Wonderful! - Ep. 76: Onion Time

Episode Date: June 29, 2017

In this feature-length Rose Buddies, we break down the two episodes of Bachelorette that aired this week. I don't know if the Congressional Medal of Honor has ever been awarded for recapping four hour...s of garbage-time television, but hey, there's a first time for everything. Additional reading: http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-vexing-racial-politics-of-this-seasons-bachelorette https://theringer.com/the-bachelorette-episode-6-recap-rachel-lindsay-170377b84594 http://www.thedailybeast.com/the-bachelor-franchise-is-exploiting-race-for-ratings https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/28/arts/television/bachelorette-rachel-lee-kenny.html https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/06/the-bachelorette-reveals-itself-for-what-it-is/532002/ MaxFunDrive ends on March 29, 2024! Support our show now by becoming a member at maximumfun.org/join.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Maybe, maybe you should go and do some contemplating. Right reasons, right reasons. Me and my girl were all the right reasons. Right reasons, right reasons. Me and my girl were all the right reasons. I'm the best of it, and I'm rapping to your poolside. Here to find truth. Hi, this is Rachel McElroy.
Starting point is 00:00:18 Hi, this is Griffin McElroy. And this is Rose Bettys. It's a television show about a young couple. It's a television, it's not a television show. Oh, couple. It's a television? It's not a television show. Oh, Rachel's shaking her head. No, it's not a television show. It's a podcast about a young couple with a challenging relationship with a gigantic television show. And their effort to find love in all the wrong places.
Starting point is 00:00:40 See, I've added the last part's definitely not true, right? Like, I'm not looking for love in really any places because. Will they, won't they? Wait, they already did. I found love in a hopeless place. Was it a hopeless place? It was. The day we met, I had come to town for South by Southwest.
Starting point is 00:00:59 And I had maybe the worst diarrhea I've ever had in my entire life. Do you remember? The really bad. Do you remember they're really bad do you remember i remember hearing about it and thinking this man must not be interested in me because he's talking about diarrhea in front of me and we just met no i you know i don't hide my shit um yeah we were at liberty bar when we were at a concert and i had the worst diarrhea my whole life and it was a homeless place for me and but we found it in any way we're i don't know what to talk about in the intro we're going to talk about the bachelorette two of them two episodes of it monday and tuesday of them usually we do one of them and it takes us six
Starting point is 00:01:35 hours to do that and so this will be a 12 this will be a half day one so go ahead and do a little bit of meal prep depending on what time you start it, you may need breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Sort of set up for you. Go water your plants. Go take a big piss. Macklemore. And like his song. And then let's go start doing it. Doing the thing.
Starting point is 00:01:55 Okay. So episode five picks up on that 13-man group date. I forget Monday's episode completely, babe. Lee and Kenny. Babe, I can't remember it at okay i do remember it fuck yeah kenny has pulled lee away from the group to have a conversation with him um i feel like we should say like can we just talk about like kenny and lee up front real quick and like we're gonna be talking about a lot this episode and so like hopefully not too much yeah but i mean it was the it was the complete basic first episode it was completely monday's episode and then tuesday's episode they dealt with it and it's it's over right for better or
Starting point is 00:02:37 well i guess for better it's over um but we're gonna be talking about a lot and like i don't know what's left to say about it except how like gross and awful and shitty it is. And like, I feel like I want to move through it as fast as possible. Not not because like, I want to avoid talking about it and like, you know, focus on the great stuff about this great TV show. But just because like, I don't know what's left to say. And I'm so fucking tired of talking about it let's let's go quick uh so this at this moment kenny pulls lee away because he thinks that they have squashed the beef uh but then when rachel brings it up he becomes clear that they have not um he says he thought it was a dead issue it is clearly not a dead issue um and this is where the introduction of the snake thing becomes very big um a lot of snake name calling uh kenny calls lee a snake several times i just want to point out in the commercial for this episode and we talked about this in the last um the last episode of rose buddies was like showing this confrontation and then all the dudes getting together and then kenny having a bleeding eye and we'll be talking
Starting point is 00:03:48 about that later but like i want it to be like i don't want anybody to have anxiety listening to this like kenny and lee never get in a physical altercation at all and it i mean it's just another case of bachelor like you know doing those edits that they should do every fucking time only this time without any regard for like the broader context of what they're doing yeah um they exchange some words um we get some inner inner clips of people like will saying that lee is his own worst enemy um broadly speaking nobody's like um we do have the conversation between will and lee after this all kind of settles down somewhat um after like kenny comes back in from this like confrontation uh calls him b word like a lot of times is a lot it happens a lot of times this
Starting point is 00:04:42 episode and they you know lee continues to try to provoke him and then they sort of go their separate ways and back at the house i guess lee and will have this conversation that we've seen teased a couple times where will kind of clues him into like you can't just like call a black dude aggressive on tv because of what that means yeah so the group date rose goes to brian all right there's a that's right i forgot there was a game yeah i forgot about that um rachel leaves and then uh kenny gives a little speech about how great a guy brian is and not at all snaky and then lee clearly recognizes this is directed at him he says he's just a fuck you i prefer oh you don't like the f word to say f you all right i feel like it's you know should
Starting point is 00:05:34 i avoid that we have a baby now bring some civility should i not cuss anymore we have a kid i don't even think this is the first time it's happened like this thought has crossed my mind on this podcast we're recording maybe we should talk about this off the air i just haven't even think this is the first time this happened. Like this thought has crossed my mind on this podcast we're recording. Maybe we should talk about this off the air. I just haven't even thought about it. I can't imagine that Henry will ever listen to this podcast. I know, but like in general, if I like burn my hand on the stove and I yell, you know, piss. We got a few more years.
Starting point is 00:05:57 Well, I would yell like piss because of the funny way that Macklemore said it in the song one time. But yeah, it's food for thought, food for thought. I think we got a couple of years before you have to worry about that can i cuss at somebody else's baby yes okay all the time um so so yeah so kenny calls um lee the b word um a lot of several times a lot of the dudes actually like he whispers it kenny really gets like um it really like just starts laying it on i feel like a little bit here like really answers to the provocation that lee is um laying down and like there's a lot of dudes in the house who are just like cracking up at at lee getting kind of um talked down to by kenny this much peter says something that i think is interesting peter tells us the viewer he says lee is making himself
Starting point is 00:06:53 relevant by making kenny so angry well yeah lee's only relevance is making kenny angry right now i want to yeah and again like this is why this is so like um there's a lot of shit in the mix right now because doing things to be relevant may as well be the title of the television show we're watching because every anytime you think like fucking iggy gave a shit about like the things that were happening no like he got in to uh to quote i forget who said it but he got in the sauce eric i think eric i think said it he got in the sauce to fucking stay in the episode um to stay in to like not end up on the cutting room floor to maybe get a spot on the next bit to like yeah forward his fucking um you know energy drink
Starting point is 00:07:44 that he's gonna start with short for something it is i don't know what though i'm sorry um that's the reason that anything happens on this show for any reason but like it it's it is completely inappropriate for them to treat there's so much stuff like that that keeps happening this season that it's completely inappropriate because of the like racial tensions that are also stirred up by that shit some good articles yeah we're gonna make that point this is by the way maybe the most mainstream press i've ever seen yeah like respond to an episode after monday we were getting worried because there like wasn't much of anything we thought there was a lot to talk about and then after the tuesday episode it was like, boom.
Starting point is 00:08:27 Yeah, everybody was getting this piece ready. So we get a break from Lee and Kenny because it's time for the one-on-one with Jack Stone. Oh, man. They are still in Bluffton. Jack Stone and Rachel are taking a carriage ride. And Rachel talks about how they should have so much in common. She's telling us, the viewers, they're both attorneys. They're both in Dallas.
Starting point is 00:08:53 They're about the same age. But she says she's kind of waiting for some kind of spark with Jack Stone. The only sparks were the ones coming off of her wet stone as she fucking sharpened the edge of her fucking axe that ben higgins handed down to her because these two episodes were an absolute like yeah this starts the bloodbath so they go to a quote shucking and shagging event they eaten oysters and i guess doing what's the carolina shag um apparently our friend eric knows it but he was late so he didn't get to show off his dance skills eric that'll teach you um so they they dance or they learn how to dance jack is not an especially good dancer
Starting point is 00:09:39 he like specifically like does not want to dance and that's always such a you gotta go for it you gotta try to to shag oh you know hey can i say something like do you fancy a shag baby from uh austin powers who throws his shoe shag i worked shag in there at the end so it would stay relevant you're forgetting the forgetting the big other thing. Oh, which is, do I make you, what is it? Shagadelic.
Starting point is 00:10:12 Shagadelic, baby. I can't believe I fed that to you. I did not want to support this endeavor. I know I wanted you to say shagadelic. That's why I pretended. Austin Powers 4, where is it? This podcast has made me extremely independently wealthy i will crowdfund anything mike myers mike myers i need to pull you out of the gong show i gotta reach my arm deep
Starting point is 00:10:30 deep in that television show he is using the gong show to get enough money to make we've talked about this it's definitely what's up okay star-studded cast maybe it's good i made rachel choke on bile so rachel is sick also worth mentioning uh there's a point when she's kind of sniffly and she says i'm contagious and he hugs and kisses her anyway um and i would not fuck with that you know me i know and i know you if you've got the sniffles and a cough or an erpy tummy, I just steer clear because I know that you don't want that energy around you. My like, oh, come on, babe. I still think you're beautiful.
Starting point is 00:11:12 Let me massage your dewy skin. You don't want that when you've got herpy guts. I know you. It's a lot of word choice in that sentence. It makes me uncomfortable. Using dewy and herpy in the same sentence, I don't like. I really kind of described you as sort of just like a wet
Starting point is 00:11:28 sort of gurgling mass. This is what marriage is like for all those that aren't married. It's a delight every day. Every day. Every wet day. Ew. What happened next?
Starting point is 00:11:45 So night portion, Jack says that he can definitely see himself falling for Rachel. Rachel feels like they are missing the romantic aspect, kind of the passion that she's looking for. The only love that exists here is Jack Stone's love. I love parents. Does your dad have a good sense of humor? I love parents. I love parents. Shagadelic.
Starting point is 00:12:14 What's that? That's AP4's new tagline. No, no. Okay. But I love parents. Okay, babe. God, I love parents. I love parents.
