The most recent “The Bachelor” episode airing this past Monday night was the infamous “hometowns episode,” where the lead of the series meets the families of the top four remaining candidates. This year’s season of The Bachelor has proven to have many more problems compared to previous years. It has been frustrating to watch Peter have the potential to make great decisions, but instead he completely derails and makes poor ones. As viewers, we are not able to see any introspection in him whatsoever, and we know little about him. Except for the fact that he’s a pilot! Did you know he’s a pilot? And likes to fly planes? This seems to be the only personality trait that Peter has, along with the fact that his parents have been together for over 25 years (he brings this up constantly). Oh, and he doesn’t know what he wants.
The conversations he has had with the multiple women over the course of the past eight weeks have been near empty. The biggest issue is that neither Peter nor the audience knows a single thing about these women. For instance, he only recently found out that Madison is religious and that Kelsey’s parents are divorced. Those are the types of conversations that take place during the dinner portion of the date or a cocktail party, and they’re usually just a roundabout of the asking the same thing again and again: a different variation of “what are you looking for?”. Peter is freaking out that the women he’s dating are young and directionless, yet he continues to send home the oldest and most mature women there (Kelley! You deserve better!).
In this hometown’s episode, Peter met Hannah Ann’s (23), Madison’s (23), and Kelsey’s (28) family within the first hour of the episode. Nothing was strangely out of routine, except Madison’s father grilled Peter more about his feelings for his daughter and went further into her strong sense of faith. Peter glided over this smoothly, though he was clearly intimidated by the topic. Madison has clear, Christian values and is looking for a husband to lead that faith in her own house and family. Peter admitted to not having faith as strong as he could during their one-on-one in episode seven and quickly changed topics to say he’s falling in love with her. Madison looked excited, as anyone would be, but it’s clear through her facial expressions that she isn’t sure if Peter is willing to step up to the plate.
The producers are making this a slow burning plot point. It hasn’t been explicitly stated in the show yet, but through previews and hints given by her family, Madison is saving herself for marriage and has yet to tell Peter this. Peter, to be quite frank, is a very physical guy (for those who remember him on Hannah Brown’s season of “The Bachelorette”, this was the talk of the town), and I am unsure why Madison is waiting to tell him. They have strong chemistry, and it is evident that they are very much into one another. However, this might be a large incompatibility issue all relating back to the faith Madison upholds in her life, with the remaining episodes left and the fantasy suite.
Victoria’s (26) family hometown meeting was last and for good reason. Dedicating the last hour of that night’s episode completely to watching an absolute trainwreck of a hometown date. Victoria Fuller’s date was cute and fun in the beginning, with Hunter Hayes showing up to perform a concert. Peter and Victoria dancing awkwardly in a crowd full of millennial women recording on their phones was definitely fun to watch. Peter cannot dance, and who knew he enjoyed country music so much?
After that, an ex of Peter’s showed up to tell him that he “deserves better” and that Victoria “has broken up many relationships” prior, as she used to be friends with Victoria and knows this firsthand. Peter looked distraught while driving up to Victoria’s house, and they both sat on the front steps of her house to try to hash it out. To be fair, this was probably the only time this season Peter wasn’t completely in the wrong. He simply brought up the issue and wanted to hear her side of what his ex meant by “breaking up relationships.” She looked dumbfounded, started crying and then attacked him.
Every prior date they had before this, Victoria would walk away from him, an emotional mess, and could never pinpoint her feelings toward him. She genuinely had a hard time articulating her feelings, which is perfectly reasonable, but she should be trying to work through that instead of being on a reality show. In the reality television spoiler world, Victoria’s home-wrecking habits have been known for a while now, and most have been waiting for this episode to see it go down.
On the front steps of her house, Victoria immediately became defensive. She started to lash out at Peter, implying that he was disrespecting her and her family and refusing to address the actual issue. Peter couldn’t grasp the fact that she was deflecting since that is what guilty people do. We might not know her past entirely (besides the spoilers! But in all honesty, to make that type of judgment is harsh!), but it was evident from the conversation that she wanted to steer away from the topic.
The incident ended up with Victoria proclaiming “I can’t do this right now” and getting up to walk away from the cameras and from Peter. She came back a second later, it seemed, and Peter ended up apologizing to her. She accused him of taking his ex’s side (he honestly wasn’t), and he tried to point out that she means a lot to him. Victoria doesn’t acknowledge his point and continues to sob into him.
The hometown date was cancelled as Peter got into his mysterious black van and drove away. The next morning, Victoria showed up to apologize, and they attempted to talk through their issues. Fast forward to the rose ceremony, and even after ALL OF THAT, he gave his last remaining rose to Victoria and sent Kelsey home. To be fair, Peter wasn’t always into Kelsey; I don’t know why he led on her so far. It was clear he just liked the attention, and whenever Kelsey told him her feelings, he just kissed her in response, not even saying “I’m not quite there yet, but I respect your feelings toward me” (which a reasonable man should do when someone is admitting their love for you!).
With the upcoming episode being the almighty Fantasy Suites, there is sure to be more drama to go down amongst all three women, and more of Peter trying to navigate his choices throughout all of this. This is peak reality television.