He's tearfully telling the women, among whom ostensibly sits his future fiancée, that one of their now former housemates was "part of the equation" of this whole thing "working out". I've vented about the premise of this show before, how a big mistake is to regard the process like some game of musical chairs where the contestants are interchangeable and where, like on a show like Survivor, it's "anyone's game". We KNOW that every lead knows who their top 2 or 3 are (and sometimes even their "winner") fairly early on, and that's because humans just aren't equally compatible with and attracted to the full selection of members of the opposite sex they're presented with. And frankly, as much as I like Danielle L, the bigger a deal about her relationship "falling flat" with Nick is made, the weirder it is. Almost all the relationships will NEED to fall flat—in fact, the clarity of a flat-falling is a GIFT—and, with Danielle L, considering there was no big reveal or catalyst (which we saw) to suddenly alert Nick that she wasn't right for him, I personally have a hard time believing that Nick didn't see it coming.

All I could think during this Nick-crying-to-the-women segment was a) WOW is this a weird show, and b) why the hell do these ladies need to know this? I get that the show seems to want to shove Nick's abundant sincerity down everyone's (both the remaining women's and our) throats, but this gut-spilling felt like ITM material and not in any way OK for the other women to be hearing. Nick saying his relationship with Danielle L "fell flat" was followed by, "My biggest fear is, 'Is the same thing gonna happen?' You know, with you guys." Again, it HAS to happen in some capacity with 5 OUT OF 6 OF THEM. And second, how the hell does it make them feel to know that while they're twiddling their thumbs in captivity, he's—assuming this fear is true—severely doubting the potential success of the whole shebang? Are they expected to be sympathetic about how hard this is for him? If you're the woman who ends up with him, wouldn't you want it to have been easy?

I get that we're being set up to somehow believe that Nick might be calling it quits, but NO ONE is dumb enough to believe that. We're also being fed a storyline that Nick is this wounded animal who is terrified of not knowing how to find what he's looking for, and for having his heart broken on national TV again. While those fears are valid, they're negated by the fact that HE AGREED TO BECOME THE BACHELOR AND IS NOW ON NATIONAL TELEVISION AGAIN TO PURSUE LOVE. You know I'm a big Nick fan but in my opinion, his charm is in his refusal to say what's expected of him and his repeated tearing down of the 4th wall. This wounded animal storyline isn't a sympathetic one because it's simply not convincing; he obviously doesn't have a hard time with women, he hasn't been forced to do this again, nor is this television show the only avenue to "finding love". And based on the show's emphasis on the Danielle L thing, you'd think SHE had broken up with HIM.

As always, my finger is pointed at the show and not at the messenger (in this case, Nick), and I understand that the show needs tears and drama to remain interesting. But to me, Nick's tears would have been far more effective and powerful in an ITM or off on his own, in a moment of extreme vulnerability and genuine fear, rather than what felt like a display of those emotions for his group of remaining women.

As always, my top 4 frontrunners are over on my Flare recap!

BEST DRESSED

This was an overwhelmingly good fashion week, to the point where, in an effort to save time, I couldn't even include everything I liked. I'll start with the casual pieces...

First up is Rachel in her Group Date swim look...