ABC’s The Bachelorette dived right into week 6, as Jojo took the remaining contenders with her to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Here, the guys find out that for the first time in the show’s history, there would be a second two-on-one date.
The episode kicks off with Jojo meeting up with host Chris Harrison for the ritual weekly rundown on what’s going to be going on during their week in Argentina. Jojo joked about the fact that she could potentially fall in love with two guys, just as Ben Higgins had done with her and Lauren on last season of The Bachelor (which evidently didn’t turn out too well for Jojo). Jojo explains that she is a bit nervous seeing as Robby was the first guy to confess his love for her last week. Clearly she is anticipating a snowball effect, as her and the contestants’ feelings begin to intensify seeing as they are already more than halfway through the whole process.
Shortly after meeting with Jojo, Chris heads over to meet up with the final 8 contestants. He tells them that there will be a one-on-one, a group date and a two-on-one date this week. The guys are all notably shaken by the fact that at least one of them will be sent home before this week’s cocktail party and rose ceremony.
The first date of the week goes to radio DJ Wells, who [not so wisely] reveals to the other men that he has yet to kiss Jojo. Conveniently enough, the date card he receives reads “Besame. Besame, muchacho,” which basically means that Jojo is more-than-ready for Wells to finally plant one on her!
Jojo and Wells head out to a local street market, where things are inevitably awkward. In confessional, Wells confesses that he is a nervous wreck as he is waiting for the perfect moment to have his highly anticipated first kiss with the bachelorette. Afterwards, they wind up at a performance arts theatre and have some fun while trying out different theatrical pieces. They end up getting splashed around in a suspended water-filled slide-and-slide like contraption. Following some splashing around and cuddling up to each other in the water, Wells finally goes in for the kiss. This prompts Jojo to playfully – but also awkwardly – exclaim that the moment had arrived and she finally got what she was waiting (i.e. a kiss from Wells). Unfortunately, things only got worse when the duo headed to the evening dinner portion of their date. When conversing about previous relationships and their perspective on love, Jojo and Wells clearly have different views on the connection they have established thus far. In the end, Jojo opts not to give Wells the date rose and he is sent packing (which is what some of his fellow contestants had wagered back at their hotel after they found out he hadn’t kissed her yet).
The next date of the episode is the group date, which includes: Jordan, Luke, Robby, James and Alex. With Jojo, the group of five men went exploring the city and also played a little game of soccer with some of the Argentinian locals. Right off the bat James confesses to the one-on-one camera that he feels out of place with his fellow cast mates. He literally says he feels as though he somehow “snuck on to a set he is not supposed to be on,” as he doesn’t see himself as the ‘cool dude’ that the rest of the guys seem to be. Meanwhile, Robby is busy bragging about himself being the clear frontrunner in confessional.
During the evening portion of the date Jojo gives each of the men an opportunity to have some quality time with her (mostly so that she can decide who to give the group date rose to). James takes this as an opportunity to take down Jordan by telling Jojo about a fight he had with him over a game of poker. It becomes pretty evident that he is using the story as a mode for him to bash Jordan for his good looks and semi-famous family connections (note: Jordan is a former professional football player and is brothers to pro-NFL player Aaron Rodgers). Jojo decides to confront Jordan about James’ claims and basically just asks him if he was acting entitled during the said poker game. Jordan unsurprisingly plays the whole thing off and acts naïve, telling Jojo “I don’t even know [what entitled] means.” Fortunately for Jordan, Jojo seems to get over the whole situation when she sees how huffy-puffy Jordan begins getting over what James had said.
While Jojo and Luke enjoy a steamy make out session, Jordan confronts James about what he had told Jojo in front of Robby and Alex. Like the rest of Bachelor nation, Alex thoroughly enjoys the show Jordan and James put on for him [and Robby]. When Jojo and Luke return, Jojo makes the announcement that Luke earned the group date rose.
The final date of the week is the dreaded two-on-one, which was includes Jojo, Derek and Chase. In probably the most awkward date that the Bachelor team could possibly of put together, the trio go to dance lessons where they attempt to learn how to tango. Basically Derek and Chase spend their time staring enviously at each other as they each have their separate turns dancing with Jojo.
