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The Men Tell All episodes of the Bachelorette are the more difficult episodes for me to watch every season. They're super awkward and cringey, and I often fast-forward through huge chunks of the episode just to save myself from dying of second-hand embarrassment.
However, as I'm attempting to recap episodes for my capsule, I took notes as I watched and it actually really helped me get through some of the more awkward parts of the episode because I could divert my focus to the keyboard as I took note of the ridiculousness of what was going on.
Now, let's get into the actual episode, which started with us picking up where we left off with Aven's hometown. We're taken to Salem Massachusetts where they really played up the witches and 'cursed' nature of the place between the music and the date itself. They go to this witch's shop and she performed a love spell, and as she leaves the table upon which the spell was cast immediately collapsed. Honestly, pretty funny. But as a date, real lame.
However, the thing that stood out to me most during this hometown was how utterly terrified Rachel was that Aven's parents would dislike her. And I get it. After the trauma of Tino's hometown where his parents were really rude and downright mean at points, it's understandable that it would put her on edge before meeting Aven's parents. It also didn't help that Aven told Rachel that his parents have never met anyone he's brought home together or straight-up approved of anyone he's brought to meet them.
In the end though, Aven's parents were the best you can expect from parents of contestants on this insane show: normal. They weren't over-the-moon ecstatic about the whole process, but they didn't fully discount their son's feelings for Rachel. They asked the right questions (which Rachel again failed to really answer in a meaningful way), and concluded that they're just happy their son's happy. Overall, Aven's parents were awesome.
When we cut back to the live episode, we find out that there won't be a rose ceremony which is super weird, but also understandable. From the jump there weren't enough guys for TWO BACHELORETTES! Now we're heading to fantasy suites and these girls still know very little about any of their guys. I makes sense that they'd want to keep them all for another week to get a better idea about the guy who might be proposing to them at the end of this.
When we're finally introduced to all the men of the Men Tell All, we start off with a montage of a bunch of the guys being complete assholes to both Rachel and Gabby. It was really awkward watching the men watch themselves be shitty, but in the end they all profusely apologized for their behaviour and seemed genuinely remorseful.
We got Roby talking way too much, butting in every chance he got, and Ethan calling him out and telling him to talk less as he was sent home the first night. Thank you very much for that Ethan. They also address the fact that douchebag Hayden and misogynist Chris decided not to show and hearing the guys collectively shit on them was also a nice moment.
Then we get to Logan 'the flip-flopper'. He was all smiles the entire time, basking in the attention as he meandered his way through half-hearted apologies and explanations for his Rachel-to-Gabby flip so late in the season. It seemed like none of the guys were buying his 'feelings' explanation and I agree with the sentiment myself.
Then we get a 'life-changing' moment where everyone in the audience gets a free cruise. Um, OK? I don't know, it was real dumb. But we switch to Nate and put him on the hot-seat, and he just affirmed for me why he's literally the best. He spoke about the breakup with Gabby and he shed genuine tears recounting what had happened and how he felt. He addressed the stories that came out about his sketchy dating past and gave an explanation that made sense seeing as he was going through a divorce at the time and he had a daughter to think about. And we get a random shoutout from Alec saying he's a better man for knowing Nate and that was the cherry atop the 'Nate is the best' cake for me. Everyone loves Nate.
And, for the love of god, can we get Jesse to stop saying 'man tears'. They're just tears!
We got a sneak peek at the new season of Paradise, and I think I'm going to tune in. Looks hella dramatic and I enjoy Paradise way more than the normal Bachelor and Bachelorette seasons.
Finally, Gabby and Rachel appear, and there's some back-and-forth with some of the guys, but overall it wasn't too crazy. Like the rest of the episode it was just kind of boring. But hey, we got more goofy Gabby and sometimes that's all we need.
We got more sponsored content with the main characters of a new movie coming out called Bros. Again, super dumb and awkward, and also very boring. But I think the worst part was that Meatball poured marinara all over himself AGAIN! It's absolutely disgusting and it was truly low point of an already low episode.
We got another great Jesse moment where he told Rachel and Gabby how proud he was of them like a sweet Bachelor dad, and we finish it all off with a preview of the finale, which promises to be dramatic as hell.
Overall this episode was really quite boring, but it was nice to see Nate and Gabby again. Jesse was great as a host but I'm definitely ready for this season to be over so we can jump into Paradise.