Hoping for a Hometown: Season 21, Episode 6
Jenn solidifies her final four.
Hello good people! We are halfway through Jenn’s season and things are getting serious, or at least they are supposed to be. Hometowns are next week. Personally, I think the choices are obvious—visit Jonathan, Grant, and maybe Jeremy’s families—tell the rest to kick rocks. But for Jenn, it’s not that simple.
We start the episode with a cold open where Jenn is frantically looking for one of the men. Then we’re dropped in Seattle where she’s getting nervous about the task of dwindling her men of seven to four. To help her navigate through her tough decision, former Bachelorette Charity arrives. I was so happy to see Charity on my screen. I usually don’t care about these couples after they’re off my TV, but Dotun and Charity are too cute and I truly wish them the best.
Anyway, Jenn runs down the men she has left with Charity and updates her on where she’s at with each guy. Ultimately Jenn believes she can “get there” with many of the men. So I guess we’ll pretend to believe that’s true. Surely y’all know by now that I don’t see it for Jenn with any of these men, even the ones that seem great.
A date card arrives and it’s for Marcus, his second one-on-one. Is it giving future Bachelor? 👀
Exploring the Emerald City
Before the date begins, Marcus plants seeds of doubt in his interview with producers. He really likes Jenn but isn’t sure she feels the same, which in turn makes him hesitate about what he’s feeling for her. Such a nasty cycle. While I thought he was getting the Bachelor edit at first, the doubt made me wonder if he self-eliminates.
Jenn invited Marcus on a second date because she feels he holds back a lot and so she wants to see if they can get to the bottom of that.
Unfortunately, this is the spon con date. The couple is exploring The Emerald City in celebration of the movie Wicked, which is in theaters this Thanksgiving 😉. Kelsey and Daisy were along for the ride for some reason (did Jenn even speak to these women on Joey’s season?).
This date gave broke. How are you gonna have a sponsored date that looks like shit? It was so disjointed and random—pillow fights, pepper eating, tandem bikes—pure nonsense! We did learn that Marcus is very close to his sister and got to experience a softer side of him.
Although they had a good day, Jenn is still questioning if she wants to continue this journey with Marcus.
Jenn and Marcus are casually eating dinner on the field of TMobile Park. Jenn is continuing the pink and green theme of their Wicked day date. She’s donning a gorgeous pink gown and emerald shawl. Carey Fetman is working overtime this season honey!
Marcus uses the date to open up about his upbringing. He shares that his parents weren’t stable enough to take care of him and his sister. So one day they were dropped off at daycare and never picked up. He says his upbringing is why he’s pursuing love so hard now. He wants to know he’s lovable. It was heartbreaking to watch him recount this story. I almost shed a tear.
To my surprise, Marcus gets the rose, which means Jenn is meeting the sister! I kinda like him and Jenn together after this date. I didn’t see it before, but they looked more comfortable with one another the second time around.
Unfortunately, the streets (Reddit) say he’s not great. Living in a world where anyone who’s had a minor negative interaction with you can share it and have it blow up is so exhausting. But also, maybe don’t be a known asshole and go on a TV show.
A Love That Listens
On the date: Spencer, Jonathan, Sam, Devin, Grant
Jenn and the guys are at a local radio station and the Mesnicks are there as a callback to their group date 15 years ago in the same location. Before the men arrive, the Mesnicks and the radio hosts are grilling Jenn on who she likes the most, who the best kisser is, etc., and all she can say is Sam, Sam, Sam. Hate that for her.
The men arrive, and are peppered with questions about how they feel about Jenn. She is soaking up every moment (as would I). All the men’s answers are landing well, except for Sam’s. He’s doing a lot of what I like to call “verbal handwork.” He’s talking a lot, but ain’t saying shit.
Then he gets extra time with Jenn to talk “privately” (even though the rest of the guys are listening in) and he fucks that up too. Whether creative editing or a real portrayal of what happened the day they filmed, this was a hot mess. Jenn is finally realizing she and Sam may have great physical chemistry, but virtually no emotional connection. And great chemistry does not always mean great compatibility.
Sam tries to smooth things over by grabbing her for a kiss, but sis does not look into it.
Jenn starts off the cocktail party letting the men know she expects to spend one-on-one time talking about actual compatibility and where these men see a relationship with her going.
Lover boy Grant is up first and he cannot WAIT to tell Jenn he’s falling for her. You know what’s crazy? I believe him. The other men affirm how much they care for Jenn as well. Devin reiterates how hard he’s falling for her and Jenn says it back to him, which caught me by surprise. Those obnoxious loud dudes with a crumb of emotional intelligence will get ya every time!
Jenn pulls Sam to talk last and shares that she is feeling uncertain about where she fits in his life after he couldn’t answer her questions earlier in the day. You’d think Sam would’ve used whatever downtime he had to think about how to answer how he feels about Jenn, but he did not. Instead, he fumbles through more nonsense and eventually blurts out an “I love you,” which Jenn immediately rejects. She leaves the conversation saying they need another conversation where he can get clear about how he feels about her. I thought she was being too kind. He’s been showing her who he really is since their one-on-one a few weeks ago. Enough, get rid of him!
