The Bachelorette Season 8 - Emily Maynard

THE BACHELORETTE SEASON 8:

Bachelorette Finale:  Emily Makes her Final Choice

What can I say, the finale was absolutely amazing.  I truly feel that with the live audience there and how they integrated them into the airing of the finale increased the hype and enjoyment of the show.

Tonight started off with them all still in Curacao.  Emily arrives at the family villa and greets her family.  She tells them that they will meet both of the remaining guys, then she heads out to meet up with Jef who arrives first to meet the family carrying two bouquets of flowers, one for her mom and one for her future sister-in-law.  After arriving and greeting Emily with a kiss, they head inside where Emily introduces him to her mom Suzy, father David, her brother Ernie, future sister in law Becky.  After they talk a while, Suzy takes Jef inside to talk to him alone where she freely states that this time they want to make sure Emily is being looked after properly and that it is the right decision for her and Ricki.  Once Suzy is finished with Jef, Ernie has a chance to take him aside as well to ease his mind and to make sure that Jef has the right intentions.  After having a chat with both, her brother and mother, Emily’s dad takes him aside to talk as well.  During their conversation, Jef has the chance to ask David for his permission or approval to get engaged to Emily.  Through the whole time Jef was with Emily`s family, everyone seemed to be at ease and joking around.  After a while, Jef had to leave and once everyone said their goodbye’s, Emily walked him out. 

Next up………..Arie meets Emily’s family

The next day it was Aries turn to meet the family but this time, from the beginning, there seemed to be more of a nervous tension.  Both Arie and Emily’s family seemed to be more nervous with each other than the way things were the day before with Jef.  Again, Suzy and Ernie both had a chance to talk to Arie separately about his feelings towards Emily and what he hoped would happen.  Then again, David was approached about giving his blessing for Emily to become engaged.  After the family said their goodbyes to Arie, Emily had a chance to walk him out and say a proper goodbye to him by herself before going back inside to the family and asking for their opinions on the guys.

During her meeting with the family, you could see her getting frustrated because as she stated in an ITM, she was hoping that the family could tell her who she would be better suited with.  But that isn’t the case as all the family felt that she had two great guys.  The one thing that her dad didn’t understand though….how could she be in love with two guys at the same time.  Is this the statement that Emily needed to really re-assess who she had stronger feelings for?

Emily and Jef have their last chance date…..

Emily is waiting for Jef down on the beach where they will have their last date together.  After their greeting, they settle down on the beach blanket to have a chat.  As they are sitting there, you can tell Emily is giving something a lot of thought.  Slowly after some prodding by Jef, she states that she had no intentions of introducing Ricki to anyone, but has changed her mind and because of how she feels for Jef, she wants the two of them to meet.  The two of them leave the beach area and make their way back to Emily and Ricki’s place where they had sneak peeks of Ricki playing and swimming in the pool.  The two of them made their way into the backyard where the pool is located and Emily introduced Ricki to Jef.  I think it took all of 5 minutes if that for Ricki to warm up to Jef and the three of them continued to play in the pool. Afterwards, they went inside for a bit.  When it came time for Jef to say his goodbye’s, he first said them to Ricki.  After Ricki went inside, Emily walked Jef out.  Later, Emily joined Jef at his place where they had more of a chance to talk and Emily told him that Ricki asked if he could come back to see her tomorrow.  After they talked for a while, Jef gave Emily a gift which was a book on Curacao.  In the book, he drew stickmen of the two of them during their dates.  When they finally said their goodbyes for the night, it was obvious that Emily was really into Jef, their time spent with Ricki, and that she was happy.

Up next……..Emily meets with Chris Harrison

Chris comes over to Emily’s to talk with her.  She tells him about her day with Jef and how he came over and swam with Ricki.  Emily also tells Chris that she’s “done” and has made her choice in Jef.  So, on that day, she also needs to tell Arie as she knows she can’t spend the day with him knowing how she feels about Jef. 

Up next……Emily says goodbye to Arie

When we see Arie, he is with a local woman that is teaching him about making a love potion, of how he has to pick the local flowers, put them in a bowl, mix in some fluid and mash all together.  We then see Emily arriving and walking up toward where Arie is sitting waiting for her.  As she is walking up to him, you can tell she is pretty emotional.  When they first greet, she gives him a quick kiss, and he mentions to her about the “love potion” that he has made as he spreads some onto her wrists.  After that, they sit down to talk.  Emily is so emotional through this and it is obviously really hard for her as she begins to tell Arie that she is saying goodbye and he isn’t the one for her.  (later in the ATFR, she explains it so much better).  After walking him out, Arie does the typical goodbye interview in the vehicle, but for me, it was obvious how hurt he was, how he still didn’t understand either.

Up next……..ring shopping, looking back, and the proposal

When we come back, we see Emily talking of how she feels about Jef.  We are shown video clips of their relationship so far, and her talking about how full of love her heart is.  We then see Jef meeting with Neil Lane to choose the ring he wants.  As Jef walks on the beach, we again are shown video clips of their relationship so far.

Emily arrives at the FRC location which is different this time.  Not on the ocean as so many in the past have been.  As she gets out of the vehicle, Chris is there waiting to escort her to the FRC stand and after their goodbyes to each other, we see Jef walking up the lane to the location.  After meeting up with Chris who is there waiting for him, he walks through a gate and see’s Emily waiting for him.

Once they have their greetings, Emily tells Jef that he’s the one, and not only that but he’s the only one who met Ricki as well as the only one left there as she already said goodbye to Arie.  You can see the relief on Jef’s face.  He then proceeds to tell Emily what this all means to him, what she and Ricki mean to him and kneels down with ring in hand to ask her to marry him. 

It was a great proposal, IMO.  To tell you the truth, I wasn’t a Jef fan in the beginning, but through the season, he opened my eyes as to who he really is.  Then at the end with him playing in the pool with Ricki and how Jef was with Emily’s family in general….he won me over, big time.

Thankyou everyone for reading my blogs throughout the season.  We will be back for Bachelor Pad and for Bachelor Canada blogs over the coming months.  Hope you all join us for those seasons as well.

Fantasy Dates Leaves Emily in Tears

Tonight’s episode begins with Emily arriving in Curacao(don’t ask me to spell that too many times pls.) and she begins talking about the three remaining guys she has left as well as the relationship she has with each of them.

Sean:  An immediate connection, almost love at first sight.  Rough and tough side with a super sensitive one, almost like hitting the jackpot for Em.  He gives her butterflies in her heart and makes her excited for her future with him.

Jef: She loves his style, marches to his own drum without caring what others think.  Has his own quirky sense of humour she loves.  She feels her life with Jef would be full of adventure and love, going to the grocery store would be an adventure.  He makes her laugh the most, romantic, genuine, gets her, would make the best husband and best stepdad ever.

Arie:   immediate connection, sweet, builds her up, attentative, someone that would adore her, be her best friend forever.

Sean is the first one to get the fantasy date and after Sean meets up with Emily, they take a heli tour over the area.  Then as they fly out over the ocean, they land on their own private island.  When they land, they head down to the beach to sit down and chat.  I don’t know if it is just me, but they definitely seem more distant this time than in past episodes.  During their chat, she asks questions of him about his past relationships.  It is quite obvious due to the distance between them as they sit on the beach, she’s just not feeling it with certainty.  When they join back up for the evening portion of their date, they walk towards their dinner location set up on the beach loaded down with pillows.  During their conversation, she begins to ask how he feels.  Sean pulls out a letter that he wrote for Ricki if Sean is a part of their lives.  It was a really sweet letter that obviously touched Em’s heart and when the letter was read, they started talking about his family, the visit they had, and then towards the end of their time on the beach, Sean tells her that he loves her.  After sharing a kiss, Em pulls out the date card for the fantasy suite.  Em states that she would like nothing more than to spend more time with him as they head off to their suite.  When they enter the suite, they head out to the pool, spend some time there cuddling and kissing, but Em states that she knows she isn’t ready for anyone to spend the night and sends him home.

Emily and Jef up next………

Jef walks down to the beach and meets up with Emily who is waiting for him on the dock.  They walk down the pier and board the dingy to go out to the anchored sailboat.  Already there is a difference in Emily.  She seems more open and affectionate/warm with Jef.  Jef mentions that he talked to his parents after she left the ranch and they’d like to meet her.  This seemed to impress Em and when all was said and done if they were together, she readily agreed to meeting his parents.  They steer the boat into a bay where they set the anchor and jump off the boat, use the paddle board and head into shore for a while.  After playing in the water and on the beach, they re-board their boat and set sail during the sunset.  IMO, so far, their date has more romance to it, and feelings involved than with Sean.  When they meet up for dinner, they share a toast, and the discussion turns serious again as Jef now has questions for her.  About whether she’d move away from Charlotte, what there is in her past relationships that made them not work.  Em tells him that he ignites the self confidence in her that she hasn’t had in a long time.  Jef has one more important question regarding Ricki….Is he a good enough “fit” for Ricki and Em admitted that while she was in Charlotte in between hometowns and when she went about her daily chores, she pictured Jef with her versus anyone else.  When the serious questions were done, Em produced the fantasy suite card and Jef says that it would be awesome to forego the individual rooms, but with both families watching, he  says that he’d rather spend more time but not in that manner.  In an ITM, Em expresses how this impresses her as what Jef said to her is exactly what she was going to tell him.  After getting into the suite, they opened some champagne, shared some romantic kisses, and when she finally told him to go, Jef states in an ITM of how difficult it was for him to leave, but also knows he’s more in love with her than ever before after their date.

Up Next…….Arie

Emily is waiting for Arie on the boat and as they take off on the catamaran, they can’t seem to stop kissing each other.  Once they get to their destination, they find dolphins waiting there for them.  It is one of the neat things to do around the island, playing with them as they are a very playful animal.  During the time with the dolphins, Em says that Arie is very protective over her and it is really sweet as you can see his arm around her during the underwater shots.  Then later when they are on the boat, they begin talking about their favorite times during their journey and before we know it, they are kissing again.  Sheesh guys.  When they sit down for their dinner, they begin discussing what Arie does on a daily basis, getting up, getting home from work, the usual kind of stuff.  Then when Arie says that he gets up at nine, Em states that he will be getting a rude awakening as the mornings around their place starts early.  Through dinner, they talk about Ricki and whether the “fit” is right for them all.  Emily tells Arie that he’s been that light at the end of the tunnel for her.  Then in an ITM, she tells us that he she really doesn’t want to give him the fantasy suite card as she doesn’t trust herself.  She expresses a few times of how hot Arie is and she just doesn’t trust herself when it comes to the fantasy suite and her alone time with Arie, knowing that there are still three guys there as well.  The night ends with them kissing in the archway of their dinner location.

