The men of The Bachelorette got back together to talk about their feelings. Here's what we learned.
Chad is the reality show gift that keeps on giving.
Chad, or Evil Chad as he has become known since appearing on The Bachelorette, is the breakout star of the season. He has been dominating the reality TV news cycle both during and after his time in the mix with JoJo.
The Men Tell All special starts without Chad in the room, but with a remote shot of him in his trailer, flanked by a security guard like the one they hired to handle the Chad Bear during filming. This gives Chris Harrison time to warm up the room. Chad isn't even on the stage yet and he's already a hot topic.
Alex and Evan, the two men who have arguably the biggest beefs with Chad, are still not over it, but the other guys call them out on it. Grant and Nick both comment that Alex was happier watching Chad melt down than Alex was when he was spending time with JoJo. Evan stands by his theory that Chad was suffering from steroid withdrawal during his time on the show, but Ali gives Chad the benefit of the doubt, considering 20 guys were all talking trash about him.
Bonus points to Wells for comparing Chad to Voldemort, He Who Must Not Be Named.
Seriously, though, Chad is way more Beetlejuice than Voldemort, and after they say his name enough, he finally appears. Chad takes his spot in the hot seat with Harrison. After a quick walk down memory lane through Chad’s “journey” on the show, Harrison asks him where it all went sideways with him and the guys. “It was like a frat,” Chad says. “Everything was so fake. I could not walk through the house without hearing my name.”
Time does not, at least for this crew, heal all wounds. They still don’t like Chad, and Chad still doesn’t care. Grant gives Chad a hard time for dating both Grant and Robby’s ex-girlfriends since the show has started airing. Chad sticks to his claim that he minded his own business, and the guys just couldn't let a sleeping Chad Bear lie.
Did we learn anything new from Chad’s time in the hot seat? Not really. He’s turned his 15 minutes into at least an hour, parlaying this into a spot on Bachelor in Paradise, a show that features the tagline, “The Chad is about to hit the fan.”
Wells claims that he feels bad that people didn’t get to see how great so many of the guys are, because they were all so consumed by Chad. “I will be the first to admit that we kind of Lord of the Flies -ed you,” Well says. Nice reference, Wells, who, by the way, also secured a spot in Paradise.
Luke would make an awesome Bachelor.
If Chad is the villain of this epic, Luke is its tragic hero. Luke’s goodbye from the show is still fresh in his mind and, according to him, still painful. He tears up watching the video package. He says he was feeling a lot of confusion when he got sent home. Luke tells Harrison that he’s still in love with JoJo. Then he says all of the right things if he is, indeed, destined to be the next Bachelor. “I’m a hopeless romantic in a sense,” the sensitive cowboy war veteran tells Harrison. He regrets waiting too long to tell JoJo how he felt. “There’s this once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I was looking for this once-in-a-lifetime moment.”
Harrison asks him where he goes from here. Is he still single? He doesn’t ask Luke if he’s the next Bachelor, because the all-knowing host is, well, all knowing, but he sets it up perfectly. Yes, Luke is still single. Yes, he’s ready to fall in love again. “I’m happy and I’m ready, and I’m optimistic about what the future might hold.”
When JoJo shows up, Luke asks her if things would have been different if he had been more direct. She says she never heard the word love from him, and when he did say it, she was concerned he might have done so impulsively. Luke is just happy that she’s happy. That’s what he wants from this process. Then comes the kicker: “Thank you for letting me love you and teaching me how to love again.”
Well done, Luke. If you aren’t the hopeless romantic you claim, you certainly can play one on TV. Luke should definitely start practicing his, “Will you accept this rose?” in the mirror back on the farm.
Chase got his closure.
Chase’s elimination was rough. He had an awesome day at the beach, got an invitation to the fantasy suite, and then got the boot. He, like Luke, gets emotional with Harrison when they play back his time on the show. His abrupt goodbye is only 24 hours old for viewers. That cut is still fresh. For his part, Chase says he had no idea it was coming. “I absolutely had no read on that whatsoever,” he says.
Immediately following his rejection, he said that he regretted telling JoJo that he loved her. Harrison asks him about that, and he backs off from it. “I went to anger instead of understanding,” he says. He claims that he is happy that JoJo brought that emotion out in him, but he still wants to know why she bothered to give him the fantasy card.
Harrison, the ringmaster of this particular circus, gets Chase his closure. When JoJo comes on set, Chase gets the opportunity to confront JoJo about why she did what she did. He asks her, "What is so scary about hearing the word love?" which is such a Bachelor/Bachelorette thing to say. JoJo cops out and doesn’t truly answer Chase’s question. “I don’t know if I did that right. I didn’t have that clarity, and maybe I found it at the wrong time. I still feel guilty about it,” she tells Chase. Chase, because he’s so good at it from all that practice, lets her off the hook, again.
Vinny’s mom has his back.
Vinny is one of those also-rans who was around long enough for viewers to almost learn his name, but not long enough to see a major bump in his social media followers. He tells JoJo that it was hard for the guys who didn’t get one-on-ones when she would cancel the cocktail parties. “It sucked,” he says, not putting too fine a point on it. At least one person in the crowd thinks that JoJo made a mistake by sending Vinny home: his mom. Vinny’s mom tells JoJo straight-up that JoJo missed out on the greatest guy. Harrison asks Vinny’s mom if JoJo made a mistake. “Absolutely. 100%.” You go, Vinny’s mom. Unrelated: Good luck to the person who does end up with Vinny.
JoJo says she’s “very happy.”
What else would she say leading up to the finale? She even calls it an “amazing journey.”
Harrison proves, once again, he totally gets what’s going on here. “You said ‘amazing journey.’ Everyone needs to drink at home.” Cheers, men of The Bachelorette. See you when we see you.
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