Pure Chaos: Bachelor 26, Episode 4
After that final scene last night, you can't convince me Clayton don't like mess.
The show dove right into the drama and so am I!
The women are gathered around talking about the beef between Shanae and Elizabeth. They’re clearly bothered by the drama and wonder if it would be better for all of them in the house to address the issues as a unit so that it doesn’t take away from the cocktail party, this is a smart idea. Squash the beef, and tell Shanae to either name names and give examples, or shut the hell up.
Before Clayton enters the mansion and the cocktail party begins, Marlena asks Shanae if she wants to address the drama. Shanae says no and then decides to address it anyway. She’s bothered that some of the women don’t acknowledge her. Marlena asks her to name specific people and she doesn’t. Listen, Shanae has got to go. I’m used to villains overstaying their welcome on this show, but what’s wild about Shanae specifically is that she’s being so nasty and mean to pretty much anyone who looks at her the wrong way. She’s been talking all this shit in her interviews with producers, but when it’s time to square up, she doesn’t want to get into specifics. If you feeling froggy then jump baby girl, otherwise, let the shit go.
Clayton enters the mansion, takes Elizabeth and Shanae away, and asks them what’s going on. This is what he should have done the first time this argument arose. He says he can’t build a relationship when this drama is taking up so much energy. Elizabeth states her case calmly without even mentioning the fact that Shanae has been making fun of her having ADHD. Elizabeth says she tried to handle it one-on-one as Clayton asked, but Shanae told her to “fuck off,” which sounds about right.
Shanae is unhinged, she says Elizabeth has convinced women in the house to ignore her and uses loaded words like toxic, fake, and bully to describe Elizabeth’s behavior. When asked to define situations where Elizabeth exhibited that type of behavior, she fixates on the shrimp issue from the last episode by saying the women didn’t eat Shanae’s shrimp because Elizabeth told them not to. Elizabeth interrupts to ask Clayton if what Shanae is describing sounds like bullying (it doesn’t to me). Instead of answering, Clayton allows the women to continue to go back and forth over bullshit. Meanwhile, Clayton is stale-faced.
Eventually, Clayton gets up to walk away. He says he doesn’t know how to address the issue becuase the women are focusing on shrimp instead of how to come to a resolution. While it’s not necessarily on Clayton to help the women see that they’re going in circles over semantics, I think if Clayton actually saw himself with either of these women long-term, he would’ve steered the conversation towards a resolution. Instead, he walks away and Elizabeth removes herself from the situation.
Elizabeth and Shanae join the women back inside the mansion and Shanae has a plate of shrimp, which is fucking hilarious. Again, Shanae begins knit-picking every little detail of her and Elizabeth’s disagreement instead of apologizing for her actions and validating how upset the women are.
Genevieve is becoming more bothered and eventually goes off on Shanae because she is fixated on the wrong things. Whether Elizabeth was around or not when the women decided they didn’t want the extra shrimp Shanae cooked is insignificant. Now, none of them get time with Clayton.
Jesse Palmer tells the women Clayton has decided to cancel the cocktail party. The women are understandably upset and Genevieve tells the women that this should’ve been squashed before it even made its way to Clayton. Elizabeth launches into tears over the thought of going home and because her actions caused the cocktail party to be canceled. Now the women must line up and hope they’ve done enough to receive a rose this week.
Clayton opens the rose ceremony saying the night has been frustrating and he didn’t feel like he could mentally carry on through the night. He hands out the roses and Kira, Melina and Elizabeth are going home.
Shanae is so pleased with herself and the women are pissed. Ultimately, I don’t think Clayton believed Shanae over Elizabeth, but rather he was more attracted to Shanae than Elizabeth.
We’ll see Elizabeth in Paradise and becuase there is no way in hell Shanae wins this, we’ll likely see her there too, where she’ll undoubtedly have an opportunity to rid herself of her villain persona.
The next morning, Genevieve and Gabby are talking about how frustrating it is that Shanae is still a problem in the house. Even with Elizabeth gone, no one wants to speak to her. But wait, I thought women weren’t speaking to her becuase of Elizabeth’s presence? Could it be that she’s just insufferable and the women want nothing to do with her? 🤔
Jesse enters the mansion to tell the ladies they’re headed to Houston, Texas! While I’m happy to see travel back on the show, it’s also weird to watch knowing that Omicron is currently kicking America’s ass and states like Texas are literally acting like it doesn’t exist.