Up next……rose ceremony

Emily and Chris Harrison head to the deliberation room to discuss the week.  It is obvious looking at Emily that this process is really starting to take it’s toll on Emily.  She breaks down a lot tonight as she talks to Chris.  When they were done with their discussion, Harrison says that there are video messages left by the guys for her to watch as he greets the guys.  As Emily watches the videos, you can see the emotions that she is going through and she is finding this process really tough.  When she goes out to the guys, makes her speech, she hands out the roses to Jef and Arie.  After a tearful goodbye, Sean is sent home in the limo.

Episode 8:  HTD’s

Tonight’s episode begins with Emily returning home to Charlotte and little Ricki for some quality time before hitting the road to four hometown dates.  When she arrives home, she is greeted with a handmade welcome home sign and Ricki running to her.  Beautiful! 

Emily begins by describing her connection with each of the guys starting off with Chris.  She describes the connection with Chris as happening early on, strong, sweet, open about their connection, and as of last week can admit when he’s wrong, and doing sweet little things to show he cares. 

Then there’s Jef. She saw something special in him from the beginning, she also wanted someone with an edge which Jef has.  She feels that they “get” each other, she’s really comfortable with him and trusts him as well.  He’s unique, special, and when she’s with him, she feels like there is no one else around, their life would be full of adventure, fun, he’d also make a great husband and the best dad. 

Then there’s Arie.  She has so much fun with Arie, an immediate connection, instanly drawn to one another, so attracted to him with the bad boy edge, youthful thing which also brings it out in her.  Perfect first kiss, guys like Arie are really hard to find. 

Finally there’s Sean.  He makes her feel safe, very taken care of, confident.  The guy that Sean is in his heart is the one that she’s falling in love with, very big heart.  Her life with Sean would be the perfect life that she said she always wanted.

Chris’s hometown date is first...........

Emily arrives in Chicago and comes up behind Chris and surprises him, as they walk through the streets of Chicago, they were checking out the different sites including the cannel through it.  In the words of Chris, on a scale of 1 – Polish, they are Polish.  They talked about the last rose ceremony and how he pulled her aside to appologize to her for how he acted on the group date while they are sitting in a pub having a pint.  Chris told her who she’d be meeting when they arrived at his parents.

When they do arrive at his parents in Hanover Park, they meet up with his dad and mom; John and Rose, and sisters Rene and Theresa.  After hugs all around, they sit down at the table and in an ITM, Em tells us that the family is just like Chris, friendly and open.  They started talking about their dates from the beginning, and of course the family was getting a laugh at it when Chris and Em were talking about getting the harnesses on and scaling the building.  Emily had a chance to talk with Chris’s dad first.  Chris spent some time with his mom too, and she was telling him to kick a$$ and fight for her if that is what he wants.  Then it is Rene’s time with Emily...she’s worried that he will get his heart broken and asks Em to let him go sooner than later if he’s not the one for sure.  Chris then sits down with his dad, and he tells Chris that Em’s falling in love with Chris....strange thing is, I don’t remember Em wording it like that to John.  At some point in the night, Chris walks Em out where he tells her that he loves her.  They then go back to his patio where there are polish dancers and singers waithing there for them  to party with.

Up next........Jef

We see Jef in St. George, Utah waiting for Em to show up.  When she arrives, they walk down the dirt trail towards the ranch buildings, Jef is telling us a bit about the ranch, how big it is, etc.  They arrive at a dunebuggy that is there waiting for them.  Then Jef gives her a little kiss before taking off like a shot in the dunebuggy.  He shows her the areas of the ranch till they come across a skeet shooting area set up for them.  Jef is the first one to shoot, hitting everyone, he is impressing Emily for sure.  Then it is her turn, and she hits all the skeets as well, of course it impresses Jef and when she tells him that she’s shot guns before, he has been taken aback for sure.  When they were done shooting skeet, they went and sat down on a few bales of hay covered by a blanket while they talked about Jef’s family and why he broke up with the other girl that he was involved with.  They walked back to the ranch where Jef’s family greeted her with open arms.  According to her ITM, Emily is completely taken by surprise by the amount of people there waiting for them.  Steve, Jef’s older brother is the first one to talk to her.  His first question is why it didn’t work for her and Brad and what she’s doing differently this time.  At the end of their conversation, Steve admitted that he felt Em would be the perfect compliment to Jef.  Later, Em sits down with four of Jef’s sisters and once again, basically asked the same questions as with Steve, like what happened with Brad, what’s different this time around.  Then Em asks the sisters if they thought Jef was ready for an instant family, and they really thought he would as if he found the right girl, he’d totally do it.  When Em got the answer she was looking for, the sisters turned it back on her by asking her if she’d move to Utah if she chose Jef and of course she said yes if she’d get out of it what is best for her and Ricki.  Then the last and final question about whether Emily was falling in love with Jef, and Em said that she thought she was, but on the other hand is very hesitant to throw that word around as well.

When the family time was done, Jef took Em off to a private location, laying on some rocks overlooking the valley(hmmm, haven’t we seen this before?  As in Trista and Ryan’s hometown date, kissing at the lookout during the sunset?) and while there, Jef read off a letter that he had wrote for Em.  To me, it was definately heartfelt, and it looked like it is what Em needed to hear too.

Up next............Arie in Scottsdale

Emily heads out to the local track where she finds Arie racing around the track.  When he stops, they hug and kiss in their greeting, then Arie informs her that they are going for a ride.  After getting changed, she comes back onto the track, gets her helmet on and climbs into the car.  When they were done at the track, Arie takes her to a local park where they sit down on the grass by a local “lake” and Arie “introduces” her to his parents, their history and pieces of their family history.  As they sit there talking, Arie expresses that it is his mom that he has to worry about concerning this process as she may be the leary one of the bunch.  After they finish up at the lake, they get ready to meet his parents.

After meeting up with his dad Arie SR, his mom Mieka, Luca/alex and his sister.  After they sat down and got aquainted, they sat down to eat.  Later they talked about Arie’s mom and dad, their honeymoon during Arie SR’s racing days.  Then while they were sitting there, the family began to speak in Dutch which left Emily completely out in the cold.  It was obvious from looking at her face, she was not impressed.  Finally Arie clued in and put a stop to it.  Then Mieka and Emily went off to talk about how Emily is feeling, what happened with her and Brad and her feelings towards Arie.  At the end, it seemed like Em won Mieka over as she had nothing but great things to say about Em in an ITM later.  Later, Arie’s jr and sr went out for a chat and Sr. made it obvious that he approves of what is happening as he seemed to really like Emily and hoped that Arie would make it to the end.  Once everyone had their questions answered, the night was over and Arie walked Em out to the waiting car, but not before giving her some sweet good night kisses along the way.

Up next..........Sean in Texas

When Emily arrives, she finds Sean waiting for her along with two of his dogs.  They took a walk through the park then sat down for a while and had a good chat.  Emily states in an ITM of how this is something that she would do back home so it was nice to know it is also something that Sean does too.  While walking through the park, they picked a boquet of flowers.  When they finally went to his parents place, she was greeted with open arms once again.  After everyone sat down, Sean says that there is something that he hadn’t told Em and now he needs to.  So, he proceeds to tell her that he still lives at home.  In doing so, he asks to take her to show her the house and his room.  When they arrived at his room, it looked like a windstorm hit it.  There was junk everywhere, never mind cookie crumbs.  Em looked completely shocked.  You could tell thoughts were reeling through her mind judging by the expressions on her face.  Finally Sean told her that it was all a joke and he doesn’t live at home and this is not his room.  Afterwards, they went back out to the back yard where his family awaited and his mom immediately appologized for the gag they played on her.

The day seemed to go quite well and as Sean walked her out, he gave her a couple of quick kisses, then she pulled away.  We get an ITM from Sean saying how he wanted one more kiss from her so chased her down the road to do it.  They shared a few more kisses, and Em was on her way.

Up next............Rose Ceremony

Chris Harrison was waiting for Emily when she arrived at the hotel in Los Angeles for the HTD rose ceremony.  There, she and Harrison had a chance to have a chat about each of the HTD’s, what happened in each and how she’s feeling about things now.  It was a pretty short chat, and not much came to light other than Em feeling really bad letting one go now especially since families are now involved.  Harrison got the guys lined up for the ceremony and when Em came out, she gave her customary speech before handing out roses to Arie, Jef and Sean, sending Chris home.  Before leaving though, Em walked Chris out where he got kind of upset at the situation as he truely felt that he was safe.

Well, guesss that’s all for tonight, sorry for the lackluster blog this time.  Will hopefully be able to make it up to you for the fantasy dates coming up next week.

Episode 7:  Dancing puppets, Hide and seek, and games played

We see the beautiful sights of Prague as Emily is walking her suitcase up the walk to the Golden Well hotel that she will be staying in for the week.  May I say, Prague would be a wonderful place to visit.  WOW.  As Emily walks around the streets of Prague, we are treated to amazing sights and the architecture of the buildings is absolutely amazing.  After Chris Harrison greets the guys in one of the town squares, tells them that they will be having 3 individual dates and a group date, they head to their hotel room where they await the first date card of the week.  Sean finds the first date card and it is for Arie.  Let’s Czech out Prague together.....Emily.  After finding out he is getting the first date, Arie gets changed and ready for the day.  

All the guys are waiting in the main hotel room when Em arrives to pick up Arie for their date.  Emily and Arie leave the hotel room and walk through the streets of Prague.  They come along a street vendor and ask for 2 hot wine.  The whole time they are walking, we are hearing from Emily of how she knows that Cassie and Arie did “date” at one time, but even though Arie knows Cassie is there, has said nothing to Emily about it.  They walk up on a statue that if you touch the lady on one side which represents lucky in love, and the dog on the other that is suppose to stand for loyalty.  Well, as Em says, it feels really weird doing that when she knows Arie is keeping a “secret” from her.  

