'Apple-lutley' Loving This Season: Bachelorette 18, Episode 3
We're getting to know these guys a little better and seeing Michelle ain't playing no games.
If there’s one thing we (or at least I) learned this week, it’s that Michelle has no time for bullshit. How many times have we watched the lead say that this experience is serious to them and they’re not interested in bullshit, only for their season to get overrun by it? Beyond that, do y’all know how many times I let a man show me his obvious red flags before cutting him loose? TOO MANY! Meanwhile, Michelle does what needs to be done with the utmost class and care. I really love that for her.
We open with Michelle talking about how difficult the last rose ceremony was. She’s frustrated and conflicted on who in the house believes her, she isn’t sure who to trust, and doesn’t like knowing that the guys are questioning her character.
Back at the resort, Rodney and Casey are talking about what a mess the previous night was. I like that Casey said as a group the men messed up. From my perspective, it was definitely all on the men, namely Jamie and Martin.
Joe and the rest of the guys are chatting in a common area. Joe mentions that he’s frustrated that the men felt the need to talk about him instead of getting to know Michelle. Jamie says some foolishness about him being in a weird position because he had a one-on-one with Michelle so he knows her a lot better than the other men. Then we get a voiceover of Jamie admitting that he’s the one who told Michelle the house was questioning her relationship with Joe.
Kaitlyn comes in with the first date card of the week and says something cryptic about hoping to see everyone at the rose ceremony later in the week, essentially alluding that everyone might not make it through the week.
Top Gun: Maverick
It’s been a minute since we’ve gotten a group date that served as an ad for a movie. The last one I remember is the photoshoot date Hannah B. had with her men early on. This served as another signifier that the show is at least trying to get back to its own version of “normal.” Personally, I was not moved nor convinced to go see the new Top Gun movie because of this date. Jay Ellis is a fine, fine man, but not fine enough for me to go watch two hours of him in a fighter jet on a big screen.
I’m getting ahead of myself though, on the date: Martin, LT, Olu, Spencer, Clayton, Nayte, Joe, Rick, Will and, Peter.
Michelle arrives in a fucking plane and hops out like she isn’t dizzy and wasn’t just riding in seat two of a two-seat plane. A plane hanger opens and we see Glen Powell and Jay Ellis, pizza Peter is annoyingly excited.
The men put on these cute utility outfits and they all look great! They give each other nicknames and Peter gets to be called Dough Boy, which is an insult to actual doughboys from the hood everywhere.
They start legit working out and sweating in the hot California sun and Martin seizes an opportunity to not only stop sweating but to pull Michelle aside a create a special moment for the two of them. It works. He checks in with her after last night's ceremony and she thanks him for his encouraging comments during the rose ceremony and for pulling her aside to chat. Sometimes, you gotta make your own time and Martin understood the assignment!
Next, the men have to get in a G-Force simulator and tell Michelle how they feel about her. Essentially they have to get really dizzy, try not to puke, and confess their feelings for Michelle. This is the point where I realized this is a recycled date from Piolet Pete’s season of The Bachelor. Rick goes first and we can barely hear him, we see a few other men before focusing on Pizza man Peter, who says his piece to Michelle in Italian, smart move. Will goes next, and essentially does the same thing, but speaks in Spanish. He then translates for Michelle. As he slows down, Michelle asks if he needs a bucket to puke and without missing a beat, Will says “I need you.” A solid move.
Of course, this makes Peter, who also spoke in a different language, mad. Peter sets his sights on coming for Will’s (theoretical) neck. The men start doing some balance beam, knock ‘em down shit and they are coming at one another hard. There are a few matches and then we get Will vs. Peter, what a coincidence (🙄). Will kicks Peter’s ass, thrice, and wins the date for the night. He gets a cute bomber jacket and he and Michelle get to drive off to the nighttime portion of the date.
As the night unfolds, Will makes it known he’s coming for the rose. We finally see Clayton and Michelle get some true one-on-one time. He compliments her confidence and has her do her own G-Force spin challenge. She did not look into it at first, but by the end, she’s smiling, laughing and they share a kiss.
Nayte and Michelle spend some time together and it is so clear that they are leaps and bounds ahead of everyone. I still think it’s very much physical chemistry between the two of them though. All he does is laugh and smile at her, it’s a good feeling for sure, but it does not a relationship make.
