Sorry about no column yesterday. I got so behind with the two podcasts, and getting backed up after Monday night’s episode, that I just included all of it in today’s column. So today you’ll get my recap of my weekend in Vegas and California, my thoughts on Monday’s episode including the mistakes Zach made on Monday night, your “Reader Emails,” and then pages 4 and 5 will have YOUR reactions to what Zach did, which all seem to be in agreement with each other, so there was no need for me to comment on those. I just wanted to share almost 30 emails that came in in regards to Zach’s actions to show that most people all seemed to feel the same way. Pretty fascinating, since most things that happen on this show divides opinions from people, but not this one. Seems to be universal that Zach could’ve handled this way better than he did, and you tell me about what your stance is and if/when you’d want to know about sex with someone else if you were in Kaity’s situation.
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Music written by Jimmer Podrasky
(B’Jingo Songs/Machia Music/Bug Music BMI)
Do I really have to recap my Vegas weekend at the book and at the tables? Ugh. Wasn’t great to say the least. Have had worse weekends but certainly have had better. My two picks I gave out as best bets, or whatever you want to call them, went 1-1. Furman (+5.5) won outright versus Virginia which made me happy. And Kent St. (+4), hung with Indiana for about half and then fell apart losing by 11 (both covering in 8 pt teases). So my overall records on picks since I started this in 2017 is 6-3. Not bad. However, I was hit and miss on my other 4 games I told you I liked. Colgate (+13.5), Louisiana (+10.5), Iona (+9), and Drake (+2.5) went 1-3 vs the spread, BUT, went 3-1 in 8 pt teases. Iona was the only one not to cover an 8 pt tease, yet, the were actually winning at halftime vs UConn before getting blitzed in the second half. And honestly, Drake choked big time. Basically led the whole game vs Miami and were up 55-47 with 5:30 min left in the game. Do the math, and you can figure out what happened from there. Drake then got outscored 16-1 the rest of the way and lost 63-56. Unreal. And trust me, it was just as bad watching it unfold than just seeing the final score. A complete and utter collapse to score 1 pt over the final 5 ½ minutes of a game. It happens. So we fight on and next year, hope to have more winners for you.
So we know the biggest thing to happen over the weekend was the release of Charity’s men on the Bachelorette Facebook page on Saturday. I thought it would happen Wednesday or at the latest Thursday or Friday. But once they were released Saturday, that basically solidified that filming wasn’t gonna start Sunday night since it’s always been a minimum of 3 days from the time they release the potential cast to filming starting. Sometimes it’s been longer. Anyway, they already took them down off the FB page, so if you want to see their headshots, names, and IG’s, it’s on @BachelorData’s IG account. Once I have all the names confirmed I will post them again on IG stories AND put them in my feed, but I didn’t want to put all of them on my feed until I’d gotten everyone’s name. Or at least almost all their names.
As of this writing, I’ve posted 20 of the 29 guys first and last names with IG accounts, and there’s two others, Peter (@pilotpete.fly), and John Henry S. (@johnhenry222), where I just have their IG account but no last name. The ones we (and I say “we” bc I worked in conjunction with @Bachelordata on this) don’t have any last names or IG’s on right now are: Dotun (although we might have it, just still trying to determine if it’s him), Adrian, Brayden, Caleb A., Khalid, Nicholas, and Spencer. So that’s where we’re at. Almost there. Any info anyone can provide just hit either one of us up so we can complete the list.
Filming begins tonight at the mansion and dates start this weekend with two public dates Friday and Saturday, so hopefully info will get out. If so, I’ll be posting what I can on my social media pages over the weekend and I’ll recap what I know next week. Since we don’t have all the guys first and last names yet, might be harder to identify who was on these dates, but we won’t know for sure until they happen. But keep checking my socials this weekend and I’ll fill you in if/when I hear stuff.
-You’ll never guess how this episode started. Pretty much like every other episode this season has started – a Zach shower scene. Find someone in your life who loves you more than this show loves showing Zach shower outside in a foreign country. Or than this show loves showing old people naked/shirtless. We can almost add that as a staple to this show to go along with all the things we’re used to from Jesse. It’s freakishly weird how they continuously do this all season. Like, we’re used to the opening episode in the leads intro video, a shot of him showering. We’ve seen that numerous times. And look, Zach signed on to be the lead. He’s basically at the mercy of the show and does what they tell him. There’s no way he’s suggesting he wants shower scenes every episode. He just goes along with it. But man he’s gotta be embarrassed. Not of his body or anything, just that there are SO many of him. How do you even shower this many times knowing you’re being filmed without busting out laughing? I don’t know either.
-We know that Zach set a boundary for himself at the beginning of the week saying he didn’t want to have sex with anyone because he didn’t want to make overnights just about sex. Could possibly be the dumbest thing anyone’s ever done on this show. Completely set himself up for failure and the whole episode fed off that one line. A line they’ve literally been promoting since last week at the WTA with the woman in the audience wearing the “Sex Week” shirt that was given to her by production to wear, to Jesse constantly mentioning it while sitting down with Zach as Zach continuously having this exasperated look on his face and even saying to Jesse, “You’re bringing this up again? I said it one time.” So as much as the show harped on it last night and it took such a serious tone with how it was handled, just remember last week they were laughing it up about it.
-Ariel’s overnight was up first and you knew she got the short end of the stick when Zach and her don’t even have a day portion for their overnight. I can’t remember the last time that’s ever even happened. Talk about giving away the ending. If you knew nothing about the spoiler, you HAD to have known Ariel was getting sent home just based on the quality of the date. Gabi got her own trip to a private island. Kaity got to go kayaking or whatever it was. And Ariel is stuck with just a night portion eating Thai food from a food market. Seriously? This is supposedly the most romantic date of the season and THAT’S what Ariel gets? Thai food from what looks like the equivalent of our swap meet? Lovely. I hope they provided them a bottle of Pepto in the fantasy suite. They’re gonna need it.
-Another great breakdown by @BachelorData that shows if you get the first overnight date, you’re screwed. And I’m not speaking literally. Only once since 2011 has the woman who got the first overnight date ended up being the final pick, and that was Hannah Ann on Peter’s season. And well, did she really win that train wreck of a season? Stats don’t lie:
My thoughts on Zach and his screwups on Page 2…