At this time we get an excerpt from Chris Harrison explaining that several years ago, Arie and the producer Cassie Lambert had a very brief relationship and at the beginning of filming, Emily had no idea of this.  Yet through the course of the show when it became evident that Emily was developing feelings for Arie, Cassie told Em about the past relationship.  We are shown a conversation that happened between Cassie and Em on the situation.  

Back to Arie and Emily sitting down and discussing their connections, Em asks him if he feels he is being really open with her.  While they are sitting in front of the cafe, they get into a conversation about honesty and how Arie feels he is being really honest with her.  Then Arie tells Em about having another woman’s name tattooed onto his arm, yet as Em states, he isn’t being completely honest about knowing Cassie and it bothers her.

Chris Harrison comes back on and explains that Emily didn’t have lasting problems with Arie not telling her of his past relationship with Cassie as they do continue their date together.  We are taken back to their night portion of the date.  From their conversation, it is obvious that they discussed it to some extent because now Emily is perfectly fine with it all.  Hmmm, an editing snafoo here?  

As they kiss some more, we are taken to the hotel room where the guys are sitting around talking and of course, a knock on the door and the date card arrives.  John heads out to grab it and reads it out.  John, in Prague, all you need is love.......Emily.  This of course lets the other guys know that their chances of having an individual date are gradually decreasing, and this is leaving Chris not very impressed at all.  We get an ITM from Chris saying how livid he is that he didn’t receive that date.

Back with Arie and Emily, they are on a boat floating down the river when Arie states in an ITM of how he has been waiting for a while to tell Emily how he feels.  He tells Em that he is in love with her and she responds by saying that if things keep going as they are, nothing would make her happier.  As they are sitting there, fireworks begin going off and they continue to share sweet kisses together during the show.

Up next........John and Em find the wall

John and Em meet up on the walkway along the river running through prague.  After their greetings, they board a boat for a “taxi” ride to their date location.  After they leave their taxi and begin to walk the streets of Prague, they come across the John Lennon wall.  They paint the boat as that is where things began for them in Bermuda, then carried along where they came to a “fence” area which the tradition here is to put symbols onto a lock, secure it on the gate and you will have everlasting love.  This of course is harder for them to accomplish than it should be…could this be a premonition of why they wouldn’t make it to the end together?  

Back at the hotel, the guys are talking about John and his date when Chris is approached and the guys notice that he seems to be “off” today.  Chris exclaims in an ITM of how this process is really getting to him and he’s not handling it so well anymore.

Emily and John are walking down through a dungeon to get to their night portion of the date.  They are down in the dungeon where there are blankets, pillows and a “snack” set up for them.  John is talking about his previous relationships and how he feels the older he is getting he chooses to date women that are more like himself.  John opens up to Emily and tells her that he’s been cheated on in his past relationship and knows he needs to tell her.  After he was done, Emily states in an ITM how she understands him a whole lot better now and how she thought of him before just being a slow mover in the relationship department, now she understands why.  At the end of their night, they shared some kisses but to be honest with you, I really wondered how much Em was really “feeling” them.

Back at the hotel, a knock on the door and the group date card shows up.  Arie gets the card and reads it out.  Sean, Doug and Chris, let’s find our happily ever after…..Emily.  This of course almost sends Chris over the edge as he feels he is entitled to the last individual date this week over anyone else there.  Just then, John arrives home and it is obviously unsettling to the other guys.  Sean sneaks out to explore the streets of Prague in search of Emily who just walked John back to the hotel.  Sean finally finds her down one of the tunnel walkways between the streets and the two of them have a chance to re-connect, kissing included.  The two of them find a cafe that is still open and have a chance to talk about the group date and how disappointed he is that he’s not having a date with just her on his own.  After a pint and a few more kisses we leave them kissing in one of the tunnel walkways through Prague.

Up next……….group date

As the guys walk up and meet up with Emily, she informs them that they are going to their group date by horse and carriage.  This of course doesn’t impress Chris at all.  The finally arrive at the castle and Doug gives out the first toast of the day.  Emily and Doug get out for their private time first.  When they sit down for their private time, Doug’s body language is a dead give away that he just ain’t that much into Emily.  Unfortunately, Emily finally realizes that this just isn’t going to change and she really needs to end things here.  As they are talking outside I the rain, Doug takes the inopportune time to give Emily a kiss, which of course went un-noticed in a way because the poor girl is actually trying to say goodbye to the guy.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Doug, but I do feel he may benefit better from a more laid back situation versus the pressure cooker that is called bachelorette.  We wish Doug all the best for his future.

After Doug is sent home, Emily and the two remaining guys get changed into their evening wear and move to the more comfortable seating area where they pop some more champagne.  Emily produces two keys and hands one to each of the guys claiming that the key that opens the one on one area is who gets the first one on one time with her.  Chris tried his key first but to no avail which meant that Sean’s key is the winner and they head into the room for some quiet time together.  They were talking about family, of how important it is to both of them and of how important the hometown dates will be.

Back at the hotel, Jef, John and Arie are sitting around the hotel when Jef’s date card arrives.  John is the one to get it to read out.  Jef, this is your chance to pull at my heart strings…..Emily.  The three guys remaining at the house are talking about how Chris will handle it if he gets the rose or not on tonight’s date.

Meanwhile, at the castle, it is now Chris’s time to have a chance for a private chat with Emily.  In this time, he’s talking about the other guys getting dates and him not getting the private dates.  After them having a small chit chat and a few kisses, they head back to where Sean is waiting for them.  Emily is getting ready to hand out the rose and you can tell it’s going to be tough.  She states that this rose is probably the most important as it symbolizes that she is giving it to the one that she feels the most ready to meet his family; then hands it to Sean.  You can visibly see how ticked off Chris is with it.

Up next……..Jef’s individual date

As Emily arrives at the hotel to pick up Jef, you can see how uncomfortable the other guys are, especially Chris.  The two of them take a walk through the streets of Prague till the come across a marionette puppet shop.  They head inside and try out various puppets including a Michael Jackson puppet, and when they find the ones they want, they leave the store; but Jef returns to get a marionette for Ricki.  As they continue to walk down the streets, Emily states in an ITM how their relationship has progressed beyond the things that she has seen in Jef the very first night.  She also states how she can see her walking into his office and seeing pictures of their family there.  As they walk through the streets, they come across this older library with paintings on the ceilings and walls.  They decide to put on their own “play” of their time on the show so far.  When they have finished the play and goofing off together, they take some time to share some hot kisses.  Jef proceeds to tell Em who she will be meeting if they go to his hometown date.  Family is definitely the major commonality that they talked about tonight.

Back at the hotel, Chris and John are talking about their dates and wondering who of the two of them will get a rose at the next ceremony.

In the library, Jef and Em are continuing their discussion on family, their principles about getting married before moving in together, and how they both want to have kids right away.  They were laying on the floor of this library, talking about their possible future.  Got to give them props, they really did look cute together right then.

Up next........rose ceremony

The five guys arrive at the rose ceremony site in two old fashioned cars.  Chris is definitely showing his nerves tonight....perhaps more than at any other ceremony for sure.

While the guys are waiting out in the main area, Em asks to speak to Chris Harrison privately as she wants to just have the rose ceremony and no cocktail party at all tonight.  When Harrison comes out to tell the guys, you can tell they are shaken by it, especially Chris.

As they all line up for the ceremony, Emily comes out to give her usual speech to the guys and since Sean already has a rose, she hands out the next two to Jef and Arie which leaves Chris and John standing there wondering which one will get the last rose.  Before she has a chance to hand out the last rose, Chris asks to speak to her.  They head outside where Chris has a chance to reiterate how he feels for her, how he wants to take her home to the family and how sorry he feels if she felt bad as he has acted like a little boy the last few days.  OK, whatever Chris.  They head inside and she hands out the remaining rose to Chris.  This leaves John heading home.

Episode 6:  City Streets, Kilts, and Castles

Tonight’s epi begins with some majestic views of Dubrovnik, and Emily walking up the stairs with her own suitcase.  What the heck??  While Emily talks about what she wants to find in this week, we are shown unbelievable views of Dubrovnik.  We then see the guys arriving via boat and after they dock, head up to their hotel, we see them checking out their digs for the week.  Emily then arrives to see the guys.  After giving the guys a hug, they all settle down for a chat, and we get an ITM from Ryan stating how he put his arm around Emily when they sat down(more like on the back of the couch but whose counting here).  I am going to apologize right now, I will be getting on Ryan’s case this blog as there were definitely some things that kinda rubbed me and twitter world wrong tonight in the show and thought I’d address it as we go along.  As Emily is talking about Croatia and how she’s excited for the dates this week, she whips out the date card and hands it to Travis.  After Emily leaves, Travis opens it up and finds that the date is indeed for him.  Let’s look for love beyond the walls.....Emily.  He immediately gets ready for his date and heads downstairs to meet up with Emily.

After meeting up downstairs, the two take off for a walk through the streets of Dubrovnik.  They get a souvenir from a street vendor then find an icecream shop where they get a pistachio icecream cone.  Carrying on through the streets of Dubrovnik, they find an area on the wall that has a stone....the balancing stone, and legend says that if you balance on it while taking off your shirt or jacket, you will be lucky at love.  Once they try the ritual, they carry on their journey to come upon a street music performer and stop for a dance.  I got to say, I think Dubrovnik just went onto my bucket list; the views and scenery of the area is amazing.  You can walk along the walls of the town, look out over the ocean on one side and the community on the other.

Back at the hotel, the guys are talking about Travis’s prospects with getting a rose tonight and the consensus seems to be that it isn’t looking in his favor.

Travis and Emily arrive at the castle and enter to find a candle lit room and their dinner waiting for them.  They are talking about Travis and him not having a date since he and his fiancé over two years ago.  Then we are whisked off to the guys hotel room where the next date card arrives. Jef reads it out and the remaining guys except for Ryan are on the group date.  This of course makes Ryan’s chest puff out big time and very obviously too. Twitter scorecard 1: there was some noise made on twitter tonight with regards to Ryan’s statement of knowing he is good at manipulation....ding, ding, think twitter nation may have a thing there.  Let’s face it, no girl wants to feel like she’s been played or manipulated.  To me, and some others, he did come off as arrogant for sure, but is that the true Ryan?  Don’t know how others feel, but it was quite obvious tonight on twitter that it wasn’t looked on too kindly.