Starting point is 00:12:22 Oh, my dad. I love parents. I love parents. You know what I love parents. I love parents. Oh, my dad. I love parents. I love parents. You know what I love? Drinking beverages. No. You know? Mm-mm.
Starting point is 00:12:35 You know what I love? What's that? Just being comfortable. I love the way it takes 20 minutes to order a sandwich. I love the way you, the take, it takes 20 minutes to order a sandwich. I love the way you, the rest of this, Harry met Sally, and then I'll say I love parents at the end of it
Starting point is 00:12:50 as the completion of the joke in the reference. See, I was saying. And then can we edit that one? Jerry, can we edit that one in? ADR that one in for me later? My joke was that saying that you love parents is similar to saying that you love anything. Yeah. Anything that everybody loves. saying that you love parents is similar to saying that you love anything yeah um anything that
Starting point is 00:13:06 everybody loves what if you said i love parents no no no you don't understand you don't understand i can't wait to meet your parents because i love parents i need parents i need i need parents. I'm Jack Stone, attorney at law. I need and love parents. What is this podcast? We've been doing this for two minutes, just saying I love parents at each other. Can this be the new podcast? Just what if we find moments in cinema and television and just sort of do some scat where it's just,
Starting point is 00:13:43 I love parents. What happened next on Jack Stone's day? Meet the parents. Oh, that's good. Jack goes home. Next day, Jack went home. She didn't love him. Okay, so this is the final nail in the coffin for Jack Stone.
Starting point is 00:13:54 So Rachel gives him what could be a softball and says, all right, let's say we get away from Dallas. What would we do? And Jack Stone says, I'd lock the door and we just lay in bed and talk wait what did you not see this i didn't i didn't this must have been when i was walking back over from from our friend's house he said well first i'd lock the door you missed that oh it was a treat though receiving that gift from you firsthand. And he said, you know, and then we just lay in bed and talk.
Starting point is 00:14:29 If we could get out of Dallas. Is that what she said? Yeah. So take me away from Dallas. Okay. We're out of Dallas. We've left Dallas. We're going on a trip.
Starting point is 00:14:38 I'm going to lock you in a bed. But we just left Dallas. Like you could lock me in a bed in Dallas. Yeah. No. But we just left Dallas. Like, you could lock me in a bed in Dallas. Yeah. No, and that's why she kind of says, like, I don't want to waste your time anymore. She says that that date to her sounds like a real window into what their relationship would be like. And it is not anything she's interested in. No, joking aside, like, they just, there's a few times on this show where it's just like y'all like y'all don't
Starting point is 00:15:05 have anything in common and because it's also because we're at that point in the season now i feel like i know who the top four maybe five are gonna be and everybody else who's not in that top four maybe five well you know what there's at the end of there's six there's six people left i guess it's not that impressive but we've known we've known for a while now right and so there's like there's a mix now of dead weight and there's a mix of people who are just kind of middle of the pack who are cool dudes. But they're not the ones who, when you see them on camera with Rachel, you say they are going to be married. Yeah, she says that she's looking for an X factor and that she didn't feel the X factor with him. And she can't give him a rose.
Starting point is 00:15:43 X factor and that she didn't feel the X factor with him and she can't give him a rose. Um, and she's like, I want you to know your worth, but when it comes to us, um, I don't feel it. Send some home.
Starting point is 00:15:51 Yeah. Uh, while this is going on, this is where we get to see the conversation, um, between, um, Will and Kenny or Will and Lee.
Starting point is 00:16:10 Um, and this is when they're talking on the balcony and they talk about lee calling kenny aggressive this is the point where like if you were if you're in the house right or if you're watching the show without the without like um dissecting these events with the lens of you know racial context um and you don't know about his tweets and you don't know that he's a huge fucking bigot so like pretend you're somebody in the house right and maybe it's not apparent to you um i don't see how he says this and you're not like, oh, that's your deal. Okay, cool. Yeah, Will, to his credit, has an incredible amount of patience because Lee is trying to get Will to say that Kenny is aggressive.
Starting point is 00:16:59 And Will won't say it. And he explains that when you say he's aggressive, there's a longstanding history in America of black men being called aggressive. And he's trying to explain to Lee, like, that word is loaded in so many ways. And Will to the camera says, you know, Lee's just not familiar uh with a lot of things he's ignorant um and this is when the race card thing yeah lee says oh i didn't know he was playing the race card i i think i mean nobody's arguing at this point that lee is not a racist because it seems pretty clear that Lee is racist. Also notable about Lee is he has the least amount of empathy. Sure. And just interest in understanding another person.
Starting point is 00:17:52 Weird how those two go in as often as they do. I know. It seems like not even worth saying, but I just think about that a lot. I feel like it's such a common form of racism of like um i say i say something racist and then the the people group who are like the the target of that say like hey here's why that was problematic and then i say like you telling me it's problematic oh well that's the race card instead of like taking a fucking second to like think like hmm will is going above and beyond to try and get lee to understand where kenny is coming from something he doesn't have to do something that is just unfair of him to have to do in the first place in 2017 um and lee just he's not having any of it and it's
Starting point is 00:18:47 what is like also like bonkers about this is like i don't think on the on you're on the ground right imagine you're lee uh god forbid but um what did kenny do to play the race car like kenny didn't do fucking anything to play like kenny kenny didn't step up to him and say like you can't call me aggressive and kenny didn't go to rachel and say like he's calling me aggressive and you know what that means like you know you understand the context of it he didn't even say that nobody's confronted lee about being racist nobody's done anything it's this is this is how fucking like fragile he is is somebody says a black man tells him like hey just so you know there's here's some context for why what you said it is affecting him as strongly as it is
Starting point is 00:19:32 and that is enough for him to be like playing the race card though huh like yeah that is that's that's confusing it didn't make any sense at all it's not just confusing it is like it paints um confusing it didn't make any sense at all it's not just confusing it is like it paints um it paints a clear clear portrait of the type of dude that lee is um and the portrait stinks like shit you said that like that was gonna be your new catchphrase no it's just um i wanted to drive it home you know uh so we go straight to the rose ceremony uh rachel knows who she wants to send home gets rid of the cocktail party she sends iggy home and tickle monster jonathan goes home and there's this kind of kind of charming moment where as he's leaving, he's like, one last time. And he tickles her. I have to think she knew what that meant.
Starting point is 00:20:28 And all the guys clap. Yeah, everybody clapped for him. He tickled her and she cracks up and gives him a big hug. And it was a surprisingly emotional send-off for somebody whose career was Tickle Monster. And this is where the guys find out, next stop, Norway. Norway. Are we leaving the country norway kill me um just fucking kill me hey griff find out brian is getting a one-on-one all right i don't remember anything about it uh so she knows that they have a physical connection but she wants to
Starting point is 00:21:20 see if she can get beyond that so they ride a bus which i thought was very like kind of nice no helicopter no sports car just a bus uh and they take a tram to the olympic ski jump okay i remember and they just they are going to repel down it which is weird they're not going to ski jump off it is it operational it didn't look operational i think it's just like a high place tourists can visit now. That's good. There's an interesting article I read once that I really only looked at the pictures, and it was a long time ago, and I don't know why I'm referencing it, but it's about what happens to these superstructures that they build for the Olympics that then they do not like.
Starting point is 00:22:00 And it's not everywhere, but there are places. I would watch a whole documentary about that. There are places where they build build these like huge pools right and then like we're not gonna fucking pay to up keep it when the olympics aren't there and then what happens to those buildings that just happened in rio you remember seeing the footage of like all those places immediately falling apart no olympics were over i didn't missed it kind of dark her name is rio you remember that song by duran duran uh-huh you okay i've just talked so much today i know the ski jump is 187 feet high and this is i enjoyed this little moment i was talking to griffin about it uh and she says has nobody thought about the significance of 187 and the producer says what's 187 and rachel says very
Starting point is 00:22:47 loudly murder like the dr dre song you gotta put me on blast for this huh because that was my 187 reference yeah because see there's the line 187 on an undercover cop yeah which i knew you feel good when you know a cultural reference that i don't i feel like sometimes yeah that's true um i just do it from one eight seven five three oh no you know that's eight six seven i know i wanted it so bad to be true can't blow my nose uh-huh it's right next to you so they rappel down. Did you see me throw my tissue on the ground like I'm in the fucking Outback Steakhouse?
Starting point is 00:23:29 Wait, they don't do it there, do they? You're in trouble. Where do they do it? Are you talking about peanut shows? Yeah. Yeah, like roadhouses. Roadhouses. If you don't do it at Outback Steakhouse...
Starting point is 00:23:43 I'm gonna go to an Applebee's and be like yeah pick that shit up i don't even think they have peanuts pick up my nut mess do they have what's i don't think they do i would bring them from home yeah it's my peanuts that i brought from home okay so they repel they kiss while they're repelling uh every time they i it i have a pretty like thick skin for this stuff now but these two's kisses um and she doesn't kiss she doesn't smooch anybody else like like this i see the underside of his tongue it's weird it's a it's like very very much you know what it reminds me of it's like earlier today so henry is teething and so we've been kind of checking his mouth to see if the teeth have come out yet
Starting point is 00:24:30 we know everything about brian's teeth because we are i know more about brian's mouth than my my mouth and my son's mouth and i've been looking for teeth in those for approximately five months uh so rachel tells us about how uh attractive she thinks brian's confidence is and that it's it's very contagious and sexy to her uh she says when i see brian i see forward good that was all you what did you want great i thought that reminded you of a point you wanted to make no i just like it's really hard for me to get on team brian because i feel like um the things he says are just really shallow i have a great comparison i'm so proud of it okay and i wanted to tell you when we were watching but i
Starting point is 00:25:16 decided to save it okay say it okay so and this is if you've been watching terrace house aloha state and you're familiar with taishi, you will get this. Taishi. There's an episode where the panel all talks about why they can't get behind Taishi. Yeah. And I think it's the same with Brian. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:25:34 It's like somebody that is so composed and precise in how they woo someone that you aren't getting any like vulnerability you're not endeared at all it just feels like uh watching a very good um violinist who has no emotion whatsoever for me it boils down to if you are good though right it was really good thank you there's a lot of there's a lot of commonalities there i for me it boils down to if you are too good at being a bachelor or bachelorette contestant i am not interested in your pursuit of love yeah straight up not the people i'm into are like the ones who say like
Starting point is 00:26:16 dorky unintentional shit from time to time and the people who like allow themselves to be vulnerable um not the people who are well obviously not the people who are like playing a character but i don't think brian's doing that i just think he has a line for for everything and um when it's to the point where you're like trying to be uh if you're trying to be like max charming and max seductive a hundred percent of the time i don't think that's a good way to actually get to know anybody or let them get to know you. And that's kind of what, like, Brian's, like, laying down, I feel like.
