The Bachelor: Next Up Hometowns

By: Courtney Walsh

How in the HELL are we already at hometowns this season of The Bachelor? A woman who never got a 1 on 1 date made it this far? Is it just me, or is the season on hyper speed? And we know little to nothing about these women or Grant for that matter. Most seasons have those moments where you can see the sparks, or one of the ladies says she is falling for him/her. Can you think of when that happened before this week? Grant is looking for a wife he makes that clear by telling everyone he can “see them as a wife” I guess he gets some small credit because he never says “his wife” and the way women say they really like him, ok that was cool in 9th grade but this is The Bachelor we need more than that!

I love the idea of going to Scotland! It looked so fun even with the clouds and rain, unlike the island paradises we normally get on the show. I had ZERO doubts one of the one-on-one dates would be Zoe well, that proved to be wrong pretty quickly as it was Juliana who got it and was treated to the Princess Date. No expense was spared; she got all the bells and whistles. It took all of 4 minutes for Carolina to complain as the helicopter took off. I am so over her; it’s not even funny.

When it came to the night portion of the date, Juliana shared that the bubbly, happy side she always shows is not how things are all the time. She had/has a family member who has a battle with addiction. I found it super random how Grant almost jumps out his chair to shout me too, me too. He wants to be there for her. Does anyone else get the feeling that when he speaks, it comes down to two main things. One, he wants to be the one to do the heavy lifting for his partner, as well as fix his childhood and past by having an amazing family of his own. Whew, I don’t know if I could handle that on top of me daily, but hey, the ladies really like him, right? These two are into each other; you can tell very easily, and her spot in the final two has to be set already. This is the one couple I can see it while with the others I have no clue.

The Bachelor’ season 29 contestant Juliana. Disney/Matt Sayles

The group date was Sarafiena, Carolina, Alexe, Diana, and Zoe. Props to you, Zoe there is no way I could put on a happy face and be around all these women knowing a one-on-one will never happen for me. Each of the ladies gave it a real go and seemed to have fun, except for Carolina. She was all negative and attitude off the rip. She even told the tarot card reader to guess her sign. Bruh, I would have shown her the sign of an ass beating. Anyway, she then pouts and gets Grant’s attention. Lord knows he can’t let anyone not have a great time.

She uses the time crying about how she feels like things are off between them and how hard it is to see the connections Grant has with other women. What a mistake to say she was just waiting to be sent home and thinking why was she still here. Meanwhile the other ladies are PISSED once again Carolina has stolen time away from them all and made it about her. On this final group date, it wasn’t about having the best attitude; it was about making the most of the time you got.

This led to all sorts of drama back at the castle between the ladies and rightful so. They showed no love for Carolina with digs and side comments. Dina, who is a defender of Carolina, leads the charge of mean girls and wants answers and accountability from her. My girl Diana is really upset and takes things to another level with a classic Bachelor move of tattling on Carolina. I do not think Carolina is doing this on purpose. Could it be that she thought this was her game to win, and now she sees it’s not and is crashing out?

The final one-on-one date was exploring Edinburgh with Litia, which made me love the city even more. The two of them are cute together and share what looked like a very fun day checking the sites and hanging out with locals as if they were on vacation together. It was a nice touch having them “tie the knot.” The dinner was full of surprises. Litia shares that she is a Mormon and has never dated outside of her faith. Rather than be a turnoff, Grant shares that God is a “cornerstone” of his life, and he wants it to be a part of his family. However, he doesn’t feel religion needs to have all these rules. hmmm…

Now, at this point, I would have run for the hills if I was Grant, not the biggest person on reliegon, but anyway, Grant talks about how when he was growing up he ate alone. “When I was alone, I would just talk to God.” This will be interesting moving forward. The night ended with a dance. Litia scares me; she just seems like the type of girl who would lock you in the bedroom and just bring you meals. Maybe it’s the crazy eyes.

The rose ceremony is about to start when Carolina asks Diana for a second and says she is sorry about how things turned out. We get the normal tears and I love you’s before they head back down. Grant gives roses to Dina, Juliana, Litia, and Zoe. So we say goodbye to Alexe, Carolina and Sarafiena. I won’t lie; I was laughing so hard looking at Carolina’s face as she went home. I didn’t like her at all. Heading into hometowns, here are my rankings.