Back with Travis and Emily, they are still sitting around the table talking when Emily reaches for the rose.  You can tell from her facial expression that the rose, just isn’t going to go anywhere but back on it’s dish tonight.  As she tells Travis, she knows the friendship factor is there, but the romance factor just isn’t and it is time to send him home.

Up next...........group date

Emily is waiting in the town square for the guys to show. When they finally arrive, she greets them all and begins to tell them what they are going to be doing.  As Emily tells them that they will be watching a movie, it turns out to be a movie called The Brave.  Once the movie was done, Emily then surprises the guys by saying that their date isn’t over and they will be competing in their own Highland Games challenge......in kilts.  After the guys get changed, they head out to the square where Emily is there waiting for them.  Since it is customary for guys to ride donkeys into their battles, so are Em’s guys too.  When the guys arrive at their “battle-grounds” they find archery, caber toss, “maid leiche”.    The gent there waiting for them was playing the bagpipes and after all the guys arrive, he announces the games that they will be playing with archery leading.  Emily is the first one to have a crack at shooting a bow and arrow, followed by Arie, Doug, Jef, John, Sean, and finally Chris.  This of course started up the laughter with the guys as while Chris was standing there, he has his feet together, butt out, and it really did look quite silly....then again, who am I to talk as Chris’s arrow plants itself into the ground.  Next up was the Caber toss.  They have to “toss” end for end this log.  Chris was the first one up, and failed.  Next up was Arie, Doug, then John, followed by Jef.  While Jef is throwing his caber, Em states that she can’t look but he didn’t quite get it to flip completely over.  The last one to go was Sean who proceeded to toss the caber so hard, he broke it.  The final challenge was the “maid leiche” where both guys are sitting on the ground facing each other while they hold a stick between them and the object was to try to raise one of the guys up and past you while you are still sitting.  First up was Doug against Chris with Doug winning, then John and Sean faced off – no contest there, then we see Sean facing off against Doug.  We didn’t see Jef and Arie facing off together though.  When all was said and done, there was a trophy to hand out and it went to Chris for trying and volunteering.  Once the trophy was handed out, Chris and Emily went to sit on their own and chat for a while.

Emily and the guys head to their night portion of the date and the first one to get some quality time with her there is Sean.  The next one to get some time was Arie.  The two of them went for a walk through the streets and in the beginning, their talk revolved around London and what happened there.  Arie apologized for not coming to her sooner or handling it better, but that’s also when Em apologized too by saying that she finds herself harder on Arie than the others.  

We then see Ryan at the hotel, on his own since the rest of the guys are out on this date.  The date card arrives and Ryan picks it up and reads it out, Ryan, the world is our oyster....Emily.  Ok, Twitter scorecard 2:  It had been remarked on several times of how “arrogant” and “full of himself” Ryan came across as tonight.  I do agree, and with that said, I personally don’t go for that kinda guy, but know that there are some out there that are fine with that.  As Ryan gets his clothes ready, constantly talks about himself and what he has to offer, and how he is a very good looking guy that can get women.  Yep, moving on....

Back on the group date, it is Jef getting his individual time with Emily now.  They are outside on the “patio” cuddled up under blankets.  They are talking about their feelings for each other, how Jef is really really crazy about her and that they are both trying to keep the other one guessing while having fun at the same time.  Chris is the next one to get some time and they are discussing that Chris is really developing feelings for Em and is looking forward to the chance to fall in love with her.  Em then gets up, grabs the rose from the other side of the room and asks if Chris will accept it.

Next up............Ryan

Oh man, where do I begin with this date, guess by saying when Emily arrived to pick up Ryan, he tried to recite the line on his date card but really got it wrong by saying something about the world being their pearl, then stuck his foot in a little farther by saying that Em is the pearl.  Sorry guy, not a great line that can’t be seen through.  After the two of them leave, the guys are in laughing hysterics by Ryan’s lines and definitely made it pretty clear that the idea of Ryan not coming back to the house, really wouldn’t break them.

Ryan and Emily have the world as their oyster, so they take off for what Emily describes as a road trip.  As they are driving down the road, they are getting honked at, and I don’t quite rightly know if Em was “comfortable” the whole time that they were driving on the roads there.  Anyways, they get down to the docks and pull over to board one of the local fishing boats where they take their hand at oystering.  After they “catch” some oysters, they are “treated” to raw oysters, right there on the boat.  This is obviously not impressing Emily as she refused to swallow the oyster and actually spat it out on the side of the boat.  And here is Twitter scorecard 3:  The ole trophy wife comment.  Obviously it does bother Emily to be referred as a trophy wife, and if the tweets in twitter land were any indication, many others out there were completely bothered by that comment too.  IMO, it is one thing to be proud of your wife/husband for what they are/do but when you put a label on them like that as an innate object, it is kind of offensive to a lot of people.

After Ryan and Em finished the daytime portion of their date, they both got changed and found themselves entering one of the local castles for their dinner.  As they are sitting there talking, they seemed to be doing fine, even through the trophy wife conversation, yet again.  But when Ryan brought out that list with twelve or so things on it that he wanted to find in a woman and read it off to Em, she looked quite disappointed by the end as what he had on the list wasn’t really matching her list.  At the end of the list, Em tells Ryan how she doesn’t want to be the “mold” or have to always be perfect around him.  Then of course Ryan brings up the rose....there it is just sitting there....so Em picks it up, gives Ryan the no rose speech.  BUT, Ryan just wasn’t going to settle for that.  The showing of him continually sitting there, not leaving even after Em tells him that he’s not getting the rose was really awkward.  All I could feel watching it was poor Em.  While we are still dealing with a stubborn Ryan that just wasn’t getting it, we are shown the guys back at the hotel talking about Ryan and it is really obvious that none of the guys want him to return to the hotel.  Then we are back in the castle when Emily is really trying to say goodbye. She finally gets a chance to walk the guy out.  In Ryan’s departure statement, Ryan feels the guys will be so shocked that he’s gone, yet we are shown the guys at the hotel and they are jumping up and down at the prospect of Ryan not being with them anymore....hilarious. 

Arie sneaks out of the hotel and meets up with Emily at her place to keep her company after she boots Ryan out the door.  He is talking to Em about how even if she did keep Ryan, he would of found a way out to tell her that he wasn`t the one for her.  They were joking around about the rose sitting on her night stand, when she reached over and asked if he would take the rose.  They share some passionate kisses afterwards.

Up next..........cocktail party and rose ceremony

After the guys arrive at the rose ceremony location, Em gives her traditional speech, then John is the first one to take Em for some private time.  John shares with Em of his grandparents funeral cards, something that his family didn’t know about.  Doug is the next one to get some time with Em.  Doug is a shy guy so took some encouragement, but got his arm around Em and they were talking.  He expressed that he felt that he was farther behind the other guys and wants to change that.  Through their conversation, it is obvious that he is shy, and does take prodding to let his feelings out.  After making her traditional speech, Em heads into her deliberation room. 

When Emily comes out, and since Chris already has a rose, the remaining roses go to: Sean, Jef, and Arie.  At this time, Em stops and goes outside to meet up with Chris Harrison.  After asking for another rose, she comes in and continues to hand out roses to John and Doug.

Well, that’s all for this week.  I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the blog and hope that you have a great week!!

Episode Five:  London Calling, Baggage, Eye on You

Tonight’s episode begins with showing us scenes of London with Emily and Ricki walking around checking out the sites.  We then see the guys showing up in London and meeting Chris Harrison in Trafalgar Square.  Harrison tells the guys what to expect this week as there will be two individual dates and a group date.  The guys then walk to their hotel, The Mayfair Place, which will be their “home base” for the week’s stay in London.

After the guys arrive at the hotel and check it out, the date card is found and John reads it out. Sean....Love takes no prisoners.....Emily.   In an ITM, Sean describes how he is really needing this individual date and doesn’t care what they are doing, just spending more time with her is what he wants.  After Sean leaves, the first one to voice his jealousy is Arie, quickly followed by Jef.  We get an ITM by Jef and Kalon showing their depression and anxiety over not getting this individual date as they both assumed they’d be getting it. 

When Sean arrives at the date location, he finds Emily already there waiting for him. After they give each other a hug, Emily informs him that they will be going on a tour of London in the most iconic way, just as a red double decker bus arrives.  They both board the bus and get a tour of the Big Ben, Westminster Abby, St. Pauls Cathedral, and Buckingham Palace.  Throughout their tour, they are taking pics of them, kissing and the sights.

Back at the hotel, Arie, Kalon, and Jef are talking at the table.  Jef was talking about being the group date master, then Kalon had the gall to say something stupid about how every date with Emily will be a group date cause of Ricki(this guy is really getting on my nerves, for sure). 

Back with Sean and Emily, they are sitting in the park talking about the last date Sean has been on which was around three to four months.  After leaving the park they came along a place called “Speaker’s Corner” where Sean was requested to stand up and speak.  While up there, he was talking about love, the love that his parents and grandparents have and the love he wants to find.  When he was done and got down, it was very apparent that Emily and Sean were both surprised that he did it.  After getting ready for dinner, they went to the Tower of London where they entered the Wakefield tower to find their dinner table set and waiting for them.  Once they took their seats, Emily explained to Sean about King Henry the eighth or something like that....anyways, she was trying to make a joke of it that if Sean disobeys, off with the head.  Then came the “bomb” comment.  Emily trying to get Sean to open up as she was sure there was something that Sean was hiding but he  remarks that what you see is what you get, no closet here and it was the best date he’s ever had.  Through dinner, Em tells Sean that he has what would make him perfect for her, but is humble at the same time.  She is really liking that trait of his.

At the hotel, the date card arrives and Ryan reads it out.  A rose by any other name would smell as sweet....Emily.  Going on the group date is: Chris, Arie, Ryan, Doug, Alejandro, Travis, John, and Kalon.  This leaves Jef for the other individual date.  Kalon was obviously ticked off at another group date.

Back at the prison, Emily and Sean are getting into a discussion of kids and how many Sean would be open to having.  He starts off with three, four, then carries on to say six or ten.  You can tell Em is happy that he’s very open.  In an ITM, Emily states how she feels Sean is the whole package.  Hmmm, wonder if that’s a good or a bad thing??  As Emily gives Sean the rose, she states that he is setting the tone from here on out.  As they go up to the upper levels of the prison, they share the view and some great kisses with the London Bridge in the background.

