What’s interesting to note here is how easy it would have been to have shown this in a completely different light. Just imagine Kevin watching Jed and Hannah from the staircase, but with creepy or villainous music in the background. And imagine that without our being shown the above clip. (Let’s be honest, airing the above was a conscious choice on production’s part; it doesn’t advance any storyline.) It would completely change the tone of Kevin’s storyline—currently that of a easygoing non-frontrunner (who evidently gets along with the men)—to that of a jealous non-frontrunner.





LUKE’S 1-ON-1

Wow, what a date this was. I was so overwhelmed with choosing what to discuss, I kept sweeping this section under the rug while assembling the rest of this recap.

There was nothing “fluff” about this date, and it was at times challenging to discuss this on PeopleNow and to read the general Twitter responses to this episode because there are so many things I saw differently than the majority. A good example is people scoffing at Hannah exclaiming, “I just want to know if you like mac & cheese or spaghetti better!” In the bubble, with the constant “all roads point to marriage” reminders of simply hanging out with a person you hardly know—plus the constant prompting and pressuring to reveal things you would normally only reveal months, if not years, into a relationship—it’s easy to bypass the seemingly silly, inconsequential shit. I think I’ve touched on this somewhere before, but one of the reasons I loved my own first 1-on-1 so much was that we DID THINGS. This sounds stupid, I know. But there’s a big difference between walking through a bustling market in a foreign country together, versus laying on a catamaran together. A huge way of getting to know someone is just doing stuff together, because through the doing of stuff, you learn about each other: Do you like spicy food or not? What’s your favorite color? Yes, do you like mac and cheese or spaghetti better? We’ve seen contestants in the past go into their 1-on-1 times with notebooks of questions (Kendall and Lauren B from Arie’s season come to mind here). It just irks me to see people who haven’t been there scoff at something like this as dumb; trust me, if you were there, you’d want to know, too.

Another example is how many people really think Hannah still sees Luke as a potential future husband. In general, it was frustrating to hear and read how many people still automatically eat what they’re fed when it comes to this show. Just because a lead says in an ITM that she can sometimes see a guy as her husband does NOT mean she can actually see him as her husband. Given the premise of this show, and that aforementioned “all roads point to marriage” blanket draped over everything, OF COURSE Hannah will articulate her issues with Luke in the context of his potential as her future husband, just as leads make out with a dozen contestants despite knowing early on who their final two or three finalists will be.