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This 3 hour live episode was bananas! We had fights, heartbreak, love, and the announcement of the new Bachelor. Let's start in the order of the episode, heartbreak.
They started the episode with showing us Rachel and Tino's engagement. To be honest, I am not sure what either Rachel or Tino said during the engagement because all you could focus on was Rachel's face in the small screen watching the scene. She looked disgusted and so mad watching the proposal. So something happened! It turns out that it was not a smooth ride for Rachel and Tino after filming. They both struggled with it, but they didn't get into what exactly was the struggle was. Then Rachel shares that Tino cheated on her while the episodes were airing. As a viewer, we got to watch the first time they saw each other since Tino told Rachel the news. And as a viewer, it was a lot to watch. Rachel didn't deserve that and have to deal with all of this drama, especially with the other stuff she had going on. But for Rachel, she did get sort of a happy ending...
Aven showed up to see if Rachel wanted to catch up. They left together so will see what ends up happening between those two. Next up was love!
Gabby comes back to the couch to watch her ending. Erich decides that he is ready to propose to Gabby and asks her to marry him. They seem to be very smitten about the relationship and they seem to be strong. Gabby is having herself a nice little week! Had her first performance on Dancing With the Stars and got to announce her engagement to the public!
The last part of the episode, who is the new Bachelor! After speculation, they decided to go with someone from Rachel and Gabby's season. Zach Shallcross from Rachel's group is going to be the next Bachelor! I think he will be a good Bachelor. They were comparing him to Sean Lowe, who was in the audience, and Sean was a very good Bachelor. So should be interesting to see how his season goes.
Because they had time, Zach got to meet a few of his ladies, similar to what they did with Hannah Brown. Zach met Brooklyn, Brianna, Bailey, Cat, and Christina Mandrell. And America got to give out a first impression rose. Brianna won America's first impression rose. Not sure what exactly that means, but seems like she gets to sit pretty on night one.
After Episode Thoughts
I think there is a reason why they chose only one Bachelor for next season. The two Bachelorette season made sense to change it up, but it just felt like a bad season. Reason one for why the season felt not great: we didn't know any of the men. Since they had to show us double of the people, it felt like we didn't get to see the relationships form like they normally do. Like hometowns felt like it got to us quickly, and it seem like the relationships weren't as strong as they should have been going into them. But at the same time, it seem like Tino and Erich were the frontrunners, so them proposing at the end were not shockers.
Reason two for why the season felt not great: I don't feel like I care too much to follow their lives after the season. For example with Peter's season, they did a great job keeping me interested to see what the heck was going on with him, Hannah Ann, Madi Prewitt, and Kelly. I don't really feel like I need to know what is going on with Johnny, Aven, Tino, or Jason. Occasionally might see how Gabby and Erich are doing and if Rachel is doing well, but for whatever reason don't feel the need to follow what they are up to. It personally has felt like that for the past seasons. Not sure why but Peter's season was the last season I felt interested to know what these people have been up to.
With all of that being said, we got a new season of Bachelor in Paradise starting next week, and that should get everyone back into the franchise!
Thanks for reading.