Up next............the group date full of fireworks

As the guys arrive at the date location; Strattford Upon Avon, which is Shakesphere’s birthplace, they find Emily already there waiting for them.  The guys are told that they will be doing scenes from the play Romeo and Juliet.  Just what all the guys wanted to hear, right?  LOL.  After Emily introduces the helpers for the play and the guys have had a chance to say a couple of lines, they are broken up into groups according to what they’d be good at. 

What can I say through all of this part other than it completely cracked me up.  First of all, props to Arie and Doug for playing the nurses.  Then there was Ryan, Kalon, Alejandro, and John are Romeo, and the rest are playing various other characters.  It was hilarious watching them practice their lines, until Emily came to see how Kalon and Ryan were doing.  She was there for a bit, then topic of them needing more practice came up, and Kalon basically sent her away with the stroke of his hand.  Sheesh, this guy is so full of himself, and even Emily sounded fed up.  Then the real show started when the guys were told that they’d be doing the play in front of an audience.  They all looked like they were going to flip out.  The guys then head inside where they find their costumes waiting for them.  After getting changed, they go back outside to join up with Emily in front of the live crowd that are there to watch the play.  Everyone seemed to enjoy their parts and again gonna give props to Doug and Arie, they pulled off their parts and had a ball doing it too, which of course is what Em commented on quite a few times.

Once the play portion was done, they went to the pub for a drink.  After Em made her speech, the guys were able to take her out for some private time with Arie leading the way.  Ryan then takes her into a secluded area and proceeds to pull the curtain on them.  Back with the guys, Kalon, Arie, and Chris were in the room and Kalon, once again, made some stupid comments about dealing with a sick, tired mother.  This guy must be making his own mother feel shame right about now.  After Chris and Arie talked outside, Arie went in to tell Doug, John, and Travis what Kalon said about Emily coming with baggage, while Chris sat there and confirmed it.  Doug goes on the defensive as he knows how he’d feel if someone said that about his son Austin, so he asks Kalon to come over and flat out asked him if he said that.  Kalon gave some weak explanation of how he did say it but it was taken out of context.  After Emily was done with Alejandro, Doug took her aside for some private time in which he proceeds to tell Emily what Kalon said.  After they had their discussion and Doug told her everything, Em states that now is the time to confront this.  In an ITM, she states how she “wants to go West Virginia, hoodrat, backwoods on his ass”.  They head out to the main room, where Doug sets the stage and tells Kalon that this is about him.  Emily is sitting there listening but you can see that she is steaming mad for sure.  When the baggage word was used, Em asked Kalon if he had anything to say for himself, and again, the lame excuses of how it was said back to him in a negative connotation but wasn’t meant that way as it is just her life.  Well, if he didn’t have a ticked off Em before that, she was absolutely steaming mad now.  As Em was trying to say that Ricki is her heart and soul, stupid Kalon got his mouth in gear again, big mistake dude!  Em immediately threw one of his lines back in his face “Let me talk, I’d love to hear you talk, but not until I am done” then she states that she got that line from him.  Bottom line, she was extremely pissed and when he had nothing else to say that she wanted to hear, she told him to get the F out.  After Em realized this wasn’t going to change things, she said that it was over and left.  Kalon was shown the door and Emily took off for some quiet time on her own before coming back to face the remaining guys.

Up next...........Emily and Jef

The next day Emily wakes up and spends some time with Ricki before going out on her date with Jef.  She is really hoping to find someone that will have her back and defend her and her daughter as well as any other kids that she has in the future. 

Emily is there waiting for Jef when he walks up the street to join her.  After their greetings, they continue to walk to this older type home and Em tells Jef that they are going to have a traditional type afternoon tea.  As they enter the home, introduce themselves to Jean, they sit down at the table where Jean proceeds to give them etiquette lessons.  This lasts for a while and you can see that both Jef and Emily are getting rather fed up with the constant nagging of Jean, and when Jean excuses herself to go to the loo, Emily and Jef make their escape to one of the local pubs.  After ordering a couple pints and fish/chips, Jef approached the Kalon issue and told her the whole story.  As the conversation went along, Jef said that if Ricki is baggage, then she is a clohe bag, Louis Vittan.  After their dinner, they head out for the evening portion and meet up for desert at the Eye over London.  Through the whole time in the Eye, they were talking about Jef’s admiration for Em, how he is really looking forward to the possibility of their life continuing beyond the show. They talked about what they each want in coming out of the show, how they want to be with their best friend, and how are getting closer.  As Jef states in an ITM, this is the most anticipated kiss of his life by far.  After sharing some kisses, we leave them by the river with Big Ben in the background.

Up next............cocktail party and rose ceremony

The first one to get a private chat with Em at the party was Travis.  Em took her chance tonight to ask the same basic question out of all the guys, but with Arie for example, she really drilled him as she says she thought he would of been the one to speak up and didn’t so wanted to know what it was all about.  Most of the guys had a chance to have a chat with Em(on camera), and the last one to have some time with her was Sean.  They really seem sweet together as they shared a makeshift dance and some cuddle/kissing time.

After the guys get lined up for the rose ceremony, Chris has made his speech about Sean and Jef already having a rose, Emily comes out and hands out the roses to:  Doug, Ryan, Chris, John, Travis and Arie.  Which leaves Alejandro to go home at the end of the ceremony.

Episode 4:  Sailing Away in Bermuda; Tempers Begin to Rise

Tonight starts up with Chris Harrison showing up at the mansion, telling the guys what dates they will be having that week, but they aren’t there but will be in Bermuda.  After Chris tells them, the guys pack up, they take off to do that while we get a view of the time Emily and Ricki are spending together on the beach in Bermuda and playing in the park.

The next we see the group, they are riding scooters to the Rosewood Tuckers Point Resort in Bermuda.  After they arrive at the resort and check out their suite, Arie finds the first date card and reads it out;  Doug, let our senses lead the way, Emily.  After Doug has gotten ready for his date and packed, we see all the guys in the room talking, and as Arie said in an ITM, it is super easy to push Doug’s buttons and knowing that, the guys seemed to really enjoy doing it.  As the conversation got deeper and there was a run in between Doug and Arie, Emily shows up to get Doug for their date.  Emily also states in an ITM of how tense it seems to be in the room when she arrived.

Emily and Doug begin their date by walking through the streets of St. George and checking out the different shops along the way.  They first head into an ornament type shop where Emily finds something for Ricki, they do some taste testing, then move on to another place called the Bermuda Perfumery, the whole while, we are getting ITM’s from Emily of how she feels that her and Doug are close and they just get it; especially with him being a father, he just understands.  After their short chat on the steps of the church, Emily brought out the postcard and said since Austin, Doug’s boy, wrote Em a letter in the beginning, it would be good to send him one in return.  Once the postcard was finished, they walked through the park to the “moon-gate” where on honeymoons, and anniversaries where they hold hands, make a wish and walk together through the gate together.

Back at the hotel, the guys are talking about the group date coming up next versus the  2 on 1 and it is Alejandro that gets the card to read it out.  “Let’s set sail on the sea of love....Emily” and it is Charlie, Ryan, Chris, Jef, Sean, Arie, Travis, and Kalon.  So the foursome of Nate, Alejandro, Michael and John will either go on the two on one or get no date at all this week.

Emily and Doug have arrived for their dinner, and as Doug pulls out the chair for Emily, they sit down for a chat at the dinner table(I say it that way, didn’t look like either of them ate much....LOL).  They started into a conversation about their flaws and problems, but when the conversation was turned on Emily, she realized how uncomfortable it was.  After Emily handed the rose to Doug, it was obvious that she was waiting for a kiss.  Now Doug said in an ITM of how his grandpa raised him not to be forthcoming shall we say, but when someone wants a kiss, they’ll ask for it, hense Doug has never made the first kiss.  Now when you are watching this it is so absolutely obvious that Emily is waiting for the kiss that just never comes.  As Doug stated in an ITM, he moves really slow and never makes the first move (well, sorry Doug, you are in a situation where if you move too slow, you may be moving yourself out the back door).  As they end the dinner and say good night, you can visibly see how Em is shaken that he never tried to kiss her. 

Up next..........Sailing day

As the guys arrive for their date, they see Emily waiting for them and she tells them that they are going to be sailing in Hamilton Harbour for their date.  After the guys get a crash course on the apparatus of a sailboat, they are told that the team that wins will get extra time with Emily and the other team will go back to the hotel alone. 

Back at the hotel, Doug is talking smack, wanting them to all be out on boats, lining up and throwing up over the side....hmmm.  As the guys are there talking, the knock on the door signals the next date card has arrived; John and Nate, let’s explore this Bermuda love triangle....

Back in the harbour, the guys have split off into teams with Travis, Sean, Charlie and Chris in the red team, and Jef, Arie, Kalon, and Ryan on the yellow team.  Both boats head out into the harbour to get ready for the race as Emily sounds the horn for the start.  The boats were neck and neck for a lot of the race so when all is considered it was a good race with the yellow coming across the finish line JUST ahead of the red team.  As they all come back to the docks and Em gives everyone a hug, the red team leaves, but not before we get a glimpse of Ryan with his arm around Emily....possessive much?  The poor red team makes the long walk back up the dock and then into the shuttle back to the resort looking completely defeated.

Emily and the guys arrive at their date location and Ryan makes a toast….that has something to do about Emily as his trophy wife or something along those lines…..Yikes Ryan, you are really walking backwards now!   Arie is the first one to take Emily off for some quality time as they head down to the beach.  After talking for a little bit, they start with their liplock session.  Very sweet and tender kisses though, will say that.  Jef is the next guy to get Emily aside for some quality time and they head down to the beach once again, but over by the campfire this time.  They were talking there for a bit, then the awkward moment when you can once again tell that Em wanted to be kissed, and yet, NO, no kiss happened…..Jef, you missed your chance on that one there buddy.  Em even commented in an ITM how she was looking for it but didn’t happen, then again, as she puts it, the anticipation of being kissed can be the fun part too.

Back at the hotel, Chris and Travis are outside talking and if Ryan is smart, he won’t bring up the kissing of Arie at the last rose ceremony……guess what, Ryan ain’t that smart. 