Starting point is 00:26:51 Yeah. It's like when Griffin talked about his diarrhea in front of me. I thought. See, I got that shit out of the way first thing. I know. I know him. I think, like, this, and this happens a lot, Brian gets far enough, and enough and like maybe hometowns
Starting point is 00:27:06 rachel's like wait i don't know fucking anything i don't really know much about this dude um because you you do not get much time um to like spend with these these people uh on this show and i just feel like i don't know every time i see him he is just responding to what she says with like the most charming thing possible and rachel's suspicious of it rachel says i can't figure out how he's still single he's 37 he has a good job he's handsome it doesn't make sense to me like she's looking for the flaw and i think we are too um there's also an element of like he's on a tv show right and so like it's it's almost and he is by far not like not the only person guilty of this but like how much of this is like you playing like a charming character on a television show
Starting point is 00:27:53 like how much is this is like you trying to like be quick and think of the best lines for for the camera well and you know i don't know if you saw on the Facebook group, but Brian has been on a television show before. Oh shit. Really? He was on some, from what I could tell some reality television show called players or something. Um,
Starting point is 00:28:16 years and years and years ago. I just like, if for some reason this episode of that, that element of this, this show and the, the like production of it really stood out to me like there's a date where they go to an amusement park and uh shows like a montage of them like having fun and being flirty and like all these locations like playing a carnival game and
Starting point is 00:28:35 then getting on a roller coaster and then getting on a um uh getting on a ferris wheel and all of this was happening like while they're losing daylight and the only thing i could think is like this date probably wasn't fun it was probably you guys like running to these locations with a camera crew them trying to get set up before they completely lost all the light outside at all and when i when i think about shit like that like it is really really hard for me to pay attention to anything else on the show i know that but like but that's what i'm saying like brian like saying stuff it just feels like you're reading a script that was written by somebody who wanted to make a charming, sexy character. So in the night portion of the date, Rachel tries to kind of find a flaw in Brian.
Starting point is 00:29:17 And she kind of does that as the way she always does with Brian, where she has to talk about herself for a while, and then Brian will reveal something. He's got a big glowing weak point right on his chest. She hit it with the arrow of light and he died right there. Exploded. She got the dry force. It was great. The end. Oh, I see what you did there.
Starting point is 00:29:32 Video games. Video games. So Rachel talks about her sisters and how she was always kind of the tomboy and her sister was the pretty one and she was the cool one. And that gave her some insecurities when she was growing up one uh and that gave her some insecurities when she was
Starting point is 00:29:45 growing up and brian says well i had a very similar experience i was very very thin and then it wasn't until senior year of high school that i got attention and that's it that's the anecdote okay so i don't feel any closer to brian no i mean not no like i'm i'm sure that was difficult it's just like we're on a date i need a little bit more than that yeah like so many people have opened up in such real ways and i just still don't feel like brian has really allowed himself to be as vulnerable i don't even need like i because for me that's a tough play of the emotional breakthrough it's hard for you to do that without me feeling like you're fucking cashing in on on some like real life bad thing for me it's just like the fucking like gap tooth
Starting point is 00:30:30 conversation with peter where they talked about their gap teeth and the realities of that that's like all time that's like peak shit that's here's a here's here's a completely innocuous thing that we have in common that is real that we had before this show and i didn't like it didn't feel like something just what i'm sorry i just thought of the best proposal peter could do he tucks it up in there yeah he put the ring between his teeth i that that's like sorry that's the good stuff right yeah i'm not saying so it doesn't all have to be like here's my here's here's the bad thing that happened to me when i was younger which is not younger, which is absolutely not to discredit those things. It's just like, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:31:09 It doesn't feel, there's just not much realness here. Although there's not much realness. I don't know why I'm picking on Brian so much this episode because there's not much realness with most of them. Which is even him saying something like, I don't feel like I've been a very good boyfriend for some of the people I've dated. Or like, oh, you know what?
Starting point is 00:31:23 I've been a very good boyfriend for some of the people I've dated. Or, you know, like, oh, you know what? Like, sometimes I feel like, you know, I'm not as well-read as I could be. Yeah, sure. You know, just something, I don't know, some kind of concession. But he says that he's falling in love with her. They kiss. He gets a rose.
Starting point is 00:31:40 All right. So back at the house, we get this scene with Eric and Anthony. Yeah. And Eric has been paying attention, as we've noticed, to like a lot of who is getting dates. And he still at this point has not gotten a one-on-one date. And he is telling Anthony that he has concerns that Rachel doesn't want to date, quote, brothers. Yeah, his argument, and like at this point we're on episode five, right? Episode one doesn't have any dates at all.
Starting point is 00:32:19 So like two, three, four, that's what, like five, six dates? Yeah. He says like, Anthony, you're the only black man that has gotten a date. And I think a lot of this is also kind of based in, like, Eric's insecurities that we've seen come out a couple times now because he has not gotten a date. Even though they had, like, this really great connection night one. And then it's kind of just been, like, set aside for group dates and stuff like that um but anthony kind of explains pretty level-headedly like you know she's she's gonna date who she's gonna date and like i don't think it's worth like reading into it more than that like yeah because eric seems to be fishing
Starting point is 00:32:57 like well anthony how do you think you got a date and anthony's like she wanted to go out with me like you know it's kind of, it was a weird exchange. I forget what exactly what Anthony said, but like, I feel like Anthony is like one of the more like mature dudes in the house. Like I feel like he's always in conversations like this. Yeah. He's not competitive about it. So that kind of sets up. It's all that Murakami he's read, you know, it's just like, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:33:24 Was that Anthony? Yeah. That's Anthony. That's what I'm saying. That's my, that's my, that's my dude. That's my. It's all that Murakami he's read, you know? It's just like, I don't know. Was that Anthony? Yeah, that's Anthony. That's what I'm saying. That's my dude. That's my best friend. Group date. Adam, Dean, Anthony, Peter, Matt, Will, Alex, Eric, Josiah, two guys not on that group date are Lee and Kenny,
Starting point is 00:33:42 meaning there's going to be a two-on-one, which we already knew because we saw the teaser. You could put a knife to my fucking throat right now and ask me to tell you a single detail about this group date, and I literally can't. Oh, no, I can't handball. Yeah, handball. It just took me a second. Handball, we learn, is a combination of football, basketball, and water polo.
Starting point is 00:34:05 Don't talk for me. I know everything about handball. Do you remember what the name of the coach was? Coach Eric Taylor. And I thought that was so weird. No, it's Coach Tom. Okay. You must be so embarrassed.
Starting point is 00:34:17 I'm embarrassed. I'm humiliated. uh josiah uh thinks that he's going to be very good at handball because he has quote real hands not the donald trump hands it's a it's a fun burn it's a fun burn it's topical but the handball is extremely small it's not a very big ball so it's like a weird i'll be able to grab this ball with my big hands not my donald trump. And the ball is quite tiny. Rachel plays on the red team. It's red team versus blue team. This was weird, right?
Starting point is 00:34:56 Whenever there's a sporting competition, usually the bachelor or bachelorette kind of stays out of it. Well, it's because there's no stakes. The winning team doesn't get anything. Yes. They don't do, at least they don't seem to do anymore where the winning team gets more time. I guess because there were so many injuries that they decided not to do that where the winning team gets more time i guess because there were so many injuries yeah that they decided not to if memory serves will kind of crushed it right he said he's actually played handball before and yeah will is kind of incredible he was great um rachel says he's like jordan in the 97 finals peter was peter was very uh like grabbed rachel
Starting point is 00:35:22 and like picked her up and was like yeah Yeah, really took advantage of the opportunity. There's a lot of people in this house who get it, I guess, and on group dates it's like, go run and milk that yak and then fucking chug its shit. And then people will just branch off and just run over to the Bachelorette and be like,
Starting point is 00:35:39 look at these nerds. That's not a euphemism, by the way. Griffin was talking about literally milking a yak. Yeah, no. Yeah. Grabbing a yak's teats. We don't need a fucking like full house kiss reaction. So.
Starting point is 00:35:57 By the way, Dean is wearing his fucking jockstrap outside of his. Yeah, that's fun. His unitard. We don't get any story behind that. We super don't. We even see it again in the after credit sequence. And nobody talks even uh we do get to see aj in the balcony it's good uh he's wearing the same uniform the guys are wearing and he's also wearing his beret it's not pronounced though it's like really good you like quick you probably you may have missed it night portion of the group date, she puts Will up first to talk to because he did so well in the handball challenge.
Starting point is 00:36:33 He says that in the past he was left by somebody he loved. And so he's going to really put his foot on the pedal in their relationship going forward. And they kiss. And Rachel feels kind of more excited about Will after that exchange. I really liked Will.
Starting point is 00:36:49 Oh shit. I used past tense. Spoiler. No, I really, I really did like Will a lot. By the way, so we went into this episode
Starting point is 00:37:00 with like 12 dudes and by the end of Tuesday night we have six. We had more than 12 dudes i thought um a lot of fucking a lot of fucking dudes went home yeah these two episodes so yeah you're gonna hear a lot of past tense um and then you know it's the usual group date shenanigans yeah um one thing that happens is josiah sits down with Rachel. Oh, yeah. And talks about how he believes that she's the woman for him, says all these complimentary things about her.
Starting point is 00:37:29 And she says, you know, you don't really ask questions about me. And he says, you're so perceptive. I love that about you. He said something like, I believe. It was kind of brutal. He said something like, I believe that my dad told my mom that he believed that god put him on earth to love her or something like that and i genuinely believe that like you are destined to be my wife or something like that and she was like you really don't ask me any question like it was such an uh escalation i
Starting point is 00:37:56 feel like that she was just not having even a little bit she says he seems fascinated with the idea of me which i think is it tracks? Like every time we talked about it, like I'm, I'm, you know, she will be mine. Oh yeah. She will be mine.
Starting point is 00:38:09 Josiah is so competitive. Yeah. It's clear that a big part of the allure for him is he wants to win. Um, her and Peter have some time where Peter talks about how she is so easy to read. And Rachel talks about how she feels like he gets her is this when she asked him to kiss her is that on the next day that's yeah that's
Starting point is 00:38:31 not this is this the hot tub or is that this is where they get in the hot tub yeah she's like he looks outside yeah they're looking out a window and they're like is that a balcony she's like yeah there's a hot tub out there can we get in it and he's like yes and apparently they're out there for a long time because when he comes back to the group they call him mr three and a half hours it's like he's he's so he's so super gonna win it's it's i know i talked about how there's like four or five people that i know are gonna be the top ones that like if you're not in that group like i'm sorry but it's just not in the cards for you i don't it's it's so their body
Starting point is 00:39:06 language and it could turn i still think oh man i don't know they even i feel like they even tried to turn at this date because they got in the hot tub for a long time and he does not get the group date rose no she gives the group date rose to will yeah and peter feels a little bit of doubt about that. Okay. We're going to talk about the shitty shit, shit, bullshit, turd,
Starting point is 00:39:29 dog turd, two on one next. But before we get to that, can I steal you away? Do I just always have to do it now? I can do it if you want. Yeah, why don't you? I don't have anything.
Starting point is 00:39:51 That's fun it's fart noise out of breath uh hey griffin can i tell you about our first sponsor yeah can i sit back though i'm leaning over to talk on the mic and it hurts. Okay. I got an achy back situation. Okay. Aw. That's attractive. Aw, rubbing my fucking tummy. Yeah. Thrive Market.
Starting point is 00:40:17 I got to investigate Thrive Market this week. Hard-hitting investigative journalism. Went to the website. What's the deal? Went to the website. What's the deal? Went to the website. What are they hiding? If you want to investigate somebody, look at their website. These have been hot tips from Rachel McElroy.
Starting point is 00:40:36 Hard-nosed reporter, Rachel McElroy. Go to their fucking URL, you silly. Okay, so it's thrivemarket.com. Thrive Market is the new convenient way to get high-quality natural organic groceries like healthy snacks, supplements, and foods to stock your pantry at 25% to 50% less than even the discount stores. Sounds too good to be true. What's the scoop gum shit? Thrive Market is like Costco meets Whole Foods. Pay just $60 a year to get wholesale
Starting point is 00:41:07 pricing all year long the average customer saves about forty dollars per order and thrive guarantees you'll save more than your membership fee in your first two orders in fact they'll let you test drive the savings for free before you buy your membership test drive driver for free for 30 days and get an extra 20 off at thrive market dot com slash rose buddies it's an extra 20 off at thrive market dot com slash rose buddies uh i will say one thing i liked about it i went you can search foods by your dietary needs and so for example you can look at dairy-free items you can look at paleo items you can look at gluten-free items soy-free um and that way you can be sure that you are getting the things that you want that's good because our boy our precious little egg cannot
Starting point is 00:41:58 have well dairy and soy inside of you because last time it happened he farted so loud the cat died uh that's a weird little family circus you created yeah i remember that strip of family circus where jeffy farted so loud the cat died that's thrivemarket.com rose buddies thrive market sorry for saying that sentence after the last sentence i said here's another ad and it's for casper because we're supported in part by Casper. It's an online retailer of premium, obsessively engineered mattresses for a fraction of the price. We have one. And it's in our guest room. And by guest room, I mean nursery.
Starting point is 00:42:33 But really, what is our son? But a lifelong guest in my life? That doesn't make any sense. It sounds awful. That's going to be used against us. So Casper, they've got a risk-free trial and return policy. You can try sleeping on a Casper for 100 days with free delivery to the U.S. and Canada and pain sounds awful. That's going to be used against us. So Casper, they've got a risk-free trial and return policy. You can try sleeping on a Casper for 100 days with free delivery to the US and Canada
Starting point is 00:42:48 and painless returns. I didn't say how much I like the mattress, but it is really good. It's very, very comfortable. We still lay on it time to time with Henry and read him books. Yeah. It's nice.
Starting point is 00:42:57 They feature supportive memory foam with a sleep surface that's got just the right sink and just the right bounce. And you're, you, because you're- That's what you say about me. That you have the right sink and just the right bounce. And you're, you, because you're- That's what you say about me.
Starting point is 00:43:06 That you have the right sink? I don't know. I don't know. She sinks in all the right places. I don't know why I said right like that. Baby, can I please not talk anymore? I am fucking done. She sinks in all the right places
Starting point is 00:43:22 and she bounces in all the right places. You can save 50 towards any mattress purchase if you go to casper.com slash rose buddies and use the promo code rose buddies all one word it checks out checks out terms and conditions apply oh that one i that building was falling down around me as i ran out of it uh here's a jumbo charm message and i'll let you read the next one, but this one's for Max, and it's from Kathy, who says, can Griffin read this? Yes.
Starting point is 00:43:52 You don't want me to, though, right now, because I've got the tired brain. Happy birthday to the cutest emergency doctor in the world. I'm so grateful that we've finally almost gotten through these four years of long distance and can finally snuggle together every night. I, Griffin, think you're very sexy and I am falling in love with you more every day.
Starting point is 00:44:13 Yay. Sorry, babe. They paid us $100 to tear our marriage apart. I'll take it. Thank you, Kathy. Max, you're looking so choice over there dude you read this uh-huh my computer's really heavy today i've got lots of files in it today uh this message is for marie it is from nick okay there's a typo in this do i read it with a typo
Starting point is 00:44:40 no babe no we're almost certainly stuck in endless traffic on roadworks, but at least I get to spend every morning in traffic with you. If either of us gets fired before Griffin, or maybe Rachel, exclamation point, reads this, I guess it will make the message slightly awkward. Oh, well, love you. Also, Raven is adorable, and I'll be sad when Vanessa inevitably wins.
Starting point is 00:45:07 Whoa. From downtown this message was. By the way, pick up some Crystal Pepsi for me on the way home, please. Love that new flavor. Really excited about it. I think it was submitted back in March. I'm going to grab a Big and Tasty down at McDonald's. Do you want anything?
Starting point is 00:45:26 I'm Hal Lublin. I'm Danielle Radford a big and tasty down at McDonald's Do you want anything? I'm Hal Loveland I'm Danielle Radford I am Michael Eagle And we are the hosts of Tights and Fights Maximum Fun's newest podcast dedicated to all things wrestling We'll be talking about Sasha Banks The Women's Revolution Sasha Banks
Starting point is 00:45:38 The Brand Split And Sasha Banks' wigs And we'll also be talking about wrestler fashion Some wrestlers wear too many clothes. Some wrestlers don't wear enough clothes at all. And I'll be doing impressions of all your favorite wrestlers. New episodes Thursdays on Maximum Fun or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 00:45:56 Oh, yeah, dig it. Dice and Bites Podcast. Dice and Bites. Podcast Guys and Boys Alright Let's do it, power through it Let's talk about this two on one date Let's talk about how bad it was shitty And how it's left a dark and permanent scar Across this franchise forever and then we'll talk
Starting point is 00:46:19 About all of the big and major publications That took a big fat dump on this Show and then we'll party We'll celebrate in the dump together How publications that took a big fat dump on this show and then we'll party we'll celebrate in the dump together how's that sound gang wonderful uh as is typical now with two-on-ones they go to a remote wasteland where they have set up a few chairs and nothing else this was kelsey and ashley i right that was the first that was ben higgins season i think right was it no oh shit it was it was like chris souls naming chris souls um but this definitely happened every time now it's a universal jojo season it happened with um i don't remember two-on-ones
Starting point is 00:47:00 from nick it was uh corinne and oh taylor taylor yeah i remember they took them like out into the swamp activity with that one there was i guess um but for the most part and it started with this date where they took uh chris i guess took kelsey and ashley i who you might remember from last bit uh out to like this fucking like badlands area and then ended up sending both of them home. And so there's just a... I think the producer got a shot. And I mean, we probably talked about how effective this shot was
Starting point is 00:47:33 of this helicopter flying away from these two women as they sort of cross paths, two ships passing in the night. Like it was... But now that's just every time. So yeah, sure enough enough we are in this what looks like frigid tundra um with blake and lee so rachel pulls kenny away first uh and kenny has a good conversation with her um this is where we find out and i have been on a quest
Starting point is 00:48:00 uh to find out what is happening here because Because he talks to Rachel about how they have fun. Yeah. And then Rachel says, onion time. And they both kind of enjoy that reference. And I don't know what it's to. It seems familiar. I think they may have said something about, like, I think I remember something
Starting point is 00:48:19 about peeling back an onion from previous conversations that they had. I may be making this up from whole cloth, but I remember thinking of of while watching this show, the Shrek and donkey scene about onions. Oh. And so that mnemonic devices really helped me out here by getting me half of a memory.
Starting point is 00:48:37 Yeah. I didn't know. You tweeted it then though. And you asked like, what was onion time? And I tweeted at Kenny and Rachel hoping that I maybe had enough followers now to get a get a response i do not we've seen a lot of people by the way who have like gotten pictures with kenny by going to his wrestling his wrestling matches and i think there's a ring of honor event that's coming up that he's uh participating in that i know some
Starting point is 00:48:57 folks in the group are going to try to get down to uh so i would love to fucking watch that dude wrestle he was so fucking entertaining during the mud wrestling day and his like uh promo spot at the beginning of the season like i bet he's fucking awesome at it uh so he he talks about uh how great rachel is and and then he does bring up lee but he does it in a way that i think is constructive um he says you know lee may not think that he has enough to keep you uh which is why he's doing this and yeah i yelled uh at him um but i just want you to know like my focus right now is on us getting to know each other um and rachel says kenny really seems to be fighting for their relationship and she gets a real sense of sincerity out of him kenny also to lee in this moment considering their their last
Starting point is 00:49:51 time it was just lee like provoking him and doing that like nothing makes me happier than when a guy gets angry and i fucking smile at him provoking him and and lee you know cussing him out um this this time kenny's just like you know what does he say he goes he goes back and sits down he says like i feel like i feel great like this is a this is a good day and like i just went and talked to rachel and it was just all about us and like i feel really i feel really like he feels good i feel at peace yeah and then of course and then rachel pulls lee away um and lee starts talking about all the ways that Kenny has insulted him. Lee looks weirdly, I don't know if you read it like this, he looks really exhausted.
Starting point is 00:50:33 And I don't know, like, this is absolutely not to make excuses for Lee. I just thought it was weird. Like, this sort of sinister, like, over-the-top villainy that we've seen in the past times. He just looks fucking, like like really tired in this day. Well, he's been going hard since he got there. I guess so, yeah. Lee talks about how Kenny has called him a snake, which Rachel says actually he did tell me about that,
Starting point is 00:50:56 but not the B word. And then Lee talks about how it's gotten out of hand and how this kind of name calling and aggression only happens when Kenny drinks. And then he tells the story about Kenny pulling him out of a van. Which is completely false. Yes. All signs point to that not having happened. Yeah, that didn't that super didn't happen. And like, the reason I know it didn't happen is because of what happens next when, I guess, two steps down the line here. But Rachel is kind of shocked by this news.
Starting point is 00:51:34 And she says, like, I'm not just going to take it at face value. I wanted to keep her at home, but I think Rachel lawyer, lawyer Rachel needs to get into this. And so she goes and goes back to the little chilly plaza where the two boys are hanging out. And she grabs Kenny again. Yeah. She says that she's getting two different stories. And so she pulls Kenny away and tells Kenny what Lee said.
Starting point is 00:52:03 And Kenny just says, he's lying to you. You know, this is not true. And Rachel's like, well, I just wanted you to know what he was saying. It's just going to come down to who I trust.
Starting point is 00:52:15 Um, and then Kenny approaches Lee. And this is, this is where we get the, like to be continued. Cause he's like, he is pretty upset. He's like laughing in kind of a
Starting point is 00:52:26 sinister way because he just can't believe what has happened yeah because by by from kenny's perspective by all accounts this is the second time that they've like squashed this shit right and it has just come back up again like it just keeps it just like this is lee's whole through line and kenny recognizes that now and i can't imagine how like exasperating that must be of just like if you think about it uh like this is your time is so limited right lee is like purposefully making kenny's time with her all about this shit and i can't imagine even trying to get close to rachel anymore he's just trying to ruin kenny yeah so like um everything aside about how like um like offensive it would be to to like be
Starting point is 00:53:20 kenny and have lee say this shit and like try to paint you in this light. Like putting all that aside, like I can't imagine how frustrating it must be to be in this love competition and television show where you don't get a choice what your story is here. You don't get a choice what Rachel thinks about you. What she thinks about you is what this like racist shithead is like making the story. And so like, I think that just boils over here and he has like a he he just is like cackling as he comes down the hill
Starting point is 00:53:52 screaming snake and then we have a fucking another like real bad trailer for the next episode which was tuesday uh about um again showing that bloody eye and fucking Chris Harrison saying, like, the most dramatic confrontation. What will happen when Kenny and Lee go head to head? There's a treatment, and I don't know if it was specifically localized to this trailer or if it's just sort of like the tone of the next episode,
Starting point is 00:54:19 which we're gonna talk about here in a second, but there's a treatment almost, I felt like I was getting a tone from this show of Kenny's response to lee's bullshit was in a way like also bad like i feel like the show was trying to paint them both like these two bad dudes are are really you know they're really going at it and yeah lee has been saying some shit but kenny's response to it is is you know they're really going at it and yeah lee has been saying some shit but kenny's response to it is is you know getting out of hand and it's like trying to paint them as equals in this conflict like really really i feel like it's some yeah it's a pretty big shitty leap yeah no
Starting point is 00:55:00 they're using kind of the same approach they always use with these two-on-ones. Right. Where it's just like the, you know, the gloves are coming off. Kelsey and Ashley, they're both, you know, semi-bad characters, right? The gloves are coming off. Rod and Alex. Rod and Alex, right? These two bad boys are like, that's what they're doing. And it's because they have footage of Kenny like yelling, right? But that is a result of the
Starting point is 00:55:26 provocation that Lee has been laying down it's not like these are these are not even close to being two two equal things you this this show is treating it again like they've treated fucking every other season and every other event that's ever happened in every other season and just saying like bad behavior let's just let them duke it out maybe they'll have a punch fight here's one of them with blood on them and it's like y'all need to like step back and watch this uh so kenny we pick up episode six kenny immediately is is continuing uh right where we left off. Kenny's like, I feel terrible that you have to lie so blatantly that you feel like you have to lie. And Kenny asked specifically about the van,
Starting point is 00:56:17 and Lee says he didn't say that. And Kenny says, well, I'll go get her. Yeah, and now you're calling Rachel a liar? That's what I'm talking about. He didn't pull him out of any fucking van of course yeah the other thing is like they would have filmed it and they would have put this on the fucking television show also yeah uh so rachel returns uh and she says that today has been really informative um you guys have two completely
Starting point is 00:56:39 different stories so it comes down to who i trust uh and then she says that she doesn't trust lee after hearing what she heard and sends lee home and she doesn't give kenny the rose either so she wants to spend more time with kenny tonight before she gives him a rose at this point uh they walk to the helicopter and like they're getting into it and kenny says like like, hold on, I need to go talk to Lee one last time. Uh, and Rachel looks pretty exasperated. She's like, what,
Starting point is 00:57:10 what are they doing over there? Like, what could he possibly be saying? Um, as Kenny goes to kind of confront Lee one last time and kind of like rub it in a little bit. Um, did you write that when he actually said,
Starting point is 00:57:23 one thing Kenny says is he's like you know i think that there has to be a decent lee inside there um it wasn't anything compared to like the you know fraught conversations they've had in the past like it was fair kenny was being fairly level-headed i think he just wanted one last chance to just be like to just say like that was that was bullshit and and i think again it was that same frustration coming out of just like you have you have dive bombed my like i didn't get a rose like there's a reason i didn't get a rose and it's because you have dragged me down into the fucking muck well and rachel asked him later like why did you go back to talk to lee um you had me you won why did you go talk to lee and he says that he doesn't
Starting point is 00:58:05 want to bottle things up yeah he wants to address them right when they happen uh so that's kind of his reasoning i get it like i get being i that is frustration that lee tried to cultivate right um but at the same time like it's not a great look right especially not if you know you are already on thin ice for for this for this like rose and well i say that but at the same time i also recognize like there are some things that are probably bigger than getting a rose on this reality dating competition and i think part of him still thought like maybe he could get lee to understand like there seems to be a part of kenny that like always thought like maybe he could get through to understand. Like there seems to be a part of Kenny that like always thought like maybe he could get through to Lee. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:58:46 But no, Lee sucks. Bye Lee. Fuck off. Um, yeah. So I guess this is, um,
Starting point is 00:58:52 this is probably a good time for us to talk about some of the articles that people have written. Um, cause there was a lot and nobody was writing about fucking Eric's fun date coming up next. Everybody was writing about, um, everybody was writing about the eric's fun date coming up next everybody was writing about um everybody was writing about the lee and kinney stuff um so here's a here's an article on the new yorker by doreen saint felix the vexing racial politics of this season's bachelorette
Starting point is 00:59:17 uh a pull quote from that what is most frustrating about this saga is the show's editing which presents garrett's racist antagonizing and King's angry responses as morally equivalent. King calls Garrett a snake, a lizard, and a B-word, but that is in response to Garrett constantly commenting that King is big, angry, and violent. explained to Garrett that there is a longstanding history of people calling black men aggressive. Garrett replies that it is King who is playing the race card. It is cheap. Even for the bachelorette to equate nasty gaslighting with garden variety television, villainy like,
Starting point is 00:59:52 yeah, that's, that's, that's the, if this stuff is truly behind this season, which like, Hey, I don't,
Starting point is 00:59:59 I don't know. Like there, there are more racial balls to be fucking dropped in the, what, four episodes this season has. But that's, I think if you're painting the show in the best light, that's what you can say about it, is they're just trying to make the same show they've made every other time. Yeah, exactly. Because there's nothing that, like, Lee's motivations are obviously, like, sinister, right? But in terms of, like, the performances we're seeing on our screen like it's nothing that we haven't seen before and in fact it is exactly what we saw last season the
Starting point is 01:00:30 bachelor it's just like doesn't work this time because because of like the broader context of it uh here's an article by here's a another article by roger sherman we talked about uh his uh he writes for the ringer uh i talked about one of his last week. Finally, The Bachelorette returns to the pursuit of love. I liked this one, and I think it's maybe a good table setter for like the rest of this episode of Rose Buddies. Marked down June 27th as the day The Bachelorette remembered, it's a show about a woman dating a bunch of guys.
Starting point is 01:00:58 For a while, the show wasn't so much about Rachel and romance as it was the squabbles of several dudes, mainly dick measuring competitions with a side of racial tension um it's a good point of just like rachel's fucking excellent and we like we've seen that even when things have been bad but like we haven't gotten to see it as much because of this shit like i think audiences everywhere are saying rachel's enough like i like rachel you don't have to put all this ridiculous stuff around her like just show me more of rachel that's i don't need this other stuff and it's not just that she's great it's like she's the first black lead on this show and i feel like um it's like important to like not fucking dump all over her season like this yeah i think you mentioned that like ratings were down um this yeah recently for like the first time
Starting point is 01:01:46 since the season premiere american ninja warrior beat out the bachelorette maybe american ninja warrior had a great week but like um if he's if this and i've seen this like we've talked about like how uncomfortable we feel like continuing to patronize this show in some roundabout way but people have pointed out and it's a good point like if the first season with a black lead the ratings tank like that's bad yeah and i i everybody i've talked to about this i'm uh i know a lot of people who cover this show professionally um and a lot of people in like media who who watch this show and like everybody's talking about this and not in like a can you believe it way but in a like can you believe it like it this seems like the type of thing that makes people like tune out and i'm sure there's a lot of people in bachelor nation who are just like who's gonna win kenny
Starting point is 01:02:36 or lee and they don't even think about it but i it just seems like i don't know it seems bad and if it goes bad on this season, I'm worried about what that means for the rest of the franchise. Here's another one from, oh, hey, the New York Times. It's from Joe Coscarelli and Karen Ganz. The Bachelorette leans on a racial conflict and nobody wins.
Starting point is 01:03:00 And this is specifically about all of the, Kenny's bleeding eye, which has been in like pretty much every trailer yeah this whole time uh this kind of deception and false advertising is nothing new for the bachelorette but playing with the idea that a racist and a black man would settle their differences via violence feels far more charged than the show's usual editing liberties they're using the specter of racial violence as a ratings lure with a grotesque will they or won't they like this is it like you paint them in the best light and it's oh we do the bleeding thing like every and they do every single fucking season trailer has like somebody bleeding in it
Starting point is 01:03:37 it's but this but this is like come on guys it's like there's no sensitivity or awareness like they made the decision to cast Rachel. And I think, at least I thought, oh, they're really going to do their homework. They're going to recognize this is our first time doing this and we are not prepared. But no, they didn't do any homework. No. They just took out their old dusty playbook, brushed it off, and started up again. And I want to be clear here.
Starting point is 01:04:03 That's best case scenario. Yeah, no, that's true. Worst case scenario is if fucking lee was recruited for this stuff and like people the flip side of this coin is i know a lot of people in media who watch the show i know a lot of people who cover this show professionally and this we are all talking about this right yeah and if you if you genuinely believe that like no you know all all news is good news, to this fucking extent, it paints a pretty fucking sinister portrait of the people who are making this television show. Here's one last one from The Atlantic. It's by Megan Garber. The Bachelorette reveals itself for what it is.
Starting point is 01:04:43 During this week's two-night special, the doubleheader that Chris Harrison teased as if it were a sporting event, both Kenny and Lee ended up eliminated. Oh, spoilers. Lee for his untrustworthiness, Kenny for the fact that his relationship with Rachel hadn't progressed as speedily as those of his competitors.
Starting point is 01:04:58 Tuesday night's episode concluded with the dramas that typically define the show, about romance, about connection, about finding the one. There was no more mention of Kenny and Lee. The racial tension plotline had apparently served its purpose. It had been exploited, then forgotten, by the producers at any rate, but not necessarily by the viewers.
Starting point is 01:05:16 Yeah, so that's kind of a teaser for the rest of the episode. But what happens after this conflict between Kenny and Lee is it feels just like another device. It feels like Blake and Waboom. It feels exactly like Blake and Waboom. And it's, how do you not fucking like, it is beyond me.
Starting point is 01:05:39 Like, I know this is a big show and there's a lot of moving parts to it. They had enough time in post to like, Lee's big fucking racist diatribes come out and you do something. If this is the doctored version, if this is the like toned down version of what they had originally intended, like fucking shit. But it kind of reads like,
Starting point is 01:06:04 what a couple months ago at least racist tweets come out people like oh fuck this is a huge racist i wonder if abc is gonna do something no they're not they're not they just super super aren't and to like flip this switch and just be like okay now we're gonna go on sweet dates is i don't know man it's it is some tonal ass dissonance and it's gross and it sucks. That being said, let's continue our recap of this episode of The Bachelorette. So it's the night portion of Kenny's date with Rachel.
Starting point is 01:06:37 Rachel kind of brings her concerns to the date. Says that she is watching him and judging his responses to things and figuring out how that would potentially impact their relationship uh and this is in reference to him kind of going back to talk to lee and the conflict with lee and how she's trying to infer from that how that might mean he would be in a relationship. And he kind of cautions her and says, what would be different with us is that all of my words would be measured by the love that I had for you.
Starting point is 01:07:13 Like what happened with Lee is not reflective of who I would be in a relationship. If we were to have a disagreement or if I were to get upset with you, I would be a different person. And so Rachel says that she trusts him. She loves that he's a good dad and respects that he has taken time to kind of build a friendship with her
Starting point is 01:07:33 because sincerity is a big deal for her. And so she does give him the rose. And then we get to see Kenny have a moment with his daughter after that. Oh, man. He talks to her on the phone, which, as I recall, and I've seen several seasons now, parents are always allowed to check in with their kids on a telephone. Like, it's not a special Kenny circumstance. But the fact that they're fucking filming this dude as he has, like, a good cry.
Starting point is 01:08:02 He's having a really hard time. It is. This is the first season of this show that we've watched since we've had a kid and right yeah it fucked me up man like that that's like because then i thought about like i was just gone for a week at e3 and that was tough the thought of like being away for as long as they're away yeah it's it's well and part of the reason he has such an emotional reaction is his daughter is incredibly mature and so she is always comforting him yeah and always reassuring him and i think that that makes it all the more real for him of
Starting point is 01:08:36 like i have this incredible daughter yeah uh and it's hard for him to be away from her um but he ends up getting the getting the rose um yeah and so then we go to the rose ceremony uh rachel again is wearing an incredible dress her rose ceremony dresses are this episode alone was just like fucking everything yeah this has never stood out this has literally never stood out to me before i feel the same way like everything she wears is fucking incredible yeah it. It's remarkable. Was this the gold one? The gold dress?
Starting point is 01:09:08 No, I didn't even write down the details. I just wrote dress in all caps. So this is the rose ceremony. We get a lot of footage of Josiah being super confident. It says, if she doesn't give me a rose, there's something wrong with her brain. Yeah, I mean, he says a bunch of shit it it and who ends up going home josiah and anthony yeah josiah was like okay they were clearly like building to this and whatever anthony sucked because like anthony going home sucked i should say because he had a solo date and it was fucking pretty good, I thought. And I really liked him in the house. And he read a book that I really like and talked about it on his bio.
Starting point is 01:09:51 And I guess that might be it. Like, I really liked him, though. I don't know why you were so attached to Anthony. It was mostly the book. But no, also because whenever there were tough conversations happening in the house, he was always in there. there were like tough conversations happening in the house like he was always he was always like in there um and regardless of what you think about anthony uh for him to like he had a solo date and he went on some group dates and he had like a lot of screen time and there were a lot of people when he got sent home in the facebook group who were like no anthony he didn't get a
Starting point is 01:10:17 fucking second he didn't get a fucking frame of like oh you know i'm really sad to be going home yeah that was kind of unfair it was all focused on josiah because he made such a big deal about it and josiah like yeah he had this like he keeps saying the word bravado to like describe um him him and his like the his like character that he was playing right this last gasp was it was i this is when i talked to you and i was like even if this show wasn't doing like kind of you know pretty problematic shit um especially this season it's insulting it is it's genuinely insulting to like how much these people turn like it is insulting how much
Starting point is 01:11:01 like uh contestants on this show will just fucking like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde transform clearly under like a producer's guidance. Like Josiah's performance here at the end was like the most buck wild shit I've ever seen. Josiah kind of starts trashing the guys that he picked over him. And it was. And talks about how Rachel like clearly doesn't have good taste because she sent him home. And that is not who he started out the season being, necessarily. Not at all. And in his opening package, even, it was like, his opening package was heartbreaking.
Starting point is 01:11:42 Yeah, he wanted to give back to his community after all these like really tragic things that happened and and and it's like iggy turning into this fucking narc and like all of these people just like i i asked you like is there some sort of like weird bug in the house that bites you and you catch this like fucking 28 days later like instant rage disease we're just like you're just like talking mad shit for that that's coming out of nowhere yeah i it it's and it's so like um what what i told you was like it's like a bad wrestling promo it's like it's they break kayfabe so fucking hard i don't buy it like that's not you that's not a person that's not anyone yeah and i know that this is all and and like wrestling like i know it's not fucking real
Starting point is 01:12:32 right but at the same time like i i suspend my disbelief for the good dates and i suspend my disbelief for the moments of like genuine connection and shit like this is just like, what are we doing here? Gang? Speaking of good dates, we're going to Denmark. Yes. And Eric is getting a one on one. Best day.
Starting point is 01:12:54 I saw so many people like, I didn't, I don't remember anything about Eric. It's like, how do you forget about Eric? We loved Eric. I loved Eric. Eric was the one who was on the,
Starting point is 01:13:02 um, after the final rose and danced with her. And they seem to have a real connection from the beginning. So they have kind of an extraordinary date. They first get into a boat together after dancing on the dock, because dancing is their thing. And they're in their winter wear, because I guess it's cold there. And they're cuddling. Tell me more.
Starting point is 01:13:24 They have this moment where they talk about kids and Rachel says that she wants four and Will's like, wow. And she says, is that a lot? And he says, well, I mean, no, I want 10, but. And she like cracked up. It's so like, it just feels really. Eric is like, Eric is a very serious person we've seen him have a lot of serious uh conversations with other men in the house but he also has a really
Starting point is 01:13:52 good sense of humor he's hysterical and he's like he's he is um i think he's charming in a way that brian isn't and like his shit doesn't feel his shit doesn't feel prepared because he's here's the big thing and this is like the most fucking stock like relationship bullshit ever but he listens to what rachel says and then like responds to it and shares and shares things and in his responses leaves openings for her to step back into the conversation and say like their their their date felt so fucking natural um and i just like i like that in every season especially like at this season where i am so completely rooting for for the bachelorette uh so they go to this cafe and they they talk with an old man who asks them how long they've been married uh which um eric really celebrates um and they get in a hot tub together like a like an outdoor hot tub hot tub i do are you kidding me you know
Starting point is 01:14:53 me in hot tubs i'd fuck with that completely like just an out in the middle of everything yes okay although and this is another like kayfabe breaking thing of just like they walk up to do you want to get in yeah i guess so and they're in swimsuits it's like come on yeah oh hot tub weird is there a hot tub out there is that one of those uh is that one of those uh heated uh little pools i it would be fun if we could get in it. I'm wearing my fucking trunks right now. Oh, where'd those come from? Just always got those. I fucking, do you see that? You're not the only fucking investigator here. I cracked that case wide open.
Starting point is 01:15:33 Where'd they get the bikini from? Nice try. Do you think he had them like folded up in his pocket? Yeah, definitely. Don't you do that? Maybe like one of those belts that you're supposed to wear when you travel, except his just had,
Starting point is 01:15:47 instead of money, had like a swimsuit folded up in it. I mean, there's also probably, I mean, there's a big production team. Somebody could have carried it for them, I suppose. But then they just carry bathing suits with them on every date in case they find a fucking random body of water
Starting point is 01:16:00 they want to get into. Maybe. All right, whatever. I don't know how they do wardrobe here. I don't know if the wardrobe goes remote with them. Maybe. Probably. Probably.
Starting point is 01:16:07 Okay, get off my case. I'm sorry. I tried to crack a scoop. Hollywood Griffin McElroy just thinks he knows. I tried to crack a scoop, okay, with my investigative skills, but I'm no Rachel. Thank you. You didn't look at the website. So we get a nice scene of Eric after the hot tub in a robe screaming,
Starting point is 01:16:24 best date ever, which becomes even more true when they go to the amusement park. And they're playing games and they're on a carousel and a Ferris wheel. And it just seems like a super fun. It's the fucking best. Super fun. Not like when Griffin and I went to the amusement park and we both hurt ourselves very badly. Oh, my God. What was it?
Starting point is 01:16:44 Six Flags Fiesta Texas? We went on some wooden roller coaster that like, I don't think I'll ever ride another wooden roller coaster. It jostled like every vertebrae. It's just not worth it, I don't think, anymore. How old does Henry have to be before he can go to fucking the Harry Potter world? And please say one. No, babe, I want him to remember it.
Starting point is 01:17:02 I'll tell him stories of that day. He won't be able to go on anything. Well, some of us will. He's a super, super tall one-year-old. If we can get him to be like a three-foot tall one-year-old. What if we take all our friends' babies, put them in a big trench coat? Stack them up. Stack them up.
Starting point is 01:17:21 That should work. I don't see any problem with that plan. As long as Henry gets to be on top because he's of course fully stable yeah we'll have to get four fast passes for him um so they they have a meal of burgers yeah they go to a restaurant and have burgers sitting in front of them that they do not eat um these are those good buns though on those burgers what those called where it's like a sort of glassy, you know, like a dark brown, and it looks kind of like a, not a Kaiser roll.
Starting point is 01:17:50 That's a different thing. Are you talking about the roll right now? Yeah, the roll looked really good, of the bun for the hamburger. Glassy? Yeah, it was kind of shiny bread. I know. Like a hollow? Brioche, brioche, brioche.
Starting point is 01:18:00 I know. What's the word? Like a hollow? Brioche, brioche, brioche. I've like recorded like three podcasts today and then like a bunch of like, this is literally the most. I need you to be in this moment with me, Griffin. I'm in it, babe.
Starting point is 01:18:18 I'm in the moment. This is just who I am in this moment. We can't wait another day. We can't be two days late on this episode. Okay. So this is when we get Eric telling a little bit more of his story um he talks about how he was always kind of like a good kid um but he says that he was a cool square which i appreciate it as a cool square myself i appreciate that but also how many people like maybe 90 of the population probably say like i wasn't very cool growing up i was one of those cool nerds that's like everybody it is true it is
Starting point is 01:18:51 absolutely true in the case of eric and you and rachel it seems like um so he talks he kind of tells the story um about how he always felt alone growing up and that his relationship with his mom was kind of complicated and that his relationship with his mom was kind of complicated and that his mom didn't give him a lot of attention and he felt like he was kind of always fighting for that yeah he said he didn't get any love from his mom and so like when it came time for him to like form emotional connections as an adult with like with with women it was just always kind of difficult um as a result that, which I totally get. Yeah, he says that he's now,
Starting point is 01:19:28 but he knows that he's falling for Rachel because it feels kind of out of control. Like a lot of these feelings he's feeling are kind of the first time he's ever felt them before and that it's scary, but it's good. And Rachel gives him a rose. And they go on a roller coaster and it's very good.
Starting point is 01:19:45 Yeah. We're at the hour and a half mark. We have like two more dates to go. Let's power through. Okay. Group date. Dean, Kenny, Brian, Alex, Matt, Peter, Adam. They are going on a Viking date.
Starting point is 01:19:58 They are going to paddle a Viking boat and then go to a land mass where tom and morton will teach tom and morton teach them how to viking game and viking battle by the way if you had shown us at any point during this fucking season a commercial where these dudes would be fighting with swords and shields i would have said oh that's where that dude cuts his eye oh that's how kenny gets hurt but of course they didn't do that tom and morton can we just jump to tom and morton can we they paddle and like brian doesn't do a good job i think somebody breaks their paddle or whatever they get there and tom is like these are just
Starting point is 01:20:41 two sort of like these are two sort of cosplaying locals. And Tom explains like, you know, I'm an enthusiast and I know a lot about Vikings and Viking sports and Viking games and rituals. And I've been working here for, he gives this long spiel. And the other guy says, and I'm Morton. And I know everything that Tom does. It was so good it was wonderful uh so we get to see a lot of viking games uh there's one with a greased stick
Starting point is 01:21:13 yeah you try to like pull it out of the other person's hand it was good there's a butt push uh where they try and push each other out of a circle a lot of folk games i'm into this there's a thing where they fight on one foot where they hop on one foot and try and push each other. I wish they would have played that Johan Sebastian Joust game. That was very much in the vein of what they were doing. Yeah, but it's Viking games, Griffin. It's like a Viking game if you think about it. With move controllers.
Starting point is 01:21:37 I think the studio that made that game is based in the Netherlands. So that's close, maybe? I don't know. Okay. based in the Netherlands. So that's close, maybe? I don't know. Okay.
Starting point is 01:21:50 So we get told that the guys that have the most victories will compete at the end to be the final winner. And it comes down to Kenny versus Adam. And their Viking game will involve shields and swords, and they will pull their opponent out of the ring using those shields and swords. This is where they both hit each other with shields and they both, Adam and Kenny both get bloody eyes. But of course we didn't fucking ever,
Starting point is 01:22:14 ever. This is like, this is it, right? We never saw Adam's bloody eye in one of these fucking commercials. They knew what the fuck they're, that's another fair point. The other thing is, and it's not funny they both got hurt right
Starting point is 01:22:28 and like i even i was watching this like they got swords what are you doing but uh the fight ends and uh i think adam's laying on top of kenny or kenny's laying on top of adam and they've they're like outside the battle circle and everybody's cheering and cage just looks up and goes that was rough and they're both bleeding and it's like we both hate each other the eyes with our shields of course just his response i can't remember if it was adam or kenny who said it but just whatever it was like that was rough it's just this like moment of like please stop clapping and get me some bandages that That was very bad. So Kenny ends up winning. He gets like a trophy for winning, but that's it. Just no special privilege.
Starting point is 01:23:11 It's like a helmet with a horn on it. It is not a drinking goblet. Refuel my goblet. So we're now in the night portion. Rachel gives a toast to the men for, quote, pillaging her feelings and raiding her heart oh man we both very much enjoyed and griffin made very sure that i wrote that it was so good um i'll just read some stuff you jump in if you think necessary okay um her and brian talk and brian talks about his optimism and she talks about her pessimism. There was a moment actually here
Starting point is 01:23:45 that I do often talk about where she said, and maybe I was reading too much into it, but she said like, do you think your family would like me? And again, this is the episode where really these conversations are kind of happening,
Starting point is 01:23:58 but I do not know if it will even be a factor. Maybe it won't. But during Nick's season, when he came to her hometown, they talked about race, and they talked about him dating black women, and whether he had done that before. I'm sure it's going to come up.
Starting point is 01:24:19 I'm sure it's going to come up, yeah. Especially with the, and we'll talk about this later, like racial breakdown of what the finalists are going to be like, it's definitely, definitely, definitely going to come up. And this, I don't know, did it read that way to you of just like her saying like. A little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Because he answered something like, oh, my family just really wants to support me and have me find someone that loves me yeah you know like he kind of addressed it a little bit then she meets with peter uh talks to peter about how attracted
Starting point is 01:24:53 she was to how nervous he was on that first night uh and then this is when she asked him to kiss her yeah she's just like laying back on the couch and she like almost she whispers it so they have to do like captions so she's like will you please kiss me it's so cute like come on um so kenny talks to matt we see a little bit of the two of them off screen i guess not off screen clearly on screen um and kenny confides in him about how hard it is for him to be away from his daughter and kind of the high stakes of the hometown date. Because bringing Rachel home would mean that he was very serious about her. And he's just still not sure whether or not he's ready to do that. And so when Matt meets with Rachel later, Rachel says, hey, how's Kenny doing? And Matt says, oh,ny physically is doing fine um
Starting point is 01:25:47 but emotionally he's having kind of a hard time uh and so she meets with kenny and this is when kenny says that he's not 100 comfortable with where they're at yeah um and he knows that he is very defensive and protective of his daughter uh And so he's just being very cautious. And she says that she has also had some concerns. And based on what you just told me and where I am at, I feel like you should go home. This happens a lot, right? This one was, this is, I think, the toughest send home of the season for me so far and probably will be mostly because of like what kenny had to go through on this on this show and what he is probably going to continue to go through even after the show is
Starting point is 01:26:34 over just based on the fact that like this is how conversations about shit like this go sometimes um i'm genuinely worried about that but also just like um this is this is one of those rare syndhomes where just like it it seems like it could have very easily gone the other direction neither of them disliked the other one their relationship didn't seem shallow it just seemed like a little bit slower than everybody else's but because you have a daughter at home like i don't want to keep you here on you know and wait for something to develop and then that it was i got really emotional watching this because again they've also made kenny call his daughter in the car um and filmed it and it was it was very very touching and heartbreaking it was an interesting exchange
Starting point is 01:27:21 because i think kenny was going into it thinking, if Rachel really is seriously interested in me, then I'm going to give her an opportunity to tell me that and maybe that'll change my decision. But that's never happened in the history of the show. Yeah, and she doesn't. But it's interesting, he's hugging her and he's saying goodbye to her and he's like, oh, why do you have to be so smart and insightful? And she says, very honestly, it's because I've dated someone with a child before. Kenny says, oh, Jesus. His daughter's like the best. So that's like one thing.
Starting point is 01:27:53 And the other thing is like, he says, if my daughter grows up to be like Rachel, I would be so proud. Like, I know I've done my job. That's what he says. I'm getting,'m babe i'm legit getting emotional right now thinking about that like these these two were great together right and they had like they had some really good time together they never had a one-on-one date with
Starting point is 01:28:16 each other um i guess it turned into a one-on-one after lee got sent home but like i don't know this i this one really um this one this one really got to me i mean it's the one really realistic thing about this show where sometimes you can have two people that get along well uh that just don't work yeah and sometimes that's a sad thing that's yeah that can be a really really tough thing especially when you want it to work that's like a real thing that this show is i've never really thought about it that way but that's a sad thing that's yeah that can be a really really tough thing especially when you want it to work that's like a real thing that this show is i've never really thought about it that way but that's a real thing that like everybody goes through yeah that this show can this not only can this show tap into it it is designed almost to tap into it like every season there are relationships that just kind of um no pun intended peter out i don't know why i said no pun intended, Peter out. I don't know why I said no pun intended because he's going to win.
