myself falling in love with Jubilee."
The girls are all surprised the next day to find Jubilee still around. Ben comes in and announces that he has lost a couple of family friends in a plane crash. He is looking for someone to sit with and talk to.
Olivia uses this opportunity to pull him aside and talk... about her insecurities about her cankles! To say Ben was a little frustrated with the conversation is an understatement.
Jubilee, at least, tries to help him out by giving him a massage on the massage table. Of course, this infuriates the other girls.
Lace tells Ben that she is ashamed of how she has acted and realized that it's better for her to go home. She says that she needs to work on improving herself. She sends herself home before the final rose ceremony.
Lauren H., Amanda, Becca, Haley, Emily, Rachel, Caila, Jojo, Jennifer, Leah, and last of all... Olivia. Apparently, Olivia's cankles and her obsession with them over Ben's feelings didn't have that big of an effect on him.
Jami leaves the mansion with this gem,"Don't ever expect anything from humans. I'm going to start adopting cats now."
Olivia is so confident in what they have, though, because he "squeezed her waist a little bit" when he hugged her.
That's it for this recap of The Bachelor. Next week's show promises to be drama-filled. Aren't they all? With Lace gone, I suspect Olivia will be the new focus of drama in episodes to come. There is an aftershow that they hold every night after the Bachelor in the month of January. This night, they brought Lace on, and she talked about how the craziest thing she did on the show was drinking too much. She was invited to be on The Bachelor in Paradise, but she really wanted to focus on improving herself, so she didn't give a definitive answer. No one failed to miss the "signs" that Olivia sees Ben giving her, either.
If you want to know every outcome of every episode before they air, Reality Steve has been pretty on target so far. Some minor mistakes that he updates his spoilers with, but he has the uncanny ability to know what is going to happen in each episode. I won't spoil the season here, but you can go check out his site if you are into knowing that.
If you miss tonight's episode or the previous one, you can go to ABC.com to watch them.
Leave your thoughts and comments about this episode below!