He finds Emily talking to Kalon and takes her for a talk.  Em brought up a few sayings of Ryan and seeing the different sides of Ryan that we are allowed to see due to edit, I can see how some of those things may be taken the wrong way, then the gymn and weight convo came back up and Ryan just ignored her and started talking about how cute their kids would be…..seriously?  Then the conversation switched to the last rose ceremony and he told Em that he caught her and Arie kissing, well, that didn’t go over fantastically, but think she at least absorbed what he was trying to say.  After they finish, they head back to where the rest of the guys are sitting.  Emily then hands out the rose to Jef and you can see the disappointment on the rest of the guys faces.  Then we get ITM’s from Arie and Ryan of how disappointed they didn’t get the rose while we get a fireworks show with all of them standing there watching.

Up next………….one stays, one goes.

When we come back from commercials, we see Em and Ricki around the pool playing together, then we see the guys at the house getting ready for today’s date and there is definitely tension in the house for sure.  As John and Nate take off to meet up with Em, the rest of the guys are talking about age and experiences and who was going to come back to the hotel.

As the guys take a dingy to meet up with Emily who is already on the yacht waiting for them, you get views of the islands, the beauty of the water.  After they are all on board and sailing out to sea, they begin chatting about pretty mundane things and the tension between them all is thick.  They stop the yacht and get into the dingy where they go to an island and climb up where they are told they are jumping off into the water…After they get back on the boat, they head back to get ready for dinner in the caves.  Both the guys see the rose immediately and of course the tension in that cave is so dense.  Eventually, Nate is the first one to get some private time with Emily and they head off to a private area of the cave.  After they sit down and poor some more champagne, Nate begins talking about his family back home.  When they are finished talking, it is Johns turn and he takes her off in a different direction.  John opens it up by saying that he’s glad he had the 2 on 1 time as it is a lot easier to stand out versus getting lost in the group.  After they go back to the table, Em hands out the rose to John.

Up next…….cocktail party

All the guys are waiting in the room when Emily arrives, and after making her customary speech, she takes Alejandro out for a chat.  Meanwhile, the guys are talking about who may go home and Arie mentions Ryan as a possible for the ones going home.  Ryan is the next one to get some quality time with Emily.  Looking at Ryan and Em talking, there is definitely a level where there is a definite uncomfortable feeling happening and looking at Emily, she is somewhat more tense with Ryan than she is with some of the other guys.  While Ryan and Emily are talking, Arie arrives to steal Em away for his time with Emily and they head off to a quiet area.  I noticed with Arie and Em, they go into a really close and comfortable mode when they are near each other.  Meanwhile, Ryan and the guys are out in the room, and tensions are mounting.  Ryan and Michael are sitting by the fireplace and talking about who of course….Ryan.  Ryan is staging in an ITM how he feels he was called to do something more than this and then while he is sitting there with Michael, he tells Michael that if this don’t work out for him, he’ll get in touch with the media back home and have “Bachelor Augusta” with him as the star.  Then in another ITM, he’s saying that if he was the bachelor, he’d be ready to open his heart up and it would be really neat for everyone to see…..so, does this mean he won’t “open” up until he’s on the Bachelor as the star…..Good grief man, why waste everyone’s time??

Next up for some alone time is Sean.  Em tells Sean that she feels so strongly about him even without alone time as in a one on one date.  The Sean asks Em if Ricki would be ok with them getting married.  They too share some sweet kisses before their time ends.  Back in the main room, Ryan and Doug are talking about not needing to kiss so much like the “young ones” do as he feels that better relationships can be made without all the physical contact.  Chris is the next one to get some alone time with Em, and he tells her about the disagreements that he had with Doug, and how he feels that he is more mature than his years state.  After Chris ends his convo with Emily, he goes back into the room to call Doug out.  They head outside and Chris gets right into Doug’s face and starts a whole ball of wax about how he don’t feel Doug is there for the right reasons, over the top humble, and generally not there for the right reasons and for that matter, not ready for what Emily is wanting.

Up next………..Rose Ceremony

This week, we finally get a glimpse into the diary room as Chris Harrison and Emily are there talking about the guys.  They talk about Doug and Jef that she hasn’t had a kiss from, to Arie who she doesn’t stop kissing, and Em showed the saucy side of her nature…..loved it!  Through their conversation, Em brought it up that there are a couple guys in the house that think they are pulling something over on her, but yet, she’s got their number…..guess who….Ryan.  As Chris leaves her there to deliberate, he heads out to the guys.

After giving it some thought, Em comes out to make her speech.  Considering she already gave roses to Doug, Jef and John, the remainder of the roses go to Sean, Arie, Travis, Chris, Ryan, Kalon and Alejandro.  Which beside Nate who went home on the two on one, leaves Michael and Charlie leaving tonight.

Well, that’s all for tonight.  Hope you enjoyed the blog and the show as well if you watched it.

Episode 3: Emily and Friends Ask the Tough Questions

Tonight’s epi is once again staged out of Charlotte.  How lucky is Em?  Her mom brought her breakfast in bed and had a quick chit chat with just the two of them before Emily got started on her day.  Meanwhile, Chris Harrison brings the guys out to the patio to tell them that again this week, there will be two individual dates and one group date with not all guys getting a date at all this week.  Before leaving the guys alone, Chris drops the first of this week’s date cards onto the table.  After Chris drops the card, we get an ITM from Sean saying how much he wants to have the individual date with Emily.  Charlie was the first one to grab the card and read it out.  Chris....Love’s a steady climb...Emily.  After the card is read out, Chris heads inside to pack and get ready for the date, the whole time we are getting an ITM from him describing how he is really looking forward to this date and it is his time to shine.

It is after dark before Emily and Chris meet up on the streets of downtown Charlotte and Em says she is so unbelievably comfortable with him especially with it being their first date.  They stop in front of a building to find some ropes dangling from the building and the two of them get suited up with harnesses and helmets in preparation of climbing to the top of the building.  As they begin to make their climb, everything seems fine, but the farther they go up, the more nervous Em gets and when the lightening and thunder starts in the background, Emily is really getting nervous and scared.  In her ITM’s, Emily is saying how she really wants someone that stands beside her through thick and thin and considering Chris didn’t ditch her, she feels he passed the test.  When they reached the top, instead of a kiss as Chris really wanted to do, they exchanged high five’s and both seemed to be thrilled with tackling that challenge together.

After they got out of their harnesses and other equipment, Em led Chris over to where they were going to have their dinner and we hear from Emily again how she felt that Chris was a calming influence and a manly man which really impresses her.  Emily starts questioning Chris and his past relationships, then out comes Chris’s age, which seems to take Emily aback as she hadn’t dated anyone younger than her before and it scares her.

Meanwhile, back at the mansion, Tony is able to give his son a call and joins the guys in time for Jef to come in with the next date card.  Charlie, Alejandro, Stevie, Ryan, Alessandro, Sean, John, Michael, Doug, Jef, Tony and Travis.....Let’s play...Emily.

Back in downtown Charlotte, Chris is having a chance to put Em’s mind at ease regarding his young age.  He actually left home when he was seventeen and therefore grew up a lot quicker than others his age and as family comes first with him, he is ready for it all.  Em states how she is feeling that she likes Chris more than she thought she would and in turn wants to give him the rose as she really wants them to spend more time together.  Emily has one more surprise in store for Chris as they continue to walk down one of the streets till they reach a stage at the end where Luke Bryan is singing his heart out just for them.  As they are dancing to the songs, Chris and Em exchange their first kiss and in ITM’s spread throughout the dance, they both describe their feelings about the other and how they really hope this is the start of something good.

Coming up next........Group date at the Park

After the guys arrive at the park and they and Emily start kibitzing around, Emily all of a sudden says that she’s leaving for a minute but will be back.  As she disappears over the knoll, the guys are looking around at each other with stunned looks on their faces.  After making her way through the park a ways, she comes up to this group of these ladies that turn out to be her friends, and gives them the low-down of how the guys are with her in the park today and she really wants her friends to grill them to find out if any of them just aren’t right for Em.  When one of the ladies asks Emily if there is anything that is off limits – Em is quick to respond a resounding no.  After going over the concept with the ladies, Emily heads back to where she left the guys to bring them over to where the inquisition crew is waiting for them.

When the guys arrive and Em explains what is going on, you can see all of their faces in semi panic mode as they are trying to read the friends to see what’s gonna happen.  IMO, it was hilarious to see the many shades of red that their faces went through in such a short period of time.  LOL.  Then we get an ITM from Doug right before commercial brake and he is commenting of how this is really going to be a trainwreck....LOL.  One by one the guys come back to Emily looking quite defeated after their individual inquisitions that her friends put them through.  Then it’s Sean’s turn....You really got the feeling that Wendy was crushing on Sean during the time they spent together, and Seans response is that “Wendy is really getting spicey today”.  Loved it, some good humour there for sure.  Once all the chatting was done, Emily had one more surprise in order for the guys as she reached into her pocket, blew her whistle, and about a dozen kids come running down the path towards the guys.  After the kids and the guys split up into groups, they all ran off to play together for a while giving Emily enough time to see who was really getting into the role and who weren’t.  Ryan played with the kids for a bit but when he saw his chance to spend more time with Emily, he ditched the kids and headed over to where she was standing talking to her friends.  What follows is not a shining moment for Ryan as he kinda insults Emily or at least insults women per se when he said that if Em got fat, he would love her but wouldn’t love on her as much.  Well, I think you all can imagine how well that went over considering the amount of sass Em has.  LOL.  Emily even said in an ITM of how that comment sank like the titanic in her eyes.  Plain and simple, not a good move Ryan to make that kind of a comment when you are trying to woo ANY woman.  When all is said and done, Sean and Doug came out on tops as far as Emily’s friends were concerned.  As Em and the guys say goodbye to her friends, they take off to a local establishment called Butter.

The first one to get some time with Emily was Sean.  After they sit down, they begin talking about where Sean is in his life right now, and he expresses that he hasn’t had a date in over a year, is ready to settle down with a wife and family, and also explains how important family is to him and that he has great role models for a wonderful marriage for the last twenty-eight years in his parents and how they still have date nights and such.  Then it was Doug’s turn to impress Emily.  Doug expressed how much he felt for his dad since it was his dad that had epilepsy, looked after Doug and his sister after their mom left them, and when the dad got sick, instead of using grocery money, he never went to the doctor and eventually died leaving Doug and his sister to have to go through the foster system.  It was obvious how touched Emily was by Doug’s story.

