The Bachelorette is BACK and so are we. This episode is a meandering conversation about Harvard grads, potlucks, Dr. Chris Harrison, dating in a bubble, Bachelor exceptionalism, DM sliding during the "off season", guys with legit jobs, bad drama, and love at "first sight." 

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After a few months away from the mic, we decided we need to share our new favorite dating show with you all. Labor Of Love on Fox has a bunch of stuff we really like and enjoy, some of it stands in direct contrast to The Bachelor franchise and it's a breath of fresh air. We share our favorite things about the show (5:18). Then, to whet your appetite, we talk about the 15 men on the show (29:50).

To catch up on the first three episodes on Hulu. It airs on Friday nights on Fox. 

We needed some time to process the finale of the Bachelor. It was a wild finish to an incredibly turbulent season. Did Peter land the plane and find his co-pilot for life? Maybe, but his mom isn’t too happy about it.

We rank the performance of each person involved with the finale.

(6:03) Hannah Ann: From champagne stealer to scorned lover: A coming of age tale.

(20:50) Madison: Just exactly how high is her horse?

(35:15) Peter: “Worst Bachelor Ever”

(47:25) Chris Harrison: The Love Broker

(54:08) Peter Sr.: Star of the Show.

(59:09) Jack Weber: Line Dancing Informant

(01:03:05) Tiff and I take a break to discuss the compromises we’ve made since we met.

(01:11:18) Barb: The Villain?

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The final two women have received their roses in Australia and the Women Tell All is in the books. We’re one step closer to the end of Peter’s reign at Bachelor.

We begin the pod with a quick recap of the 20 minute rose ceremony where Madison keeps Peter waiting and accepts a rose to Peter’s surprise (“Are you sure?”).

(8:55) Then we follow Tiff into the Reddit rabbit hole and checkout drink from a cup of “Unverified Tea.” Was Victoria a bully in high school? Some people have posted some unpleasant things that Victoria said and did. This leads to Sean asking what year would they redact from their lives because they were the worst version of themselves. Is Victoria F. getting kicked out of Virginia Beach bars for yelling at employees (like, in January). Are Peter and Vicky F. together RIGHT NOW? They might be, if you believe the unverified tea… Did Peter get Kelley pregnant during their LA hotel rendezvous? Probably not. Sean drops his own bit of unverified tea because they change gears and talk about The Women Tell All.

(25:00) We lament the disappointing nature of the show overall. The women take no ownership nor do they set the record straight. Instead, Tiff thought it was a “Mean Girl” Forum. Kelsey and Sydney show that they squashed their mini-beef when Kelsey called Sydney a nasty name behind her back. There was no discussion about the drama or cutting at the heart of the issues in the house. Why wasn’t the Alayah and Victoria P. issue discussed considering both women left the house because of the issue. Tiff goes on a rant about “hate campaigns” among the women. The women all feel too aware of their impact and their role on the show at this point. The ones that took up airtime on the actual show did the same thing on the Women Tell All, driving silly fights and yelling over the others.

(40:40) Kelsey and Victoria have their Bachelorette try-outs, which don’t go all that well considering the announcement that Clare is the new Bachelorette. Champagnegate is slammed over our heads, when it didn’t need to be. Kelsey took one for the (production) team and owned the champagne incident, even though it was completely a producer created issue. Ashley I. enters the scene and tells Kelsey to just be as emotional as she wants to be, which sends Sean into a tailspin. Vicky F’s time on the hot seat wasn’t too challenging. She ducked more questions about sleeping with married men and didn’t really have to answer for any of her crappy behavior and running from challenges.

(58:25) ABC decided to have a mini-school assembly to talk about online bullying, which felt ironic to us because the first hour of the show had women yelling at each other and being mean. Rachel Lindsay read hateful DMs and comments from people online and allowed the women to talk about their experiences. It felt like they were dancing around the term “racism” and never named the behavior directly. People online suck and this is an issue that sadly feels nearly unfixable at this point.

(01:09:01) Sean tries to explain the season by sharing some traits of Gen Z, which is a large number of the contestants on this season. Then they wrap up with Clare as the new Bachelorette and dive into some Reality Steve tweets.

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We begin, not surprisingly, in an airplane hanger in California. Madison pulls Peter aside to half-heartedly ask him not to sleep with any of the women during their upcoming fantasy suite dates. Madison still doesn’t tell Peter she’s a virgin, and crosses her fingers that Peter really understands. Was this a fair? Is this comparable to what Luke P. did last season to Hannah. Should Peter have understood the clues around “faith” and “purity”? Peter is somewhat annoyed that Madison is trying to control his other two relationships with women that have declared their feelings for him more clearly than Madison. We all know how important that is.

(15:00) In Gold Coast, the women are staying in the same suite. Which is at best unkind and at worst downright evil. They all have to experience the walk-of-shame and it didn’t really offer anything interesting or extra to the show. It does lead to some very superficial greetings which highlight the awkwardness between the women. Victoria gets real quiet when the topic of hometowns comes up, for good reason.

