'Bachelor Pad' Season 3 Episode 8 Recap/Review *Season Finale*
As the summer comes to a close, so too must the summer sleaze. Finales of Bachelor Pad are unlike their regular season counterparts as there are no competitions. In fact, it seems to resemble The Bachelor‘s After The Final Rose more closely. If one of your favourite contestants was voted off earlier in the season, then this is the episode to find out where they are now. Are your favourite couples still together? During the discussion portion of the episode, host Chris Harrison will chat with them and find out.
Previews for this episode make it seem terribly dramatic and exciting. So here we go…
The Drama:
I don’t know if they forgot to add the cheering fan sound with the twins, but everybody else had huge cheers and the twins got nothing. In the recap clip we get one of Kalon’s amazing quotes “Well yeah I’m a lier… do you want me to elaborate on that?” The first subject Chris touches on is the Kalon and Lindzi (Kindzi) relationship. They say they’re still going, but it appears they’re not one of those couples that are big on PDA. As Lindzi is saying how great she thinks Kalon is, Erica Rose decides to ruin the moment, telling Lindzi to be careful because Kalon has been seen with other women. Isn’t he allowed friends?
Michael is the first on the hot seat. He was a champion from the second season, and immediately became one of the frontrunners in this season. His relationship with Rachel, which seemed like it could go somewhere during the show, turns out to have been just a fling. The drama that was expected, that he was dating somebody else the whole time or something to that magnitude, isn’t true. Of course later, that does turn out to be true. To be honest, expecting that you’re little summer camp relationship will last outside of the house is normally unrealistic. I’m not saying it never happens… but it’s rare. Erica Rose looks so nice today, her hair is a much better colour and it’s shorter which definitely suits her a lot more. Unfortunately, she isn’t acting very nice. Ruining the moment earlier between Kindzi, and now getting all up in Michael’s hot seat moment and basically telling him he deserved to hear the comments she said about him and Holly from a previous season. It’s still uncalled for.
Jaclyn is next on the hot seat. Her weird relationship with Ed and Rachel’s betrayal are expected topics, but they never even discuss Ed. Jaclyn definitely isn’t a forgetful human being, and she completely dislikes Rachel still. Her humility is astounding while she talks about how much she controlled the game. Welcome to Bachelor Pad sweetheart, nothing is ever set in stone.
Blakeley’s big moment has come, bringing her onto the hot seat next. First, the love triangle between Chris, Jamie, and Blakeley. Suddenly Jaclyn is involved, everybody thinks Jamie is fake, and as things seem like they’re about to get really tense the conversation switches to Blakeley’s wonderful relationship with Tony. The happiness and adorableness that both of them express is just so cute, I really hope they keep going strong. Tony tells of how he immediately liked her but Chris got her, and although he was friend zoned a few times he still pursued her, and finally he came out successful. I love that he never gave up. But that’s not all… Tony and Blakeley have an announcement. She’s moving in with him to Portland, Oregon. You think that’s the whole announcement? You’d be terribly wrong. Suddenly, Tony starts making some big speech, and everyone is suddenly realizing that he’s proposing. Their proposal was definitely the most real of any on the Bachelor shows, as it wasn’t planned for the final rose as normal. In other news, she looked incredibly gorgeous during the episode.
When Rachel got onto the stage, she opens up about how hurt she was after discovering how Michael led her on. She also reveals Michael’s relationship with someone else in Chicago. He never denies it, so is he not as good of a guy as everybody thought? I can’t say that I have enough information to judge, but he definitely isn’t as completely sweet as everyone thought. He’s also on a reality sleaze show, so is that really surprising?
Chris jumps into a description about how much his family and friends have judged him from his behaviour on the show. They should too. His sister should be mad about how he’s treating other women, his father should be mad because he didn’t raise Chris like that, and so on. I don’t know how Sarah can stay with him after his treatment of the other girls because he always had such glee when talking about his deception of the other girls. Ugh.
The Money:
Nick and Rachel are one of the couples that have made it to the finale. Forced to be partners after Rachel’s partner Michael left, they won the final challenge which automatically placed them in the finale where they took Chris and Sarah along with them. This was a good strategic decision for them, as there was a much better chance they would get to the money as opposed to with Ed and Jaclyn. Unfortunately, this left a very shaky friendship between Jaclyn and Rachel, as Jaclyn had been completely loyal up until she was voted off. Will she choose to vote for Chris and Sarah just because of Rachel’s decision or will she stay loyal to her best friend?
Chris and Sarah are the second couple in the finale with a chance at the money. They won the first challenge of last episode, giving them the decision to send home Blakeley and Tony. With so many people against them, it was definitely a good choice for Nick and Rachel to choose them.
No longer is their fate up to them, everybody is now allowed to ask questions to determine who they will vote for before
The votes that we see:
Michael: Nick/Rachel
Jamie: Nick/Rachel
Kalon: Chris/Sarah
Ed: Nick/Rachel
Blakeley: Nick/Rachel
Dave: Chris/Sarah
Erica Rose: Chris/Sarah
Reid: Nick/Rachel
Lindzi: Nick/Rachel
Donna: Nick/Rachel
Tony: Nick/Rachel
Jaclyn: Nick/Rachel
Immediately after Jaclyn casts her vote, she runs up to Rachel and they are hugging and smiling, looks like she isn’t as angry as first thought.
Relationship Test:
Nick and Rachel are now escorted to two different rooms. Two signs, one reads keep and one reads share. If both choose share, they each get half the money ($125,000). If one chooses keep while the other picks share, the one who chose to keep the money gets all of it ($250,000). The big risk, is if both choose keep then neither of them get the money, and it is split between the other 16 contestants.Doesn’t that make for some interesting strategizing! As the rest of the contestants are discussing the options, the only person who would take the money for himself is “SWAT”, one of the fans who left on the first day. Michael doesn’t understand why somebody would be so greedy as to take all of it, when half is plenty, and everybody else thinks that Rachel and Nick are honorable enough to share.
Rachel reveals first, choosing share, leaving Nick with the possibility to get $125,000 or $250,000. Before revealing what he chose, he describes how much nobody thought he would win, nobody thought he was important or a contender, and Rachel never wanted him as a partner and didn’t decide to stay to help him, but because Michael and Jaclyn wanted her to. Suddenly, he reveals that he chose to keep the money. Rachel can’t handle that she lost, the other contenders are stunned into silence (and anger), and the audience loves the decision.
More Thoughts:
I think this ending is just like Survivor. Everybody always wants to say how honest they were, or how sorry they were for lying to people, but the entire point is to “outwit, outlast, outplay” in Survivor, and it’s similar to this show. Isn’t the point to win the money? Doesn’t everybody lie? This time the winner didn’t lie and cheat and do silly things to win, he stayed under the radar and coasted through by letting everybody else get caught up in the drama while he waited for his time to swoop in.
What did you think of the winner and all the drama?