When someone is selected to be a contestant on The Bachelor or Bachelorette, one of the obvious perks is all the free travel.
The show has filmed in exotic locales such as Thailand, Vietnam, Costa Rica and Croatia over the years. The lead and contestants aren’t just on a journey to find love—they’re on a literal journey around the world.
On Tuesday’s episode, JoJo and her men traveled to… Wait for it… southwestern Pennsylvania, with a stop in beautiful Greensburg, Pa., the county seat of Westmoreland County in the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh.
Full disclosure: I grew up in Greensburg, so I was really excited to see this episode, which featured a one-on-one date at the Palace Theater downtown. Greensburg is lovely, with lots of bike trails, public parks and a pretty legit courthouse. But when you’re expecting to fly all over the globe? Not sure Greensburg is high on the list. But the guys did get to stay at super swanky Nemacolin Resort nearby, so they probably weren’t complaining.
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But let’s back up. Monday night’s episode ended on a cliff hanger, with Chad, a real estate salesman with anger problems, threatening to tear people’s legs off.
RELATED: Chad resorts to violence on The Bachelorette
I missed the first half of the episode due to kickboxing class (See also: The 2 Fit Girls blog), so I made my husband watch and take notes for me. He observed that Chad continued to insult and intimidate everyone he could, eavesdropping on every conversation during a pool party with JoJo. But after the party, he survived another rose ceremony, and everyone was off to Pennsylvania.
War veteran Luke, a dead ringer for Vanilla Ice, got the one-on-one, which my husband reported began with a dip in the hot tub where JoJo almost scalded herself.
Finally figured out who Luke on #TheBachelorette reminds me of. cc: @vanillaice pic.twitter.com/JkCJA4d5CW
— Jane Kellogg Murray (@Jane_ATX) June 8, 2016
Afterwards, they went to dinner and then to the Palace Theater to see country music duo Dan + Shay. I’m pretty sure there were, like, two people there actually watching the show. Everyone else was holding up their phones trying to snap pictures of JoJo and Luke. Hey, it was a Monday night in March in Greensburg; there’s probably nothing else to do.
Did you see us? #TheBachelorette pic.twitter.com/y91Xpv8h2O
— Palace Theatre (@PalacePA) June 8, 2016
The next day, JoJo had a group date at Heinz Field, home of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Quarterback Ben Roethlisburger, former defensive end Brett Keisel and former wide receiver Hines Ward made an appearance, to the dismay of Ravens kicker and apparent Bachelorette fan Justin Tucker.
@BacheloretteABC #WatchParty #SquadGoals https://t.co/tzmk9LvVD4 pic.twitter.com/9wem5Rsgpx
— Justin Tucker (@jtuck9) June 7, 2016
@BacheloretteABC... Steelers? Really?! C'mon man!
— Justin Tucker (@jtuck9) June 8, 2016
Former pro football player Jordan (just in case you missed it the first 57 times it was mentioned, he is the brother of Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers) had a clear advantage, while Evan and James Taylor ended up bloody, bruised messes. It was kind of like last week, when firefighter Grant was the standout on the firefighting group date. Good job, Bachelorette producers.
Meanwhile, back at Nemacolin, Chad and his nemesis Alex, a U.S. Marine, were preparing to go on a dreaded two-on-one date. Whoever doesn’t get the rose on a two-on-one usually goes home immediately, so no one wants to get stuck on one of those dates. And it seems like producers always send the two contestants who hate each other the most on the two-on-ones.
JoJo, Alex and Chad went on a hike in the woods around Nemacolin, and Alex immediately pulled JoJo away to tell her Chad is a violent psycho. When JoJo confronted Chad about his threats to the other men, he didn’t deny it, instead saying he did it “so they’d be quiet.”
A teary JoJo walked away, saying she needed to be alone. Alex and Chad had a tense conversation that ended with Chad telling Alex to drink some milk.
“I don’t like milk,” Alex said.
“You should, milk’s delicious!” Chad said.
It was one of the most random exchanges I’d ever seen on the show, and it made me laugh out loud.
In the end, JoJo declined to give Chad the rose, so we saw the last of him… Right? Not so fast. Previews for the next episode show an unhinged Chad returning to Nemacolin to confront the other men.
The Bachelorette will not air next week because of NBA finals. It will return Monday, June 20 at 8 p.m. on ABC2.
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