Finding Love in the Heart of Texas
As the women are fawning over their new Texas digs, Clayton gets a visit from his friend Clarence, a Mizzou alum (Go Tigers!) and close friend of Clayton’s who is there to essentially remind him what a commitment marriage and kids are, as he himself is married with a kid. We didn’t get a ton from their conversation. I wish we would’ve seen Clayton talk about who he’s liking the most, or even what’s giving him pause. Still, I love that he got to meet a friend rather than some random Bach Nation person. Clayton was so genuinely excited to see him and that visit seemed to give him the lift he needed after so much drama amongst the women.
A date card arrives and it’s for Rachel. For the first time, the women seem shook. They can tell Clayton and Rachel have formed a connection.
I was so excited that Rachel got this date. She’s gorgeous, has a great career and we haven’t seen enough of her yet. She greets Clayton and the chemistry is palpable, the way they look at one another is so sweet. They melt into one another in a way that feels natural even though they’ve only known each other for a week or two. It looks easy between the two of them and they say as much.
They’re riding horses when they come upon a random group of uncles having a barbecue. I needed to know who these people were. Were they fans of the show? A producer’s extended family? Did they do a quick casting call? I became fixated on this because I could not suspend belief long enough to accept that during a panini press (pandemic) in Texas these two happened upon a barbecue with talkative strangers ready and willing to ask half a dozen questions about their relationship, how they feel about one another, and how many kids they want. Also, Clayton described this date as a “regular Saturday in Missouri,” and I want to know where he was spending his Saturdays in Columbia because this is not what we were doing on Saturdays in the off-season.
After lunch with this random Texan family, Clayton and Rachel sit and chat about their connection. I think this is the most obvious chemistry we’ve seen this season, at least at this level. I know he’s really into Teddi, but she’s been buried since night one, we’ve barely seen or heard from her, nor have we seen much of them together. But last week when Rachel was sitting in Clayton’s lap and asking for validation, there seemed to be a spark, and this week we saw that grow. They’re comfortable with one another. So much so, that they do that weird whisper, flirty, baby voice thing when talking to each other (we’ve all done this awkwardly at least once, right? Just me? 🌚). I believe both of them when they say they’re shocked at how quickly they’ve connected.
Back in the house, a date card arrives and more than wanting the second one-on-one of the week, the women really just don’t want to be on the group date with Shanae, which is both hilarious and telling. Unfortunately, they will all be on the group date with Shanae, except Serene, who gets the second one-on-one of the week (which we don’t see because of drama).
Going into the nighttime portion of the date, Clayton says Rachel is special and he hasn’t had these feelings in a long time. Then, he asks the one question that I hate for men to ask on dates: how are you so perfect/beautiful/smart/whatever adjective and single? This question insinuates that there is something wrong with the woman. Rachel answers the question beautifully. She talks about always knowing she wanted to be a pilot, she’s chased that dream unequivocally becuase she knew she had to work harder and prove herself more as a woman in a male-dominated industry.
Unfortunately, she was in a relationship with a partner who didn’t support her and was worried about her cheating. She felt his love for her was conditional and that there was too much distrust. Her ex thought she could be cheating, or lying about her whereabouts when working long days.
Rachel makes it clear that while she wants to be a mom and wants marriage, she is not going to give up her dream of being a pilot for it. She needs a partner that understands that the time spent together may look different, but it’s not an inditement on her love for her partner or their family. I loved this conversation. This is the type of sob story I want to see on these one-on-ones! Was it sad that Rachel’s ex was distrusting? Sure. But what I loved is that she also shared what she learned from that relationship and how she wants to approach her relationship with Clayton. She wants what he wants (marriage, kids, a house, etc.) but she’s not willing to give up her career for it. Clayton’s response: “I’ll never dim your light.” This is a great sentiment, but I don’t want to give Clayton too much credit, only his future actions will let us know if he means that. I do love that his mind went to support rather than hesitancy. I imagine dating a pilot is a big commitment and it isn’t for everyone.
Rachel gets a double doors concert moment with Restless Road and gets the date rose.
The Bachelor Bowl
On the date: Sarah, Eliza, Teddi, Marlena, Jill, Susie, Mara, Sierra, Hunter, Lyndsey, Gabby, Genevieve, Shanae
Before the date has even begun, the women are bothered by Shanae’s presence. Sierra, Genevieve, and Gabby are chatting about Shanae’s behavior and lack of remorse for her actions leading to the cancellation of the cocktail party. The women are worried that Shanae will focus her negative energy on a new woman and try to get rid of her. Sierra convinces Gabby and Genevieve that it’s important for them to band together to share with Clayton just how problematic Shanae is. Of course, Shanae conveniently hears all of this and that fuels her fire during the group date competition later on.
