A Bahama Papa Looking for His Bahama Mama: Bachelor 27, Episode 4 Recap
Zach continues to be a decisive Bachelor with no time for drama.
It would not be a season of The Bachelor without another accusation of a contestant doing it for the ‘gram. But I have a question for you all, don’t we all do it for the ‘gram at this point? Is it just me, or has the influencing and shilling made posting on Instagram as a “regular” seem weird? To the point where I’ve felt dumb for posting randomness on my Instagram. Gone are the days when we snapped a photo of our PB&J sandwich and put an artsy filter over it. I miss those days.
Anyway, in this episode, we were met with some ‘for the wrong reasons’ accusations that led to a little bit of drama and as he has been with every whiff of drama leading up to this point, Zach was very annoyed.
I genuinely like that Zach has been decisive so far this season, it cuts the drama off before it can even really begin. What I don’t like is that in the process of him trying to avoid drama, he can also come off as condescending, or flippant, like the women being upset is unnecessary. In a world where society already makes women feel like shit for their feelings, I don’t like that.
For the second week in a row, Jesse fakes out the women by telling them there is no date and that Zach is no longer in SoCal before letting them know they’re headed to the Bahamas. The women rush around the mansion packing their things and screaming about their next location.
Then of course we get some gratuitous shots of the beautiful Bahamas (and Zach showering). A great reminder that it is winter for most of us in the states. The women are ready to lay out, Zach is excited to get to know these women better, and the producers are ready for another chance to stir the pot.
The first date card of the week goes to Kat and this is the first time the women clearly aren’t excited about another woman getting a one-on-one. Greer starts crying, lowkey proof that she’s too young to be worried about getting married to a man right now. Maybe that isn’t fair, but neither is her defending blackface.
Anyway, weird that there was a woman on this show who actually went by Kat, but was eliminated, and since then both Katherine and Kaity have decided to also go by Kat. It’s confusing and I had to scroll through the ABC bios several times before realizing Kaity got the museum date and Katherine is a completely different woman, who is also white and blonde. To cut down on the confusion, I will be calling her Katherine throughout this recap.
How Deep is Your Love?
Katherine and Zach are on a beautiful yacht, sailing through the bluest ocean I think I’ve ever seen on TV. They’re SPF-ing each other—a cute call back to her limo entrance—snorkeling, swimming, dancing off-beat. To me, this is the most convincing date Zach has had. They seemed really comfortable with one another.
While Zach and Katherine are connecting, the other women share they are feeling insecure and unsure of where they stand with Zach. Anastasia specifically is having trouble trusting him and his choices.
Back on the date, Katherine and Zach name the ease they have between them. This is reminiscent of the date Clayton and Rachel had in Texas. They really clicked and the chemistry was so clear and Katherine and Zach are giving the same. Zach also takes their time together to affirm that he’s really feeling her.
Going into dinner, Katherine is concerned about sharing her upbringing with Zach because she comes from a “non-traditional” background. She says she’s always wanted to be with someone who grew up with a stable background because that isn’t what she had.
Katherine and her mom have a strained relationship and have gone through moments when things were so tough, she didn’t live at home with her. She says she wants that traditional family where two people choose each other, create a family, and stay together, fight for one another. At this point, she starts crying for fear of being unlovable or the differences in upbringing negatively affecting their relationship.
A lot of people go on this show and talk about hard upbringings or strained relationships with family, but few talk about how that experience could affect how they are in a committed relationship or raising a family. It was very mature for Katherine to clearly make that connection. Whether we like it or not, we all come to relationships with baggage, and that affects how we show up in the relationship.
I like that in these moments Zach asks questions to pull the stories out of the women. It shows a level of interest and patience that I personally admire. He’s been really graceful on this one-on-ones. It’s a grace I feel has been lacking in the group dates.
Zach goes to grab the rose and says the day showed him what the rest of their journey could hold and he’s excited about it. She gets the date rose and Zach ITMs that their connection gets stronger every moment they spend together. And, the bitch gets fireworks, a tell to all the ladies at the resort that it was a good date.
Turning Up the Heat
On the date: Aly, Kaity, Ariel, Davia, Genevie, Anastasia, Kylee, Mercedes, Charity, Gabi, Jess, and Greer
The women are spending the day enjoying the beach, food, music, and culture of the island. They take some shots, try some food and shake their hips.
The group has agreed they would be kind and fair to one another and share time equally with Zach as much as possible on the group date. That’s a nice agreement to make in week four of the game, but eye would not be doing that.
Anastasia immediately breaks the agreement and steals Zach away to chat and get to know him more. Kylee sees this and decides to steal him. The two women then have an awkward exchange about sharing him, but honestly, both their conversations with him lacked depth, so they can be mad, but Zach ain’t picking either of them.
Unfortunately, their awkward back and forth isn’t enough. Anastasia goes and tells some of the women that Kylee said she’d fight her, even though Anastasia knows that is not what Kylee meant. For me, this is another example of a micro-aggression.
Is Anastasia stirring the pot in this way with Kylee because she’s a woman of color (I believe she’s a mixed-race Black woman), probably not. But that does not mean the edited version of this “fight” doesn’t uphold problematic stereotypes that say Black women are angry and aggressive. I get frustrated with these types of unnecessary tiffs because the fandom takes it and blows it up, and next thing you know a contestant of color is getting called a racial slur. In fact, as I was looking for photos to include in this recap, the official Bachelor Nation account had dozens of comments calling Kylee a mean girl, a bitch, etc. It’s sick.
