It’s finally time for Hometowns, and Hannah Ann’s dad is bringing the same energy that many Bachelor fans are likely feeling at this stage in the season.
At this stage, the inter-contestant drama has fallen to the wayside, as the girls’ only interactions are with Peter during their respective hometown dates. We start off with:
Hannah Ann | Knoxville
We quickly get some added insight into why Hannah Ann’s dad seems less than impressed with Peter:
Hannah’s solution to this is to take Peter axe-throwing, which is commendable as far as fun date ideas go, but isn’t exactly the best indication of manhood. It’s like trying to impress an experienced backpacker by telling them about the time you hiked Runyon Canyon.
After the axe-throwing portion is over, Peter surprises Hannah Ann by reciprocating her grand gesture of writing down all of the things she loves about him. I recognize – this is a very sweet thing to do. I hate that I have anything negative to say about it at all…but I just hate this so much. First of all, it’s not my personal style. Do I want to hear the person I’m dating tell me I’m sexy and beautiful on a periodic basis? Absolutely. But for me, this desire stops very short of wanting to hear them spew pre-meditated compliments. Personally, I try to lead my life according to the mantra “show, don’t tell”- that applies both to how I present myself, and how I want my partner to express their affections towards me. Of course, this preference may understandably differ for someone whose Love Language is Words of Affirmation, which Peter’s undeniably is.
Finally we get to Hannah Ann’s house, and it’s Ranger Rick vs. Pilot Pete, and Rick is absolutely flummoxed when Peter reveals that he had planned to tell Hannah Ann that he was in love with her.
Clearly Rick is not familiar with this franchise and its emotionally promiscuous nature, because he is understandably uncomfortable with his daughter receiving this premature proclamation of love.
Despite Peter’s seemingly earnest response, he ultimately goes against Rick’s clearly stated wishes. I’m sure Peter would disagree with this interpretation – in his confessional, he justifies his decision by insisting that he IS in fact falling in love with Hannah Ann, and is therefore respecting Rick’s wishes when he decides to express these feelings. However, the unstated (but clear) subtext was that Peter should not tell Hannah Ann he was falling in love with her if that feeling wasn’t going to wind up amounting to anything in the end. I understand that there is likely pressure around making these effusive statements, but I personally would have respected Peter more if he’d said “in accordance with your father’s wishes, I’m going to withhold full expression of my feelings until I have more certainty around what they mean, but just know that I do feel very strongly about you.” Or honestly, he probably could have just reread her that list of things he loves about her and that would have sufficed.
Upon hearing this, Hannah Ann proceeds to up the ante even further, admitting that she is no longer simply FALLING in love, she’s now fully there.
Peter’s reaction to Hannah Ann’s admission truly made me cringe. It was like getting insight into some weird emotional kink of his, and I felt like it tied back to his inability to feel secure in a drama-free relationship that progresses at a natural pace without any premature validation.
Even more upsetting is the fact that as Peter isn’t reacting to the fact that Hannah Ann loves him, and why their specific relationship means so much to him. He’s reacting to the fact that someone loves him, and who that someone is seems to be largely irrelevant. Peter is like the girl who gets engaged and immediately posts a picture of her engagement ring but fails to mention her fiancé or their actual relationship.
Kelsey | Des Moines
Kelsey’s date choice, to stomp grapes and create a custom bottle of wine, was a home run in my opinion – it’s unique, it’s physical, it’s just the right amount of bourgie, and it also shows that she’s unfazed by any aforementioned references to her level of alcohol consumption. The only thing that could have made it better is if she found a way for the two of them to make Champagne…but I suppose they would have had to go all the way to France for that.
Unfortunately, Peter manages to put a damper on this date for me in TWO ways. The first offense warrants merely an eye roll, but is worth mentioning out of sheer pettiness:
The second is actually pertinent, because it shows that Peter is now officially drunk – not off of wine, but off of the power that comes from someone saying they’re in love with you.
Notably, Peter doesn’t really reciprocate with any substantive admissions. After a teary-eyed, but largely uneventful family visit, Peter departs by telling Kelsey that his “heart has definitely fallen” – which is an extremely non-committal statement, particularly coming from someone who just felt compelled to express his burgeoning feelings to Hannah Ann even though it meant defying her dad’s wishes.
Madison | Auburn
Luckily this move was low key a panty dropper, because the rest of his showing on the court was pretty weak.
Speaking of panty droppers, faith becomes a focal point in the at-home portion of Madison’s date, specifically Madison’s decision to save herself for marriage. The language her parents use in all of their conversations is clearly in reference to this, but always stops short of addressing it head-on.