It’s time for the group date, but first, we get product placement for some spaceship-looking cars. I don’t drive y’all so I’m not going to even pretend to understand what was happening.
The women are tailgating, playing corn hole, making hot dogs, and cheersing beers when two burly men who play for the Texans show up to let them know that they will be playing full-on tackle football, a terrible fucking idea. The winners get to go to the afterparty and the losers go back to the hotel. Marlena is pumped because she’s A FUCKING OLYMPIAN, while the rest of these women likely have the hand-eye coordination of a toddler (much like myself).
Before the first snap, we got this incredible edit of previous Bachelor Bowls. I need production to do more of this. Half of the success of the reality kingdom Bravo has built is because they rely heavily on inserting old footage to either make current characters look like fools or show what actually went down when a situation is in question.
I’m not gonna give y’all the play-by-play, the purple team had a god damn Olympian, this game was over before it began. Beyond seeing Marlena and Sierra run all over the rest of these ladies, Jesse Palmer and ESPN’s Hannah Storm calling the game was hilarious, a great callback to Jesse’s work for ESPN as a college football analyst too. He was a natural. I would’ve loved to see Clayton do some more “coaching” from the sidelines. He speaks in sports encouragements all the time, his random “I like your hustle” comments would’ve worked great here.
The purple team revels in their victory and gets ready for their evening date.
The losing team enters the hotel room upset that they’re missing out on time with Clayton.
On the date, we see Teddi and Clayton together and she’s explaining how hard it is to feel like she has to gain Clayton’s love and attention. She relates it back to her childhood when she felt like she had to gain her dad’s love to feel seen and valued. I love that these women aren’t just sharing instances from their past that hurt them, they’re sharing how it informs their actions today. Is this what happens when you grow up in a generation that normalizes therapy and introspection? Maybe.
Clayton’s response of “just be you,” fell flat to me. I think Teddi is being herself and being as honest and authentic as she can be, but what I heard her say is that she still wants that validation from him and to know that he’s into her and thinking of her as much as she is him. She seemed satisfied with his response, but I wasn’t.
The women cheers to a drama-free night (lol, do they know what show they’re on?). They’re happy that Shanae isn’t on the date and try to decipher whether they should share the truth about the Shanae they experience or if they should let it be. Sierra agrees to speak up. Meanwhile, at the house, Shanae is seething that some of the women were talking shit about her earlier. She doesn’t like the idea of women being on a group date and talking badly about her, so she decides to crash the group date.
We get Sierra and Clayton talking and she straight up tells him he made the wrong call by keeping Shanae. instead of responding to the critique, Clayton calls Sierra out for tackling Shanae unnecessarily. Sierra plays dumbs, in this instance, we love to see it. Genevieve is up next and she too decides to share her experience with Shanae in the house.
Back at the hotel, Shanae is dusting off her freakum dress to crash the after-party. She shows up on the group date, interrupting Clayton’s time with Sarah. Clayton actually looks surprised to see her (and that dress trick worked, I can’t be mad at it). Sarah goes back and tells the women that Shanae crashed the date, naturally, they’re upset.
Clayton asks Shanae about the stories other women in the house have brought to him since Elizabeth has left. Shanae shares that she heard Gabby, Sierra, and Genevieve talking about trying to get her sent home. Beyond the on-demand tears that Shanae used last week, her other trick of word vomiting is clever. She talks so fast, including so many questions in between her points that it confuses Clayton. The women in the house see through it, but it works on him every time. That coupled with her freakum dress was enough to get Clayton thinking with his dick. They make out.
Shanae leaves her time with Clayton proud of the games she’s played, but not before telling Sierra and Genevieve to keep her name out of their mouths and throwing their group date trophy. She took a move right out of Pizza Peter’s playbook. The episode ends on a cliffhanger before we can see who gets the group date rose, or Clayton’s second one-on-one date with Serene.
Next week, we get Serene and Clayton’s date, the infamous roasting date, and the return of the two on one date! This season may not be giving us much substance, but it is certainly giving us that Bachelor drama straight from their usual playbook. Let the chaos continue.
Honestly just here for the drama this season. Love the recap! Spot on with the uncles at the barbecue! It was as unnatural as when they have these obscure musical artists on the one-on-one dates and they have the contestants serve a line to the camera like "oh my gosh Vince and the Backroad Boys are here and I love them so much!" 😂 Gotta love The Bachelor.