After their dance lessons, the three of them go to the dinner portion of their date. Derek was the first one to speak privately with Jojo. Right off the bat he begins professing his notably intense feelings for the bachelorette, which clearly stem from the overconfidence he had been boasting in confessional previously in the episode (i.e. he called the two-on-one date a one-on-one date because he didn’t even consider Chase as a contender).
Meanwhile, Chase is more laidback when talking one-on-one with Jojo. Inevitably, Jojo seems to be rather apprehensive towards Chase, as he is clearly not one to just pour his heart out (as Derek just did). After some prying, Chase finally opens up and tells Jojo all that she wants to hear in order to win some intimate time with her.
In the end, Jojo awards the two-on-one date rose to Chase, which means that Derek is sent home. After Jojo walks Derek out to the limo, he gives Bachelor nation the first real teary exit of the season. Much to audience members’ delight, his tears were mixed together with a series of shots of Chase and Jojo lovingly dancing to “Don’t Cry For Me, Argentina.”
Lastly, the episode finished off with the weekly cocktail party and rose ceremony. With Luke and Chase already holding roses, it came down to choosing between Jordan, Robby, James and Alex. As most fans have already determined, Jordan and Robby are the clear front-runners and Jojo awards them the first two roses of the evening. She then proceeds to run off and cry to Chris Harrison, as she really didn’t know whom she wanted to send home (out of Alex and James). With Wells and Derek already sent home this week, Jojo decides to give both Alex and James a rose. However, in confessional Alex expresses his frustration as he claims the roses were given to him and James out of “pity.” Nonetheless, this leaves the following contestants in the quest for Jojo’s heart: Luke, Chase, Jordan, Robby, Alex and James.
You can catch more of The Bachelorette when it returns in two weeks on Monday, July 11 on ABC.
In Two Weeks on The Bachelorette:
With just six suitors left, Jojo narrows down the group to the final four.
Justin Bieber was rather vocal about his man love for Chad Johnson so he’s been missing the guy, but this season’s bad boy had some nice things to say about one of the contestants.
It seems the guy had his own mancrush on Luke pell who he feels is the hottest looking guy remaining for JoJo Fletcher to choose from.
“He’s not a bad looking dude,” Johnson, 28, admitted. “You know, he’s a little weird and sketchy sometimes but he’s not a bad looking dude.”
The kind remarks stopped there though, as Johnson alleged that the other men on the show are a bunch of lying cheaters, who dumped girlfriends for a chance on the small screen.
“I’m the only one with an actual real reason for coming on the show to meet somebody,” he charged, asserting that viewers have misconceptions about his personality.
“People think I’m this violent, crazy person,” he continued, before explaining that, “I treat my women very well, that’s my thing.”
The audience has had a much different reaction, although Justin Bieber must love his men like straight trade where they can turn violent on your ass in a New York minute. Usually when they’re done with you.
Now for the fun and most awkward moments of “The Bachelorette” Season 12 Episode 6:
7. Shilling SUPER HARD for Argentina
Argentina must have taken out a huge ad buy, because I can’t remember another episode where the location got pushed so hard. The in-episode commercial came at the very beginning and was longer than usual. “Argentina is a great place to find love” and its variants were invoked numerous times throughout the episode. The “sponsored by” bits are always awkward, and this one seemed relatively sincere as far as paid promotion goes – Argentina is genuinely beautiful – but all I could think about was how much more Argentina paid to get a better ad. I want to know the rates!
6. “Bésame, bésame muchacho”
JoJo’s date card message to Wells – “bésame, bésame muchacho,” Spanish for “kiss me, kiss me boy,” – is a botched reference to a famous song called “Bésame Mucho.” You’ve probably heard it.Here’s a beautiful version by the Brazilian singer João Gilberto. I suspect that JoJo or whomever wrote the card for JoJo half-forgot that “Bésame Mucho” exists and wrote down a familiar-feeling phrase, getting it sort of wrong in the process and annoying me. Perhaps I’m not giving The Bachelorette producer who planned this date enough credit and is in fact an intentional reference. If you’re the producer and I’m wrong, email me at liam.mathews@cbsinteractive.com and let me know. But I’m probably not wrong.