Kaity and Zach get a moment together at the cocktail party where he continues to ensure her that he really likes her and there’s a spark between them. He says something similar to Jess, and Charity. I like that he isn’t taking these moments for granted with the women he is clearly feeling. But I’m also a words of affirmation gal, so it sticks out to me.
Next, here Anastasia goes talking about Kylee trying to fight her. Kylee sees right through the bullshit and goes to tell Zach, which I don’t love. But he actually seems concerned that Anastasia made her feel a type of way or tried to twist her words.
Kylee brings up what she heard about Anastasia wanting IG followers and Zach says he’s terrified of ending up with someone who isn’t there for the right reasons. Zach, be fucking for real. This show gets millions of viewers, anyone going on this show just for love is actually a bozo. If you’re going to sign away your rights and let a production company edit you any kind of way, you better get something out of it. If that happens to be IG followers, then so be it.
Zach talks to Charity, who allegedly heard Anastasia talking about followers, but it doesn’t provide much clarity, so he decides to speak to Anastasia. One thing about Zach, he ‘gon address some shit head-on. He don’t waste no time. He sits down with Anastasia and asks “are you really here for me?” No soft start-up, just an accusation and fake confusion about the rumor he’s heard.
Anastasia says she works with a lot of brands and does digital marketing or some shit so she was offering to connect the women after the show. It sounds true, but only half true.
She rejoins the women and she’s pissed. Kylee shares what she said to Zach about the IG follower accusation. She then doubles down and says she heard Anastasia say the women left would each get at least get 50,000 Instagram followers. A very specific thing to say unless there wasn’t a wider conversation about IG followers and opportunities off the show.
Ariel, being the smart woman she is, uses her time to check in on Zach and see how he’s doing. Zach calls her a mystery and says he’s so intrigued by her, pretty much ignoring the drama she asked him about. I know I predicted Ariel to be a villain, but right now she just seems too cool for the show. Nonetheless, she gets the group date rose and Anastasia is left crying.
Off-Roading to Love
Brooklyn and Zach are going ATVing and normally this looks really fun when filmed for TV, but they managed to make this look incredibly boring.
The women at the resort are talking about Anastasia’s comments about IG followers. Charity reveals she heard her talking about it at the airport early in the morning and felt it was such a random time to be bringing it up.
Before the nighttime portion of the date, we get a content warning card about domestic violence, so I’m going to give one as well.
I will be talking about issues of domestic violence in the next 4 paragraphs. If you’d prefer to skip this section, pick back up at the Cocktail Party/Rose Ceremony section.
Brooklyn has a beautiful yellow dress on and shares she’s ready to go deep with Zach, so he can know all of her. She shares that growing up her grandparents were her relationship goals, she wanted to be nothing like her dad and wanted nothing to do with him, but she ended up with a guy just like him.
She shares that she became a shell of herself. She didn’t speak up for herself, she was emotionally and physically abused and said she pulled strength that she didn’t even know she had to get out of that relationship.
Zach offers his support and encouragement to her for getting out of that situation. Brooklyn says she finally feels ready to receive the love she deserves and to reciprocate it. He grabs the date rose and gives it to her.
I’m glad to see the show has gotten better at handling the retelling of these stories. I still cringe when I think about how sensationalized Caelynn’s telling of her sexual assault was. I hope Brooklyn not only felt supported by Zach as she shared her truth, but that the on-staff therapist was available after the date if needed as well as any other mental/emotional support she may have needed at that moment.
But even in this moment of improvement, I am reminded that this franchise still has a long way to go. The hosts of Two Bros and A Rose had this to share about how the franchise supports victims of domestic violence. I did not know of Shawn Merriman’s arrest but seems like anyone who follows football semi-closely might have.
Two Weird Goodbyes
Zach begins the cocktail party by thanking the women for their vulnerability and openness throughout the week before pulling Anastasia to talk.
Anastasia says it’s been a hard two days and is upset Zach had any doubt in her because her “integrity is everything” 🙄. Girl, I guess. I think these women would fare better if they were honest about understanding the platform this show gives them.
In the end, Zach decides to send Anastasia home. Kylee begins crying because she feels it’s her fault Anastasia is going home, but the women agree that she did the right thing.
I’m annoyed we never got to see a real resolution. In her car exit, Anastasia maintains she didn’t say anything about followers, and back at the cocktail party, the women seem to agree no one should be talking about social media followers and they should all be focusing on Zach, insinuating that Anastasia did talk about followers.
Zach rejoins the women, and shares that Anastasia has left. He has moments with several women who I consider top contenders (Charity, Katherine, Ariel) before having a moment with Davia where she shares that she’s been feeling distant from him. She assures him she still wants to get to know him and see if their connection can grow. He agrees.
Then, Kylee begins to implode. She says she needs to go home and that she can’t handle a rose ceremony where she isn’t chosen. It seems like a bit of guilt coming to the surface. But she pulls it together.
In the end, Davia and Genevie are sent home. Genevie leaves without us getting a word about why she was in a sling. She got hurt for this man and we couldn’t even get an injury storyline! Hate to see it. And Davia is sent home after she specifically spoke to him about their fading connection and he said they were fine, even kissed her, only for her to go home later.
Next week the women are in London. It looks like Gabi finally gets a one-on-one so maybe she’ll stop fucking crying and everyone gets some bad/sad news. Personally, I think it’s COVID/sickness related because we see Zach on what seems to be a Zoom recording. And unfortunately, I will forever equate that with the early COVID days. Anyone else remember the Real Housewives reunions that were shot on Zoom? A mess.
If it is COVID related, it’d be wild to have several COVID bubble seasons and regular seasons only for it to happen three years later. But we’ll see. Until next week, ✌🏾.