Week 8 Recap: Hectic Hometowns

This week is Hometowns! I think this is some people’s favorite episodes and other peoples least favorite episodes. For me I would say it isn’t my favorite. I sometimes have a hard time paying attention during the more boring hometown dates that I forget to tune into the more fun dates. However, this season’s hometowns were all very interesting and engaging.

To start off the dates was Michelle. The activity of the day she chose was bike-riding. As you can tell in the picture below, it was a great day.

After that Matt and her did a quick and cute zoom call with her students. They asked many questions like “How will you inspire our teacher like she does to us?” and “What has our teacher taught you?” Matt handled the students with ease, just like he did with her parents later in the night. Her parents were super supportive and it ended in Michelle telling Matt she loves him. This made me happy because I really like Michelle!

Second for the hometowns was.. Rachel! An unexpected, but thrilling activity she chose was sky diving. Man she was even more brave than Matt. Although, it took an unexpected turn with Rachel crashing into the ground and getting slightly hurt. Though, Matt’s compassionate response payed off later in the day when Rachel explains her love for Matt and the way he reacts to situations like those. Talk about Brownie points! However, there was a lot of skepticism from Rachel’s father about the process and that definitely held Matt back. Overall the date went good; though, it saddened Rachel to hear Matt say that he did not ask for her fathers approval for marriage. I’m not going to lie I had a feeling her hometown was not going to go amazing.

Third, was Bre’s hometown (pictured above). May I remind you I love Bre. She started out her hometown like the badass women she is and took Matt off-roading in a cool green jeep. You could tell by Matt’s face that he was pleasantly surprised seeing this different and fun side of Bre. While Bre is definitely a badass, she also opened up this week. She spoke passionately about her mother and how she raised her without her father in the picture and Matt handled it amazingly. She continued to open up through the hometown and told her mother that she is falling in love with him, and her mom encouraged her to open up more. They ended an amazing hometown with Bre confessing her love to Matt.

The last hometown was to my favorite Serena P. (pictured above)! Serena is so bubbly and cute, I think it definitely brings out a great side of Matt. Honestly, her smile is contagious. For their activity, Serena decided to teach him about her home state…. Canada! I’m surprised I never knew that about her. They seemed to have a great day and were smiling and laughing the whole time. They played a tough game of hockey and that transferred to a tough night of questions for both Serena and Matt from Serena’s family. Her sister even went as far to say that Serena doesn’t look “smitten.” Not only her sister, but also her dad made her question everything. This made me really upset to be honest. I love Serena and want her to go to the end, but this part of the episode made me question if she is even moving on to next week. Her hometown ended with her being uncertain with Matt and questioning everything.

After this Matt went on to talk to Chris Harrison about his thoughts on moving forward. Matt discussed his doubts about Serena. This made Matt decide he needed to go talk to Serena to clear things up. After Matt basically confesses his love for Serena, things switch to a whole different mood. Serena expresses her struggles and doubts and decides to leave. This was heartbreaking. The look on Matt’s face had me so absolutely sad, it broke my heart a little. He even said that he wants the best for her and that it “stinks.” But in the end, they said their goodbye and it at-least ended well and in a mature manner.

The episode ended with a rose ceremony, where the women were confused to not see Serena there. But in the end, the three girls remaining accepted the rose and the night ended in smiles around the whole room.

My predictions for the upcoming weeks:

• Michelle- stays
  • Her hometown was amazing, and her connection is stronger than ever with Matt, there is no way she is going home.
• Rachel- goes home
  • Her hometown was okay; however, I think there is going to be problems with Matt not asking for her dad’s approval in the future.
• Bri- stays
  • She had a great hometown too, and her and Matt have had a strong bond since the absolute beginning.

Stay tuned for next week 🙂