Other front runner Joe checks in on her and asks if there’s anything he can do to help her feel better and comfortable. She compliments him and they share a kiss.
Now, we get Peter and Will fighting. They’re just talking over one another, saying literal nonsense. Peter keeps pushing this narrative of changing lives one slice at a time, but we don’t even know the name of his pizza shop. Imagine bringing up that you’re an entrepreneur so much and then not taking the opportunity to say the restaurant name at least once. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes, Peter.
Personally, I was Nayte during the entire conversation.
Martin and Michelle get a chance to connect and share a sweet moment. I would’ve thought Martin would be a hardass or trying too hard to be cool, but he actually seems really nerdy and sweet. I love the way he looks at her and Michelle looks a little nervous around him.
Back to pizza-preneur Peter who is up to some foolishness. He puts on Will’s jacket, makes the guys laugh a bit and Peter takes the jacket over to the pool and throws it in the pool. Will comes back and asks about the jacket and the men tell him what Peter did. He’s visibly upset and lowkey starts crying, which surprises me. I would have assumed Will didn’t care that much about the jacket, but maybe the stress of the show was getting to him, or maybe the fighting with Peter was actually deeper than the petty shit we’ve seen.
When Peter joins the men after his time with Michelle, Clayton confronts him about his actions and reminds him that all of their actions affect Michelle. Peter and his stupid outfit (seriously, why was he dressed like Carlton Banks?) take zero responsibility for his actions.
Michelle joins the men and hands out the group date rose to Martin for creating a private moment with her earlier in the day. Will doesn’t want to ruin Michelle’s night, so he keeps the Peter shit to himself. While Martin and Michelle are dancing to a beautiful live performance with violins. We see Will is fishing his jacket out of the pool.
Taste Test with Rodney
My favorite guy (for myself) gets the one-on-one date! As he’s getting ready, he says he's never been the tallest or most handsome in the room, but he’s an underdog and brings a lot to the table. I agree! He’s so goofy and just seems like a big teddy bear down to have fun.
First, Michelle has to be blindfolded while Rodney feeds her foods as she guesses what they are. Next, they’re handcuffed together—my literal nightmare— while they open a bunch of gifts boxes trying to find the key. Of course, a date with the goofy guy wouldn’t be complete without embarrassing him a bit. So, he has to strip naked and run around the hotel atrium while Michelle yells “this is our journey!” Honestly, I laughed.
Before departing for the nighttime portion the two connect and bond over their deepest fears. Rodney shares that he’s scared of dying before he becomes a husband and a father; honestly, same. I want to live a long full life and more than anything I want children (and a doggo!) of my own. Michelle shares that she has a fear of being complacent and that fear can stop her from enjoying where she’s at in life at any given moment, also relatable.
The couple is getting on a rickety boat to paddle (?) to a rickety platform where they’re supposed to have dinner. Absolutely not. Yacht size boats only, please.
As the date starts, Michelle shares that she loves how playful and funny Rodney is because she’s seen her family connect through laugher as well.
Rodney shares that he was raised by a single mother who worked hard to make sure he had the life he did, he tears up as he shares. He calls his mom his hero and Michelle says she relates to that feeling because of how her mom moves within the interracial relationship she has with her dad.
Michelle says she’s always appreciated her white mother sticking up for her Black dad in situations where some fuck shit was going on. I love the way this is addressed. I think as people, we’re always curious about interracial relationships, I know I am, especially during such a polarizing time in our country where Black people and other POC are very much living a different reality from our white peers. So, what that dynamic looks like in an interracial relationship matters.
This moment gave an opportunity for Michelle to (again) address dating outside her race and also address how she’s seen her parents’ interracial relationship work. I have a feeling I’ll be saying this a lot this season, but that insight matters. Michelle’s comment about her mother leads into a question Rodney has about what’s been missing in her previous relationships. Michelle shares that there was a time when she was at a grocery store and a woman called her the n-word. She came home clearly upset and her partner (who we are to assume was white) told her she was choosing to be upset about it and giving the woman too much power. Michelle says she had to justify her feelings, diminish them, and over-explain it to her partner instead of having the space to feel them and be (rightfully) upset.
Rodney relates to what Michelle shares and says he’s had similar experiences with his ex.
