This season of “The Bachelor” with a pilot leading man promised turbulence. Here it is.
Chris Harrison kicks off Monday’s episode by informing the women there won’t be a date that day because Peter Weber isn’t in Los Angeles. Translation: They’re leaving the mansion! What beautiful, exciting, exotic destination could the contestants be jetting off to for a romantic getaway with their collective boyfriend?
… Cleveland, it turns out. And while contestants in this franchise usually do a good job of feigning excitement even if they’re not thrilled to be heading somewhere, Peter’s women make no effort to mask their major disappointment.
“Is there, like, some hidden gem in Cleveland we’re not aware of?” Savannah wonders.
A roller coaster ride with Victoria F. (and her ex-boyfriend)
There may be no hidden gems, but Peter flying Victoria F. to Ohio’s Cedar Point amusement park turns out to be a day of hidden surprises.
Victoria F. freaks out when she learns they’re going on a ride that catapults them high into the air, but she’s all smiles afterward. Peter remarks his relationship with her is like a roller coaster. But if a good time at Cedar Point is their peak, a plummet to the bottom follows shortly after.
The couple head to a private concert. Nothing out of the ordinary – dates to go see country singers most viewers don’t know are a staple of the franchise.
Except, oh wait, the guy onstage is Victoria F.’s very recent ex-boyfriend, country singer Chase Rice. If Bachelor Nation fans have said it once, they’ve said it a thousand times: The devil works hard, but “Bachelor” producers work harder.
“I was literally shaking the entire time. He was singing to me and, like, making these faces at me because he told me he didn’t want me to come on the show,” Victoria F. tells a producer while the blissfully unaware Peter daydreams about having Rice sing at their wedding.
She spills the secret to Peter, claiming they broke up because “his lifestyle didn’t really match up to what I want. And I knew that I wanted to give this a try with you.”
Peter struggles to wrap his head around the situation – he’s clearly nervous about a potential Jed Wyatt from Hannah Brown’s season-type problem, but ultimately hands over the rose, securing Victoria F. – and her ex drama – another day.
Alayah crashes an already-crowded group date
Victoria P., Kiarra, Kelley, Deandra, Madison, Lexi, Shiann, Tammy, Sydney, Hannah Ann, Savannah and Mykenna head out to a football-themed group date, where the winning team gets to spend more time with Peter.
Victoria P. sits out because her back isn’t feeling right, which means she gets to stay on the sideline trading back rubs with Peter while the 11 other women on the date tackle each other on the field to win his affections.
Despite a strong performance from Shiann, the game ends in a tie, which means all 12 of the women head to the after-party. The pink team agrees unofficial MVP Shiann deserves to get time with Peter first. Sounds totally reasonable and not at all like a plan that could get foiled, right?
Victoria P. grabs Peter first, rubbing everyone the wrong way because she had all that alone time already. But eyes quickly shift from Victoria P., because Alayah, who was sent home last week, is back.
Alayah tells Peter she’s “here to frickin’ set the record straight” about the things everyone said about her. She claims Victoria P. is lying about how well the two women know each other from their pageant days.
Peter confronts Victoria P., trying to get to the bottom of whether or not they were actually friends before this. She breaks down and says she’s been “totally honest” with him.
“It’s very obvious to anybody that knows either of us that we knew each other before this,” Alayah tells her in front of Peter. “I literally left the mansion feeling like the one person I could have trusted more than anybody in that house had betrayed me.”
Peter calls the now 13 women together to reveal his unpopular truth: Not only will Alayah officially return to the group, she’s getting the group date rose.
Exploring Cleveland’s finest
There’s a short lull in the drama with Kelsey’s one-on-one. She takes the Alayah news better than the rest, assuring Peter if they end up together, she wants to make sure he knows he explored every relationship.
“In the end, I want to be like, ‘He chose me,'” she tells him. They’re able to move on to explore the city Peter calls “one of the best kept secrets,” walking around to snack on pierogi, go polka dancing and race soapbox cars.
Later that night, Kelsey tearfully recounts her experience with her parents’ divorce when she was in middle school.
“That just shows me how strong of a woman you are,” Peter reassures her before giving her the rose. “Never settle. I think it’s so beautiful that you want to cultivate that family and have that kind of life still, even (with) what you’ve had to go through. I want that just as bad.”
The women tell all
It turns out, leaving the show and coming back has its advantages: Alayah got her phone back briefly, which means she saw social media posts exposing Victoria F.’s ex-boyfriend situation. She spills to everyone else, pouring gasoline on the fire.
“I had no opinion about her, but tonight changes that,” Victoria F. tells the other contestants back at the hotel, using some choice words while dubbing Alayah “manipulative.”
Collective grievances about the show’s lead are usually reserved for the live episode at the end of the season, but Peter’s contestants have no reservations about telling him exactly what they think of his decision to bring back a major source of controversy.
“I’m sorry Peter, but I’ve never felt so under-recognized by somebody,” Deandra says in front of everyone. “For us who went on the group date, who busted our asses out there on the football field and literally have the physical bruises to show and then for you to come to the cocktail party and ignore half of us … and walk in hand-in-hand with Alayah, it was the biggest slap in the face. I couldn’t even look at you.”
Peter apologizes before tense talks with Victoria P. and Alayah. We end on a cliffhanger – who will leave Cleveland without a rose? That remains to be seen: Better keep your seat belts fastened.
Fans may have to wait a whole week to find out, but “The Bachelor” makes things up by promising a double-feature next week: Along with the regular Monday episode, fans get a special bonus Wednesday episode, too.