Every time I watch women struggle to let go of an attractive man on these dating shows, I think about what therapist Nedra Tawwab said when recapping Love Is Blind with 2 Black Girls 1 Rose: when you’re meeting someone in a format like this, it is effectively the honeymoon stage on overdrive. There are incredible dates, free meals, and endless alcohol. Things should be super easy at this point and if they’re not, then what do you think that says about your future with this person?
Jenn and Sam have very few cares in the world while they’ve been gallivanting around Australia, New Zealand, and now Seattle. If he can’t tap into his emotions and be real with her when there are literally zero distractions—no phone, no job, no other women—then what’s that say about the partner he’d be once the cameras go down?
She decides she’s ending the night with too much up in the air, so she won’t be handing out a group date rose. Which is to be expected. For the most dramatic rose ceremony the week before hometowns, we need one of the date roses typically given out during the week to be withheld so Jenn has two roses to give out at the final ceremony.
The Date That (Almost) Could’ve Been An Email
Jeremy and Jenn are at Pike Place Market taking in all the vendors, foods, and flowers. Jenn says this date will be crucial to decipher if it makes sense to meet his family.
They had a cute, normal date. He made her a flower bouquet, they got their palms read and even threw around a dead fish. Very normal.
Going into dinner, Jenn says she’ll need more from Jeremy if she’s going to give him the date rose. It’s always to funny to me when the lead tries to push the person they gave the very last one-on-one to about why they aren’t as far along in their relationship. Uhh? You only saw them for 30 minutes every three days, what did you expect?
Jenn and Jeremy have a great conversation about religion. He identifies as culturally Jewish and Jenn identifies as Buddhist. They both want to make sure that there is acceptance and open-mindedness about the religions they practice. I was impressed with how this conversation went without it seeming overly edited. Jenn and Jeremy were open to raising any potential future children in both faiths and were open to celebrating both religions with one another, participating in holidays and important traditions. I love the way they were able to have a calm and caring conversation about their faith practices without demonizing one another to hell for their beliefs. Christians should try that 🙃.
Now is it easy in practice? Probably not as easy as they made it sound, but it was cool to see a white Jewish man and Asian Buddhist woman talking about celebrating one another’s cultures and inviting friends and family to do the same.
After taking the evening to connect, Jenn felt a lot more confident in giving Jeremy the hometown rose. Truly a shocker!
Hometown Heroes
Jenn is frustrated by how the conversations with Sam have gone this week and is determined to speak to him before the rose ceremony. This is the cold opening from earlier.
Sam still ain’t come up with a better reason for why he loves Jenn. He sounds disingenuous, Jenn is confused, and honestly, Sam probably is too. He says putting his feelings into words is not his strong suit (we know bro). He’s saying his love can only be felt and witnessed and Jenn needs to see him in his element to understand how he feels. Boy bye 🙄.
At a certain point, I wanted Jenn to just walk away from the nonsense. Girl, this man doesn’t make sense, it’s not you, it’s him. Leave that bozo alone!
After taking a breather away from Sam, Jenn comes back to the conversation and tells Sam he’s full of shit (but a lot nicer than that). She says his actions remind her of a bad relationship she had in the past and she’s not interested in repeating history. She tells him she’s done and sends him packing.
Going into the rose ceremony, there are two roses up for grabs and four men left. The first rose goes to Devin, which we knew because the previews spoiled it. The second rose goes to Jonathan, breaking Grant’s heart. But instead of focusing on Grant, who seemed to fall for Jenn, the last two minutes are Spencer calling his mom crying. Why?
Next week, Jenn is meeting the families and it seems like everyone’s coming with tough questions. Devin is falling in love, Marcus is having doubts, and Jeremy’s family knows their son ain’t the final one. Excited to watch my favorite episode of every season unfold!
Our Next Bachelor
In unexpected news, Grant Ellis was named the next Bachelor on Monday night! I’m shocked but pleasantly surprised. After just being exposed in the LA Times for the way they consistently fumble in the cultural competency department, I didn’t think production would give us an Asian lead followed by a Black man.
I found Grant to be very sweet and genuine throughout Jenn’s season. He’s tall, has a great job as a day trader, and is very attractive. He fits the competitive athlete to finance bro to Bachelor pipeline we’re used to. He’s just got a little more melanin.
My only complaint about this announcement is how lowkey it was. I saw it unexpectedly when on Instagram before heading to bed and when I checked the official ABC accounts the news was posted, but then buried with posts about the Golden Bachelorette men. There’s nothing wrong with a social media announcement, but if you’re going to do that, do it right. Have Grant film one of those 50 rapid-fire question videos AD and Vogue do, or record the Zoom call where he finds out he was chosen and package it nicely, get him on the biggest Bachelor Nation podcast, and a segment on GMA for the morning after. This is a basic PR and social media strategy!
They’ve got plenty of time to get us excited about Grant, that’s not my concern. It’s just weird to hear showrunners and producers admit they made mistakes during virtually every lead of colors season and then turn around and give us an Asian lead with men who clearly were not cast for her whatsoever and the franchise’s second Black male lead with no real marketing strategy. Like I said last week, Jenn deserves better, and now, so does Grant.
What do you all think of this Bachelor announcement? Will you be tuning in for Grant’s season? And how are we feeling about Jenn’s final four? Let me know in the comments on this post, or if you got this in your email, reply to this email directly to let me know your thoughts!