Obviously we as an audience are clued into this element of Madison’s faith by the time her downtown date ends, but Peter leaves Auburn none the wiser. I have put a lot of thought into Madison’s decision to withhold this information. One one hand you could say she wasn’t withholding anything at all. Is it necessary to force your sexual past into the conversation with someone you’ve only made out with just because you’re a virgin? By comparison, it would probably feel weird for someone who isn’t a virgin to insist upon discussing their sexual history without any relevant context leading into that topic.
However, Madison is now actively thinking about how Peter might react to this undisclosed information, making her choice to not discuss it seem less like going with the flow and more like avoidance. It leads me to wonder about her motivation for withholding this. Of course there’s the underlying fear that Peter will react poorly and their relationship dynamic will change. But should that even matter to someone like Madison, who’s so uncompromising and strong in her convictions? To put it bluntly, if this is something that Peter is seriously put off by…he ain’t your man! Again, not saying that she should have led with “I’m a virgin” on date one to see if he spooked. But if Madison’s virginity were to become a dealbreaker for Peter even after they developed such a solid relationship in other areas, that reaction in itself should be a dealbreaker for Madison.
And apparently she plans on remaining the ONLY one who knows that for the foreseeable future.
Victoria F | Virginia Beach
Before we dive into this shit show, I would like to lead in with this throwback from just one episode prior:
At the beginning, this date did succeed in humanizing Victoria F. Turns out playing fetch with your dog on the beach does wonders in that department. The old-fashioned photoshoot was also refreshing, as it provided a welcome look at her sense of humor and goofy side.
Then, after what starts off as a normal, fun date begins to take a turn when Victoria takes Peter to a Hunter Hayes concert. As if Peter’s naive prediction for this hometown didn’t provide enough foreshadowing, at this point Peter and Victoria F are being serenaded about a “crazy” relationship that “doesn’t make sense to anybody else.” In sincerely hope that whichever producer orchestrated this song choice received an immediate raise and promotion.
Peter’s wish for crazy is granted almost immediately, because as soon as he says goodbye to Victoria F he’s intercepted by his ex Marissa, who is there to deliver the ominous message to “be careful,” paired with the bombshell that Victoria is responsible for breaking up “many relationships” in Virginia Beach.
As he is receiving this information, Peter is just giving off an air of utter defeat – ignorance is truly bliss, and after having the perceived perfect date with Victoria I’m sure the last thing he wants to do is deal with the drama behind this accusation.
In light of this bombshell, Peter decides to postpone meeting Victoria F’s family so he can address the allegations immediately, which SHOCKER- causes Victoria to go on the defensive. I wish I could say I didn’t have any deep curiosity around the truth behind these allegations, but that simply isn’t true. In fact, the second time I watched this episode I was hanging on to Victoria’s words for any shred of evidence that pointed towards either her guilt or innocence, like the thinly veiled panic behind Victoria’s eyes when Peter first brings up his conversation with Marissa:
Then I rewatched this:
Why is this significant? To provide a nerdy parallel, at the end of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry is recounting his battle with Voldemort when the person he believes to be Mad Eye Moody references the graveyard where the showdown took place. After a moment of pause, Harry says “I don’t believe I mentioned a graveyard, professor.”
Peter brought up zero specifics about Marissa’s allegations, including where these alleged breakups took place. The fact that Victoria immediately asked about which relationships she was being accused of breaking up “in town” isn’t enough to prove guilt – but it does heavily imply that Victoria was already aware that rumors of this nature are going around Virginia Beach, specifically. Otherwise, she probably just would have asked what Marissa was talking about and left it at that.
Unfortunately that’s all the theorizing I could really do, because in classic form, Victoria refuses to discuss the allegations further. Even when Peter says that he’s just trying to uncover the truth, her reply is that “it doesn’t matter anymore,” and the remainder of the “conversation” consists of her either shaming him for ruining the night they had planned with her family or shutting down entirely until Peter winds up being the one to apologize first.
In addition to the lack of resolution around the accusations that caused this blowout, Peter leaves Victoria’s house with no clear path forward for their relationship – but he does say something that I felt was incredibly sweet and insightful:
As easy as it is to rag on Peter for being drawn into such a volatile and clearly unhealthy relationship, I have to recognize that it takes a level of maturity to keep your cool in a situation like this, and a great deal of compassion to try and understand the internal factors that could possibly be causing someone to behave this way on a number of occasions.
Outstanding Questions
- Why wasn’t Chris Harrison there to preface the final rose before Peter handed it out?? There are very few things we can count on in this world, and for me, that was always one of them.
- Ending on perhaps the most important question of all:
