Nick shocks the girls in this weeks episode of “The Bachelor”. (Screenshot/ABC)
It’s been a long time coming, but the drama between Corinne and Taylor is finally over. After nearly three whole episodes of their feuding and many cliffhangers, Taylor gets her last word in at Nick and Corinne’s date, before leaving the show for good. Nick had an attitude with Taylor, and rightfully so, but at this point all we can do is hope that it opened Nick’s eyes toward Corinne’s ridiculous behavior. Corinne, however, is empowered by Taylor’s less-than-graceful exit from the show: “What I learned tonight is that cats have nine lives and b****es have two.”
The girls are taken to the fifth rose ceremony in a horse-drawn carriage, but the night only goes downhill from there. Chris Harrison announces there won’t be a cocktail party beforehand because Nick knows exactly what he wants to do. All the girls are devastated at the unexpected lack of one-on-one time, but it’s eventually Josephine, Alexis and Jaimi who are sent home. Nick followed up the heartbreak with the announcement that they’ll all be going to St. Thomas. Nick makes the completely unprecedented observation that “not only do these women have feelings for [him] but, [he] has feelings for these women.”
Upon arrival on the island, the girls have the typical “exploring the hotel” scene where they all get wildly overexcited over windows and beds. They run to greet Nick as he gets off a plane, before he immediately whisks Kristina off on a one-on-one date. We like Kristina, Kristina is sweet, she’s endearing, she has an accent. Nick seems equally enthusiastic and optimistic about the date. They sit at ruins by the water and talk about Kristina’s past, how she was adopted from an unfortunate situation in Russia when she was 12 and had to leave her sister behind to come to America. Nick wants to continue “knocking down her walls” (get it, because they were at ruins?) and keep getting to know more about her, so he gives Kristina the date rose.
While they are on their date, tensions run high as the girls wait for the next date card. Jasmine is in tears because she has not yet had a one-on-one and feels like she’s missing out on valuable alone time with Nick. Corinne, meanwhile, has a fairly relaxing day, even finding herself a “St. Thomas Nanny,” in order to get over the stress Taylor allegedly put her through. The real drama comes when the next date card comes, revealing not only the participants of the group date, but also that there will be another two-on-one, between Whitney and Danielle L., meaning one of them is going to go home before the end of the episode.
The group date the next day began with Nick and the girls on a catamaran boat headed to a private beach, where they drank and it was literally all fun and games – until everyone started breaking down. Jasmine was bitter that this was her sixth group date in a row, while all the other girls are getting a bit jealous that Nick is spending yet another group date chasing after (a very drunk) Corinne. Danielle M. and Vanessa, strong contenders for Nick’s heart at this point, are also fed up, feeling like they are wasting time playing games. By now, literally everyone is crying. Nick acknowledges the date is going south and hopes to turn it around at the evening portion, but things just get worse when Jasmine speaks with him alone. He says he’s also been very stressed about the progressions of his relationships, but Jasmine is only put at ease momentarily before breaking down again. She gets a little violent and aggressive when trying to express her frustrations at not getting time with him, which makes Nick visibly uncomfortable. After that awkward encounter and Jasmine saying she feels neglected, Nick sent her home. He realized he didn’t want to spend his life with someone who attempted to choke him, which seems pretty reasonable. Raven ended up getting the group date rose, which was really anticlimactic after that drama.
That tense, emotional rollercoaster of a date gave way to another one when it came time for the two-on-one. The trio took a helicopter to a private beach where, after two very short conversations with both “D Lo” (a name affectionately dubbed by Vanessa) and Whitney, Nick sends Whitney home. The date itself was really unexciting, and continues to be until the dinner Nick has with Danielle L. As they sit down and start to talk about what they’re looking for in relationships, Danielle admits she’s falling for him – the second person to officially do so this season, to which Nick responds that he wanted to love her but can’t reciprocate her feelings and sends her home as well. Yes, folks, the rare two-on-one date where both girls go home. Back at the hotel, as the other women watch both suitcases get taken away, indicating that Whitney and Danielle have gone home, they all, again, begin to question the strength of their relationships.
Nick later goes to the girls’ hotel, in tears, to have an honest conversation with the rest of the women. He says he’s losing optimism then leaves. And it’s yet another episode that didn’t end with a rose ceremony. In case anyone was wondering, the official Bachelor Word of the Week is “shook” as all the women repeatedly say they feel shaken by Nick’s heartfelt displays of emotion. Will Nick be the first Bachelor to call it quits before the finale? Will Corinne be able to single-handedly turn things around with her “top-notch sex abilities”? Tune in to next week’s episode of The Bachelor on ABC at 8 p.m. to find out.
Julia Mancini is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. She can be reached via email at Julia.mancini@uconn.edu.