Back at the house, the date card arrives and Chris reads it out; Arie....Love is a wild ride....Emily.

Next up to get some time with Em is Tony.  It is so obvious how upset Tony is that he is away from his son.  As the evening progresses, Tony goes outside to get some quiet time and Doug being a father, joins him to see if they can talk things through.  One expression that Doug came up with during their conversation is that Taylor; Tony’s son is five and their attention span at that age is like a hummingbird.  So true, so true....at that age, kids do live and forgive more readily than at any other age from then on.  Bottom line, it is sounding like Tony is checking out and is really considering going home when Emily comes out to check on him.  Em basically tells him that if she knew for sure that he’s the one, she’d ask him to stay, but right now, she can’t and therefore she feels it is best for him to go home to his son.  After sending Tony home, Emily went back in to explain things to the guys about why Tony is heading home. Emily hands out the rose to Sean.

Up next.......Dolly

Arie and Emily board a private jet and fly to Tennessee where Arie is surprise to learn that they are actually going to Dollyworld.  After entering the gates, they take a train ride tour of the park, play at the “arcade” area, then take a rollercoaster ride in which Emily is absolutely terrified of.  After the rollercoaster ride, they head into the building in which Dolly Parton actually sings and find a blank page of paper with a note attached guiding them to make their own song and two microphones waiting for them on the stage.  While the two of them are sitting on the stage trying to write their song, Dolly is sneaking onto the stage behind the curtain, and when the curtains open, Emily completely freaks out.  Dolly immediately sings a song to get Emily over her shock and when she is finished, she asks to take Em aside for some girl chat.  Through the conversation, Dolly asks Em what she’s looking for in a guy, what she wants out of the whole situation, and when they were done, Dolly sang them another song to which Em and Arie danced to. 

Once they leave Dolly, they head into a barn like setting where they sit down to dinner and Arie talks about his last relationship and how the woman he was with had two kids that he too fell in love with and really still miss even now.  As they continue to talk, you get the impression that they are both really interested in each other, the fact that Arie being a racecar driver really doesn’t bother her and does understand what a commitment that is.  And as Emily reaches for the rose, she starts things off with a “but” and a joke but after looking at his face, she couldn’t go through with it.  As they left the “barn” area, they went to the merry-go-round where they shared some passionate kisses to end the date on.

Up next……….cocktail party and Rose Ceremony

We first see Emily getting ready for the cocktail party at her house with the help of Ricki, and over at the house, the guys are chatting about what they are expecting to happen tonight.  After making her speech, it is Kalon that she takes out for a chat first, and through their conversation, it was absolutely obvious how Emily was holding back her sass for how Kalon was treating her.  WOW, I was really surprised that he didn’t get her shoe print onto his butt tonight, but that’s just me.  Next up to have some private time is Travis and “Shelly”(Travis’s ostrich egg) whom Emily sent packing out of the house by smashing her all over the driveway.  Then the worst private time of the night with Alessandro; did this guy seriously just fall off the turnip truck?  Holy cow with his personality and then dating his third cousin, yikes!  It sure didn’t take Em long to put her shoe print into this guy’s backside when he started out with compromises with regards to having Em and Ricki in his life.  Wrong move buddy, maybe now you get the message and remember that for your next girlfriend(victim).  Emily promptly walks him from the backyard, through the house and out the front door, without even a goodbye.  After giving Alessandro the boot, Em went to get herself a drink and Arie was there waiting for her; after a chat, and some kisses Em was ready to tackle the rest of her night.  Then Sean was up next:  Sean explains to Emily how he truly feels about being a father to Ricki, and that even though he would be her stepfather, in his heart of hearts, he would literally be her dad, as she would be his daughter.  They then shared some serious kisses before meeting up with Chris Harrison who was calling an end to the cocktail party as it was time for the rose ceremony to begin.

As the guys get lined up for the ceremony, and Emily arrives to make her customary speech; besides Chris, Sean and Arie that already have roses, the remaining ones are handed out to: Jef, Charlie, Doug, Michael, Travis, Alejandro, John, Kalon, and Nate which leaves Stevie walking out the door.

Well, that’s all for tonight folks, hope you enjoyed my blog. 

Epi 2:  Late Night Dancing and The Muppets at Play

Tonight’s epi began with Emily and her girlfriends in the park for some girl-chat while Ricki and her friend were playing.  After the chat, Emily and Ricki left and we see Chris Harrison rounding up the guys to talk to them about what to expect this week and before leaving, he drops the date card on the table.  Chris is the first one to show his anxiety in an ITM regarding getting a date with Emily and how important it is to him to have that time with her.  Doug is the first one to get it and read it out.....Ryan, be my king in the queen city, Emily.  Immediately Ryan is so excited, and we get a ITM from him saying how excited he is for the date, then we hear from Kalon(I am really starting to not like this guy) remark that it is hard to see Ryan go out with the girl he wants to be with, and he hopes that Ryan doesn’t come back to the house. 

Emily arrives at the house and heads out to the backyard where all the guys are by the pool and chatting.  When she arrives, we get a ITM from Arie saying how good Emily looks, then Ryan and her head out for their date.  Emily comments in her ITM of how good looking Ryan is, and how nervous she is for this date.  The two of them get into her car and head off to start the date, Ryan comments in an ITM of how he is really looking forward to the date and how they must be going in a hot airballoon, heli, or plane to somewhere...Not so much Ryan.  Emily pulls up in her driveway and informs Ryan that they will be unpacking the groceries.  After they get them inside and are in the kitchen, Emily informs Ryan that they will be baking cookies to be taken to Ricki’s soccer game.  As they are baking the cookies, Emily puts an apron on Ryan(as Ryan comments, the apron isn’t made for a man’s chest....LOL), they begin to talk about their lives and getting to know each other.

Meanwhile back at the mansion, the guys are out in the back yard talking and wondering what Ryan and Emily’s date will be.  They begin the discussion of whether Ryan will meet Ricki today when Doug speaks up about his son and whether he would want anyone to be meeting his son at this point in the game.  Doug said that he wouldn’t and knowing his son is almost 12, he can’t imagine Emily would let Ricki meet anyone yet especially when Ricki is only 6. 

As Emily and Ryan pull up at the soccer park, Emily informs him that she won’t be introducing Ricki to any of the guys right now as she is a very protective mamma and doubts right now is the time.  In an ITM, Ryan states that he completely understands and says that at this point, he doesn’t think that anyone should be introduced to her daughter yet.  As Emily meets up with Ricki and her team, she hands out the juice boxes and snacks, then takes a few and heads back to the car where Ryan is waiting.  Emily thanks Ryan for being such a cool guy and doing all the errands with her and Ryan states that he has felt that it is a great thing as he got to be a part of her real life stuff.  They both tell each other that they feel that they really connected today, then Ryan asks what they are up to next....Emily says that they are headed to chucky cheese and Ryan is going to have to wrangle some hyper chocolate fed kids(you look at Ryan and see the puzzled look on his face....priceless) then you see a smile out of Emily as she tells Ryan what they really will be doing for the rest of their date.  As Ryan is getting ready for his date, we get an ITM from him saying how attractive he found Emily today in her “mom clothes” and just dressed down and sexy.  After Emily arrives to pick up Ryan, they arrive at the restaurant and find a ton of people around waiting for them to show up.  As they sit down to dinner and talk about their day, and their expectations of what they will find during their journey.  Ryan states that he is the kind of guy that feels he needs to chase the woman as that is the “right” way for him, but Emily wants to know what happens after he’s got his girl, what happens next?  After listening to what each of them are saying about their wants and desires regarding how things will turn out, they seem to be going down the same path together; especially when it comes to Ricki....Ryan says that he wants to treat Ricki like any kid that the two of them will have together as that is the way it should be, which of course seems to make Emily really happy too.

Back at the mansion, Chris finds the date card waiting for them outside and brings it in to read out;  Alejandro, Nate, Allesandro, Tony, Michael, John, Jef, Charlie, Kyle, Chris, Aaron, Stevie, and Kalon.....Let’s set the stage for Love, Emily.  After the date card is read out, we get another (know it all) ITM from Kalon....(told you, not going to like this guy this season).

Back with Emily and Ryan, they are still sitting there in the restaurant chatting when Ryan tells Emily that he’s never been in the presence of someone as beautiful as her, but also found the most attractive part of her is when they were in the kitchen talking about their lives and baking cookies.  We get an ITM from Emily stating that the thing she is worried about with Ryan is that he may be “too” perfect for her and that reminds her of Brad in a way so she is worried about it.  Emily then gives Ryan the rose stating that this has been a perfect date for her and she wants it to continue by giving him the rose.  We get another ITM from Ryan at this point and he talks about how he is really looking forward to this and wants it to work out with Emily.  After the rose is given, the two of them get into a convo regarding how he wants to chase, how he better start, and how much either of them can run(sorry, but I’m a canuck here and these terms escape me and also amuse me at the same time)Emily states that she has something else as they both walk outside....to find a stage and a band waiting for them.  Glorianna begins playing a song for Em and Ryan to dance to.  As they are dancing to the tune, they share some nice words together, and the night ends with the crowd around them all.

Next up...........Group Date

As all the guys showed up for their date and Emily greeted them with hugs, she told them what they would be doing that day.  They were to be doing a charitable production..........with the muppets for the Ricky Hendricks center for Intensive Care at the Lavigne Children’s hospital in Charlotte.  The curtain was then pulled and we see Kermitt and Miss Piggy waving to the guys as the guys all break out in laughter.  Through the date, we get the usual commentary from Miss Piggy with relation to the guys and how she wishes she could get Emily’s “left-overs”, LOL.  After the guys were split up into their respective sections, (ie: dancing group, song group, comedy group, etc) everyone got to work on what they were going to be doing for the show.  The dance number has Kalon, Alejandro, Stevie, Nate, and Chris.  The Rainbow Connection song group is: Jef, Michael, Tony, Allesandro, and Aaron.  John, Kyle and Charlie were suppose to be the comedy three, but since his head injury, Charlie is super sensitive to his injury and the limitations from it, and since he is that sensitive, you can see how frustrated and hurt he is at the thought of going up on stage by himself.