Michelle is ready to give out the rose and says she would ‘apple-lutley’ love if Rodney would accept the rose, he laughs, agrees and they embrace. Rodney says he’s developing feelings for Michelle that he could see turning into love. I melted into a puddle. Not sure he’ll be the one bending down on one knee at the end, but I hope we get to see more of Rodney, he’s great.
Express Yourself
This is a poetry date. Y’all, I love poetry, but there’s something about spoken word poetry that makes me roll my eyes, it’s so dramatic and just too much. I can’t take it seriously.
On the date is Jamie, Leroy, Chris G., Casey, Mollique, Chris S., Brandon, and Romeo. The men enter a makeshift theatre and Chris G. immediately starts freaking out because some man named Rudy Francisco is reciting a poem and they’re both spoken word poets. Good for your Chris, love this date for you.
The guys are challenged to write their own poems and to get vulnerable. First up is Brandon, he tries, he really tries, but y’all this was not it for me. Brandon strikes me as the kid in high school that tried really hard but just was not very bright.
We don’t really get to hear anyone else’s poem fully. Chris G’s speaking voice still reigns supreme, Mollique seems like his poem was a sad one, then Jamie gets up and chooses to not follow the assignment. Casey says that he’s preparing to be a motivational speaker/cult leader 😂! He tells a story that makes no sense; it sounds like a dream sequence you’d have after getting too drunk on red wine before falling asleep.
Last up is Michelle, her poem is about being a Black girl in a very white community, something incredibly relatable to me, as I grew up in white suburbia Indiana. She talks about being the token diversity girl growing up, being passed over for dates and invitations to prom, and ends saying that all she’s really after is love. When she finishes, we get Rick in his ITM saying “I won’t understand everything she’s been through, but I’m willing to listen and learn.” Good attitude, Rick! We’re still team Rick over here, guyliner and all.
The nighttime portion of the date is underway and Jamie is still talking 😒. I’m shocked at how quickly his confidence became cockiness.
Brandon connects with Michelle first. He relates to Michelle’s poem, he says he was a late bloomer too and went to predominately white schools. I do feel like the show is making it seem like only light skin people feel this type of isolation in predominately white rooms, schools, organizations, but I’d say it’s a feeling many of us who went to white high schools and PWIs (predominately white institutions) can relate to. It’s not that anyone is telling us how to be/not be Black, (although there’s plenty of that too) but constantly being an “other,” no matter what room you walk in, is exhausting and incredibly lonely.
Brandon goes on to say he wore braces all five years of school. Now, I assumed he was talking about high school y’all. Does this mean my mans was in high school for five years because honestly, that tracks. Michelle says she’s attracted to Brandon’s mind and I don’t really see it. I don’t think there’s much going on up there. He’s cute but corny. Brandon says he’s falling in love with Michelle.
The guys are speculating about who would get the group date rose because they’ve all had such a good date. Jamie is still talking about how much he and Michelle have connected, Casey is making jokes about being dressed like the couch, and Leroy gifts Michelle with kente cloth to celebrate her blackness. Can I just say, we need more of Leroy, immediately!
Michelle joins the men and Brandon gets his second group date rose of the season.
As the men head back to the hotel, Jamie pulls a producer aside and says he’s insulted that it seems like he’s ‘in the same league’ as Brandon. He continues by saying Michelle is in ‘spring break mode’ and I don’t even know what the fuck that means (going to those aforementioned white schools also meant I was never really invited on spring break trips).
Listen, to some extent, I get where Jamie is coming from. Brandon does not seem all the way there, so I imagine it’s hard to understand what the girl you like sees in another guy who is not like you. Still, these men have been there maybe a full calendar week at this point? Ten days max, it hasn’t been long enough for Jamie to be feeling this cocky.
Related, but not something we saw on TV, Jamie doubled down on his IG story about his choice to lie to Michelle and the men last week, so that was disappointing. It also looks like he’s a little bit of a science denier, just a baby bit. He’s really concerned about clean air, especially in poverty-stricken areas. I’m concerned about that as well, I reported about it for an entire year and published my findings. But he’s been insinuating on social media that communities don’t need vaccines, access to affordable healthcare, etc., just clean air, and well that’s where he loses me. I know y’all didn’t come here for that, but these people, even then “villains” get incredibly large platforms to say and do a lot of stuff and it can be frustrating when said stuff is problematic and not rooted in facts/the full picture.