(25:10) Peter, the master of the doofus entrance, shines in this episode with a bad Australian accent. He takes Hannah Ann for the first date. They jet-ski and don’t really push their relationship forward in any real meaningful way. Except for the fantasy suite part and Hannah Ann saying she’s basically okay with Peter sleeping with the other women.

(28:40) The Bachelor is looking for seniors looking for love. Sean and Tiff love the idea of non-Instagrammers looking for love. Sean pitches an additional “This is 30” season, too: 30-somethings only.

(32:55) Victoria gets the aviation date. Another helicopter ride, but first, Peter wipes the slate clean and doesn’t want to look back at any past issues. Victoria fully plans on creating more issues in the future… Victoria opens up about her past, and blames an ex-boyfriend for her inability to process emotions or have any sort of open conversation with Peter about her feelings. This is where Tiff really flexes her Vicky voice imitation muscles.

(43:09) And finally, Madison gets her fantasy suite date. This date terrified us due to the incredible heights, and there is no way that we’d participate in this one. Madison and Peter seemed to really enjoy being so close to death, good for them. The date ramps up when Madison tells Peter she’s saving herself for marriage, and she also doubles down on her ultimatum. Peter has to admit, without the details, that he has been intimate with someone. Madison and Peter are on the ropes and we finish the episode without a rose ceremony and without any solution to Peter’s apology to Madison.

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We’re at the business end of the season. Peter goes to four hometowns and only meets three families. Before we jump into each visit, Tiff and Sean hit up some Bachelor gossip and adjacent news, including some Bachelor franchise break-ups, a production conspiracy theory, and some other social media buzz.

(14:30) Then they jump into the hometowns and discuss them in the order they were filmed (not how they were shown on the show). They begin with Madison’s date in Auburn. Peter misses a half-court shot by a mile, Bruce Pearl shows up, Sir Charles Barkley leaves a jumbotron message, and Madison shows off her ball-handling skills. At the dinner, the family shares kind thoughts about Madison in a family tradition that we rather liked. Peter gets challenged by Madison’s father about his true feelings for Madison. Sean and Tiff get the heebie-jeebies when Madison’s dad mentions her “purity.”

(34:00) Victoria was next, and it wasn’t great. The day date goes swimmingly. A jaunt on the beach and an old-time photo shoot on the boardwalk look like a lot of fun and it feels like Victoria might be turning a corner. A concert by someone that Victoria didn’t date caps off the day, with a very peculiar, yet hilarious, song choice by Hunter Hayes. But an ex-girlfriend of Peter’s shows up and warns him about Victoria. Everything spirals out of control from there.

(01:04:00) Hannah Ann is next, Knoxville is a great time for Peter. They throw some axes and split some wood to prepare Peter to meet Hannah Ann’s lumberjack father. Peter gets what he needs out of this date after the train wreck with Victoria: complete validation from a women.

(01:14:20) Iowa is the final stop for Peter, and Kelsey brings him to a vineyard to crush grapes and blend wines. Peter begs for validation from her while they sip wine. Kelsey’s family is lovely. Kelsey is all in and willing to get her heart broken and pick up the pieces if she has to. She will…

(01:22:06) They wrap up with a theme song for each of the girls sent in from IG followers.

Peter has picked his top four and will be heading to Iowa, Virgina, and Tennessee, and Alabama for hometowns. How did we get here? Listen to this episode!

Tiff and Sean start the show with some Bachelor gossip about a new show for the Bachelor franchise and what really happens at the end of the season. After a dip in the social media pool. Then they jump into their recap of the show (18:10) and get into Madison's fishing date and how Peter responded to the first real religious discussion of the season. Then Natasha makes her bid for Bachelorette during her finale on the show. She's honest, she's a bad ass, and she's an adult with some potentially crazy older brothers. What else would you want? They round out the episode with Kelsey's ATV mountain climbing date that almost kills Peter and then try to figure out what the heck happened during the 3-on-1. Kelley goes scorched earth and then gets scorched, while once again, the girls that cry get roses. Kelley speaks the ultimate truth: "Every relationship doesn't have to be hard." Amen, Kelley.

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Peter is down to six women, and it feels like the show is really just getting down to business. Peter did some house cleaning this week, eliminating women and seeking out the women that really want to be there. It leads to some tough conversations and led us to wonder if any of these women actually want to be with Peter aside from Madison. Tammy and Mykenna provide the fans with the latest duel that ends with a mini 2-on-1 date where Mykenna brought her soapbox and some well-rehearsed diatribes. 

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It seems as if every week brings the drama and Peter continues to pour gasoline on the flames. This week, it looked like he might have righted the ship by sending Alayah home right away. However, when Tammy breaks the Golden Rule (don't speak about other women in the house) the flames rise again. Tiff thinks all the women are liars in their own special way. Kelsey is pissed she can't get a 1-on-1 every single week. After a 3 hour episode, Shiann leaves the literally wounded Peter with one last message: Don't trust some of the women in the house.