5. James and Jordan’s poker beef
James, sensing his days are numbered, attempted to sabotage the frontrunner by talking bad about Jordan to JoJo during his one-on-one time. Leah used a similar tactic with Ben againstLauren on The Bachelor last season, to disastrous result. It didn’t work at as badly for James – he got to stay, after all – but it did make for a tense group date cocktail party. The actual conflict was a little confusing: James and Jordan disagreed about the rules during a poker game, and Jordan acted “entitled.” Really it was James’ insecurity about not being as good-looking and cool and famous as Jordan, and he wanted JoJo to know that Jordan knows he’s good-looking and cool and famous. Jordan called James “pathetic” in a way that allows him plausible deniability if he’s ever criticized for calling James “pathetic,” and JoJo pretended to care while she stroked Jordan’s floppy hair. The best part was Alex and Robby sitting back and watching James and Jordan take shots at each other like “hmm, interesting!” Hopefully, this was just for the cameras and James and Jordan are still friends! James is nice! He shouldn’t do stuff like this!
4. The two-on-one was too boring
Remember Alex and Chad’s two-on-one just two episodes ago? That was a great two-on-one. Those dudes legitimately hated each other. The tension on their date was palpable. You can look at a still image from that date and say, “oh, that looks like a miserable situation.” This two-on-one was positively soporific compared to that one. Chase is an inarticulate charisma vacuum, and Derek is interesting in his own way but he freezes up around JoJo. The show took an unprecedented step of doing two two-on-ones in a season in order to create drama, but it backfired. They should have sent Alex instead of Chase. Alex is a jackass, but he would have at least goaded Derek into doing something interesting.
3. Derek’s kind of weird
The first intimation I had that Derek might be a little eccentric came back in Episode 4 when he told Chad “perception is reality” when Chad was confronting him about thinking Chad was scary or whatever. But this week his slight eccentricity was on display during and after the two-on-one. When they were tangoing, he said Chase was “in his head, I’m in my heart,” which was an interesting turn of phrase. Later, he was saying mild swear words at odd times. He referred to JoJo’s beautiful “damn eyes” when he and JoJo were “freakin’ sitting” together. Then, after JoJo chose Chase and she put Derek in a minivan to whisk him off to the airport, he said “I wasn’t enough. I thought I was, but I’m not. I’m Derek. And Derek is imperfect.” Derek talks about himself in third person. Liam thinks that’s weird, Derek.
2. JoJo makes them wait
Before giving out the last rose in an opulent room that seems to be the inspiration for Game of Thrones‘ just-destroyed Great Sept of Baelor, JoJo was like “I can’t” and walked outside, leaving the guys to stand there like “ummm, what’s going on here?” Chris Harrison was like “JoJo, whassamatter?” and she was like “I can’t, Chris.” They came up with a plan, and then she came back in. At first it seemed like she was going to eliminate both Alex and James and I got excited, but then she gave them both roses and I was disappointed.
1. The saga of Wells’ first kiss
When Wells was summoned for his one-on-one, it came to light that Wells and JoJo had not yet kissed. The other guys were like “whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat.” Alex asked “What if you kiss and there’s no sparks?” because Alex is rude. When JoJo came to the guys’ suite to pick him up, the other guys were cracking jokes at his expense. Wells was super nervous and in his head about having to kiss her, so much so that his hands were shaking when he and JoJo left for their date. They went to Fuerza Bruta, and Wells was overthinking it, not kissing her because he was waiting for the perfect moment. There was one cringe-inducing moment when he almost kissed her at what would have been the perfect moment, but then he chickened out and chastely gave her a peck on the cheek. The pressure kept building and building. Then when he finally kissed her, she yelled out “That was the moment, Wells! That was the moment! You did it!” Not what a guy wants to hear when he kisses a girl for the first time. That first kiss ended up being the last, as she declined to give him a rose. Womp womp.
This was a great awkward moment because it was relatable in a way the show usually is not. First kiss insecurity is real, especially for people who think rather than act like Wells. We’ve all waited for a perfect moment that never came, or did come and we let it pass. It was also narratively organic, naturally occurring early relationship awkwardness. The producers didn’t have to do much manipulating to make drama. And it was sweet. It was the only good part of the episode. I’m going to miss Wells.