Starting point is 01:29:09 So Rachel comes back and tells the guys that Kenny and her have talked and Kenny has decided to go home. And she gives the group date rose to Peter. And now it is time for her one-on-one date with Will. You all didn't think you were done yet did you please we have to move so fast through this one it was brief like if you're not um this is going to be two hour episode of rose buddies and i'm still confronting that fact but um this episode was so fucking dense because they were like okay we wasted a bunch of four hours of television here
Starting point is 01:29:41 we are talking about four hours but only in the last two hours, we got what? The end of the two on one, we got a rose ceremony, we got a one on one, we got a group date, and then we got another one on one and another rose ceremony. Like this show can haul ass
Starting point is 01:29:54 when it wants to. So with this one on one date with Will, Rachel says that Will tends to clam up when he's around her. She knows that he's a good guy, but they just haven't connected yet. And this is when they get on a boat, like with Eric,
Starting point is 01:30:12 but this time they're going to another country. They're going to Sweden. And they do the like experience local culture thing that we always talk about where they are walking through the street and there's a street musician. So they decide to dance in front of the street musician like i wonder if people just do that now out of ritual like oh this is the part where we do that can i say something yeah i don't want to be
Starting point is 01:30:35 hollywood group from magro but they do it because they need something to film and on dates like this where it's just like nothing is happening like no organic like cute shit is happening like yeah go fucking dance in front please just go dance in front of that guitarist like do you think the bachelor bachelorette places street musicians in opportunity locations i mean there are there are producers who like scout out locations for stuff right and most of the time actually there are not crowds gathered around them they are just no there i'm not saying the buskers aren't real i'm saying like i don't know this this show probably i mean it happens every time yeah anyway uh they play cube which is a game that griffin loves cube fucking rules you throw our friend chris plant has it you throw these sticks at these
Starting point is 01:31:25 shorter blocks on your opponents and try to knock them over and when they do they have to throw them on the urine and then they have to knock over those field cubes before they can knock out your back row and then once you've gotten all the cubes on one side the winning team can throw their their femur is what they're called at the fucking king cube in the middle and then you win so that's game so they they're after the cube uh they go eat pastries and drink coffee and they meet an old swedish couple that's been married 35 years and they get this weird kind of unspoken competition where the married couple kiss and then rachel's like we should kiss now the fact that will this there's something wrong this whole day like
Starting point is 01:32:02 there's something off and it becomes like the main feature of the date but like the fact that Will, there's something wrong this whole day. Like there's something off and it becomes like the main feature of the date. But like the fact that Will wasn't like, come on, that's bachelor date 101. You meet a cute old couple and they kiss and then you kiss. It's like a. Yeah, she had to ask him to kiss her. And that's when we kind of like get Rachel talking to the camera and just be like, I don't know what's going on. But Will is like not being affectionate at all. All he's done is hold her hand.
Starting point is 01:32:23 And just barely like she says something like and kind of not that even. All he's done is hold her hand. And just barely, like she says something like, and kind of not that even. Yeah, she wants more from him. And there is this abysmal shot of them standing up on this archway on like a castle or something, overlooking all of, you know, the beautiful city
Starting point is 01:32:38 and beautiful countryside all around them. And they're standing with enough space for the Holy Spirit in between them and just like nothing but the birds chirping for like a good you know 10 seconds it is really really really tough so she says if it doesn't go well tonight um i'm gonna say goodbye to will because nothing's happening yeah uh and so they have dinner together and he's talking about how well he thinks the date went uh and so she asks him well what do you look for in a woman? And this is when he says something.
Starting point is 01:33:09 And it came up earlier when he was talking to the guys, too, back at the house. But he says that he has only really dated white women in the past. I want to put in a caveat here of just like it is abrupt the way that he brings this up. And it was abrupt when he was talking with everybody else. She asked him what he liked in a woman. Well, I really, really think this is a situation of just, that is such a incriminating way to answer that, right? It insinuates something, I feel like.
Starting point is 01:33:39 If you say like, why weren't you affectionate with me? And he says, well, I've mostly dated white women. i really think this is an editing thing and it's very possible if that's the case then like again fuck this show but um yeah it's it is a um regardless of where it came in at the date it is still kind of a like buck wild thing to say yeah it kind of takes her back a little bit and so he was talking uh at the house earlier uh about it and we get a cut back to the house uh where all the dudes are sitting around and eric is explaining to them like yeah so he told me that he mostly dates white women and i suggested that maybe he should talk to rachel about that because you know it seems like the type of thing that could like explain sort of like their dynamic
Starting point is 01:34:26 right now and why it is the way it is and like um he he basically explains why he told will like you should talk to rachel about that and it seems like will took his advice and i don't know if it was uh i mean i don't know if it was good or bad advice, but it certainly didn't help out. Well, it was already like a pretty uncomfortable day. Well, and what Rachel ultimately says, so there's a point when he's talking about his previous relationships, and he says that he's always been very passionate and very good about physical intimacy. But he really is trying to be more thoughtful now about how he approaches relationships. And this is when Rachel says, I didn't really feel that at all. She didn't understand why he didn't want to hold her or kiss her on the date. So she starts telling him, you didn't make me feel especially wanted. And you saying that physical intimacy is a big thing for you.
Starting point is 01:35:26 And, and we didn't have that at all. Makes me wonder what's going on. Yeah. And he thinks he may be focused too much on forming the friendship instead of the romantic part of their relationship. There was also a part when he was talking about how he had mostly dated white women.
Starting point is 01:35:39 He says like, you know, I grew up in a place where they're just, there weren't that many black women. And so like, um, I, but as a a result like i just kind of ended up mostly mostly dating white women it was just like who who was there and he's like you know you know how it was um and she says like no i don't like i grew up in a place that you know was not especially diverse and i still dated like black men so like there were so many there were so
Starting point is 01:36:06 many like um there were so many times where it seemed like will was trying to like throw out a throw out a line not like a dialogue line but just like a like grappling hook trying to catch something and they just didn't they just didn't it it was really awkward like the whole thing was really awkward um in a way that just felt like these two people just should not really be dating it seems like um and sure enough rachel was picking up on that too because she sent him home she sent him home and so we go straight to the rose ceremony this episode actually ends with a rose ceremony just like the old days what a treat rachel is getting very emotional at the rose ceremony. And she talks about how she doesn't really like to show emotion, but the person she's
Starting point is 01:36:52 eliminating tonight is going to be her hardest person to eliminate yet. So Rachel talks about how she's in this land where Hamlet took place. And she's thinking about the Shakespeare quote from Hamlet, to thine own self be true. And in this moment, I'm just like- Who could you be sending home? Well, and also what an unusual bachelorette.
Starting point is 01:37:14 I think this is the first time we've ever had a bachelorette quote Shakespeare at a rose ceremony. Yeah, probably. But yeah, I couldn't figure out who she was sending home. I started to get really worried. Like, what was fucking like- Yeah, who is she emotional about and who she ended up sending home was alex who was
Starting point is 01:37:30 from the ellen date the ellen date he was he was dancing he's the i don't know if he's he speaks russian i don't know if he's like um immigrated from from there or first generation or whatever i thought he was really funny i thought he was really funny dude He's the one who talked about like peeing in the pool. And like, he was the one from the Ellen day. It was just like, I'm not going to lie. I peed in the pool. I peed in the pool. What's up?
Starting point is 01:37:52 He's going to kill it on. Well, is he going to, is he going to be on bit? Was he in that first slate that got, I don't know. No idea. Well, they wouldn't have announced it yet. Cause he just went home this time. That is a fair point. I wouldn't know it also.
Starting point is 01:38:02 Cause I've not been reading the bit bloids really really so who gets to say though matt and adam again they get through two rose ceremonies and it's like we know nothing about them other than adam jr did we talk about fucking adam jr through the window oh that's that was it josiah in his like send home uh bad wrestling promo he was like you're gonna send home a you're gonna keep a dude who just brought a doll and he says that we see like fucking adam like peeking into the rose ceremony through the window um yeah so that i i talked about this earlier and like i'll be honest like um it is it is something of a relief that the lee and kenny stuff is behind us right um and this show has or is at least trying to revert back to how it normally was it's really it's still like i don't
Starting point is 01:38:53 know man it's gonna that's bad taste is gonna be my mouth for quite some time like it feels weird to me that in the same episode where we talked about this like really really really racist shit that abc and the bachelorette exploited for ratings in a way that i think is like irresponsible and dangerous and bad in every way that media like can be bad is also the same episode we were like but then there was a really cute date later like i don't know how to i don't know how to like rectify that i don't i don't know how to get get past that or if like that is even something that we can or should get past but i don't know i i want to get through this season because like again i think rachel's fucking great and i think that the back half of this episode is really great and they're really uh there were really fun dates and really nice moments of like connections and
Starting point is 01:39:43 humor and like the shit i really like about this show and the shit that this show can do that no other show can do um and i i think one way or another we have to finish this have to finish this season um before we have sort of a bigger conversation i guess um it's just like i don't know it sucks it's a bummer it is a bummer that there was some really really really really good stuff that shows what this season could have been if not for the really irresponsible way that they they handled this this kenny and lee stuff um yeah let's let's wrap it up what you say yes please um thank you all for listening to Rose Buddies it is every week you can join us for a two hour long discussion no yeah we've only got like what probably like four more episodes left of this hey babe yeah onion time onion time I'm gonna say that next time I'm cooking
Starting point is 01:40:40 a blue apron cutting up some onions yeah is there an episode next week or not I don't know for sure. We'll get back to you on that one. If there's not an episode, we will still have an episode of our podcast. We haven't talked about it yet, but about the fucking Terrace House New Block episodes. It's so fucking choice. Guy is, we haven't finished it yet, but where we're at, Guy guys just on some next level shit we're big guy fans big guy fans it's felt good to say something positive about a a very good fucking reality show
Starting point is 01:41:11 uh that's it thanks for listening thanks max fun for having us go to maximum fun.org check out all the great podcasts there anything else baby nope all right well i'm gonna say this last thing and then all my uh bones are gonna collapse into a pile at the bottom of like my legs because i've been hunched over this mic for um the runtime of a feature-length film and a long one like a beefy one like a marvel movie anyway i'm griffin mcroy i'm rachel mcroy when you're ready stay with us on this journey of joy spoiler alert She ends up with Soulja Boy! Right reasons! Right reasons! She's been to all four seasons!
Starting point is 01:41:56 Maximumfun.org Comedy and culture. Artist owned. Listener supported. What the f*** is an interview? I mean, I do not know. That was Oscar-winning filmmaker Errol Morris. I'm Jesse Thorne, host of NPR's Bullseye. Allow me to introduce The Turnaround, a new podcast series produced by MaximumFun.org and presented with the Columbia Journalism Review. Join me as I sit down with some of our greatest living interviewers to ask them about interviewing
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