Anyway, on to the rose ceremony!
Cocktail Party + Rose Ceremony
The men are a bit anxious going into this rose ceremony hoping another bomb won’t be dropped like last time. At this time, the men still don’t know who spoke to Michelle about the house questioning her character.
Jamie says he’s just worried about being himself, which literally means nothing to us at this point because he’s a liar and purposefully mean.
Michelle comes down the stairs looking as bright as the rock she’s about to end the season with (this is my assumption, not a spoiler, I don’t know if she’s engaged).
Nayte whisks Michelle away shortly after the toast is given. They joke about running away and then they actually do it, frolicking through the damn resort campus like a cameraman won’t be forced to carry some heavy ass equipment as they chase after them. Nayte says they balance one another out and Michelle says she trusts him. Again, they gotta be thinking with their body parts because beyond that night one conversation, we’ve only seen them make out.
Rick uses his time to let her know that the men were not questioning her character and that the person who shared that with her was probably trying to start drama. Michelle tells him Jamie is the one who said the men in the house were questioning her. Rick is shocked and Michelle says she’s starting to see a red flag.
Rick goes back to Nayte and Casey telling them Jamie started the shit. Nayte says he wants to address it straight up with Jamie (king behavior—Nayte knows how to play the game). They call Jamie over and ask what he said to Michelle, Jamie takes some time to think of his lie. He eventually says something about how the speculation (which was exactly one conversation between him, Martin, Mollique, and Spencer) happening in the house was too much and therefore her relationship/connection to Joe became the focal point of conversations amongst the men. Nayte asks Jamie what conversations were being had that made him feel that way and Jamie says he wasn’t actually part of any conversations. It’s getting messier by the minute.
Jamie goes down this path about trying to clear up something for us, the viewers, but that didn’t stick, or make any sense.
Eventually, Nayte asks if he’s threatened by Joe and Jamie says ‘why would I be threatened?’ BECAUSE YOU CLEARLY ARE BRO!
The men all join one another in the main room and they’re all firing questions at Jamie about why he never spoke up about his part in making Michelle upset last week. Meanwhile, Michelle tells Tayshia and Kaitlyn that she found out from Rick that Jamie was a lying ass hoe. Joe says what Jamie did was snake-like before Michelle joins the men and immediately senses tension.
Jamie speaks up and essentially says he ain’t name names (which is technically true) and asks Michelle if that’s the conversation she remembers. Michelle shares that when Jamie and she spoke he said the house was questioning her relationship with Joe and also shared that a friend from the area saw Michelle already booed up with some other guy before her season started filming. Jamie said he did it all to be proactive and to protect Michelle from potential rumors (rumors that he started). Michelle says that what actually happened is that Jamie created a problem when there wasn’t one.
Michelle pulls Jamie to go talk privately and she says Jamie put all of this info out there that questioned Michelle’s character instead of addressing Michelle directly. Michelle says she doesn’t trust Jamie and so he’s got to go. She wastes no time when she sees a red flag and I’m here for it, but I was shocked to see Jamie go because I thought Michelle really liked him and would be blinded by her feelings for him. Michelle says she’s really upset, but she understands that it was all Jamie. Martin comes out unscathed!
For the second week in a row, Michelle decides to cancel the cocktail party. As the men line up for the rose ceremony, she says trust makes or breaks a relationship and that her soulmate is someone she’ll be able to completely trust. Her saying this reminded me that it’s week three and we have not heard her say that she believes her husband is among this group of men. That might mean something, it might mean nothing, but I’m gonna put it out there because similar to Jamie, I like to be a little messy.
As she hands out the roses, Joe gets the first one, then Rick, Leroy, Nate, and six other men. The final rose goes to Will, meaning Pizza Pete is going home, Mollique, LT, and Spencer. Michelle says she feels good about the men who are left.
Next week, it looks like Martin is getting a one-on-one and that several other people are getting some extended alone time with Michelle. Chris S., who we literally haven’t heard from at all starts some drama and it seems like Nayte might take the bait and get wrapped up in it. Rise above, Nayte!
I’ve been enjoying this season so far, it’s mindless, mostly petty drama, rather than the life-altering stuff we got during Matt James’ season, and Michelle is handling everything with so much class! How are you feeling about the season so far?