What is it like to see a show for the first time? I’ve never watched The Bachelorette before, so what you’ll get here is a fresh pair of eyes and an unpolluted brain with no memories of this show, with a basic introduction coming only from the show’s official site.

So now we have the four guys hosting Ashley in their hometowns, with Ames in NYC, Ben in Sonoma, CA, Constantine in Atlanta and J.P. in Roslyn, NY. How many moms will approve of Ashley? It could be make or break with some of the potential future in-laws. We start with recappage. Wow, how can Ashley get into smoochy coo kisses with all four of these guys on consecutive dates? Now we can see where JP is coming from just imagining some other guy having recently kissed the gal he is kissing (and yet some other dude who’s going to be kissing her again!). This show is not for the squeamish or the jealous, at least not too openly expressed.

The first hometown visit is with Constantine at his Georgio’s pizza parlor in Atlanta. They start by making a pizza together and having a chat – and yet another one of Ashley’s million kisses – under the watchful eyes of friends and employees who applaud their show of affection. They seem to like each other, but there don’t seem to be any real sparks flying. Next they walk, Ashley with a bottle of wine from the restaurant in hand, up to the family house with ‘Welcome Home Constantine’. They gather for a meal with red wine. Both his sister and especially his mom go for Ashley. Mom asks Ashley, “are you willing to become a part of this?” Not making any kind of commitments or revealing herself too much, Ashley says she can be happy a lot of places. Then the father and son talk, and Constantine asks for and gets pop’s opinion, support and blessings. Theirs is a huggy, back-slapping family. Which leads into the rest of the family showing up, a whole big gang of them including grandma. It turns into a Greek dancing party followed by another hugfest with papa tossing cash around like confetti. Ashley and Constantine then walk out the door with his folks watching them from the open front door. By the time they kiss, everyone is watching and cheering them on. Ashley would clearly be welcome in this house.

The next stop is in New York, NY at Ames’ family house, which is clearly a long way from NYC with fields around. His mom seems to like Ashley a lot. His sister, too. Mom tells Ashley that she can tell Ames has feelings for Ashley. Ashley says she definitely “definitely feels” something for Ames but she’s not ready to make any commitments. Whoops, Sis tells her that Ames has had different girlfriends before, but Ashley is different. (Sis, please never ever mention past girlfriends!) Mom’s next, and says it’d be fun for Ashley and Ames to do things together, like travel. It’s clear the family is selling themselves to Ashley with all of the right things said. Ashley privately says that she feels things are moving rather quickly for her, and while she mentions feeling passion, I’m not sensing it on screen. Like? Yes. Love? A bit, maybe. But passion? Not quite. Mom has a talk with her boy and then off to a picnic the lovebirds go. Ashley tells Ames they think the same, but we have to wonder if they feel the same with Ashley reciprocating what he feels for her. Then kissy-poo again, with Ames saying it’s the best kiss yet ever, and they go for an enchanting countryside drive on a horsed carriage. Looks like a fine place to live!

Then we visit Ben’s vineyard in Sonoma, California. Wow, look at all those caskets of wine – enough to supply a whole season’s worth of “how many times does she say Bentley?” type of drinking games for this show! They go for a picnic to an apparently empty rustic, wooden house and sit on the floor of the porch as the wet weather does not cooperate. Ashley asks Ben about his late father and it goes into family talk, along with his grandfather and hard times for his mom. Ben seems a bit hesitant, both about their mutual feelings and how his mom will accept her, which is important to him. He is worried that “if things don’t go well, it will be the end of Ashley and I”. Whoops again, another sis mentions that her bro has dated girls (eek, those tattletale sisters!). He and his sister Julia talk about his experiences and feelings for Ashley, which seems to boil down to respect, but there’s no mention of being madly in love with her. He says if things continue to progress like they have been, he’d have no problem proposing. Then there’s the mom and boy talk. What is that she’s drinking in the wine glass (which contents are discreetly edited out)? Mom seems fairly sharp, but she hardly smiles, as if she’s still feeling hard times. She’s glad to see Ben, but we don’t see much interaction between Ashley and his mom. On her way out by car, they kiss briefly (no spectators this time) and Ben privately says he’s glad he’s starting to fall in love. He looks and sounds a bit tentative, as if afraid to invest too much emotional energy into a relationship that may never happen.

The last stop is with JP in Roslyn, NY. They start off with a kiss and Ashley seems to sparkle more being here. It seems he reserved an indoor roller skating rink all for themselves. With a disco ball hanging overhead, they skate, fall, kiss, skate, fall, kiss. Ashley says privately how lucky she is to be with him. It looks like she shares a chemistry with JP that she doesn’t with the other guys. He talks about his previous relationship and “things she did that would cause him to question their relationship”. Ashley asks about how he feels about the two of them, and he says feels 100% and he doesn’t want to be without her. There is a lot of negative talk about getting crushed or heartbroken and moving on, which should raise some red flags to Ashley. He’s thinking too much about what might or might not happen instead of confidently expressing his feelings for her. Then they head off to the family house for a round of family huggy-huggy followed by what appears to be a lasagne dinner. Mom and JP have a talk, and mom thinks Ashley is terrific but she doesn’t want to see his heart broken like before. JP tells his mom that he’s confident that he and Ashley will have a relationship and the family should be prepared for him to propose to Ashley. Mom then talks with Ashley and expresses her fears about JP’s heart being broken. Mom asks more penetrating questions like how Ashley picks her guys! Mom wants to know if Ashley is serious about JP or just playing the field. Now JP talks with his bro and says nothing is 100%, and he is prepared for whatever happens including getting hurt. Mom says privately that she sees a spark in Ashley’s face as well as JP’s and that a relationship would be good for both of them. We didn’t hear much from dad. JP says privately the day went perfectly, but he’s still a little bit afraid. After all, Ashley will ultimately choose only one of the four guys.

Then in studio with the host of the show, Ashley recaps her experiences at all of the hometown visits. While Ashley speaks well of everyone and says she enjoyed herself and had no regrets, she doesn’t clue us in on who’s her favorite. If her behavior, reactions and body language are anything to go by, it looks like JP is the favorite. All of the guys seem ok (no creeps or seriously dysfunctional families here, going by the edits), although Ben seems tentative and JP (and his mom) have a fear of his being hurt again.

So, who goes home after all this? Ashley first calls Ben up and pins his rose on. So that’s how this goes. Next is JP, leaving Ames and Constantine and one rose left. Then she calls Constantine’s name. Well, nice knowing you, Ames. He stands there with a fixed smile and does a wink and then walks out with Ashley to the bench. He seems to take it okay, they do a meek handshake and a brief hug and off he goes in the limo. Only after he’s on the road does he show his distress of being rejected. “I just wonder what it was…” Yes, was. Meanwhile, Ashley and the three remaining guys do a toast before heading off to a tropical island.

For next week, we get previews of a little romance with Ashley being carried into a hut, a surprise visitor knocking at someone’s door, and some conflict with some harsh words coming up.

All in all, for the first time seeing this show, not bad. Now the question is: Who will Ashley pick to be her man?

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A final word on the schedule ahead (note the Sunday date and early finish as Bachelor Pad 2 starts on August 8):
Monday, July 25: Episode 9, Overnight Dates
Sunday, July 31: “The Men Tell All” Special
Monday, August 1: The Finale and “After the Final Rose” Special