 Back at the house, the remaining guys were talking about what the group date would be about today...Then Ryan told the guys that didn’t know, what happened to Charlie and how he fell off the balcony. 

We see Charlie going to Emily to tell her about his insecurities with going out there on stage and standing there on his own.  She immediately states that she understands and shows him the paper with the song Rainbow Connections on it, and Charlie is really glad that she suggested it and would love to do it with her.  After their convo, you can see all the guys getting ready for their slots, and since the dancing is first.....you see the guys getting ready and heading out stage left.  We also see Kermitt in Emily’s dressing room looking for Miss Piggy....then Em asks him to zip up the remaining part of her zipper, just as Miss Piggy rounds the corner and sees him doing it, of course.  LOL.  Chris Harrison is out in the lobby greeting all the patrons as they arrive for the big Muppets show.  We get some ITM’s from the guys talking about how nervous they are, but also saying that doing this concert for charity is really cool too.  We then get an ITM from Emily stating how nervous she is as she is not a dancer or a singer and doing this when her mom and daughter are in the audience is a lot of pressure.  During the dance number we see the guys dancing with Emily on stage, and of course, Miss Piggy tries to upstage them all.........to none avail though.  We then get a brief appearance of Chris Harrison in the balcony in place of “Waldorf” one of the old grumpy men that use to do the Muppets shows all the time.  Next up is Fonzy Bear with John and Kyle as they try to be standup comedians in the comedy section of the show.  Then there is a Miss Piggy show section where Aaron, Jef and Charlie are brought up onto the stage and Miss Piggy asks them questions.  Aaron is asked to cite a romantic poem right there on the spot:  Roses are red, violets are blue, Emily, I want to get to know you.  Next is Jef and Miss Piggy asks him to show her how he’d propose to her: Miss Piggy, I think you are the most beautiful girl in the world(then he kneels down) I’d be honoured if you’d share your life with me( the camera pans to Emily a few times during this).  Miss Piggy then asks Charlie “what do you tell a woman when you want to impress her?”:  I would everyday remind her how beautiful she is, how special she makes me feel and how lucky I am to have her in my life.  Both Stevie and Emily remarked how well Charlie did on stage with his fears.  Next up Em and Kermitt are on stage, then Miss Piggy joins in....now it is the Rainbow Connection song time and of course Em brings Ricki on stage to sing with them.  Eventually all the guys were brought out onto the stage to sing Rainbow Connections.  Later, Emily and the guys went to the wrap party and carried on their conversations there.  Chris is the first one to get a chance to pull Emily aside for a private conversation, and Em complimented Chris by calling him one of the most good looking guys but he doesn’t call attention to himself.  Next up was Jef.  During their convo, Em states how she feels that either he doesn’t like her or just doesn’t feel things towards her.  Jef counters that by saying that this is so awkward for him and he is really having a hard time with the whole thing. 

Back at the house, the next date card arrives and Ryan heads out to get it.  As he reads out the card, it is for Joe:  Come close to my heart....Emily.  After a brief ITM from Joe as to how pumped he is for the date, and another brief ITM from Sean as to how disappointed he didn’t get a date this week, we are sent back to the guys on the group date.

Stevie now gets his chance to have some time with Emily.  During that time, Charlie finds them and goes to the guys to tell them that Em and Stevie are doing dancing during their time which prompts John, Charlie, Aaron, and Kyle to check it out.  This of course prompts another ITM from Kalon about how great he is and his intentions compared to the other guys(Puleeze, enough of this....thanks!).  Kalon goes down to interrupt Stevie’s time with Em and wasn’t there long before they are interrupted by Aaron for some private time of his own.  After Aaron and Emily leave, Kalon runs upstairs to start whining to the guys about not having time with Emily.......really????  So, of course this starts a minor battle between Kalon and Stevie about who took whom from Emily and how long each of them had with her.  Hmmm, this is reminding me of being back in grade school on the playground, like seriously here guys.......wow.  Emily then shows up then to hand out the date rose for the night to Jef.

When Joe arrives at the airport, he finds Emily waiting for him by a jet and they board for their flight to Em’s home state of West Virginia.  They land in West Virginia and take a ride in an ole fashioned car to the Greenbriar Resort.  As they tour through the resort, they find themselves at the 100year old pool and after getting changed into their swimsuits, they dive in for a swim.

Back at the house, the guys are hanging out in the backyard when of course Kalon opens his mouth one more time and proceeds to insult Doug and Emily in one fouls swoop.  Doug and Tony were just trying to reiterate of how hard and that it is such a big step to take on what Emily is offering and just make sure you are ready for it.  This is where Kalon’s mouth gets him in trouble......he says that Emily and Doug made the decision to put being a father/mother on hold to do the show, which of course meets with intense and right fully so opposition from Doug as he suggests to Kalon to check what he is saying and think about it.  We see the end of the confrontation with an ITM from Sean about how Kalon has no right to question Doug about being a dad, and that his mouth is going to get him in trouble as he isn’t the best communicator.

When we get back to the Greenbriar, we find Joe dressed up and waiting at the bottom of a staircase for Em who is dressed in a ballroom dress and the two of them head off to dinner together.  Through dinner, we are getting ITM’s from Emily as to how Joe has a lot of the qualities that she wants in a guy, but the spark just isn’t there.  They get into the kids convo and Joe seems very open to it as well as other things that Em wants in life seems to line up with what Joe is talking about.......except the spark.  There is a thing there called the love clock, as they both write down their wishes and wants and read them out to each other, they then place them in the clock as the saying is if you write down your wants and desires and place them in the clock, they will stand the test of time.  Well, tonight, Joe and Emily didn’t stand the test of time as Em didn’t give Joe the date rose, and thus sent him home.  After Joe left, Emily watched the fireworks show......on her own.

Up next...........Cocktail Party and Rose Ceremony

Up first, we see Emily getting ready for the cocktail party at her home with Ricki and her mom.  At the mansion, we also get a glimpse of the guys getting ready for their night and how nervous they are.  After Emily arrives and gives her pre-cocktail speech, we see her and Arie heading off for some private time.  Once they get seated on the swing, they begin talking about life in Scottsdale and what Arie’s life consists of.  In that time that they shared, Arie talked about his previous relationship and the kids she had, how much he loved it.  Once they finish their time, Ryan takes Em inside for some time of his own as he presented an eleven page letter to Emily for her to read right then.  Meanwhile poor Tony comes in to have his quality time with Em only to have to stand there the whole 7 page letter(this was the sad and rude time of the show for sure).  Once Em was finally finished with the letter, Tony finally got his 2 minutes with Emily in which he told Emily about his son.  After their private time, Kalon is next and he proceeds to tell Em how he feels like he’s an old man trapped in a young guy’s body..........really Kalon, nothing better to talk about?  After Emily rejoins the guys out in the back patio area, Harrison arrives to end the cocktail party of the night and take Em to her deliberation room before the Rose Ceremony begins.

After the guy’s line up for the ceremony and Chris makes his usual speech, Emily comes out to make her speech and begin handing out the roses.  With Ryan and Jef already safe, the remaining roses go to Kalon, Arie, Michael, Nate, Sean, Chris, Doug, Travis, Tony, John, Alessandro, Charlie, Alejandro, and Stevie, which means that along with Joe who was sent on his date, Kyle and Aaron were also sent home. 

Well, that’s all for tonight...

Emily Maynard’s Season Begins in Charlotte

Tonight was the start of Emily’s season in her hometown of Charlotte, NC.  At the start of the episode, we are given a look back at Ricky, her and daughter Ricki’s life in Charlotte, and her past season on the Bachelor with Brad Womack.  Finally, we were given a look at the guys that are vying for her heart through some video introductions; first up was Kalon, followed by: Ryan, Tony, Lerone, David, Charlie, Jef and Arie.

After our introduction to some of the guys there for Emily, we see Emily meeting up with Chris Harrison for the usual chat before the guys show up.  You can visibly see how nervous and almost “scared” Emily really was.  The first of the guys to arrive was Sean, followed by David, Doug, Jackson(with one of the corniest lines of the night), an excited Joe, a charming Arie(who Emily seemed to really notice), Kyle, Chris(whom Emily thought was really sweet), Aaron(another corny line recited), Alessandro, Jef(who shows up on a skateboard after getting towed along by the limo), Lerone, Stevie(dancing, entertainer/M/C), Charlie, Tony(Prince Charming carrying a pillow with glass slipper on top), Randy(dressed up as granny), Nate(who Emily remarked is so cute), Brent(who slaps a nametag on his jacket), John, Travis(arrives with an ostrich egg), Michael, Jean-Paul, Alejandro, Ryan, and finally Kalon who arrives in a heli.

After Chris and Emily have the usual talk about the first impression rose, etc, Emily heads in to chat with the guys and begin her journey to find the one she will choose in the end.  After Emily makes her first speech to the guys, she eventually has a chance to sit down for some personal conversations with a few guys starting with Charlie who talks a bit about his accident, then Brent who talks about his six kids, Chris who gives her a couple bobble heads of themselves and they perform a skit, Jef who takes her out to the gazebo for some really private time and champagne, and Doug who gave Emily a note from his son that she read aloud.  Then Chris comes out with the first impression rose on a plate and of course all the guys start to panic and wonder if they will get time with her.

Kalon is the first guy to get private time with Emily after the rose makes an appearance until Sean comes up to ask for some time with Emily herself.  Kalon didn’t take it that well and made it known that he didn’t appreciate the interruption.  Then Arie took Emily aside for some quality time on his own as he wanted to explain to Emily that he is a race car driver and knowing Emily`s past, he really was nervous to tell her. 

After her private time with Arie, Emily grabbed the first impression rose which she handed out to Doug as she felt he understood what she was going through as he too is a father. 

After Emily handed out the rose to Doug, she went back to the group in time for Chris Harrison to come and tell everyone that it was time for the rose ceremony.  After everyone gathered for the ceremony, Emily handed out the roses to Chris, Ryan, Kalon, Arie, Charlie, Jef, Nate, Sean, Joe, Kyle, Aaron, Alejandro, John, Alessandro, Michael, Stevie, Tony, and Travis.

I want to apologize for how short my blog is this week but due to it being the premiere and a condensed one at that, there really wasn’t a whole lot to tonight’s episode.